64 The Village Chief's House

"Shelly! Are you done there?", I called out. Shelly ran over and joined me outside. "Good, get some rest. We will move out in the morning. I'll deal with the corpses", I added before walking inside the cave. 'Could you be less messy...', I thought at the sight. With the corpses taken care of, I decided to get some rest as well.

The next morning, me and Shelly left the mountain. "We have to get there in the evening. If we wait for too long, they might get suspicious. Since we have to be quiet and fast, I will be carrying you around. No compromises, alright?", I said on our way. Shelly agreed, because otherwise it would have to wait outside.

With our pace, we arrived near the village before the evening. "We will wait here until nightfall. Then we take care of the village chief and that woman. She might be a pain, from what that guy told me. Anyway, I have some poison and antidote with me, we should be fine", I explained then we waited. The village didn't have many people visiting, which was a good thing. I expected a few drunkards inside, but those could be easily avoided. 'From what I remember, the Village Chief's house should be at the eastern side of the village... There are a few buildings, and of course the tavern which we will need to avoid. Other than that, we should be in the clear', I thought.

The sun hid behind the horizon, before the night sky greeted us. "Not yet, let's give them some time to settle down", I said quietly. I expected a few guards at the gate, but they actually locked the village for the night. 'That complicates things a bit, but I can get past it', I thought. The wooden walls were approximately four metres tall. Perhaps impossible for a normal villager to scale, but I wasn't a simple villager. That would make the things a bit easy though, since I could jump over any part of the wall. In other words, closer to the Village Chief's house.

In the dead of the night, I placed Shelly on my back and moved out. 'This place should be fine', I thought and took a runup. Building as much speed as it was possible, I slammed my foot into the wall before pushing myself upwards. "Hap...You are heavy, you know?", I said after barely grabbing the top of the wall. "Maah...", Shelly tried complaining, but I interjected, "Shhhh, no complaining from now on". After taking a peak, I jumped over the wall.

'I can see the Village Chief's house from here. Hmm, there are two guys standing at the front, therefore backdoor it is', I thought while slowly making my way around the house. There were no back doors, but there was a hatch for the basement. 'Good enough', I thought. There was a lock on it, but the lock was rubbish. I was able to break it with my dagger, and enter. The basement was too dark though. I could barely make something out, and that was thanks to the opened hatch.

Soon my eyes adjusted a bit, allowing me to find the exit from the basement. Since that basement contained mostly provisions, I knew there had to be another one. 'The guy said it was a basement. That means there's one hidden here, or someplace else. Let's check up on the Village Chief first', I thought before leaving the basement.

There were no guards inside, but thanks to the windows, it wasn't as dark. I slowly made my way around the house, checking each room. 'Hmm? No one is around here. Not even the second floor', I said to myself after checking the whole place out. I was starting to think that the guy lied to me. 'I'm pretty sure he wasn't lying. So where the hell is that woman and man?', I asked myself. "Creak... They should be back soon, don't worry dear", a voice of an elder woman came from downstairs. "I have a really good one this time, so I can't wait. I need a fresh animal to test it", another voice replied. The other voice belonged to a man, who seemed older as well.

'There we go. So there was a hidden room inside this house... The question is where?', I thought. Someone was making their way upstairs, and it was that woman. She walked up to her doors, but then stopped. "Swoosh... Pak!", she swung her whip, which landed close to my location. I almost blew my cover, but managed to stay still. She looked in my direction, but didn't approach. "I know you are there. What do you want?", she asked suddenly. I decided to play deaf, check if she was bluffing.

"Why don't you come out?", she asked again before taking a few steps forward. I had my daggers prepared. If she really knew, I would attack. "Hmm, maybe it's a weird smell from the basement", she said to herself quietly, then turned around towards the room. 'That's a faint', I thought while remaining still. Her way of walking back to the room was defensive. I wasn't wrong, she turned around after a few steps and scanned the area once more. "Maybe I'm getting paranoid", she said to herself quietly.

That was my chance, she let go of her defence. I threw at her as many daggers as I could. Ten daggers flew through the air, all at different angles. "Swoosh! pak, pak, pak... Argh!...", although she knocked most of them away, three hit the target. That wasn't the end, before she could scream out even more, I threw more daggers. "You... tsuk, tsuk, tsuk...bam", her lifeless corpse hit the ground.

'What the hell was that woman... Her sense of smell must've been as good if not better than mine', I thought before collecting my daggers. "Lady Tamira?", a voice came from downstairs. 'Well, the guard must've heard her grunt', I thought and positioned myself next to the stairs. "Lady Tamira, is everything alright?", the guard asked again. Since there was no reply, he made his way upstairs. "Swoosh.. tsuk, tsuk, tsuk... bam", the guard's lifeless body dropped to the ground. 'I have to take care of the one outside', I thought.

There was no other way, but to leave the house through the front door. 'These torches will not make it easy for me', I thought. Fortunately, there was only one guard left. He seemed rather edgy, so I used the doors to get his attention. "Creak...", the doors released a quiet creaking sound. "Huh? Hey Jon, is everything alright with Lady Tamira?", the guard asked from outside, but received no answer. "...That idiot", he added and quickly made his way in. "Swoosh... bam", I jumped him from behind the doors and slashed his neck. 'The guards are dealt with. Now, I just have to find the real target', I thought.

I knew the hidden basement was somewhere on the first floor, I just didn't know where. My search began once more. This time, I tried to use all my senses to find the hidden passage. This took me a long time, but I stumbled upon something. 'There is a weird smell in this room, which should indicate a passage somewhere...', I thought. No matter whether it was a bookcase, bed or any sort of furniture, I checked all of them. 'Nothing... Maybe it's not this room', I thought. I checked another room, but there were no weird smells inside. No room contained that slightly rancid smell, other than the one I searched.

'It has to be here, but I looked everywhere', I thought, but then subtle noise caught my attention. I pressed my ear to the floor, and heard footsteps. 'He's coming out!', I thought before preparing myself. Out of nowhere, a piece of wall slid back and an old man exited the room. "Bam!", I used my full strength to kick him back where he came from. The man slammed the wall inside the hidden passage, releasing a deep grunt in the process. I quickly got inside and grabbed him, before closing the hidden door behind me. "Hello", I said with a dagger to his neck.