The Imperial City is bright as it can be even at night, albeit not in every place. Those dark places are mostly areas for the poor to live, as every City has some kind of Slum as if it were a Rule of Nature.
Between these Dark patches are also places even the poor would not go, as they are the most dangerous areas in the whole city, where Laws only apply when Guards have not been bribed hard enough.
While these areas are visited by a strange conglomeration of different People of different Statuses one fact stands, to never slight anyone of them in the slightest, if you want to live and see your family healthy at home.
The Underworld is a tumour even the Empire can not extract, as it is needed for content for people with more deviate tastes and to help the poor elevate the pain of their struggling with different substances. Also it regulates the danger of Gangs and dark Guilds to have at least some kind of honour between them, for as little meaning this even has.
In this place a person walks through the dirty alleys clothed in thick leather garments and having a fully bandaged face only having the left eye visible. Wearing a backpack, the Person can not even be identified as male or female, going straight to a three story house, looking more dilapidated to even be considered functional. The only part, that might wonder people if they were looking closely were the boarded up Windows. While it is not strange, the strange thing was how all of them were boarded up and thoroughly at that.
* knock knock *
At the door a few knocks were made by that person, and a slit was opened in the rather thick door to look out of.
“Password?”
While the rather burly guy on the other side of the Door asked, the person in front of the door did not say a word.
“Deaf? If you mess around you will have a bad time buddy!”
Already a bit angered, the Guy was close to just open up and beat that lanky guy into a piece of unidentifiable flesh, when the Person finally moved and grabbed at the Backpack and pulled a cord.
An opening below the Backpack opened with a sound of something gritty sizzling out. When the Guard on the other side looked down he saw something red lying on the floor behind that guy and could immediately identify the smell of salt and iron which made him lose all colour in his face.
“IT IS THE RIP-”
With not enough time to end his shout, the red Salt stained in blood already flooded through the small viewing port and formed itself into sharp edges that cut into his throat to stop his shouting. At the same time the multiple locks behind the door snapped open by themselves and the person walked slowly in while Salt circled like a tornado.
Cries were heard but were quickly subdued and snuffed out. As the Building was already reinforced to not let shouts out the only cries were echoing through the half open door at the entrance.
-
At the next Morning most People were dead or wished they were. The ones that could be saved told how many were tortured for Information on the Black Merchant and who is working with him. Informations were given all over the place, using the chance to place a target on rival gangs and other Powers in the dark but many also told the truth under the excruciating pain of the Salt moving in their wounds like little meat grinders.
The syndicate heard about the attack and were discussing the incident.
“So, he really started to move, eh? As expected he is rather random in his targets, like the Documents said. Why a Safehouse?”
“He still seems to need Information. Better to trap him as fast as possible. Maybe just kill him and forget the bounty.”
“While it is a rather good Idea, I would like to have a more friendly approach to that Black Merchant. His Crystals are cheap and work better than the ones Monster Hunter bring back.”
Magic Crystals are also often called Monster Cores. Crystals of Magic are growing inside of them and make them a needed commodity everyone needs. While on some places there happens to grow Magic Crystals, those places are highly dangerous as strong Monsters guard them to the death. The Crystals of the Black Merchant are not only of good quality but cheap.
Normal Crystals are at least fifty gold per Kilo, if their quality is on the lower side. Naturally grown ones are of the highest quality and cost at minimum a thousand Gold per Kilo, while the synthetic ones of the Merchant does not come close to that, they are always stable in quality and reliable.
“I do not understand why we have to suffer for that lone Merchant. Just capture him, torture the recipe out of him and throw him into a Furnace.”
“Many tried already. Some Gangs vanished, some were a horrifying bloodbath. Look at the Pages we give you for once!”
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Nah, can’t be bothered.”
“You… At least understand how we can make out of one Gold coin Five to Six Coins in a matter of days and be happy about it. With this we can take over the whole Underground Market and control the prices. If anyone opposes us, we just need to flood the Market and our Enemies collapse.”
“Can he not do that too?”
“He has no Network. I do not know if he is stupid of crafty, for not having one. The only thing that he is, is slippery. When he wants to arrive he arrives, when he wants to leave, hold the door open or you don’t have a door any more.”
“You sure are quite fond of him, aren’t you?”
“No, I hate his guts but respect him. I sat in front of him and could not even pressure him in one copper less for those Crystals. That was humiliating.”
“Still we make a giant profit. As long as the Damage of his arch nemesis is manageable we keep him entertained. Next week we get the first Shipping. Better keep an eye on it and make him happy… for now.”
-
“Bored.”
“Me too, but isn’t that a good thing? No one messes with the Lab and we can relax.”
In a Cellar of a rather luxurious building sat two Guards talking between themselves. Behind the rather thick Iron doors is a Laboratory creating a illustrious magic Drug, that is not only highly addicting, it is also highly illegal.
Not many would think inside an Aristocratic building like these would be such a production facility, but the truth is being shielded by the Image of Nobility makes the transport of raw Materials way easier.
Even the City Guards are not unnecessarily troubling people working under peerage and often look the other way to stay out of trouble.
“We work now here, how long? It was only twice, that we were needed and one was a hunt of a darn Racoon tripping the alarm.”
“I remember that! That was a fun day, haha!”
* buzz *
“Hearing those damn Bugs again. Except for your yapping, the only thing are those freaking things in the tunnels.”
“Better than some kind of Zombie or Ghost, aren’t you glad to make easy Money?”
“Ain’t easy! Standing and always watching makes me go slowly insane.”
* buzz *
“Only slowly? You talk about wanting to fight an intruder every other day. While we need to train, I am glad not being attacked out of the blue and maybe lose my life for no reason.”
* buzz *
“Oh, shut up. I am rather fine with a bit of action. I am not that scared to fight someone or something like you do.”
* buzz *
“...What, cat got your tongue? I just said the truth.”
* buzz *
“Okay Aaron, I am sorry. We both work hard and keep guard, do not give me the silent treat- !!”
Finally unable to stomach the silence of his work partner he turned around to apologize but saw the most horrible thing he could imagine. Aaron was covered in Cockroaches like he is made out of them. Moving the fully infested head to him he notices how they even enter and exit his now hollow eye holes and Aaron started to grab at him.
“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!”
Drawing his sword, he cut at his former comrade with all his might and cut him down while afterwards stomping on him to kill every single bug he could get before panting horribly.
“What the fuck is going-!”
Noticing some Cockroaches entering the slit between his gloves and leather armour he pulled the gloves off to see how they burrowed into his skin. The bulge they made was moving and he was scared out of his wits. Grabbing his small dagger he pierced his own arm where the bulge was and green blood came out.
“Got it! Ha… haha!”
Unlike pain he felt a rather good feeling of killing what wanted to eat him inside out, until he saw another bulge creeping up his arm, out of sight under his armour. He quickly removed the upper part of his armour and pierced his skin again and again and again where he saw those bulges. While no pain was there he made sure no one of those strange insects would live.
In the tunnels was a corpse of Aaron still wondering why he was killed by his Friend in the afterlife and a laughing bloody person stabbing himself over and over. Unnoticed by this maniac, a person with long black hair walked through the closed door like it was not even real. If someone had seen this they would have coined it a ghost sighting.
-
“What the hell do you mean it is all ruined!?”
In the Mansion the Leader of the Drug laboratory was beet red and shouting incoherently at his subordinates.
“The whole place is filled with dust and all the ingredients are everywhere. A dust explosion must have caused a chain reaction, Sir!”
“How is that even possible!? Everything was working fine for over FIVE YEARS!”
“The head Alchemist suddenly bought inferior ingredients, as he heard of Magic Crystals getting cheaper the next months. To increase productiv-”
“I ORDERED him to NOT buy that rubbish! Bring him to me!”
“He died with all of the others, the ones still alive are catatonic or gotten insane from all the powder they breathed in.”
“There is not only MONEY but my REPUTATION on the line! If my enemies know I use bad ingredients they will spread those rumours and if the Guards come seeing the clean up I might lose my HEAD! Bury it! Bury the whole Laboratory and let those insane die down there! I need to find a way to fix this horrible mess now!”
The days in the Imperial City were going to be hectic. It was normal for some days to be a blood bath while other days being peaceful. No one notices how the more hectic Days started to outweigh the non hectic.