"Run! Get away from him!"
"HWAAAAA!"
"That drake is too fast! We can´t escape!"
"No! P-Please wai- AAARGH!"
"Damn it all! Turn around and kill the bastard!"
The group of junkies halted their drakes and faced my direction. Their pistols and swords aiming at the air.
"What? Where is he?!"
Confused by my sudden disappearance, the men looked everywhere with cold sweat embracing their necks.
"Stay together! We can take him down if we strike at once!"
Following the suggestion, a ring was made with the bodies of my targets.
Taking advantage of their foolish actions, I used the shadows to position myself in the center, where their backs were greeting me.
Bang! Bang!
I killed the first 2 with the pistol. When they realized where I was, Twilight pierced the chest of another to then chop off the head of the next junkie about to shoot me.
"I-Irregular"
"Too late to notice"
Krgh.
"Hrg! W-Who are you?!"
After reaching his hearth with the end of my sword he asked me with fear and hatred.
"Just a servant"
Bang!
Shooting my last bullet I ended his suffering.
"Groooaaaaaa!"
"Now then, the drakes"
Expecting the creatures to jump at us in attack, I quickly prepared to blend with the shadows.
But to my pleasure...
"Ho? Looks like you already took care of them"
"Gruu..."
Twilight had her claws and jaw stained with fresh blood, the blood of her victims laying now dead on the ground.
"The scale of earth drakes is known by their hardness, but it seems like it worked little against your arsenal"
"Grr"
Proud of her accomplishment, Twilight groaned as she licked off the crimson liquid on herself.
We were in the capital´s streets surrounded by houses and several stores, with all the noise made here, it was sure that the guards would arrive at any moment.
Normally, I would have to wait for their arrival so that I could show them the medal of the Fotiadis house and probe that my actions were driven by their commands.
But I had other things to do.
"This is going to be hard to clean, but I´m sure the capital´s guards are used to these kinds of situations"
Getting on the saddle, Twilight and I moved through the shadows to a rooftop.
Tzz.
Noticing the buzzing inside my arm pocket, I pulled out the crystal with the air communication spell. The voice of Herion soon came from it.
"Boy! A man is running through the rooftops, get him!"
"The rooftops?..."
Looking around I soon witnessed a hoodied figure fleeting from the building of drug dealers.
"I see him! Beginning chase, sir!"
I was worried that my target could have left my grasp, but now I can make sure that doesn´t happen.
"Once you get him, do not kill him, he could have valuable information about these drug dealers"
A wise choice, exactly the one I was about to make a reality.
"Understood"
Since the buildings were apart from each other by a certain distance, using the shadows to move would be inefficient, so we have to run and jump like the good old times.
Thanks to the legs of Twilight, the shape of the man was becoming clearer with each second.
"Prove my daughter was right to keep you alive boy"
Using that last sentence, I felt a cruel necessity to achieve success.
"... I will, my lord"
The connection cut after I gave that response, allowing me to fully focus on the chase.
**
After running for about 20 minutes, I reached the place where the hoodied man had entered.
It was a normal grocery store, the entrance was too little for Twilight to get in, so I asked her to keep an eye on the surroundings.
Once inside, I looked for the secret entrance mentioned in the original story.
"If I remember correctly, the heroine found it around... Here"
Tossing aside some boxes, I quickly found the hidden button attached to the lower left side of a wall behind the counter.
A click sounded after pushing it, and the floor showed a hole where a person could easily fit.
"You won´t get away"
Not thinking about it twice, I climbed down using the ladder inside.
It wasn´t as deep as I expected it to be, but once my feet touched the ground, I was greeted by a wide variety of powders, herbs, wooden boxes, and many things that a secret storehouse would have.
The voice of 2 men was audible from a couple of meters ahead.
Hiding behind a box, I managed to see the hoodied figure talking to a crystal ball. I wasn´t able to see the face projected on the object, but I already knew who it was.
"Hmm... That is unexpected. To think the Fotiadis would have someone capable to read my system of coordinates, not only that, but it also saved the life of duke Herion from my poison and found our traitor..."
"It´s just a scratch, we can get another group of nobodies to continue with the business"
"The replacements of the manpower to sell bliss is not the problem you idiot, it´s the responsible for cornering us"
The bliss? Is that the name of the drug?
An odd name for something that looks like puke-made powder.
"You told us that the world was going to change today, is this what you meant?"
"Of course not! I can´t believe my calculations failed! There must have been an extra number that I let slip out of my eye... But who?..."
"Well, you better find it soon, if things keep going like this, it´s only a matter of time before they discover our deposits and plantations"
"Hrgh... Watch the Fotiadis! Find whoever caused this and destroy it!"
"And how do you expect me to do so by myself?"
"That is your problem, make my money count"
"Huh?! This is not how things work you old hag! Hey!"
The ball lost its brightness and the man inside became fog.
"Fuck! This is why I never like to deal with mad nobles!"
"Then you should have changed jobs a long time ago"
"!!"
Turning around the man faced me with concern.
"... How?"
"Keep asking that in the afterlife"
Rushing forward I swang my sword to his chest. He parried the edge with a dagger as he jumped backward and tossed a couple of knives at my eyes.
Bang! Bang!
Using my gun I deflected them. We both stared at each other as I aimed the barrel at his face.
"Those yellow eyes and brown skin. You must be from the south, don´t you? What are you doing here?"
"If you expect reinforcements then let me tell you they won´t arrive in time, the knights of the Fotiadis are already heading here, not to mention the local guards"
"That was not my question!"
A burst of air shot the ground, making the powders fill the closed space.
Instinctively, I protected my nose and mouth with my arm.
"I hope you´re used to the good shit kid! The mixture of these things can easily kill a full-grown drake!" Said the man as he put on a gas mask hanging from a nearby wall.
When I tried to grab one for myself he broke them with his knives.
I can´t breathe... The colors are confusing my vision...
"Heads up!"
Cling!
Using my free hand I deflected more knives with the edge of my sword.
"Hrgh!"
Bad thing I missed one.
"These aren´t common knives you know, I made them myself, once they reach your flesh they´ll start cutting deeper and deeper. Like a chainsaw cutting down a tree"
Bzzzzzzt
"Son of a- AAARRRG!"
Before I could reach the mangle, the knife went deeper into my leg, making it impossible to take it off.
"Hey, you´re a butler, right? Who is your master? The duke? Maybe the duchess?"
Fooling around with his advantage, he traced a circle around me as he kept making questions.
"Nah, you´re too inexperienced and young, they wouldn´t have a use for you... So that leaves their young and beautiful daughter"
"!!"
"Ho? Did I hit a nerve?"
Unconsciously, my body flicked at the mention of Verónica.
"I see! I see! Then I´ll hang your head over the bed where I´ll eat that squishy ass of her!"
"You... MOTHERFUCKER!"
My blood boiled in hatred, the rush of adrenaline allowed me to ignore the pain for a bunch of seconds.
Enough time to use the shadows to enter my bleeding limb and pull off the knife.
"What the?! You´re an irregular?!"
Once the iron was out, I submerged into the darkness.
Puff.
Little by little, the torches that lit the room died, and so did his confidence.
Puff. Puff.
"Impossible! I´ve never heard of an irregular capable to use shadow magic!"
He kept throwing knives where the torches turned off. Just the sound of metal hitting stone and fabric answered his erratic aim.
"I-It doesn´t matter! This doesn´t change shit! You´re done, kid! For I am the greatest mercenary of this kingdom!"
Puff. Puff. Puff.
The whole room was about to go black, but he grabbed the last torch, and with its fire ignited everything that could burn.
"Hah! Now you can´t use the shadows! Your life was over the moment you crossed swords with me! Raimond of the starving blades!"
"I was going to give you a quick death..."
"Huh? W-Where? !!"
I was already climbing the ladders to exit the storehouse, Raimond rushed after me soon enough.
When I was out, I broke the ladder and began to push a heavy set of boxes to block the hole.
"WAIT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
"Killing an aberration, just as it should be. I hope that mask makes you fireproof"
After realizing my plan, Raimond looked at the fire eating all things on its way.
It was getting closer, and hotter.
"Haha... HAHAHAHAHA! IDIOT! THAT IS NOT THE ONLY EXIT!"
I heard his feet run deeper into the flames.
"Oh. I know..."
He didn´t hear that whisper, surely because of the low volume of my voice, or maybe because the hole was blocked.
It doesn´t change a thing anyway.
The reason why I didn´t strike him when I got the chance wasn´t that I couldn´t, it was because I was busy stuffing the other entrances with the sacks of powder and herbs.
"He should be realizing by now that going through those tunnels is a sure death..."
Thomp! Thomp!
Something was hitting the boxes beside me, the punches and screams were desperate at the beginning, but after 5 minutes they became weaker and softer.
During that time I treated my wound with bandages and first aid supplies at hand.
"This is what you get for insulting my lady, scumbag"
After saying that I turned on the fire alarm of the store. The blue crystals attached to the ceiling let go of the water imprisoned within them. The howl of the alarm soon attracted the local guards.
"Who are you?! Did you do this?!"
Once they reached me some of them took care of the fire while others pointed at me with their swords.
I tiredly showed them the medal of the Fotiadis house.
"... Give him first aid, and take him to the duke´s house"
"Sir, yes sir!"
With the help of the knights I mounted Twilight and we slowly returned to my home.
"Sir, we found a corpse, seem like he died calcinated while trying to escape"
"Find whoever he was and inspect the building, if the Fotiadis are involved this has to be much more serious than we anticipated"
"At once sir"
Those were the words of the knight staring at my back as I got further from the place.
Mission complete, my lady.