"Danger? What do you mean by that?"
Ginah paused for a moment, blinking. "Right, I forgot to tell you. Why didn’t you bring it up, Kai?"
The man just sighed. "Because you didn’t give me the chance."
"Whatever." She raised her shoulders in a half shrug, before continuing. "We think the Elise is planning on stealing from the King’s palace. They probably want to raid his vault, considering he’s not even there right now."
That was right: the King of Laxis would usually be located in the Capital city, of course. That was how it normally worked. However, due to the significant rise in crime and the deterioration of the city of Luke, the King had taken a temporary vacation to his holiday home far down south.
He left six years ago.
Ginah continued.
"The vault still holds some riches, although it’s not as much as before. But they couldn’t possibly have transferred everything valuable out of the palace, let alone the city. And since the Elise has been stretching itself too thin as of late, they probably need the gold to both continue funding themselves, as well as send some back to the Dark Crusaders. And that’s why the Dark Crusaders will be helping them with this job."
"And you guys want to stop them from even starting this plan of theirs, since it would deal a significant blow to the Elise by cutting off their funding, right?" I asked, confirming my suspicions.
"That’s pretty much the gist of it," Ginah said, taking a step back away from the table. She craned her neck to the side, as she stared at me. "So, what? You’re not having second thoughts, are you?"
"Of course not." I rolled my eyes.
I was slightly concerned knowing that I was going up against the Dark Crusaders… again. But I knew that they were a mostly decentralized group outside of the Infernalis. Whatever cell this was had no relation to Gerritt or Karna.
And while I could rationalize away stealing and robbing— even killing if it was necessary. I could never justify permanently ruining the lives of others just for profit; it was as wrong as what Victor did.
So with a grin behind my mask, I met the hazel eyes of the pirate Captain and gave her my answer without any hesitation.
"I’m in."
Chapter 30: Infiltration
It was dark; I could not see anything. That should have been expected since it was night time, but the fact that I was covered by a cloth blanket made that darkness even more apparent. I was being smothered— it was difficult to breathe, but not impossible. And yet, I was in this position out of my own volition.
I felt the wooden boat rock as another wave splashed against its side. The crates and barrels shook, but they did not topple. They were fastened firmly onto deck specifically so they would stay— even if they were just there for show. The real cargo in the boat was me.
Or at least, I was one of the ‘goods’ being transported.
There were six others with me. Six of us had been chosen to go on this sabotage mission. We were supposed to infiltrate a warehouse on the southeastern side of the city, gather whatever information we could, and apprehend or kill the supposed Dark Crusaders that were there.
Apparently, the leader of the Elise was a Dark Crusader, yet he was the only ostensible tie between the organization and the powerful group of zealots. Ginah wanted to ensure that the partnership between the two remained as limited as possible.
It made sense: the Dark Crusaders were not very unified despite its large size. This Half Elf named Bahr was probably acting out of his own authority, and was trying now to prove it was now something worth investing more manpower and resources into, to the Infernalis. And since facing the Elise alone was bad enough, them getting the support of this continent wide group would have exacerbated the issue significantly.
As such, we simply had to show the Infernalis that supporting the Elise was not a goal worth pursuing by ruining any of the burgeoning attempts at partnership between them.
I was not happy knowing that the Dark Crusaders— or rather, the Infernalis— were participating in further immoral acts with the weak justification that if furthered their cause; I could not excuse this unlike other of the morally dubious things they did.
It was supposed to be a small meeting, so only a small group of ‘elite’ fighters were chosen to go; I, obviously, knew magic, so I was considered a significant asset to them. And yet, not everyone in this group were fighters.
I glanced over at Lisa, also huddled under the cloth blanket. I could barely make out her figure— it was nothing more than a shadow— yet I knew she was there from when she first came. The young woman was one of the people picked to join us in this mission. And she was with Jack, of course.
Apparently the duo were known to always be together, and we needed their help to get to where we needed. That was why she and Jack were picked to come too. They were both pertinent to us getting to where we needed to be.
Gennady wasn’t joining us— he was not known for his subtlety, nor was he really necessary for this. With the recent rift between me and Lisa, I was left only in the company of strangers. And while I would typically find that uncomfortable, there was someone else I knew on board. Yet, his presence did not reassure me— in fact, it bothered me more than anything. And that was because...
"You know, the last time I entered Luke, a group of five thugs tried
