He screams in pain but still holds in, I can't get him to answer any of my damned questions.

But finally, after chopping off another two fingers and pealing a little skin, he gives in.

"All right, all right, just stop, please. ". I remove my finger from his stab wound and ask him a question "Who hired you?".

"I don't know, the boss handles those sorts of things, we just do our jobs and get paid.".

"And what was the job?".

"The boss told us to, kidnap two nobles, give them a little scare, maybe a broken finger or two, then dump them in some random alley. You know that sort of thing.". This coupled with the fact that the guards were paid off or something, has noble shenanigans written all over it.

"How many of you people are there?".

He starts hesitating a little but still responds, "Three, there are three more of us, including the boss."

"And where can I find your partners?".

He takes a longer pause, probably because of the four missing figures but he still answers, he tells me directions to their hideout.

I tried asking other questions but the only thing he said before fainting was: "I'm sorry Wystan, Osgar, Wilfred, I betrayed you, I sold you out all (*incomprehensible gibberish), even so I hope the god of light can still accept me into his kingdom.", what an idiot.

Whatever, I've gotten all I need from him, I slit his throat, just in case, and head to the hideout the idiot told me about.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

As I approach the location, my nose starts picking up that horrid smell, that I had to deal with for 10 months because, unfortunately, the hideout is located in the slums.

Looking at the building, it doesn't seem that different from its surroundings, with nothing to indicate that there are mercenaries in there. Well, I suppose it's useless to think about the marketing strategies of peasants in a fantasy world.

Now how to approach this, how should I sneak in here? Scanning the building I see a couple of windows, but all of them are closed. The only real way to enter is to go through the door, which is locked.

Whatever, the entire house is made of old, creaky wood anyway, sneaking into there is more trouble than it is worth.

I knock on the door, and I hear footsteps approaching. After they finally make it to the door, they say, "Ya finale made it, huh, what the hell were you doin' this whole time? The boss is so pissed his sain' that he's gonna hang your ass on the wall!".

"Yeah, that guy was a fucking runner, barely caught that damned noble.".

"Shure, buddy, try explaining that to Osgar. Anyway, before I let ya in, tell me the password so the boss doesn't get pissed off at me again."

I mumble something quite enough that he wouldn't hear it through the door.

"What was that? Speak up!".

"Yeah, sure, speak up, so the whole damned slummers know the password.".

"Oh, shut the fuck up!", he says whilst moving closer to the door.

I take out my dagger and stab through the door and into the man's head, the pathetic wood crumbling below my great might.

Giving up on the stealth approach, I smash the door in, and see a hallway leading to two different rooms, I can hear footsteps coming from the closer one, so I imagine they heard the door being smashed in, or some such thing. I probably shouldn't kill the other two in the building, one of them likely knows who the rat bastard was, who planned this.

Whilst they are approaching, I make my way to the passageway they are approaching from, and stand next to it, just out of sight.

while one of them is passing through, I deliver a nice haymaker to the side of their head. He falls down and hits his head on the wooden floor. He'll be fine.

I back off from the entrance, and the third and final guy walks out, and he has a sword. Annoying.

He starts talking "So you took out my guys, huh, well, you'll find it harder to take me out." and points his sword at me. I'm not very impressed.

He slashes at me from the side I step back and dodge, unfortunately for him, the narrow hallway is not the best place for swords, so it cuts into the old and disheveled wood, and gets stuck.

I take my chance and stab his sword hand with my dagger, I then grab his head and smash it into the wall. He goes limp and falls down also hitting his head on the ground. This is incredibly sad to see, truly the prime example of idiocy.