Chapter 82: Birkaz - Scheme

'I wonder how long it will take before they will find me out…'

Trying to not lose his sanity in the damp and dark interior of one of the many barrels that were loaded on the carriages, Fen couldn't even tap his fingers against the wooden wall of his confinement. After all, wouldn't be that a pity if all the efforts of both sides that participated in smuggling him outside of the city were to be lost just because one of the guards hearing Fen's bored play. 

"Okay mate, that will be it for today. You can come out now."

Despite the message in those words being completely clear, Fen didn't dare to make a move. Only after someone tapped the top of the barrel in a specific order did the young man dare to push the lid up and finally escape from his wooden prison.

"What is this place?"

Looking around, the young arcanist could spot countless types of outfits and accessory cramping the place to no end. Looking forward, clothes befitting a random cook were hanging from the wall, while to his left a full set of guards' armour was waiting for someone to take it. No matter where the young man looked, new types and colours greeted his eyes, only serving to increase his confusion by many folds.

"To put it short, it's one of the organisations' dressing rooms. Whenever one of our people needs to sneak out into the city, he would use a place like this in order to mix into the crowd."

The man that accompanied Fen to this place didn't even bother to look at the young man as he instantly threw himself into the fray of looking for something suitable.

"Tell me, have you ever heard how the wine is made?"

Turning his face to look at Fen with a glint in his eyes, the young arcanist's guard clearly had some idea. Sadly, Fen's answer would most likely not be to his tastes.

"I only ever drank wine. Back in the times… Drinking wine was something that I could do once every few years, so to learn how to make it? Never."

Shaking his head with a disappointed expression plastered all over his face, Fen could only attempt to avoid the stare of the man. At least, he wouldn't be pushed into doing something that he had absolutely no idea about!

"Well… It doesn't really matter all that much. With this disguise, you will either pass seamlessly or make a commotion so big that no one will ever bother to look at you!"

Suddenly pulling out a set of relatively normal robes from one of the piles by the side, Fen's guard presented his choice to the young man.

Those clothes… Were completely normal. A simple shirt made from some scrapped materials, surprisingly short pants that would most likely make Fen freeze his balls off and all of that topped with a perfectly white apron extending for nearly as far as Fen was high!

But upon the closer inspection, the apron wasn't as white and clean as the young man first thought it was. Dirties by some colourful stain here and there, it had overall weary look to it, as if it was pulled from the back of someone who just spent the last three hours working in it!

"All the signs of use will make it easier for you to pass as the winemaker apprentice. You see this mark?"

Pulling the apron on his own chest, the man pointed at a small rose embroiled on the left breast height. But rather than allowing Fen to assimilate all the new facts, the young man's guard threw the apron back on the pile before lunging into another dump of clothes only to submerge from it a moment later with two extremely peculiar pieces of cloth.

Instead of the vivid colours that covered the entire length of both of the white tubes, the first thing that anyone would notice when getting close to those things would be the awful stench. By mixing the smell of rot, decomposition and the sweetness of various fruits whose juice coloured those long sleeves in all the colours of the rainbow, one could create a smell so foul that it would be challenging to even come close to it!

"Wear those cooking gloves. Their smell will make it harder for the guards to approach you. As for your story, you can just act as if you are too dumb to understand anything. Just keep in mind that if anyone… And by that I mean absolutefuckingely one, attempts to open any of the barrels, you will equip your weapon and prevent it at all costs!"

Announcing such grand news, Fen's guardian reached to a different pile this time made from all sorts of tools and weapons. Just a quick look allowed the young man to notice several daggers, swords and even damned executioner's axe! Even with how tense this entire situation was in the reality, just the thought of potentially receiving some fancy weapon managed to stir Fen's boyish soul!

"And here is your ladle."

It would be hard to find a way in which Fen could be more disappointed. With all the shiny weapons just at his hand reach, just the thought of grasping the cooking tool that the man was trying to pass to him seemed like heresy. Sadly, rather than being the creator of the plan, the young man was nothing but a small piece that had to fill its task to the fullest in order for others to achieve what they wanted. And the fact that what others wanted was to safely escort him out of the city had absolutely nothing to do with anything!

"Anyway, remember. Act stupid, and go to extremes if someone will try to open one of those barrels. Let's say that outside of stirring the boiling juice, your only task is to keep all the barrels safely closed!"

Understanding the plan was of no difficulty for the young man. Given how long he spent in the forest back before his execution, the art of deceiving and faking stuff was deeply ingrained into his bones. The only difference laid in the fact that to fool a beast one had to be far less creative than to fool a human!

With the hurrying from his guard, Fen quickly changed his clothes and grasped his new legendary weapon. Swinging it a few times to get a good feel of it so that nobody would notice how new he was to using it, Fen even realised that if the angle was correct, one could maybe even break some bones with such a simple tool!

Yet, rather than giving Fen some time to get used to his new outfit and role, the young man's guard nearly instantly pushed him outside, right into the welcoming arms of the proper caravan guardians!

"What the hell are you waiting for?! You already made us late, you fucking dimwit!"

Looking at the face of the shouting man, Fen only managed to notice how perfect his acting was, before a sudden eruption of the dull pain at the back of his head promptly reminded him about the role he had to play yourself.

"Where are my barrels."

Not even bothering to modulate this question so that it would sound like an actual question, Fen looked around, completely ignoring the shouting guard.

"Barrels? You mean those that the city guards are inspecting right now?"

Hearing those words, the advice of the guardian that remained within the dressing room instantly came back to Fen's mind. It seemed that in order to hide him in the plain sight, the heads behind the entire plan hoped to put Fen right in the centre of everyone's attention!

"WHERE!"

Raising his ladle as if it was a bastard sword ready to cut the man in half, Fen threatened the guard with his newly found weapon while trying his absolute best to not start laughing at his own performance. Tracing where the eyes of the caravan guard aimed once the barrels were mentioned, Fen instantly turned his head towards his new target.

'If I'm supposed to go all-in then I don't really have much choice…'

Reinforcing his determination right at the very moment, Fen made the last step before taking a huge swing with his ladle and…

Bonk.

The sound of the metal of the cooking utensil hitting the helmet of one of the guards that was trying to open the lid of the barrel made a beautiful tone of two empty things hitting each other.

��STAY AWAY FROM MY WINE!"

In one instant, Fen's action and shouts managed to achieve what the plan most likely expected him to accomplish. All the eyes of the crowd turned towards the young man, filled with pity, curiosity and shock.

"What the…"

"IF YOU OPEN IT, IT WILL FUCKING SPOIL!"

Taking another swing with his ladle, Fen wasn't surprised at all when one of the guards caught his hand mid-swing. Given how he was supposed to pretend like a random idiot, using even a small portion of his agility would be the dead giveaway, forcing him to slow down all his movements almost to the comical levels!

"Stop it if you don't want to die."

The man that caught Fen's hand apparently didn't find the situation funny at all. With a dead-serious expression on his face, he held the young man's grip with the power of some steel tongs!

"BUT THE WINE!"

Given the situation, Fen only knew that he was supposed to stir up some trouble. What would come next could only be left in the care of the ones that devised the entire scheme!

"Sir, please forgive him. He is but an idiot that can only follow two orders in his life!"