chapter 59

on my way over to 'the army' a wild troll appears. from the way his soul and mind feel I can that he is a damned, probably bound to one of the new dungeons around here. I silently run up behind him and jump up onto him, wrapping my legs around his neck in a headlock. I then proceed to use my bodyweight to direct the struggling troll towards the armys' territory. after about ten minutes of this the troll collapses unconscious on some spikes on top of a barrier that was built at the edge of the armys' territory. it dies after bleeding out for 2 minutes. trolls are surprisingly durable.

"what the fuck is this?" army dude

"oi, arrest this guy, he damaged the barrier." army girl

"sorry about that, let me fix it." jack

I grow a barrier made of stone using earth magic. adorned with massive spikes on top and in front of it.

"we're still going to arrest you, you mafia guys have gotten stupid if you think we'll let a scout through our borders. and, I

mean a troll? you are a horrible scout." army girl

in front of me is about 4 men and two women, all wearing military-like uniforms, with the girl that told the others to

arrest me having a more decorated uniform. probably a captain of some sort.

"first off, I'm not one of the mafia guys, as you said, they are all much lower in the evolution ladder than me. and you'll have to catch me first." jack

as soon as I say that I use some more earth magic to throw myself into the air and use air magic to propel myself over

them. when I land I start to run.

"GET HIM! don't let him escape, who knows what this rouge element could do if he got to something important like the

residential district." army girl

I feel a blade of wind heading towards my back, a very powerful one. much better than I could do, which isn't saying

much as I have next to no practice with wind blades. anyway, I'm not too worried about the wind blade because there is a

textbook method to deal with them. you need to use a gust of wind that is faster than the air in the wind blade, of course,

this is much harder than it sounds as with anyone who is significantly skilled could make it go faster than a normal mage

could react.

I use a gust of wind at my back to propel myself forward and to disrupt the wind blade.

"fuck, get that bitch you cur or you won't get any extra rations for a week!" military girl

I just laugh while I run away from them. they could never catch me, well mabey the wind mage in the party could, likely

the captain, but they would be so exhausted from the chase that they wouldn't be able to do anything to me.

they quickly lose track of me as I run through the winding streets. I have a pretty good idea of where the center of

operations is located.

several minutes later I am standing outside of a small mansion that has been boarded up (I imagine a Victorian style

mansion but as that time period never happened in this world I cant exactly have jack say that) it used to house the

mayor of this city. the original builder was an elder who was an architect in his last life, apparently he got inspiration

from that.

looking around I notice a lack of guards, sure there are a couple, but they are few and far between. likely all of them are

either training, resting, or guarding the perimeter. I find a window that hasn't been boarded up, as the front door is

guarded, and climb inside it. I've done at two assassinations in this building, on two consecutive nights, so I know my way

around pretty well.

I search through three different rooms where Cath and his brother Mathew could be before finally finding them in the

fourth one, used to be the mayors bedroom, now it's repurposed into some kind of military strategy room.

"private rose making my report." rose

suddenly the military officer girl who was chasing me earlier appeared through the door.

"make your report" Cath

"north border mostly quite except for a lone scout that managed to outrun my boys." rose

"can you describe this scout?" Mathew

I jump down from my vantage point on one of the rooms broken upper windows that I was standing in.

"no need, I'm right here." jack

"you!" rose

I feel a wind blade fly at me, aimed for my neck. if I did nothing it would easily decapitate me, but as it is I cancel it out

easily.

"rather impressive wind blades, must have taken you a lot of training to get that far." jack

"you're no scout, you're an assassin! you're here to kill the generals aren't you?" rose

she rushed at me with a rather well-made sword slashing and stabbing at me with a surprising amount of skill, all the

while Cath and Mathew are just silently laughing.

"you are surprisingly good with a blade." jack

I avoid each slash or stab through either redirection or narrowly avoiding it.

"you got one part right, I am an assassin. I'm just not here to kill these two." jack

in one swift movement I disarm her and level the sword at her chest.

"alright, that's enough, jack. I'd prefer it if you didn't run my wife through with a sword." Cath

"impressive, she's rather skilled. any combat time before this whole thing?" jack

as soon as my name is mentioned by Cath several emotions flashed through rose's face, shock, confusion,

embarrassment, etc. it was actually pretty interesting to watch, especially as I was watching from the inside.

"speak, I know you have something to say" jack

suddenly she snaps to attention, saluting me.

"private rose reporting for duty, sir!" rose

"only a private? I would have thought that she would be a higher rank than that, she's your wife after all." jack

"she refuses all forms of favoritism, except in bed." Cath

"at ease, you're among friends and family here." jack

as rose takes a seat at the table in the middle of the room, which has a map of the city on it. I sit down after her.

"so your jack, huh. I thought you'd be more..." rose

"tall? older? human?" jack

"yeah, all of those things. and wait, you're not human? you sure look like one." rose

"no, I'm not. watch." jack

I turn into my shadow form and float through the table before rising above it and solidifying in human form. much to the

surprise of rose.

"see?" jack

"amazing." rose

I sit back down in my chair before Mathew speaks up.

"so, what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?" Mathew

"just passing through, i thought i would take the next step towards my goal while i was here." jack

"which is?" Cath

"i want you to make a truce with the mafia, the faction to the north" jack

"i know who they are, and every attempt of a treaty between us has failed." Mathew

"let me guess, one side tried to dominate and control the other every time? and with both sides being about equal in

strength and very prideful refuse to do anything else." jack

"yup, pretty much sums it up. so what make you think we can strike a deal this time?" Cath

"simple, I'm here." jack

"how would that make a difference?" rose

"you'd be surprised by how much control i have over the mafia, and i caused this group to be formed, along with the people in charge owing me not only their lives but their children's lives as well. i think I'm good" jack

"so when will these negotiations happen" Mathew

"central park, noon today. so in about 6 hours, I'll be mediating the negotiations" jack

"why today and not tomorrow?" Cath

"I'm leaving tomorrow, i have urgent business to take care of. i basically stopped here to say hello." jack

we started talking for the next couple hours, during which the brothers had prepared for people to accompany them to

the negotiations. i left at ten, saying that their was one more thing i had to do before the negotiations started. time to

make my final preparations.

end chapter 59

AN: there are two times that I write a chapter and upload it. the first is when I get a burst of inspiration, the second is when the last chapter of this story is no longer on my reading list or close to the bottom.