Pov Kira:
After entering the secret entrance of the hunting cabin outside the city I start descending a staircase that leads to an underground tunnel, leaving the tunnel after about an hour of walking I reach the end of the tunnel, I find another staircase up which I follow until I reach me. come across a wooden wall, I knock seven times on the door with a specific interval between each knock and then wait.
After ten minutes of waiting for someone to open the door, an old man in worn clothes with patches everywhere, his hair is disheveled and wearing his clothes when the old man himself is dirty, he looks like any beggar you see in the poor area. from the residential area, where the favelas are located.
“You have two minutes.” (old beggar)
I walk out the door and find myself in a small stone house, the house is in tatters with cracks in all the walls and dirt everywhere you look, I without waiting to leave the house and see many others like it around with many beggars ranging from small children to scrawny old people.
This is the city’s slum, those who live here don’t have family, job, money or all of the previous options, this place is full of people who don’t care about anything but what they’re going to eat now, that’s why crime has the full control of this place.
As I leave the house I go into one of several dark alleys to hide, since I separated from Diana I put my hood and mask back in place, I did this for two reasons, one is to hide my identity and the other is for contacts I know to recognize me.
I go from alley to alley until I reach Rua da Red light, all the establishments on this street are brothels, there are from cheap brothels for poor people to upper-class brothels for nobles and rich merchants.
I go to an unnamed cheap brothel, enter an alley beside the brothel, and enter a side door hidden by a large box.
When I entered I see only a small dark room with nothing but a table and two chairs, all that is on top of the table is a candle whose light does not reach the walls of this room which are covered in shadows.
I go to one of the chairs and sit down, all I have to do now is wait.
In a few seconds of darkness, I hear a door opening and closing, then a human man comes out of the shadows of the room and sits in the chair on the other side looking at me.
This man has short black hair slicked back, dark skin with a scar in his right eye, his right eye is closed probably blind plus his left eye is brown, he appears to be in his forties and is wearing normal clothes, a white shirt. simple and simple black pants.
Even though his appearance looks simple and normal this man is the complete opposite of what he tries to look like, I’m one of the few people who knows how strong this man is, I’ve known him for a year his name is Lucas.
He looks at me in a normal, casual way with a friendly smile, but I know he’s scrutinizing me closely, his carefree way to hide the danger he poses.
“You came back fast, Kira.” (Lucas)
“I already told you not to call me that, Lucas.” (I)
“I’m sorry, I just wanted to confirm that it was you.” (Lucas)
“Why you say that?” (I)
“You’ve changed a lot in just three days, your posture, tone of voice, and Aura are different.” (Lucas)
As I expected from this man, he notices details that no one else would notice and that in a matter of seconds.
“I didn’t come today to talk about me, I want information.” (I)
“Of course you are looking for information, this is a place to sell information after all.” (Lucas)
“So stop trying to get information out of me for fun like you do other customers, and let’s get down to business.” (I)
With my words, his friendly smile gets bigger like he’s having fun.
“As usual, you’re the only one who can see my jokes.” (Lucas)
“You’re right, let’s get down to business, what do you want to know?” (Lucas)
“I want information about the third prince of the Cartoza Kingdom.” (I)
“…” (Lucas)
Lucas’ gaze changes as he knows the information I’m looking for, he looks at me the same way he did before but I can feel a different glint in his eyes.
“What kind of information do you want to know about him?” (Lucas)
“I want to know your work, your skills, your enemies, your friends, and your relationship with the Church of Light.” (I)
“So you already know.” (Lucas)
“What are you talking about.” (I)
He is quiet for a few seconds before continuing to speak.
“The price of the information you want is fifteen gold coins.” (Lucas)
“I accept, here it is.” (I)
I pull out a bag from my bracelet which is a storage item and pull out fifteen gold coins so I leave it on the table, he doesn’t take it.
“But something?” (Lucas)
“I want to know about the trip that will be made to this city, I want to know how many people will be with him, I want to know who they are, their strength levels, the day of his trip, and the route he will take.” (I)
Sigh
“I’ll say this because I like you, Kira, I know you found out about Viper, but you shouldn’t get into these murky waters.” (Lucas)
“Don’t meddle in the plans of the Church of Light, you don’t want that kind of enemy, believe me.” (Lucas)
“…” (I)
“Thanks for the advice, but I still need the information.” (I)
“Very well, it will be eighty gold coins, that’s because I’m charging cheap.” (Lucas)
“Thanks again Lucas.” (I)
I hand the entire bag to him, he seems to have noticed the exact amount of money I had in the bag, I know that the information he will give me can be worth double, if not triple the value.
“Do you have to do this?” (Lucas)
“It will be dangerous, I don’t even know who will participate in the plan.” (Lucas)
“I know you more or less understand what I plan to do from the information I asked you to do.” (I)
“I also imagined that someone like you should already know about the plans of the Church of Light.” (I)
“But knowing you’re trying to help me surprises me, but it makes me happy too.” (I)
“You know I’ve always tried to help you, I’ve also always tried to convince you to join the Assassin Guild.” (Lucas)
“I know, and I’m happy to receive this request from the Guild master, but you know why I don’t want to join.” (I)
“I know, you don’t like to be restricted by anything, so you just do some Guild work on the outside.” (Lucas)
“That’s better for me.” (I)
He picks up the money from the table and puts it in his purse, then tucks the purse into his pants pocket.
“Do you want to get a piece of information now or do you want to get it all together in six days?” (Lucas)
“I’ll wait six days.” (I)
“Very well, then see you in six days.” (Lucas)
He gets up and turns his back on me and starts walking into the darkness, but suddenly he stops and turns his head.
“I’m glad to see you happy, you’re one of the few people in this town I like to talk to and the only one who understands what we’re doing.” (Lucas)
After saying this he keeps walking until he disappears into the darkness, I hear again the sound of a wooden door opening and closing, then I get up and walk out the way I came.
I disappear into the dark alleys as I think.
Lucas is the leader of the Guild of Assassins in the Valen branch, this is an illegal guild that receives requests for murder, theft, and espionage.
They are also information sellers, Lucas is an expert in espionage, nobody can hide any kind of information from him, maybe even the master has problems with him, but Lucas was always very good to me for some reason, he helped me a lot since I arrived in this city.
I spent the rest of the day checking the list the master gave, I wanted to confirm the books he wanted and where to find them to start looking for them tomorrow, I don’t know if the master knew but some of the books he is looking for are hard to get.
Books relating to magical engineering are secret, only members of the Wizards’ Guild have access, books on cooking are rare as usually cooks personally teach their students and do not write books very often and those who do are not copied other than these books. still have banned books like those that talk about the elements of blood and darkness.
I had to spend the day thinking about how to get these books, I could only think about looking on the black market or putting a quest in the Assassins Guild to get information about these books or even get these items.
I think I’ll check the black market tomorrow, I want to avoid requesting anything from the Assassins’ Guild, it might arouse suspicion if this kind of book is stolen from the Mages’ Guild or some nobleman, I don’t want to cause trouble for the master, he said himself to avoid drawing attention.
I’ve already made a mistake getting Lucas’s attention, but that was unavoidable, since I arrived in town he would already know of my presence, so I came straight to the information room.
————-
At dusk I went to the Inn of the Eternal Traveler where I arranged to meet Diana, as soon as I got there I could feel her location in one of the second-floor rooms, I could see the bedroom window open so I went into a side street and went up into on top of the roof, as the inn has only two floors, I was able to enter unnoticed through the window, enjoying the darkness of the night.
“You took your time.” (Diana)
“We had agreed at dusk.” (Diana)
“I had to wait for the night to sneak in.” (I)
“How was the Adventurers’ Guild?” (I)
“Everything was the way the master said it would be, after the story I told nobody else wanted to ask questions about what I went through being missing.” (Diana)
“That’s because if you followed the master’s orders, everyone who heard your story must feel sorry for you for having lost your friends, so avoid touching a subject that makes you uncomfortable.” (I)
“Did you spend the day drinking as the master ordered?” (I)
“Yes, but I still don’t know why the master ordered me to do this.” (Diana)
“This will make anyone who knows the story you told think you were drowning your grievances over the death of your comrades, it brings more authenticity to your story.” (I)
“The master really thought of everything.” (Diana)
“The master’s plan was very good I must admit, but it can only be possible because it’s the Adventurers’ Guild, this kind of thing happens more often than the Guild would like and its story fits with all the items it brought and the changes in your body.” (I)
“If it were any other Guild or the government, they wouldn’t have so easily believed your story without investigating it first.” (I)
“Now that we’ve sorted this out, let’s go to bed early, tomorrow we have a lot to do.” (I)
Diana looks at the bed and then looks back at me.
“This is a single bed, it’s going to be a little tight but we can share a bed.” (Diana)
“I don’t care, we were all sleeping in the same bed anyway.” (I)
“As long as you don’t do anything to me overnight.” (I)
“It’s okay you’re pretty, but I would never do anything to someone against their will.” (Diana)
“I know I was just teasing, I know you wouldn’t do anything, and thanks for the compliment.” (I)
“Well let’s sleep then, the trip to town was a long one, good night.” (I)
“You’re right, after all the drink I drank today I also got a little sleepy, I’m going to sleep too, goodnight.” (Diana)
After talking for a while we both took off the excess equipment and clothes and went to sleep with more reliable shorts and shirts, before bed, I hide a knife under the pillow and another under the mattress, Diana puts her sword under the unsheathed bed.
With everything ready, each one lay down on one side of the bed and went to sleep.