So it was like this

There was a frightening silence in the alley, the cloaked figures glanced warily among themselves and stared at the commander ahead of them, who had just been tactlessly interrupted.

"Are you... the one?"

"Yes, and you just threatened my squire."

From the trembling of his cloak, it was safe to judge that the mercenary leader was openly pissing himself. Glancing at his subordinates, he mentally said goodbye to his life.

"Why are you so gloomy? I can't hear you." Bondrewd continued to gargle the mercenary leader. The mercenary's soul was about ready to fly out of his body, away from here, away from these bastards. Lord of Dawn was tired of waiting for the mercenary to come out of his catatonic stupor.

"You have ten seconds to get as far away as you can, ten..."

The mercenaries took off at the speed of an Olympic sprint champion. No sooner had Bondrewd counted to eight than the last knight of the cloak and dagger disappeared around the corner.

"You're not going after them?" Shouted Dick, staring in surprise into the now empty alleyway. Bondrewd jumped silently from the roof. A pillar of dust and stone crumbs flew up.

"No, I won't, there's just no point."

"Mmm... Thanks for the rescue," Grim mumbled, holding Dick by the shoulder.

"How could I leave my squire in distress," said Bondrewd, his face was not visible, but Dick was sure that a wide smile stretched under his helmet. "But let's set aside the lyrics, I want an explanation."

'Fucking bitch.' - All that popped into Dick's head, the man was drenched in sweat, he knew the type's character well, but perked up with a loud shout. "I was going for a drink!"

"What are you talking about?" Bondrewd asked in bewilderment.

"You didn't want to know how I got into this situation."

"No, I wanted to know about the situation in the city, or better, in the country.

"I think we'd better get out of this alley." Grim interrupted the dialogue.

The trio of heroes were already being watched by a large crowd, comfortably seated at the exit of the alley.

"Seconded, anyone have any ideas where we should go."

"I know a place." said Dick, his eyes glistening slightly. And he headed out of the alley.

"We won't get far this way," Lord of Dawn said to himself, and in two movements he leapt to Dick and threw him on his shoulder.

"What the fuck are you..." he didn't have time to continue, a violet visor appeared right in front of his face, smelling of cold and death, and goosebumps ran down Dick's back.

"N... we're going left." Grim mentally wanted to evaporate, and he wanted to get out of here.

"You, by the way, are also coming with us," pointed a finger at Grim, Bondrewd.

...

"Linda!" A voice travelled through the house like thunder after lightning. The girl ran down the corridor to her father's study, she suspected the reason for his anger, and it made it even worse.

The girl opened the door and slipped inside the room, the owner of the thundering voice was sitting behind a worker, nervously smoking a pipe.

"Where did the jerk go?" The man's eyes were ready to pop out of his orbits, and the veins in his forehead were red and swollen.

"I don't know," Linda whispered.

"I see, maybe you also don't know that he's a wanted criminal and if he's caught, he'll probably be executed."

"Father how long have you been out on the street?" Linda calmed down, confusion falling from her face. Ritor stopped making an elaborate face and relaxed slightly.

"I know, it's just that, let's just say the situation is still complicated, and this jerk is further complicating it with his moronic behaviour."

"I don't know where he is, how on earth a man with a broken leg managed to pass from the far chambers unnoticed." Linda walked over to the table and sat down confidently in the chair opposite.

"I have no idea, but knowing that monkey jumped out the window."

"If you don't want people to fuck off, put bars on the windows!" A voice came from somewhere behind the door. Ritor stood up silently, and walked quickly to the door, pulling the handle on it with force.

"You cheeky little puppy, are you fucking..." Ritor was stunned and his tongue felt like it was frozen in his throat, there was a helmet in front of his face, one that couldn't be confused with any other helmet - it was square, rectangular to be honest.

"Pleased to meet you, Lord Bondrewd, you've already met Dick, the third is militia commander Grim."

"Would you like some tea?" Linda appeared with a charming smile.

"Abstain... though let's have a long conversation."

...

The four men were sitting in the living room drinking tea. Taking another sip, the Lord of Dawn started a dialogue.

"Since I have gathered you here, I need information."

"What's more specific?" Ritor asked, clutching his cup tightly.

"The situation in the city, the centres of power, the political, economic, and military situation." Bondrewd finished, and reclined regally in his chair.

"The politics are pretty simple, there are three factions here: the royal family and the nobles who have joined them, the merchant guild, and the mages guild. I can speak for the merchants guild, the bigwigs have a tight grip on the balls of all the citizens and don't even think about letting go, in fact, they feed the entire city, if not the entire country."

"Who is the leader, and what is their goal?"

"Bondrewd don't be stupid, the goal of merchants is always money, and influence to make more money. The guild leader is Ivina. Her husband used to lead the guild, but that fatso passed away not long ago."

"Dick, tell me, how does a forest robber know such subtleties," Grim interjected.

"I've been working for them, collecting debts, robbing rival caravans, getting the right stuff, I've got it all."

"Okay, what about the mages' guild?" Ritor coughed, and spoke.

"The Mages Guild is responsible for all things magical or near-magical, artifact making, enchanting, and training future wizards, they do it all. As far as I know now they have a split, after the betrayal of the supreme mage, a young promising sorceress - Mira - was appointed to his position. And the top of the guild - all old farts were not very happy about this appointment. So you can consider them in opposition."

"And where did the former supreme mage run away to?" Bondrewd listened attentively, crossing his arms over his chest.

"To the army of the warrior of madness, as far as I heard he was haunted by constant visions of the end of the world, or something like that, and he fled the capital with a lot of artefacts."

"Ritor, tell me where you got your information on the inner magical kitchen." Dick emptied his cup and stared at the interest-bearer?

"People often bring in magic junk for debts, so I have some connections among the appraisers."

"All right, what about you, Grim?" The militia commander, who seemed almost asleep by now, came to life.

"It's... mm... Yes the royal family - the whole problem is in it, 3 years ago the former king died tragically - Tarus, the older brother of the current king, he had a son - a promising heir, but immediately after his father's death he disappeared, and Avitus became the new king, some of the nobles, clergy did not recognise his claims and publicly accused him of his brother's death and the disappearance of a promising heir. After which they fled to Rinea. - Catching Bondrewd's questioning look, Grim explained.

"The country to the north of our kingdom is a shithole."

"In principle, everything is more or less clear, but what about the neighbouring countries?" The audience hesitated.

"You've already heard about Rinea, north of it are wild lands, east of us is the Baharut Empire. That's where the fucking necromancers came from. They're in the middle of an ongoing civil war. The necromancers are on the rampage."

"The Great Ocean starts to the south. And to the west, there's a whole host of small principalities, too numerous to mention. Everywhere and everywhere there is poverty and war." Grim's gaze faded slightly after these words, and his face contorted with a slight convulsion.

"I also want to know about the warrior of madness?" Bondrewd saw at once a mixture of fear and surprise on the faces of his companions, especially on Dick's. Grim and Ritor stared at Dick and kept their eyes on him.

"Dick, do you know something?"

"No, I don't want to talk about it," the bandit fidgeted awkwardly in his chair, his eyes darting from side to side and sweat beading on his face.

"Dick, this is very important, tell me what you know!" Bondrewd raised his voice.

"No... I WILL NOT TELL..." The outlaw tried to roll backwards, but sitting in the chair it was not so easy to do.

"Why?" Bondrewd pressed even harder.

"Because I saw her! And I've seen what that monster can do!" Dick yelled in a fit of rage, slamming his hand on the table and breaking a cup, blood dripping from the former centurion's hand. But he went on.

"You think, how did I come to this life, that I left the service as a centurion and went to the big road of my own volition, but I didn't give a shit, but life had its own way."

"A year and a half ago, a warrior appeared in the wastelands, and in a very short time united under his command all the savages there, soon they became crowded within their borders, and they rushed to Rinea, the king wanted to fight them back, and asked for help from neighbours. And our kingdom responded. I was in that army." Dick calmed down a little, got up from his chair and paced back and forth across the room.

"The battle took place in the icy wastelands of Datarius, and in general everything went on as usual - quality over quantity for us, and when our victory was inevitable, she appeared on the battlefield, a girl of hellish beauty you can believe, and then... then came the real hell."

"Huge, tower-like pillars of flame started shooting out of the ground. I personally counted more than two dozen, the ice broke at the seams and the whole united army began to go under the water, boiling water," Dick sighed sorrowfully, a cloudy tear fell from his eyes onto the carpet.

"I lost almost all my men there, I can still remember the screams of them literally being boiled alive, it was a miracle I survived. The animal stampede began, the Commander of the united army was gathering all the survivors for another attack."

"I refused, and there was a blur in my eyes, I wasn't ready to send the survivors back again, and then it was quick, I grabbed a knife and stabbed the prick in the throat," Dick grinned broadly.

"Everyone was so fucked up that no one even moved to take me down and I got the fuck out of the camp on foot, the rest were more sensible and retreated, gathering all the survivors. But I didn't hear it anymore and just went wherever I was going. And they made up a story about that bastard, that he fought and died as a hero, and they opened a hunt for me."

"So that's how it is."