Chapter 66: Preparations II

Spade was already inside by the time they returned to their room. “I got an extra key from the tavern keeper,” she explained.

The [Executioner] was lounging on the couch while she idly polished her sword. Steaming plates of food covered the table a few feet away, which she waved at. “Go on. I already ate.”

When neither Leo nor Allan made a move, she raised an eyebrow.

“Something happen?”

They exchanged looks. “There was a…confrontation on the street,” Allan finally said. He quickly summarized the incident, describing the hysterical man and how the guards had intervened while the [Executioner] listened in silence. She didn’t look particularly surprised at the story. By the end, the most reaction she showed was a simple hum of acknowledgement.

“Lenore mentioned something like that. Sounds like it’s been going on all week.”

Leo grunted and moved over to the food, grabbing a grape and popping it in his mouth. He supposed it did make sense. For someone like him who’d never really worshipped the [Administrator], that notification had been an opportunity. But to others, it must have felt like the end of the world.

“…It must be really bad in other places,” Leo muttered. Down south especially.

“Apparently a city a few days west of here was completely taken over.” Spade continued to wipe her blade with even swipes. “Mass panic and fragment hunters don’t make for a good combination, it seems.” She shrugged. “I assume Alnwick’s leaders wanted to avoid a similar situation happening here.”

And so they’d implemented extra guards and shut the gates and took away anyone who showed the faintest sign of breaking the city’s delicate peace. Leo remembered the tension he’d felt in the streets when they’d first crossed the gates. The current peace was a well-maintained illusion, one everyone seemed to be waiting to crack.

Allan sat down and began eating as well, though Leo remained standing even as he yanked off a few more grapes. They’d almost never been able to afford fruit in Sindrey, and he wasn’t going to waste food no matter his mood.

“We finished buying everything,” Leo said, eager to change the subject. He nodded to Allan’s new axe and his own bag concealing the new set of knives. “Should be all set for tomorrow.”

Allan used the opportunity to pull out their coin bag and dump its contents onto the bed to count. Leo leaned forward, finally getting to see just how much they’d earned. His eyebrows rose and he whistled.

“Damn. The guy really didn’t suspect anything?”

“I can be very convincing,” Allan said simply, “and I don’t think he was very smart.” Leo snorted.

“You were gambling?” Spade’s eyebrows were raised in faint amusement. The [Fragmentholder] shrugged.

“It was just one game on the street. It’s still nowhere near enough for the auction though, so we’ll have to keep an eye on all the buyers.” They did manage to earn back all that they’d spent on supplies and weapons, though, which was certainly a plus.

“What about you? What’ve you been up to?” Leo asked, curious. Allan looked up from the food as well.

“I saw Lenore,” the [Executioner] said without pausing her polishing. She flipped the sword over and began inspecting the other side of the blade. Leo stared, but didn’t ask the question that immediately popped into his head. He still didn’t know Spade particularly well, after all.

Instead, he asked, “Did she bring up the auction?”

“Only to remind us to head to the Pearl first.” Spade cocked her head. “She did say she managed to sell the crests for more than she’d expected.”

More money. It felt weird to suddenly get so much in the span of a few days, but Leo certainly wasn’t going to complain. It would be much easier to keep searching for fragments if they didn’t also have to worry about money at the same time.

The [Executioner]’s words served as a stark reminder of how soon the masquerade and auction were. The whole thing had been brought up so suddenly that it was easy to forget, but tomorrow would be crucial.

Spade finished cleaning her blade and sheathed it. The metal wasn’t shiny per say, but it was a noticeable improvement. Its edge gleamed in the light, and the movement drew Leo’s attention. His eyes shifted first over to his bag, then back to the sword. He leaned forward a little.

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“Hey, can we start training today?”

Spade raised an eyebrow. “Awfully eager, aren’t you.”

“If something happens tomorrow, I want to be ready,” Leo argued. “Besides, I just got new knives. I need to test them.”

The woman hummed thoughtfully, grey eyes sweeping across the room for a moment. “I suppose I could explain a few basics, though more practical demonstrations will have to wait until we’re somewhere with more space.”

She turned to Allan. “Mind if we use that medical book of yours?”

The [Healer] grabbed it and tossed it over one-handed. Leo was impressed the book survived the throw, give its ragged state.

Spade caught it easily and flipped it open, turning the pages until she stopped on an illustration. Leo leaned closer.

Covering the page was a crude diagram of the human body. Some of the ink was faded and much of the text now illegible, but the main muscles and veins were still visible in thin, painstakingly drawn lines. On the page next to it was an equally detailed illustration of a skeleton. Spade tapped the drawings.

“For now, I can point out some good areas to target in a fight.”

Leo remembered the [Anatomical Knowledge] passive skill on her stat sheet. He wasn’t the only one, as Allan’s eyes were sharp as he watched them.

“Where’d you learn all this anyway?”

“It’s rather important for executioners,” Spade said simply. She stood and set the book down on the bed where they could all see it more easily. “Efficiency is often best achieved with accuracy.”

Leo remembered all the times he’d seen her behead people in a single swing. “Efficient” was certainly one way to put it.

“You prefer to keep most of your stat points in agility, correct?”

Leo nodded. He’d always been scrawny, but agile. After initially unlocking his base stats, he’d figured he was better off playing to his natural strengths than wasting points trying to completely rework his overall stat balance. It had already cost him a lot of points just to patch his constitution and strength up to their current levels, and they were still far from impressive.

Spade hummed in acknowledgement. “That’ll give you an advantage in most cases, but you’ll struggle against anyone you’re physically unable to damage.”

The [Fragmentholder] frowned, remembering the fight against Sonia. His knife had practically done nothing to her; if it weren’t for the Glass Lake, he doubted he’d have been able to significantly injure her at all.

It was a sobering thought, and while it hadn’t mattered as much when he was a simple thief trying to get in and out of places as quickly as possible, he knew confrontations with other [Fragmentholders] were inevitable. His meeting with Sol had only confirmed that. He needed to know how to inflict damage consistently, and this was as good a start as any.

Grabbing a handful of food and dumping it onto a plate, Leo moved closer to the open diagram and exhaled.

“Okay, where do we start?”

—

Leo rolled his shoulders back, attempting to get rid of some of the soreness.

After Spade had finished going over the diagrams in slightly terrifying detail (turns out there were even more weak spots in the human body than Leo had realized, and it certainly hadn’t helped his paranoia), he’d stayed up longer practicing handling the new knives.

There indeed wasn’t much space in the room even if it was larger than average, but he’d found that if he hung up one of the pillows on the wall, it made for a decent throwing target. They could afford to pay for a damaged pillow now, after all, and he wanted to get his [Dagger Proficiency] passive skill levelled up as fast as possible.

By the time he’d finally gone to sleep, a restless bundle of nerves and excitement, he’d gotten more better at throwing the knives, but [Teleport Object] was still giving him trouble.

Try as he did, he just couldn’t get his eyes to move both quickly and accurately enough for the knives to go where he wanted them to. Maybe improving his agility stat more would help?

Realistically he knew it was normal for a spell to take a while to learn, and [Teleport Object] was only level 1 and thus quite limited to begin with.

Still, he couldn’t help but find the situation frustrating. He’d expected there to be a skill curve, but he hadn’t realized it would be so steep. It didn’t help that he’d passed up other good spell options for this.

Leo gave his shoulder a final roll. Sol hadn’t appeared either, though he supposed it was probably for the better. He needed his full focus on the auction, and [Dreamscape] still kind of freaked him out.

The [Fragmentholder] looked over to Allan and Spade, who were finishing gathering their belongings.

The three of them had decided to pack their bags and bring them to the Pearl. They wouldn’t be able to take them inside the masquerade without looking suspicious, but they’d keep the essentials on hand and place the bags somewhere close by where they could easily grab them if things went to shit.

Leo swallowed down his growing anxiety. By now the sunlight streaming through the window was a little more red as the sun approached the horizon, but the streets were as crowded as ever.

The masquerade and subsequent auction took place at night, which did little to calm his nerves. Wards or not, having such a large gathering at night just seemed like a bad idea to him. It was practically asking for trouble.

“You ready?”

Allan nodded and swung his bag over his shoulder. Spade did the same as she finished adjusting her sheath.

They gave the room a final sweep, turning over blankets and cushions to double check that they hadn’t left anything.

Finally, the three headed out the door and made their way towards the Pearl.