A smile crept over the butler’s face—the young master’s praise had found fertile soil. He didn’t look down on the simple people. Just like his father. Looking up, however, the old man was taken aback to see a stranger approaching the gate.
“Where are you going?” he barely had time to ask before he lost consciousness. Despite his frail build, the stranger had hit him over the head so hard that the vision faded from the old man’s eyes. The last thing he saw was a red patch spreading beneath the fallen bodies of the useless goons. Forg’s guards had failed.
Tailyn hadn’t wanted to kill anyone. At all. But with Raptor telling him the house was packed with people, he didn’t have a choice if he wanted to get in quietly. Hacking the two goons wasn’t an issue—the level four outfits Dif had given them couldn’t stand up to Tailyn’s new parameters. And the head of Mean Truk couldn’t leave dangerous enemies behind him. With a heavy heart, he liquidated the two innocent fighters.
Attention! You’re trying to initiate the cleansing system with the user inside.
Confirmation required before initiation.
***
Verifying access level...
Your Hacking level: 129.
Level of protection from diversions: 120 (standard x 3).
Cleansing system initiated.
***
Attempting to hack Forg Dif.
Your Hacking level: 129.
Forg Dif’s protection level: 30.
Probability of successful hack: 100%.
Attempt 1… Successful.
Tailyn moved quickly, doing his best not to look down at the crimson pools reminding him of the guards. The priority was tying up the butler. That took some time, as it was a while before Tailyn could get his mouth open wide enough to shove a gag in. With Raptor pointing out an empty room nearby, Tailyn tossed the old man in once he’d been secured—adding to the number of victims weighed on the boy’s conscience, though he couldn’t risk raising the alarm. He headed back to Forg once he was done. The trader’s son stood motionless in the hallway right where he’d been left.
But Tailyn couldn’t help glancing over at the pile of armor on the floor. Deciding against just leaving it there, he tossed it into his inventory, noting happily that not a drop of blood made it in. Then, he ripped some kind of curtain off the wall and dropped it on the floor to cover the evidence. He grabbed Forg and hauled him toward the room with the butler. The next move was to dig into the other boy’s logs to make sure Ronan was actually in the residence, not to mention finding out where exactly and what kind of security system was in place. Valanil had strictly forbidden him from going in without that information.
“What’s going on? Where... Tailyn Vlashich?! Where are you taking my son?!”
The exclamation stopped Tailyn in his tracks as he was carrying Forg along and completely disoriented him for a few moments. While the System told him his Lutar Shars disguise was in place, the unexpected witness had somehow been able to see right through it. A gray-haired man was watching in horror as the empire’s greatest threat hauled off his son, who had somehow been turned into a statue.
Raont Dif (human). Trader. Level 27. Age 53. Head of the Rose Trade Guild.
Raptor got to work on its own. Correctly predicting what its master would want it to do, it activated hacking to turn Raont’s armor into stone. There was just one problem: the guild head didn’t wear armor at home. The luxurious but still simple clothing he was wearing couldn’t be hacked, meaning Tailyn got access to nothing more than his logs and inventory.
Although, no, the boy didn’t even get that far.
Your Hacking level is insufficient to gain access to the trader’s personal inventory (required: 300).
Tailyn swallowed hard—he’d never heard of numbers that high. And his momentary confusion cost him the chance to use Valkyrie, just about ruining the entire plan. Raont activated his defenses, and the house turned into an impregnable fortress. Bars clanged shut over the windows, the doors locked, and statues activated to quickly aim sharp spears at the intruder. After a quick scan, Raptor hit the alarm button, telling the boy the level thirty weapons could easily damage his named items. Where had the trader gotten monsters like them? Speaking of whom, the master of the house was also hidden behind a thick shield.
A wave of panic rushed over Tailyn as he found himself facing a situation he wasn’t prepared for. There was just one thing he had the presence of mind to do: yell hysterically.
“Wait! If I die, Forg will die, too!”
His tone was so fervent that Raont, who was a master at reading people, could tell his enemy wasn’t bluffing. He’d poured so much energy and money into his only son, and he was in mortal danger. Stopping the guards, the trader yelled back, doing his best to stay behind the panel. It was time to do what he was best at: negotiate.
“We’re stalemated, Tailyn Vlashich! I can’t let you leave this house; you can’t stay. What do you need my son for? The two of you have never met before.”
“How did you recognize me? I’m wearing a disguise!” Fear leaked through the boy’s voice, and Raont decided to keep up the dialog. It wasn’t much of a secret, after all.
“The head of the trade guild gets a true knowledge amulet that lets me see everything as it really is through level 300 concealment. Even at home, I never take it off.”
Raptor highlighted the amulet and helpfully let the boy know it couldn’t gain access to it. Tailyn’s level was too low for that.
“But you didn’t answer my question. What do you need my son for?”
“Not him. I need...” Tailyn paused just in time to avoid revealing the secret of why he was in the capital. If he’d spilled the beans he could have just gone ahead and asked Valia to teleport him back.
“So, Forg isn’t in danger?” Raont asked in relief. “Let him go and leave my home then!”
“It’s not that simple.” Tailyn’s composure was beginning to return. After pulling the logs from his prisoner and searching them for the word Ronan, the boy’s breathing picked up—the viceroy’s son was in the capital. Just an hour before, he and Forg had been chatting.
“Why isn’t it?” Raont didn’t like the pause.
“Nobody can know I was in the capital,” Tailyn admitted begrudgingly.
Raont’s eyes glistened. The situation sounded promising despite the circumstances. As Tailyn’s age was common knowledge, wrapping the untrained boy around his finger was going to be a piece of cake. He just had to make sure he freed his son and as much as he could from the inventory of the enemy of the state. They wouldn’t have banished just anybody.
“I can guarantee that no living soul will hear about you showing up in my home. Even my son will forget about it! But the question is what you’re prepared to offer for our silence.”
“Offer?” Tailyn was taken aback. “Forg’s life isn’t enough for you?”
“His life is the guarantor of our conversation. But you want me to break the law, and the emperor won’t be thrilled if he finds out who stopped by for a secret visit. If you want to make it out of here, name your payment for my silence.”
Tailyn sniffed in annoyance. While the trader was making sense, the boy didn’t have anything with him. He wasn’t about to throw in the towel, however, so he checked his accounts before replying.
“I can give you twenty thousand coins!”
“Is that supposed to be a joke?” Raont snorted, though sweat broke out on his palms. It wasn’t an overwhelming sum, of course, but it was still enough to cover his family’s needs for a year. And the fact that the boy was starting at that number meant there was more to squeeze out of him.
“Sixty!” Panic crept back into the picture for Tailyn as he made his second offer for his freedom. What if that wasn’t enough for the trader? He wasn’t going to have to hand the man his dragon card, was it?
“Young man, crimes against the empire come with the death penalty. And death, I’ll remind you, is the only thing in this world that yo
u can’t buy your way out of. It’s not easy living headless even when you have sixty thousand coins. Let’s hear something worthwhile! What do you have that can overcome my instinct for self-preservation?”
“Death isn’t the end—you can always come back,” the boy said, surprising the man with the fact that the panic had once again drained out of his voice. His awful calm elicited waves of goosebumps running down the man’s back as he spoke in a manner only the highborn used.
“What does that mean?” Raont was fighting to hold back his emotions as they touched on a topic nobody could know he cared about.
“I can give you the chance to bring back any one person you’ve met before. Anyone!”
“That’s not possible!” the trader shot back, his self-control deserting him for a moment. His complicated life had seen its fair share of betrayals, threats, and buyoffs, but it had once also seen a miracle—love. Pure, genuine, impossible love. After he and his wife had spent ten years together, the unthinkable had happened: the god took the beautiful girl during the birth of Forg. It was such a blow, in fact, that only her son helped the trader get over his grief. And the outcast was promising him the impossible.
“If you give me your word no one will find out that I was in your home, I’ll let you resurrect anyone you want. Sure, they’ll be at level one with all their skills reset, but it will be that person. As the god is my witness, I’m telling you the truth.”
Raont couldn’t see the snow-white shimmer from behind his panel, but the very fact that Tailyn was still alive told him the boy wasn’t lying. But it couldn’t be.
“Agreed!” he said hurriedly as if worried the boy might change his mind. “Easy, I’m going to turn off my defenses, and we’ll have a quiet talk, partner.”
As soon as the words were out of their mouths, a mission popped up for both Tailyn and Raont. They accepted it, and the number of intruders in the house dropped by one—the boy was no longer considered an enemy. Sure, Raont was taking a risk on Tailyn, who he didn’t trust completely, but his intuition told him he was making the right move. Risk was an integral part of his life, after all.
The bars on the windows and doors lifted. Glancing over sadly at the way out, Tailyn shook his head—he couldn’t leave. The god wouldn’t have forgiven that kind of treachery.
“My son isn’t going to hurt you, so let him go,” Raont said. Tailyn felt a connection with the open, truthful face framed by short, white hair. Only tenacious eyes gave the man away as a serious player.
“Father, he stole my logs!” Forg exclaimed, showing himself to be a worthy adversary. Standing motionless for half an hour was no joke—his muscles had to all be cramping. Still, instead of collapsing to the ground in a pile of groans, he evaluated the threat and did his best to communicate the danger to his father.
“Mine, too,” Raont said. He knew what was going on. “But that’s fine since the god preserves the secrets of all traders. Still, it’s a good lesson for us to do a better job ourselves of protecting our secrets instead of relying on the god. We’ll give that some thought later on. In the meantime, take Tailyn to my office and don’t try anything. He and I have a deal.”
“Tailyn? Tailyn Vlashich?!” Forg paled and was dumbstruck for a few moments. As the god had used the name of the disguise in the description of the hack, that was the first time he was hearing the name.
It didn’t take long to discuss the details. Raont took the oath, the god confirmed it was complete and without any tricks, and Tailyn pulled out one of his two concentrated noas to hand over to the trader. After a quick description of how to use it, one more person appeared in the room.
“Baby?” a charming, feminine voice asked, and Raont broke down in tears for the first time in sixteen years.
Chapter 15
“TAILYN, HOLD ON, better not walk around the capital at night. Stay here until the morning—I swear, nobody will hurt you.” Raont stopped the scourge of the empire before he could leave. He never would have done it, either, if it hadn’t been for Elza’s green eyes leaving him no other choice than the right one. The one that made her happy.
The gentle touch of his wife told Raont he’d made the best decision. Having checked through his logs, Tailyn nodded his agreement, realizing he couldn’t get to Ronan until the next morning, anyway. With that said, the viceroy’s son had mentioned to Ronan that he was going to be visiting a very interesting establishment the next day. Tailyn could find him there.
“Tailyn, what were you banished for?” Elza asked as she sized up the boy. Her interest was piqued by the simple fact that there was nothing exceptional about him.
“It’s a long story,” Tailyn replied. Especially after Elza’s resurrection, the reason behind his banishment wasn’t a secret, though it really was a very long story.
“Why don’t you tell us over dinner?” Raont had his claws set deep in the boy, his senses tingling to tell him there was unique information on the table that could be worth quite a few coins. He wasn’t about to pass up a chance like that. After thinking for a moment, Tailyn agreed. One of Valanil’s objectives for their trip had been to chat with Crobar representatives about resurrecting their leaders. With that in mind, Tailyn had brought two spheres of concentrated noa with him—one as a sample, the second for sale. The sample had already been offered, and both Tailyn and Valia thought the move had been made well, the head of an albeit small trade guild hardly the least important figure in the empire. Presumably, there were lots of people out there who knew Raont’s wife had died, which meant her reappearance was going to be an excellent advertisement for the capabilities of noa. All that remained was to throw in some bells and whistles, making sure the legend grew, and Tailyn did an excellent job turning the next couple of hours into an exciting adventure for the Dif family. There was the city of the dead, the Forest of Desire, lixes, monsters, crystal fences, and Mean Truk and the resurrected team to top it all off. As the night wore on, Valia helped her betrothed avoid going into detail by sticking to general descriptions.
“But why wasn’t I banished?” Raont asked with a frown and barely concealed rage. Tailyn had just about gotten him kicked out of the empire, too.
“It’s not using noa that’s the problem,” the boy replied. “It’s making it.”
“Okay, but what did you need from me?” Forg was having a hard time getting over the idea that he’d been kidnapped by public enemy number one. “And what are you doing in the capital in the first place?”
“Son, don’t ask questions that can’t be answered,” Raont said sharply after a little while when it became clear that Tailyn wasn’t about to give the older boy a reply. But that suddenly changed.
“It’s no secret why I’m here. There’s lots of platinum and marble in my city, and we need trade channels. Basically, I’m here to find someone to work with as well as show the world what concentrated noa can do.”
“Ore or ingots?” Raont asked, instantly on the alert. All the platinum deposits in the empire belonged to the government, and the prices set for traders were sky-high. But there was nothing they could do about that—mining in the Gray Lands and distant swamps was impossible. Lixes, monsters, and bandits put paid to any plans miners had for finding new sources.
“Ingots.” Tailyn had a hard time suppressing a smile when he realized he’d found the right person.
The discussion of how to set up deliveries lasted well into the night. Of course, Tailyn announced immediately that he couldn’t make any promises and that all questions needed to be directed to his treasurer, only agreeing to exchange communicator numbers with the trader. He also accepted what the trader insisted was a gift: a few portal scrolls for the capital. Once Mean Truk had a stationary portal, Tailyn’s representative was going to be able to use them to bring a few platinum ingot samples for the trader to evaluate. He wanted to see the quality and purity before striking a deal.
They stopped there. Tailyn headed off to bed, though he couldn’t get to sleep—there had been no news
from Forian and Valanil. Both were still in the group; neither had changed the name. And that was odd since the herbalist was the leader and could have let Tailyn know what was going on. But she said nothing, leaving the boy to worry.
Tailyn had no way of knowing that neither Valanil nor Forian were able to do anything in that moment. After the prisoners had been delivered to the Carlian residence, Eralas had put them to sleep. The nameless sold their products at a premium, but their poisons were worth it—sleeping people were powerless people. At least, that was the plan, as the paralyzing substance implanted itself in the victim’s body and was only neutralized with a special antidote. Or regeneration, though how were a couple simple people going to get their hands on that? Tossing the pair in jail, Eralas lost interest in them entirely. The head of the home had been informed, and he was going to be stopping by for a personal conversation with the animal who dared take the Carlian name. The trader grinned evilly when he thought about what the girl had in store. The family was going to be avenged.
Isr Kale's Journal (The Alchemist Book #4): LitRPG Series Page 22