Checking the man’s pulse, Zig let out a sigh of relief.
“Alive…barely. He wasn’t someone I could hold back against, but I can’t just go killing my only lead. Then again, there’s always healing magic.”
Although he did tell the man to eat shit, he couldn’t kill his only source of information.
He rummaged through the man’s belongings and found a broken bracelet. The magic item had activated and created a barrier just as Zig’s roundhouse connected. The shape of it suggested that it was of great value. It might have been good enough to deflect a blade, but unfortunately it was of no use against blunt force. The magic item was small and portable, though that meant that it wasn’t very powerful.
The barrier broke because of the force of Zig’s kick, but it did its job and prevented the man from dying. Zig had noticed the bracelet’s activation and that’s why he put his whole weight into the kick. However, he hadn’t expected the barrier to be so fragile. He only wanted to knock the man out but had given him a broken jaw instead. The fight could’ve gone better in a more open space, though he doubted that the men would’ve attacked him there.
“Didn’t think anyone would come after me, though…” Zig said in an exasperated tone as he scratched his head. Things had been going so well that he didn’t quite know what to do now.
If he was being honest, he had zero expectations going into the dark alley. The whole thing stank of a conspiracy, but he hadn’t expected assassins to be sent to deal with a nosy mercenary. He didn’t have enough evidence and wanted to avoid doing anything that might worsen the situation. Whoever it was must not want him to be snooping around.
In any case, the mastermind probably hadn’t realized that he had been hired by the guild. If he did, they wouldn’t do something so careless as to take out a guild investigator.
“I’ll definitely have to report this to Kirk tomorrow.”
The situation was getting worse by the second. Zig left the dead body behind to tie up the live one. Though when he tried to look for something to identify the tall man, he came up short. He thought he should perhaps give him up to the military police and inform Kirk so the guild could interrogate him.
“He probably won’t say anything.”
He wasn’t expecting much from the interrogation. There were always exceptions, but good hit men tended to be tight-lipped.
This man’s stealth was top-notch. Zig had managed to fend him off, but that was only because he had been expecting to be attacked. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have noticed him in time.
Although he failed the ambush, the man could hold his own in a fight. Assassins had no need to be amazing at combat. Their job wasn’t to trade blows with their target but to kill them as silently and efficiently as possible.
“But this narrows it down. Not everyone can hire a competent hit man.”
A competent hit man required a lot of money and good connections.
Kirk should be able to look into that.
“Too bad I don’t know who you are,” Zig said to himself, feeling somewhat sorry for his attacker, whose face he hadn’t even seen yet.
Things were going well for the culprits. He had yet to narrow down the list of suspects, and there was no solid evidence pointing to them yet. Even Kirk only had his gut feeling to rely on.
However, they made one big mistake. Despite things going so well for them, they had demanded perfection.
They were probably unaware of certain individuals who didn’t give a damn about the process as long as it brought results or forced the outcome they wanted at any cost.
Someone definitely didn’t want this matter to be investigated.
“That’s enough for me.”
Zig was pleased as long as he had some kind of answer. The other pieces would fall into place soon enough.
Although he wasn’t good at this whole investigating thing, he knew someone who was.
“The right man in the right place.”
Comforted by the fact that he could toss this problem into someone else’s lap, Zig disappeared into the darkness.