Polymath Redux Annex
Chapter 15 - Out of the pan and into the fire
Yda turned back to the direction of the fountain. The two newbie mercenaries had disappeared. “Those bastards! They took my wallet… MY WALLET?!” she shouted in a volume one level too high for everyone around her to give her strange looks. Her face distorted in rage; teeth gritted and fists clenched.
“Oho~ if it isn’t the Rat Queen of the Solaris commons herself, your excellency ‘Yda’. Who’re trying to find? Mayhap we can be of some assistance to your majesty?” As she prepared herself to rampage through the streets to find the thieves two particular men came to greet her. They were dirty, though not rugged. Their faces unwashed for what seemed to be weeks and the tattered clothes on their shoulders smelt of something awful. When they smiled their missing teeth and ones replaced by haphazard pieces of wood could be seen.
She almost leapt back in disgust from their hideous faces and repugnant odour. That said, she knew these two men; they were in the same line of occupation as her. “Bleh… it’s you guys,” she recoiled her face back with a sour note.
“Don’t be like that lass, how long have we known each other?”
“Too long… I though you guys didn’t want anything to do with me after ‘that’.”
“Ahaha! Too right we don’t! But~ you look like you’re in a pickle here so we thought we might as well help out a good friend. You know, for old time’s sake.” Yda thought for a moment. They were absolutely not the trustworthy sort but with a bit of money that kind of trust can be bought over. Although the thought of buying these guys’ help just to track down her own wallet irked her, it was her pride as a thief on the line.
“Fine… two gold pieces! I’m trying to track down two people.”
“Three, and we’ll have a deal,” one of the men retorted with a smug smirk.
“… Tsk, bloody scoundrel, fine! I’m looking for two people in a set of matching dull grey armour but looks like they haven’t seen a day’s worth of actual combat. I don’t think they’ve gone too far away from this area since it’s only been a few minutes.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
The two men shifted strange looks towards each other and gave nod. “Oh what, those guys? Why didn’t you say so earlier? We passed them not too long ago.”
Yda’s eyes instantly widened as she leaned forward despite the pungent smell, “What?! Where?!”
“Now, now, you of all people should understand how this is done,” one man asked as he made a greedy hand gesture asking for payment upfront.
“Grr… cheap bastards,” Yda didn’t hide the disdain for them as she reached down into her pockets. Although her wallet had been taken, a good thief knows to partition their wealth around their body to prevent this exact kind of scenario. She took out three piece of gold coins and tossed them across to the two men. “Now, lead me to them,” she ordered like a queen.
***
“My master, I do not dare question your actions, but if you wouldn’t spare a moment to sate my curiosity?” asked Irina. It was likely she’d still follow Mordred even if he wanted to bring ruin to the entire country or conquer the world, but curiosity was an innate part of every living creature. Still, the fact that she had such desires within her truly made her something different from just an artificial intelligence- she was ‘alive’.
Mordred chuckled to himself. “Well, I wanted to compare coins. Specifically, I wanted to know whether it was possible to use Hellgana’s currency in this world.” Nested within Mordred’s inventory was a literal mountain of wealth that could be turned into a literal city of gold. ‘Rich’ would’ve been a horrible understatement it skirted on the borders of being an insult. There wasn’t too much worry though, because even if Hellgana’s currency was different to this world’s, the innate value of gold itself could be used to derive some value. That said, there was no harm in comparisons. “That, and I didn’t really like the fact that she tried to steal from me.”
“I see, as expected of master to have such foresight. Forgive me my ignorance.” Irina bowed but Mordred stopped her.
“I’m not mad or anything so you don’t have to apologize.”
“You are most kind, my master.”
“Well whatever. Irina, you’ve been keeping track of her right?”
“Yes. I’ve placed the ‘Dragon’s Eye’ skill upon her,” she nodded. A special skill available only to the Crimson Dragon Lord. It would mark a person and constantly have them under surveillance. During the endgame dungeon, this ability would be used to mark players to signify that the boss would use an ‘instant-death’ skill shortly. “Currently, she has been apprehended by two other criminals. From the looks of it, she is unlikely to last long,” reported Irina with a tone of voice that revealed she didn’t care what happened.
“That is rather troublesome,” Mordred hummed to himself. Although they managed to get into the city, a guide would’ve been useful to navigate around as well as to procure information about the inner political discourse. “All right, let’s go rescue her. Perhaps her talents as a thief could prove useful.”