After the Chief left, I entered the abandoned barn. From the way it looked, I am sure it was abandoned for quite sometimes. Broken planks in multiple places, wet patches from recent rain, fungi and algae growing everywhere.
There was a big wooden log in the side, I emptied the luggage and tied the Noble to that log and started reading the book in a corner, waiting for him to wake up. After an hour or so he woke up. I stayed quiet for a few more minutes before getting up to meet him.
At first he was confused and then seem to have recollected his memories. He started shouting and calling for help, but the noise was suppressed by the villagers’ voices who were celebrating and the barn being at the edge of the village didn’t help his cause.
He looked at me in terror and ceased his yelling. He’s a cleaver man, he recognized me even when he just saw me for a few minutes.
“Who…. What are you?” He asked me in panic.
“Who am I?.... It doesn’t matter. All that matter is who you are” I said in a mocking tone.
“I am a Noble of Paranthean family. Surely my family would not take the news of my disappearance lightly and will hunt you down. You won’t get away with this” He hissed, now with no traces of fear or panic.
Maybe he thought I was a common citizen and would be afraid of his threat.
“Trying to threaten me hum, I thought you were quite cleaver; It seems I gave you more credit that you deserve. I don’t fear no Noble or their families. When I killed the fat pig you call father all of your men stood there watching, helpless to do anything. You think I would let you go and surrender myself after hearing your threats?” I mocked him and gave a slight chuckle.
“You… you.. you killed my father.. You bastard.. I’ll kill you.. I’ll rip you into thousand tiny pieces..” He started yelling, clearly unable to control his anger.
It was really amusing to watch how anger clouds the judgment of even the cleverest of men.
“Frustrating isn’t it. With all your money, with all your power; you are still nothing. You hurt others by twisting the laws to your will. But have you ever considered that somewhere someone will be there who doesn’t abide any laws that you Nobles create for your own benefit. I will let you know what happens when you antagonize that type of a person.” I said to him drawing my knife out.
“Wait..Ok.. I now understand that we were in the wrong. Leave me; I’ll give you whatever you want. I have a lot of money and I have many connections; I’ll get you whatever you want. I will leave Levylon and never come back. I promise” He started pleading once he knew that there’s no way out.
“Oh..yes.. you will leave Levylon for sure, there’s no doubt about it and I’ll be the one to decide how you leave. Your suggestion was not bad.. What was it.. hum.. I’ll rip you into thousand tiny pieces” I said giving a smile.
“Please don’t. I have never begged someone in my life but now I beg you, spare me and I’ll do anything you want” as he was saying that I took his hand and cut off his index finger from his right hand.
He cried miserably and cursed me in such foul languages that I didn’t even know the meaning of.
Half an hour later I exited that barn again with a trunk. I dragged the trunk out of the village to the place where the bunch of trees stood. There was still the mess I made earlier while I captured the Captain. The body parts were started to rot and an awful stench came from it.
I dug a big hole and dumped all the remains outside and then started dumping the contents of the trunk. A thousand pieces.. not even close. I counted 28 pieces, that’s all it took and I was not interested in butchering once he was dead.
Now that I no longer had to worry about Elena or the kids, I proceeded to my next destination i.e. Culcheth. It’s the city of the air mage and is the nearest one from here, hence it became my first target. I walked for a day and came across some merchant heading for the same destination. At first they were a bit reluctant to take me with them but after I offered them the leaves that kept the small beast away, they agreed to take me with them.
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It took us three days to arrive at our destination, I was glad that the merchants offered me a lift otherwise it would have taken me more than a week by walk. It was a small city, smaller than levylon. Agriculture was their main occupation it seems, as I could see a lot of farms. Trees bearing colorful fruits were in abundance. The air also seems to be fresh and clean. It felt refreshing to be here. There were a few machines employed to harvest fruits and farms. The mages seems to be manipulating air to operate the machines and are using suction force to collect fruits.
Our journey ended at the market and few of the merchants even bought the repellant leaves from me for their outward journey. I asked the merchant whom I befriended during the journey about where I should look for information and he told me that the best place to gather information is the adventurers guild, other than that I might also look for a popular inn. I made a few coins from selling the leaves hence I could afford to stay in the inn. Adventurers guild seems to be the best place but the merchant told me that I could only go there If I was an adventurer or have a request to make. I cannot simply loiter around the place. I decided to look for an inn with lot of people.
After half an hour of search I came across a run down inn. I saw a lot of good inns on my way but for some reason there weren’t as full as this run down inn. Maybe those inns had exorbitant cost and normal travelers couldn’t afford them. I entered the inn and saw that it was bustling with people.
I went straight to the empty table in the corner and sat there waiting for a maid to take my order. After a few minutes I sensed someone approach my table, as I looked up expecting a beautiful maid to take my order what came into my vision is a pair of dirty skinny men.
“We are the Collectors” one of the dirty skinny man said to me.
“I don’t have money to give away for charity” I waved my hand up and down shooing them. It’s not like I didn’t have the money. All the money I had belonged to other and I could not give it away without a purpose.
Both of then turned red and the second man banged his fist on the table “We are not beggars. We collect money and in turn guarantee the safety of you and your belonging while you stay in this city”
I looked at them up and down wondering in what way they would guarantee the safety of their client, maybe when fights break out they would stand before the client to act as a meat shield or something, but the lack of meat on their body put me in doubt.
“I don’t know how you would protect me, but I think I can protect myself better than you two” I smiled and said to them.
“You…We two are not going to guard you. It’s the organization we belong to. You give us money and no one will mess with you. Refuse and every robber of the will be behind you” They said in a threatening manner.
I know how this works. They are probably an organization of thugs. If you give them money they would leave you and if you don’t they would come to steel from you. It’s a nice system if you ask me. Instead of straight out steeling from you they give a chance for you to make them ignore you. But in my case it’s different. If I show myself as a weakling then other people too will try to intimidate me and it will hinder the chances of collecting information.
“I am sorry but I have to decline. As you see I have nothing on me other than a few coins.” I said to then maintaining the same smiling face.
I cannot seem to get angry by the way they are trying to extort money, I thought that they were a little funny and kept on smiling.
“You will regret this” they said to me and strode away from my table.
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Tired of ending the chapters, will take a nap. You guys enjoy the chapter.