Chapter 39 – Into the sewers.

There was quite a commotion in Southtown. In the middle of the night, a loud explosion was heard from one of the warehouses. It was loud enough to wake up the people living there. The guards arrived at the scene quite late as always. They were expecting to find some kind of unregistered alchemist lab accident but instead, they were greeted by a dead burglar’s body.

Next to this body was a youth dressed in a dark robe. There was also a tied-up person on the ground in front of the warehouse. One of the windows was missing and smoke was coming out of it. It looked like someone tried jumping through it outside.

The guards could see that the two people on the ground had the usual rogue esthetic. The one that was alive was tied up really well and had a rag shoved into his burned mouth. He was also not looking too good, one of his arms was mangled up. The clothes he was wearing were also ripped apart and also burnt as if he was getting roasted on a fire.

“Took you long enough, these two tried robbing me.”

The youth moved his hood down from his head and spoke out. He had dark hair and somewhat gloomy expressions. The two guards that got here first looked at each other and then at the supposed thieves.

“We’ll need you to come with us and explain everything…”

It was about 2 am at night and some other people had also gathered here. This world didn’t have something like a police station, instead, it was the city guards that were responsible for the order. Even though Roland was the person that was almost killed, there was no evidence for it yet. They needed to take him back to the guard post and question him along with the witnesses.

Roland gave out a sigh, he was already tired and now he needed to go with these two idiots. He didn’t want to get in trouble so he just nodded. Going against the city guards was considered a felony, it was better to get this over with. From the looks of things, he would be spending the night in the brig as he didn’t think they would really question him at this late hour. The whole ‘questioning’ process was carried out by higher officials but these two were just common guards.

While Roland was mumbling profanities under his nose someone else arrived at the scene of the crime. This person remained unnoticed while keeping to the shadows. The guards couldn’t even see as the person sneaked into the building. The intruder blended into the shadows as if they were a part of it.

There was no one else inside. The figure of the person emerged from the shadows, it looked like a cloud of pitch-black smoke. The smoke took shape into the figure of a woman. The woman was wearing black cloth armor that covered all of her body that was quite curvaceous.

She was standing in the room where everything happened, the blood was still fresh. She could tell that someone used a similar skill that she performed just now. She could feel the darkness element in the air which piqued her interest.

“Did the boy use one of his scrolls?”

Her face was covered by a mask, she had a similar roguish look as the attackers had. The only thing that could be seen under her hood were her bright silver eyes. She started quickly going through the warehouse, with her enhanced skills she could tell through where the thieves came inside. She could also tell more or less that the thieves were caught off guard.

The woman faded back into the shadows and left soon afterward. While traveling through the night her stats were enhanced which let her reach her destination fast. The place she was going towards was the richest district in this town called Hightown.

From the outside, this building looked very elegant. It was built with grey stones and had yellow pine wood decorations. Tall, large windows allowed enough light to enter the home and had been added to the house in a very symmetric way. The building had a rounded shape and a small garden outside of it. The roof was high, triangular, and was covered with brown roof tiles. One small chimney sat at the side of the house and some smoke was coming out from it.

One of the windows was slightly opened and a dim light was coming out from it. The woman with the use of her shadow traveling ability made her way inside. The moment she entered she could see a shadow bouncing off from that light. It was a figure of a person, this person was sitting at a desk and looking through some parchments.

“Zilyana is that you? Told you not to sneak up on me like that, you can use the door like a normal person.”

The voice of the gnome that Rolan worked sounded in the residence. The woman’s form emerged from the shadows as she made herself noticeable. She looked slightly different from what she normally did. Her golden hair was now pure white and her skin color was dark brown. This was the usual appearance that a moon elf possessed.

“But it’s more fun this way~”

She giggled while the manager stopped writing, he fixed his glasses and pushed the stack of papers to the side before asking.

“Did you find anything?”

He was curious as his ‘assistant’ rarely returned in the middle of the night without a good reason, something must have happened.

“Perhaps…It’s a bit complicated.”

The gnome’s eyebrow rose but he remained silent waiting for her to continue.

“There was a small incident in Southtown.”

“In Southtown? We don’t really have many assets there.”

The manager interrupted Zilyana, his store mostly operated in the better parts of the city. He had some real estate bought out in the slums but only because it was cheap. Its cheapness stemmed from how bad the living conditions there were.

“Stop interrupting and let me finish! It’s about the kid, you know your favorite scribe.”

“Roland? Did something happen? Is he dead?”

The gnome rubbed his chin, when this woman was involved death wasn’t far away. It wasn’t really far fetched if the boy got involved with her.

“No, not him. Though someone did die by his hand…”

Zilyana started describing the situation. That Roland had slain a tier 2 thief and captured another one that was close to a high level steel adventurer. She also gave the info about him using some spells similar to her skills. This part wasn’t much of a surprise to the gnome as Roland had even asked him to supply him with all sorts of spell scrolls. The surprising part was that the child that wasn’t even 13 years of age could take out a tier 2 rogue.

“Damn bastards!”

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The gnome smacked the table with his hand, a vein pulsating over his eyebrow was clearly visible.

“First someone tries to undermine my business and now this.”

He paused for a moment before turning to his moon elf assistant.

“Do you know who is responsible, you said that one of the thieves survived? Do you know who they are?”

Zilyana smirked a bit before answering.

“They were clearly a party from the guild, that rogue was probably the leader. Haven’t been there in a while, should I pay them a visit?”

The woman smiled even wider, this smile made the manager shiver slightly as he knew what she was asking him about. He thought for a moment and nodded, he needed to show that he and his employees couldn’t be trifled with. The people from the thieves guild were strong but he had his own connections and he wasn’t afraid of the consequences.