Free Web NovelChapter 23: The Blue Danube Incident (END)
"There is one more thing I have to do before we leave into the tunnels."
"...?"
"Just stay here, and keep hidden, alright? You’ve placed our goods back at the brothel?"
"...!"
"I’ll be fine."
I waved John’s worries away and quickly ran off. The sewers were also familiar to me, so I ran through them without much issue. First order of business was getting out. After going toward the north of the city, closer to where the brothel was, also closer to the Lord’s Castle and opposite of where we were to go.
Manhole covers everywhere, I got out of the sewers. There were guards here and there walking around, and very few people. The worst kind of environment for a thief.
I covered my face using a cloth and then rushed off toward an alley, then, following the alleys it became easier to track my way around. There was a clothes shop nearby. Alright, perfect.
With a hop, I jumped up toward the wall. Then, hopping over and over and using the railings and windows as support, it was easy to make my way to the roofs of these buildings. One, then jump over to the other, all the way to the one with the clothes shop.
It would be difficult to break locks or windows in front of others, I had nothing to pick it with either, but going down through the terrace was a direct entrance to these buildings, especially in cities like Serenia that were so crowded.
I traced my down, descending the stairs, and entered the empty shop. The owners were asleep on the home they had built on the second floor of their shop. It wouldn’t be nice to disturb them, but I did take some water from their house.
A change of pants and shirt, and a hat. There were a pair of reading glasses on the counter next to the cash register which I gratefully took. Then, going back to the roof of the building, I locked the door behind me.
Roof over roof, jumps after jumps, it was easy to find my way outward. Eventually, I came to the part of the city where the brothel was. There were a few sounds here, and when I looked in the distance--though I couldn’t see far enough-- there were a few flashes of lights and a few magic spells still flying around.
I descended down the roof of the building from outside, the brothel was likely still hosting customers. It was easy to jump down, more than it was to climb up, I slid down by grabbing windows every few inches, and freely landed on the ground.
Then, circling my way around to the front, I reached into my pockets and pulled out the paperclip I had taken from the room. The lock... one I recognized. Instead of going closer and picking slowly, I twisted the paperclip in a different shape and slid it into the keyhole. Snap, it opened up. As I thought.
From here, I quickly went in, confidently, killing my presence entirely. People, all of us, had a ’sixth sense’ if you will. Footsteps, breaths, shifts in temperature, clues so subtle that we would never be able to process it, but our subconscious interpreted nonetheless. I bypassed all of them, hiding my ’self’ entirely. The main room of the Brothel itself had the bag of our luggage. I grabbed it quickly and started making my way out.
On the way, I stopped for a few seconds and listened. free𝑤ebnovel.com
"Karina...! Karina, are you alright?"
Peering in, it was the same girl that these two had saved earlier.
Alright. One last stop left.
I quickly left the brothel. The last place I wanted to go to was another alley, one where a drunk homeless was on the ground. I dropped a piece of paper there along with a bag of cash, and then left. Back into the manhole covers. It didn’t take long before the sewers made way out to the place where I had left my friend John.
He was there, anxiously sitting. When John saw me, he stood up and paced around.
"...!"
I could sense anxiety in him. I sighed.
"Don’t be worried about me, fool. Let’s go, open the passage."
John looked up at the sky, the one covered since we were underground, then nodded and opened the passage.
"I checked. Karina, right? She’s safe."
"..."
Yeah... I understood exactly what he felt.
There was no need to say it out loud, was there?
