10 Raaford

Author's note: From this chapter onward I'll use ~ to express instant thoughts, basically thoughts that a certain character has at exactly that moment without vocally expressing them.

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The city looked really imposing from afar. High walls with even higher towers and a glorious gate. A sight that I could only see in movies or games but seeing it in reality is a different deal altogether.

As I approached the gates I noticed a long line of people, probably waiting for their turn at the checking point. Another, shorter, line could be noticed nearby, comprised of wealthier people, judging by their clothes.

"Heh, looks like that's my line." I said that and joined the wealthy gang.

The line moved pretty fast. The guards didn't have the courage to stop those important looking people from their business, so they only performed a light inspection of their belongings before allowing the passage.

In about 20 minutes it was my turn to be checked.

"Hello good sir, welcome to Raaford, may I have your identity papers please?"

"Oh, I apologize but unfortunately I was robbed on my way and a lot of my papers were lost as a result. I still have some of them left, I just fear that it might not be enough." As I said that I gave the guy a pouch with about 40 silvers in it.

Obviously I couldn't have any identification papers on me so I decided to use another form of identification, that was especially efficient during the medieval times, money. Maybe 40 silvers was a little bit too much but as my understanding of the current economy still lacks, I decided to go with a safe amount.

"What an unfortunate incident, you should be more careful on your next journey and hire some bodyguards. As for your papers, don't worry, everything looks to be alright so you're free to pass, have a good rest of the day." He said that with a large smile on his face, allowing me to pass.

"Thank you very much, I'll make sure to remember your advice. Have a good day."

As I passed the guards a light smile formed on my face and I was reminded of the good old saying that money can't buy you happiness. While I agree with that, it still can buy you almost everything else.

Now that I got inside the city my first objective would be finding a place to stay and to find out about the recent news. The best place for gathering information in any town is the tavern so I proceeded to ask around and eventually found a good place.

"Welcome to the Goofy Tusk huh, interesting name. I heard it has good conditions, food and alcohol at a decent price, what more would you need for a happy life." I said that with a light chuckle and, leaving the horse in the local stables, entered the building.

The insides of the building looked pretty normal. Drunk people here and there, attractive waitresses serving alcohol and food, and a lot of noise. I approached the innkeeper and proceeded to talk.

"Hello there good sir, I'd like a room for about 3 days." I said that and took a sit on a chair.

"Ten silvers." Said the innkeeper in an uncaring manner.

And of course he had to try and swindle me, I'm quite tired from the journey and here this guy is, getting on my nerves.

"Sir, when you lie to someone, try to look them in the eyes while doing it. You see, I'm a merchant myself so I know a thing or two about the local prices. I'm also pretty tired and believe me when I say, I could make a big scene, which I'm pretty sure you don't want, so how about we don't overcomplicate things?" I said that with a serious face, eyes looking straight at him.

"Tsk, 4 silver and 50 bronze coins, here's the key, third floor, second room on the right."

"Now we're talking, as for the food, I'd leave it up to you, give me your best shot." I said that with a smile and proceeded to take a seat at one of the tables.

In about 10 minutes I was served a nice steak with potatoes and a mug of beer. As I was pretty tired from my journey and it started getting dark outside I decided to spend the rest of the evening at the inn, collecting information and listening for rumors.

In about 4 hours my tiredness got the better of me so I decided to wrap things out for the day and went into my room. As a result of my 4 hours eavesdropping I found out that the heroes made a public appearance, alongside the royalty of the country, and promised to protect humanity and drive back the demonic hordes.

The next day they proceeded to depart from the city, with a contingent of about 30 knights. Apparently the king even sent his only daughter, princess Elizabeth, to aid the heroes. It's not like they needed another girl in the party, like for real now what kind of a cliché is that, freaking 5 girls and 1 guy and at least 2 of them are already in love with him. Knowing how those stories go the rest are soon to follow, if not already.

"Freaking hell, triggers me so much." I said that massaging my temples.

"Ok now, calm down, they departed 2 days ago so I shouldn't be too far from them, I just wish I knew their destination."

As for the duke of gold, the rumors basically confirmed that he's a bastard with a lot of money. I also found that his mansion is the most extravagant one on the western side of the city. It appears that Harold was right and he really likes to flaunt his wealth. I'll make sure to pay him a visit tomorrow's night.

The next morning I made sure to study the city in detail and went around the famous places. At some point I even found a shop that sold potions and decided to visit it. The shop had a good variety of potions including health and mana ones which I immediately decided to buy.

I have to admit that the prices were a little bit high though, I mean a health potion was 10 silvers and a mana one 20 which is kind of crazy. I decided to buy 10 mana and 10 health potions for the future and placed them in my space ring. I also passed by duke of gold's mansion and It was truly a feast for the eyes. The security was also pretty tight with many soldiers patrolling the building around the clock.

"Wow, it could get complicated if I get noticed while being inside and all those guys storm in."

I scanned the guards with mana and life eyes and made sure there are no mages disguised amongst them. Fortunately that wasn't the case but I noticed another weird thing, the guards had more mana than the normal soldiers which made me think that those aren't your normal guards.

"It shouldn't matter too much, I still can kill them instantly so there shouldn't be an issue."

With this little analysis I decided to spend some time around the city until sunset.

When it got dark I made my way back to the mansion and studied the guards a little bit more. I used 'pulse' on the building a couple of times and found the approximate location of the duke but also learned about how many guards are inside and their location.

"54 in total huh, that's a tight security. Good thing most of them are outside." As I said that I prepared for infiltration.

"Well then, let's have some fun, 'veil of death' " I said that with a smirk and melted into the shadows.

I was a little bit anxious about being noticed by the guards but I tried to push that thought to the back of my mind and focus on the current task.

"~ Two guards on the left, one will be in my visual range in about 15 seconds, I need to move up the stairs to the third floor. ~" As I passed two guards and went to the third floor of the mansion there was a long corridor before me.

"~ The second corridor on the right, then move straight to the end of it and swing left. ~" As I turned left I was faced with another long corridor, this time at the end of it I could see 2 people standing guard. I decided to scan the room with 'pulse'.

"~ Bingo, now let's take a look at you, mister duke of gold. ~" I slipped past the guards right into the room and dispelled my concealment spell.

I once again became human and could take a better look at my surroundings. The room was quite big, with impressive paintings on the walls and a table with a couple bottles of wine on it. The sleeping duke didn't look that impressive. A man in his late 40's, brown short hair and clearly overweight.

"~ Now that I'm here, let's see the caliber of this man ~" I took a chair and moved it near the bed. I also took a wine bottle from the table and then proceeded to make myself comfortable on the chair before dropping it to the floor.

A loud noise then was heard in the room which obviously woke up the duke. He jumped out of the bed and was startled to see me standing nonchalantly on the chair.

"Who the hell are you and how did you get in here?" He said panicking.

"I am your death." Shit, part of me really wanted to say that for a long time but another part is insanely embarrassed about it.

"Sir Edvin Debenhame, known in the human society as the duke of gold, your time on earth is over, I am here to escort you to the underworld." As I said that I heard loud banging on the other side of the doors and the voices of 2 guards.

"Is everything alright sir?"

On hearing the guards the duke calmed down a little bit.

"Guards! Come in and get this madman out of here!"

Well I can't say I didn't expect that, that's why from the beginning I positioned myself between the bed and the door. Once the guards entered the room they saw me and approached while inquiring.

"Hey, who the hell are you and how did you get in here? Stand up and come with us, unless you want to regret it latter."

*Snap*

I heard the 2 guards falling behind my back, lifeless.

"I advice you refrain from making unnecessary noise." I said that with a light smile on my face looking straight at the duke. Because of the illumination only my smile could be seen from his perspective, which made the whole picture even creepier.

He nervously gulped his saliva and after a couple seconds asked me a question.

"Who sent you? I can pay you double, no, triple the price."

"Close the door first, on a lock please, so we won't be disturbed, unless of course you want this whole mansion dead by the morning, including your precious wife and son." Yes apparently he was married and had an offspring. I found about it from the local rumors.

He stood frozen a couple of seconds before moving to the door and closing it. I was a little bit surprised that he didn't try to escape, like honestly the moment he approached the door I was ready to kill him the second he made a wrong move but he didn't. He complied with my request and closed the door on a lock then walked back to his previous spot, opposed to mine.

We stood in silence for about one minute before I heard loud bangs on the doors again.

"Sir is everything alright? We heard loud noises and John and Henry, that were supposed to guard you, are missing."

"Everything's fine, just leave me alone if you still want your jobs!" He screamed at the guards and after a brief period of silence I heard footsteps walking away from the room.

"Oh? Those are some obedient guards you have." I said that with the same creepy smile.

"Five times the price." By this moment he was a little bit more composed than before so he had a stoic expression.

"It's funny how people like you think everything in this world has a price. I actually wonder how could you not even think for a second, while gathering all this fortune, that there will come a day that you'll die, and all of this will be gone in an instant." I said that leaning forward, giving my eyes a bluish aura by using mana eyes, to intimidate him further.

"Hah, of course I thought about that. I wasn't always wealthy you know, I started by being a small merchant from a poor family, and In time, by my own efforts, rose to the current position. I am not saying that I am a saint, I did a lot of bad stuff to arrive where I am, but not a single thing was done for my own selfishness. I always wanted to at least provide a good life for my children, so they won't have to struggle like me when I was little."

"And you decided that the best way to do so would be to sabotage humanity's war effort against the demons?"

"Hahahaha, so that's what it's all about, which duke sent you? Or was it the bastard king? That guy always hated me."

"I think you still didn't realize your situation fully, I wasn't sent by anyone, at least not by the people you think of."

I snapped my fingers and the bed before me disintegrated. While the duke saw his guards dying, he couldn't fully assert the situation at the time plus I didn't get rid of their bodies so it just looked like they fell. Now, by seeing an object basically disintegrating before his eyes, it looked as if he finally started realizing that he wasn't dealing with someone human. I mean from my perspective I'm still human, but he doesn't have to know that right?

"So...are you actually...the grim reaper? I didn't expect you to be so...human looking." He said that looking nervous again.

"Let's say that, I'm a special case."

"And couldn't I get a special deal or something? I mean is there really no way for me besides dying?"

That was the moment I was waiting for. I had to make sure he understood that he wasn't dealing with something natural here and that he couldn't just make use of his wealth and get rid of me or escape the situation in any other manner. I mean in a world where gods exist the moment they want something from you, there is nothing you can do but comply, if you care about yourself, or the people around you.

"Huh, I wonder...the god that ordered your death did indeed say something about a contract that I should show you in case you'll be willing to cooperate but I'm having second thoughts here."

"Please, I'll do anything." He said that in a pleading voice.

"~ Got you ~" I thought that while getting a piece of paper from one of my pockets and offering it to the duke. To summarize, it basically forced him to help me in any way possible while I was forbidden from hurting him or his family. He was also forbidden to speak to anyone about our encounter, contract, or the real relationship and had to basically keep everything in regards to my persona a secret. In case he decided to break a rule, he would immediately die.

Of course that was bullshit and in case he actually broke a rule he'd immediately realize that I lied to him. That's why I had to really enforce the idea that he's dealing with something outside of his understanding.

"And, do I sight it with blood or what?"

"But of course, for it to be valid you'd have to leave your signature in blood."

He took a piece of broken glass from the floor and cut one of his fingers, before leaving a blooded fingerprint on the contract. I then lightly snapped my fingers behind my back, so he didn't hear it, and the contract disintegrated.

"It appears that the contract became valid. As mentioned above, I'd be forbidden from killing you or your family and in return you'd have to help me here and there with some...reaper business."

"Hah, I'm good at doing business." He said those words, visibly feeling better.

"I'm glad to hear that, remember though that if you ever break a rule, I'll find about it immediately, and believe me when I say that, you don't want to know what places we have in the underworld for people breaking contracts with gods." I said that while using mana eyes to exert even more pressure.

"Understood." He answered in a shaky voice.

"First things first, I'd like you to fully support humanity in its war against the demons. I'd also like information about the destination of our heroes as well as their current objective. I'll be back tomorrow's evening, make sure you have everything prepared."

"Of course, sir."

After he said that I decided to wrap things out for the night and used veil of death after saying my goodbyes. I then escaped the mansion and went back to my room at the tavern.