Chapter 13: Unexpected a.s.sault
Jackson touched his chin, and made an ordinary smile, “You are doing well these days Andre. Can you please say again what did you just said?”
Andre responded fawningly, “It’s a mere nothing, Mr. Jackson. I just saw a young man walking out of the city every morning, and I felt a little strange.”
“What did he bring with him any what did he bring back, did you guys notice that?” Jackson was smiling kindly, yet both Andre and Magg felt a little chilly when they heard that simple sentence.
Magg always declared that he had one-sixteenth Aram Highland Barbarian blood. From that aspect, his brain won’t allow him to answer a question like that. Andre was a little better, he thought for a while and said with some uncertainty, “I remember that he carried an old linen sack, and when he came back……when he came back, um, looks like there’s something in the sack. Although for the current season, there were lots of mushrooms in the Black Forest across River Beleń. Probably he was picking the mushrooms?”
“Does that job even need a young man? The border of the Black Forest isn’t dangerous at all, a boy or a girl is enough.” Jackson shook his head.
Andre asked, “But Mr. Jackson, will there be anything wrong with a dirty pauper like him?”
There’s three outer city gates in Alto, the one facing River Beleń and Melzer’s Black Forest was the most prosperous. Every day there was a ma.s.sive amount of merchants, citizens, mercenaries and adventurers pa.s.sing through, leaving Andre and Magg no time to focus on a poor man like Lucien.
Jackson cackled, “Yesterday, a blacksmith called Gray talked to me and said that he purchased a piece of decent metal from a young man. It’s made of thorium copper, a kind of metal that only those rich elites in high status could afford. Although it’s just the piece with the lowest quality, it could help to forge a decent dagger. He was curious about the source of the thorium copper and wanted to grip it by ourselves. “
“So Mr. Jackson, you mean that Lucien was selling Gray the copper?” Magg’s muscle-filled brain quickly connected the two things without any more evidence. Unfortunately, he’s telling the truth.
Jackson nodded, “That kid was pretty cautious, Gray wasn’t able to tail after him, and he can’t tell the source of the piece because it was processed. It took me a whole day to find some evidence for the Market District. The young man made too many transactions recently, and someone said that they saw he walking out every day. Haha, it’s better that you guys know him.”
“So what are we going to do, Mr. Jackson?” Andre asked promptly.
Jackson pointed his finger at the city gate, “Talk to me about his ident.i.ty first and then tail after him to find where he got all the stuff. If he notices you guys, then seize him and directly interrogate him for the source. You can take all his Copper Fiers.”
“Yes, Sir!!” Magg yelled before Andre and made a fierce-looking face.
He quickly got excited, it was a couple day from the last time he hit someone with his fist.
…………………
Lucien held onto the linen sack and walked along River Beleń. Although he was excited because of the first pot of gold he earned, Lucien now calmed down and started to think about a way to hide his bizarrerie, at least before he got the five Silver Niars.
“I’ve never done something like before, especially in a world that I’m not familiar with. Although I’m cautious in many aspects, there may still be something I missed. Um, according to the plan, I will go out through that city gate for one more time tomorrow; starting from two days later I will go out through the Nolan District, and three days later I will switch to the city gate in Viola District.
Viola District was a common area in Alto, and Nolan District was another market area. Both were far away from River Beleń and took a huge roundabout to get there. If he went from the Market District, even if he picked some mushrooms in Melzer’s Black Forest on his way, it only took about two hours; yet from the other two city gates, three hours is the least.
While he was thinking, Lucien suddenly had a vague feeling that someone is behind him.
Who is that? Lucien immediately became vigilant.
In the sewerage, after Gary almost throttled him to death, Lucien noticed that he had gained excessive spiritual(mental) acuity and the ability to sense his surroundings. That’s why he could get out from those people who were possibly tracking him.
Without any recklessness, Lucien pretended like he knew nothing and kept walking. When he just walked across a turn of the main road, Lucien saw an opportunity that the bushes covered up the tracker’s view. He immediately started running and burst into the spa.r.s.e woods nearby. He hid behind a large tree and waited for the trackers to appear.
Lucien was really chill at this moment, he needed to know who’s behind him and thought of possible solutions.
One or two minutes later, he heard the sounds of heavy footsteps and stopped at the corner. Two people turned their head around and started looking for Lucien
“Sh*t, we let that kid escape.”
“Andre, you should’ve listened to me. Just don’t bother where he went, capture him and beat him up, you’ll know everything!”
Their loud, furious voice went into Lucien’s ear.
Lucien was confused when he heard the familiar voice, but when Magg said Andre’s name , he immediately knew, “Aaron’s Gang noticed me that fast?”
Although he was confused, Lucien didn’t think much about why he was discovered so fast. He took a light sigh, and decided that he will be circling to another city gate, and went home. He would take out all the Silver Niars and Copper Fiers, and hide in somewhere else. Not a big deal, I could still talk to John and be an apprentice brewer in Sir Wayne’s manor.
Andre and Magg argued by a minute or so and realized that Lucien really was gone. They became really upset. Jackson was famous for his cruelty, there won’t be anything good happen if they messed up their mission.
“Magg, aren’t you alway boasting about you Barbarian ancestor, and saying that you can distinguish the smells in the air?” Andre suddenly had an idea.
Magg touched his bald head, and answered in his gruff voice, “I’ve never thought of that. Sometimes I can, sometimes it won’t work.”
Lucien was on pins and needles again when he heard the conversation, he had just traveled for several days, there lacked an understanding of the world in his plans.
Magg stood up and took a deep breath. All of a sudden he started yelling excitedly, “I smelled that d.a.m.n bloke’s stink!”
While he was yelling, Magg run toward the place where Lucien was hiding, and Andre followed him.
Lucien turned and started running once he heard Magg, and tried to break away from them with speed.
Who knows, even Magg was tall and fat and had heavy muscles on his upper body, he ran fast. The distance between him and Lucien was getting shorter, Magg would be gripping Lucien’s coat-tails if there weren’t some trees stopping him.
The woods near River Beleń were spa.r.s.e, Lucien’s sight widen after a while, which meant that he cannot use agility and the trees to escape for Magg.
However, Lucien didn’t get too frightened to think. There’s much less pressure from Magg, in comparison to a high-order Squire-like Gary, not to mention the ma.s.sive rats.
“I can’t run anymore, I need to utilize the distance between Andre and Magg, and beat Magg up first.” Lucien quickly decided.
While Lucien was on full alert and ready to strike, Magg’s excited battle cry sounded from behind.
Lucien made a sudden stop, bowed his body, lowered his body, pushed his feet hard, and crashed into Magg’s body.
Magg didn’t know that Lucien was gonna stop, his body kept going forward. He subconsciously stroke back with his right fist, but Lucien, who was much better prepared, dodged it. The fist could only swing through above Lucien’s head.
Once Lucien knocked into Magg’s arms, he made a heavy blow with the tightened right fist. Magg’s stomach rumbled, and his throat almost felt like throwing up, Magg couldn’t stop but start moaning painfully.
A hit like that won’t hurt Magg much, because of his “one sixteenth Barbarian blood”. After a second, Magg soon recovered and stroke with his elbow down.
Yet before Magg even recovered from dizziness, Lucien bent his right knee and hit fiercely and accurately at the s.p.a.ce between Magg’s two legs.
“Aaaaaaa!!!”
Magg, who was too hybrid to be viewed as a Barbarian, screamed with shrill and agony. He covered his crotch and tumbled back and forth on the ground with great pain.
Andre, who just got close, felt a sudden chill in his crotch when he saw that, and immediately slow down.
Lucien didn’t waste any time and started running again. Andre was holding a flashing dagger, but there wasn’t anything that he could use as weapons nearby. Plus Lucien knew nothing about how strong Andre was, and Magg, who was still a big guy, would recover soon.
Andre chased him for a little longer, and noticed that his distance with Lucien was getting further, and thus stopped.
…………………
“It’s really insecure without power and strength in that world, I’m not even allowed to make a little money like that.” Facing current circ.u.mstance, Lucien sighed silently with emotion, some hidden attempts in his mind emerges again.
It was nine o’clock in the morning, Lucien, who just went back from the gate in Nolan District, was approaching his home cautiously, trying to take back all his money. He realized that Andre and Magg knew him, his relationship with Cohen, and possibly where he lived. Hope that I was faster than them, or I was just working for nothing for the last couple days, not to mention that I angered a bunch of ruffians and bullies.
Lucien hid behind the wall of a house nearby and looked at his house. He didn’t see anyone yet. While he attempted to find someone and ask, Lucien saw a dozen of men walking toward his house fiercely.
An ordinary-looking man pointed at his house, and then a strong young man walked out, and kicked the door hard, the half-broken wooden door was officially broken now.