Chapter 131 – Petty Grudge

Chapter 131 – Petty Grudge

Jeremy and Kyle both flinch at the familiarity and scorn in her tone and glance at each other in confusion.

“You know us?” Kyle asks, relaxing slightly and rubbing his neck.

“I know you definitely can’t beat me in a fight. Speaking of, where have your little cronies gone? Did they get taken away when you were declared failures?”

Kyle seems to realise who she is, glancing down at the blades hidden in her sleeve as fear twists his expression. Jeremy on the other hand grits his teeth in anger and steps forward.

“How da-“ he doesn’t finish his words as Emily’s arm whips forward, slashing a Claw through his throat and sending a torrent of blood down his chest.

“Well?” she urges Kyle in a machina-distorted hiss, her eyes never leaving him despite killing his friend.

“Y- Yeah,” he manages to say, glancing at his friend bleeding out beside him in shock. “Th- They kicked us both out after we caused trouble with you without results.”

“Ha,” Emily barks. “You guys must really hate me. Though, I doubt you followed me this time because you knew it was me.”

“We didn’t!” he hurries to say, his panic building as his eyes frantically dart about, looking for any way out.

“I can tell. Your mana sensitivity is so shit you probably didn’t even realise I was third circle when I revealed myself earlier. I’m guessing you thought I was another pathetic first circle who was kicked out of their family like you.”

Kyle goes to respond, but Emily holds up a hand to stop him, not caring about his answer.

“Let’s just make this quick and easy. Who knows, if you tell me something useful, maybe you’ll get to live?” Emily enjoys the look of terror on his face as she rolls the shoulder his follower left a scar on. “What do you know about my recent... disagreement... with the Mandrago family?”

“N- Not much,” he responds, trying and failing to keep his nerves under control. “We still have a little contact with some of our old friends, and all they told us is that you wiped out a noble family, and half a city with them, before fleeing.”

“Half a city? Not quite, but I like the image. Anything else? Any details about how I got away or where I’m going next?”

“Um, uh,” his eyes spin as he searches for something to say.

“Nothing, huh?”

The disappointment in her voice pushes him over the edge, and Kyle drops to his knees, grabbing at the edge of Emily’s cloak as he starts to beg.

“I’m sorry! We didn’t ask for any details! Please don’t kill me!”

“Who told you?” Emily asks with disgust dripping from her glare.

“Aaron! Our friend from when we were still in The Covenant,” Kyle’s eyes light up with hope as he scrambles within his robe to find something.

He scatters the contents of his pockets on the floor, dropping several copper coins in the process, before he finds what he’s looking for and offers it to her.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Here! This is the crystal he used to contact us.”

Emily raises a brow, taking the crystal from his hand.

“Good,” she says, derisively patting him on the head. “This is actually useful.”

“C- Can I go?” Kyle asks hopefully.

“Ha,” Emily scoffs, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him deeper into the alley. “Not quite.”

Once they’re tucked into a private corner, away from the dead body of her captive’s friend, she releases Kyle and passes him the crystal again.

“If you want any chance at surviving, you’re going to do exactly as I say from now on,” she starts, receiving a fearful, vigorous nod in response. “I want you to call your friend on that crystal and act like nothing is wrong. Ask him about where he thinks I’m going and find out anything you can. If you need a reason, tell him you want to hunt me for my bounty or something, I don’t care. But, if a word about me being here leaves your mouth.”

Emily extends a Claw and lightly taps his cheek with it as she finishes.

“Then I’ll shut it permanently. Understood?”

“Y- Yes,” Kyle stammers, not daring to nod with the cold steel pressed to his face.

“Good.”

Emily retracts her Claw and leans against the alley wall opposite the terrified man, letting him take a few moments to calm down and gather himself. To his credit, it only takes a few seconds for his shaking to subside and, after less than a minute, he raises the crystal and injects a burst of mana into it. The crystal glows brightly and Emily silently frowns at the amount of mana he wasted while activating it, but she doesn’t say anything as he waits nervously for someone to pick up.

“Yep! And I managed to save Anton two silver with my haggling skills,” he responds proudly.

“Ha, well done, kid,” Emily says, reaching up to ruffle his scruffy hair before turning to lead the way out of the city.

They make their way back towards the wall, entering the industrial district of the city and ducking into the twisted alleys leading towards their way out. They walk together in silence, with Podrick staying close behind Emily, until they turn the final corner to the smuggling route.

The moment they round the corner, Emily stops and steps back, pushing Podrick out of sight as her gaze fixes upon a group of eight, armed men standing guard at the base of the wall. They don’t notice her, so, after scanning over their formation, Emily pulls back as well and turns to her charge.

“They seem to have increased their numbers after we removed the last watch,” she whispers to him.

“Do you think they found the bodies?”

“Possibly. Or they just think the others left their posts. Either way, they’re in the way.”

Emily reaches for the gun on her thigh and notices Podrick clenching his teeth with a reluctant expression in preparation for the fight. She hesitates and glances at the tall warehouse beside them.

Well, we may be able to avoid them. The kid’s done well enough dealing with those I’ve killed already, I may as well not kill his good mood. It’s not like they’ve bothered me.

Moving her hand away from her gun, Emily walks away from the wall.

“Follow me,” she says to Podrick as he confusedly watches her leave.

They retrace their steps until they reach a shorter warehouse with a mass of piping and boiler units mounted to the side, wrapped in a chain-link fence.

“We’re going up. Try not to make too much noise, and don’t try to copy me. Just find a path that works for you,” Emily says before stepping forward and launching off the floor.

She grabs the top and slips over the fence in one clean movement, landing on the other side with barely a sound and continuing towards the side of the warehouse. In an instant she analyses the twisted mess of metal and plots a path, stepping up onto a pipe with intention and launching herself towards another. In a few short hops, Emily lands on top of a boiler where she crouches down to build up power before releasing in a single burst to carry her up onto the warehouse roof.

Skidding to a halt on the thin metal, Emily turns around and looks at Podrick, still standing outside the fence while staring back up at her in awe. He quickly snaps out of it and gets moving, clambering over the fence. He steps onto a pipe on the other side, slowly walking along it with his arms out to balance until he reaches the side of the boiler, where he jumps up and grabs the top before hauling himself up.

Emily sits down on the edge of the building, leaning down and offering the boy her hand. He springs up and grabs it, hanging on and letting her pull him up to join her with ease.

“Thanks,” he says quietly as Emily stands up.

“No problem. Good job not falling. Keep it up.”

Emily turns and walks along the roof towards the narrowest gap to the next warehouse. She calmly steps up to the edge before launching off one foot, easily clearing the gap with barely a break in her gait. Podrick takes a small run up and leaps after her, successfully landing in a roll on the other roof without too much noise, rising up to look at Emily with a proud grin.

Meeting his eyes, Emily can’t help the small grin that parts her lips as she turns and breaks into a slow run across the roof. Podrick follows close behind, running at almost his full speed, and Emily soon reaches a wall in the middle of the warehouse where the roof rises up a few metres. She kicks off the wall and launches herself up to catch the lip of the ledge and pull herself clean over.

Without pausing, she keeps running, hitting the edge of the roof and taking a leap across a much larger gap to the slightly raised roof of their target warehouse. She lands with her hands on the lip and her feet flat against the wall, cushioning her impact. With a light kick, she rises to stand on the roof, turning back to look at Podrick staring at the gap with wide eyes.

She raises her hand and gestures for him to come across. With one last glance into her calm eyes for reassurance, Podrick turns around and walks back to gain a larger run-up. He pauses and takes a deep breath before shaking his head and sprinting at full speed towards the roof’s edge. With a strong leap, he flies towards Emily with his arms outstretched.

His fingers just catch the lip she’s standing on, and as they start to slip off, Emily grabs his wrist and holds him fast. Ignoring the loud thud of his legs hitting the wall, Emily pulls him up and pats him on the back.

“Good job,” she says, moving away from the edge to make sure anyone coming to check on the noise below won't see them. “You ever climbed buildings before?”

“I wish,” Podrick responds with a giddy smile, trying to contain his excitement and keep his voice down. “That was a rush!”

“Haha, clambering about like that was my favourite way to move around Eimdon. Never risked going on the roofs inside the walls though, so I guess this is a first for both of us.”

As they approach the edge of the warehouse facing the wall, they both fall silent again without Emily having to say anything. She peers over the edge, finding the same eight men gathered below, watching either end of the alley but not looking up. She pulls out her climbing tool again and winds up a throw before tossing it clear over the top of the wall. A dull clank sounds as it lands on top, but none of the men below notice.

Emily slowly pulls on the cable until she feels the hook catch on something, and, after a few solid tugs to make sure it’s secure, she turns to Podrick.

“Climb across this and wait for me on the wall,” she whispers holding the cable taut.

Trusting her, Podrick nods and grabs the wire, lifting himself up and turning around to loop his legs over it too. Slowly, he creeps along the cable to the top of the wall where he releases his legs and turns to pull himself to safety. The moment he’s free of the wire, Emily steps up to the edge of the roof with as little slack in the line as possible.

Without any hesitation, she crouches and explodes across the gap, pulling in the wire as she flies through the air and landing halfway up the wall with a light clang of her metal soles. She quickly hauls herself over as the men below look up, but she’s gone before they spot more than a flicker of motion.

Podrick offers her a silent thumbs up, clearly impressed, but she rolls her eyes at him and sets off across the wall. Finding a protruding panel, she hooks the climbing gear on and smoothly descends to the ground on the other side. She finds the alley just as empty as when they left it, with two dead bodies and none of the living guards having yet returned.

Podrick lands behind her, and Emily quickly pulls down the climbing gear, tucking it away into her belt as they slip back through the slums and leave the city behind.