Diran took us to his office where he had a bunch of papers with reports of jobs and other information, he began to write down something before looking at me.
"We might have been found out. A Contingent of mixed warriors is heading toward this town. They have fifty of them, they have humans, orcs, and goblins."
"Did we mess up somewhere?"
"No, I don't think so… it was probably Fleiran."
"Who?"
"My former right-handed man… he knows how I operate and his speciality is gathering intel. I am guessing that he heard some rumors and assumed that we moved here."
Fleiran… it was the first time I heard the name of the traitor. Regardless, was it a coincidence that he had a similar sounding name with Diran? That didn't matter, though. A contingent of warriors looking for us would be a trouble for me… one didn't have to be a genius to know that I o would benefit in joining he thieves guild and someone good at gathering intelligence was bound to realize that.
"Even if we deal with the warriors, your friend will keep looking for us, right? How do we deal with that aside from hiding forever in fear?"
"... Killing him, but we don't know where he lives now or where he is working and believe me when I say that we are searching for him to make him pay."
For a brief moment, I noticed a shift in Diran's demeanor. When it became clear that I wasn't planning to abandon the guild at the first sign of trouble, a sense of relief washed over him. He had been tense, likely worried that I might cut ties and disappear if things got too dangerous. But once he realized I was committed to seeing this through, his expression changed.
With that relief came clarity, and soon, Diran began to use his head more strategically. The traitor of the guild was a thorn in our side, a constant source of trouble that couldn't be ignored. Diran knew that this person needed to be dealt with, but the reality was that finding and eliminating the traitor wasn't something that could be done overnight. The problem was deeply embedded, and it would take time to solve it.
In the meantime, there was a more immediate threat, the contingent of warriors who were closing in to the town. With the traitor still at large, they posed a significant risk to our operations. They were a more direct threat, one that we could at least try to handle. The situation was complex, but Diran was already starting to form a plan, knowing that dealing with the warriors might buy us the time we needed to address the deeper issues within the guild.
"Are you worried that some members will leave if they know of this contigent?"
"Yeah, it was already a failure of mine when so many of us were captured. They only stayed behind because we rescued them, but we are thieves, not warriors. Risking their lives on an impossible battle isn't our style and I can't blame them if they decided to run away."
"It seems that you have some allies that you can trust, huh?"
Serana never failed to annoy Diran with her words, but she wasn't telling any lies, so he had a hard time saying anything in response.
"... I suppose we can't take them out a few at a time,"
"Right, they will be aware of ambushes more than anything. We are outnumbered too, so that is our only option."
"How many of us can fight?"
"Counting you and me, perhaps eleven or twelve people. Considering that they might win one on one battle is another matter entirely."
That was a bit annoying, but it couldn't be helped… our only chance was a single ambush that would wipe out a lot of them, but if that happens in the town, then it will turn the place into an warzone and confirm that we are here.
Winning this battle will improve our reputation, but that also could make more people come for us, so it was a hard spot to be in. It didn't look like Diran had experienced or heard of anything like that with his life as a thief, so he wasn't sure what they could do and he wasn't expecting an answer from an amnesiac either.
"... How much time do we have?"
"Two or three days. Do you think that we should ambush them outside the town? With guerrilla tactis and by bpreparing some traps, we can decrease their numbers and wear them down for the real confrontation."
"If your former friend knows you, won't they be expecting this?"
Diran's frustration was palpable as he clicked his tongue in exasperation. He was a seasoned member of the guild, used to devising plans that were both clever and effective. But the actions of the traitor had thrown a wrench into everything. No matter how carefully he considered his options, there was a nagging certainty that whatever strategy he devised, the traitor would have already anticipated it. The traitor would have warned the contingent of warriors to be on the lookout for any of the typical tactics Diran might employ.
This situation was a strategic nightmare. Diran prided himself on his ability to outthink his opponents, but now it felt like he was playing a rigged game. It wasn't just a matter of outmaneuvering the contingent of warriors; we had to outmaneuver someone who knew the guild's playbook as well as, if not better than, we did.
As Diran's thoughts raced, it became clear that sticking to conventional tactics was a recipe for disaster. The traitor had likely already fed the contingent every possible scenario that might come to mind, nullifying our best-laid plans before they even had a chance to be executed. The more Diran thought about it, the more he realized that we needed to abandon the usual strategies altogether.
We needed to come up with something unpredictable, something so outside the realm of standard operations that neither the traitor nor the contingent would see it coming. It was a daunting task. Thinking outside the box wasn't just a choice; it was a necessity. The stakes were too high, and failure wasn't an option. The traitor might have knowledge of our typical methods, but if we could innovate, we could turn that knowledge against them.
"I am not sure if this will work, but I will try to deal with them myself in a way that won't cause trouble to the guild. Naturally, I will expect to be rewarded accordingly."
"... How do you plan to do that?"
Diran suddenly looked excited, he knew about the power of the royal family of the humans could wield. I obtained a lot of power in a matter of days to deal with twenty enemies by myself, he assumed that I had obtained even more since then. Still, it wasn't like I was planning to fight them fair and square and overpower them somehow.
"I am not sure yet; I will try to improve my skills a bit as much as possible; unless they reach the level that I want, I will improvise a bit."
"Hehehe, now you are talking… I knew that it would be fun to follow you."
I wondered if Serana would truly enjoy herself. I was planning to do something very boring, though.