A few hours later the sun began to set, only the faint glow of the sun still hit the land, Shawn at this point had pulled out a journal and began to write through it. He only managed to right down half a page worth of words before Aiden interrupted him.

“Hey, get ready! They’re here.” He called to them.

Shawn peered up and through the old, damaged window and saw a cart had just recently parked at the empty lot. The cart had a few crates in it and Shawn saw no horses, it seemed like it was completely pulled by people. He could see the outline of five people around the crate with another three figures approaching it, they seemed to be carrying some sort of package.

Aiden began to move down the stairs silently, the rest followed. They snuck out a back door and crept their way to a side alley that allowed them to get closer towards the exchange group.

As they moved into position, Shawn took a moment where they couldn’t be seen and heard to whispered to Oskar.

“You know, for it being a quest for an adventurer, this adventurer really doesn’t know what the details were.” Shawn said pointing at himself.

“I’m doing what’s best for the group, I apologise for not telling you, but we didn’t have time. This was a good job.” Oskar said.

“Fine.” Shawn relented, “But before we get into a fight, could you tell me how getting paid for this?”

“A hundred Royal Heads, for the job, so twenty each.” He explained.

“Pretty sure they call gold coins crowns here.” Said Shawn with wry smile.

“Good ol’ smart-ass.” Oskar said jovially.

“Hey, no more talking. It’s time to fight.” Aiden hissed at them as they reached and hid in the shadows across from the lot where the deal was taking place.

Shawn could see that the three carrying the package had opened it up and one of the carriage men was currently inspecting its contents. The other men seemed to be on guard, though only half paying attention.

“Alright so what’s the plan?” Blake asked.

Before anyone could say anything, Aiden drew his blade and charged towards the group. The others all just stared at the man in disbelief. After a brief moment, Charron and Blake charged forward.

Shawn turned towards Oskar and asked in disbelief, “You trust this guy?”

“Not now!” Oskar yelled back as he pushed Shawn towards the fight. Shawn gave a small sigh as he brandished his hatchet and moved into the melee.

Shawn saw in front of him that Aiden’s charge did not go unnoticed. The smugglers upon seeing the group began to brandish their weapons.

However, the one closet to the charging Aiden Ramsay was unable to draw his weapon in time. The massive man barrelled straight through the smuggler sending him flying back into the cart.

The smuggler gave a small cry as he smashed into the wooden crates inside the carriage. The two of the smuggler’s friends then engaged Aiden Ramsay immediately.

Charron and Blake joined the fight, each of them taking on an opponent. Shawn saw that the two people who had arrived with the man carrying the package charged him and Oskar. Oskar and Shawn both took one each.

Shawn quickly leaned back avoiding a slash from the enemy. As the smuggler finished his swing, Shawn brought his own left hand with his axe down on top of the smuggler’s exposed skull.

Unembedding his axe from his now deceased enemy, Shawn took the moment to study his surroundings.

He saw Oskar still battling his opponent but was handling the situation absolutely fine. Blake was completely in control of his fight, cutting and slashing his opponent into submission. Charron had actually already overpowered his opponent and had finished him off.

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Aiden on the other hand was absolutely tossing his two opponents around. Shawn noticed that Aiden probably could have finished one of the smugglers already. But the war Aiden fought it felt like he was playing with his opponents, he was enjoying tossing his opponents around.

Shawn’s eyes then directed towards the man with the package, who had now begun to run from the group. Trying to get away through an alley. Shawn needed to put a stop to that.

He leapt onto the cart to get a better vantage, watching as the smuggler try and run into an alley. The smuggler that Aiden had launched into began to come to and Shawn quickly incapacitated him again with a swift kick to the face.

Shawn then pulled back his axe and taking a moment to steady his aim and chucked it. The axe flew through the sky and just as the smuggler was about to turn the corner it struck him square into the back.

The smuggler collapsed; the package fell onto the alley floor. The sound of metal rang through echoed through the lot as some of the contents fell out.

Shawn took one more look to the fighting around him, seeing it completely handled he casually sauntered over to the smuggler’s body. Once reaching the body he retrieved his axe and wiped it clean using the smuggler’s jacket.

Shawn then looked at the package that the man had been carrying. What spilled from the bag was a collection of various coins. He saw a load of silver and even some gold glinting from the half-spilled package.

He scooped the coins back into the bag and walked back towards the cart. As he returned the fight was over. Everyone had taken out their respective opponents.

Before Shawn could say anything, Aiden sauntered over towards the cart and grabbed the smuggler in the cart and dragged him out. Aiden with one arm unceremoniously threw him onto the ground.

The smuggler began to come to from the impact. Only to be greeted by Aiden’s massive great sword embedding itself into him. Aiden then drew his blade back and brought straight back down again. Again. Again. And again.

“Hey, I think he’s dead.” Shawn said.

Aiden then chopped the head of the smuggler and looked over to Shawn, “Yeah, I think he is.” Giving one last kick to the body.

“So, uh. What do we do with this?” Blake asked pointing towards the cart.

***

Inside the old warehouse the five of them stared across the street at the burning wreckage that used to be the cart of narcotics. Thick black smoke came pluming from the fire as what was apparently molasses inside the crates burned. Aiden had very quickly set the entire thing ablaze and currently they were making sure that no one was going to try and put it out.

“I thought the soldiers would have taken care of it.” Blake asked regarding the burning wreckage.

“I didn’t want to wait.” Aiden said, “Besides we’re just doing the work for them.”

“So, when do the guards arrive?” Shawn asked, still clutching onto the bag of money and careful to stay away from the smoke, he was not in the mood to start hallucinating. He very much doubted that they would be allowed to keep the money inside of the bag. It’s not like they could pretend that the money just vanished. Not if they want to stay on the good graces of the army.

“They’ll be here in a few minutes.” Aiden said, “Make sure that none of the money goes missing.” Aiden warned Shawn.

“Right.” Shawn said, a bit surprised that he of all people was telling him that. Guess he takes his job seriously. He thought.

As they continued to wait Shawn moved over to Oskar and whispered to him, “So where the hell did you get this guy?”

“He’s just a little extreme.” Oskar said trying to assure Shawn.

“A little you say?” Shawn asked in disbelief.

“So he has bloodlust, who cares. He’s effective. Or is he not?” Oskar said.

“He is but-”

“We keep him around. As long as he works with us, he’s a friend.” Oskar lectured.

“Fine.” Shawn agreed, albeit reluctantly.

Shawn didn’t like Aiden. He already had a bad feeling over the guy in the first place. But now with the excessive nature of how he killed those men and his immediate need to destroy the cargo, made Shawn suspicious.

It was easy to see that Aiden wasn’t exactly a fan of authority. Yet here he was doing the cleanup job himself. Rather thoroughly to, making sure that all the cart’s supplies were accounted for, the bodies were all piled neatly and far enough away from the fire.

Shawn had also felt Aiden watch him like a hawk making sure that he didn’t pocket any of the money. Normally, Shawn would chalk it to an adventurer with a sense of duty, but the receptionist girl, Maxine, made it abundantly clear that sense of duty did not exist in Aiden.

So why did he burn the cart and leave the bodies for people to see? Especially with the mutilated body laying on top. Shawn suspected that it was to leave a message. He had seen similar plays like this in the past. A message to who, he had no idea. All Shawn knew was that he didn’t like it.

A few minutes later a pair of Esterwood guards had arrived. The two surveyed the situation, rather impressed.

“Nice job.” One of them said before handing Aiden a note, “Here take this to the guild and you’ll receive your award.”

“Thank you.” Aiden said with a smile, “Come on lads, let’s get our pay.”

Oskar and the rest followed Aiden back out of the slums. Before leaving Shawn handed of the bag over to one of the guards. Before leaving Shawn asked the guard.

“What was the point of them smuggling molasses?”

“Oh, it’s an important component in a new narcotic called Greenlocke. Highly addicting. Glad you got rid of it when you did, it was a pretty important component. So many gangs have been selling this through the entire country.” The guard explained.

“Right.” Shawn said before leaving the guard to do his job as he headed of after the rest. Drugs and gangs, huh? He thought. Shawn hoped that Oskar new what he was doing.