[Melas] Chapter 101: To Catch a Boar (Patreon)

“So, Lilith is in Jahar’taw.”

Ginah’s words drew my head from the bowl of beef stew. I glanced up, feeling my mouth hang open and some of the red hot sauce drip out. The pirate Captain grimaced and gestured at my face.

Quickly wiping my mouth with a napkin, I turned back to her and repeated what she had said. “Lilith. As in Saintess Lilith.”

“Yes.”

“The one armed monster who nearly killed us all just half a year ago.”

“That’s the one.”

“The crazy woman who’s trying to hunt me down—”

Ginah placed a hand on the table and cut me off. “Look, you and I know who Lilith is. Yes, that’s that one. And yes, she’s in this city.”

I stared at the woman for a moment before glancing around the room. Unfortunately, I was in my own bedroom, eating my lunch as I studied a tome on Thaumaturgy, so there was no one here stare in shock with me. The spellbook was provided by Lisa who had procured it from the Dark Crusaders. And some of my food had spilled onto its pages.

“H-how?” I finally got the words out.

Sighing, Ginah took a seat next to me and shrugged. “I don’t know. But she made a big, flashy entrance to the House of Or’tag. And she didn’t come alone. She has a group of Holy Knights with her.”

“Holy Knights? As in—”

“Yes, those Holy Knights.”

I brought a hand up and began rubbing at my temples. Murmuring to myself a quick ‘I knew I had jinxed myself’, I got up and closed the book. “Alright, Lilith is in Jahar’taw, and what is she doing here?”

Ginah raised a brow. “What do you mean?”

“She can’t possibly be here for me, right?” I paced around the room, speaking more to reassure myself than anyone. “At least, not officially. I am under the protection of King Adileth. So she has to have some ‘other’ reason to be here.”

“Right,” Ginah said and crossed her arms. “Well, officially speaking, the Holy Xan Empire is here to act as diplomats to foster a better relationship with the Taw Kingdom, especially after things between them turned sour over the asylum of their former Scientist Bertrand. They’ll be helping the Taw Kingdom deal with the Dark Crusader threat that is said to be burgeoning within the Kingdom. However, obvious restrictions have been placed on their agency to move and travel around the city.”

“What kind of restrictions?”

“The kind that would be useful to you.” The pirate Captain leaned back on two arms and smiled. “I’m sure the King was thinking about you when he placed them. All it took was the Miners Party and Builders Party agreeing for once— something which only happens when it involves the Holy Xan Empire.”

I sighed, feeling reassured. “Alright,” I said, placing a hand on my chest. “What do you think we should do?”

“As for me, I’ll continue to help Erzhan with his company. He’s already bought a plot of land near Luke in Laxis, and we’re readying cargo to move there once construction of his factory is complete. They’re going to be manufacturing basic mana tools— ones which are sorely needed in Laxis. And I’m going to be helping with delivering the cargo safely there.”

“Won’t that take a few months?” I narrowed my eyes.

Ginah faced me with a slightly sorrowful look. “Yes.”

“Oh.” I nodded slowly, understanding. I watched the pirate Captain avert her gaze, contemplating whether she would have to explain more. But she didn’t need to. I knew what she meant. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t help you.’

I sat down next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Well, good luck then.” I smiled at her, and she stared back at me. She spoke softly.

“Thanks. You too.”

Ginah left and I found Gennady a while later. The Dwarf had returned from the House of Or’tag, having tried to dig into the history of this Didar while Lisa had tried interrogating our captive even further. Neither produced the results they wanted, but they did come back with results.

“That bastard’s got some of the top ministers of the Builders Party in his pockets. He’s the reason why they managed to overtake the Miners Party in the last few elections!” Gennady slammed a mug of ale down on the wooden table, nearly toppling it over as the drink splashed all over.

Lisa casually wiped at her face with a piece of cloth. “Yes, and our friend, Zhanat, tells us that the entire western underworld of the inner city of Jahar’taw belongs to him. He’s also got connections with many of the aristocrats living there. He brought in large amounts of money to help ‘invest’ and ‘develop’ the shops and houses there.”

“How in Hell did he even get all that platinum from—” Gennady sputtered as I walked up next to him.

Heads turned to face me. Jack and Elda who sat off quietly to the side and Lisa and Gennady who had been talking. Lisa raised an eyebrow.

“Something wrong, Melas?”

“I take it Ginah hasn’t broken the news to you guys?”

They exchanged a few glances and Gennady furrowed his brows. “What news?”

“Oh, fun news,” I said and took a seat, “just that the Holy Xan Empire has made an appearance here in Jahar’taw led by Lilith, and they’re probably after me.”

“Huh, I see.” The Dwarf stroked his beard as the others nodded comically.

They faced each other for a moment as I placed both hands in a cup shape on the table, preparing to move on. Then Gennady stood up and snapped.

“She— what?!”

“Lilith is in the city?” Lisa frowned, tapping a finger on her chin. “My contacts didn’t tell me anything about this.”

“Wait, why didn’t Ginah say anything to me?” Elda narrowed her eyes.

“Apparently they arrived just yesterday. And they made a pretty discreet entrance up until their flashy showing in the House of Or’tag.” I spoke casually and leaned back on my chair. “News will probably spread soon, if not spreading already.”

“I was just in the parliament!” Gennady crossed his arms. “I didn’t hear about it.”

“You probably didn’t ask.” I grinned back at him.

The Dwarf glared at me at first, unamused by my joke. Then a small smile broke through, showing on his lips. He guffawed and sat back down. “Alright, lass, ye got me.”

I laughed too as order was restored, until Jack finally asked the question I had been waiting for.

“Why are you so relaxed, Melas?” He looked at me with a tilted head. He wasn’t so much confused, more perplexed at why I had been so calm. And I was too— almost.

Why am I so relaxed? I raised my chin and tapped a finger on it lightly. “Well, it’s probably because they can’t do anything right now.”

The four of them gave me a dubious look, however I quickly explained myself and Ginah’s reasoning.

“You see, I’m under the protection of the King of Taw himself. The Holy Xan Empire may be able to do some… underhanded tricks to get me. But they can’t do anything too overt. Why else is Bertrand still alive, see? And that’s why Lilith waited for me to leave the city the last time around to come after me. So, she can’t just kill me without a reason. She’ll have to find a way to do it without anyone tracing it back to her, or have a justification for it.”

This line of thought made sense. However, I knew better than to try to rationalize the actions of a madman— or, madwoman.

“Maybe despite all that, she’ll try something. However, for now, we’ll focus on our more immediate problem,” I said, looking over at the layout of the city. “Unlike Lilith who will be severely limited in terms of what she can do, this Didar has powerful people in the country supporting him— as Gennady said— and is very powerful himself— as Lisa said. We’ll take care of them first.”

Everyone slowly calmed down— they still had questions for me, however the topic returned to what it was initially.

“Do we know anything about Didar? Anywhere he frequents— things he likes doing?” I asked.

“Zhanat says that he hangs out quite often in one of his many brothels,” Lisa replied, quietly sipping from a cup of coffee. “There are a lot of them, but I’m sure we can catch him in one of the more luxurious places. Especially since that’s where he’d likely entertain guests.”

“We’re going straight for the leader. Cut off the head of a snake. Nip the problem in the bud.” I repeated a few more sayings I knew in English and translated them to the Ordinary Language.

“That’s certainly a few ways to… describe it.” She glanced down at the map and picked up a pen. She circled a few spots— one in the northwestern part of the inner city, three in the southwestern part, and two in the midwest. “As you can see, the northwestern part of the city is the most undeveloped, which means he doesn’t actually have very many contacts there willing to risk working with him. He’s trying to gain their favor by setting up a few small investments, but so far, I don’t think it’s working out.”

“And what about the southwest and midwest? Also, what are these spots you marked?” Elda barraged the young woman with a few questions. The former pirate had been convinced by Gennady to help us too— along with a few other of the former pirates. But most of them were busy with Ginah’s job. Sevin included.

“They’re the best brothels he owns.”

“And the place we’ll most likely find him, right.” I carefully surveyed each location and the areas surrounding it. “And since they’re in the parts of the city he’s got the most hold over, they’re the most dangerous to attack.”

“That’s why we’ll have to be quick and swift.” Jack grunted. “Take him out before his lackeys can come and stop us. After that, we’ll be clean to get away.”

“So, what? We just scout out the areas until we catch him by luck and attack him?”

“That’s looking to be our plan right now,” Lisa finally said, giving me a hesitant look. “I know it’s not the… cleanest plan in existence. However, we have no other choice. You’ve ever heard of the Beastkin saying? If a tiger wants to catch a boar, it’ll have to wait by a lake.”

“What if it’s a Horned Panthera?” I raised a brow.

“It’ll probably just catch its prey by running them down— but the point stands.” She looked at me seriously. “Look, I know you’re a little bit… paranoid at times.”

“A lot of the times,” Gennady chimed in.”

“Yeah,” she said, nodding, not disagreeing with the Dwarf. “However, we can’t live life risk free. If we want to do this, we’ll have to do this quickly. Before our other problems catch up to us all at the same time.”

“Like Lilith.”

“Yes. Like Lilith.”

Slowly taking this in, I cast my gaze back down at the map. If we can take care of Didar before Lilith even becomes a problem, maybe we’ll be able to deal with her too then. I sighed and closed my eyes.

“Alright, when are we doing this?”

“We’re starting tonight.”

“Of course,” I muttered under my breath. Standing up, I placed both my hands on the table and swept my gaze across the room. “However, if we’re going to do this, we’re not going to do something stupid like splititng up and getting all of us taken out one by one. We’re sticking together.”

“How are we supposed to catch Didar at one of his brothels then?” Elda asked with a frown. “Won’t he only go to one at a time?”

“Mhm,” I agreed and faced the former pirate with a smile. “Which is why, for the next week, we’ll be picking only one brothel and be camping it out until he shows.”

Author's Note:

Sorry if it's short. But just a simple setup chapter. Anything more and it would be padding. Or if I try to fit more plot into it, I'd have to write 6-10k words. And I can't do that.

Just two more weeks. Then finals will be over.

Thank you all so much for reading <3