Chapter 179: Sneaking around the city.

“Excuse me, could I take a look at that sword there?… Hello?”

“Oh, my apologies, which sword did you want?”

Two women were talking with each other, both of them were wearing glasses. One of them was wearing a somewhat intricate-looking uniform that made her look like a maid from an Aristocat’s house. The other lady was wearing hardened leather armor and had protruding ears which were synonymous with a member of a beast tribe.

The girl from the beast tribe looked at the short sword that she was handed. There was a string attachment at the hilt that she had never seen before in any other store. A piece of paper was glued to this string, on it was the description of what this magical item was. Normally the shops didn’t go into this much detail about their wares and a person needed to ask the clerk for a full description.

“I see that you have noticed it already, each item is categorized and also has a short description, if you decide on a purchase we also include a small instruction manual.”

“Instruction manual?”

The girl in the leather armor looked over the weapon and the description. On the small piece of paper, it said that this weapon was an Aether Deepsteel shortsword, with a dual runic enchantment.

“Yes, you will find a few helpful tips on how to use the enchantment effectively, with your purchase you will also be given a token, you can then redeem it for one free repair of the runic enchantment!”

“Oh…”

The girl that looked like an adventurer started looking at the sword while the lady behind the counter continued to talk. After a moment she put the sword away, it also noticed a rather large beast that was covered in gems was looking at her. The moment she raised the sword in the air the monster continued to stare.

“Thank you, I’ll have to think about it…”

The person from the beast tribe bowed her head but it didn’t seem that she would be buying this weapon.

“Oh, could I interest you in a pamphlet then? It will clue you in on the current prices!”

“Really? Then I shall take one… if it’s free that is.”

The girl chuckled while the lady behind the counter nodded and brought over some papers. On it were drawings of some weapons with prices next to them. Soon the girl adventurer removed herself from the store, the door that opened up automatically was also something that piqued her interest.

‘Wayland’s Runic Emporium? I should probably report this to the lord.’

The girl in leather armor took the glasses off that were in actuality a special high level detection tool. Thanks to it she was able to go through the strange runic store. Her name was Mary and she spent the last week investigating this new city called Albrook.

Her days were spent scouring the area for potential points of interest for her lord Arthur. She went to obvious locations like the dwarven union headquarters and the town hall. There she investigated everything mostly from the eye of the commoner.

At nights she visited taverns and even made her way into the red light district. She knew ways to make people talk via some special skills that she picked up in her life. With a combination of them and alcohol, it wasn’t that hard to make the people talk about the topic that she was interested in.

When they lost their inhibitions the information that she received was mostly the truth. But everyone had their own angle, so there were some contradicting topics. One of them was the town runesmith who was somewhat an oddball.

The people from the dwarven union and the merchant faction seemed to have it out for him. From what she knew it was a long-lasting feud that not many were informed about. All of the conflicting rumors caused Mary quite a headache so she had to see if this runesmith was really the bastard that the dwarven union painted him out to be.

Her first run-in with the man was not in his store or smithy, it was actually during some strange dispute over an orphanage. The glasses that she was wearing were some high quality goods but even with them, his status page was some kind of jumbled-up mess. Besides his level that was close to 120, she couldn’t really pick up anything substantial.

The problem there was that it went against one of her strength-measuring skills. It told her that the man was not that simple and he should be far over that level, not quite tier 3 but somewhat above what she would expect from a tier 2 runesmith.

She could only speculate on the cause but for now, she decided to go back to the lord’s estate. The time was up and she needed to make a report to her master. As she went back the busy city became apparent to her.

While it looked fine on the outside after spending a week in disguise she could see the looming shadow over it. The report would not be a good one as the city was already being ravaged by a couple of powerful organizations from within.

From her perspective, there were a couple of options that her lord could go with. One would be to remain passive and just accept the current power structure. His position would probably be secured and the powers within wouldn’t see him as much of a problem.

This was the safest route from which he could probably expect some good hush money. With time this could develop further but he wouldn’t really gain much true power from this approach, besides lining his pockets with money which he could somewhat use to gain some power. But power gained only through money was quite shallow in her opinion.

All the current rich merchants would still be the ones in charge while he just received bribes to make it easier for them. This would also force him to be lenient with those greedy lot, covering for their misgivings if they ever got caught which could lower his standing in the eyes of the commoners.

The other option would be the more combative one where he took a more just approach. This meant rejecting the proposals that could gain him a lot of money but the ire of others. In favor of furthering the trust with the people, he might have to get on the bad side of the current overlords of the city.

But Mary didn’t really care either way, if her master decided to take the easy route it was fine. With enough money, he might even be able to bribe enough people to set his mother free from her prison. Then all of them could just leisurely spend their lives here.

Thus she returned to the lord’s mansion before she could enter through there appeared a bit of a problem.

“Halt!”

Mary was still a new face around here and she made a quick getaway the moment they arrived. No one besides the two personal guards that they took from the main house knew who she was. Due to this, the group of guards that were at the entrance saw her as nothing more than someone that was here to cause some trouble.

“As I have explained, I’m Lord Arthur’s personal maid…”

It was no use, the guards weren’t letting her through. The replacement maid that she procured for the lord had been already working for a week. It also didn’t help that she purposely sneaked out during the night without anyone noticing.

‘I guess it can’t be helped…’

Without wanting to cause a scene she decided to wait for nightfall. Arthur, her lord, was probably busy with work so it would be impossible to reach him at the moment. The easiest way would be to wait and sneak back in.

Without a proper light system in the city, the mansion wasn’t lit that well. The guards were left with magical lanterns or torches which they used to patrol the premises. There were quite a lot of them but for someone like her, there were enough blindspots to make her way in.

After waiting for the proper moment she made her way past the wall. Her footsteps remained silent as she ran right up the three-meter tall obstacle and quickly jumped into some nearby bushes.

Mary’s form was covered head to toe in black, only her eyes were peeking out through her new set of clothes that she changed into. This special gear made maneuvering in the dark quite easy, blending into the night was somewhat of a specialty of the class that she picked up.

While true invisibility and merging her being with the shadows was not possible yet if she ever managed to reach tier 3 of this class it would be possible. There were other classes with abilities like this but for espionage and sneaking around hers was the best-suited one.

The guards that she passed by had no ability to detect her. Even if they had guard dogs that could pick up on various new scents, she had none that they could pick up on. Within a few minutes, she made her way towards one of the windows. Her body contorted like a pretzel as she slid in through one that seemed too small for a person to fit in.

‘They there are…’

As she was making her way through the ceiling she spotted one of her friends that was together with someone she didn’t recognize. It was impossible for both of the knights to be the only ones remaining by Arthur’s side. They were still only human and needed to sleep, it seemed that for now, they partnered up with some other guards while keeping one of them by the lord’s side at all times.

Without bothering the guards she made it around the corner as she headed for her own little room. Thanks to being the lord’s personal maid she received one room for herself and it came with a key. Inside she found a change of clothes along with some of her personal belongings that she left a week ago.

After taking a look into the mirror she decided to leave. She knew her young lord’s wishes and that he would probably want to get a report before the day ended. Now