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The days went by me and the bois would go to the Adventurere’s Guild to take up more noob quests.

Besides the gathering quests, we sometimes wanted to do more local quests like running some deliveries or the odd temp job that is posted when a company’s employee is otherwise unavailable.

Through this, not only did we get some coin and meet new people, but we also got to explore a lot of the more obscure and little-known parts of the capital. That meant a lot of hidden gems and local favorites tucked away from the main thoroughfare of the bustling capital, and now that the boys are not hurting for cash, we use our earnings to go on food adventures, and for growing boys like us, we ain't scared of putting on a few pounds.

But don't get me wrong, it was not all sunshine and rainbows, there were a few shady locations that the locals warned us to avoid, and we did well to heed their advice, I even convinced the boys to purchase a simple dagger to be faster on the draw than our swords due to witnessing at least ten muggings during our delivery runs to the more shady areas.

Other than that, things have been going great, the only thing I could complain about was our minders that I noticed a few days into us taking up jobs again.

Besides the noticeable increase in patrols outside the walls when we go on gathering quests, I have noticed no less than three different people whose gaze lingered on me and the boys a little longer than I was comfortable with.

I mean, they looked and acted like everyone else going about their day in public, but over the days that they have been observing us, I have also been observing them back, and there were small details that I picked up that did not add up.

Currently, our most recent minders are a beggar who despite being dressed in rags, his hands and face look too clean, a laborer that I have seen walk past me for the third time in an hour and has a gait more akin to one of my dad’s knights, and lastly, a peddler that has actually somewhat decent toy carvings on display, the only problem is that I have seen him set up shop at a few different busy streets along the path of my deliveries.

At times like this, I would have confronted our ‘minders’ and asked them if this was amateur hour, but besides watching us, it did not feel like they were targeting us with bad intentions, and the fact that Dave and Sam are blissfully ignorant of our minders makes me think they think I would not notice, so I left it at that for now and see how it would play out, no reason to spook Dave and Sam until our minders did anything more fishy than looking, I just prepared my ceremonial dagger just in case these men start some shit.

***

A few meters underground beneath the capital, somewhere in the labyrinthine sewers of the capital, a cloaked figure walked.

But where one would expect the footsteps to clearly echo in such a cavernous place, the figure did not make a sound. The only sound in such an environment was the slow sloshing of the capital’s flowing sewage and the occasional squeak of rats fighting over some food.

The figure eventually came to a stop and turned to a wall that looked no different than any other in the sewer and pushed in a sequence of bricks. When the last brick was pushed in, there was a soft click, before the soft muffled grinding of gears pulled a section of wall in and to the side, allowing the cloaked figure to walk in, and a few seconds later, the section of wall closed the way it opened, leaving no sign of anyone ever being there

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After the figure entered the wall, it traveled even more twisting and turning tunnels until it reached a much more… sanitary environment. But contrasting from the smells of raw sewage, now the air was filled with the heavy smells of incense and perfumes.

The cloaked figure then took the stairs up, and knocked on a door with a certain rhythm, in response, the door opened to reveal two burly men covered in tattoos with daggers halfway drawn.

When the two men saw who it was, they sheathed their daggers and jerked their heads to gesture the cloaked figure inside, “The boss is expecting you.” one of the men said as they both once again took position on either side of the door.

The cloaked figure nodded and went ahead to open another door, and the moment the door opened, the sound of music, laughing, and cheering could be heard. It was a room filled with scantily clad women of many races, dancing and cozying up to their male customers to ply them with more drinks while whispering sweet nothings in their ears.

This place was clearly a brothel under the thin veneer of a gentlemen's club.

The cloaked figure stuck close to the walls and went up the stairs some of the women were leading men up to, but instead of stopping off at the second floor like the others, the cloaked figure continued to the third floor and down the hall to the last room, knocked and entered.

Inside, there was a man behind a desk who glanced up and then looked back down to the documents he was reading, “Good, you finally arrived. I hope you got news on that outpost we lost recently?” the man asked.

“Yes, the city and royal guards are keeping a tight hold on the information. It took a while, but I managed to find a city guard who was willing to earn some extra coin.” the cloaked figure said with a feminine voice.

She then closed in on the table, and from under her cloak took out a few sheets of paper and put it on the table, “Here is a report of what we know so far about what happened at the outpost and information on the parties involved.”

The man put down what he was currently reading and picked up the report, as he read through it, the creases on his forehead increased as he gave the report an incredulous look.

When he was done with the report, he looked up at the cloaked woman, “This has got to be a joke right? Three fucking children, one of them is just eight years old… and the information on the eight year old, this Ironcrest whelp… was your informant high off of something or are you? The abilities of what this boy is capable of are like something straight out of some badly written novel, I pay you too much to expect this!”

The woman just shook her head, “Oh, believe me, I agree, but this is what I gathered after getting information from multiple sources. If you ask me, it feels like the Ironcrest boy is some kind of trap to lure us out. The moment I got the information, I went to find him, and as we speak, he is currently running around with the two other boys doing odd jobs from the Adventurer’s Guild.”

The man rubbed his temples for a moment before he spoke, “The men who were captured are in the palace’s dungeon and I cannot risk any of our people sneaking in to question them about what happened, luckily we already had to kill the middleman who hired them to keep investigators off our tails, but I still need to know what happened, there is too much money riding on this and our investors are expecting a return.”

The man thought for a while longer while looking at the information in regards to three boys from the Royal Academy then came to a decision, “Get the Viper brothers, I want those boys alive and able to talk.”

The woman just stood there for a few before asking, “Are you sure about this? They are academy students and one of them is a noble.”

The man nodded, “That's why I want the Viper brothers, they are skilled enough to be competent at what they do, but not skilled or important enough not to be disposable.”

The woman nodded and left to do as instructed.