[A/n: If you leave a Comment or Vote, you will motivate the Author help promote this novel.]

  The two of them stumbled out of the inn with bruises around their eyes. Jonrad was especially smiling while Glymet wanted to just strangle him.

  "What happened to ’not to cause a scene’ rule?" Glymet wanted to rant but Jonrad patted him strongly.

  "Relax, my friend, relax. At least I am sober now."

  *Creeeeck*

  *Fall*

  The two looked behind them as a part of the tavern’s gate had completely fallen off its hinges.

  "Look at that. This guy you sent flying caused this." Jonrad said, "The most important thing is that you had fun."

  "Fun my ass!"

  Glymet was lamenting the fact that he can’t do half as good as a drunken man like Jonrad when it comes to gathering information. It is simply detestable how people open up to this giant rather than a normal guy like him whether by intimidation or persuasion.

  "You go do your thing while investigating that murder scene. Just don’t mess it up." Glymet said as he put on his hood and walked away.

  Earlier in the tavern, Jonrad and Glymet held the innkeeper up from his nape and made him spill out what he knows. From what they managed to gather, a regular of this tavern is an avid devotee of Sithis, the Dread Father. Considering how scarce the worshipping of Sithis in this part of the world, the odds could be narrowed down to a Dark Brotherhood associate 95% of the time.

  With that Glymet decided it would be best if he tracked down that lead and it led him to a house at the edge of town. He broke in quite easily and started looking around the house for a clue or a lead. That until he found a piece of paper, a hit order from the Dark Brotherhood itself.

  His search was not so fruitful as he learned nothing more than the name of the owner of this house, Kastus Thorn. The Assassin who seemed to have returned to the house just at this very moment.

  The Assassin immediately unsheathed his blade at the very sign of disturbance inside his house and surveyed the place with his eyes only to……

  *Swoosh*

  *Clank*

  The two men attacked and counter-attacked at the same time only for Glymet to get a slighter upper hand before Kastus kicked a chair towards him.

  A mortal fight occurred in which both men fought to the death. Glymet proved more efficient with Swordsmanship and resistance to Magic as Kastus launched many killing attempts one after the other only to fall short by a migraine growing the longer the fight continued.

  "By Sithis stop!"

  Kastus fell to the short end and got his blade broken, he could only resort to peace for a chance to save his hide.

  "On your knees, assassin." Glymet punched Kastus into submission pulling down his hood and revealing his face.

  "You…… you are making a huge mistake!" Kastus tried acting tough but the blade in the hand of Glymet was steady and would claim his sorry life if he thought of doing anything funny.

  "You fight well, assassin." Glymet said, "Now, give me the contracts you have."

  Seeing Glymet after something so personal to him, Kastus showed both unwillingness and interest in trying to decipher the situation.

  "You know that I am an assassin, why do you come after me? You are not afraid of the wrath of my brethren and the Dread Father?" Kastus asked.

  "As far as I am concerned, me defeating you is the will of the Dread Father who deems me more worthy than you are. Your contract will be my ticket to win his favor and join the ranks of the Dark Brotherhood." Glymet said with a firm attitude.

  "Hah! Almost fooled me!" Kastus laughed but seeing the glare of Glymet, he narrowed his eyes, "Wait, you are serious?"

  "Does my blade being held against your neck imply that I am in the mood to joke around?" Glymet said.

  "No! No! Of course not." Kastus said as he backed down and smiled cunningly, "Such an opportunity just hands itself to me, I am sure a lucky one."

  It seemed that Kastus had changed goals and suddenly fished out a paper from his sleeve.

  "Here, the Contract you so dearly desire."

  "And the reason you are smiling like a skeever?" Glymet asked, pressing his blade more.

  "Hehe! You can say that you removed a big burden off my back. This contract has been on a streak of failure and I thought it would be the end of me. Who would have thought that Sithis would drive someone fool enough in my way to seek my contract…… Praised be the Dread Lord!"

  Kastus seemed chill about handing over his contract to Glymet and the latter started to feel uncomfortable with it.

  "Who is the target?" Glymet asked.

  Kastus pushed away Glymet’s blade and spoke with a nasty smile.

  "Markam Hawksmire, Head of the Knights Order of the Hour. The Dragon Knights of Akatosh."

  "…… Well…… F.u.c.k!"

  ***

  On Jonrad’s end, things were rather taking a weird turn. The murder scene which Glymet assigned him to investigate was rather interesting. Knights of the Order of the Hour and City Guards of Wayrest all gathered discussing the scene of the crime on the spot.

  Spotting Jonrad’s arrival, some of the Guards were aware of his identity as a troublemaker, a problem solver, a mercenary and an excellent handyman so he was well acquainted with the lot. The Knights of the Order of the Hour, however, felt the need to exercise their jurisdiction on the lowly guards and the threatening-looking Nord trying to chase him away from the investigation area with some even trying to scare him away by throwing accusations around. The way Jonrad handled this Bretonic nonsense was by being even more tact than those pesky Breton Knights and lead them by the nose into quitting the investigation in a fit of rage.

  "So, with the steel bunnies gone, what do we have here?" Jonrad asked his contact.

  "Never grow up, Jonrad." The Guard said with a sigh and showed Jonrad the body covered by a sheet, "This man was left here for almost a day and we just got wind of it."

  "And why are the snowberries in metal involved?"

  "The dead man is a nobleman."

  "Figures! Those Iron Pussies won’t move around for us lowly folk even if half of us drop into Oblivion."

  "Just be careful they hear you. They hate you now."

  "Alright, let me investigate and if there is a reward, put in a good word for me."

  "You got it, brother."

  Jonrad fist pumped the guard and carefully approached the corpse trying to figure out the bits and pieces of information lying around. Normally the people around here would hurry up and take away the corpses then rinse the place with water and bring a priest to bless the place so that the people around don’t grow superstitious of the area. This makes such a crime scene a nightmare for further investigators. Thankfully, Jonrad arrived way before such a tragedy…… or maybe after, depending on what is more tragic.

  After he checked the corpses, he came to a weird conclusion. This was no murder scene but rather, it was a monster attack. Some monsters which use weapons leave traces similar to humans on the corpses of the people they kill but they most certainly don’t dump them on the edge of a human town.

  Something felt wrong on many scales.

  Further analyzing the wound patterns suggest that the wounds were caused by no weapons but rather something like pliers or rather…… pincers. Some of which are owned by a very unfriendly bunch of past-kalpic creatures known as Dreugh.

  These monsters are known to be living nearby Wayrest in a shantytown which was part of the suburban area immediately in the shadow of Wayrest and the town has been called Dreughside. Perfect place to find the Dreugh responsible and get their bounty. Even though this had nothing to do with the job Glymet is working on, it is still a work opportunity and on a side note, he isn’t too interested in the Dark Brotherhood that much.

  After a short walk, Jonrad arrived at Dreughside area and started his investigation. The town has long since partially sunk in the sea and was abandoned by its populace after the uncovering of a large dreugh colony underwater which started to disturb the surface. Jonrad wasn’t really a fan of those dreugh things as he had to switch from his weapons of choice, the swords, to any weapon that can beat their tough carapaces in order to preserve the edge of the sword thus a Club is always an ideal choice to deal with a dreugh.

  Either way, what Jonrad was looking for on this steaming pile of dung of a town is one of two things, irregularities in the behavior of the dreugh creatures or a mark of recent human activity and lo and behold…… both of them were just right in front of him clear as day.

  For the creature irregularities, the creatures were actively swarming a certain spot of the sunken town. As for the human activity, he could pretty damn well hear a muffled scream coming from somewhere in one of the last standing houses in the nearby area.

  Jonrad descended it as the muffled scream of a beautiful maiden in distress and gallantly……

  [A/n: If you leave a Comment or Vote, you will motivate the Author help promote this novel.]

  ***

  "Gallantly my ass! How on Earth did you just decide it is a maiden in distress and a beautiful one at that all from a muffled scream?" (Jon)

  "Alright, you got me." (Jonrad)

  ***

  Jonrad understood there is someone in there but if he doesn’t move carefully and without alerting the colony of those walking crabs, he may risk the lives of whoever is trapped in there.

  The best course of action was to avoid detection altogether and reach the person trapped in that place which may prove to be of use. Usually, people involved in these kinds of situations are either rich or influential or both, someone is clearly up to no good and someone else will pay for its undoing.

  With this cheerful mentality, Jonrad chose to throw a small log across the shantytown with all his strength causing a ruckus that drew the monsters away leaving him a very comfortable opportunity to go in and enter the house.

  Remember all those things said before about whoever trapped in there may be rich or influential? Scratch them. The word "Beautiful" is now making a very alarming appearance in this scene.

  For the sake of description, Jonrad entered the house and its wood was rotten and falling apart with each step he took. In the center of the house was a woman tripped in her long silk blue gown trying to break free from her bindings and gag.

  The beautiful woman in a weird situation looked at Jonrad and was intimidated by his large build and rigid appearance. Handsome as he is……

  ***

  "Objection!" (Jon)

  ***……

  he still looked like a mercenary who was just sneaking through a swampy town after getting out of a drunken tavern fight.

  Jonrad signaled the lady to be quiet and fixed her awkward posture to sit her up before slowly taking the gap off her mouth.

  "Y- You’re…… not with them?" She asked quietly with a sign of fragile courage.

  Jonrad shook his head denying that he doesn’t belong to whatever group that seemingly kidnapped her.

  At this moment, the lady’s courage finally crumbled as she started sobbing very faintly in a sensible attitude towards the existence of monsters lurking outside.

  "Than…… Thank you! I promise you a satisfactory reward if you take me back to Wayrest." She said while maintaining her etiquette despite all the tears. Ladies are something else after all.

  "Alright." Jonrad nodded, "I can handle the monsters outside but please, we need to have a conversation before entering Wayrest."

  "Alright. Please hurry, I don’t…… I can’t stay here a minute longer."

  Jonrad was done undoing her bindings and told her to keep it low and do everything he says.

  What followed was Jonrad flexing all his martial and tactical prowess all over the Dreugh colony. Those Creatures are known to be fierce and merciless but with traps, arrows, ambushes and perfectly timed rune spells, Jonrad may have obliterated half of the colony by himself that day. In his mind, however, he was milking his client for a much bigger reward.

  It goes without saying that the beautiful and youthful lady he saved was more than just impressed at that point, a grave Jonrad may have dug by his own hands but a luxurious one nonetheless. He had plans for money and she had plans for something much different altogether.

  ***

  "But you said that night would end with you getting laid." Jon said with confusion.

  Jonrad laughed in self-mockery before looking at his son with a know it all face.

  "Of all the people, son, you should know that this night was just getting started."

  ———————————


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