Chapter 349: Every Second-in-Command Wants a Promotion
"What was that sound?"
When the guards in the hall heard the noise from upstairs and wondered what it was, the two men they had surrounded suddenly struck.
Letho threw off his cloak, flinging it at the nearest guard. The move blocked the guard's vision and temporarily hindered his next move. Letho then drew the two short swords from his chest, lunging forward and burying them both in the necks of two guards who hadn't had time to react.
Roche also shed his cloak and drew his longsword, beheading a guard with a single, swift strike.
The fight erupted so suddenly that Alphonse's men didn't realize what was happening until several of their comrades were already lying in pools of blood. To be fair, it wasn't their lack of skill; gang thugs were no match for professional soldiers. More importantly, Alphonse's men outnumbered Lynn's party, so they never expected Lynn's companions to make the first move.
By the time Lynn came downstairs, the battle in the hall was over. Other than Letho and Roche, every one of Alphonse's men was a corpse.
"What took you so long?"
Letho frowned. "Didn't we agree to kill him the moment you met?"
Their plan had been for Lynn, his appearance altered by the Charm of Deception, to meet Alphonse Willy as Baron Brandon. If Letho and Roche were allowed to join him, they would wait for a signal from upstairs to act. If they were left behind, they would attack upon hearing a commotion from the second floor. The delay was much longer than anticipated, leaving Letho and Roche to wonder if the plan had failed.
"My apologies, it took a bit longer than expected. I just wanted to hear what kind of pearls could come from his dog's mouth."
Next, the trio began to clear out the remaining enemies in the estate. They left the common folk, like the cooks, alone, but any armed men were cut down. The heavy rain masked the sounds of the slaughter. If someone had walked past the estate, the sound of the rain would have drowned out the tearing of flesh and the dying screams.
When the three stopped, there were no longer any living souls in the manor besides themselves.
"Lynn, I remember Whoreson I has a son, doesn't he?" Letho's memory was sharp. He distinctly remembered that none of the men they'd killed were wearing fine clothing. Nor were any of the men who fled.
"He does," Lynn said, looking around. "Did he get away?"
"Should we go after him?" Roche asked.
Lynn shook his head. "No need."
It didn't matter if he'd escaped. Whoreson I's son, Cyprian Willy—the future Whoreson Junior—wasn't a very clever man. In The Witcher 3, he was foolish enough to harm Ciri and then, at the behest of Radovid, the future king of Redania, tried to instigate a gang war. Radovid figured that if the city descended into chaos, it would be easier to conquer. If Cyprian harming Ciri could be excused by his ignorance of her background and connections, his later actions were a testament to his stupidity. Cyprian's status and power came from the Willy gang, and the gang's power came from Novigrad's neutrality and the peace between the gangs. If he broke that peace, Cyprian and the Willy gang would become targets of the other gangs.
And that's exactly what happened. In The Witcher 3, Geralt sought out Cyprian to find Ciri's whereabouts. Even if Geralt didn't kill Cyprian, Cyprian would not have survived. The gang's officers and members wouldn't have fought to the bitter end for his ambition and foolishness. Without his property, his men, and his status, he would have plummeted to the lowest rung of Novigrad's society, where a miserable end awaited him.
Any sensible person would have known that even if Cyprian had succeeded in helping Radovid take Novigrad, he wouldn't have been rewarded. He would have been killed. With such a man, if he escaped, he escaped. What kind of waves could he possibly make? Even if he ran to another Willy gang hideout, the gang's officers, hearing of the chaos at the estate, probably wouldn't think of revenge first. They would be thinking about seizing power. After all, what second-in-command doesn't want a promotion?
Cyprian Willy, the man who had not yet earned the title of Whoreson Junior, fled through the streets in a panic. The heavy rain drenched him. He stumbled several times, his finely made, expensive clothes covered in mud. But Cyprian didn't care. What was a little dirt compared to his life?
It all happened so fast, his mind was still buzzing. Since last night, his old man had locked him in his room, forbidding him to go out. This was just because he, like his father, had played with and killed a few prostitutes. His father did the same thing, yet when he did it, he was reprimanded so mercilessly in front of everyone, with no consideration for his reputation. At that moment, Cyprian had secretly made up his mind. One day, he would cast off both his father and his own weakness. He never expected his retribution to come so soon.
While cooped up in his room, he had seen three strangers being led by the butler, Adel, toward his father's quarters. His own house was positioned perfectly to see his father's rooms. From there, he witnessed his father's men, including the respected sorcerer, and his high and mighty, arrogant father being slaughtered by a single man.
Cyprian made what might have been the smartest decision of his life: he didn't think, "There are only a few enemies, and we have more men. We can take them." He simply fled the Willy estate.
After escaping, Cyprian glanced back, but didn't dare linger. He frantically ran toward the nearest Willy gang-owned casino. When he arrived, his disheveled state nearly got him turned away by the casino's thugs. After he identified himself, someone was sent to fetch the casino manager.
Soon, a man with a receding hairline rushed over. "I'm Casno, the manager of this casino. Young Master Cyprian, what brings you here? Are you alone?" Casno snapped his fingers. "What are you idiots standing around for? Go get a bath ready for the young master. Can't you see he's soaked?"
"Ah... yes! Right away!"
"No need, Mr. Casno, the Willy estate is under..." Cyprian was about to say that the Willy estate was under attack, but he suddenly remembered something, and the words on his tongue changed. "Yes, a good bath is needed. Thank you."
Casno sensed that something was off with Cyprian. He was clearly not his usual self. Still, he was the boss's son, and no matter how strange his behavior was, it was not for a Willy gang officer to question.
..........
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