Chapter 121 – No man, no problem
"Damn it." Said the man dressed as a noble. "This was close. We were lucky these soldiers had no power in this area."
"We should have left the area earlier. We got tangled in unnecessary trouble and almost got caught while waiting here this long." Said the man in an adventurer's attire sitting near him with a sour tone. He insisted to get on a move, but this guy refused to heed his advice.
"I know. This was an unexpected situation. We did not know that dark association would manage to send someone to check the area so quickly. But that damn Gorig, what the hell is he doing? He should have been back a long time ago. There is no contact from his team as well. What problem could he have capturing those half-dead women?" Said the nobleman.
"Master will be pissed with us. Gorig is missing and we only got one of the women and she's not the one master Theron wanted. Now even our faces were seen by one of the dark associations men." Said, adventurer.
"No need to worry. I will report it to Lady Madaline so that it would look like all the fault is on those incompetent monsters. She is infatuated with me and will surely speak up to protect us from Theron's wrath." Said the man with a self-confident grin.
As he spoke adventurers looked at each other and nodded in acknowledgment of some unsaid words.
"But we need to make sure not to bring any tail with us. Send some men to check if there is anyone following us." Continued to talk the nobleman, with a commanding voice not noticing the strange expressions on adventurers faces.
"Don't worry, we know our job. Master Theron said no evidence so we won't leave any traces behind." Said Adventurer standing up.
Nobleman nodded with a satisfied face.
"Luckily, there weren't any high leveled warriors in that group, that might have had super-human memory ability and we all covered our faces so they saw our faces only in the passing. With only just a bit of disguise, none of us would be ever recognized in a city."
"But that commander saw me quite well." Said the man in nobleman attire with a strange face.
"Yeah. This is too bad. But the master said no evidence, so.." Said adventured and before the man that pretended to be a noble realized what was going on his throat was slit.
In a useless attempt to stop the blood, the man grabbed his throat with a face full of surprise and terror, but all that he achieved was prolonging his life just a few seconds more to see the smirk of adventurers gazing at him with pity.
"You, on the other hand, were out of luck." Those were the last words he heard before his eyes lost the luster of life in them.
"Won't Lady Madaline be angry at us for killing him?" Asked another man in the carriage. "He was her favorite, right?"
"The servitors are just meals for her. She might have an interest in them for a bit of time but once she tires of them, they are done for anyway. All these idiots always think of themselves as some high-status servants because one of the household kin took interest in them and boss us around, but they never realize they are just food. Do they really think Master Theron would allow his fiance to turn these guys and become her lovers? Bunch of idiots. The moment she takes interest in them they are already dead." Said the man wiping his knife on the dead man's clothes and then robbing the dead man of all his possessions, carefully checking every pocket to make sure he did not leave anything behind.
"City guards would be on the lookout for the carriage and there might be a tail after us right now." Said the adventurers' leader turning to his men. "Put a mind spell on the horse and let it travel the road on its own until it dies. We ditch the carriage and travel through the forest."
Stopping the carriage adventurers quickly took out the smell-covering powder and sprayed it all over themselves, before spraying it all around the carriage. After that, the mage of the team walked toward the horse and touching its head whispered a few words producing a weak light from his palm.
While the mage put the spell on the horse, the team leader took a bottle out of his pocket ring and poured its content on the dead servitor's face. Without looking at the result he quickly turned away and jumped out of the carriage not wanting to see the gruesome scene of melting skin and muscles on the dead man's body sliding off the skull's bone. A loud hissing sound was heard from inside the carriage and adventurers shivered while looking at their leader, knowing well what was going to happen to the corpse's face. Just as the leader jumped out of the carriage, it started to move again, driven away by the horse put under the mind spell that beckoned it to run along the road without stopping.
"It is necessary. No evidence." Said the team leader seeing his team's uncomfortable faces. "Let's go."
After his command, they disappeared into the forest in a flash.
If someone was really sent to follow them then the only thing they would find when they stop that carriage is a dead body with a ruined face making it unidentifiable.
*****
"Oh fuck." Said Noah suddenly stopping and closing his eyes. His face scrunched in an expression of disgust as everyone stopped looking at him with surprise.
From the safe house where they saw the nobleman and the city guard squad go their separate ways, they traveled through the forest following the carriage of the nobleman and his guards in total silence staying hidden from their view. With Wolf's keen senses they could keep a good distance from them and follow them unnoticed.
"What is it?" Whispered Brianna looking at his scrunched face with worry.
"They killed the nobleman and sprayed something on his face. His face, it…fuck I want to throw up."
"Melting mucus." Whispered Samantha thoughtfully. "It's a liquid made of concentrated slime monsters' digestive liquids. Nasty thing. Can melt almost anything."
"Why'd they do that?" Asked Brianna.
"Typical assassin move. No man, no problem. That guy was seen by the officer. If he is found, sooner or later they will find out who he worked for. Now no one would ever recognize his body."
"Wicked bastards." Muttered Noah. "Let's go, the leftover men ditched the carriage and now travel through the forest in that direction." Said Noah pointing into the forest.
"They are going in the city's direction then." Said Samantha, nodding while marveling at this ability to view his target at such a distance without being noticed. Back in Greenville town, she thought he was just a newbie adventurer, but the abilities he kept showing really changed her view. This man, who the hell is he? She thought watching Noah from the corner of her eyes.
A few moments after they started to move again the expression on, Noah's face changed to a frown.
/What the hell?/ He thought in his head.
As soon as he saw that the nobleman had his throat slit, he quickly changed the 'lock on view' target from him to the adventurers' team leader opening a second screen above the previous. But as he saw the adventurers cover their tracks and pour 'melting mucus' on the dead body, he noticed that the first screen never closed. He switched back to the first screen to see what was the deal when he saw the gruesome scene of the flesh on the man's face turn to paste and slide off of his skull to the carriage floor making a puddle of molten blood, skin, and muscles, which made him nauseous.
However, as unpleasant as it felt he could not help but acknowledge that thanks to all the nightmare stories that he read in his mind realm, he got quite used to such scenes and could hold himself from vomiting out all he ate that day. By the time his group started to move again, traveling now in the new direction, to follow the adventurers' team, the carriage with the dead body that his first screen showed had already ridden quite some distance away from the spot where the adventurers jumped off.
/Ugy, I thought the 'lock on view' screen would only show more or less living targets./
/That should be the case./ Answered Ugy's voice in his mind.
/Why didn't the first screen close then?/
/I am at a loss here myself. But the only explanation I can come up with is that this guy is still alive./ Said Ugy.
/WHAT?/ Exclaimed Noah in his mind.
*****
A few ravens flew in circles in the sky above the moving carriage for a few minutes before one of them floated down and landed on the seat inside the carriage, looking at the dead body.
*Caw.* A nasty croaking sound came from its beak.
"Yeah, yeah, I am awake." A feminine voice came from a dead body and suddenly the corpse's torso started to rise. As it rose, it's stripped naked from the flesh skull started to morph and liquefy. From the skull, this change spread to its whole body and soon the entire body of the man became half transparent as if it was made of liquid. Just a few seconds later his body morphed back into a previous shape of a nobleman with his face totally fine as if it had never been ruined.
"Well, this is awkward. What do I do now?" Said the nobleman with his male voice again, looking at the raven with a sheepish smile.
"You should have followed the plan from the get-go. What did you expect?" Said the raven in a human speech.
"Come on, that was a perfect opportunity to see who the dark society would send. Thanks to that, we now know that this commander is corrupt." Said the man with a coy smile.
"Because of that, you lost the spot on the team." Said the raven.
"Nah, I know where they are heading anyway. I'll just find some opportunity to kill another member of their team and replace him just as I replaced this sucker here." He said pointing at himself. "Don't worry I got it all covered."
"Stop the unnecessary risk. Just do your job." Said raven and then flew out of the carriage and took off to the sky.
*Ahooo* Sounded it's another croak from the sky.
"Damn grumpy bird." Said the man standing up and jumping out of the carriage. "Why are all observers such whiners?" He muttered as he walked into the forest. "Now then who would be best to kill and replace."