Chapter 32. The Aristocrat 3/3
Dressed in my gear, I calmly walked to the meeting place with Greyrat, idly thinking that it actually wouldn't be a bad idea to upgrade part of my equipment and replace some as well—after all, the teachings of the sage Lona are no joke.
What was funny, though, was that despite walking through such a rough neighborhood, since it was morning, most of the shady dealers—who usually operated at night—were sleeping, so my way was surprisingly peaceful and uneventful. Soon enough, I spotted Greyrat waiting for me. Unlike last time, he was dressed in a full suit of plate armor (save for the helmet), holding a riveted steel shield and a warhammer that was almost as big as me.
"So, are you ready?" Greyrat asked instead of greeting me, giving an appraising look to my rather attractive self leaning on my staff. I just needed a hat to complete the witch look.
"Pretty much, but first…" I prepared the necessary spell and triggered its activation with a tap of my staff to the ground. A white wave spread out from me, fading at around two meters away.
"What was that?"
"A Silence spell. No sound within two meters of me will make it outside, so you can move around without worrying about alerting any lowlifes—at least until we find your friend."
"Hm… convenient."
…
…
We silently stared at each other. I was waiting for him to lead me to the right building, while he looked at me like he was expecting something else.
"Aren't we in a hurry?" I finally broke the silence.
"Yeah, we need to hurry…" the warrior in front of me agreed. "You said there'd be someone else, right?"
"Oh, right," I caught myself. "He drank too much yesterday, so I thought it'd be best to let him rest and come on my own."
"I see… let's go." With that, Greyrat turned and led me to the back of a fairly large warehouse. It was obvious he wanted to enter through the back door, but—
"Are you sure there won't be guards at the back entrance?" I couldn't help but ask, although from my memories I knew there would only be traps.
"Even if there are, there'll be far fewer people, meaning we have a better chance to slip in unnoticed."
"Hm, all right." I didn't argue and followed him until we reached a door secured by a lock.
"If I break down this door, they won't hear us, right?" Greyrat clarified.
"Right," I nodded.
At my answer, the warrior resolutely raised his hammer and with a single blow smashed the lock, letting us inside. As I remembered, the room was empty—just crates against the walls and a simple trap set directly under the door.
"Easier than I thought," Greyrat muttered. "But there's a trap ahead, and there'll probably be more further in; we need to be careful."
"It's fine. I've got it." I walked up closer to the trap and simply threw a fireball at it, burning the mechanism to nothing. It wasn't a mine, after all, just a trap meant to pepper an unwary intruder's backside with metal. Why did I call it primitive? Because it was too obvious.
"Crude… but effective," my companion commented.
"Let's go." I beckoned him along as I opened the next door…
Inside the main storage area, I couldn't help smirking: a quick look confirmed everything was exactly as I remembered, so I knew where all the traps were, even the mines—almost invisible unless you knew where to look.
"Don't make any noise for now; I'll disarm the mines," I said to Greyrat. After he nodded in understanding, I shifted the center of the silence field tied to me directly onto the mine and tossed a small stone from my inventory at it.
Clank—I heard the sound from my companion as, witnessing the explosion silently ignite before us, he reflexively recoiled. Even his seemingly indestructible armor probably wouldn't have held up after a blast like that.
Reestablishing the silence sphere, I looked at him and said, "Be careful; we can't get noticed."
"My bad, won't happen again," the big guy admitted easily, and we moved on.
In this way, we gradually disarmed five mines and four regular traps until we heard voices. Peeking carefully from behind some crates, we saw a group of five armed bandits standing a distance away from the entrance door, in front of which was a whole lot of barely concealed mines.
"Are you sure this'll work?" one of the kidnappers asked nervously.
"No one will survive that much explosives. And if they do, we can finish them easily," another replied confidently.
"True… So, hey, why can't we touch the bitch we're guarding? She's got great tits."
"You?! She'd bite your dick off!" another laughed nastily.
"Shut up, you idiots! We're on a job, focus!"
"They're all focused on the main door; this is our chance," Greyrat said.
"Okay, move out," I agreed, and we quickly ran to the nearest door within the sphere of silence.
"Wait, we need the next one," I stopped Greyrat. He didn't argue, just changed direction and, without worrying about the regular trap, walked right over it without consequence.
"I bet you didn't think about the consequences when you killed my pals, huh?" we heard a voice from the next room. Greyrat froze for a split second.
"Why are you doing this? All these people…" Greyrat's companion started to reply, but we weren't waiting any longer. Greyrat calmly opened the door, and, taking advantage of his silence, dashed behind the bandit across from the red-haired girl, smashing his head with the hammer.
The bandit's head couldn't withstand the force—he was literally decapitated, blood and brain matter splattering the wall, shards of skull stuck in the wood, and his body collapsed at the woman's feet.
"Vinit?!" the girl exclaimed in surprise, as I quickly closed the door behind us and stepped closer, moving the silence field to cover everyone in the room.
"My lady… I'm sorry for being late…" Greyrat said with a touch of guilt, easily breaking the bonds restraining his captive.
"My lady… So you are a noble," I smirked. I knew that already, but they needed to see I'd figured it out.
"Shh! Quiet!" the girl hissed, glancing anxiously at the door.
"Don't worry, they can't hear us. I'm maintaining the spell."
"Oh? I didn't expect you to be such a skilled sorceress," the aristocrat looked at me in surprise.
"I can do a lot more than just silence sounds," I grinned back.
"My lady… You…?" Greyrat began, concerned.
"I'm fine. They didn't do anything to me," she reassured him first.
"Oh, thank the Saints," Greyrat breathed a sigh of relief.
"So, what now? We kill them all?" I asked, barely hiding the predatory smile creeping across my face.
"Yes, that would be best," the girl nodded. "Vinit, did you bring a weapon for me?"
"Yes, my lady," he answered, handing her a straight saber.
"Perfect. Time to deal with them," she headed to the door, ready to take a few heads.
"Wait," I stopped her.
"What is it?" the noblewoman frowned.
"There's no point in risking yourself rushing in. It's better if I start from a distance—and if there's anyone left, then we'll chop them up." This time I couldn't quite hide my expression at the end, and the girl involuntarily flinched.
"Are you all right?" she asked warily.
"Don't worry, just some aftereffects of what I've been through," I replied, ignoring how she and Greyrat exchanged glances, and left the room.
Remembering the radius of the silence field, my companions stayed close as I stopped a short distance behind the waiting bandits.
"Hey, are you sure he'll come? Maybe we should have some fun with the whore after all? I'd love to try her ass."
"He'll come. Guys like him are like loyal dogs—they'd die before leaving their mistress in trouble. And about trying… I guess her mouth could use a little stuffing. But dibs on her pussy."
While they were talking, I raised my staff and began gathering energy at the tip. With every second the fireball grew larger, fueled by half my reserve, then, compressing it into a tiny bead, I shot it right between the cluster of thugs and the mines.
BOOM!
The enemy didn't even realize what happened—a blinding flash, and together with most of the wall and door, they were simply vaporized. The view outside opened up.
"Nice job," I nodded, satisfied at my handiwork.
"That was…" the aristocrat whispered in shock, unsure how to react.
"What? You didn't think someone who's cleared out so many bandit and orc gangs would be weak, did you?" I looked at my stunned companions.