Chapter 21: Black Robe
Year 116 of Nortus.
"Hear ye! Hear ye! His majesty requires men and materials for a new forge in the capital" A town crier walks as he rings his bell.
I approach him. "Heard ye! Heard ye! I have some building materials"
"What are they?"
"Sand and stones"
"Mister, thanks for your interest. Gather at town hall with your goods"
"God speed." I bow
It has been days since I came back to Nakitel heh?
I do have some stones and sand in my storage. They were collected during a mine expedition.
I should go back to my shop and load all the goods on my wagon. To fight against such a powerful white mage, I do need some forms of distraction and some trickeries.
Well, the perfect form of distraction would be black robes. Perhaps, I should convince some of them to disguise themselves as my escorters to bypass the guards. That would raise suspicion.
Hide beneath the wagon? No, too obvious
Fake prisoners? No, too risky
What to do? What to do to let them in the capital?
Teleport scrolls? That might work but… Hiding them inside my body would not be a good option either. No one would check the wheels of my wagon hollow or not right?
I have to activate those scrolls somewhere in the capital. Granary? Heavily guarded.
Bar? Too noisy
Cemetery should be a good place to activate them.
All that is left is to tell them about my proposal to revolt against the church right in the capital.
****
"I apologize for disturbing your dark ritual but I am quite interested in helping you guys" I raise my both hands
The black robes are gathered and they look at me. We are inside some kind of abandoned warehouse at night.
"How did you know about our place?" One raises a dagger
"Secrets can be bought by any means right?"
"We are not that easily to be bribed," Another figure makes a slit throat gesture ", We kill traitors and scatter their body parts to seven places. And their organs shall be displayed at our next meeting as a reminder"
"You don't seem to have a traitor but rather, I own the wind" I point up to the sky
"You? A mere merchant owns the wind? That is absurd"
"Who said that is a literal meaning?"
The bird body of mine lands on my shoulder. I displayed to them as a sand magician who creates things out of sand.
"Now I understand how you are able to find us." The dagger holder sheathes his dagger.
"I bear no threat to you as some of you have heard about a merchant who exposed the church's wrongdoing at Loreathor right?"
"
"That is me. I want you all to be my distraction while I slit some throats. The special payment would be the life of that forsaken cleric in the capital right?"
"If you capture that man alive, we will be flattered." They all point at me.
To be fair, that mad cleric is the one that is in charge of violently suppressing the black robes. Killing comrades and torturing them. That is why they need me to capture him alive. Let him suffer what they had been through. Not just one life, for many hundreds of lives, not just their comrades, also other races' lives.
****
"Please be patient! Be patient! Our king wishes for no infiltrators by all means. No teleportation marks, no teleportation scrolls and no corpse transportation." The crier rings his bell as he yells.
They inspect my wagon. As expected, they do not check for the wheels since there are no such wheels that can withstand the weight of rocks and sand bags while hollowed, right?
I made it possible by using some sand and my manipulation as my body so that they are both hollow and able to withstand the weight of those bulky goods.
****
I hate the fact that the road is rocky and the escorts are drowsy. They don't have energetic movement, they seem dull. The armors are shining to my eyes but their eyes seem gloomy. Their swords are on their belts but their hands control seem slower than most knights I see.
In the end, those escorts are just mere low rank horsemen. Can't his highness send any other people that look at least less boring than them?
"Strange, why don't bandits ambush us? We are just new faces to the army. Shouldn't we get ambushed by some means?"
"Well, they fear me of course. I single handedly wiped several gangs. So many bandits won't touch you guys, don't worry. I just need to send my goods. The only things that are needed to worry are those monsters." I whip the goats.
Our escorts' faces seem scared of me. The fact that they are with
****
After three forsaken days and a couple of monsters on the road. We finally arrived at the capital. I move my wagon to the storage. This place seems busting with people eh?
All kinds of clothing, red, brown, white, cyan, etc. There are children running around. These restaurants seem busy with guests. Guards are quite friendly.
"Thanks for your goods. Here is the payment for them" He hands me a bag of gold coins.
"Alrighty, I will take that and I will move my wagon to a carpenter's shop for maintenance. Looks like it need new wheels"
****
I hid the scrolls inside my bags after moving my wagon to a carpenter's shop. No one sees me. Now all I need to do is to activate these scrolls by applying magic to them in cemetery where no one would wander.
First place I want to go is the bar for information. When I walk to the bar, it seems as rowdy as I expected. But as soon as I spill some murderous intent. It stops. People look at me with fear.
"Sorry for intruding but I want to notify y'all of my presence. Please just be as usual" I smile warmly
I walk to the counter slowly. Each step makes them nervous. When I reach the counter, I sit down.
"Well, I would like to have a mug or two. Here is the payment for five rounds," I put six silver coins on the table.
He spits on the ground ", Aye, mate. That is generous of you. Did you count the future damage before a rumble or somethin'? " He puts two mugs in front of my face.
"I promise you that they will know the terror if they dare to lay a hand on me," I pull out my dagger ", this thing is as sharp as broken glass," I sway my dagger around ", And broken glass is just another thing that would appear in a bar right?"
No one seems to dare to challenge me heh?
****
After five rounds, It is quite late eh? First thing first, the cemetery. It takes me around three hours walking. I really hate this but it seems someone is tailing me.
I walk to a dark alley for an ambush. As expected, she is tailing me.
I suddenly appear behind her with a dagger on her neck.
"Move then you will die, answer honestly or this dagger is gonna claim your neck or perhaps your tongue."
"Alright, I am tailing you because you look more like an assassin than a merchant. I am surprised that you are quite similar to one"
To be fair, I was trained as a hunter when I was a dwarf. Hours of preying on animals give me a valuable experience. Even as sharp as snakes or wolves, they wouldn't notice me if I hide.
"Who hired you?"
"I am his highness royal spy. If I die, they will chase you to the end of this world. Because I am afterall a close friend of a prince."
"Chase me? See if they can. How much did they pay for you?"
"I am doing this for sake of his highness"
"Am I a fool? I can tell your badge is fake. The royal spy is not the one who wears a badge that has no trace of self destruct spell. I talked to someone whose husband is a royal red mage"
"You seem clever. Before I die, who is that wife of his?"
"Miwra Ulthorm"
I slit her throat open. Her red spills on the ground. Lying bitch like her should die.
I put on her mouth four silver coins as for her daring and her afterworld fee. This is what I had seen as a drake lord when I won against someone on a death match.
****
"Thanks for your interest. Remember our deal" A black robe bows to me
"Ha ha, he will suffer, do not fret" I scratch my head.
The black robes change their clothes to normal civilians.
I am heading to an inn for the rest.
****
Cling! Clang!
"Mister, we still have a room but this is too much for a night" the clerk raises her hands
"This amount is also to compensate for my disturbance at such a late time."
After picking up the key, I walk upstair and find my room. I open the door and rush to the bed. I lay myself down and pretend that I am sleeping. I can sense two or three presences beneath the floor and one on top of this room. I hope they won't disturb my rest or their blood will spill on this floor to cleanse my wraith