Chapter 93 How Much Is Your Life Worth?

“How do you want to do this?” Isaac asked Lenna while they walked towards what would one day be known as Crimson Boulevard.

“What do you mean?” Lenna answered his question with a question.

“Well, I figured you could take point on this one. It’s really hard to plan an assassination without being able to keep you invisible with me for hours at a time.” Isaac explained.

Lenna frowned. Her idea of a plan was to abuse the old adage; no plan survives first contact. She was usually the ‘first contact’ that broke other people’s plans. Like Isaac had said, ‘the shortest distance between two points is a straight line’. She would just walk in and tell whoever was running the place to throw out the guy she was after or she would start going through people until she found him. That might not be the best plan when trying to avoid getting a rather large gang to have a vendetta against them.

“Lenna?” Isaac asked after she had been silent for a while.

“Sorry.” She replied and shook her head. “I don’t have a good plan.”

Isaac raised an eyebrow. “But you do have a plan?”

Lenna sighed. “If walking in, telling their boss to throw him out, when he doesn’t, start breaking down doors looking for him, counts?”

Isaac cracked a grin. “It most certainly does my…” Isaac cleared his throat. “It does.” He nodded.

—

Lenna walked down the center of the street towards the middle of the Crimson Coins’ little row of ‘paradise’. She got halfway there when a few tough guys with sledge hammers on their hips stopped her. “Where do you think you’re going, adventurer?” One of them said and the pair positioned themselves in front but slightly off to the side of her.

Lenna slowly looked at each one of them. They felt and looked strong for regular thugs. ‘Level six, seven maybe.’ She thought. She could take them both, maybe even quickly if she hit fast enough. Paladin’s were known for ridiculous amounts of short burst power and she was an expert at using it. Lenna opened the bounty that was rolled up in her hand and showed it to them.

“Never seen ‘im.” One of them replied. The other shooed her like someone trying to get a pup to go look for its pack.

Lenna cracked her neck but remained silent. The pair pulled their hammers out of the loops they were in. Lenna didn’t make a move to draw her sword. “Tell your boss, I have a deal for him.” She commanded the duo.

The one looked down at her badge with a frown. “Should we?” He asked his partner.

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“If she really is gold… we should.” The other replied.

“Wait here.” The first one told her and backed away slowly before turning to jog down the street.

Isaac appeared behind her with his back to hers. “Smart ones this time.” He said with a dark grin in his voice and on his face. Like usual, when he wanted to terrify people, only his eyes were visible from outside of his shadow cloak.

The remaining thug jumped. “Fuck! There’s another one.” He exclaimed. “How many more of you are there?” He demanded.

Isaac decided to stretch the truth a bit, after all, all the best lies are rooted in truths. “Nine.” He answered. Not only was nine one of those numbers that people often used to just mean a lot but he decided that today he would count a few extra people as part of their party. People like Edward, Wo Lu, Claus, Aria, Celeste, Eliot and the sisters that were always with him, and Kahtesh. Celeste had told them that she not only was a sorcerer but a former adventurer afterall.

The thug’s eyes went wide. He started frantically looking around for more people hidden in the shadows. He spotted two people lurking a distance away watching the encounter. He didn’t know that those people were spies sent to tail the pair in front of him which only served to solidify Isaac’s statement. Then, much to the thug’s, and everyone on the street who had stopped to watch, horror, Isaac vanished just as quickly as he had arrived.

The thug continued to back off a few steps and then turned and yelled at one of the bystanders. “Tell the boss he needs the full escort!” He commanded.

Lenna didn’t move an inch from her spot. She took comfort in knowing that Isaac had her back but also that the malicious attention was directed at her instead of him. This was the exact opposite of walking down the street without her helmet the day before. This time she was out for blood and the less attention on Isaac meant the less she had to worry about him.

A few minutes later Isaac stood up from sitting cross legged in the street behind Lenna. He had long grown bored and had decided to start looking through the rest of the bounties to see if any other targets were in the crowd that had gathered to see what all the commotion was about. The longer they waited the more the crowd fed into itself. By the time the boss and his posse had arrived the crowd had reached well over a hundred.

“Who are you to demand my presence!” A fat dwarvish man with a few gold teeth bellowed. He was hobbling towards them and was flanked by a dozen guards. He didn’t seem to care about the gold adventurer’s badge hanging from Lenna’s neck in the slightest.

‘Each of those bodyguards is around my level.’ Lenna thought. As she scanned over them a few stood out. ‘The two closest are probably level eleven. I knew this wasn’t a great plan.’ She held the open bounty out to him once he had stopped. He was about thirty feet away. A little too far for Lenna’s liking.

“Speak girl!” The dwarf commanded.

Lenna took a step closer and then guards around the man moved closer and towards the front of him. She took one more and then stopped just as the squad started to go for their weapons. Some of them were in heavy armor, some in light, and a few in none. All of them had weapons on them. Two had crossbows, one had a knife and a staff, another had a massive hammer, one had a pair of small hammers, one had a pair of shortswords, one a mace and shield, a rapier wielder, some guy licking one of his seven knives, a man with a greatsword, a guy with an ugly grin and a whip, and a woman with a longsword.

“Give him to me.” Lenna commanded the kingpin of the Crimson Coins.

“What’re ya going to pay for him?” The dwarf replied without even looking at the bounty. “If it ain’t enough I’ll sell you for wasting my time.”

Lenna felt the bounty get tugged from her hand and let go. It vanished as Isaac took it and walked over to the boss. He made sure it was open and pressed it against the fat dwarf’s face, almost making the man fall over. Staggering back a step the dwarf cursed and grabbed the paper that had just appeared in his face just as he was breathing in.

“I’ll take my time with you before I sell you for that you retch!” The dwarf yelled. Lenna didn’t so much as move. She just waited and waited. No one else made a move. The dwarf’s guards were waiting to see what their boss wanted them to do and Lenna was giving them an opportunity to get out of this unscathed.

“I will pay you.” Lenna said once the dwarf had mostly regained his composure. It was clear he hadn’t made a move for one reason or another. Lenna assumed it was from fear of the hidden force he believed to be at her back.

“How much?” The dwarf grumbled out with a sneer.

“How much is your life worth?” Lenna asked. She spoke in her normal, even, tone. She had buried the anger for the time being. It could come out when she found the man they were looking for.

“A hundred gold to whoever kills her. Two hundred if you capture her alive.” The dwarf replied through gritted teeth.

Everyone watching was about to witness Isaac’s favorite weapon in action, an immortal Lenna V’Nova.