Chapter 544: Chapter 528 – None Shall Pass

“The right person for the right situation, otherwise you’d just end up making a bigger mess.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

Once again, Eilonwy had her Death Knight kick the door to the mansion wide open, with one half of the double doors directly ripped off its hinges. A few servants in fine liveries stumbled or crawled in fear at the sight of the skeletal undead, while a few others were frozen on the spot with obvious dread in their eyes. Apparently while the commotion outside had given the people inside enough warning to hide themselves, they didn’t care much about their servants, or, judging from the collars worn on the necks of those ‘servants’, slaves.

 

Aideen had a quick talk with one of the frightened slaves – who was likely further intimidated by Eilonwy’s Death Knight looming over them – and asked them about the layout of the mansion. The slave quickly told them everything she knew in a hurry, after which Aideen asked a second and third to confirm the information and told the slaves to hide themselves somewhere safe for the time being.

 

“They said that the ‘master’ of the house is hiding upstairs with his guards, probably trying to buy time until the city guards caught wind of the mess and come to save him,” said Aideen to Kino and Eilonwy, to which both girls nodded. “Most of the slaves he had gathered to trade are locked up in the dungeon below, other than the ones he used for his personal entertainment, it seems.”

 

“We’d have to split up, then, in order to get both the slaver and to get the slaves out,” noted Eilonwy. “Any chance either place would be less well-defended than the other?”

 

“I don’t think so. The slaver would likely keep the best of his guards with him, but numerically, the dungeon should have more guards stationed since they had to deal with all the slaves there,” replied Aideen. “Either way, they do have a point. We’re technically on a time limit here unless we want the city guards to join in the mess as well. It would be difficult to get the slaves out safely if they were present.”

 

“Eilo, you and Miss Aideen should take the dungeon,” noted Kino after some thought. “You’d need more than two pairs of hands to bring all those people out, and your minions could be of use that way,” she added. “I’ll take care of the ones hiding upstairs. There’s only this one staircase leading to the second floor, right, Miss Aideen?”

 

“According to what the servants know, that should be the case,” answered Aideen with a nod. 

 

“Right, so I’ll head upstairs and clean up there. We’ll meet back here when we’re done?”

 

“Works for me,” Admitted Eilonwy before she looked at Kino with some worry in her features. “You sure you’re up to it, Kino? I know you’re not particularly keen on… the more bloody aspect of our job.”

 

“Some things need to be done,” said Kino with a heavy sigh. “And Miss Aideen is right. Some people do not deserve to continue living, much less in luxury built off the suffering of others. Some people would make the world a better place with their departure from it.”

 

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“Glad to see that you’ve made up your mind on some things,” noted Aideen before she reached over and raised the hood of Kino’s cloak over her head. “You might want to cover up a bit more, though. Your appearance is pretty noticeable, and if you plan to use your real face as your cover identity long term, you can’t afford to let it be known as part of this. Those slaves should be too scared to pay attention, but if the end up tangling with the city guard, they would notice.”

 

“Right,” said Kino as she slipped her tail back under the cloak, keeping it out of sight. With the hood over her head and her tail hidden between her legs and the cloak, most of her appearance was hidden from sight. The hood extended far enough down to throw a shade over the upper half of her face as well, which helped further obscure it from sight.

 

“Here, use this to cover your face,” said Eilonwy as she passed Kino a black handkerchief that was large enough to be folded in half and used as a makeshift mask to cover the lower half of her face. “Might as well play it safe and cover what you can while you’re at it, no? I know you’ll be fine no matter what happens, so I won’t tell you to stay safe. Go get them!”

 

“... Thanks,” said Kino with a nod as she tied the handkerchief over lower face, covering her nose and mouth with it. Eilonwy and Aideen gave her one last reassuring nudge on the back before the left towards where the dungeon was supposed to be, while Kino herself headed towards the staircase that led to the second floor of the mansion.

 

Oddly enough, Kino felt her feelings, which had been in some turmoil before, calm down as she climbed up the stairs, one step at a time. The hesitance and worries she used to harbor in her mind was abandoned behind her like so much shed fur. Maybe she would have those feelings of hesitance again in a different case, but she knew that they would no longer plague her for the day, at the very least.

 

Not while she was dealing with someone who very much deserved what was coming for them.

 

The wooden stairs creaked audibly under her feet as she climbed towards the top, and she emerged only to realize that most of the mansion’s second floor had been turned into a large pleasure pit lined with luxurious cushions. The scent of incense – many of which contained aphrodisiacs mixed into them – was still cloying in the air, and behind a line of armed, threatening guards who lined up in formation some distance from the stairs, she saw the presence of around half a dozen middle aged to old men clad only in silken bathrobes, some still clutching at the bodies of the naked, young female slaves around them.

 

One of them was the same old man who had accosted them a few days ago.

 

Kino just looked them in the eye, one after another, her own stare devoid of any sort of tender feeling and promising only death. The guards before her tensed as she brought her double-bladed glaive out from her storage and held it horizontally before herself. Then their eyes widened with surprise and flight as a smooth coating of jet-black nothingness wrapped around her weapon in its entirety save for the part that her hand was positioned on.

 

“Behind me is your sole chance of surviving this night,” she said in common. “But it matters not, for none of you shall pass through me.”

 

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