Gem Cleaner

Silagrad was truly a beautiful city, the gem of the Empire. To say Akio was proud to be a naturalized citizen living here would be an understatement. That said, even the most beautiful of gems occasionally needed to be cleaned, and as a Paladin of the Empire it was his job to do the cleaning. Well, a junior member of the Paladins, but it still applied.

All of that said, he could not help wonder at the logic that had gotten him sent undercover to an underground drug house. Supposedly because he was new, he would not be a known entity yet. That part he did understand. The other reason had been that he was a minority, which were seen as stereotypically more likely to commit crimes. Akio was not much of a fan of stereotypes, even when he was not the target.

Orders were orders though, so now probably the worst actor among the paladins was supposed to convince a bunch of drug dealers that he was not, in fact, law enforcement.

He was doomed.

The nervousness he was showing as he looked around for anyone following him was only partially feigned, and after turning one more alley he reached his destination. It was an old general store, with products on display that looked older than Akio. A rather burley looking man leaned against the wall next to the entrance, and there was a distinct lack of customers in the area. With more than a little trepidation, he approached the door and said the code phrase he had been given.

“The mages lack their magic.” It had seemed a peculiar code phrase to him, given how antimagic the Empire was. That was perhaps the point, as no normal person would say it. Either way it seemed to work, as after giving him a critical look the guard rapped on the door.

A few moments later the door opened suddenly. Akio’s sudden jump in response was only partially exaggerated, which seemed to ease any suspicion about his identity. A second man wearing a sword on his hip led the undercover paladin inside, bringing him into the back room. Here he found dozens of drug-addled citizens, destroying their lives over something as worthless as a few minutes of being high. It was a rather depressing sight.

“What do you want?” asked a third man, who was clearly the actual seller. He wore more gold jewelry than anyone had a reason to be wearing, and was smoking a cigar. Such a disgusting habit, he had to force himself not to wrinkle his nose in disgust.

“Uh… magic?” Akio asked in turn. Since no one had actually gotten inside before, he had no idea what he was supposed to do next. Not that it mattered, he had already accomplished the first part of his mission by getting inside.

“Why you, kill this asshole!”

The second man drew his sword and pointed it at Akio ready to strike. Now it was time for the second part of his mission.

505/500 words

At first glance it might have seemed strange to send in a lone paladin for an investigation like this. Barreling in with a full unit and breaking through the front door would have been easier and less dangerous after all. The trouble is that this exact method had been done with these drug sellers before, and they had always managed to escape before agents could reach them.

Now one of their targets sat next to Akio, he simply needed to deal with the guards. This was the reason they had sent in a paladin.

The guard’s sword swung down in a strike that showed he was not a complete novice, but he was not up to Imperial standards. Akio brought his arm up and used the back of it to brush the blade to the side, his loose sleeves preventing the edge from running down his skin. The arm continued down toward and then past the hilt as he snaked it around the other man’s sword arm. Pulling up, he brought the man into an armlock making any further strikes impossible.

One downside to undercover work was that he had been forced to leave his weapons behind. With the man’s arm caught, this problem was easily remedied. Reaching down with his free right hand, Akio grabbed part of the hilt and then brought his other arm up until the man’s elbow made a loud cracking sound. As the man screamed in pain, the Imperial soldier took the sword from the man’s limp fingers. Then in a single smooth motion he flipped the sword around and slashed upward, removing the arm of a second guard who was drawing a gun from his jacket.

Dropping the broken armed guard on the ground, Akio gave another quick slash to his throat before finishing off the gunman next. The drug dealer, at first too shocked to do anything, was now attempting to run away. He did not get more than a couple steps before first one and then the other ankle was slashed as well. Deciding that would be enough to keep the dealer from fleeing for now, he readied for the next onslaught.

Alerted by the screams inside, the guard for the front door burst into the room with brass knuckles at the ready. While significantly more massive than Akio, he clearly had little experience fighting barehanded against a trained swordsman. His right hook swung toward his smaller opponent with enough force to easily floor the paladin, but it sailed through the empty space Akio had been occupying moments earlier.

Crouching down the swordsman had brought his sword in close, then at the right moment stabbed it up and out driving it through the larger man’s chest. With a cough of blood, he fell to his knees allowing Akio to withdraw the sword. Soon after the building was swarmed with Imperial police searching for any more criminals, arresting the drug addicts still strung out of their mind, and gathering evidence. Akio simply walked over to the drug dealer, who had only managed to drag himself a few feet further away.

“Now,” Akio said commandingly, “what I really want from you is information. I assume you have some for me?”

536/500

Unsurprisingly, having both achilles severed, his guards killed, and his hideout raided by police had made the drug dealer extremely talkative. Whether what he had to say was the truth or not was always in question of course. Given his obvious fear and lack of intelligence, the odds were more likely than not that it was the truth. He simply did not seem smart enough to make up a lie right on the spot.

Regardless of whether it was the truth or not did not matter for now, as Akio still had to act on it immediately. The moment word spread through the underground that the drug dealer had been captured, the ones creating those drugs would disappear. Given this, the paladin had no choice but to rush to the warehouse the dealer had coughed up and hope he was telling the truth. Any time spent investigating would be too much.

Rushing to the warehouse district, he only slowed as he got into view of them. He was still dressed in the civilian clothes he had used for the undercover mission, but between the sword he was carrying and his unfamiliar presence, any lookouts would immediately sound the alarm should he be spotted. Stealth was not his preferred skillset, but he made use of what he knew to move from build to building, keeping in the shadows and watching for guards.

As he approached the target warehouse, Akio finally spotted a lookout. If the warehouse district had not been completely deserted at this time of day then perhaps the man standing at a corner would have been less obvious. With no one else around and the telltale bulge of a gun under his jacket, it was impossible to miss him. Watching from behind a corner, the paladin waited for the lookout to turn and begin walking in a different direction before turning the corner and sprinting forward.

Just before Akio arrived the lookout heard the other man’s quiet steps, but as he turned to investigate his head was sent flying from his shoulders. Leaving the growing pool of blood behind, he found an unlocked door to the warehouse. Carefully he opened it and looked inside.

Dozens of naked men and women were working a set of lines carrying out the chemical processes to create the drug while others bagged the resulting powder. Armed guards patrolled the lines making sure none of the workers messed up, but it was the man overlooking the whole process that caught his attention.

It was clear this was the man in charge of the operation, but that was secondary to what was on his neck: a guild tattoo. Mage guilds did not exist in the Empire, which meant it was a dark mage from outside the country. That meant this operation had international backing, and that this mage needed to be captured alive.

The rest of the force he had left behind would be arriving soon, he would need to await their arrival and figure out a way to signal them to attack. Sliding quietly into the building, he hid in a shadow and began to plan.

522/500