All the work of a good assasin always starts with the same thing, observation, this one is rather simple, I was standing outside of the city in a rather covered forest watching the different movements here and there.
Lucian : "That's just so boring nothing is happening"
Lucian : "Can't he just do his plan quickly"
It didn't take me a long time to understand why I was sent there, the nobleman of this city was gathering a small army discreetly and this surely for personal reasons.
Lucian : "Does he think anyone buy it with his big number of army"
He was not located on the border of any other country and was rather far from the demons even though he was on the border of them but he was rather protected by the mountains, so he really had no factual reason to build an army.
It was clearly not enough to take the capital or harm the king but for a settlement between nobles there it would be more logical.
Lucian : "He has some conflits with an high-ranking noble it seems"
From the information I had for this mission, the nobleman in question is Baron Grisbeld, someone who is usually rather submissive to other high-ranking nobles.
He was under the tutelage of earl Lorain, someone very loyal to the royal family and with is territory serving as a transition between the demonic territory and the human kingdom.
Among other things, he was known for providing a knight unit quite regularly to the kingdom and also be quite an approved lord.
An habitant of a nearby village : "Why are you looking at the castle since morning"
I was not very doing my job in secret, and did not need to, after all the people who can help me know more about the Baron are most likely people that know him the most.
Lucian : "Hello I would like to know more about the lord of these lands because I was thinking of moving here"
Habitant : "I am not gonna lie to you, that's really a bad choice, every one that have the money to flee just do"
He was thinking before talking, looking everywhere to see if their was someone spying on him as he could probably get in trouble.
Lucian : "Why is that ?"
Habitant : "The money takne by the lord is too much and not even talking about the violence against us"
It seems that the Baron did not do his job properly which is to only serv for the habitants and help the earl in a bigger picture for the kingdom.
Surely he was tired of being used for nothing other than a bridge between two nobles, anyway he knew that the territory was too precious for the royal family to destabilize him so he felt rather safe to do who knows what.
Lucian : "Thank you for your opinion, it was rather helpfull"
Habitant : "Flee before any of his soldier see you"
Lucian : "I see"
It seems that their is a lot of problem with the baron and the habitants but no official reaction from the kingdom.
Which means that as long as he made the death of the earl appear to be an "accident", he could recover at least part of the assets of the earl and be okay with it.
Lucian : "Let's learn a little more"
Lucian : "Thie is no one it seems"
All habitants of the serounding towns are hiding not going out or not for long and they for sure wouldn't talk to a stranger when they could get in trouble.
The only suspicious person I saw at the moment was a merchant, probably a slave, who was going back and forth between the town where I came from and the Baron's castle.
Lucian : "It seems like a new way to get information"
After I talked with the villager I saw some guards coming to me, to answer that I hided not far form the village to where I knew they would be too lazy to check.
A guard : "You sure you saw a stranger here"
Another guard : "Well it must have been my mistake sorry"
Guard : "Let's be cautious or the Baron will get mad"
They came back to their work and me to mine, which is to look at rhe merchant that was going back and forth and wait for a good opportunity to approach him.
Merchant who seemed more forced than anything else to do his job, he was skinny, slimmed down and clearly not paid properly but in any case it also made him my first internal source of information.
I slowly approach himx looking normal, even if my cape and my hood surely made me suspicious, on the roads it was rather a common thing, especially here.
Lucian: "Hello young merchant, what are you selling"
He ignored me and continued on his way, not even looking at me, okay ... I know I look fishy with my face hidden but that's no reason to ignore me.
Lucian : "Please dont ignore me, I really want to buy some stuff if you have something interesting"
Merchant : "Let me alone"
At the same time I'm still struggling to manage my mana accurately so I'm not sure I've recreated the assassin's face well and I don't have anything to check so I couldn't take off my hood.
Lucian: "I don't want to hurt you I just want merchandise please"
Merchant : "You are quite annoying"
Lucian : "But rich"
A good merchant should never normally refuse anyone, this one seemed to be almost configured to only do the exchanges between the two cities like a robot.
But hey humans are all curious, so he stopped and showed me without saying a word what he had on his conviced that he would somehow rip me off of my money.
Merchant: "Everything is 20 silver coins"
Lucian : "That's hella expensive"
He was clearly trying to scam me, not even clothes done with a good quality, clearly a work needed to be reviewed, no precious stones at all, more than doubtful fruits and weapons already used.
Given his condition and the lack of respect that I could see from the guards towards him, he was clearly treated badly and was desperately trying to see that, I could see that, he had the same eyes than me before.
Lucian : "Are you trying to rip me off"
Merchant : "That's the job of a merchant isn't it"
Considering what he was doing, it wasn't hard to deduce that he needed money, why, I don't know but it doesn't really concern me.
I gave him all the money I had recovered on the assassin, he was clearly not rich but the 3 gold coins (= 300 silver coins) will surely help the young man, not that I was trying to do a good act but that money was of no use to me anyway.
Marchant: "What are you taking?"
Lucian: "Just this stone"
I took a black stone that was probably strictly useless but hey, I had to look sure of myself for him, before he could say anything I left as quickly as I arrived.
He didn't realize it, but I had time to lightly touch him, thus putting a little demonic mana on him to, just so I could follow his movements inside the castle.
Lucian : "No go my little lab rat"
The mana allows you to do a lot of things like spot these enemies or something precisely but the castle being a closed place I can't do it like what I did in the forest and dissipate my mana everywhere because all I would see were the walls...
I quietly waited for him to finish his "work" before he returned to the castle, now I just had to focus on the trace of my mana, I had to get very subtly closer to the wall, but I could clearly feel my mana in a kind of basement, I clearly didn't know what was going on but my mana suddenly died out, proof of the presence of someone rather strong (in magical terms) in this place.
Lucian : "Sh.. now I have to enter to know"
Lucian : "That's quite annoying"
Well, it clearly gave me a reason to intervene, of course in my report I will give enough reasons to continue to monitor him without needing to have him killed.
I knew very well that if I gave the other guy any reason to kill him, he would send other assassins to do it, which I don't like because it would hurt my plan.
A guard of the castle : "It seems annoying, we could maybe lose the merchant, he got some money form who knows where"
Abother guard : "He still needs a lot"
Under this new identity I don't feel like I'm a good fighter but rather an observer so I can't logically kill an army without it looking quite fishy.
I also wanted to give him some more time to expand his army even more, that way I will become even more of a victim by doing the deed, in any case the little slave had just given me a pretty good idea.
Lucian : "Let's see if I manage to pull it off"
I was going to dress up as an abandoned young kid and enter the castle normally pretending to need help, as long as the magician who is in this castle doesn't see me directly I should be pretty alright.
Taking the young merchant as a basis and my appearance as a human being, I burned a lot of energy to look thinner and frail all of a sudden, which at the health level was not a very good idea.
Lucian : "Oof that hurts, last time I was as skinny was when I was very young or starving"
Guard : "Did you hear that ?"
By converting all my energy into mana that I had impelled in the air, I lost kilo after kilo and seemed weaker and weaker.
Another guard : "It's weird I felt a mot of energy"
Guard : "Let's not work ourself out, it's close to night, nobody is gonna come here"
Another guard : "Another card game"
Guard : "Sure"
With my 15 years old I didn't need to cheat with my mana, since my height and appearance were not far from the slave.
My dark hair and brown eyes were by far the only noticeable difference with this blonde.
Lucian : "I look terrible"
Now the plan was in motion, to run to the castle, with tattered clothes, muddy, dusty, dirty, a slave in fact.
Lucian : "Help me"
Guard : "Why is a kid here ?"
It was rather late, so the guards were rather suspicious especially since he had never seen me or the noices earlier.
Lucian: "Please let me in please...I don't want to sleep outside I'm scared"
Another guard : "Can we even do it ?"
Guard : "Well no..."
Lucian : "Please..."
Just for this number of pleas and tears, I will deserve a reward, but well the guards responded to my words with a kick in the ribs, but to just go back up, bleeding, even on all fours, until I made enough noise to disturb the Baron who had decided to take care of the problem himself.
Baron : "What's all this fuss about, who's making so many noises?"
Guard : "That's the kid there he's begging us to let him in"
Baron : "pff why not, kids are only used to do chores, put him with the others, we will find a use for him tomorrow"
One of them took me by the arm and forced me to the basement where he threw me there with other children before closing the "cage", leaving me with the others in almost complete darkness.
From what I could see there were 5 other children, probably between 9 and about 13 years old for the young merchant I saw, all suffering from malnutrition and in a disastrous state.
Surely the merchant was collecting money to try to buy the others back, but if the Baron already intended to let them free one day, which I doubted, he would have already done so, he is just losing his time.
Lucian : "It's dark"
A kid : "We are more"
Kid 2 : "Not that, we will have even less food and more work"
There was a little girl working on making clothes and accessories even in the dark, a boy who was looking at stones and the others sleeping or others.
From what I could see, they had only had a piece of wet bread for the meal... clearly abject and disgusting even for me.
Lucian : "They are awfull"
Kid : "You are unlucky, you will never escape here"
I stayed in my corner, given their position it was unlikely to give me any useful information, on the other hand it could be used for something else.
The marchant : "Why are you here, they killed your parents as well? I'm Golden, the girl over there is ruby and the others don't have a name"
As far as I can see, they were kidnapped and used youn, surely it was the Baron and the others who named them, even if they didn't bother, golden for a boy with blond hair, ruby for the girl with red hair, they did not search far.
Golden : "How much did they ask you to get out?"
Ah...I clearly didn't know the price of a slave but considering the money Golden was trying to raise it must be expensive.
Lucian : "30"
Golden : "It's more than me and ruby"
Ruby : "Normal he is taller so he can serve the Baron directly"
The boy with the rock (who we're going to call Rock suddenly) : "Did they give you a name?"
Lucian : "Black"
Ruby : "Let him he doesn't want to talk"
Fortunately that she is here, I clearly didn't want to form a bond with them, it would even make more sense if I kill them to increase my mana so I might as well not get attached to them especially since it seems of no use. Well, if they allowed me to infiltrate easily, that's already it.
Tomorrow I will start the indoor monitoring this time of what is happening in this castle, with my one report a day I should be smart but hey it shouldn't be a problem. In any case, serving the Baron I will surely be the best thing for me, but well, we'll see about that tomorrow.