"That should be everything right?" Jacob turned to Alexi, who is fixing her posture as she saddled the horse she was lent to by the Duke.
Gone was her maid outfit and in its place is a brown ranger's outfit that fit tightly on her body. The entire thing was made of smooth, brown leather that looked thick enough to block arrows yet form-fitting and loose enough that it didn't hinder any of the wearer's movement, multiple belts ran across her body- one on her hip to carry a short-sword three feet in length, three on her stomach that had a myriad of blades and knives of different sizes, each one separate just enough that they wouldn't hit each other during fast movements, and lastly, one on across her shoulder for the quiver slung on her back.
In a similar fashion to Jacob's mage's robe, the outfit was hooded, tight and secure enough that when pulled up, it blocked most of Alexi's hair from spilling out and blocking her vision. It wasn't pulled up right now though and Alexi's brown ponytail swung left and right as her stallion trodded towards Jacob's own, with her hair pulled up and her angular face free for all to see, Alexi actually looked kind of beautiful. In the way that hunters usually looked, with them being all deadly and serious, their eyes fixed into narrow glares and their faces contorted into an expressionless calm- All of which, Jacob couldn't help but appreciate.
"Yes," His maid/deadly assassin nodded, "I do believe we have everything in order within your Port."
She was now right next to him, waiting alongside her master for the massive gate of the city to open, three days, Jacob had spent a total of three days within the city and he couldn't help but feel as though he was missing something- The Duke had given him "enough" stuff as gifts, Asya had left yesterday after she made deals with various merchants for trade, and overall, his business within the city should be finished and yet...
"You think I'm missing something?" He asked Alexi and got a thoughtful look in response.
"I do not believe so," she answered, "unless you forgot about Lady Xecania's dove?"
"No, I have that," Jacob answered, it was currently hanging on the side of his horse, inside a birdcage wrapped in fabric. Thanks to stabilizing equipment, the Dove should be fine, much unlike the egg that's currently hanging on his chest- the same egg that he won at the carnival, which Xecania has said to come from some other creature, which is good, because Jacob would be disappointed if he got a chicken egg or something.
"Hmmm... then I do believe we have everything in order," Alexi replied.
"Yeah, you're right." Jacob shrugged as he whipped the reins of his horse, prompting it to stride at the open gate.
When they got outside, the lines of [Merchants] and regular villagers he had seen days ago were gone, replaced by a path that was almost devoid of people. Kicking the saddle of his horse, Jacob whipped the reins harder and got the steed to start running, now that he isn't traveling with a merchant group, he and his maid wouldn't be slowed down and by the Duke's estimate, they should reach Yarya village in as little as three days provided that they only stop running at night.
Duke Lezatian also said that the horses can take but Jacob thought about making them rest for at least half an hour on three small occasions during the day, which should still allow him to reach Yarya village quickly while also keeping his horse healthy.
Though, he is curious about the state of the village currently, which no doubt, his curiosity would only grow during the three days of his travel.
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Three days.
Yavneck is going to attack the wretched village that the [Great Mage] is staying in within three days.
Night would be the perfect time for bandits like him to strike and when that happens, he's going to beat that mage and kill him. Though not before he gleams the secrets of how he got his power at such a young age- He would maim and make the capture of the mage hurt, and then, when he gets captured and dragged within the bandit camp, Yavneck is gonna torture him in the most painful ways he knew how in order to make him talk about the secrets of his power.
He touched the necklace hanging from his neck, now made stronger by some unknown sponsor that their leader is scheming with.
By some stroke of fortune, their leader brought him to the meeting room of both him and the armored man to talk about strategies involving the attack on Yarya village, it wouldn't be far fetched to say that Yavneck felt overjoyed at the prospect of their leader thinking so highly of him- though it is not because of pride about his position or anything of that sort, no he simply felt like he now had a chance of usurping the large man right as long as he played his cards right.
Yavneck knew that their leader- Teyen, - suspects him of betrayal and Teyen, in turn, knew that Yavneck knew and thus, the two of them are simply playing a game of chicken, waiting for the other to move first without risking the integrity of the entire bandit camp over 300 men strong, that, Yavneck knew, has value worth over a thousand Gold.
And, it seems, that their new sponsor knew of that value and thus have decided to hire them to ransack and attack Yarya village, allowing the bandits to take anything other than the Dungeon within. From food, clothing, jewelry, to even women- all of that is enough to temp all of the bandits into cooperating, Yavneck included.
Of course, he does have motives that don't involve torturing the mage for his knowledge and power and instead, is catered around to taking over the bandit camp he's been stuck with ever since leaving his village. As the camp's newly elected strategist, he plans on utilizing his new position to its fullest in order to properly... dispose of all the unsavory bunch that would go against Yavneck's takeover.
And for him to do that, Yavneck has thought of a few things. First and foremost among them is that he would need to cause enough damage to the gang's internal support structure that when he decides to take over, it would be mostly seamless and without any resistance, for that to happen, a lot of the higher ranking bandits have to die, people would simply be more loyal when he decides that they become leaders instead of being one already after his take over.
And it just so happens to be that the morons are thinking that the village is mostly defenseless, which is a stupid thought given that he has seen that [Great Mage] in action first hand but if no one wanted to believe him, who was to blame other than themselves when they inevitably die at the other end of the mage's spell?
"Sir?" One of the targets for his plan- a man going by the name Archo - pulled open the flap of his tent and peeked his head inside, it was a scarred thing, with ugly lines dotting his cheek, forehead, and eyes to create a face that a mother couldn't hope to love, brown eyes stared at him, innocence and naivety that is usually found within the eyes of the muscle brained idiots were hidden behind his gaze.
The man, no matter what Teyen said to him, undoubtedly trusted Yavneck to bring them to victory and of course, he plans on abusing that trust, after all, the man is no different than a blunt too- which, really, is preferable given how loyal people with such mindset can be but sadly, the moment that Archo knew that he's the one responsible for setting up their, and by extension, the leader's death would be the moment that the man's naivety would turn into anger that would be directed at Yavneck.
And that simply couldn't happen because that would be bad for his image within the camp, and Yavneck needs a good image in order to take over the place.
"Yes?" He answered the man, standing up from his chair and taking out his Wand, the crude thing looked like the arm of an old man, but the gnarled wood it was made from is of high quality, and not to mention, the two spells locked inside, [Vine Wrap] and [Spore Cloud] is rather vital to Yavneck's in taking over the camp, betraying the bandits by... sabotaging some of them would be easy and something that he hasn't thought of.
It almost made him wonder if their mysterious sponsor wants him to do it.
And well, if they do, then Yavneck would gladly oblige.