I woke up drenched in cold water

"Hmm the mumm ymm twat" I angrily shouted

I soon heard a laugh. How the fuck did I get here ? I couldn't see the person laughing, who seemed to be behind me. I somehow managed to spat out the sock obfuscating my throat.

Okay, now the hard part. Thinking straight before acting. Who could be stupid enough to kidnap the most well-known detective of Broudillac ? One of the ratfolks gangs maybe ? Possible but unlikely, I was sure of not letting any trace leading back to me last time. The fucking aristocracy ? No, not their style. Far too shabby and muddy. Who de fuck could this be ?

Mustering the rest of my brain, obviously working slowly due to a previous assimilation of large amounts of alcohol, I formulated a question.

"Who the fuck are you ?"

The laugh suddenly stopped "Seriously ? You dunno who I am ?"

It was a woman voice. That eliminated the ratfolks. Yay.

"Fuck I dunno, the goblins ?" I answered "How I am supposed to know ? Can you possibly fandom the number of people holding a grudge against me ? I bet you cannot even fucking count that much"

That was actually quite a sure bet for two reason. One, a huge part of the population en Broudillac was unlettered and could not count. Second... Well I do not consider ratfolks to be whole people. They count a half. And kobold count a third. Therefore, the number of people wanting me dead was unlikely to be an integer.

The voice behind me grew angrier "You inbred dwarf ! Do you know how much money you own me ? Two fucking gold coins ! And due to your fucking scene last night, you made most of the client flee the Green Sting !"

The Green Sting ? The famous brothel ? What was I doing last night ?

"Okay Danube, I can explain everything, just hear me out"

That was a blatant lie, I couldn't remember even a thing from last night. Heck, even from yesterday ! I can usually handle a drink or two, or even ten. I haven't had such a hangover for year... Something was off. Really off. However, when Danube switched position to face me, her half-orc tusks out of her mouth and a fierce look, I knew I had to bullshit.

"Okay, it's going to be hard to believe, but I think I have been set up. Can you just... Give me my ring, in my left pocket ? That's a poison detector, it should be able to detect if any drug is present in my system"

Danube looked at me and silently reached into my left pocket, her hand holding a ring emitting blueish light on the was back. She looked at it for a second.

"I bet this is worth way more than two gold coins. Consider yourself free of debt"

The bitch. Best part about that was that I knew it.

She was holding the ring in her hand, mesmerized by the light

"Hey Danube. I'm not against bondage sex against a fee, but you really messed up yesterday. You have been unbelievably offensive toward your clients, and this caused many of them to flee. Now, I expect my 5 copper coins as it was agreed upon, and you fucking let me go."

She hesitantly pulled out five copper coins out of her purse, and slit the cords that were holding me back.

"Thanks love" I said, slapping her butt while snapping the ring while she was distracted.

I hurriedly get out of room.

It was a disaster. Paintings were torn apart, two stoned prostitutes lying in a corner, and the fragrance of miscellaneous body fluids stenches the room. Danube had not exaggerated.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

As I was going out, massaging my wrists and putting my memory-forging ring back in its pocket, I remarked the presence of numerous cans on the ground. I picked one of them with great post-hangover carefulness and took my leave, the sun hurting my eyes as I passed the front door.

Haaaaa, Broudillac. More than a city, it is currently the place drawing most of the different races of the country. You see, since the fucking war erupted and demons began invading our world, wrecking the Hold, most races figured that staying in small settlement was not the best move one could make, and therefore multiple races decided to build Broudillac. And, now that they did, everybody was hoping for the demons to go back to te Abyss so everyone could return to their usual racism. However, such a situation can be beneficial. In essence, each race was great to do one thing, therefore Broudillac had the theoretical capacity to use the potential of all the races at their best. I emphasize on "theoretical". But at my small scale, it allowed me to make some friends, and therefore I hired a coach to go to the nearby swamp.

I'm Groldur by the way. 1m60, half dwarf half something, probably human. What I'm good at ? Gaining money to pay my booze, mostly with detective things. Follow a person, retrieving a heirloom or allow some angry folks to break elven knees. Those fucking elves. I cannot understand how they are still running the administration of the city.

And I was currently heading at the Swamp, a place founded by the most goblin of all goblins, Boomy. This talented alchemist founded this place to allow pariahs to have a place to call home. And also to have cheap labor force and experience subjects.

The most astonishing thing about him was how he became what he is today. It appears that the previous goblin shaman poisoned to death his whole village, and that Boomy was the sole survivor thanks to a book he stole earlier to the shaman. He then gained more and more power through his diverse discoveries. My theory is that moral and ethics severely diminish an inventor's capacity to create. Boomy had none of the two above. For example, he gained is vulture mount, Scrounch, with a drug-trapped goat. According to him, the Vulture ate the goat and then went "Scrounch" (hence the name) into a cliff, allowing Boomy to tame it efficiently. That is just one anecdot, his life is full of stuf like that. I dunno if the fact that this embodiement of chaos is still alive is a blessing of the gods to save humanity, or a farce of the Abyss to destry ourselves from the inside.

As I descended from the coach and heading toward the Cave (Boomy's tastes of names was quite limited), I was greeted by a Kobold scout

"Waddayawant ?"

I scoffed and show a tarot card "Hey scaly one, I'm looking for Boomy. Bring me to him"

The kobold lead the way, without asking any further question. Good. While the Cave was a bit of a gamble, and the elves accepted mostly to dispose the city of the pariah, Boomy undoubtedly brought discipline to them. In a scary, strange way.

We turned and turned, deeper and deeper into the Cave, that have obviously been manually enlarged at this point. After twenty minutes into the tunnels, I was led to the workspace of my favorite Goblin, who was working on a huge piece of metal. He didn't detect me yet, and so I cleared my throat and greeted him.

"Ahoy, how is my favorite goblin doing ?"

Boomy turned quickly and faced me. Fuck, he was even more ugly than last time. Some parts of his face were covered in metal and pus, and he seemed to have a... Clang scarified on his forehead, the very same that was on the tarot card I presented to the kobold earlier.

"Very well, very well. Wanna see Charlie ?" he answered me with a eerie smile and mad eyes hinting that I may not want to see Charlie

As I he was turning, I realized something. The piece of metal he was working on was strangely looking as a dragon. A fucking clockwork dragon. Unbelievable...

"Hi Charlie !" I joked

"Meat detected. I shall obliterate the enemies of Boomy, the hand of the Clang, worship him, assemble, repair and make him toast." the dragon replied to me

Great, a zealous AND murderous dragon. Let's hope the elves won't find out before the project is finished...

"He is beautiful, right ! And soon he will have little broth..."

"LALALALALALA" I shouted, my hand on my ears. Dunno, don't wanna and won't. I have enough problems with the elves, I cannot afford to be dragged in an interrogation right now." Divination magic was a dangerous thing, and honesty it was or the best that the information about Boomy's whereabouts were only my suppositions.

The look he gave me was almost heatbreaking.

"Boomy understand. Boomy will wait for his clockwork army to be ready before telling it to Groldur"

Star{WebnovelsRulesTheWorld}

Fuck. The little shit.

I pinched my nose and took a deep breath.

"I woke up in the Green Sting. Interestingly, I found this stuff in it. Could you tell me if this is poisoned or drugged ?" I told him while giving him the can.

Boomy took a deep breath, licked the can, gargled, and then looked back at me.

"Boomy know. It's B-87-2 and B-28-9, a raging agent and a memory altering agent, respectively" he answered while returning to Charlie's head.

I was surprised

"That was... surprisingly fast and precise"

"Of course. Boomy know how to recognize his own work" he answered while tinkering

I took a deep breath, again. I should have saw this coming.