Isekai Assassin: Volume 1 Page 18

  I passed a few coins to Aless. “Go to the bar and get some food. Blend in and just watch for now. Don’t get involved, understood?”

  “Perfectly.”

  “Good.” I left her alone and went to speak to Charles.

  He looked up as I approached, his eyes glassy, inebriated. “Elias, my pain in the ass friend! You’ve returned, and much sooner than expected.” He smiled wide. “Good. Now, tell me. Where is my seal?”

  “On the count’s desk where it belongs. I left it there.”

  Charles lost his jovial demeanor as quickly as it arrived. “What?” he asked, slurring. “I’m sure I misheard you.” He stood, his face clouding with anger. “Just as I’m sure you didn’t just come back to my bar without my seal.”

  “No, you have it exactly right.”

  “Fredrick! Hadrian!” he shouted.

  Immediately, the two men by his side jumped up and drew arms, leather-wrapped truncheons meant for cracking skulls but not usually fatal unless the wielder went overboard.

  “Teach this cocky fuck some manners. Then we can discuss why it’s a bad idea to fail me.”

  I grinned as they approached. Recognizing the man I’d beaten the other week. “Did you not learn your lesson the first time?”

  As Fredrick raised his truncheon, I launched toward him. I sunk my fist into his face, stunning him with a heavy jab. A satisfying crunch filled the air as blood dripped from his busted nose, and he howled in pain. He clutched at his face, and I hooked my leg around his ankle and took him to the ground.

  Fredrick was out of commission for a brief second, but I still had the other thug to deal with.

  Hadrian came toward me, heavy in his movements. I shuffled to the side as he swung his bludgeon down at me. Air whistled as it passed next to me. It thumped against the worn floorboard next to my foot, splintering the aging wood.

  I shifted on the balls of my feet and drew two knives, one in each hand. I brought my right hand to his chest, slamming the knife home until it stopped at the hilt.

  The man gurgled and lurched as my steel stopped him in his tracks. I twisted and pulled my knife free, kicking him in the side of the knee. Bone snapped as his leg bent at an unnatural angle, and he lost his balance. Hadrian screamed in pain, which turned to a raspy, gargled moan as his lungs filled with blood.

  With a flick of my wrist, I split his throat open, and a rush of blood ran down his chest, soaking into his clothes as he collapsed on the ground.

  1 Kill (Human): 100 Exp!

  One was dead, but I had Fredrick to deal with.

  I’d broken his nose, and he’d shaken it off and stood just in time to watch me end the life of his comrade. I turned to him, Fredrick’s eyes clouding with rage as his knuckles gripped his truncheon tight.

  “Ima kill you,” he wheezed, his shattered nose emitting a high-pitched whine as he inhaled.

  “You’ll try.”

  He rushed me only to meet my knife halfway as I threw it at him. It sunk into his flesh, just over his heart. It sunk in a good few inches, breaking through ribs and puncturing his heart.

  Your Throwing Knives skill has increased by 1! [Throwing Knives: 7 (Novice)] +25 Exp!

  I ran toward him as I released the blade and planted my feet. I lashed out with a side kick, aiming at the knife lodged in his chest. My kick landed and caught the hilt of my knife with devastating force. It sunk to the hilt, taking his heart completely.

  Blood splashed into the air, droplets of crimson rain. As blood ran down around him, he stumbled back, falling on his ass with a heavy groan.

  The man laid down, pawing at his chest before he lay still. I doubted he’d get up again.

  1 Kill (Human): 100 Exp!

  It’d only taken me a handful of seconds to dispatch the men, and in that time, the bar had grown quiet. No one even dared to breathe as I killed two men.

  I turned to face Charles who hadn’t moved. He sat back in the booth, as wide-eyed as the rest of the patrons. I then turned my gaze to the rest of the bar, letting my gaze grow cold as I spoke to the crowd.

  “If you want to live, you’ll leave now and not speak a word of this to anyone. I’ve memorized your faces, and I won’t hesitate to inflict terrible suffering on any of you.”

  My voice was harsh and venomous. I bit off each word and spat them at the men and women who sat, slack-jawed, staring at me with open terror.

  Your Killer’s Stare skill has increased by 2! [Killer’s Stare: 7 (Novice)] + 50 Exp!

  Your Intimidation skill has increased by 2! [Intimidation: 2 (Novice)] +50 Exp!

  Your Charisma has increased by 1! [Charisma: 14] +100 Exp!

  Each of them flinched as I met their gaze, and they knew that I meant every word. They nodded with jerky panicked motions, and then when I let my stare drop as I whirled back around to Charles, they fled.

  Stools clattered to the floor amid the thundering of footsteps as a dozen patrons fought to leave the bar. They fled out onto the streets, leaving the bar quiet once more.

  “Aless.”

  She stood, the wood creaking under her. “Yes?”

  “Come here.”

  She rushed to my side without a word, staring down at the quivering form of Charles as he stared at me.

  “What do you want from me?” he shouted, his voice rising and cracking. “I paid you well for Ildan. I was going to pay you well for the seal. Why are you doing this?”

  I reached down and pulled the knife I’d buried in his bodyguard's chest free. It came loose with a mess of blood and a bit of skin stuck to the blade, but a quick wipe on the man’s trousers and the blade was nearly good as new.

  As I took my time dealing with my blade, Charles’s fear grew. It was palpable even without my status alerting me that I’d increased my intimidation once more.

  Your Intimidation skill has increased by 1! [Intimidation: 3 (Novice)] +25 Exp!

  “You see, I learned a few interesting things while I was in the count’s study, perched above him in the shadows. He spoke about you. Would you care to guess what he said?”

  Charles paled, his Adam's apple bobbing as he dry swallowed. “I don’t know what you think you heard, but I’m sure there is─”

  I vaulted over the table that separated us and was on him in a flash. My blade pressed to his carotid.

  “No more lies. You and I are going to have a very frank conversation, and then you are going to die. Now there is no escaping that, but your level of honesty will depend on how much pain you suffer between then and now. Do you understand?”

  He lurched to the side, trying to bolt, but my knife was faster. I sliced a thin groove across his neck, and he cursed me.

  “Damn you! Look, I’ll tell you everything, I swear, but you gotta let me live. I’ll leave Vohra, leave Chordis entirely. I’ll head to Calcross, or hell, I’ll even go to Lechre. Never see me again.”

  I shook my head and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. I hauled him up and threw him away from the booth. He crashed back against the table, toppling it over and landing heavily on the ground with a heavy groan.

  “Aless, pay attention.” I glanced at her and then back to Charles lying on the ground. “I’ll explain the first two rules later, but right now is a good time to teach you one of my rules—rule number three. Keep your word, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the other rules. If I say I’m going to do something, I follow through with it.”

  I knelt and once more placed my knife against his neck.

  “If I say I’m going to kill you, I mean it. Nothing you can say or do will change that now.”

  Charles coughed, eyeing my hands near his throat. “What about your word to deliver the seal to me? You broke your word and the contract.”

  I chuckled and tapped the tip of my knife against his nose. “An excellent point. But you were operating in bad faith from the beginning. Working with Count Vohra to line your own coffers while keeping the city’s criminals disorganized. You broke the cardinal rule of all crimina
ls. Don’t snitch. Which makes our contract null and void.”

  “What are the other rules?” Aless asked, peering down at Charles with a slightly green expression.

  Ah, she’s not used to this level of violence. A shame, but she’s going to have to get over that sooner or later if she wants to work with me.

  “I’ll teach them to you as we go along, but understand, if you are going to become my apprentice, you must follow my rules to the letter. If you break even one of them and I find out, I will kill you.” I turned to her, my eyes cold. “Do you understand?”

  She gulped and nodded. “Perfectly.”

  “Good. What’s rule number three?”

  “Do what you say you’re going to do unless that person betrays you.”

  I shrugged. “Close enough, but at least you’re paying attention.” I turned back to Charles. “Now, back to you. Sorry about making you the subject of our school lesson, but nothing teaches better than hands-on experience in my book.”

  “By Weilin, what do you want from me?” he asked, tears in his eyes.

  “Everything,” I said, digging my knife into his chest just a sliver. “Your contacts, the workings of your business, and the people you deal with above you. I want everything. If you give me that, I will end you quickly with the least amount of pain possible.”

  He spat on me. “Go to hell. Like I’m going to tell you everything just so you can kill me anyway.”

  I slashed Charles in the face with my knife, flaying a flap of skin from his cheek. It hung over his nose as blood rushed out. Charles screamed and bucked against me. I grabbed him by his hair and bashed his head on the wooden floorboards under us—the planks which were rapidly becoming a small pool of crimson.

  It clung to my boots, and I just knew I’d have to scrub them well when I was done with him.

  When Charles stopped screaming, I raised my knife to his right eye. I rested the tip on the curve of his socket, just below his eyebrow.

  “Now, in case you didn’t know this, right under your skin, there is what’s called the supraorbital nerve, also called the frontal nerve. It’s a sensory nerve, so when I stab you there…well, I’m not exactly sure how much pain you’ll be in, but from the screaming of the people I’ve tortured, it’s going to be excruciatingly painful.”

  I smiled down at him, pressing ever so slightly with the knife, not enough to break the skin, but close.

  “Let’s begin, shall we?”

  Chapter 15- Blackfall Manor

  In the end, as I figured he would, Charles cracked before I even had to start on him.

  Torture was very much an unreliable method of gathering information, but the fear of torture often worked far better than the actual thing.

  Especially for cowardly men like Charles, who hadn’t ever really experienced that level of fear before.

  He took very little convincing before he gave up his sources, as well as spilling everything he knew about Count Vohra and Captain Mays. It seemed Captain Mays was his go to contact and supplied his marching orders from the count.

  Charles also laid out his entire organization, from the supplier he received the Thanatos from in the country of Duram, to the street dealers he had working for him, to the guards he paid off when they came around asking questions.

  After he gave me everything, I stripped him of his dimension ring and quickly ended his life.

  Your Intimidation skill has increased by 1! [Intimidation: 4 (Novice)] +25 Exp!

  Your Persuasion skill has increased by 1! [Persuasion: 4 (Novice)] +25 Exp!

  Your Small Blades skill has increased by 1! [Small Blades: 27 (Journeyman)] +50 Exp!

  I sighed, going through everything he’d told me with a fine-toothed comb. If he’d put as much effort into running everything like he ran his little empire, he could’ve been a decent threat. But he had too many vices to ever become someone dependable.

  His death was for the best.

  Poor Christoff had to dispose of the bodies and clean up the bar while I dealt with the downstairs office and bedroom where Charles slept and did his business.

  “Ugh, what in Weilin’s name is that smell? I think I prefer the scent of blood upstairs,” Aless muttered, pinching her nose as we walked down the creaky wooden steps to the basement of The Cracked Cask.

  She’s not wrong. It certainly reeked. A mixture of unwashed clothes, body odor, smoke, and sex formed a rancid miasma that settled over every inch of the space as we stepped off the stairs.

  The place was filthy, a den of debauchery. Detritus covered the floor. Decanters, wine glasses, and plates lay next to the bedroom area, which was nothing more than a once elegant mattress now more filth and stain than bedding. Multiple sets of undergarments lay scattered atop it, detailing exactly what the bed was used for other than sleeping.

  On the opposite side of the wall lay the office. The desk was a few years past its prime, and a bookshelf with more wine bottles than books rose to the ceiling next to it.

  Aless scoffed, leaning against the bannister. “And I thought where I lived was rough. How the hell did Charles get women to sleep with him if this is what he lived in?”

  “Coin. There’s always buyers and sellers no matter the place. And with a brothel right down the street, I’m fairly certain he was a regular.”

  “Charles?” She shuddered and shook her head. “Not enough money in the world. I’d rather starve on the streets.”

  I snorted and motioned her over. “Check the shelves and desks for information─” I turned to her, realizing something. “Wait, can you read?”

  Aless turned to me, her head downcast. “No, sir. Not a word. Parents were dirt poor farmers, could barely scrape enough vahn together to feed us, never even seen a book in my─” She snickered, her haunted eyes vanishing in a second as she doubled over with laughter.

  “You should see the look on your face.” She laughed some more before she stood, wiping her eyes. “Couldn’t keep a straight face to save my life.” She smiled at me. “Course I can read. May’ve grown up on the streets, but the guild taught me my letters, along with most everything else I know.”

  I raised an eyebrow, narrowing my eyes. “Guild? What guild?”

  “Thieves Guild. Called the Foxes. Used to run close to half the city from what I heard, though I was only a Prowler, so I never climbed high enough to join the inner circle.”

  Wait, what?

  “There’s a Thieves Guild in Vohra?”

  She shook her head, turning back to the bookshelf. “Not anymore.” Aless ran her fingers over the spines of what few books were there. “When the former Count Vohra died, Malcolm, his son took over. Made sweeping and very radical changes.”

  “Like dissolving the guild?”

  She shook her head, sighing. “Put a death sentence on anyone caught stealing, but it was as good as dissolving the guild. The leaders saw the writing on the wall and just up and left one day, abandoning the guild house and vanishing without a trace. Leaving us to fend for ourselves, but now without their protection.”

  So, it’s all by design. Even more pieces fall into place.

  I had to hand it to Malcolm Vohra. He’d done something remarkable and shattered the entire city’s underworld into fragments, leaving them to rot and be picked over by scavengers. If I weren’t so upset at it, I’d be impressed.

  But it also means the count is smarter than I gave him credit for. I’ll need to be careful when I do finally confront him.

  It wasn’t much, but I’d learned enough to know why the city was in such dire straits. It wouldn’t help me rebuild in the slightest, but it was good to know that a framework had at least been in place.

  I could use the bones of that framework and build my foundation on top of it.

  But it wasn’t going to be easy.

  There’s still so much I don’t have that I desperately need. I slept in an abandoned house that was one bad day from falling apart last night. I need to find a place to live, to work. As well as an es
tablished safehouse. The farm in Romera Forest is one, but it’s too far away to be of much use. I need one in the city.

  There was too much work to do, and I still had to sort through all this mess that Charles left. it was important, and I needed to do it sooner rather than later considering once word of Charles’s death spread, I’d have the city guard on high alert.

  The count was already suspicious because of the Ildan job. Killing Charles would probably force Vohra to overreact, most likely send his guards patrolling through the outer section of the city. Having them as a show of force and cracking down on the poor districts will send most criminals to ground for a while.

  Which isn’t a bad thing. It’s actually in my favor. It’ll give me time to get things in order, set up the beginnings of my own network, and perhaps get the basics done before they pop up again.

  With that settled. I had my goal in mind for today.

  And it wasn’t sorting through piles of information to see what was worthwhile. That could be done at my leisure later.

  I needed to find a place to live first.

  “Alright, Aless. Change of plans. We’re going to store all of this nonsense in my dimension ring. We can sort it out another time.”

  “Okay,” she replied, turning back to me. “What are we doing instead?”

  “We need to find a place to live. Neither of us have a place to call our own that isn’t rundown or leaking. That needs to be priority one.”

  “Alright, what’s your budget? Depending on that, that will limit where you can─” She stopped speaking. Her face lighting up. “I know the perfect spot.”

  I held my hand up, motioning for her to continue. “Don’t keep me in suspense.”

  “The old Thieves Guild house. It’s been abandoned for years. Since the guild fled the city.”

  “Hmm.” I walked over to her and leaned back against the desk. “If it’s perfect, why hasn’t someone claimed it? Or hell, why do you live in the Plague District if you could stay in the old guild house?”