Chapter 44

“Good. No real problems on our side and Wraine took care of Baronet Humphrey when we brought him back here. Passed the qualifications I set for him and he’s a part of Candle now. What about you two?” Now that I take a look at him, Wraine’s face is pale and there’s blood drops smeared on his face. His hands look even bloodier and there’s a blank look in his eyes. Not good. Wraine has the opposite problem of me and has too much heart. I’m sure Quinn took measures tonight to fix his weakness. I hope he’ll be alright. Wait, Baronet Humphrey? I recognize that name, but from where…?

“Went pretty smoothly. My trial for him was a bit more unusual because I needed to see how far gone he was but he turned out fine. Did you find Mary?”

“Mm. Humphrey was planning on taking it slow with her and training her up as his maid first. She’s fine, just scared and worried. She’s asleep in Ilya’s room. What are your plans for her?”

“Emerelda’s planning on taking over when Jerome turns up missing. I was planning on handing her back over when she’s appointed director in a few days.”

When I hear this, I can’t help but picture a little girl no older than nine winters old crying by herself in that orphanage. Her mom abandoned her and even after she gets rescued by us from the noble who bought her, she’ll get sent back to the orphanage again. It’s heartbreaking. Is there nothing else I can do for her? “Can I… Can we… Can I do anything else for her?” Everyone in the yard turns their heads to look at me. “I know I killed her dad. I know I’m the last person who should be worrying about her. But she has to go through all this, so fucking much of it, and she gets sent back to the orphanage in the end? That’s just… so unfair.”

Bertrand sniffs his nose a few times as he’s thinking before he says, “I know I put you through a lot tonight both mentally and emotionally. But do you remember what I mentioned before? Are you gonna be the one to take care of her, buy her food, buy her clothes, and will you keep her here in the compound? I didn’t really mean anything with that and I sure as hell don’t expect you to actually abide by it. I mean, you’re not much more than a kid yourself. I only said that to fuck with your mind a little bit to make you struggle on the inside and see which side of you won in the end. You don’t need to worry about all that. Emerelda’s a good person and the girl will be well taken care of at the orphanage.”

“... Alright.” It’s not alright. I can’t help but worry still but I also realize there isn’t much more I can do for her. I should just be satisfied with at least getting her out of Humphrey's clutches and hope whatever family she ends up with treats her well. It’s a compromise and I know that but what else can I do?

“All that’s left is to take care of Priest Jerome here and make sure whoever finds the body spreads the word about what happened to him. Need to make it as gruesome as possible to show others what happens to people who traffic children in this city.” When the priest hears his inevitable grisly fate, he starts thrashing around on the ground while still tied up and tries to scream through the rag in his mouth. I guess he really thought we’d let him go in the end. Unfortunate. “Isaac, you'll do the honors for the priest here. Get as creative as you can, this is about sending a message after all.” Hmm.

It looks like Wraine’s seen enough blood for the night and Quinn leads him out of the backyard heading towards the front of the compound. As creative as I can get, huh? I’m not really the type to make others suffer unnecessarily and I’ve always made sure my kills were quick. Trying to do the opposite now is like trying to change how my brain works and I can’t really think of anything. Taking a look at Jerome’s handsome face, his blue eyes look at me, begging for mercy. Sorry, not my call here. Besides, you’re the one who sold Mary off in the first place, right? My eyes travel lower and I can see the dirty cloth Bertrand stuffed into his mouth. Jerome’s perfect white teeth contrast with the dirty rag creating a unique image. He really is a two faced bastard. He takes meticulous care of how he looks, keeps himself well groomed, and maintains flawless teeth all while secretly selling off his orphanage’s children to the wealthiest scum he can find. “Can anyone hear us here Bertrand?”

“No, make as much noise as you want. The front buildings are far enough away that they won’t hear a peep from here and this yard is surrounded by buildings all around, you can think of this yard as a completely isolated space. Nothing you do here will leave this yard.”

Interesting. I crack my knuckles before sauntering over to Jerome on the ground. When I reach him, I squat down and reach out my hand to pull out the rag in his mouth but he flinches away. Chuckling, I show him my open palm to indicate I’m not going to hurt him, yet. This time he doesn’t flinch and I get the rag out of his mouth. The moment his mouth’s free, he immediately starts getting into it, although a few of his words sound odd, probably due to the broken jaw. “Please, please, please, please. We can talk about this, I can give you money. A lot of money. I’ll give you all the money I have, just please let me go. I didn’t know what I was doing, you have to believe me. All I did was bring orphans to the back of the church at night and someone was there to take them away. If I didn’t do it, they would have killed me. Please, I didn’t know where they’d end up and if I knew, I would’ve never done any of this.” Quite the silver tongue. But quite the liar as well. He doesn’t seem to think we know about the ledger. Too bad.

“Shh, shh, shh.” I shush him down while putting my finger to his lips. “It’s alright Jerome. I understand. It’s a misunderstanding, this is all a misunderstanding and I’m trying to help you by getting to the bottom of it. It’s all going to be okay, Jerome. Actually, Jerome sounds so formal and we’re much closer than that. How about I call you Jerry? You see Jerry, I noticed how good your teeth looked while you were on the ground there and I was wondering how you did it.” I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m just trying to copy the crazy people I’ve seen before who I thought spoke really well like Stanley when he interrogated Gregory in front of Mountain’s Toil’s gate and Bertrand earlier when he was speaking to Jerome like a child. I don’t even know why I’m doing this, I just thought it’d be fun. Jerome looks at me with confusion on his face and Bertrand’s having a giggling fit next to us.

“It’s a recipe I found when I was training to be a priest in Nasaar’s capital. All you need to do is find Dyrep berries and sun dry a handful of them. After a day or so, crush them with a mortar and pestle, add a little water, and it becomes a white paste that’ll keep your teeth clean and whiten them at the same time. Will you please let me go now? I promise I’ll leave the city tonight and I’ll never come back.”

“Fascinating, you said Dyrep berries? I think I remember reading about them in a book I stole and all the author mentioned about them was that they’re useful for keeping livestock healthy and a handful of berries every six months would do wonders for them. To think they had such a use for humans as well. It’s amazing to see the kind of knowledge you learn from all sorts of places. You said you learned it during your priest training? Why didn’t you learn any morals back then as well? I don’t really know anything about priests or the kind of training they go through but you should have learned how to differentiate between right and wrong, right? But it seems to me you spent all your time on learning how to appear like a good person instead of actually becoming a good person, isn’t that right Jerry?” Jerome opens his mouth to say something, probably to plead for mercy again, but before he can get a word out, my fist lands on his jaw. His head hits the ground and bounces up once as I straddle his chest. This time I use my right elbow to bash his face in, over and over again. Bertrand taught me this. Punches and kicks are fine and all at The Fighting Cock but if you really want to inflict some damage, elbows and knees are your bread and butter in a fist fight. Didn’t help me much and I still haven’t won a fight yet, but that’s because every single one of my opponents after the first one outweighed and outclassed me by a huge margin. Bertrand says it’s good to practice against bigger opponents but he’s been betting 10 silver coins on me every fight hoping for a huge payout from the lopsided betting odds. At least I can practice what I’ve learned on poor Jerome here.

After a few minutes, he’s missing a few teeth and the remaining ones are stained red by his blood. There’s even a tooth lodged in my leather top where my right elbow bends. His nose is probably broken too and he’s been gurgling on his blood for a while now. This is a good start but this isn’t creative enough. Looking around, I find a set of two wooden steps leading up to one of the buildings. Now that, that’s creative. Dragging the semiconscious Jerome over to the wooden steps, I prop his mouth open and have him bite down on the bottom step. When he realizes what I’m doing, he begs and pleads but all that comes out are horrified whimpers. When I’m ready, I stomp my right boot down and the sickening sensation I feel from my foot is only overwhelmed by the sickening squishing and cracking sounds I heard. His body lays motionless on the bottom step as the rest of his teeth clatter noisily on the wooden step’s surface. There’s a silence that comes over the yard as I look down on Jerome’s body. I don’t think he’s dead yet. “Well, haven’t seen that one before. I’ll be adding that one into my own arsenal for the future. Have anything else in mind? Jerome’s not quite dead yet.” I shake my head and for the next two hours, Bertrand shows me everything in his arsenal. Holy fuck, I feel like I understand what Wraine went through tonight. The things we did to Jerome before he finally died at the end of those two hours were inhumane to say the least. I thought Derriv’s outfit was supposed to be the only source of light in a pitch-black city but I guess all that’s off the table when we’re dealing with human traffickers. Or perhaps that’s only the case when Bertrand’s involved in dealing with them.

When we’re finished, we put Jerome’s remains in a large black linen sack only suitable for human bodies which Bertrand makes me carry while he grabs another similar sized sack from a dark corner of the yard. Now where did that come from? I need to work on my attention to detail in the dark. Jerome’s body is pretty heavy but with this past month of sword practice and my improved meals at The Sleeping Hornet, I’ve been steadily building up strength and it’s starting to show. We make our way out of the compound as we discreetly head to a specific location. It looks like we’re dumping the bodies in the most expensive area of the entertainment district near one of the high class brothels. Bertrand did say we were sending a message and I guess this place gets the most amount of traffic but damn this is nerve wracking. As we head into another dark alley, I’m keeping an eye on our surroundings, looking for anyone who might see us. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a well lit window on the second floor of a nearby building and there’s someone there, watching me. Turning my head around to see who it is, I see a beautiful woman with long golden blond hair, leaning on her elbows on the windowsill, staring at me. The left side of her hair is braided with intricate designs that capture my eyes and I can’t seem to look away. I look a little higher and I see long, sharp ears poking out from within her hair. An elf. Now that’s surprising. When our eyes lock onto each other, there’s no change in expression on her face and she just stares into my eyes coldly, as if she’s observing an insect. I’m the one to break eye contact first when Bertrand hisses at me and I quickly dart into the alleyway.

Before long, we stop in front of a communal well. Bertrand tears open his sack and dumps out a fat man with a round belly next to the well. The man’s completely naked and there’s ghastly wounds all over his body. His eyes are still open and it doesn’t look like he died a peaceful death. Baronet Humphrey I presume? It’s an honor to meet your noble self, I hope your night fares well. I quickly do the same with my sack and dump out Jerome’s body or what remains of it next to Humphrey. I do hope you’ll get along well with Priest Jerome here, he’s had a rough night. Actually, I think the two of you already know each other according to the ledger we found. By all means, don’t let me get in the way of two acquaintances. Godsdamn I’m losing it. Why the fuck do I do this shit?

When we’re done, we quickly head back to the compound and when we pass by the building with the beautiful elf, her window’s shut. Oh well. Though I think that place is a brothel. I wouldn’t mind seeing her again but it might be too soon for me to get into those activities. We quickly get back to the compound and Bertrand shows me where I’ll be staying from now on. Wraine’s already asleep when we get to the room. It’s a nice little room with two beds near the front of the compound and the pantry’s just down the hall. There’s even a table with a chair in the corner and there’s a plate of dried meat on it with a mug of ale right next to it. Bertrand tells me to get a good night’s rest because I’ll need it and leaves me alone with a sleeping Wraine. I quickly shove the meat down my throat and wash it all down with the ale before taking off my boots and sitting on my bed. My bed. A bed all to myself. Not just that but a personal bed to boot. Not only even just that but a personal room for the two of us. How far we’ve come. But this isn’t my goal. This is just my first real step in this city and boy does it sure feel good.

…

I dreamt of the city tonight. But I couldn’t see anything or go anywhere. It was like I was being held back by the ones who I’ve killed. I take a single step forward down the street and all of a sudden I’m an old man, being stabbed through the heart. I take another step and I become the priest, being tortured in horrendous ways by monsters pretending to be humans. I take one last step and I’m back in the tunnel, begging for my life before I turn into the one holding the pickaxe and finally enjoying myself for the first time in this dream. But my dream doesn’t last long because I’m woken up abruptly.

…

“Isaac! Wraine! Get your swords, we’re getting attacked!” Here we go.