Kaiz and Viz left the abandoned townhouse as tentative allies with Heldermann. That allyship hinged on them successfully locating Killian Emmrich and bringing that information back to the Baron. A somewhat difficult task under normal conditions, but an effortless one in the current ones.

Viz couldn’t stop himself from grinning. He walked down the street with his face bared or all to see. Kaiz frowned under his mask, but kept his thoughts to himself. For the moment.

“I don’t know why you’re so upset.” Viz suddenly commented as they approached their inn, “You thought we’d be able to make a deal without anyone knowing who we are?”

“No.”

Since the moment Viz revealed a shuffled version of his real name, Kaiz had thought through the action more and realized they couldn’t have possibly left that meeting without revealing certain bits about them. Unless they gave up any hope of earning the Baron’s trust, they had to give him something. In hindsight, he shouldn’t have been so stupefied that Viz opened up with that.

It still shocked him that Viz had attached a version of his real name onto their ‘trading company’, but that was a separate issue. If they wanted to put ink on a trade agreement, that name would have come out regardless.

What bothered him had nothing to do with what went on during the meeting, but rather what the meeting would mean for him going forward. Success or fail, he was in a terrible position.

Grabbing Killian was now all but guaranteed. With all the information and resources at their disposal it would be trivial to do so, and therefore foolish not too. If that was the end of it, and they’d disappear back home, then it would be fine. It didn’t end there, however. They not only had to kidnap the boy, but they’d likely have to bring him back to show the Baron. How they were going to do that without tipping off the Count’s men was the smallest hurdle. How were they going to grab him, show the baron, avoid making the convoy aware, and still put them in a position where they were compelled to act on the terms of their agreement? Viz might be the one to find out, but Kaiz would be the one to execute.

Fail any step of that process and the consequences ranged from losing the Baron’s support to making themselves a direct enemy of both Phoenix Cliffs and Count Emmrich. The blood run would fail by default.

Succeed at all of that and they could guarantee the Baron’s support, but it was a hollow reward. Heldermann was correct to doubt that the Count’s men needed a justifiable excuse. Kaiz agreed wholeheartedly. They’d simply make a new excuse, irregardless of how nonsensical it was. Then a third. Then a fourth. They only needed to reach Low Sun and that was less than two months away. If they truly wanted to get rid of the ‘bandits’, Kaiz believed they’d have to do it themselves.

Which meant they had to do it before Kaiz returned to Waldaun to complete the trial run. Otherwise, Viz would be by himself and trying to do it then was a losing strategy, no matter how much of the Baron’s resources he had. While he was a very capable combatant, Viz wasn’t trained by the single strongest melee fighter in Waldaun nor did he have boots priced in briks.

So basically, succeeding at acquiring an alliance with the Baron meant that Kaiz would have to immediately sign up to be a high level bounty hunter. The consequences of failing at that stage ranged from making themselves a direct enemy of both Phoenix Cliffs and Count Emmrich to his death.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

A great turn of events for Kaiz.

“Am I an owner of this mystery company?”

Viz looked genuinely hurt by the question, “You think I would do that to you?”

“I see.” Kaiz nodded, “This is all an elaborate scheme to kill me so you can tell the others that you did give me my rightful share, but as I passed with no kin you had to take back ownership.”

“That reminds me!” He snapped his fingers as they stepped into the inn, “Did you know you’re registered as Josslyn’s son?”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, when we were getting all the paperwork and accounts set up we couldn’t make one at Mighty Bank for you because you already had one.” They walked past the restaurant-less lobby and immediately headed for the back of the first floor, “I wasn’t too surprised by it. You are the type to have a secret bank account. When I tried to attach it to the company’s though, they said it was a juvenile-joint account.” Viz unlocked the door and Kaiz immediately tapped a battery to the inside of it. “That was shocking.” The camouflaged rune flashed once, this was the first time the door had been opened since they left, “I had to bribe four clerks to get more info.” Kaiz repeated the process on the two windows. “It’s a mother-son account, opened four years ago.” They didn’t flash at all, “That. Was insane. You? A secret mother? I had to know more.” They grabbed their decoy stuff and hopped out the window into an alley, “No one at the bank would say another word though, no matter what price I put on it.” Viz had started whispering as they made their way to their actual sleeping place, “But then I realized. For it to be an official mother-son account. You would have to be registered as family. So I hit our contact at the registar and boom. You’re Josslyn’s adopted son.”

Kaiz went through his memory as they ducked into the abandoned home they’d be staying in, “Now that you mention it, she did tell me about that a few years ago. The account, not the adoption.”

“She might have left you a fortune beyond your wildest dreams. I was expecting a bigger reaction.”

Kaiz checked the bells and traps he’d left, “She made the account because someone in her party manages her’s and she didn’t want them knowing how much she spent on me.”

Viz followed behind, “No need to make it a joint account. Especially if she had to go through the effort of registering you as a citizen and adopting you.”

They were all clear, “Juvenile-joint accounts can’t be altered or accessed by anyone other than the parent. And like you found out, she asked for maximum privacy.”

“So that’s it? It was just supposed to be a hidden account so she could buy the most expensive torture devices for her masochistic pupil?”

He chucked and made his way upstairs, “Pretty much.”

“Go check it at least.”

“Did you not hear the ‘can’t be altered or…” Kaiz’s voice trailed off.

He stopped speaking because behind the door of what once was a master bedroom, he could hear others' voices. Red was one of them, but there was another one as well. They both looked at each other for a moment, both recognizing it. Kaiz quickly stepped aside to let Viz handle whatever nonsense they were about to walk into. He sighed and opened the door.

“It’s bett—Ah, there you are! You two really took your time ‘scouting the town’.”

Tanzer was here. Tanzer was here.

Viz responded, “What are you doing here T? How did you find us?

Kaiz saw past the illusion covering her face to see her smile, “I heard you.”

Tanzer actually specialized in wind spellcraft. Though she couldn’t make the cloudlike steps that Kaiz loved to use, she could do just about everything else his boots could do, plus more. That ‘more’ included very long range eavesdropping.

“And why you’re here?”

Her smile morphed into a grin.

Viz couldn’t see past the mana sitting on her skin like Kaiz could, but he knew her well enough to be able to read the illusion’s expression. They thought the same thing.

“The Baron.”