082. Establishment - 27

082. Establishment - 27

There was an art to noticing hidden pursuers, and, as I followed my unfortunate victim back to the same passage he had used, I had to use that art to see who else was following them which was inevitable after the secret message the guard had sent.

The first, and the easiest, step was to break the pattern.

Unless a tail was a complete amateur with no sense, not caring whether they were noticed or not, they wouldn't just follow someone on the street directly. Slowing down at first, then getting faster was the perfect way to identify those amateurs.

If I was the one being followed, using that would have been trivial, but since they were following the boss, it was a bit more challenging than that. Luckily, I knew of their destination, and the route they would use to return, so creating a small scramble on their path was easy.

I just passed them, and hit an angry mercenary with my shoulder. "What's going on!" he growled in anger, but I pointed at another mercenary.

"It was him," I said, using a touch of Charisma to make it more convincing, and he immediately attacked the other, triggering a fistfight. I slipped away before the guard could arrive, and even used the same effect to fuel the fight more.

The large scuffle worked enough to stop the boss and his two followers, and they waited for the fight to end despite their impatience. Of course, they weren't the only ones that stopped to watch the fight, but two people were very noticeable as they stood away from the rest, maintaining the distance.This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com

I expected to catch two tails with that step, which was nice. However, I took note of their presence and moved away. Just because I caught two didn't mean I caught all of them.

Of course, I did nothing to interfere with their task. Not yet.

I wanted to identify them, not because I wanted to save their target, but because I wanted to see who trying to catch them in the act. Whomever responsible for it wasn't trying to just target them, as if it had been the case, they would have already moved.

Their tails were already strong enough to deal with the three of them.

If they were House Maell, they had the option to arrest them directly, and if it was his rivals, they would have acted in the inner city, where he was away from the protection of his enforcers.

Yet, they did neither, and continued to follow them.

I had a feeling that I wasn't the only one trying to chase the bigger fish.

I chuckled even as I continued following them, my attention split between two groups to see if I could catch anyone else. Halfway in, I was yet to identify any other followers. It could be normal, but I decided to use a different strategy.

I pulled a piece of paper and draw a rough map of the inner city, draw a route, and added a warning. 'You're being followed, take this route,' I wrote.

All that was required for the last step of my plan, the promised acquisition of the box from the roof.

Technically, I was taking a risk by trying to take the box with all others trying to catch me, but the benefits were worth it.

Of course, the samples I had requested weren't worth it, especially since I had already identified the contacts that provided those. No, the valuable thing was to keep the existence of a mysterious assassin who had been poking around the dungeon for some reason.

Such a mysterious identity was too convenient to be discarded.

Of course, keeping such an identity was not easy. I went around the inn, and placed the small barrels around the inn, each ready to be detonated, primers unburnt. I wished using magic was an option, but not.

Instead, I had prepared them, each located about a few hundred feet from the inn and waited.

As the dawn draw near, the followers I had managed to identify during the chase surrounded the inn, but did nothing else. They were clearly not interested in the owner of the place any more than I was, turning the poor man into a pawn.

Unfortunately, that was the fate of anyone that dipped their feet into the illegal side of the world. Either have the strength and guile to protect yourself

Or know your limits.

I watched with a smile as they placed the box on the roof as requested, smart enough not to stick around. I chuckled even as I moved between the roofs I had placed the barrels, setting their primer on fire.

Now, I only had a few seconds to move. The moment they started exploding, I moved to a roof, and used a stick to hang a black cloak similar to mine, merely a shadow in the thick smoke.

Then, while I waited for them to notice it, I moved closer to the inn, using a street only watched by one of the tails. Then, all the tails, I hit with Charisma, to make him panic about the nearby explosion. "He's on the left," I shouted, acting like a bystander.

As they looked away worriedly, I rushed forward, getting close enough to use the hook. A pull later, the box was in my hands. I could have slipped away easily, but instead, I dashed back and appeared on top of the same distant roof covered with smoke and took down the dummy.

Then, I took a step forward, revealing myself. My hand was raised, glowing blue as I displayed the box for their gaze, as if I had used a very complicated spell to take the box from its distant location.

A mere illusion, just like the trick the people of my old world, leaving them shocked as I escaped.

And, considering none of them even tried to chase me as I rushed away a very successful trick.