The two of them followed the beastman through the same hallway they had already visited as Grizz pretended to look around as if everything was brand new to him. His show of emotion was ignored as the beastman didn’t give the two of them a single glance. Arriving at the door, he knocked on it twice before loudly declaring: “A messenger from Nim is here to see you.”
The same sweet voice from earlier replied to him: “Enter,” but Orou could sense an underlying anger underneath that voice. Grizz shrugged and before the beastman had a chance to do anything, he pushed open the door and walked in. The beastman gave Grizz an evil look but didn’t do anything out of line, especially in direct sight of the governor. He excused himself and left Grizz and Orou all alone with the governor.
The room wasn’t as large nor as lavish as the other rooms. A panther-like beastman with black fur was sitting by a table, a glass of wine in one hand and a quill in the other. Behind her was a cabinet of wine, locked behind a pane of glass. Grizz’s eyes lingered on the bottles in the cabinet, or more likely, the writing on the bottles themselves.
“Nim couldn’t be bothered to come himself and had to send a messenger for him. Well, spit it out, what is it?” Baltis voice startled Grizz who was busy still inspecting the wine bottles. While her voice still held a hint of respect for the lion beastmen who she talked to earlier, there was no respect to be found here.
“Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Grizz Ashmore, Nim’s oldest son.” Grizz slightly bowed towards Baltis, though he similarly didn’t hold much respect for her. Her gaze lost the disdain she had for Grizz earlier and she put down the glass of wine on the table, saying to Grizz: “At least he sent someone qualified. What is it that he wants?”
“I’ll be honest with you Governor Baltis as I know that you value honesty over anything else, I’m not here to do any errands for Nim, instead, I’m here for this,” as he said that, he pulled a stack of papers out of his backpack and placed them down on the table. There must have been at least a hundred of them, if not more. Baltis had an intrigued smile on her face as she grabbed the paper on top of the pile and started reading over it. Her expression changed from that of bemusement to displeasure.
“What are you trying to achieve here by showing me this,” she waved the paper in her hands before taking the next one and reading over it. Her frown deepened with each paper she put aside,
“Hundreds of written testimonies and filed complaints about Nim’s underground dealings. Murders swept under the rug, illegal drugs that cause one to become feral and so much more that you’ve simply ignored.” Grizz stood up slammed his hand on the table and stared directly at Baltis. Baltis shied away from Grizz’s glance, perhaps aware that everything he said was the truth. Seconds filled with tense silence passed before Grizz finally sat down.
“This has to stop and you know it. Many citizens wonder if you’re the governor or he is. Practically half of the city is under his control and you do nothing about it. Are you confident that your men and your guards are truly yours?” Grizz didn’t relent in the slightest and he maintained eye contact with Baltis throughout the entire conversation. Grizz’s last sentence finally provoked a reaction from Baltis as she furiously retorted.
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“What do you expect me to do? As you said, many of my men have been bought over by Nim. I’m aware of what he’s doing, I receive several reports about him and his men daily. He would escape before any attempts of capturing him would succeed. The only way to make him stay put is to execute him, and if we did that, riots would start in no time. Every single of the largest entertainment buildings are reliant on him and our income would plummet once the riots started.”
“That’s precisely what we want from you. Nim has been a menace to this city as a whole for a long time and it’s time for him to go. You have the power to lock down the city until we find him and you have the power to make an official statement about this. Although he has no official will, your word would go a long way in making sure that no revolts break out when one of his sons inherits the mantle.” Grizz had a slight smile on his face as if he had finally gotten what he wanted. Baltia considered what Grizz said for a few seconds, taking a few more sips of wine in the process.
“So you want my help in inheriting all that Nim owns. How do I know that you won’t be the same as him? There’s no guarantee that you will kill him, besides, someone with ties to the king will be coming here very soon and he wants this place to be in perfect order, or else I’m done for.” Baltis was still sceptical of what Grizz said, after all, all she had was Grizz’s word that he would succeed.
“No, it’s not me who’s going to inherit Nim’s position, it’s Kris. He’s been the captain of the guard for a few years and you’ve known him for even longer. If there’s anyone you can trust in this city, it’s him,” Grizz let that sink in for a few seconds before he continued: “As for your other issue, I have no doubts that Kris will deal with it perfectly. He has been complaining about the lack of guards in this city and the lack of funding from the governor. The first thing he will do is take care of the mess in the city, besides, I have a few contacts of my own amongst Nim’s men that can will help smooth out any difficulties he might face when Nim is taken care of.”
Baltis sunk deep into thought while Grizz looked over and gave a thumbs up to Orou. Grizz had no doubts about whether or not he would succeed and instead, returned back to observing the wine bottles. A minute passed in complete silence before Baltis slowly started to talk: “While I don’t trust you, I know that Kris is a competent man. Nim has been a thorn in my side for years and I’m willing to risk my position to get rid of him. Now, what is it that you want me to do?”
“Give us three days to prepare. At the dawn of the fourth day gather everyone in the city and make an announcement, listing all of Nim’s crimes and proclaiming him a criminal. Just in case, have the guards lock down the city, not allowing anyone to go in or out. If all goes to plan, we will be back with Nim’s head and you can reward Kris for his meritorious deed of slaying Nim and say that he is deserving of his father’s position. We will also need to clean up some of the men that are truly loyal to Nim, but your men don’t need to do anything, we will take care of it.” Baltis and Grizz argued back and forth about the various details of what Baltis had to do, but eventually, they agreed on this course of action.
“If there’s nothing else, I hope to see both you and Kris safe and sound after getting rid of Nim,” with those last few words, Grizz slightly bowed and started to exit, leaving the room after what felt like hours of negotiation. Staring outside one of the windows, Orou saw that the sun was starting to set and even Orou as getting a bit nervous about what would happen three days later, this seemed like it was important for Grizz and Orou had grown a bit attached to him. Seeing Orou looking at him, Grizz kneeled down and patted his head, and for the first time in his life, Orou willingly let him do that.