Chi'Gil'Rolth took a step back, pacing the room, muttering something unintelligible. He paused and turned back to Chester.
"You will do a job for me. You will take care of a creature found on Mount Razgar. It's reported to be some kind of wyern that's wreaking havoc on the surrounding settlements. I don't care what method you use."
"And what do I get in return?"
Chi'Gil'Rolth smiled a little.
"What will you get? More like, what will you not lose? Your life will be spared and you won't rot in dungeons. And we won't cut off your hands. They might come in handy in a fight."
After a brief pause, he let out a small laugh.
"But I like your audacity. Tell you what, if you can solve the problem, I'll grant you a wish."
As Chi'Gil'Rolth looked at him with a smile, Chester couldn't stop thinking.
"Too good a deal for a fugitive, there's something fishy, damn it"
But now the easiest way to get the information he needed was at his fingertips. Fulfilling a wish of the king was a tempting reward.
"Yes, your Majesty, I will."
"I didn't expect you to say no. Given the distance to Mount Razgar... I'm giving you three months, plenty of time to prepare, hire people, gather information."
Chi'Gil'Rolth snapped his fingers and one of the guards in the room untied Chester's hands.
"Go now, I don't want to see you until you're done."
As Chester stepped to the table to pick up his weapons, Chi'Gil'Rolth intercepted him and handed them to him.
Suddenly, he threw his left hand over Chester's shoulder. Above his armor, his hand was ablaze.
"If you abuse this favor I have done you, I will have you found and tortured for years in the most painful way, even if you have traveled farthest of the continent."
"After all, we both know that disguises don't work, don't we?"
He was right, he still didn't know how he was recognized.
Suddenly the atmosphere calmed down and Chi'Gil'Rolth withdrew his hand.
"Guards, return his confiscated belongings and send him out of my palace and clean up where he walks."
He looked him from top to bottom
"Make sure he doesn't make mud everywhere with his dirty boots."
While Chester was escorted out of the palace by a large group of guards, Chi'Gil'Rolth was left alone in the room with Splitstar, who watched the whole thing invisibly.
"I didn't like the man Rolth. I couldn't sense any magical power from him. Something is wrong with that man."
"Trust me, old friend. What that fugitive said is indeed true. He really thinks he is more skilled than most in the city. According to the report my knights brought me, he literally tore a gold-ranked busybody named Haldy to shreds. If I am right, we will solve our problem on Mount Razgar without expending any resources, and I will once again show my people that I am a merciful king.
If I am wrong, the death of a fugitive trespassing in our city will not cost us anything."
"It's quite impressive. Let's hope it succeeds, we won't bother sending our troops this close to winter. But let's put a bounty on the guild for this wyern anyway, and it helps if confident busybodies can get to it before our soldiers do. In the meantime, if he escapes, we will find him with the trail spell you placed on his shoulder."
Chi'Gil'Rolth was smiling a little.
"You and spells, of course you don't miss it."
"You're starting to take me for granted, you didn't used to be like this. But-"
After a small cough, he continued.
"Wasn't your little game of intimidation a little harsh for a king?"
"Peh, you're the one who's supposed to be polite. I'm already a sissy for a demon. You already know that deals and intrigues are where I shine."
He let out a small exhale of boredom
"I was quite excited about the tools he had. They could be useful. I would have liked to see a magic sword in the treasure that could cut through a block of stone in blink of a eye."
"Heh, you never change, do you? You can already crush block of stones easily with your bare hands."
While stroking his beard, he spoke again
"How did you know that man was in disguise?"
"Instinct. He had the same aura as the person I saw in the incident scout. He didn't like killing, but he didn't feel sadness. He acts like there's no other way, but he knows there is. Quite a strange personality. "
Splitstar had taken his green book from his belt and was moving slowly towards the door, looking through it.
"I've already gathered our chief financial officer and strategists to discuss our problem. It's sure to be a headache."
----------------------------------------
Chester had been thrown out of the palace and was on his way to the busybody guild. He wanted to get what he needed and be on his way as soon as possible.
"If we accept the data in the fantasy books as true, a gigantic flying lizard with huge wings, claws that can pierce plate armor with elemental attributes is terrorizing the surrounding area called Mount Razgar."
She added a little sarcasm in her voice and continued.
"But Mr. Cool Demon King himself has given the mission to an unknown fugitive whose name he has only just learned. Based on this information -WE WILL DIE- we are likely to face a very difficult situation."
"There is no point in saying an obvious truth out loud. What I'm curious about is how he recognized us and whether he noticed the other lies we told."
"I'll leave the disguise to magic and strange demonic powers, but if you're wondering if the lie was detected, no, I didn't observe any anomalies in his physiology, such as sudden changes in heart rhythm or mood. We need a plan, a detailed one. Do you have something in mind?"
"Of course there is, we'll find out where Mount Razgar is, we'll go, we'll get that damn bird out of the air and ask the king for the information we need to get off this damn planet."
"I wish someone a little more normal had wore me. Anyway, do you want to take a guess where we are?"
Chester replied after focusing for a moment to think.
"Based on the limited information we have, given the difficult terrain, the time needed to prepare, and the assumption that we are going on foot, we probably need to go somewhere within a radius of 1,600 kilometers."
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
"It's a fascinating guess, but it's not true. We need to go somewhere in a north-west direction, roughly 1320 kilometers away."
"Is that so? What is the source of knowledge, great Mag?"
Mag replied in a slightly proud tone, not seeming to understand the sarcasm.
"I noticed an painting hanging on the wall in the guild, and I concluded it was a map of the known world. It has a lot of scaling errors, but based on the terrain I scanned on the way you fell down here, the time given, and the map, we should be somewhere over there."
image [https://i.imgur.com/W8DlZVu.jpeg]
Suddenly a map appeared in front of Chester's vision, and he saw his position as a green dot on the map.
Chester squinted, not at all happy with the blinding brightness.
"It's been a long time since I wore the tactical intelligence visor. I still hate it."
Mag asked in a curious tone.
"I thought it was standard in the army."
"It is, but I work the old-fashioned way, it limits my vision in combat and it's too bright. When I'm in middle of the heat, the map of my surroundings doesn't matter much anyway."
"Since I'm 'great' unlike the helmets, I can dynamically adjust the display to your preference during combat. You don't have to worry about brightness either."
After looking at the map a little more carefully, he wondered about the colors on the borders of the map.
"There are different colors on the borders of the map, do you know what they mean?"
"As far as I could find out, the blue areas represent sea borders, the gray areas represent land borders that impassable terrains, the green areas represent places that have not been mapped correctly because of the dense forest, and the red areas represent unmapped borders that are dangerous to cross due to various things. And before you ask, the part above is an island, they made it red because the surrounding seas were too dangerous. I also heard that the map is quite old, many towns are missing."
"We'll manage."
"By the way, do you see that huge mountain on the map? It's a mountain called Frozen Peak, and beyond that is called the continent of Nuwolrah, and where we are is called the continent of Harlowun. Just for general knowledge."
As Mag gave him some more useless information, he walked through the streets, studying the map and thinking about what he might need. The map he had was simple enough for orientation, but it did not show forests, rivers or hunting grounds where he could get food and water. He might need a local map or a guide.
He could cut his travel time considerably by switching to a vehicle or specialized armor for speed, but should he? Could travel fast if he wanted to, but he might attract too much attention, which would be undesirable. After all, it would have been highly suspicious for him to travel 1320 kilometers away and back in a week. How sensible was it to drive without knowing the terrain or fauna? Or he could have used a mount to blend in. Even if he doesn't know how to ride a scaly little dinosaur.
He looked up, his mind full of questions that needed to be answered. Spent the whole day in the cell and under interrogation, and in the last hours of the sun he had been released back onto the streets. A whole day had been wasted. On top of that, little money he had was confiscated by a group of corrupt guards. Broke again, but this time he didn't need to earn money by killing people. It was hard enough to hide from a wizard who could see the past.
"Isn't it possible to print money with the focuser? Let's print some money and buy what we need."
"-Yeah, let's scam- I don't recommend it. You'll have trouble with the merchants and locals at your next meeting as the coins you printed will be gone after 4 hours. As unethical as it is, we can reconsider this option in a place where you are sure you will never come back."
"Then we need to think about a temporary base. Somewhere secluded, able to peep around, with a extra escape route and a place to stash some stuff if needed would be good."
He was mentally preparing himself for the worst. He didn't know how long he had to stay on this planet. At best he would be stuck on this planet for 3 months, possibly years, and at worst until he died. She interrupted Chester's ideas and talked.
"We are in a crowded city, I don't think we can find an abandoned house, if the city has infrastructure like sewers we can use it or..."
"Or?"
"When you first set foot in the tower, I detected that the bell tower was hollow. That was when I saved you with that cool move."
He thought for a while.
"Maybe... I don't remember seeing a door when we landed."
"But if we can make a secret door, we can use it however we want. It's worth a try."
Chester had changed his route from the guild to the tower. He needed to arrange a place before it gets dark. Tomorrow morning he could begin preparations and research.
He made a slight detour to drink from the ornamental pool in the square, unobtrusively took the coins that some people threw into the pool with good intentions to make their wishes come true, and filled his newly made metal flask. After a brief look of bewilderment from the bystanders, Chester made his way towards the bell tower as he flowed through the streets without a care in the world. Mag kept her big eye on the pedestrians in order to get a better look at every living thing she saw on the street, and after scaring them a little, she keep turned to the next one with a satisfied expression to examine next pedestrian. After a short walk around the street where the bell tower was located, he looked for a door around the tower, but indeed there was none. Fortunately, one side of the tower was parallel to a nearby two-story house. There was only a small gap between the tower and the house. It was the perfect position to make a secret door. Chester first tried to push a few seemingly loose stones over to the other side, but they wouldn't budge.
Mag was scanning the wall with a beam from his eye.
"The wall is stronger than it looks. Not light enough for a human to move. You could easily cut it with your sword, but it would be difficult to hide the trace of molten stone..."
His armor suddenly increased in volume, became bulky.
"With this you can gently remove the stones, I'll mark the ones with the least pressure on them, please don't bring the tower down on our heads, okay?"
This time Chester carefully applied pressure to the marked stones, and one by one he threw them over the other side of the wall. After a bit of finesse, he succeeded and managed to get inside the tower.
It was a stuffy, cobwebbed, dark place filled with various support boards. It was exactly what he expected. He was a little relieved that he had not encountered any nonsense. He dismantled the fallen stones of the tower and stacked them on top of each other, and with his sword he thinned the stones to a thickness of two fingers, with the help of molten stones, merged the stones together and joined them on the inner surface. It was now a hidden stone door that light, one piece and looked completely normal from the outside. After putting it back in place, he set to work to organize the interior to suit his needs.
He dismantled the wooden supports of the tower that Mag had labeled 'unnecessary', shaped the forgotten blocks of unhewn stone in the interior with his sword to make useful furniture. Using the boards he had stuck in the wall and the grass on the ground, made a bed, redirected the tower's rain drain into a stone carving, built a simple rainwater tank. He made a simple step slightly above the ground to put his belongings on, a simple ladder to reach the upper parts of the tower, and small holes in the stone at this level for peeping out. He had also prepared a stone table and a wooden stool for prepearing and planning if needed. Made himself a useful hiding place. At the doorway, made a small booby trap with leftover materials. It wouldn't kill the intruder, but it would buy Chester enough time to make a move. He took a step back and looked at what he had done.Even though the furniture was made in a short time, it didn't look bad at all and it was better than nothing.
"Hmm. That's a fine job for a soldier. Maybe you should have been a carpenter."
"Maybe. Then I wouldn't have to put up with a chattering eye on my shoulder."
"But then you would have overdosed on daily seriousness and died of boredom. Mr. serious."
Suddenly the bells of the tower began to chime, the violent sound of the chime was dampened by the stones. It was less loud than Chester had expected.
"Since it only rings twice a day and we know it's evening, it's 00:00. In a way we have a good reminder."
He nodded slightly, then gestured to Mag and removed the armor. He slowly lay down on the bed he had made.
It was no more comfortable than a mediocre bed. It was certainly better than sleeping on the floor. He stared up at the top of the tower, into the pitch darkness.
"I'm going to take a stroll through this sexy library of mine until you wake up. It looks like there is some pretty interesting stuff. Heh, I can already feel the temperature of my transistors rising."
"What do you mean?"
"Some of the diagrams and documents I have in my memory seem to be in restricted access. I have to dig through them, maybe I can access something that might be useful to us."
She paused for a second.
"For example, I can't access the information in the file 'Operation: Fake Snow', maybe you know something?"
Chester was mildly intrigued. The operation mentioned by Mag was a solo team led by Chester himself, aimed at stopping a multi-stage coup attempt planned to overthrow and replace Governor Delta, led by individuals with strong influence in the world economy and politics. To minimize negative effects on the economy and society, targets were systematically assassinated at long intervals and covered up as they had a accident. It was a strange situation that the Mag had the documents of this event, which was so important that the number of people who knew the truth could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
"Something a nosy girl like you shouldn't know about."
"You do realize you're just making me more excited and motivated by saying that, don't you?"
"If you find out what it's all about by morning, I'll tell you all the operations I know. If not, no talking until I tell you tomorrow."
"Oh, its on. You better stretch your memory when you wake up."
Chester didn't think she could access these highly encrypted files, but there was a chance that if he motivated mag and succeeded, she could develop an algorithm to decrypt a files that might be useful to him later.
With a small grin, Chester turned his back to the wall and once again prepared his mind for the darkness he was used to.
Having the same nightmare.