Chapter 19: Leads

I stare at the figure in front of me. It's a guy with a muscular body but average height. He's wielding a huge sythe and taking a stance that tells me he's ready to fight.

Naturally, I also took the same stance. I have my sword in my hands, which came from my book. I was preparing myself to get into a fight. I also expected things to somehow go this way. That's why I suggested changing the location.

"Wait a minute! Brother! What do you think you are doing?!" said Nova. "We are asking them to cooperate with us!"

"I know Nova. But I can't trust this guy with that nonchalant look on his face. I can't stand him looking at us like mere ants," said the guy.

It seems he's mad about me observing and being cautious in their actions. You can't blame me because of what happened with the dark forest. The adventurers we encountered are full of greed for the quest's reward. Obviously, I started to doubt myself due to my actions.

The fact that I killed people and didn't feel anything is disturbing. I'm starting to even doubt my humanity.

"Immature," I muttered. "If you want a fight, then I'll give you one. Come."

"You bastard!" he shouted as he dashed in towards me, swinging his sythe.

I dodged his swings one by one. Drowning in his anger, he kept swinging his sythe rather blindly. I observed that his swings are wobbly, perhaps because he is filled with emotions. But why?

We met for the first time, but I feel that he's carrying a lot of anger in his heart. I stopped his sword mid-air by parrying it with my sword.

"Do you have a grudge against me?" I asked.

His eyes widened, showing a reaction of surprise. Confirming my thoughts, I kicked him and sent him flying. He fell to the ground, and I didn't waste the chance to pin him down. Pointing my blade against his neck, I easily won the fight.

"You can't win against me if you hold your weapon so lightly like that," I said.

He huffed but still tried his best to give me his reply, "Huff. Huff. I thought you were supposed to be a mage."

I blinked and looked at Neerial. Neerial just stared at me with her dumbfounded look. It seems I made an obvious blunder. I'm planning to show people that I'm a mage and a tamer adventurer, but that plan has fallen through.

"I don't need to confirm or deny that," I said, trying to imitate Neerial from earlier.

As I stare at him and have the higher ground, Nova approached me and spoke up.

"I'm sorry about my brother! He's not usually like this," she said while bowing her head.

"Don't, Nova. We can't trust this guy!" the guy said.

"Shut up, brother! Please! Help us! The shadow pledge kidnapped our little sister! Us alone aren't enough to bring them down!" said Nova.

"Kidnap?" I couldn't contain my surprise.

"That's right! Around two days ago!" said Nova, giving me a letter that the shadow pledge left.

'We have your little sister; meet us in the Conheart's church one week from now, says the letter.

This letter changes everything. Apparently, I overestimated the actions of the shadow pledge. Thinking that they are just trying to protect the kingdom. Sadly, I'm wrong.

"What's in it for us?" I asked.

"Excuse me?" asked Nova.

"You want our help, right? What can you offer for us to cooperate?" I asked further.

"We don't have much, but... will this be sufficient?" Nove handed me a bag of coins.

I accepted it and counted the gold coins inside. There seem to be 15 golds inside it. I moved my sword away from the guy and walked away. I approached Neerial and gave her the bag.

"This will do," I said. "Tell me what you know."

The guy got up from the ground and put his hand on his back. "We don't know anything. It's embarrassing to admit, but all we know is to fight. We're lacking on information, and we don't have a clue where to get it either."

I let out a sigh. "You... What's your name again?" I asked.

"Jonathan," he replied.

"Jonathan, you should've at least gone to a pub or the guild hall to gather information," I said.

"We're not that stupid. We tried to get information from a pub and guild hall, but we couldn't find any leads. The pub here isn't like the one you can find in other cities." This time it was Nova who spoke.

"Is that so? Got it. I'll gather information first. We'll meet here again tomorrow at 5 a.m. I'll be here for 30 minutes; if you two don't show up, I'll leave," I said.

"Understood," said Nova.

I nodded to Neerial, and we made our leave. closing the conversation and making our next move.

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The cold wind of the night can be felt through our skin. As we made our way to the deep forest, we finally arrived at our destination. The abandoned building where we located the bandits.

Neerial and I went inside and found Hernandez leaning against the wall. The building is surrounded by darkness, and the sound of the light rain can be heard.

"Yo, you're late," said Hernandez with a visible grin on his face.

"Let's get down to business, Hernandez. What do you have?" I asked.

He showed us a box without saying anything else. It's a black box that's shining beautifully. That must be the item that he told us about.

"So here's the item that you—" Hernandez tried to say, but I interrupted.

"Wait. Neerial, tell me if he's lying with your skill." I bluffed.

Before coming here, I told Neerial that we'd pretend that she had the skill to see through people's lies. In fact, all I'll be doing is observing his facial expression, movements, and mannerisms. It's just a front to make sure he won't lie.

I put my hand on my back to give the sign of number one or number two. Number one means that he's telling the truth, and number two means that he's lying.

"This item here can imprison a person and contain his skills. We stole this because someone ordered us to deliver it to him. But your pay is much higher, so we decided to kill our client," said Hernandez.

After observing his behavior, I concluded that he told lies. I gave a number two signal to Neerial, and she took action.

"He's lying," Neerial said.

Hernandez realized that he'd been found out. He tried to attack with his dagger, but I was faster. I quickly dashed in and put him on the ground. Stepping on his hand, he loses his grip on his dagger.

"What's the meaning of this?" I asked.

"Ha! Ha Ha Ha!" Hernandez let out a laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"Sorry, I tried to test you to see if you are dumb or not. But apparently you can read people to some extent. Your brain doesn't match your age," said Hernandez.

"Stop joking," I warned as I aimed my magic staff at his head.

Hernandez was still smiling and pointed at my left side.

"Neerial, what is it?" I asked.

I tried not to let Hernandez out of my sight, and I let Neerial explain what he pointed at.

"It's a box that's similar to the ones in the carriage," said Neerial.

"It's the one that you're looking for," said Hernandez.

This time, it seems that he's telling the truth. So, I placed my left hand behind my back and gave the number one signal.

"He's telling the truth," said Neerial.

I moved away from my staff and went to the box. I threw a coin bag into Hernandez that contained his pay without turning around.

"Anyway, can you do jobs such as information gathering?" I asked.

"I do," Hernandez replied while counting the coins in the bag that I just gave him.

"I want information about the shadow pledge," I said.

"30 golds," said Hernandez.

I immediately looked at Neerial, and she pulled out her wallet. giving the exact 30 golds to Hernandez.

This is what he told us:

The Shadow Pledge contains members of the fighter class and solely focuses on them. They don't care for any other classes and reject them if they want to join.

Their main interest is simply doing what they want. They're involved in drugs, slavery, stealing, and rebellion. They're a huge organization, and the shadow pledge in Conheart City is just a branch of the organization that wants to take down the King.

"So basically, they're workers that have freedom," I muttered.

"That's close, but not quite," replied Hernandez.

"Do you have any clue where we can find them?" I asked.

"Yep, I can give you a lead on where you'll find them," said Hernandez.

Hernandez gave us a location. Solving the problems of Jonathan and Nova without a problem. The payment they gave me is somewhat unfair. I'm planning to bargain about my worth.