Chasing Dick.

The sun was already setting, its last rays illuminating the ruined city. Many had laid down their lives in defence of the city, but many more had survived, and, as if unable to believe in their miraculous salvation, had gone on an unbelievable rampage.

Music and drunken shouts of the city's defenders poured out of every nook, half an entire house, and inn, telling the world the stories of their brave exploits. Drunken warriors wandered idly through the city, glorifying the monarch, the kingdom, the mysterious Lord Bondrewd, and themselves.

A bald warrior walked through the drunken crowd with a slight limp, his tattered armour and torn trousers giving him away as a veteran of the capital's defence. Here and there, campaigns of soldiers approached him, trying to drag the brave warrior into their drunken circle. But the man was cunning, he drank with everyone, and under the noise of meeting with another colleague he disappeared into the crowd.

Thus, already slightly tipsy, he waddled to the end point of his short journey - a tavern with the strange name of White Foam. Known throughout the city for its decent booze at a reasonable price. Passing a group of rather drunken soldiers, he stepped inside.

The musicians were in the corner trying to shout their tunes over the half a hundred people who crowded into the tavern like sprat in a barrel. But it broke on him before he could take a couple of steps, when he suddenly realised that everyone was looking at him. Drowning out the music, a large man behind the bar shouted at the top of his voice.

"Greet the saviour of the capital, squire of Lord Bondrewd and just a brave little Dick from Licholestia."

The whole hall burst into applause, and some of the gawkers from the street joined them, clapping, shouting, and rushing towards Dick's slightly unsteady figure. Everyone wanted to shake hands with him, to buy him another drink, and most importantly to ask him about his mysterious suzerain. It seemed as if the flood of people would smash the hapless warrior against the wall.

A thin and at the same time powerful hand pulled him out of his surroundings, seeing its owner Dick instinctively smiled, he as usual from the trouble was rescued by his teacher - militia commander Grim.

"People calm down, everyone will have time to question our hero of the day, and we old acquaintances need to talk among ourselves."

The crowd murmured, but no one thought to arise, Grim was highly respected by the locals and there were no one to contradict him. Dick managed to say hello to everyone only after ten minutes, when he saw a couple of people he knew from his days as a centurion. Each of them wanted to drag the bald bandit to his table, but Grim's stern look was more eloquent than any words.

When the crowd quieted down a little, Grim grabbed Dick by the elbow and led him to a corner table, which was enveloped in a pleasant semi-darkness. The two men were seated in the chairs before they had time to blink, when a peddler with a tray of food and two huge mugs of beer materialised in front of them.

Putting the tray on the table and bending over so that her voluminous breasts almost fell out of her dress and Dick could see all her curves, she smiled coquettishly, winked at the former centurion and almost hopped away.

"Wow, what's she doing?"

"You're being invited to a bed rendezvous,' Grim smiled wryly, sipping cold beer from his mug, 'you're popular, Dick, and rumours have spread through the city with the speed of a hurricane wind. But rumours are rumours I, then I want to ask you what really happened."

Dick grabbed a juicy fried chicken thigh in one hand, a beer in the other, and began his story.

...

Bondrewd moved chaotically all over the city, according to the plan he was to find Dick and ask him a good question about the local situation, but because of one insignificant fact his plans were changed, he was being followed.

Here and there appeared at first glance unassuming figures disguised as soldiers, city guards or ordinary citizens, but only by their glance could he realise that something was wrong. His hunch was confirmed when he changed his route and made his way into a narrow crumbling alley.

Not even five minutes later, he was followed by three men at once, a couple of minutes apart. The pursuers were by no means happy to see each other, and the trio were already standing, daggers bared to each other.

But there was no stabbing, for Bondrewd's sudden leap out of the boarded-up window first dazed and then scared the hell out of his pursuers, and they had no time to flee, nor, of course, to resist the Lord of Dawn.

As a result, Bondrewd learnt that he had guessed that he was being followed, only he could not imagine that it was being conducted by three independent structures at once. Among them: the Royal Family, the Mages Guild and the Trade Guild. After listening to each of them, the Lord of Dawn let them go in peace; he thought it was foolish to get into a conflict with forces he knew little about.

An even more interesting moment of the interrogation came when two of the spies reported tracking his squire.

'I have a squire, how nice.' - It was about Dick, of course. 'Then I must find him as soon as possible.' The man thought, and taking Ozen with him, headed away from the alley.

...

Dick finished his story and downed another mug of divine beer, Grim looking at him with eyes that were each silver coin.

"Yeah, mate, you're in trouble, and you're in real trouble."

"Well, it happens, I guess we'll get out of it somehow." Dick said confidently.

"So, what do you plan to do?" Grim asked suddenly, still glaring at him.

"Do what? Do what? I don't know,' Dick coughed a little, and his fervour subsided a little. "I don't know yet."

The bandit finished his sentence, and his eye caught on a strange figure near the counter, she was staring at him, but as soon as he raised his gaze to her she turned round.

"Did you notice it too?" Grim asked in a half-whisper.

"And he's not the only one here" Dick quickly scanned the tavern with a glance and picked out at least seven suspicious figures.

"What do we do?" Grim's voice was as serious as possible, with a note of concern in it.

"While we're waiting, I'm not much of a fighter with this leg, and they won't attack in the middle of a crowd of people.

Just as Dick finished his speech, one of the watchers rose from his seat and slowly approached their table. At his side, the hilt of a sword protruded from under his cloak. The men tried not to show their faces and waited for the situation to develop further.

"Dick of the Lehighlands, I presume?"

"Well, let's say, to whom do I have the honour of speaking?"

"It doesn't matter, let's just say I strongly suggest you come with us for a friendly chat."

"And what are we going to talk about?" Dick was deliberately stalling, trying to pick out all prospective assailants with his eyes. 

"You owe our hostess something, so I think it might be worth explaining." The stranger stepped a little closer, lifted his cloak slightly and showed the sword hidden underneath.

"Scared the hedgehog with his bare arse." Dick grinned animalishly.

"It's a pity, a great pity, that things turned out that way." Before he could finish the sentence, the man was already drawing his sword to strike, but he was a little miscalculated; Dick reacted faster and with a deft movement stuck the fork into his femoral artery.

"Fuc..." - Before the attacker could fight back, Grim calmed him down with a powerful punch to the jaw. Six people jumped out of their seats and pushed the rest of the crowd towards the corner table. But four of them were stopped by the same holidaymakers, after the fight no one thought to put their weapons on the shelf.

The stabbing started in the tavern, but the two mercenaries swung at Dick with a tenacity worthy of better use, but he only managed to roll to the side, but he did it so carelessly that it looked like a sack of dung pushed down a hill. Grim took on the second attacker, swinging his short sword away from his lunges.

Dick managed to get up in time, and got into a fighting stance; he did not take his sword with him, for indeed a two-handed sword would have made him stand out, which the bald man had already regretted many times.

But there was nothing to be done, and grabbing the stool Dick smashed it to the stone floor in one motion, leaving two short legs in his hands.

"Come on, bitch." and the bitch didn't wait long, swinging the poleaxe. The blow was delivered from above, the opponent was obviously not a fool and was aware of his opponent's wounded leg. Dick had to block the blow, dodging was not an option, he was already moving like a walking log, only worse. The wood in his hands cracked and crunched and splintered into splinters.

Dick remained unarmed, or not. Taking advantage of the inertia of the blow he snatched a knife from his belt and plunged it into the mercenary's throat. Grim had already tackled his opponent and was successfully pounding his head into the floor.

The local forces were pushing the invaders towards the exit, two of the four attackers were still alive, and they were struggling to fend off a hail of blows from the maddened crowd, bodies lying on the floor and the moaning of the wounded in the scuffle.

"Hush." Shouted someone from the street. And at the same moment a whole crowd of cloaked men with guns rushed in. Without a shadow of a doubt, they rushed at the surviving mercenaries and tavern patrons.

- Dick let's go! - Grim shouted, grabbed him by the sleeve, and dragged him toward the kitchen. As quickly as possible they passed the kitchen hall and went out into the back yard into a narrow city alley. Where they were already waiting.

"Dick of Licholesia," you must come with us immediately. - Yelled one of the mercenaries standing opposite Dick.

"Fuck you, motherfucker!"

"In that case..."

"In that case what?" The mercenary was interrupted by a strange, slightly muffled voice, and everyone turned in his direction. A knight in a rectangular helmet with a purple visor was looking down at them from the roof of the house.