Dagger

"The boots here are so expensive.", Allen complained and looked at William. "Why do you even want to buy me boots? They cost 10 bronze coins per each pair, now we don"t have any money."

William rolled his eyes, "I"d rather buy these high quality boots that won"t easily get worn out than those made by greedy merchants."

"But do you even have to buy one pair for me too? You could"ve bought a new shirt and shorts.", Allen asked. Well to be honest, he was actually planning to buy his father a gift too but William was faster than him and bought two pair of boots.

"Big brother, you"re the one who got the money, even it"s my birthday, I wouldn"t take advantage of you.", William said.

"Aww... you"re so nice!", Allen spread out his arms to hug William. The latter, however, took a step back and dodged the hug. Pa.s.serbys looked at what was happening, making the situation more awkward.

"Get a bath first on the river before you hug me, you have no hygiene whatsoever.", William said.

Allen composed himself, "You sound like a n.o.ble."

"And you sound like that you"re going to complain.", William uninterestedly retorted and walked away.

Allen was stunned and only when William was already far away that he got back to his senses.

"Who is even the big brother here, me or him?", Allen ran after William.

...

"You know, the town could still be improved, the mayor is obviously focusing on the economy that it forgot to strengthen the local military, like for example, you"ve been sneaking in and out of the town while not being caught for a long time, and ironically, the slums are much more peaceful than the marketplace.", William put his hand on his chin and said.

On the other hand, Allen felt like William transformed into or replaced with a real n.o.ble and thought, "Why won"t you be the mayor instead then?"

Suddenly, Allen blurted out a question, "How do you even know about these things, do you even know the mayor or the n.o.bles?"

William stopped walking because of Allen"s question and answered with a long no.

"Err... alright.", Allen then realized that he was in front of a familiar tavern, which was than other than the Three Heads Tavern.

He then saw a familiar figure beside the door signaling him to enter, which was none other than Mr. Sanchez.

"William, you go back home first immediately, don"t stick around for too long in the town.", Allen suddenly said.

"Don"t worry big brother, I"m not like you.", William sticked out his tongue and ran away as fast as he can.

Allen was stunned yet again and thought, "He"s kind of weird today." Afterwards, he immediately entered the tavern and walked towards the office room on the second floor with Mr. Sanchez.

"Have a sit.", Mr. Sanchez said as he sat onto his own chair.

Allen sat down and after which Mr. Sanchez spoke first.

"You know your brother is cute."

Allen suddenly looked worriedly at Mr. Sanchez, fearing something bad would happen.

"Haha, don"t worry, I keep my promises, I won"t touch your family.", Mr. Sanchez said.

Allen inwardly heaved a sigh of relief.

"Kid, I called you in here today because the matter about killing the son of the chief guard became much more serious than I thought it would be.", Mr. Sanchez solemnly said. "The old man doesn"t want to investigate this any further but the mayor on the other hand, wants to and the chief guard can"t influence the mayor, lest he"ll be suspected instead."

Allen listen attentively to what was Mr. Sanchez was saying.

"So, the mayor then invited a mage who"s good at divining to find out who killed the chief guard"s son. That mage would arrive by tonight."

Allen suddenly felt that he was in a big trouble, he knew what mages can do, specially the ones who can divine. They"re practically like they could stalk upon every people in the world.

If the mage became successful at his divination, then he would be found out and be put to death!

Allen summoned up his courage and asked, "But why would the mayor insist to investigate this matter?"

"Well, probably because he and the chief guard are good friends.", Mr. Sanchez said.

However, Allen felt that there was an another reason why the mayor invited the mage.

"You feel like there"s something wrong with this, right?", Mr. Sanchez said, as if he could read Allen"s line of thought.

Allen nodded in response.

"Apart from your natural talent for a.s.sa.s.sination, you have a good intuition kid.", Mr. Sanchez commented.

"Natural talent, good intuition?", Allen thought.

"I got an information that the mage, was in fact a necromancer, and the mayor is an accomplice and has been contacting the organization where the necromancer came from for a long time now.", Mr. Sanchez said. "The mayor inviting the "mage" for divination was in fact just a smokescreen."

After a short paused, he continued, "There"s a treasure in the woods at the west that the mayor and the organization wants. I don"t know what is it but it"s probably something very important."

"So, tonight, you"re going into the woods to find the treasure and report back it"s location to me.", Mr. Sanchez said.

"But what about the necromancer?", Allen asked.

"Oh, don"t worry about that guy.", Mr. Sanchez laughed.

He continued, "In addition, you"ll be going with somebody. Okay, the talk"s over, come back in the evening."

...

It was already afternoon when Allen came back to the house. He could"ve been back earlier but he took a bath at the riverbank.

"You"re finally back, big brother.", William shouted from the second floor of the house.

"Yes.", Allen walked upstairs towards William"s room. He opened the door and saw William lying down on the bed reading a book.

This is the reason why William was perceptive and smart, it was because he"s been reading books since he was very young. His room was even filled with bookshelves and books, making it look like a small library.

Allen sat down on William"s bed and peeked on what the nine year old kid was reading. The book was named "Theories and Ideas for Ruling a City".

"You"ve always liked reading.", Allen said.

"We"re lucky we could read unlike the other people at our age, thanks to mother"s books.", William said without looking at Allen.

After a pause, he asked, "Big brother, do you know how mother was like?"

Allen was caught off guard by William"s question, and the former just answered, "I don"t know."

Allen and William"s mother died when the former was still four years old and the latter was still a few months old. They couldn"t remember anything about their mother, even if they asked their father, Marco, because he would just scold the both of them all day.

"I can only remember one thing, she said that we should be good to father whatever happens.", Allen said.

That was the same reason why he could still resist his father"s scolding and rude behavior towards him.

"Oh."

***

Meanwhile, a seemingly normal carriage just arrived at the entrance of the Crescent Town.

Inside the carriage...

"Master, why do we even have to come to this town? It"s so noisy.", a young boy looked out the window of the carriage.

"Close the window, Warren. It"s so noisy outside.", an old man wearing black robes engraved with patterns said.

"Okay.", Warren closed the window and enthusiastically read a book abou necromancy.

***

Several hours have pa.s.sed and night switched with day.

Allen looked at William, who was sleeping soundly while hugging a book. The former then blew out the candle and went downstairs.

"Father"s not home yet? I guess he"s drunk again.", Allen muttered as he looked around the living room lit by the moonlight through the window. He walked out of the house and immediately went towards the town.

...

-click-

He closed the back door of the tavern and saw Mr. Sanchez"s back standing beside the counter, just like last night.

"You"re finally here kid.", Mr. Sanchez said with looking at Allen.

"Uh-huh.", Allen just nodded. "This is it, I feel like we"re going to kill again."

The kid could still remember the nauseous smell of blood from the man he killed last night.

Mr. Sanchez turned around and looked at Allen, "You shouldn"t feel bad about killing now, plus, you and Kate would just get the location of the treasure and be on your way."

"Kate?", Allen asked.

"That"s me, what do you want?", a voice came from behind Allen.

The kid jumped forward in fright and turned around to see a girl at the same age at him dressed in an a.s.sa.s.sin"s clothes.

"It"s the tavern lady?", Allen was surprised.

Kate inspected Allen, "How could somebody looking as weak as you could help me?"

"Erm..."

"Do you know how to attack head on with a dagger?"

"No."

"Can you jump from the top of a toward and land safely?"

"I don"t know."

"Can you climb?"

"Probably... yes?"

"Can you kill?"

"Erm..."

"How could somebody like you help me then?", Kate asked loudly. "I don"t even know why we"re in this town!"

"That"s why he"ll be joining you to get experience.", Mr. Sanchez"s calm voice echoed.

Afterwards, he tossed a sack towards Allen, the kid inspected the contents and saw clothes that were color black.

"Those are an a.s.sa.s.sin"s clothes. Wear them upstairs.", Mr. Sanchez said.

Allen followed what Mr. Sanchez said and went upstairs.

"Master, I don"t know what you saw in him to even let him join us.", Kate complained.

Mr. Sanchez ignored Kate"s complaint and just sat down on a chair.