The Stonehearted Knight
Chapter 208: Scouting for information (1)

Chapter 208: Scouting for information (1)

"How long did I sleep?"

Hex peeped through the gaps of the dirty curtain blocking his view of the outside. The setting sun colored the sky crimson.

After searching for some time, he found a block of abandoned houses, which looked safe to hide in. The distance from the walls was at least five hundred meters and he sensed energies of Demons and Fiends.

In his mind, he outlined circular areas where he sensed Refined Knights and Fiends. The buildings existed somewhere in the middle of a narrow gap between these two circles.

His decision ignored the existence of Calamities and Transformed Knights. He lacked the means to determine their presence. After all, if he scoured the city for the absence of insects and rodents, he risked being discovered sooner.

The dust inside the abandoned house seemed undisturbed for ages. The beds on the second story were old but still intact. To his glee, one even had a fully covered mattress. After days of sleeping in the wild, the feeling of comfort felt heavenly. Like a baby, he slept warm and snug.

Hex hoped he only slept through the whole day and not more. The deep rest left him oblivious to time and space, forgetting everything during his sleep. Even his heightened senses didn’t register anything during that time.

’If someone or something discovered me during my sleep, I would have died without even knowing. I should take proper rest and not stack up fatigue on fatigue. Luck doesn’t favor the weak.’

Dusk turned into night before he left the house. He used the darkness as his cover to move through the narrow alleys, hiding behind bins and in dark corners.

After traversing a couple of hundred meters, he sensed the presence of Knights. He found them in the bend of a U-shaped building. The bend didn’t have windows or doors. The only way to enter was through the doors in the ’legs’ of the U.

’There are sentries at the door. Should I risk it?’ Hex hesitated. He walked around the building, hiding in the dark, taking note of anything that could serve as an entrance.

But the nailed-shut windows and lack of doors didn’t look promising. He was about to abandon his endeavor and search for other clues when his ears twitched.

The dull sound wasn’t constant and came from the roof. After listening a little while, he recognized it.

’The roof has a loose plate.’

Hex leaped onto the roof using his Flex Step, landing softly on top. To avoid being discovered, he matched his landing with the sound of the tile banging against the frame.

The royals seemed to have taken a lot of precautions to hide their presence in the ruin. He noticed this upon arrival. They barely used light and preferred to keep everything hidden in the dark.

It wouldn’t surprise Hex if he learned that they forbade everyone to use even the dimmest light during the night.

’Whatever the case, their reluctance to use light is helping me tremendously.’

Hex stuck close to the roof as he crawled to the source of the noise. He found it quickly. Indeed a tile stood loose and moved with the wind, banging against the frame. But what delighted Hex even more was the absence of a few more tiles, leaving a wide hole in the roof.

’The noise is faint but to a group of people so keen on hiding their tracks, it should have been audible. Did they just ignore it?’

In Hex’s mind, the royals seemed like a cunning and highly intelligent group of people with unlimited resources. Even a hole in an abandoned building in the middle of a ruin seemed like negligence on their part, causing Hex to hesitate.

He quickly threw his worries to the back of his mind and entered the hole. He didn’t arrive at the second story through the hole. He arrived in the attic.

Squeak.

A little mouse in the corner rushed out and disappeared in a hole as soon it sensed Hex.

’What the hell? Will a mouse be my downfall?’ Hex paused and cocked his head. There were no additional movements or fluctuations in the energies downstairs. Only then did he exhale, feeling relieved.

The attic stood empty. He found a couple of faded paintings, old garments, and toys of children. The only thing worth was an old diary. He scanned quickly through it, realizing it should have belonged to some teenage girl in love.

Hex put the diary inside his vest and moved through the narrow opening from which a ladder dangled downward. He tested to see whether it would be able to hold him.

’It seems firm.’

He cautiously entered the second story, landing in an empty room. Opening the door, he found himself in a corridor, following which he arrived in an open area. He wasn’t far from the bend. After a while, he was close enough to hear some muffled sounds coming from downstairs.

He inched closer, after ensuring no other presence existed on the second story.

"Rory, you lost."

"Fuck you, Pete. You cheated."

"Screw you. Just because your wife cheated on you doesn’t mean everyone is a cheater!"

"You...!

"BOYS! If our den is discovered because of you two pussies, I will shove my sword in your asses. Am. I. Clear?"

From up the stairs, the people down weren’t visible. Hex only heard their quarrel. But there was some information hidden in this brief conversation.

’This place isn’t known to everyone. These people use it to play something and hide away from whoever is in charge. One of them holds certain authority because everyone turned silent as soon as he spoke. But even he fears being discovered in such a place.’

Hex summarized his discovery. He descended the stairs cautiously, arriving in the corridor inside the leg part of the U. The corridor ended before two doors, behind which he sensed the people.

The doors stood ajar. Peering through them, he saw a small group of eight people sitting around one big circular table, in the middle of which they had suspended a candlestick from the ceiling.

In front of each person, he noticed a few scattered cards, leaves rolled up in a stick that smoldered softly, and flasks.

Their droopy eyes and slightly off-balanced seating posture told Hex they were drunk. He listened to their incoherent talks, learning a few things. They were part of a group in charge of handling goods that came in. He didn’t learn from where the goods came.

He also saw the man who held the authority. It was a ruddy-faced man with a receding hairline and well-maintained physique. Even his energy fluctuations seemed strong. Hex estimated him to have energy comparable to three thousand drops. He was the group’s Vice-Captain, which he learned easily as they referred to him as such.

They kept talking about their upcoming job of receiving goods and how they would love to sneak aboard ’it’ to return to their loved ones in the capital. The emphasis on the ’it’ made Hex wonder whether it was a large coach or something else.

The people spent quite some time talking and drinking before they broke off into smaller groups. The Vice-Captain put them in smaller groups and only allowed them to leave the building five minutes apart from each other. The sentries he sensed at the doors were the lowest ranks in their team.

None of the people discovered Hex. Once the last group left, Hex followed the Vice-Captain out of the building. The lower runts wouldn’t help him to understand more about the situation.

’Hmm. Why are there so many people here?’ As he followed the Vice-Captain, they arrived at a group of buildings, similar to the one he had hidden in. This one stood far closer to the walls and wasn’t as empty as his.

Hex sensed at least a hundred people inside. The majority were Knights but he sensed at least three Refined Knights inside.

Luckily, the policy of keeping everything dark applied to this place too. Not one light could be seen. Hex used the darkness to creep behind his target. Just as the Vice-Captain opened his door, Hex hit him from behind. The already-drunk man fell unconscious but Hex caught him in time.

Looking both sides to ensure no one saw him, he dragged the man inside and put him on the bed.

The layout of the room was simple. A bed, a cabinet, and a desk with a chair were all that stood inside. Hex walked to the desk filled with documents and studied them. His eyesight adjusted to the darkness sufficiently to allow him to see the content.

The more he read, the more troubled he felt.

’The goods they talked about...are humans?’

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