11 Turning the city upside down

To avoid the guards looking for them, the three of them hid behind the pile of hay in the stable behind a house.

The guards were looking for them everywhere, so it was obvious that this place wasn't going to be safe for long.

"So what now, old man? How are we going to get out of this town?"

"It's not going to be that easy. The high priest must already be back by now."

They became quiet as they heard the soldiers' footsteps behind the wall. It seemed they were looking for the three throughout the town. Their coordination had gotten better, so it could be assumed that the high priest had returned and was commanding them.

After they left and the quiet returned, the old man continued.

"They will probably close all the exits soon and surround the area. Before that, we need to cause enough distraction to shift their focus elsewhere."

"Easier said than done, old man. How do you think will we be able to do that, huh?"

"Give me a moment. I am thinking about it."

There was a moment of silence as the old man started running calculations in his head. At this stage, they needed some sort of escape plan to leave the city.

They had all the wealth that the church had deposited in hundreds of years, along with all the documents showing records of their dark side. So, there was no doubt that they would be chased like everyone's life depended on it.

After thinking for a while, the old man continued.

"The only way out of this is by killing the innkeeper we met last night. He is the owner of most slaves in this town, so once that's done, the slaves will revolt for freedom. While the two of us do that, Luna can release horses and burn the stables."

Lucifer didn't like the innkeeper from their first meeting last night. To him, a man like that was just a worthless scum, and his death would only help in making the world a bigger, brighter place.

If their death would do them the greater good, he was willing to kill someone like that without hesitation.

Lucifer looked towards Luna, who was carefully listening to everything. He wanted to check if she was hesitating or not, but she seemed perfectly fine with all that.

Despite the panicking situation, there was a small smile on her face.

Lucifer wasn't really surprised by that. To her, whose life had been hell up to this point because of the church, it might be joyful to be free again. And right after being free, she got to take her revenge against the church that had kept her trapped like that. What could be better?

"Alright, I will burn the stables. But where are we going to meet once we are done with our parts?"

"Once you burn the stables, flee with a few horses from the back exit and wait for us a little further. When we are done with our part, we will send the slaves towards the front gate, and rush through the back exit."

Luna nodded in response.

For once, Lucifer thought that she should get changed since she was still wearing the torn brown sack. Which, now that she had grown, looked somewhat revealing.

Following the conversation, the two left Luna there and snuck towards the inn keeper's workplace.

The main street was full of knights and guards who were thoroughly looking for them. The boats running in the canal were also full of soldiers. However, there was another way through the black market.

This market was where the illegal trades and businesses were done. From banned potions to cursed items, everything was sold here. And at the end of this market was the city's brothel.

The city's brothel and the surrounding business was where the slaves were kept. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, because no sane person would like to live in a place like that; and secondly, since the crime rate was high, the housing there was cheap.

No matter how bad the situation, the church and the knights were to overlook this place. This was what the higher-ups told them to do as part of their agreement with the local merchant organization, whose head happened to be the person they were trying to kill.

After they entered the market, Lucifer realized that there were a few people vigilantly keeping the watch over the crowded market.

Noticing people's gazes was one of the gifts Lucifer possessed from childhood. While hunting in the wild, it was necessary to be aware of one's surroundings. Because who knows, when one is searching for prey, someone else might be looking for them.

He grabbed the old man by his shoulders and slowly mixed in with the crowd to avoid catching the eyes of the observers. In such a crowded market, avoiding their eyes was no big deal for him. However, with the old man, who lacked skills in that regard and possessed an appearance distinct from the crowd, it was a bit challenging.

Once the two reached past the observers, they entered an alley so narrow that one could only enter it sideways. This was where they were supposed to come up with a plan.

Lucifer still had no idea how they were going to pull this off. However, since the old man was the one who came up with this whole thing in the first place, he was certain that he must have thought of some way.

He left his shoulder as two took a few deep breaths. This whole day had been nothing but a big struggle to survive for both.

After the two drank some water from a small water bottle that the old man had with him, Lucifer spoke.

"So, old man, what's the plan?"

The old man scratched his head. It looked like he was making the plan as they moved ahead.

This all made the whole thing seem pretty unreliable to Lucifer. But despite everything, he knew that if someone could come up with something that could get them out of this situation, that was the old man. He knew by instinct that old man wiser than he appeared.

"Give me 200 gold coins. I will use that money to distract the keeper, while you can sneak behind him and put a sword through his heart."

The old man looked out as he heard a few soldiers passing by.

They must have allowed the soldiers to enter the market. Considering the worth of the things stolen, it was no surprise that they would agree to allow the search here by now.

"You know where his heart is, right? It's best if you run a sword through and kill him before he can scream. I will try to cover his mouth from the front."

"Okay, I will try to. But don't count on me that much. Be prepared to escape if I am not able to do that."

"Hah! Escape where? The town is sealed; the only way to escape is this plan. If it fails, we will either be killed or sold as slaves."