Chapter 19: Ch 18. Reckon and conquer

Under the cover of the night, a party of five quietly sneaked out of the palace. While the guard at the gate was being changed, Valerian’s party passed through under the guise of being servants detained with late work.

Only when they were far away from the castle, the adventurers breathed out.

“They surely have a lot of patrols recently…” Jeanne took off a wool cloak, and started stretching.

“I would expect no less, now that the catacombs turned into a warzone.” Valerian approached an inconspicuous door of one of the houses. The door was the same as many other doors in the neighborhood, but those who knew what it is used it frequently. It leads both to the back street behind the house, and to the house itself.

‘Knock-knock’

A minute later a noise came from the other side of the door.

“What is it…?” A sleepy man’s voice grumbled at Valerian.

“Do you have a room for sore traveler?”

“No.” The voice responded confidently.

“Even if we came from Octavia?” Then, something started rattling on the other side, and the door was opened.

Without exchanging neither glance, nor a word, Valerian and the party passed by the man in nightgown, then the prince handed over two gold coins to the owner.

It was the usual tax for smugglers, whose password Valerian has used.

With the size of the party they couldn’t pass as runaway criminals, neither they could pass as rich seeking illegal pleasures. But a small band of smugglers could appear in the middle of a night.

The owner was not a prying man and simply opened a hidden hatch, leading to the underground.

The first stage of the quest was completed. Valerian and Co were in the catacombs, and only the moist stuffy air of the first layer could be found.

No matter how well Marcus’ knights are trained, their orders are to only guard the major paths, ignoring the obscure entrances, such as this one.

This one has another added benefit – a staircase, leading to the black market right from the first level to the third.

However, when the party reached there, they found that something was off.

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Neither of them has much experience with such places, or better to say they have none, but the current state of this place was odd to say the least.

The central market was the place which neither gang would dare to control, as the influx of goods, cash, and food all comes in here, and through here. Smugglers and daring traders would bring their goods obtained in any way; rich and illegally rich would come here to shop; people of questionable morality and consciousness would come to meet and discuss their shady business; and, of course, a lot of bandits would be snooping around to make sure their partners' business is not disrupted by rivals.

But right now this underground nexus was almost barren. The stalls with goods were mostly empty, and few of them even had a person overseeing them. What could be stolen was stolen, and what couldn’t was left lying unattended.

The places of forbidden pleasures were appearing as if completely empty. Usually, if somebody saw a priest coming down here, the madams would pester them to buy their boys and girls for a night, or offer slaves and hookers. But not only old Wolfgang, even a handsome man like Valerian only received cautious gazes from the doorsteps of the brothels.

The same was with the casinos and the fighting pits. No wagers, no gore, and no barrels of ale emptied.

This place was almost completely abandoned.

After walking around for a while, the party noticed a shady bar tending to a couple of thugs.

‘Erbrun, can I ask you to…’ Valerian inconspicuously showed towards the thugs.

‘What do you want?’ The man lent his ear.

‘Ask them what you can, especially about the gang wars.’

While the others went to the few working stalls and asked for information, Erbrun headed towards the bar. On his way he also waved his fingers to a madam of a brothel, as if he was going to buy a girl for the night after getting tipsy.

It allowed him to mingle with the already-drunk thugs.

In between drinking p*, called ale here, and talking (in his case – lying) about how many virgins he raped, Erbrun learnt a very curious thing.

“… you ain’t telling me they got wrecked by a single warrior?”

“I tell ya man!  Talks are, dat guy made an entire gang disapper on ‘im, just for looking da wrong way! Den he also made some petty dorks his b*es, and now dey are wrecking da ho’e place! All who crossed h's path are dead 'n rotting and remainin' 're flockin' unda his banne's! Heck, if not for dem buying drinks and w*s like crazy, dis place would’ve shut down by now! If ya see anyb'dy in da tunnels - run fo ya life. Dey are dis scary, dude!”

The drunkards’ talk would’ve went on, but perhaps after feeling something, Valerian knocked the warrior’s shoulder, and dragged him away, as if they were done with business here, and the feignedly disappointed man had to walk away.

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