Chapter 15: Schemes

"Thank you so much, Angela. I'm sure with this, I will be able to show off to the other ladies," the lady said as she bid farewell to the store owner. Her guards sighed in relief, finally tired of waiting for the lady to be done with her shopping. "The items you have purchased will be delivered to your home within the week. Thank you for your patronage and safe travels," Angela bowed, as did her employees and the sentries, opening the doors for the noble lady.

Everything was going well until a large group of thugs, outnumbering the guards four times over, appeared. They wore brand new armor and weapons. "Hand over the lady and all of your valuable possessions, now!" the leader yelled out as they surrounded the store. The men also wore several masks covering their faces, leaving only their eyes visible. "Do as we say, or no one is going to be left alive!"

The lady's guards immediately took a fighting stance and positioned themselves between the thugs and the noble lady. "Protect the mistress! Show these commoners why they aren't anything to us knights of House Roriksten," said the lead knight as they began fighting. Soon, a fierce battle broke out in front of the store.

While the knights were confident and well-trained, they were only middle bronze stage fighters, and the thugs had several fighters of the same level in their group, as well as superior numbers. The knights found themselves on the defensive when they realized this group was more well-prepared than they thought.

In the back, the leader of the thugs was smiling ear to ear. They were going to hit it rich. A few days ago, they had received many gifts from a generous donor who had brought them together for a planned attack on the wife of the lord of this town. They had been given new weapons and armor, everything they needed for the attack. If they kidnapped the lady successfully, they would be rewarded with a fortune.

Knowing full well that the town was low on guards and soldiers to protect the town as well as the lady, they took advantage of this and struck. "Come on, boys! These knights ain't shit! We'll take the lady and have a feast tonight," said the leader, stirring the thugs to attack with more vigor.

One of the knights was finally overwhelmed by the number of attackers and was pushed down. Just as a sword was descending on him, the thug was stabbed by a long spear through the chest. The thug began coughing blood and looked up the pole of the spear to see a tall, cloaked, leather-armored man - one of the Vulcan sentries. With one arm, the new stranger hoisted the man into the air effortlessly. The sight of one of their own being dealt with so easily terrified the thugs. With a single downward motion, the thug slid off and collided with some of his other accomplices.

Once the shock wore off, the rest of the sentries guarding the store jumped into the fight and decimated the attackers. The leader in the back was sweating. How was this possible? They had been told that there would only be noble knights guarding the lady. Things were turning against them, and he decided to run away while his comrades were being killed. As if things couldn't get any worse, he turned to see four other cloaked men running at them from behind. In his last moments, he thought about how he was probably set up or the information from the anonymous backer was wrong.

Once the fight ended and the attackers were slain, the sentries moved with urgency to Angela and the noble lady. "Are you alright, Angela, and milady? We were arriving to change shifts on guard duty for the store when we heard the sounds of fighting and rushed with urgency to assist," said Vulcan, this time using his regular voice.

"Oh, thank the divines you arrived in time, Vulcan. You and your party have not only just saved our lives but have shown the true definition of gentlemen. I'm alright, but Lady Roriksten is having a bit of trouble calming down," said Angela as she grabbed hold of Vulcan's hands, expressing her gratitude.

Just as everything was calming down, a group of horse-riding guards arrived on the scene. "We are the guards of Roriksten, what has happened here? Someone explain!" said the lead guard captain as he approached the knights.

He then caught sight of somone he knew well, "Lady Roriksten! Are you alright? I am deeply ashamed to have let this befall upon you. Can you please explain to me what has transpired?" he continued, bowing deeply before the wife of the town lord.

Lady Roriksten collected herself before speaking, "A couple of pigs tried to kidnap me while I was out enjoying my evening, but thankfully some brave and wonderful knights were here to protect me in my time of need," she said as she held the arm of one of the sentries. "Oh, your muscles are as hard as metal."

Vulcan ignored her, and her knights waved off the side comment. The guard captain interrupted the moment by coughing, "On behalf of the lord, I thank you adventurers for helping the lady. I believe you are the new adventurers making a sensation around town. As guard captain, I appreciate what you men are doing for us. I will make sure to leave a good word with the Lord and my superiors," he said, shaking hands with each sentry.

"Oh, yes! I will have to tell my husband about what you courageous men did today. Such fine fighters must be rewarded well," she said, biting her lower lip.

"Milady, we should depart now. Who knows if we will be attacked again. We must make haste to the Manor," expressed one of her knights. She bid farewell for now to her saviors, and the carriage, along with a retinue of guards and knights, leaving a few guards to clean up the mess.

Along with the guard captain, the sentries and shop owner remained. The guard captain bid farewell as well, and everyone else went back to their regular routine.

Back at the Inn, it had become dark, and Vulcan, along with Jess, were sitting in their room together playing chess. He had shown Jess how to play the game, which wasn't known in this world, and she enjoyed the challenge of it. Too bad she had lost every game against him.

"So, another day, another coin. Can you finally explain what it is we are doing?" she said, moving a pawn into a vulnerable position.

"Well, it just so happens that today is the day things finally started to move. I told you that one of the reasons I wanted to visit the town was for information, but the other reason was to procure some resources," he said, taking away her pawn by moving his bishop.

Jess cringed at her mistake and, in desperation, moved her rook to take the bishop down. "You're not planning on taking over the kingdom and destroying humanity, are you?" she said.

Vulcan laughed and moved his bishop away, making Jess glare at him. "What if I told you that I was? Then what?" he said as she took away one of his pawns with the rook as a sign of retaliation.

"I wouldn't hold it against you. I'm sure you've noticed that we humans aren't exactly perfect. We eat each other out of greed, hatred, anger, and ignorance. You, a hunk of metal, have shown me more compassion and care than most of my kind have," she said in a somber tone.

Vulcan was surprised by her response. "Don't get too excited now. I only have plans of using the lord of Roriksten to procure some very important resources for myself," he said as he checkmated her in the next move.

She was left speechless as he walked up to the room's door and opened it for someone to enter. Jess was still stunned but was even more surprised to see the figure entering the room. It was a man draped in clothing a magi-craftsman would wear, wearing a dark cowl and a dark plague doctor mask.

"Who the hell is that?" asked Jess. The weird man pulled off his mask, and underneath was a reinforced iron sentry that was much shorter and leaner in stature and was hunched over like an old man. "I am Vulcan, but you can call me Geppeto."