novelraw Chapter 55: Next Day
Chapter 55: Next Day
"What was that?" one of the guards on duty suddenly shouted as he turned to the well.
"What?!" The other guards jumped back and drew their weapons as their eyes scanned the half-lit surrounding, searching for the supposed attack.
Nothing moved and no other sound cane except of the sound of the water flowing down into the pool.
After a few seconds, they all sighed and one of them shoved the first guard.
"What the fuck are you doing? Why did you scream like that?"
"Yeah," another guard added. "My heart almost stopped."
A third guard shook his head and let out a long breath.
Guarding seemed like an easy job, especially when it so far from the gate or during peacetime but the truth was that these types of guards usually died first in a sneak attack.
The job had been easy for so long that it was already turning stressful.
They were all bandits, they knew how the world worked and they have committed such atrocities in the past.
’I could have sworn I heard something off,’ the first guard thought.
The water emerged from the rocks and made a certain sound which was a steady rhythm he had heard a thousand times but for a moment, he was sure he had heard a small dissonance.
He increased the light intensity on the lamp and looked carefully at the surroundings... Nothing.
He looked at the rocks around the well... Nothing.
He looked at the water still nothing.
"I am sorry," he finally said, he gave a small bow to show his remorse to his teammate knowing just how stressed he had made them.
Unfortunately, he missed the shadow that moved away high above him.
***
Roden landed beside his sister.
This time, he was far more exhausted than before... the moment he stepped on the ground his wings disappeared.
His breathing was heavy and sweat was dripped from his chin... unlike regular flying, trying to be as precise as possible was far harder than he expected.
Thankfully he was able to complete his mission even if barely.
Jensen nodded in approval as he looked at Roden in a new light.
Roden had not thrown the pills into the shallow pool itself.
That would have been too obvious, instead, he had dropped them in a small indent in the rocks where water flowed over them on its way down to the pool below.
Unless someone checked that specific crevice, they would never notice.
The reason was simple... they did not want the drug to concentrate all at once in the pool.
If he dropped the pills directly into the water, the first people to drink would get a heavy dose while the last people might get nothing.
But by placing the pills upstream, the flowing water would gradually wear them away over time and by the end of the day, no matter how much water had been taken, traces of the drug would still remain.
"Is that all for now?" Jensen asked
"Yes, my lord," Talia said.
Jensen glanced between Talia and Jim. "Are you both good to fly?"
"Yes, my lord, but..." Talia started.
Before she could finish, Jensen grabbed her brother by the collar as his wings appeared and he took off into the sky.
Talia and Jim looked at each other, then they activated their transformation and took off after them.
***
The next morning, Jensen chose to stay on a tree close to a stream all day and cultivate.
While he hoped there would be no complications with his plan to absorb the XR Gang and the Uesugi Clan, he did not want to put his survival on hope.
To him hope was not a strategy.
He chose his spot carefully and once he was content, he began refining the blood.
Most of the impurities had been cleared by his actions with Lily and Maria but it was still not clean enough for him... not yet.
So, he began purifying it again while picking out the leftover remnant spirits one by one to use for his mind cultivation.
On the other side of the camp, Talia only got a few hours of sleep before she had to wake up.
She had to give directives to the mercenaries she had hired, and her brother did not stay far behind.
He followed her dutifully, to make sure nothing went wrong as he also did his own part.
Their father stayed back in his tent; he was going to spend the entire day crafting different kinds of talismans and storage boxes for preserving magical plants and fruits.
That was the job designated to him by his daughter and Lily. So, he planned to do it to the best of his abilities.
"Good morning," Talia said to the mercenaries who had gathered not far from the main tent.
"Good morning, Lady Talia," a few of them answered while the others just stared at her.
Talia nodded, she pulled out a very old looking map, it was obviously made from an old animal skin with the edges were torn.
She squinted at it, then compared it to a newer map she had gotten from Posey’s stash.
She had to make the act look as genuine as possible.
Once she was done with her inspection, she carefully folded both maps and put them back in her spatial ring.
"Let’s go."
She walked past them and led them in the opposite direction of the mine.
They walked for a few minutes before she finally stopped where the path seemed to grow fade even though the ground was obviously disturbed.
She turned around to face the mercenaries.
"You will start here... we have previously done a search of this area, but I would prefer to be thorough."
She looked at each face in the crowd.
"The Level 3 Guard has checked all of you and made sure you did not have any spatial items on you, so I have no need to search you further. However, my brother will stay back to keep a lookout."
She paused.
"The item we are searching for is very unique and cannot be found with simple senses so you will have to search physically."
"We do not know the exact location, but we have a general idea. The area is too large for a single person to cover."
She held up one finger.
"Once the item is found and presented to us, you will be paid a thousand low-grade mana stones as a reward as well as a spatial ring and other items to be decided."
A lone mercenary stepped forward, he was middle aged and his eyes were sharp.
"But that was not included in our contract," he said. "How are we to be sure you will pay up?"
Talia tilted her head. "We have a Level 3 guard, and you think we would cheap out on a thousand low-grade mana stones?"
The mercenary pressed on obviously fishing.
"Then why not use your own people for this mission? Is there something you are not telling us? I refuse to believe you want anyone to find out about this... mission."
His voice grew harder. "Are you planning to silence us?"
Talia’s eyes sharpened.
"It is supposed to be a secret mission, that is why you signed a non-disclosure agreement contract. I would have preferred to use a mana-binding contract, but they were too expensive for this, so..."
"But..." the man tried to interrupt.
Talia cut him off. "Did we force you to come here?"
"No, but..."
"Then shut up and get to work... or find your way back to town."
The man’s mouth closed.
Talia turned to the rest of the mercenaries. "The same goes for the rest of you. Just do what you are asked and go home richer. I believe seven thousand gold slips with all expenses paid is enough to dig through the ground for a few days."
"And if you are the lucky finder... you go home with an extra thousand low-grade mana stone. Any problem with that?"
She scanned the group waiting for someone else to speak but no one did.
She nodded before she began making her way back to camp.
She paused before she was out of earshot.
"Oh... and do not go too far from here if you still want the protection as promised."
Then she continued her walk back to camp as fast as possible, she still had to arrange and take stock of the loot Herald had hastily packed into the tents.