“Can I ask you, whom are you working now?” Black Hammer asked after a moment of hesitation.
Theo didn’t give him an answer. Instead, he simply pointed with his thumb into the direction of the palace behind him.
After leaving the patrol and rats, most people only knew that he had become a guard, but they didn’t know that he was soon selected by Wimbledon III as the personal guard of the 4th Prince, following His Royal Highness to Border Town. Within his six months of disappearance, they should think that he had been working in the palace. Moreover, by just pointing to the direction of the palace, he hadn’t lied — the royal family wasn’t only Timothy, Roland Wimbledon was also a member of the royal family.
“I see,” he nodded. “But Hillwei and Swineherd are gone, can I pick my own hands?”
“What happened to them?”
“Dead,” Black Hammer said full of hate, “Within last year’s winter, a conflict with the people of Dreamland Water arose, they had taken hold of poppy flowers and dying fern, selling it within the northern city district. Casas had led everyone to drive them back. During the fight, Hillwei got a knife to his neck, the blood simply could not be stopped from flowing, and Swineherd was also thrown into the canal.
Theo frowned, with such kind of thinks the patrol would bother themselves, from time to time they would even deliberately provoke the rats into biting each other in order to control their strength and quantity, so whenever one of them died, they wouldn’t care. “That’s all right, but remember, they must be the people of the tavern.”
…
Theo took a deep breath after leaving the Covert Trumpeter.
The moist and moldy smell in the pub made him want to vomit, only when his lungs were once more filled with the burning hot summer air was he able to disperse the dark and suffocating feeling.
Although Black Hammer had invited him to wait in the tavern, even claiming that he would come up with good wine to entertain him, Theo wasn’t willing to stay in that small place for too long. In the event that something unforeseen arose, he would be unable to react by the time he became aware of it.
After leaving the tavern, he decided to go to the inner city, and look for a reasonable Inn and reserve a room there for the night. As for the soldiers of the first army, they were already very skilled in setting up camp for the night, so there was no need for him to worry about them.
When night fell, Theo returned to the Convert Trumpeter.
At this time, the pub was doing its usual business, and from time to time a customer would enter or exit. For a while he just watched from the dark, waiting for the regular customers to come into the house.
As a low-grade tavern in the outer city, most of the visitors were commoners, so the drinks were also the cheap ale. Just ten copper royals was enough to drink several large cups in succession. Within the noisy surrounding, he quickly found Black Hammer’s men; they were sitting around a table next to the wall and on top of their table laid a white phalange.
When Theo, calmly and collectedly walked over, a person immediately stood up to make a place for him.
“Good evening, Sir,” Silver Ring and Pott greeted him with a nod.
“Let me introduce these two to you. This is Little Finger.” Black Hammer patted the little woman beside him and then pointed at the young man opposite her, “And this one is Hill Fawkes, he only recently became a member of the Skeleton Fingers.”
“Fawkes?” Theo’s eyes stopped on the opposite party, while the latter somewhat sparingly bowed his head in greeting.
“Within our line of work, there are only a few who have a family name,” Black Hammer laughed, “he had gambled until nothing was left. First, his wife ran away, then he even had to sell his house, after that he came to join the ranks of the street rats. He used to live in the Northern District and was an occasionally patron of the Covert Trumpeter.”
Silver Rings and Pott were old acquaintances, while Little Finger looked like any other child from the streets, but Hill Fawkes, Theo actually felt that there was something strange about him… yet, his appearance really resembled someone who had gone through such a drastic change of life, suffering physically and mentally. Yet, within his eyes, there was something, which Theo was unable to grasp, it was like… In the end, after thinking about it, he was still unable to get an answer.
Whatever, since he had been living in the Northern District and was a customer of the tavern, there shouldn’t be a problem. Furthermore, my first task it just to complete the transport of the fugitives, there isn’t any risk involved.
“Alright, now listen, the job you have to do isn’t complicated. The upper ranks don’t want to see that the number of fugitives who fled from the Eastern Region continues to increase. The grain reserves are becoming less and less every day, if it goes on like this, it is only a matter of time until riots start to break out, making it much harder to deal with them. Because of this, they thought of a way to lure them away from King’s City.”
“What do you need us to do?” Black Hammer asked.
“It is very simple; you only have to spread the message that the wasteland in the West is being reclaimed and that the local Lords are willing to accept the fugitives. Moreover, a fleet with mercenaries has already set out to escort them back and will arrive in three days at the canal’s pier. So, the only thing you need to do is to spread this message between those fools outside of the city. Feel free to add the specific details, the more attractive you make it appear, the better.
“But… If the appointed time for the fleet and mercenaries comes and they aren’t there, saying all this will have no use ah.” Silver Ring said.
“Of course, the escort will come,” Theo smiled.
“Ah?” He got startled, “Is it really true that the Lords of the Western Region want to accept them?”
“You fool,” Black Hammer gave him a slap on top of his head, “If you want to play such an act, you naturally have to go through with it. After they get escorted to the Western Region, do you believe they will be able to come back by only relying on their two feet? As for how to handle them afterward, let the local Lords get a headache about that.” He looked to Theo, “This is indeed not a difficult task, but the reward…”
Theo raised two fingers, “Twice as much. My new employer has money, unlike the patrol. He just wants to see some results as quickly as possible, how much gold royals it will cost him, doesn’t matter to him.” He smiled, “Haven’t I told you already, that this is very a good business deal.”
Chapter 216 Demonic Plague
During the following two days, Theo moved non-stop between Margaret’s Chamber of Commerce and King’s City’s suburbs.
Margaret would provide the fleet for the transportation of the refugees while the First Army, who would be disguised as mercenaries, would arrive at the canal’s pier at the appointed time to arrange the screening and embarking.
As for the dissemination of information, Theo wasn’t worried that Black Hammer would handle such a task relaxedly after swallowing such attractive bait. Letting street rats do such work was much more convenient than giving it to outsiders. Although their range of activity was limited to the Northern District, the refugees would certainly spread the news amongst themselves. Furthermore, he couldn’t handle them all at once anyway. Prior to this, His Royal Highness had explicitly explained to him that this was a task which could be done over time by sending one ship after another.