Ali and Liza were sitting at a table outside a fancy tavern meant for the upper class of the city. The tavern was near the centre of the city, where the market was swarmed with people and merchants from all over the kingdom.
There were stares coming at him since it was unusual for a slave to sit at the same table as her master and eat with her master, but Ali didn't care. He looked up at Liza, who was eating quietly. The excitement she had before was now gone.
The night sky was dimly covering the city, and yet the people never left the marketplace, nor did the merchants, who simply rotated with their employees who worked the night shift at the stalls.
"Liza, brighten up, you like the food, don't you?", Ali said.
"I'm sorry, it's just…I—It's worse than I heard. How they treat my people is…", a tear fell from her eye as sadness and anger took over. In the last two hours, she'd passed by many slaves who were beaten, whipped, and endured some of the worst treatment she'd ever seen, and yet they didn't fight back at all. They were enslaved in body and mind…
"Hey, this is what we're here for, no?", Ali said, and Liza looked up at his masked face.
"It won't be for long. Those chains will be broken, and they will have their freedom. It's just worse than I thought, and there needs to be a change in plans", Ali said quietly.
"What do you mean?", the young bunny-girl asked.
"Well, unfortunately, your people have experienced slavery for generations in this city from the looks of it, meaning it's passed on from father to child. And that means they have no will to fight for their freedom. So if I go out there and have some of them escape their cages, give them weapons to fight…Many will instead run back to their masters or the city guards to report it and hope they don't get punished harshly…", Ali explained.
"There's no way they would do that, how could they not fight back with what happens to them every day…", she said that and ironically a high-class lady passed by the street with a young dog-girl behind her holding a basket of shopping.
The girl tripped, dropping the basket, and the lady went on to beat the young child in the middle of the street with no one even glancing twice, like this was a normal occurrence. Liza's fist tightened, and her aura slowly started to cover her fist, but Ali reached over and held her hand, calming her down.
"People change when they live with a chain around their neck, Liza. It sucks the fight out of them and breeds people who are controlled by fear and acceptance of who they are and their suffering.", Ali said.
"So what do we have to do now?", she asked.
"Well, we can't do it on our own anymore. We need someone who's close to them. We saw the bathhouse where only demi-humans shower, slaves and the adventurer demi-humans. We find someone who's trusted there and have them lead the fight when the time is right. That's the simple version of the plan anyway.", Ali said, and he stood up, leaving behind a silver coin on the table.
The two of them walked through the city centre and passed by the landmarks of the city, from the castle to the magic tower to the great smiths to the adventurer's guild headquarters to the most popular part of the city. The great slave market, which was just a huge circus-like tent from outside, with cages around the entrance to show off their product of demi-humans and human slaves.
Ali and Liza kept walking and passed by a church of the True Flame where a carriage framed with white engravings was parked at the entrance with a large group of holy knights and priests who were setting up tents in the garden around the church to sleep in.
Ali's eyes sharpened, but he simply kept walking until he reached the worst part of the city where the poor lived and gangs ruled. Guards and knights never reached there and left the people there to the mercy of the gangs.
"So what do you have for me?", Ali asked Rook, who was leaning against the wall of a tavern in a dark alley, with Keith standing quietly beside him. Liza stood silently behind Ali.
"Bad news, I don't know if you've seen or heard, but a Paladin is in town, and not just any Paladin, but a Royal Princess in the flesh. Well, former, but that doesn't matter", Rook said.
"Why is she here?", Ali asked.
"From my contact in the castle, they heard her mention Obidos. That's all I know. For now, she's in the church, but it would be a disaster if she joined the fight against you because she would be joining a platinum adventurer squadron and mages of unknown ranks from the tower, in addition to the viscount and his army…", he said, shaking his head.
"So, in simple words, we're very fucked if we fight head-on", Rook finished off, and Ali reached into his cloak.
Ali threw a pouch of gold coins to Rook, who opened it, and his eyes started shining seeing the gold coins. "That's a reward for the information…The plan's changed now. We're taking over this shithole and getting rid of the gangs tonight. Rook, you'll take charge of the district and use the smuggling routes for us now. Also, this'll help expand your reach in the city. Tomorrow, I'm paying a visit to the slave market and the church.", Ali said to Rook, who nodded and left the alley.
Ali handed Keith a piece of paper with a list of names on it. He had Miles make it for him since he couldn't write this language. "Go to their homes and search for any paperwork that links them to the missing kids around the city, especially the ones connected to the slave market since they have easy contact with the gangs. Get me evidence.", Ali said, and Keith nodded.
"Also, get used to sneaking into their homes since you will be killing all of them very soon", Ali said, and Keith's face never changed. He knew what Ali was capable of, and simply killing all the nobility and rich merchants in the city was nothing to him.
"Let's go", Ali said, leading Liza to the loudest and biggest tavern in the slums of the city….
Five minutes before….
"THOSE FUCKING BASTARDS, THEY STOLE MY SHIT, MY FUCKING SHIT, AND NOBODY STEALS FROM ME!! NOBODY", a large seven-foot giant made of muscles and scars screamed, smashing the table beside him.
The tavern went quiet as the giant's gangsters filled up the tavern and stood there quietly and scared. The rest of the people who were drinking and enjoying their night slowly slipped out of the tavern, not to get involved.
"HOW DID THEY KNOW, HUH?", the giant asked aloud, and nobody dared answer. They just watched their boss talk to himself and throw furniture around with the tavern's owner sanding behind the counter, frightened, and his wife cowering behind the counter.
CRASH
Suddenly, a young man fell down the stairs that reached up into the tavern owner's quarters. The young man fell face first, breaking his nose, with blood splattering on the floor.
"My boy…", the owner's wife rushed around the counter and between the gangsters to her son, who was bleeding from his face and covering his mangled nose.
"Boss, look what I found, something very interesting right here", a thin man in his thirties with small knives hanging from the three belts around his waist. He looked more like the stealthy fighter in the gang.
"WHAT?", the boss shouted but then paused, seeing who it was. It was his second in command and one of the few in his gang with actual intelligence, holding a piece of paper in his hand and stepping down the stairs.
"Let me read this for all of you", he said, holding the paper up.
"I have information that he is going to rob the seventh caravan at one hour past midnight. I hope you fulfil your part of the deal and kill him. We welcome a more civilised organisation in our tavern", he read the letter, and all eyes went to the young man, who looked like he had lost his soul.
"So…It was YOU", the giant stood up and looked at the owner's son, who cowered behind his mother.
"No, please, have mercy, please. He's young and foolish. Punish me, please. Don't hurt him…", the owner begged and stood before his family and against the giant whose face screamed violence.
"You wanted to kill me after all I've done for you and your family, huh? Who protected this tavern, who made sure nobody came in here and robbed you bastards, hah? ME", the giant shouted.
"Protect, heh…What a joke…you protect no one. You rob us every month of all our money in the name of protection. We'd be better off without you stealing from us…A gang made of Filthy pieces of shit that come in every day and drink without paying. What you do to my mother every night…", the young man shouted back and stood up.
The boss looked at him with a deadly stare and turned to the gangster nearest the doors. "Lock them", he said.
The gangster nodded and walked up to the doors, but when he reached out with his hand, suddenly he froze and felt something wrong. He breathed in and out but felt something was very, very wrong….
"Hey, what are you doing?", another gangster behind him said to him, drawing attention to them.
The one who froze turned around slowly and shocked the others when blood was flowing out of his nose, eyes, and mouth, before falling face first.
They all froze and looked down at their comrade who now had a puddle of blood under his unmoving body…
CREACK
All eyes then went to the door that slowly opened up for a man with a gold mask covering his face…
Ali looked at them as they reached for their swords and some activated their aura…
BA-DUM BA—DUM BA—DUM
Ali, on the other hand, was listening to the dozens of hearts before him. With a single thought, he could feel their beating hearts floating over his palm.
"It's never been so easy to kill", Ali said out of nowhere then….
UGH
Every single gangster felt their chests shake as their hearts exploded inside their bodies….
All of them dropped to the ground dead except one. One that looked around, stunned, his eyes wide, and the small knives in his hands covered in red aura that was fading as his hand shook in fear.
From start to finish, the whole ordeal was very quiet and quick. The door opened to a stranger who said one sentence, and without lifting a finger, a whole gang was wiped out.
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