When I headed into a back room, I found a man hanging his head. He was wearing a plain cloak.
“Hey, Slade. Been a while since you showed your face around here.”
“Yeah. I’ve been busy.”
“Very busy, I’m sure,” I muttered to myself. “Find any quests that caught your eye?”
“This one.”
He showed me a sheet we hadn’t put up more than ten minutes ago.
“The assassination of the Welger Company’s leader.”
Ben Amster was the client. The former count had withdrawn his bounty on the man who’d ruined the underground arena. I never learned whether he’d changed his mind or found satisfaction and saw fit to end the quest.
I’d warned Slade not to get involved, but I hadn’t heard what transpired after. That job had been the only one he’d showed interest in. All the other quests he’d completed looked like he was just going through the motions.
He’d told me one of his friends had met an unfortunate end. Smelled like a lie to me. Given how Slade conducted himself, I doubted he even had friends. The guy struck me more as the type to fight alone and die that way, too.
“Killing the head of the Welger Company… A guild master, eh.”
The man’s name was Pablo Weber. Forty-three years old. The one who put in the request used to be close to the target, so there was plenty of information to be had.
I hadn’t learned the motive behind it, but nothing good came from prying, so I generally didn’t.
“I heard you did well during your previous assassination… The one with Bescoda. Should be fine if you handle this one.”
“I see.”
“But…there’s not much of a reward. You sure about this?”
This was the man who’d practically threatened me over the Bescoda assassination payment being too low.
Honestly, Slade terrified me back then. Didn’t know many who oozed murder just because you pissed them off. I couldn’t help but wonder what kinda life Slade had lived to be capable of something like that.
Since he was a special case, I’d increased the reward, but that was a onetime exception. And I’d only allowed it because Slade came recommended by Victor.
It had even almost sounded like he knew the guild was taking a giant cut. Which meant…the guy was far from a rookie. Slade was the real deal, a pro who knew everything about the underground biz.
“Yes, I wouldn’t mind a smaller reward,” he said.
What the…? He was being awfully passive this time.
“I have a personal grudge against this man,” he added.
“Huh.”
Sounded like bullshit. If Slade really had a grudge, he wouldn’t have admitted to it with such indifference. Plus, it was clear he wasn’t the crazy berserker type who didn’t care about the money as long as he got to kill.
Slade’s eyes were the most frightening pair I’d ever seen. No instinct in them, just logic… The eyes of a killer who’d take someone apart like a hunk of meat.
What was he scheming at this time?
“…” With such a low payout, no one else was going to take this assassination job. “You get things done. Take the quest.”
“Thank you.”
What had led Slade here? I was a little curious, but looking into that kind of stuff was forbidden.
Personally, I didn’t care, considering the man’s results. If he was fine doing a lousy gig at the agreed-upon amount, I was happy and so was the client. Joy all around.
Fine enough for me. All perfectly acceptable.
“I’m counting on you,” I said while watching Slade leave the room.
He turned around and gave me a look with those shrewd eyes in response. There was no doubt he’d succeed.
Slade made all the other people who stopped by the underground guild seem harmless by comparison. All of them were here because they figured if they were going to do something bad, they might as well get some money for it, too.
That’s what the underground guild was—a gathering of those rough types.
It was easy for me to see how the Welger Company’s leader, Pablo, became the target of an assassination quest.
He’d been involved in kidnapping, illegal poaching, smuggling drugs, illicit trading… Really, that was how things had always been at the Welger Company. Lately, however, it seemed like he’d grown kinda panicked.
Pablo had previously put in quests at the underground guild, so we’d sent men to scope out his business.
The company acted like a proper enterprise on the surface, but in truth, it was a genuine criminal syndicate. Merchants who worked there must have caught wind of that because they’d been leaving in droves recently. With the rise of the Adventurers Guild in Bardenhawk, the dealers were able to put in requests for things they couldn’t handle themselves.
I always kinda suspected Pablo would end up on someone’s hit list. It happened a whole lot faster than I’d thought, though.
Three days had passed since Slade took the quest.
Pablo Weber’s corpse was discovered in his own home.
We’d also dispatched twenty of our own to the scene after Pablo submitted his own guarding quest. Thankfully, all of them had survived. Each was well suited to protection work, yet none had noticed the murder occur. It had to be Slade… He was just built differently from the rest.
I was prepping a reward when someone I hadn’t seen in a while stopped by. The beautiful woman’s black hair flowed in loose waves. Dull golden eyes, a thin nose, and as tall as a man—a lovely figure all around.
She was always one to watch out for.
I took a swig from the flask I kept on hand.
“Hey, Moyes, how’ve you been?”
“Still kicking. Any quest caught your eye?” I asked.
“The underground guild doesn’t just exist for quests, y’know.”
“You accept quests here for a reward,” I replied. “That’s what this place is for.”
Her name was Maria, although that was likely a fake identity. Few used their real ones here.
“Oh, don’t be like that,” she said.
Oh, right. Speaking of murder… Maria was just as capable as that guy. I’d known her since before the war, however.
“So I have a very interesting job right now. But it’s been just a teensy bit difficult,” Maria remarked.
“Must be a nasty one to give you trouble.”
“Right? I was hoping you could provide a little intel for me.”
Maria grinned. She had a rough way of conducting herself and never flaunted her femininity, but she smiled at times like these. She was an amazing woman. But she was also a bad woman—one who knew how to use her charms.
“What information are you looking for?”
“So you know how the princess of Felind has come to Bardenhawk? Well, she’s with someone pretty dangerous…and I can’t get anywhere near her.”
“Even you can’t approach this person? That’s unusual.”
“Pushing my luck with this guy will cause trouble.”
“That bad? What’s he look like? Tell me about this guy.”
“Honestly, I can’t risk getting near enough to find out.” Maria looked happy despite saying what she was saying. “And it’s driving me crazy a guy like that is wandering around. I want info on him.”
“You haven’t given me enough to go on.”
“You’re right, of course,” Maria said with a sigh. Seemed she’d asked me as a last resort. “That’s what makes this job so interesting, though.”
That was the dangerous thing about Maria. She was the exact opposite of Slade. The sort of woman born for fighting…like a teen girl who loved murder.
“Oh, right,” she said, as though remembering something. “What happened to that wanted poster?”
“Which one?” I asked.
“The one for the underground arena. It had a good picture to go with it.”
“It was withdrawn… Did you draw the sketch?”
“Oh, really? We forced him to put in the request, so I guess that’s not surprising.”
I had no idea what Maria was talking about, but it seemed she knew something about that bounty.
When I found a copy, Maria exclaimed, “Yes, that’s the one!” She stared at the poster like an eager kid. “I wonder where he is.”
Maria stroked the poorly drawn image lovingly. Her childish expression disappeared, suddenly replaced with that of a mother and also a woman thinking of a recent lover.
“…Who knows? It’s too late to claim the reward if you kill him now, though.”
“I know… Oh.”
“What?”
“I remembered another one of his fake names. However, he doesn’t use it nearly as much as the others written on the bounty.”
“Does it really matter when the quest’s already been with—?”
“Slade.”
My heart leaped out of my chest.