Fishing in the Dark
William took Edmund to a more expensive yet luxurious tavern called the four seasons, where they could get their own private room.
In there, they stayed for the rest of the afternoon discussing and finalizing their project until about 7 pm. After which William decided to make his way back to the castle.
At this time, the sun rays were barely visible over the horizon, so the visibility was starting to decrease and though the main streets of the business district were lit by torches, the small alleys might as well be pitch back.
In this day and age, most commercial activity stops by sunset and the city itself goes to sleep not long after. As William made his way through the business district, most establishments had already closed down save for a few who were in the process of doing so.
This was the moment when he suddenly heard a women's voice calling for help coming from a dark alley.
He turned around to look for any patrols, yet he found none. " I seriously need to talk to my father about the city's internal security, this half-assed work is just asking for a disaster to happen eventually."
While he was still looking around for any patrols while cursing their incompetence, the voice once more asked for help, this time being more desperate.
" HELP!!! PLEASE HELP ME, I AM INJURED AND IN NEED OF HELP!!!
One of William's guards turned around and headed for the alley unable to stand still and do nothing while a young woman was potentially in need of assistance.
When William saw him moving to the alley, he immediately asked.
"Lancelot, what are you doing?"
"My lord, that woman is in need of assistance. It is our moral duty to help her." he answered righteously as if it's the most obvious thing to do.
William facepalmed himself as he said in I low voice. "Seriously? are all those named Lancelot supposed to be this righteous and naive? If this was a horror movie you would certainly be the first one to go."
"I beg you pardon my lord?" Lancelot was perplexed after seeing William facepalm himself not quite hearing what he had said.
"Nothing, nothing. Who has the strongest throw out of all of you?" William asked.
Everyone simply pointed at Morton who was pretty much the biggest and most muscular of the group.
"Go take one of the torches from the wall and throw it as far as you can into the alley."
Perplexed Morton did as he was told, took a torch amongst the ones lining the street, made his way to the entrance of the alley and with one big swing, he threw it as far as he could.
As the torched flew deeper into the alley it illuminated its surrounding, as it did so it shone its light on a group of hooded figures holding daggers in their hand trying to hide in the shadows, with no woman in sight, probably because she was one of them.
"I knew it was a trap!!! soo cliche guys, you need to step up your game, if you need some coaching in robbery and trap laying one o one I have a great course for you. for the right price of course" William remarked in a provocative tone, amused at their attempt.
Meanwhile, the five guards were feeling embarrassed, especially Lancelot who was originally going to charge head-strong into a trap.
William's sarcastic voice suddenly turned cold however. " Now that your little trap had been exposed and you no longer hold the element of surprise. Get ready for a world of pain, with no breaks no time outs and a whole lot of ass-kicking coming your way on the fastest horse the marquisate can offer, courtesy of.... ME."
"MEN!!! Get a torch and go blow off some steam." William smiled evilly.
The men did as he said, each taking a torch and pulling their swords from their sheaths, ready to pay back these hooded figures for the embarrassment they felt.
Though the guards were disguised since they had to go on an outing with William and therefore only wore light armor underneath, they still held a massive advantage, they had the best training and very good equipment on them. A group of probable robbers with nothing but daggers on them would not stand a chance.
"Stay alert for any hidden traps or further ambushes." William reminded the guards as he stayed behind since he had no combat experience and therefore would only slow them down.
These guys dared to do this in the business district, even if it's dark, when my father learns of this he would probably lose his shit." He thought.
The unidentified group in the alley tried to resist, but it did not take long for them to understand that they were simply outclassed by virtually every metric.
After two of them were cut down, the rest tried to run away, few were able to do so as the guards apprehended 4 of them leaving only two to escape.
Before they even tried to give chase William simply told them to let them go.
"We will know more about them once these little lambs start talking, so just let those two go."
He simply did not want to risque a possible ambush awaiting them somewhere else.
They quickly transported the prisoners back to the castle to be detained in cells.
After dismissing the guards, William made his way to his father's study room and found him sitting on his desk talking to Alfred.
William knocked on the door, and once he had gotten their attention he asked.
"May I enter?"
"Of course my boy. So what matter do you wish to bring to my attention?"
William entered the room, smiled and simply said sheepishly.
"A gift."
"What gift?" lord Ulric asked.
" Well..... maybe it's better if you see it."
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The castle dungeons.
William had taken the marquis to the cells containing the detainees.
"Who are these people son?" the Lord asked; a bit confused by the whole ordeal.
" I present to you the bravest, stupidest, ballsiest group of .... well we don't know quite yet. But they dared to try luring people into dark alleys where they waited for them with knives drawn and ready to pounce on their prey." William explained.
The marquess's brows furrowed deeply as he stared at the people in the cells.
"How did you find them?"
"Simple, they tried their trick on me."
" WHAT!!!!" the marquess was fuming now.
" You not only target the people under my house in my city, under my castle. You dare to also go after my son."
William preceded to tell his father about what had transpired in detail, from the moment they heard the plea for help all the way to rounding the group up and bringing them to the castle.
If looks could kill someone, the marquess's gaze would have robbed them of their lives.
" So let me reiterate, YOU TARGETED "MY"SON, IN "OUR" TERRITORY AND IN THE BUSINESS DISTRICT NO LESS. Does house Blackwell mean nothing anymore? Jailer!!!"
A man quickly came running toward them.
"How may I be of service my lord?"
"By Morning I want to know everything there is to know about these fools. Interrogate them all, I shall come by to hear of your results."
The Lord said these last words before he took his leave. William also followed suit giving one last look at the captives seeing nothing but fear and nervousness in their eyes.