I grunted blissfully and gradually relaxed as Sapphy thoroughly cleaned me up. Her personal method of waking me up will never fail to wake me up with a smile on my face. Sadly, we couldn’t go further than morning BJs since that was all the time we had. A new day had dawned, and we were still quite far from Carwennan’s south gate. Since the gate closed at sundown, we were once again racing against the sun on the last leg of the journey. Fortunately for us, the wildlife had begun to learn that charging towards loud popping noises tended to result in death, so only the dumb ones would even bother charging at the caravan. Due to a lower volume of marauding mana-beasts, I was confident we’d make it in time.
With pigeons cooing in the background, I casually drove my almost-empty wagon as Sapphy slept peacefully next to me with my seeds still in her mouth (whatever makes her happy, I guess). I gently stroked her brunette hair with black highlights as I schemed up a way to harvest iron and steel from the noble brats in this city.
It wouldn’t be a cakewalk like it was last time. After the stunt I pulled all those winters ago, those nobles had wised up to the fact that even they could die in an alleyway ambush at night. As a result, they fought their battles in broad daylight. And with the current power struggle for City Lord after the twin disasters (Natalia’s father and brother dying) that befell the Galahad family, nobody could contain the chaos anymore in the city. Things had descended into a free-for-all bar-brawl amongst the lower nobility. Heck, even the Rangers gave up in frustration, retreating to their castle at North Gate.
That was all the intel I had. Our only source of information was to visit the city via caravan, and it’d been last Fall since my last visit. Recognizing that being blind about what’s happening in Carnwennan left us strategically vulnerable, I bought pigeons on my last visit and trained them in a newly built loft. I would distribute them to our allies in the city to keep us informed of major events.
Depending on how badly public order had deteriorated, I’d need to adjust my plans. I mean, if things had devolved to open anarchy, I could just start shooting in the middle of those day battles and collect my loot. After all, what’s the point in trying to keep the guns a secret from all-seeing gods that already knew about them? Still, if I could do this in a more subtle manner, I really should do that. No need to stick my dick into a hornet’s nest if I didn’t have to.
***
“Alright, Sapphy, I’ll drop you off at the orphanage. Protect our Lady while I do some totally legal shopping.” I bent down and kissed her forehead, taking in her intoxicating scent one more time before I had to go.
“Yes, Master. I’ll be off. See you soon!” Sapphy whispered in my ear. As she looked at me one more time, I was reminded again of how beautiful her blue eyes shone in the presence of a setting sun.
I sighed as I made my way from the run-down orphanage to the Tavern. It was time to catch up with an old friend. As I began to navigate the relatively empty streets of Carnwennan, I began to take note of how bad things had gotten. Compared to how things were a year or two ago, this place was a sad shadow of itself. There were barely any open businesses, the citizens scurried about only to buy essential goods, and the only conversations were hushed bartering devoid of warmth and vim. It was almost as if the city’s vitality was thoroughly sucked dry.
After 15 minutes of traveling, I arrived at Mike’s Tavern. A tinge of nostalgia briefly overcame me. After all, I did spend my bachelor years drinking with Arminius, Roshan, and Mike in this very tavern. I’d admit that a tiny part of me did wish for a return of such simpler times. Stowing away these foolish sentiments, I pushed the door open and entered.
“Hey! Look who the mana-beast dragged in!” A jovial shout came from the bar. It was one of my first friends in this world, Mike. His vivacious greeting stood in stark contrast to the general atmosphere of the tavern. Despite the fact that it was only late afternoon, there were already dozens of people in the tavern. The grim-looking patrons were mostly drinking by themselves, presumably to chase their collective hopelessness and sorrow away, at least for the night.
“It’s been a while, my good friend. How the heck are ya?” I warmly greeted as I approached the bar.
“Seen better days, but who hasn’t?” He shrugged. “The usual?”
“Yeah, on the rocks if you don’t mind.”
“Well, I don’t mind, but I also don’t have ice.” He handed me a glass of neat rum.
I leaned in closer to him and incredulously whispered. “How does a tavern NOT have ice in the middle of a godsdamn summer? No wonder everyone here looks like they’re drinking warm piss!”
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Mike sighed. “This fucking turf war…” He poured himself a glass before continuing. “Used to have a freelance adept mage freeze up my cellar in exchange for some ice-mana crystals from a certain enterprising ex-Ranger. The lass does fantastic work- way better than the boys. Then some pissant Galahad brat with more money than sense starts a mass recruitment of mages for his little gang.”
“Why? Beginners and Adept mages are barely better than your average men-at-arms, and certainly no match for Knights.” I asked, bracing myself for the impending stupidity.
“Oh brother, you’re gonna love this.” Mike smirked. “The Galahads lost most of their Knights and men-at-arms after chasing you into that damn forest. So they got desperate and wanted to hold onto power with a mage army.”
We both threw our heads back and laughed. Despite the potential lethalities of the spells, most mages work as skilled workers with specialized niches. These people were not trained for combat- hell, I doubt most of them had the stones to finish the spell as enemies close in at them. Drafting civilians to fight a turf war is the pinnacle of dumbassery. Aside from the fact that they’d probably lose, even if they did win, the horrific casualties from a pyrrhic victory would leave these short-sighted idiots as the rulers of a hollowed city. This whole plan reeked of prideful desperation and malicious stupidity.
“Lemme guess, this kicked off a recruiting frenzy amongst the other nobles.”
“Well, I wouldn’t use the word ‘recruit’. They’re basically gang-pressing mages and veterans at this point. I wouldn’t go anywhere near Commercial District anytime soon if I were you.” Mike grimly warned.
“Wow, I had no idea things could get this bad.” Good thing Sapphy was not the type of mage that’d get gang-pressed. I would’ve had to cancel my shopping trip if Sapphy and Tali were at risk of harassment from those asshats.
“Yup. So long story short, the mage girl did the smart thing and skipped town.”
“What a fucking hot mess…” I said as I facepalmed.
“A hot mess with no ice.” He corrected.
***
After “gifting” Mike a pigeon and some money, I decided to turn in. I woke up right around midnight for my recon trip. I had planned to do 2 days of recon and planning, but that plan needed to be rushed. The way things were going, I’d rather not stay the full 3 nights. This city was a dumpster fire of trouble and I wanted none of it.
And good thing I did. I was only half an hour into the recon trip when I’d hit a snag. My favorite target, Standfur’s Forge-smithy, was no longer there. In its place stood a forge-smithy named “Forge-smithy of the Adepts”. Wow, guess Standfur got run outta town for some reason and the Adept smiths that stayed took over. I really should’ve asked Mike about it- bet there was an interesting story somewhere.
For the sake of my little paradise, I did a lot of evil shit in Carnwennan. I had no illusions that things were gonna be rainbows and unicorns for the people of the city after my rampage. After all, killing is easy; governing is hard. I’d figured everything would go to shit after all that had happened. So I was glad that even one small good thing managed to come out of this.
Well, darn. Robbing an manipulative asshole with more money than sense was one thing, but robbing a union of previously-exploited forge-smiths was a bridge too far for me. I’m no folk hero of the masses, nor some paragon of virtue, but there were lines I just wouldn’t cross. So onto the next forge-smithies!
***
By the time I was done casing the other 5 forge-smithies, it was almost morning. I supposed I should give those noble asshats credit for learning from their mistakes and increasing the security around the forge-smithies. All of them had around a dozen guys guarding it. Too bad the guards were rank amateurs with no sense of discipline and professionalism. They looked more like a bunch of bored guys gossiping the night away than actual guards with scheduled patrols.
As easy as it was to simply ambush these fools, I needed to hit all 5 forge-smithies in a single night. Too much noise and mayhem would alert the others, making my job even harder. No, just because I had a gun in my hand, it didn’t mean every problem should be solved by mass shooting. Sometimes, the classics are the best~
I gently knocked on the backdoor of the former-Galahad orphanage with a special knock. After a brief moment, Sapphy opened the door carefully, with what I presumed to be a <
After checking once again to see if anybody saw me enter the backdoor, I snuck in the dilapidated building. The orphanage sure had seen better days. At this point, only 2 old women with mostly-gray hair remained as staff in the orphanage. These women were barely hanging on with what little resources Tali could spare them each visit. Hell, it couldn’t even take in battered women anymore- a fact that had severely frustrated my boss lady.
Behind the back door, I saw Sapphy waiting for me next to the aforementioned caretakers.
“Welcome back, Master!” Sapphy excitedly greeted me. “I’ve missed you so much!” She dove head-first right into a tight embrace.
“Sapphy, it’s only been a day.” I replied drily as I returned her hug and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.
Tali emerged from a door, with a troubled expression on her face. “Welcome back, my forge-master. Let’s be brief. Time is not our friend tonight.” All three of us quickly entered the building. We have quite a lot of bad news to share, it would appear...