Его не звали, но он приперся / They never called, yet he is here: Глава 26

Chapter 26

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 09:11

There are many ways to wake up in the morning, good, bad, and terrible. The desperate screaming of the alarm clock, the ray of sunlight falling directly on our eyes, the polite touch of a roommate, the laughing children under the window - there are countless options, and each of us will have our own. The way these life works is that every dream is followed by an awakening, unless, of course, we are talking about the very last dream that every intelligent and thinking creature in the universe will have to fall asleep.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 09:12

A separate scale is the quality of awakening. How pleasant it is for you to wake up, come back to reality from dreamland, and start doing something. Important. Very.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 09:12

Waking up in the company of two adorable girls, fully asleep and very, very satisfied is great. Waking up on your own, with no desire to go back to sleep and no annoying wake-up call, is good. Just opening your eyes and going to work, as you always do and will do for a long time to come, is fine. Barely opening teary-eyed slits, turning off the phone that is sticking in your brain, getting a call from your boss who is furious that you are late, and then dragging yourself to the office that you hate is a bad way to wake up.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 09:13

But if you're awakened by a cold strip of steel touching your throat, that's not bad, it's horrible. And if you have the proud title of one of the night kings of a large medieval city, if you are regularly assassinated, and if you sleep in a securely locked room that is constantly guarded by loyal men, it is not even a terrible way to be awakened. It's just f*cking awful!

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 09:14

As head of the strongest guild of assassins and thieves in the Kraj (a joint venture), Raly "The Grey" Sholin was well aware of the dangers of his trade. After all, he'd often had to arrange such awakenings for smartass people himself. Or lack thereof - it all depended solely on the intentions of the wearer of the piece of steel that had now awakened him.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 09:16

These guys didn't have the immunity guaranteed by the patronage of the Mayor, the head of the Alchemists' Guild, and the head of the Guardians of the Kraj all together, so they always had to sleep with their eyes open. Especially lately, when from nowhere appeared organization, young and daring, almost made under the control of all the criminal city and badly bite even smugglers with their protection. At this state of affairs, his guild, which in its time managed to considerably expand at the expense of joining it all those who feared the "young and impertinent," had to live on almost a state of war. And they were losing that war, though they shouldn't have had to.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 09:19

The assassins were not idiots, so they guessed that the enemy had a squad of truly elite specialists in solving problems by drastic means. They just made an empirical calculation, based on the bread crumbs of destroyed and missing fighters. Still, the assassins were all too used to thinking of themselves as the biggest badass bastards in this dumpster, trivial not expecting a sudden retaliation on all fronts.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 09:20

The only reason they were not killed en masse was that they did not want to start a real war in the city, forcing the authorities (who were well aware of everything) to keep a low profile and carry out reactionary operations. The bandits themselves understood this, which made them even madder at their own powerlessness. The only reason they had not deserted so far was that they hoped for a peaceful resolution of the conflict (not a very strong hope), were afraid to show their backs (a very important factor), did not want to give up everything they had worked for (a very important factor) and hoped to get enough of the general chaos so that they could settle in a new place and then escape (an extremely important factor).

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 10:56

Most of their sources of income had already been lost, including the protection of the lion's share of merchants and shopkeepers. Yes, yes! It turns out that I had been paying money to people (ordinary people) working for the cult the whole time! But, despite the losses, Grey had the most important thing - the people, including his loyal personal guards. Even if they had to pay from the common fund, which was rapidly emptying, but for one desperate attempt to return everything to the way it was before, they still have enough. As said before, the assassins had always collected the highest-level bastards from all over the city. And it wasn't a good idea to just toss them aside.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 10:58

Naturally, the cult knew about this and was preparing its response, even a preventive one: clairvoyance told me precisely that within a week most of the freaks in this brood would cease to be alive. No cause of death was given, but the very absence of a cause said all there was to know. It's about time I took action, yeah! Another six months and the city could have been all theirs, or at least its nightside.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 10:59

I don't feel sorry for the bastards, but if they're going to die, it'd be better to do it with the utmost benefit and pathos. I'm not going to be slaughtered like your partridges, serving as an experience for the cult's fighters. Something tells me, though, that the only people who'll kill Gray's boys will be the common thugs. They'll probably keep the changelings in reserve, trying to use them only for point-blank attacks.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 11:03

In any case, I wanted very much to talk to the esteemed maestro Raly.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 11:03

"Good evening, Gray. How's it going?"

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 11:04

Am I not gallant?

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 11:04

To his credit, he didn't shit himself, and he didn't even faint. Though it's hard to stay calm when a white-haired bastard with a bloody smile on his face is talking to you in the middle of the dark. The old bastard, wise beyond his years, kept his cool, only a slight tremor in his voice and a tremor in his hands betrayed his anxiety.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 11:05

"It's a shitty business, now that you're here." He wasn't going to be polite, nor was he going to get desperate. As long as he hadn't been killed asleep, there would be talk and bargaining - such was the "ethics" of the local criminals. However, one should not forget the high probability that the nocturnal visitor simply needed the addresses of his stash of gold, and then everything would go according to the standard scheme.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 11:06

"But I am here nonetheless." Immediately I confirm, not stopping to tease my interlocutor's throat with the steel, constantly changing the angle, the strength of the pressure, and most often even removing the blade from the skin, leaving it a miserable millimeter from the target.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 11:07

"So tell me what you want, don't bore me." The thief's foreman gets rude.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 11:08

But his nerves are failing, they are failing! The situation was too unbalancing, and my appearance was not at all reassuring. Plus, my gut, mandatory for people in his profession, would probably tell a level twenty-seven assassin that the white polar fox was coming to visit. White and not fucking fluffy, yeah. The last head was level thirty-four, which put him in the top five strongest people of the Kraj, but he had mysteriously disappeared. Considering the void of foreknowledge associated with this man, I even know where. Though I wouldn't rule out the possibility that he just left town, either - an epic-class wielder might have some way of hiding himself from clairvoyance. Especially since I hadn't even seen him with my eyes.
T.N.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 11:14

"Your people." In spite of my thoughts drifting away, I don't lose the thread of the conversation. "The Boar and the Barber. What do you think of them?"

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 11:19

"I can give you the fat goat fucker right now." After thinking for a while, Grey answered, clearly not intending to observe the mythical "brotherhood of thieves" to the last drop of blood. "But I need the Barber. He's one of the men I came to the Kraj with."

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 11:46

Aha! So I was mistaken for a member of the cult and immediately began to negotiate. The experienced scavenger wasn't averse to boarding a ship that had already sailed, even at the cost of sacrificing most of his remaining fighters. Naturally, he was going to make sure that he was really left alive, and he was going to make sure that if he wasn't, he'd be safe.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 11:47

"I'm afraid you're slightly mistaken, maestro." I interrupt the immediately tense bandit. "I don't represent your current opponents at all. You might even say I'm on the opposite side."

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 11:48

That's where he became much more interested. He really was, for he could use all the help he could get right now. Especially if the helpers included a couple or three guys like the subject who had come to visit him.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 11:55

"You're not one of One-armed's ass-kissers." Gray brushes aside my involvement with smugglers. "The old ***** ***** just doesn't have people of your caliber. You're not an adventurer - they never got into our business. I don't know who you are, but if your masters aren't friends with the b**d bitches from the stray, we'll be friends."

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 11:56

Yes, yes, I've already seen how you were going to give me one of your "friends" with his guts. But if you have been accepted as an emissary of an unknown force, then we will play the role to the end.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 11:57

"The two I named. Take a closer look at them. Ask them questions. Better yet, cut their skin, at least on the arm." I say what I came here to say. "Do it in the presence of as many of your loyalists as possible, with acid bombs and a good mage who can create barriers. Do it suddenly and quickly, to survive the truth revealed. Examine their bodies, remembering to wear good gloves. Only then will you be contacted again."

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 11:58

He was neither an idiot nor a fool. Even in my nightmare, I wouldn't call him an educated man, but he was undoubtedly very smart. So he understood the implication of my words at once. And I had no doubts about it - to make such a circus just to get a chance to quarrel with a couple of brigadiers... That's cannon firing on sparrows. He'd rather think of an obvious trap in which his men would try to swat them all together.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:00

Well, let him be reassured because I have made the main point.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:00

"Are you telling me I'm going to see some creatures instead of my people?" The man immediately followed the eternal human habit of asking the obvious. "I would have noticed something! They haven't changed a bit lately. Why should I believe you?"

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:01

You already believe it, man. Apparently, you already had your suspicions, even if they weren't fully formed. It's just that now you're trying to spin me for some information on the subject. Well, I'll let you feel the success.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:02

"It is a strange world called Alurej. Wonderful are the things that happen in it. And what wonders are sometimes brought from the depths of the dense forests... Such wonders have the unpleasant tendency to grow into the land where they were brought. To grow like weeds, to cling like mold. And it will be much harder to take these wonders back, it's easier to burn them."

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:03

I use a strange style of narration on purpose. First of all, it is my way of avoiding suspicion - my speech is much simpler and clearer. And secondly, my beloved Soul of the Mocker tells me that it is those who like to speak in such a high style that my client hates to the core. And just as much afraid. Which means he will take my words seriously. Otherwise, those two could really outbid their entire company.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:04

Now he will definitely follow my advice. He'll buy some acid, find a mage, and get some men up here. There are others in the gang's ranks, but none of them are full-fledged mutants. And those who are, are in the brigades of the main warped - so it was easier for them to cover up the excursions and mistakes of the rank and file. Not the smartest solution, but in terms of the rapid elimination of the remaining uncontrolled criminals - it's the best.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:12

I'm more than sure that the cult would indeed have made peace with the assassins. Only by thinning them out and putting the Barber in their place. Completely crushed competitors might cause some of the bigwigs to dislike them. This way, everything would be on the line. I bet that they also planned to corrupt the same smugglers for material assistance to the oppressed "stray" (as the cult-controlled forces are called) murderers.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:24

It's not a bad plan.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:24

Which I broke quite a bit.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:24

For as soon as I leave, Grey will start calling the boys. Right after he makes sure there's no ambush. It didn't even take clairvoyance to realize one simple truth - that the case with the two high-ranking cultists would be solved tonight.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:25

Of course, I'm not going to visit Grey again, nor am I going to help him through the events to come. I only gave them a chance for one last fight instead of an ignominious death. Of course, they would not appreciate such a "gift," but the opinion of criminals is the last thing I care about.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:36

I didn't wait for a reply from Grey, moving to the very edge of the teleport distance in an instant. Slight dizziness, combined with a slightly decreased reserve, was the price I paid for using the steps. I could have gone more sparingly, but I just couldn't be happy with my " runaway," as I call my sub-skill.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:37

I still have plenty of reserves, and there are enough potions in my pockets to keep me going long enough, even if my reserve starts to show the bottom.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:37

Next stop, please.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:38

The small shop was guarded as if it were not a place to buy stolen goods, but the city treasury. The guards tried to keep a low profile, but the Shadow Sphere was an excellent spotter of idlers, and the Gaze helped identify those who had been struck by the blackness. There were no unaffected, by the way - just mutants and those who had received their portion of crap but had not yet begun to mutate into who knows what.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:38

Eight big muscle-bound men (the most common mutation, by the way), three skinny, scrawny men who seemed to have had their insides pulled out of them, two and a half dozen more ordinary still-people, and the shopkeeper himself with an assistant. Judging by the poking needles of danger in the body, working despite the plug, this squad is enough for a successful attempt to storm the Mayor's office.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:40

There was no clairvoyance here, just simple logic, long observation with the Gaze, and a few overheard conversations, but I understood what exactly made this place so valuable. All these streams of blackness (probably the biggest stain in the city, unless you count the closed club) belonged to the owner of the shop, who never left it and could never leave. Even in the real world (only inside the pawnshop), the filth that manifested itself belonged to the shopkeeper and formed the basis for the charms that covered the whole town.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:40

From here they controlled the defense they had placed on the buildings they had mastered, and from here they monitored the city. A kind of radio tower and radar all in one. And maybe something else, too. That's why they gather a huge force here, and several other groups can quickly come to the aid of the attacked - the twisted ones alone there are a dozen and a half.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:41

Yesterday it was a lot less, but my performance against the fateful widow made them a little nervous. This place was one of the few that had been closed off with extra security. It was an unpleasant surprise, but too much depended on the destruction of this point, and without it, I was unwilling to begin the next phase of the operation.

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:42

To risk or not to risk?

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:42

Why do I even ask, though?

Camrad_RIP 15.01.22 в 12:42