The Path of Ruin

Chapter 80: Leaving the Barony of Ghran

As Kael and Matthew sat across from each other at a table, all they could do was... think.

"We haven't found a single trace of any gangs since we stepped into the Barony."

Three days.

They had been here for three days.

And... what they found was literally nothing.

"How can a gang be so... organized and silent?"

He could hardly believe it. So much so... that he now even had a few doubts that this gang might not actually exist.

Matthew sighed as he pondered with his eyes squinted and his hands folded over his chest.

"What if... there really is no such gang?"

He lifted his squinting eyes from the table and turned them on Kael. Kael, meanwhile, asked the question he knew the answer to but wanted to confirm.

"Do you think the Baron wrote a... fake report?"

Matthew didn't change his expression, he kept his posture and continued.

"None of the people in town are related to the gang. We haven't found anyone who owes money to the gang since we've been in town. We've searched every corner here for three days and what we found is just... nothing. I feel like... we're trying to find something that doesn't exist."

The two remained silent for a while longer. They looked at the ceiling, at the table... and at each other as various thoughts passed through their minds.

After a short while... it was Kael who broke the silence.

"Let's go, then."

He looked into Matthew's eyes in particular, not moving his gaze an inch.

"We won't find anything here. Either the gang never really existed, or they're hiding out wherever they are because we're here."

And Matthew didn't look away either. They both just looked into each other's eyes.

"Let's ask the Empire for a larger and more capable team. If the difficulty of the mission increases, we can move more easily with more people."

Matthew... finally tore his eyes away after a brief moment and leaned back in his chair with a deep sigh.

"Yeah, I think so too."

*******

Kael and Matthew informed the baron that they would be gone for a few days to get more support from the Empire.

The Baron was clearly displeased with them. Now, when they admitted they were incompetent... he seemed even more upset.

Kael could guess quite clearly what the man was thinking. He was probably wondering why the Empire had brought two such young and inexperienced young men here.

But there was nothing he could do.

And so... Kael and Matthew soon left the town. They galloped their horses back to the capital the way they had come.

What they didn't know... was that they weren't actually two people.

Above them, flying in the sky, was a tiny crow. It was always over the two, following them until they left the town and night fell on the same day. Only when it was sure that they had really left the town did it turn away and return to the town.

In this way, once inside the town limits, he descended and entered a window quite close to the floor of the baron's mansion.

He landed on the arm of a man whose face was hidden by a hood, and then, its whole body trembled for a bit. After a few seconds, a big smile appeared on the man's face. He released the crow back out of the window and with slow steps, he walked through the corridors and into a certain room.

This was... the wine storage room of the mansion. The townspeople owed much of their income to the special, sweet wine they produced. So it was a pretty full storage room.

But the important thing was... the guards inside.

When the man with the disguised face entered, the six guards in the storage room smiled at the same time.

One of them, the tallest, who also seemed to be over two meters tall, took off his helmet and pulled back his orange hair with his hands. His brown eyes were quite... ordinary. Then the man whose face was hidden took off his hood and widened his smile, along with his green eyes and dark blond hair.

"Have the brats left?"

"Yes. They're miles away from the town. It will take them at least three hours to get back from where they are, even with the horses. They won't come back from that point."

The tall man sighed lightly without breaking his smile.

"I thought they would never leave... crazy brats, they even searched the mansion secretly. They are certainly not bad at their job..."

He squinted, then looked at the green-eyed man.

"They just didn't include how diverse the blessings can be. That's what happens when you're inexperienced."

He stretched, took off his armor, tossed it aside, and then put his hands in the pockets of the plain clothes he had been wearing for days. With a nonchalant demeanor, he exited the wine storage room and confidently began to make his way up through the mansion.

When he finally arrived in front of the baron's room, his smile widened and he pushed the door open hard.

The baron jumped in fright when he saw his door suddenly open. Then he saw the person in front of him.

The fear vanished from his face, but... it was replaced by a timid and uneasy expression this time.

"W- what do you want...? The brats of the Empire just left town..."

The tall man approached the table with slow steps, picked up one of the papers the baron was working on, and read its contents.

"Funds for a new grocery store on East Street...? Oh, there's good money to be made here..."

He crumpled the paper in his hand, rolled it into a ball, and shook it behind his back. He turned his eyes back to the baron, who could not stop trembling with fear.

"We've expanded, Baron. We have made contact with a larger group in the county. We will leave this town tomorrow evening. When those brats come back here again, they'll think there really is no gang here, and you can relax a bit. I'm not gonna lie, it was a good use of your money. Thank you for your services. I just wanted to let you know that we're going to make some travel money before we leave."

The Baron could not think of anything to say in reply, nor did he have the courage to open his mouth. He could only... swallow and accept the man's words.

He had to be happy. After all... the gang that had been terrorizing the town for months was finally going to leave. Who knows, maybe never to return...

But he was not happy.

Not at all.

Why... why hadn't the Empire sent someone decent? He had gone to all that trouble just to write a report, to make sure that it was a maid who was not connected to himself just to be safe, to remove all suspicion.

But the Empire had just sent two brats without even taking him seriously!

Maybe... Maybe if someone more experienced had come, they could have removed these wastes who call themselves human from the face of the earth.

But it was too late.

"We'll release your son before we go, although he might be missing a few fingers... his mind was a bit out of whack last time, too. But no problem, he'll be fine... probably."

He saw the Baron clench his fist under the table, his expression forced.

Well... what could he do...? He was really enjoying it, seeing a baron suffering in front of him.

"See you next time."

He turned and walked out of the room, hands in his pockets and confident.

Their days as a simple gang were over. Finally... he had managed to take a step towards something much bigger.

The future looked... bright.

*******

The next day, the tall man and his gang looted the grocery store they had seen while they were in the Baron's office. Quietly, of course... making sure that no one heard them, and making sure that the owner of the greengrocer's shop would never say a word to anyone.

Then, they prepared to leave town, just as they had said they would. As a team of eighteen people, they were heading for their new destination... the city at the center of Uhron County, of which the Barony of Ghran was a part.

And soon they were on their way. Their journey was not short. For almost a week and a half, they traveled by horse and cart.

Finally, they arrived in the city where the Count Uhron lives. Thanks to the loopholes created by the group they contacted, they managed to get inside, hiding their identities.

The city was quite big. Maybe not as big as the metropolis of the Duchies, but certainly several times the size of the town in their Barony.

Even the Count's mansion looked like a mini palace. Thinking of the money, the fame, the power they could earn here compared to that small town... all the gang members were practically drooling, especially the tall man who was their leader.

In this way, they entered a very large inn, which was their meeting point. And they found exactly the man they were looking for sitting at a long table in a corner of the inn.

Eighteen men sat at the long table, one by one, without making a sound. The tall man sat right next to the man already at the table.

The man at the table turned to him slowly, his dark eyes quite... plain. Then, asked with his seemingly same plain voice.

"Dazul of the Barony of Ghran, is it?"

The tall man, Dazul, nodded his head. The smile on his face never faded.

"Nice to meet you, then. I am Hasron, co-leader of the largest gang in Uhron. We have reviewed our arrangement, found no problems... and have agreed to be business partners. Underneath this inn is a structure of tunnels, and that's our headquarters. Come with me, we'll meet with the leader and... decide exactly what we're going to do."

Hasron and Dazul, along with seventeen others, got up from the table at the same time and made their way to the back of the lobby of the inn. Then they started to descend down to the ground through a ladder that was there...

All the while, there was someone leaning against the wall next to the secret staircase leading underground.

After the whole group had descended, he sighed deeply, opened his eyes, which shone with a silvery glow, and looked coldly at the staircase. Then, slowly, he too began to descend the stairs, among so many others who didn't even realize he was there.