"Maybe? I don’t know," Temur admitted, though I felt the tension in his jaw. "We want to buy two pieces of information from you. I want to know where Arkin is, and I want to know everything you know about the chaos Cult."
I watched Kim closely, noticing the mont his mask almost cracked, surprise, shock even. Finally, so reaction.
"Tell everything you know about Arkin and the chaos Cult," I added, trying to keep my voice steady. Temur’s glare was enough to make him hesitate, and I could feel my own pulse quicken.
Kim drumd his fingers on the table, his smile faltering as he calculated sothing I couldn’t see. "Now, that’s sothing I wasn’t expecting."
"You don’t have such information?" I asked.
"Of course I do. It’s just that this cos as a surprise... the chaos Cult and Arkin. We have information about the two."
Temur grunted. "Then tell us."
Kim nad his price. Fifty thousand gold coins before he would hand over anything. I leaned forward slightly, letting my eyes et his. And what if you gave us insufficient information? Temur’s words echoed my own thoughts.
Kim shrugged. "You want to buy everything we know, we will give you that. Now the matter of if it’s insufficient is your problem, don’t you think?"
I locked eyes with him, feeling the air grow heavier, thick with unspoken tension. Even the hidden guards seed to stiffen.
"Of course," Temur said, producing a small bag of gold. I watched Kim’s expression carefully as he counted, his fingers tapping out a signal I couldn’t decipher. Communication for those hidden and listening... clever, if predictable.
Once the coins were confird, a servant arrived with a tal tray carrying two files. Kim handed one to , and the other to Temur. I flipped through mine quickly, absorbing the contents about the chaos Cult. Nothing concrete—no headquarters, no central base, nothing about their plans. Still, I summarized for Temur. "So... at the end, there’s not much known about them. Not about their HQ, not even a central base or their aim. And yes, they have powerful people backing them."
Temur nodded, frowning. "Hummmm. I see. So the information about them isn’t useful."
I let a small smirk slip. "So you have better luck than ."
We turned to Arkin. Temur confird he was indeed in town, laying low. My heart skipped a beat at the news, and I couldn’t contain my excitent. "Then let’s go get him!" I blurted, surprised even by my own enthusiasm.
Temur shook his head. "We have a small problem. Arkin is the guest of the Black Axe. He’s been staying with them since he ca here."
I froze for a mont, weighing the implications. Yes... then we have a problem, alright. I let a grin spread across my face. "How about it, Kim? How much will information about the Black Axe cost?"
The walk back to the inn was silent. My thoughts were racing, churning furiously over what we had just learned. Kim had been only too happy to tell us about his rival organization; he had even given us discounts.
"Do you find who you’re looking for?" Cormac asked. Halfway through to the neutral block, he decided that we should visit one of the outdoor food vendors and have breakfast.
Chairs and tables were arranged around the side of the busy street; at least the different slls of food were enough to mask the stench of the street.
Temur tore into the chicken in his hand and swallowed before he began speaking. "Yes, we did."
"That’s good then, even faster than I think. We should be back to Calan in three days."
"I don’t think so," I said as I slowly bit into my roasted at. I reminded myself ntally to rember to drink a health potion after food to avoid frequent visits to the toilet. "We still have to kidn...see him and take him with us if possible. It’s getting complicated."
Cormac blinked and his face hardened. "So you still have to go and...see this person. How long will that take?"
"I have a question for you, Cormac. How much can I pay you to bring down the Black Axe?" Temur asked.
Cormac barked a surprised laugh. "Are you kidding ? I don’t take jobs that will see my head roll. They have the largest amount of silver ranks among the gang mbers."
"Then what about us? What are the odds of us doing so?"
Cormac looked us over and gave it serious thought. "Iron ranks? I’ll say you might be able to take down a few of the Iron and Human Guards, but the silver? It’s impossible. Your odds are so next to impossible."
"But don’t the Black Axe go on patrols constantly? They’ll take their forces with them. We saw them when we were coming...." I pointed out.
"Yes, but they still leave so forces behind," Cormac shrugged.
Temur nodded thoughtfully. "And how long do you think they will stay outside before they return?"
I sighed. We should have asked all this from Kim instead of just getting the building map of the Black Axe base.
"...they usually take a few weeks. They patrol and solve any problems the villagers have, also hunt monsters and such."
Temur grinned. "This town needs a little bit of shaking up."
Temur and I returned to the inn while Cormac said he had sothing to take care of in town. We began our plans imdiately and realized our first problems.
"We don’t know how much force they have, and we are seriously lacking in manpower as well," I pointed out. I was eating a snack of small eggs that would be scooped out with a spoon.
Temur pointed at the map in front of him on the bed. "See, we don’t have to fight them. It’s not like we are after the Black Axe. All we want is Arkin, who’s staying sowhere here in the building."
"But we should be prepared for fighting. We can’t just enter there and take soone out without expecting to fight. Especially when the target himself is Silver rank."
Temur’s eyes hardened. "We are not going to fight a fair fight, Torvan. Think about it: we have so money, and this is the place with the largest black market on the floor."
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