Chimaera's Conquest: The Legend Of The Devourer
Chapter 45: Moving Away (3)

Chapter 45: Moving Away (3)

As Adrian strolled out of the dimly lit shop, Mr. Jenkins hurried after him with a broom. Adrian had made quite a mess of the shop, and it looked like Jenkins was planning on dealing with it immediately.

"Hey, be careful out there. The Ravens don’t take kindly to folks messing with their goons," Jenkins warned, scratching his face. "They won’t forget what you did to those two goons."

"Don’t worry about me," Adrian replied without turning back. "I have my ways of dealing with the mess I create."

"You’re not planning on making more trouble, are you?" Jenkins raised an eyebrow, concern etched on his face. "Not like it’s any of my business, but I hope you don’t push your luck too much."

"Keep working, old man, you got a lot to clean up," Adrian said and departed.

Reflecting on Jenkins’s words, Adrian found it weird that people from the slums knew how to be grateful.

As Adrian walked away, he smiled as messing with the Ravens was all part of his plan, and he got paid for it. The Ravens would soon be on the hunt, scouring the slums for him. But he’d be long gone by the time they caught wind of his whereabouts.

"That should keep them busy while I’m gone," Adrian chuckled at the thought of them turning the slums upside down in a fruitless hunt.

Unfortunately, things might not go that well for Jenkins. The Ravens, frustrated by their inability to find him, would likely turn to the shopkeeper for answers.

The problem was that Jenkins genuinely didn’t know anything about Adrian. But Ravens, being the ruthless crooks they were, wouldn’t believe him.

"They killed me once; it’s fair game to mess up their operations for a while," he thought to himself, not giving much thought to the consequences.

With that thought, Adrian shrugged off the guilty feeling. Jenkins had lived long enough in the slums to know the Ravens better than him. Chances were, he already had a plan to escape as well.

Besides, Adrian didn’t care much for the fate of one trader in a bustling city. Also, his destination lay far beyond Nexaria, where he wouldn’t need the likes of Jenkins or any other traders.

With a pouch of Lumen Shards tucked away in his inventory, Adrian made his way towards the inn for the final time.

***

The entrance to the shady inn swung open with a creak as Adrian walked in. The innkeeper welcomed him with his usual sly grin as he looked up from polishing a glass.

"Well, if it isn’t my prized customer himself," he said. "You’ve been gone for so long that I thought I’d never see your face again."

Adrian rolled his eyes, knowing the innkeeper didn’t miss him but the radian shards he brought. Without wasting time, he tossed a shimmering shard onto the counter, conveying that he would rather the innkeeper shut his mouth.

"Missed these, you mean," Adrian mumbled.

"Ah, you know me too well, good sir," The Innkeeper said, eagerly pocketing the currency, a grin widening on his face. "Straightforward customers like yourself are always good for business."

Adrian walked up to speak to the man, but the innkeeper, being the sly bastard he was, immediately pointed towards the lusciously dressed barmaids around the place.

"Need some entertainment tonight?" the innkeeper said with a suggestive wink.

"No, not tonight. Got some business to attend to." Adrian sighed, uninterested in such distractions, especially after the encounter with Sophia.

The innkeeper leaned in, his voice dropping to a whisper. "You’re not looking for trouble again, are you?"

"Trouble? In slums? Goodness gracious, how can it happen?" Adrian replied sarcastically before getting down to business. "Found the smuggler yet?"

The innkeeper’s grin returned, and he nodded towards a distant table where a cloaked figure sat, seemingly engrossed in a shadowy corner.

"Yup, over there, just like you wanted," he said before returning to cleaning glasses.

Adrian made his way to the table, the cloaked figure seeming undisturbed by his approach. As he sat, he pushed a pouch filled with Lumen shards across the table.

"Enough to get a man out of Nexaria by dawn?"

The cloaked figure remained silent for a moment before reaching for the pouch. The guy weighed the pouch, and then the figure pulled their hood back, revealing not the man Adrian expected but a woman.

Adrian’s eyes widened in surprise, not because the smuggler turned out to be a woman, but because it was someone whom he had worked with back when he was a hero.

"Vesper?" he asked, his voice tinged with disbelief. "You’re the smuggler?"

"That’s surprising," Vesper replied with a smirk. "You seem to know my given name, and I don’t like that. But it narrows down the list for me. Not a lot of people know me by that name."

"If you want me to reveal my face, that won’t happen. But yeah, you do know me," Adrian replied. "I know your face, Vesper, but you don’t know mine. That’s an advantage I plan to keep."

Vesper couldn’t help but chuckle at the unexpected turn of events. "Fair enough, fair enough."

"So, can you do it?"

"Consider it done," She nodded, her tone businesslike. "You’ll be out of Nexaria before dawn. Be ready for my signal a couple of hours before sunrise."

"I never said I was the one leaving the place," Adrian quizzed her.

"Oh honey, once you’ve been in this business long enough, you learn to study people and hear the words they never said," Vesper winked. "See you later, Mr. Hero."

Saying so, Vesper put the hood back over her head and left the inn, leaving Adrian confused about what she knew about his identity from the few words they exchanged.

Adrian took a slow sip of his wine, savouring the rich flavour as it danced across his tongue. His eyes remained fixed on Vesper as she gracefully made her exit.

"A wise man once said," he muttered with a wry smile. "Women can be more dangerous than any monster lurking in the depths of a dungeon. Seems like he was right."