Edward finally saw Thomas and Jonas's group split for their tasks, each bared significance of its own. While Edward had taken another task of his own. He had decided to rescue the thieves and use their strength to help them fight.
While he had simultaneously evaluated that, Thomas's group had a riskier and more important task at hand, if one would only evaluate the information at hand Jonas's group was trying to reach and defend something which could entirely be the basis for the attack.
The groups dispersed to their tasks after the final speeches on motivation and justice were delivered by Thomas. The movement of feet began as soldiers holding their lanterns began moving forward onto the outer corner of the streets.
Edward saw them leave and soon he descended from the rooftops to witness the corpses the group had left behind for anyone who walked through the street could see. He slowly climbed down from the rooftops jumping from window to door to widow again until he reached the bottom, where he had another look at the corpses lying in the open.
He believed corpses should be hidden before moving away from any location, it could alert the enemy if they saw any previously active member dead so suddenly, it was a bad move on their side. Edward soon realised it was the same three men, who spoke Italian who he had crossed earlier.
Edward took the three corpses and placed him inside a nearby building before investigating them because he was alone and fighting without any idea of what or who the enemy was, he couldn't risk another injury.
He took off their coats and searched the three for anything valuable with them but to his misfortune, the three carried nothing of his help, gold and silver coins were worthless in this bloodlust-filled storm. The identity of the attackers was the only valuable thing they could give him.
"Velvet coats and clothes. Broad faces and chins along with strong muscular bodies. One had a well-grown beard while the other two had clean faces."
Along with their attire and language, Edward theorized that the assassin had hired a militia Italian group to attack the city while they did their own business as how they sneaked an entire military group into a highly defended city was still a mystery.
"The group of Italian men are here, no definite number but big enough to push down on the city defences and leave a wasteland clearly in the hundreds or maybe a thousand, alongside those Explosions caused by the assassins. It was very well-thought-out and structured plan. Not something they had decided just a day before."
Edward pushed more buttons in his mind, all signs of this attack pointed at only one thing. There was a spy in Lucius's office, a snake was hidden in the council of lions, which Lucius the king had made for himself. The identity of the person was not something Edward could assess right now, he had important work to finish.
Edward came out of the building and began climbing to the rooftops once again, if he had the correct idea of hundreds of militiamen in this city, he had to unravel their location. Considering the idea that the thieves' hiding spot has an important spot the militia men ought to know about it and where there is prey, predators roam.
Once reached the rooftop again, this time he was moving north in search of any group of more than 20. He moved fast, considering that the assassin would be more prone towards the important location it was less probable that Edward would meet any until he reached very close to the location.
Peculiarly, he did less to no activity as he moved, streets were not filled with men looting the spoils of victory, all it was filled with bodies of men and women, soldiers and thieves alike, corpses lay on the floor as the rain washed on their bodies maybe they had already stolen what they needed from the city.
They were far quicker than he thought, and then he remembered how small the city was. The city had three sections, the market, the port and the warehouse. The shops were dense in their numbers but it was clear that there was a clear distinction with shops which were worth looting if you had the right information.
"There is another traitor in his city, someone had already snuck the militiamen before the storm and told them which places to steal from and to slaughter the rest."
And it wasn't helping that the traitor might still be walking alongside Isabella or Thomas as they worked, ready to stab them in the back the moment they were about to achieve their mission. Not to mention the threat of an assassin moving against them
Edward fastened his pace, and he moved northeast opposite the gate, his eyes now sharper, his focus heightened, and his muscles tightened there was no time to be frightened. As he moved more and more soon he started the light of the lantern finally shining below him more and more.
"That gate is unbreakable, I don't know what the hell is it made of?! I heard that men in white said that their gods had given them his steel. Even explosives aren't doing anything."
"Their gods would protect nothing if our gunpowder wasn't ruined in the rain and they took all the good gunpowder to the south, we have to ram our heads into that building and none of those men in white is helping us."
Two men below-held lanterns and talked in Italian, rifles tied one's back and the other held it in his hand. The information they spoke felt like a sweet song to Edward's ears, it meant one thing, the location was well protected and difficult to break in and the addition of there being no assassin was the cherry on top. Edward's hopes were higher than ever.
He passed the two men and moved forward in the direction, his eyes were seeing the streets more clearly as lanterns became more abundant in the night. Lanterns were now hung on the street's pillars but the men standing beside the lantern grew faster than that.
Edward slowed down his moment, the number here was greater than he thought, Thomas had made a good decision of not electing to come here, it would've meant death if they tried with all men.
"...." Along the way, Edward heard small conversations, men talking about the building and much of South's loot was sent to the ships along with questions about the assassin's motives.
Edward found out that even the militiamen were unaware of what their ally wanted, as they were getting the gold, silver and valuables. What else could they get out of there?
The building finally graced Edward's eyes, a square-shaped building was not much ahead of him now, located at the very end of the street where all the nearby streets merged at the roundabout around the building. The pathways were now well-lit due to the lantern as the rain was growing stronger once again but the winds were dying.
He soon reached the near the roundabout, but instead of remaining on the rooftop now began moving through the near-destroyed building, the floor barely held enough for Edward to observe everything from their broken window and tiny holes.
The building itself was shining silver, grey and silver glistened through its walls. It had one big silver-coloured door as big as the building itself. The buildings' walls seemed to be the same as the walls of the city and could handle some explosion as per the militiaman's words. There was only one flaw, it was way too small. Not even big enough to hold 100 people properly.
Edward was reminded that he had seen exceptionally low corpses in this place, if so many had fled to the building they might just die of suffocation if they didn't open the gates and then they would be slaughtered by the gunfire... Edward looked for pity and shifted to the militiamen.
Hoards of soldiers were moving in and out from every street, men came from the streets and soon the men he had seen earlier moved into the same streets while the new men took their positions. They worked in shifts to keep the men fresh and out of work from shifting the loot chests to the port.
The roundabout was filled with 20 soldiers at every moment half always remained on the lookout constantly looking at the building and rooftop with spyglasses as if they were hunting him but he was better at hiding than they were at finding though. He also noticed that they were constantly keeping tabs on each other. Eliminating them one by one was not an option.
While the other half constantly fired the door and shouted in English at the door telling how they would given mercy if they came out. It was useless.
Edward remembered how the thieves were under Foal's meditations, they would kill themselves with suffocation rather than answer any mercy calls. The spot of pity in Edward's heart grew and soon turned into self-loathing.
"I cannot do anything here." It was true, with too many soldiers on the lookout armed with rifles and bullets he couldn't fight them one by one because it would have no dent, as of now he was powerless. No matter what scenario he calculated it resulted in death without any success.
"I am not prepared enough to fight anyone yet...."
As soon as Edward spoke the words, the idea struck his mind everything he required was just better preparation. He searched his memory and remembered that he saw a gun store in the streets.
"I need to think like a flashy pirate more than an assassin right now." He was filled with all different ideas right now, he had a plan.
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I forgot to mention, Thank you(once again), Yama Kame for the power stone.