The Runesmith
chapter-367

“All right, next please.”

“Is this really necessary?”

“If you don’t go through the search you can’t enter the establishment, those are the rules.”

“Fine.”

A disgruntled man stood in place while another larger man moved a strange medallion towards him. The medallion inquisition was covered in strange symbols that the person standing there didn’t recognize. After a moment of waiting these symbols began shining in a sort of pulsating pattern. It was very slow and also produced a chime each time the glow was the brightest.

“You’re clear, please go in.”

“Hmph.”

The man that had to wait grumbled but due to the scary look on the other man’s face, he didn’t want to say anything. After fixing his clothes slightly he stepped forward through the door that was previously closed. Before he could go in the larger man smacked the metallic entrance twice while speaking out. The sound of locks popping open was then heard before it finally opened.

“Finally…”

A small cloud of smoke escaped from the room behind this door but it didn’t keep this man from going in. He was somewhat used to the environment and his eyes were already glued to the bright lights and revealing flesh inside. After he stepped through the door was slammed behind him and the next person from the queue stepped forward. Just like the man before him, the medallion was presented but there was a visible and audible difference this time around.

“W-what? I’m clean, that thing must be broken…”

The large man looked at the glowing symbols there were flickering widely the closer he brought his item to the man’s pockets. He was not the only person guarding this entrance, there were three other men of similar size and demeanor. The moment they saw their detection device reacting like that two of the men grabbed this person and didn’t let him flee.

“What the fuck are you bastards doing, let me go!”

“Stop squirming if you don’t want to die…”

Quickly they started going through the area where the medallion reacted the most. The man continued to squirm around but the strength of the two men holding him was not something he could handle. After rummaging through his pocket they discovered a strange item. It was the one that their detection device was reacting to and was quickly taken away.

“H-hey give that back, do you know how much that cos…”

Before this person could finish speaking a fist connected with his face. His nose was instantly broken and if he was not getting held in place by these people his body would have gone flying into the distance. The group of people that were standing in the line started inching away but still continued to remain in the vicinity of this act. Even after the three men continued to beat the person they did not shy away from remaining in the line.

“Bringing in magical items such as this one is strictly forbidden! These are the rules, if you don’t like them then don’t even attempt to come here. If you do, then you will end up as this bastard here.”

The doorman shouted out not only to the man that was getting smacked around but also to the people in the queue. All of them were standing in front of a big building with bolted-up windows and smoke coming out from the cracks.

“I… I’m s-sorry… p-please…”

“You’re sorry? It’s too late to be sorry, our boss told us to take good care of idiots like you. Take him to the back, you know what to do.”

Two of the men that were there nodded as the main doorman instructed them to take care of the issue. Soon the man was hit by a fist that caused him to pass out and the two large men dragged him into a secluded alleyway to the side of the building. There they continued until they arrived at an entrance behind a bulky grate. After knocking on it several times another person appeared before them.

“Oh? Who do we have here? He looks a bit thin, what do you want me to do with him?”

“The usual.”

It was a large man that size was quite enormous. It wasn’t the height that made him large but the belly around his waist that was pushing against the grate and making it screech. After a moment the man opened the grate door to accept the gift from the two bouncers. The passed-out individual was hoisted up by the fat man’s strange limb that had a bloody hook on it.

After attaching this hook to the man’s clothes he started dragging him inside while the two men returned to their work. The man’s thick size made closing the grate behind him quite a chore but after a few attempts, he disappeared inside the dark corridor. He arrived in a dimly lit room with a strange smell around it. It was produced by the strange pile of flesh in the corner that was swarming with flies.

“Urgh…”

“Hey, quiet down.”

Next to this pile of flesh, a groan could be heard. Multiple sets of small cages were there and inside a plethora of humanoid figures. Before the man entered the room they were making some noise but after he arrived and smacked one of the cages with his non-hooked hand, the whole place went silent.

“Doesn’t have much meat on him… and not much of a looker either… His class is… not good…”

This obese person glanced at the new person that he was given. At first, he was frowning but after placing the man on top of a bloody table he started to smile. The passed-out individual was then quickly strapped in by several metallic clasps. After making sure that he would not be able to move at all, the large man grabbed a mug filled with some water that he then promptly splashed into the man’s face.

“W-what? Where am I? W-what are you d-doing?”

“Don’t worry you are in good hands, Lil Piggy, Daddy will take good care of you, this will be a night that you’ll never forget, hehe.”

The man used his regular hand to grasp the hooked one to slowly unscrew it. After it was removed he placed it on a table trolley with other strange metallic objects. They were all covered in either dried-up blood or decomposing flesh. After fiddling around for a moment he grabbed one other attachment that he promptly attached to his other limb.

It looked to be a saw and one that would usually be used in sawing through bones by doctors. It was equally covered in rust as chunks of meat that the man on the table quickly realized belonged to people. He had a good view of the pile of flesh in the corner of the room. It was filled with limbs that probably belonged to the victims of this butcher.

“N-no ple…”

“Ssshhhh, I don’t like loud piggies.”

Before the man could voice his opinion he had his mouth blocked by a ball gag. It was tightly shoved into his mouth and instantly caused it to bleed. There were many sharp edges on it which kept him from producing any type of sound. His eyes bulged out in horror as the ugly man fastened an apron around his body which at least covered up his previously bare chest.

“Now what should I go for first…”

The saw that was attached to his right arm started moving between his arms and legs before ending up at the ankle region. Even though he continued to struggle there was no way of freeing himself from this table. The sharp pain of the saw colliding with his leg brought tears to his eyes and the sawing didn’t even begin yet. His fate seemed to be set as he would get cut up by this weird butcher but before all hope was lost, something strange entered his vision.

His body jolted as he witnessed a third person in this smelly room. Someone was seemingly floating up in the air, they were shrouded in some type of shadowy haze which made it hard for him to identify. The fat bastard that was going for his ankle didn’t seem to notice as he was just licking his lips while looking at the blood beginning to gush.

The pain to his leg area brought him back to reality but soon it subsided as another astonishing scene played out before his tired eyes. Instead of his foot being dislodged from his lower body, the butcher's head went flying through the air. He could not see a blade or any type of magical attack being activated. The fat man’s face didn’t even register anything as he still had the previous ecstatic expression on it.

Soon the large body collapsed forward and he could feel its full weight. Luckily the fall didn’t cause the saw hand to finish what it started and instead slowly the entire lard-filled remains slid down to the ground. He was left stupified by what had transpired and had no idea if he was actually saved or still in danger. The person that was floating in the air previously was not there anymore and he could not feel their presence.

A strange shadow was there, he could see a shadow being projected of a figure that was standing directly behind him. The people or creatures that were trapped in the small cages reacted to it as well. They started becoming restless but suddenly all sound vanished. Even though the cages were still moving around, there was nothing. The trapped man could not even hear his own breathing anymore, it was as if he lost his ears. Yet, to counter this claim he heard a voice that belonged to a woman call out to him.

“Be quiet if you want to live…”

…

“Wayland, are you seeing this?”

“Yeah, I can… were they really doing this in our backyard?”

“...”

Roland asked Mary who remained silent on the other end. The two looked in disgust at the display of missing limbs and organs placed into jars. He had heard of such places like this but didn’t think that one such organ harvesting den would be inside of Albrook. There were certain classes that could use human parts to enhance their bodies. Even some more seedy alchemists could use them as ingredients for various elixirs or cursed potions.

After the talk Roland had with Arthur and Mary they decided to stake out one of the places in the city. The Guild master urged him to go there first and now he knew why Ivor was first on the list. This little slaughterhouse was right next to one of his gambling dens. Mary after achieving her tier 3 class was the perfect person for the job. Her infiltration capabilities were far more significant than what he could achieve. His armor was far too bulky and meant for actual combat than for sneaking. Perhaps in the future, he could develop a lighter specialized suit for such occasions but for now, it was better to leave it to the professionals.

Roland was not inside the slaughterhouse with Mary but looking at everything through an enhanced golemic eye. One of the benefits of working with the Union was access to better resources and now everything he viewed could be in high definition. He witnessed the man attempting to enter the casino with a magical item that was forbidden. There were many spells that could affect dice and random roll chance.

Establishments like the one Ivor ran could not allow for such items to exist. The places were fitted out with magical sensors and even Roland that could deactivate them, could probably not get them all in time before he was found out. Perhaps this person was new in the city and had assumed the same item would go unnoticed here.

However, he was out of luck as these people didn’t play at all, they went straight to killing instead of just throwing him out onto the street. If they just roughed him out as an example then perhaps even Roland would be fine with letting it be. It was possible that a few bruises were not enough to keep cheaters from ruining their businesses so they decided to become more creative.

‘I guess instead of sending a message to cheaters, they just remove them from the customer pool entirely. Did they take the saying, “Once a cheater, always a cheater” to heart?’

The result of this practice against disturbers was quite gruesome. The man that Mary saved got away from it with just a small bruise on his ankle but this could not be said for the others in this ‘slaughterhouse’. He could see various faces from within those cages, some of them were missing limbs while others had multiple ones attached to their bodies for an unknown reason.

‘What’s the point of placing those limbs of people… Was this guy just a psycho or is there some meaning to it?’

Now that the man was dead he couldn’t really ask him any questions. Mary did quick work of his head with those strings of hers. Her new class gave her a strange skill called ‘Umbral Threads’. It allowed her to create these threads from nearby shadows and they were razor-sharp. They were even strong enough for her to stand on top of them which could be mistaken for floating. Inside a dimly lit room, they were practically invisible but they lost some of their potency when it was bright.

“I wasn’t expecting to find something this soon, it will take some time to get the soldiers ready. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait there for a while…”

“You want me to wait in this smelly room?”

“Just keep the mask on, it is able to filter the air and should protect you from any poisonous gasses. If you activate the runes, it will protect your entire face.”

“I didn’t mean it like that… why should I stay here? We have enough of that evidence that you wanted, can’t we just come back later?”

“They might notice that something happened and clean the whole place up before we return with the guards, it would be better if you remained there and kept that from happening…”

“But…”

“Haha, Mary just listen to Wayland.”

Arthur, who had access to the line, interrupted his Maid who didn’t want to stay there. Roland’s actions were a bit silly in her eyes. A noble like Arthur didn’t need a justifiable cause to raid a gambling den. For her, this whole event was a big waste of time as they should have just gone in through the front door with full force.

“Wayland isn’t wrong if people from the outside see firsthand what these people are capable of. Just as he said, my favorability rating with the commoners will go up! If I don’t present them with anything palpable, they will start seeing me as a tyrant.”

“If Lord Arthur wishes it, then I will carry out the command.”

“I’m sure that you won’t have to wait long, Right Sir Wayland?”

“It shouldn’t take longer than an hour, I already contacted the guard captain.”

“Splendid, this is a night our city will not forget!”

Roland was still a child of the modern world, his morals were a bit different. The people from his world always presented the public with some insights into their workings. Even if they skewed things to fit their agenda it was better to give the populace something. If they didn’t then soon news of Arthur trying to bully people out of their money would start spreading. Gambling in itself wasn’t illegal but if everyone knew of what was happening behind closed doors, then their public image would prosper.

‘There will be a lot of civilians there, I need to be careful not to cause any collateral damage.’

While Mary remained in the grotesque room he emerged from the secret chamber under the Valerian estate. His plan of setting Arthur up as a just noble was starting. The place they were going to raid was one of the largest gambling dens in the city. It was even possible that Ivor the boss or some other guild bosses would be there. The more people they could apprehend the better but possible problems could arise from their actions.

‘I wonder what that mysterious guild master of theirs will do. Even that baldy didn’t know much about them…’

They would be infringing on Thieves Guild territory by their actions and needed to also be ready for possible counterstrikes. This was the first step into an unknown dispute, something that Roland was not accustomed to. Instead of running from problems he would be finally starting some himself with a group that he didn’t really know. However, after witnessing second hand what these people were capable of, he was content with his decision.

“Knight Commander.”

“At ease, Captain. Are the men ready?”

“Yes, Sir!’

He looked at the group of fifty armored men before him. They didn’t compare to the wooden soldier army he led into battle during his trial but they would have to do. Taking down criminals in the city was their duty and this would be their first official mission.

“Good, I’ll lead the way, keep up.”

“Sir, yes sir.”