I wasn’t wholly comfortable wandering the streets alone at night, but it made less sense to try to sneak into the warehouses in the middle of the day. At night, they should already be settled in. Sure, that might mean more patrols—if they were smart—but it also meant less chance of them wandering back home when I was in the middle of looting.
And so, I found myself sneaking into the alleyway one block down from where I’d sprained my ankle. The Debuff had completely vanished from my User State window, which I assumed meant that it had mostly passed. There were still things I didn’t wholly understand about this System, but I felt like I was making good ground.
Sneaking into an abandoned warehouse claimed by children hadn’t been at the top of my list of things to do. But the prospect of possibly getting rare items or specialty goods—at least based on The System’s explanation of ‘side quests,’ meant that it was too good of an opportunity to walk away from.
Especially if I could take them by surprise.
My thighs burned like embers against a cold iron as I ducked into the alley proper, shifting my stance and taking refuge behind a stack of wooden crates that had been situated along the side of the building. Ahead, I could see two boys watching the alley. They talked amongst themselves—too far away for me to hear with my human ears—and then separated. One disappeared inside the building on the right, while the other turned and started walking up the alley away from me, a wooden club nestled against his shoulder.
I made sure I had my dagger ready, the thin blade poking out from under my belt and off to the side as I crouched, and then took off at a crouching run up the alley, my feet padding softly against the cobblestones. I slid the last couple of steps to a pile of garbage that had been stuffed up against the wall, nestling myself into it.
The pile smelled like old produce and spoiled meat. I stifled the rising bile at the back of my throat and peered over it, looking for any sign that the boy might have heard me. He had stopped steps away, his head cocked to the side, eyes peering at the pile of trash I had used as cover. I held my breath, watching over the edge of the trash, not moving.
After several long moments, the boy turned and continued his walk up the alley, back still turned to me. I let out a breath of relief. It seemed my skill as a [Shadow Walker] actually did work as described. All I had to do was remain perfectly still in the shadows, and I could become invisible. In a way, at least. I wasn't sure that would stand up to particular scrutiny, but I didn't need to test that right this moment. Instead, I peered around at the top of the buildings, as well as at the windows.
Many of the windows had wooden planks shoved over them. I could see bits of light peeking out from some of them, signs of torches, of maybe even oil lamps, inside the building. Whatever it was, they had light sources—that meant shadows I could hide in.
I grinned and pushed off the wall behind me, back out into the alley, in a crouching run. It took a few moments of burning in my legs, but then I was at the doorway where the second boy had disappeared.
I tugged the dagger from my waistband as I entered, holding it against my leg, ready to strike if I needed to. My movements felt more fluid, now, than they had when I’d taken on the gang in the gardens. I was slowly getting more and more used to this body, especially as I put it through its paces.
The first room was empty, save for a small container with several clubs resting in it. I passed by it without disturbing the collection, and peered around a corner and into another room. This one wasn’t empty. Five of the kids sat in various spaces around the room—three girls and two boys.
They all looked to be busy with their own conversations, and a small fire flickered in a pit they’d created with stones in the center of the room. None of them had clubs or any other weapons close by that I could see, which gave me a small bit of hope that maybe they didn’t carry them inside their little base.
I slipped past that room, moving down the next hallway, toward another doorway where flickering light played across the wall outside. My body screamed in protest at the effort of spending so much time crouched, but I wasn’t quite ready to possibly give up the element of surprise and walk around standing up, tall and proud.
If I was going to make this side quest worthwhile, I’d need to figure out where they kept their hoard. Assuming they had one.
I made it to the doorway with the flickering light and peered inside. The room was full of various pieces of furniture—from tables to chairs, and even fancy-looking sofas. I gawked at them for a moment, a memory of the lavishly furnished rooms that I used to frequent at the palace spinning across my mind, but it was gone just as quickly as it had appeared.
There was only one person in this room, at least that I could see, and they sat in front of a flickering fireplace with their back turned to me.
Moving just as quietly as I had the rest of this infiltration, I moved further into the room, raising my knife to the side, and then grabbed their shoulder, placing my knife against their throat.
My lips moved up to beside their ear, my voice a hushed hiss of air. “Speak louder than a whisper, and I will bathe my blade in your blood.”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
They started to nod—it was a girl, I realized as they moved their body—but stopped when the blade dug into their skin ever so slightly. Just enough to draw a thin line of blood.
“What do you want?” she asked, still staring forward at the fireplace.
“Your people took something from me. I don’t like being robbed.”
I felt a lump in her throat press against the dagger as she swallowed.
“I can get it back. Who took it?”
I shook my head, then said out loud, “Not good enough. You disrespected me, now you owe me. Where do you keep your things?”
“My… My things? But I didn’t—”
“Not your things specifically, girl. The group’s things. Your gang. Where’s your stash?”
“Oh…” she fell silent for several moments. I glanced over my shoulder a couple of times to make sure nobody was sneaking up on me. Something felt off about her silence.
“Speak,” I hissed into her ear.
“Sorry, I’m just… I can’t. If I tell you that, they’ll throw me out. And they’re all I have.”
I swore under my breath. “What about a blonde girl? The one with the freckles?”
“Ophelia?” She jerked, her arm almost rising to clap a hand over her mouth. The dagger against her throat must have made her think twice, though.
I smiled wickedly at the back of her head. “I don’t know her name. Who is she?”
“Uhhh, she’s our leader. Kind of.” The girl said, clearly realizing she’d said too much, but too scared to say less.
“Kind of?” I pressed the dagger a little tighter against her throat.
Was this Ophelia the figurehead that had been gathering all of the groups together? She could be. Henrietta hadn't been able to provide any information about who exactly might be pulling the strings here.
“Y-yeah. She’s our leader. She has her own room up at the top of the building. Somewhere near the roof. I don’t know exactly where.” The words came out in a rush, like a single breath of air escaping the lungs after you’ve held your breath for too long.
Another huff of breath pushed past my lips. The top of the building? My thighs already hated me just from the effort of getting into this place. If I had to do everything myself, then I needed to increase my Endurance somehow, assuming that particular number in the System was actually tied to my body's Stamina. Or was it my Strength that I needed to improve?
I shook my head and grabbed the girl’s shoulder, pulling her back away from the fireplace. She stumbled as she clambered over the seat backwards, catching herself on one of the pieces of furniture that littered the room. I twisted her so she could look into my eyes.
“Take a good look,” I said, my voice still a whisper. “Because if you mess up, this will be the last thing you see. You understand?”
She nodded.
“I’m going to take my dagger away from your neck. If you make a noise, I will gut you.”
She nodded again. I pulled my dagger away slowly, letting the sliver of red blood drip down her throat. I wiped the blade across her shirt, cleaning the blood from it, and tucked it back into my belt.
“Cover your neck—I don’t need anyone getting any ideas.”
She touched her neck slowly, pulling away a red, wet fingertip, and her eyes widened. Her mouth dropped open, as if she were about to say something, but my hand clapped over her lips—my other bringing a finger to my own.
“Quiet,” I hissed again. “Remember the cost of your words.”
She nodded, lips pressing against my hand, and I slowly removed my palm from her mouth. Without another sound, she grabbed a blanket nearby and wrapped it around her shoulders, using it to cover the thin scar of red on her neck.
“Now, lead the way.” I motioned back to the door. “If anyone asks, you tell them I’ve got a meeting with Ophelia.”
She nodded and stepped past me, shoulders hunched. I could almost smell the fear coming off her. Or, at least I imagined I could. Damned weak human senses.
We walked through the abandoned warehouse in silence, her in front and me just behind, my hand always close to my dagger’s handle. Surprisingly, we didn’t see many people in the hallways. Most seemed to be tucked away within the various rooms that stretched off from the main walkways. I peeked inside a few as we walked, and most were just groups of boys and girls all huddled around firepits, talking amongst themselves.
It was a far cry from what I’d expected when Henrietta had described them as a gang of children. Of course, they were more young adults than children. Though some certainly looked on the younger side. Just old enough to cause trouble, but not yet old enough to make killing them my first choice.
I may need to become a monster to defeat the [Hero], but even monsters can have principles.
The girl—I cursed myself for not thinking to get her name—led me through the hallways without incident. We climbed up one set of stairs, then made our way through a large, empty room to another pair of stairs that climbed higher into the building. Outside, the second and third moon had risen into the sky, painting the floor of the building with reflected moonlight that cascaded through the windows.
It was beautiful in a strange, creepy sort of way. I decided that this wasn’t what I’d expect of a criminal gang. Instead, the warehouse and its empty beauty felt more like something an undead creature might use as its lair. And yet, here we were.
When we reached the top of the second set of stairs, the girl stopped, turning to the side so she could look down at me.
“Her room is through that door,” she lifted a hand, pointing up the final couple of stairs that led to a metal door.
I narrowed my eyes and glanced around us. The empty room lay below, the stairs rising high into the room’s open expanse. It was a perfectly terrible place to be caught.
“What’s really inside?” I asked, placing my hand on the hilt of my dagger. This had been far too easy. So it had to be a trap.
She shook her head. “I’ve never been inside. You don’t go in Ophelia’s room unless you’re Au—in trouble.” she said, cutting herself off.
I raised an eyebrow. “Unless you’re what?”
She shook her head. “I’ve already told you all that I can. Please.” Her eyes glittered with unshed tears.
“Very well.” I grabbed my dagger, drawing it and pointing the needle-thin blade at her. “Open the door.”
She looked like she was going to say no for a moment, before finally letting out a huff of breath that made the blanket dip off her shoulders, exposing the drying line of blood I’d left her.
She turned back to the door, climbed the final few steps, and swung the door inward. The metal groaned, and flickering light from an oil lamp rushed out of the room, blinding me momentarily. When the spots in my vision faded, my eyes widened slightly.
Inside, beyond the girl, in the flickering light, three people sat in cushy-looking chairs. The blonde girl, Ophelia, the boy from before who had looked like he wanted to take his club to me in the alleyway, and another person I’d never seen before.
A man with cat-like amber eyes and a wicked looking smile, which showed fangs on either side of his mouth.
“Ah, finally,” the man with the cat-like eyes said, ushering for us both to enter the door. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
System deviation detected…