Chương 51: Chapter 49. The Art of Persuasion

Bruno narrowly ducked under Shamic's scimitars and rolled away. Gita was back on her feet, but he'd told her to stay out of this fight as he was in a league far beyond hers. There wasn't many men that he feared to face. After he'd recovered from his initial shock at seeing Aurelia use that skill that Vythe had made infamous, he'd treated her as any other opponent. A freak of nature, sure, but a regular foe all the same. Shamic was different. After he'd been forced to kill Derek, Bruno had fled to Relvika.

The Grand Council, for whatever reason, kept their noses out of there. It was something that no one really understood why as they seemed to have eyes everywhere here on Zerin. No one would be surprised either if they had presence on their neighbors, Yorgoth, across the sea. But Relvika? They seemingly had no desire meddling with their affairs. During his stay in Relvika, Bruno had befriended the [Bounty Hunter] and assisted him with quite a few of his jobs.

During those jobs, he quickly learned how Shamic became the notorious [Bounty Hunter] that he was today. The man was just so quick, both on his feet and in his mind.

"Who sent you after me? You knew about my bounty back when I was staying with you, don't pretend. Why now?"

"[Lay Claim]," Shamic said, ignoring him. Bruno felt himself suddenly become intensely focused onto Shamic. Due to their times together, he knew what this skill was. It rendered him unable to flee so long as Shamic maintained the skill. A powerful enough blow that'd stagger him would break the connection, but that was easier said than done. His best option was to somehow persuade him to back off.

"Shamic, we don't have time for this! You wouldn't be here with a reason, I know that. And you should also know that I wouldn't be here without a reason as well," Bruno said as he barely dodged another blow.

"Everyone in this city is in danger, and if you kill or capture me now… everyone dies. Can you live with that?" Shamic gave pause… but continued his assault after a moment.

"[Dustslam]," he muttered and threw his scimitars away into his storage skill. He jumped high up into the air and brought his leg down onto where Bruno had been standing. A massive cloud of dust erupted out of the ground despite it being a cobbled road. Bruno coughed and squinted his eyes as the dust assaulted his senses. From behind, Shamic slammed both of his hands onto both sides of Bruno's face, deafening him momentarily. He gasped from the surprise hit and inhaled some of the dust, choking him.

There was no skills that he possessed that'd remove the dust. All he could do was wait it out. When he thought he detected movement in the dust, Bruno flung one of his small daggers he kept under his coat. It was a futile attack, but maybe it'd buy him time.

"[Oaken Fists!]" He heard Gita roar from outside the dust cloud. Internally he cursed, but used the moment to hopefully escape out of the dust prison. Upon exiting, he saw Gita back on the ground, nursing a bloody nose.

"Stop! Let's talk about this! I know you, Shamic! You have a good heart, s'hika, and if you claim my bounty now… Can you live with thousands of children and innocents dying?"

"I was surprised to see you with her and the boy, Oscar," Shamic said as he stepped out of the dust.

"Never would I have expected to see you tethered like this. I investigated further and befriended Oscar, which alleviated my fears of you having secretly being a father. But still… I hesitated to come after you. Even today, I almost talked myself out of it. M'lago, I could've killed you in the dust… but for some reason my hands refused to retrieve my weapons…"

"Thanks for the reconsideration," Bruno remarked as he rubbed at his head.

"But I can't keep delaying… I truly cannot. I know there's something going on in this city, but… my family, s'hika! They need me!"

"Has something happened to Tessia and Nadia? You know I'd do anything to help them, old friend. What is it?"

"The Grand Council. it turns out that Relvika isn't exempt from their cruelty after all," Shamic said.

"I am to capture you—alive preferably—lest my beloved wife and daughter be executed. And yet… I'm struggling to act. Why is it that I can never put the ones I love most first? You and I… we spent the good part of year together, but that shouldn't be strong enough to prevent me from taking you in."

"I-I'm sorry, Shamic. I take it you don't know where they're being held, do you?" Slowly he shook his head.

"If I did, you know I'd kill every Grand Council member in there…"

"And since you don't… you're here," Bruno said.

"How much time did they give you to find me?"

"Due to how much of a threat they consider you, and how… lethal you've proved to be against everyone else they've sent your way, I have four months to capture or kill you," Shamic replied.

"One and a half has been spent tracking you down to reach this point."

"That's more than enough time to figure out where they're keeping your family! Shamic, the Grand Council has one of their major buildings located here in Dynarus. All we need to is break in and search for any messages regarding your family. A matter this big will no doubt have found its way into their building here."

"To break into a Grand Council office… it's suicide and you know it. All it'd take is one magic message to whoever is guarding them and they're dead."

"Sure, breaking into their place would be suicide under normal circumstances. But doing it in midst of the largest crisis this city has ever faced? Those cowards are going to flee the moment the first seed of chaos begins to bloom."" M'lago!" the [Bounty Hunter] cursed.

"Just how big of a crisis are we talking about? And don't bulitta me either!"

"The assassination of the [King] of Dynarus, Romulus Hargrave." Without hesitation, Shamic sped forwards and tackled Bruno to the ground. His fists rained down onto him, wildly striking in different spots each time. After a moment of the relentless assault, he got up off of him. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"You're serious… m'lago, you're actually serious," Shamic said in disbelief. Bruno stood up and downed a healing potion. Hopefully there'd be no further conflict and he could convince Shamic to stand down, as that was his last one.

"He's plotting something foul, Shamic. If you agree to help me take him down, then I promise to fill you in on everything and help you locate Tessia and Nadia." The internal struggle that was happening within his friend looked to be ravaging him. Of course, Bruno knew this would happen. It was of no surprise that once again, Shamic was contemplating putting others before his family. How many times had he seen such a dilemma plague the man? Shamic loved Tessia and Nadia, Bruno would never doubt that.

It was just that he had too good of a heart. He wanted to save everyone, even if they couldn't be. But perhaps most importantly... Shamic loved being seen as a hero. By all means, the logical decision would be to forsake this city and slay Bruno right here and now.

"Okay, if the chaos is as bad as you think it'll be, then we can check out the Grand Council's city office. If we don't find anything, though…"

"It'll have to be on the day I go after Romulus, not tomorrow. If we discover no leads on your families whereabouts, then you have my word that I'll grant you a fair duel," Bruno said.

"Even though I have love for Tess, I won't just willingly surrender myself."

"Of course not, I understand that," Shamic said.

"Were you anyone else, I'd have taken you down with zero hesitation. We went through a lot during our year together… I trust your word." Bruno internally winced at that, as there weren't many people that'd say that these days.

"Do you remember my adoptive father, Plank? We can speak further at his place and I can fill you in on… What are you looking at?"

"Do you… do you see that? Do my eyes deceive me or is that a finely clothed squirrel?" Shamic said, with genuine amazement rich in his tone.

"This is a sign, s'hika!"

"Oh… I forgot about squirrels in your culture," Bruno said, remembering the temple in his town that was dedicated to the little creatures.

"They're beings of great wisdom! In Relvika they're rare, so seeing one grants the viewer clarity and resolve," Shamic said as he knelt down and gestured for the squirrel to approach." Crim, crim! I mean no harm, please come forwards." Gita appeared beside Bruno now, alarming him with her brutish expulsion of bloody snot onto the ground.

"Fuck is going on here? One moment he's coming for your head and the next he's trying to tame a squirrel?"

"Apologies for striking you. It wasn't personal," Shamic said as the squirrel scurried up his arm and onto his shoulder.

"What is it little one?" Bruno watched as the squirrel sniffed around Shamic's body before finally darting off his shoulders and running for him. It stopped in front of him and shook out a glove that'd been lodged underneath its tunic. Instantly he recognized the glove.

"Bhenna… this is the glove I gave Oscar. Why do you have it?" he asked the squirrel. The squirrel responded with some squeaks and some twirls before finally it began to flick its tail in the same direction.

"I don't understand..."

"It wants us to follow, s'hika!" As if it could understand him, the squirrel began to excitedly hop around a few more times before running off. Shamic took off in pursuit, leaving Bruno and Gita to hesitantly follow.

"I'm so damn confused…" Gita said.

"You and me both, Gita… You and me both," Bruno said with a sigh.

"Just be on guard. Shamic's not as big of an airhead as he seems…"

Arturo lit a cigar and puffed a cloud of noxious cloud of smoke into Oscar's face. There was a hidden fire in his eyes that betrayed his otherwise relaxed behavior. While he was still unbound, the threat of Durante still lingered. Keeping those blazing eyes and the copycat in mind, Oscar decided it was best to play nice for now.

"I'm sorry about your brother, but it was him that attacked us," Oscar said. Arturo plucked the cigar out of his mouth and waved it in a dismissive pattern.

"No worries, no worries. Maveon was always a wild one. You know? It's nice to finally be able to speak about him openly," he gestured around to the nearby goons that had entered with him.

"Now that he's gone, what does it matter if people know that lunatic was my brother? Anyways, that's not why I summoned you."

"Summoned? Is that what we're calling this?" Ariesa said from behind.

"Those mongrels were instructed to peacefully bring you in," Arturo said.

"Thankfully you're both tough, so let's not linger on things that are unimportant. You're—and I'm really talking to Oscar here, sorry girl—here because I have something important coming up and due to the removal of my strongest soldier… I'm in need of someone to take his place. And who better than the man that took down my brother?"

"You want me to be your bodyguard? Sorry, but I'm not really looking for any new employment at the moment. I kind of got my hands tied with something else at the moment."

"I understand, however, I must insist. This won't be a permanent role, so after tomorrow, you'll be free to return to whatever it is you were doing."

"My answer is going to remain the same, I'm afraid. But how about you tell me the details and maybe my mind will be persuaded," Oscar said. He realized that this might be a good opportunity to fish for information he could give to Bruno. This was the man at the heart of this conspiracy down in the lower city after all.

"Well, I suppose I could enlighten you. Everyone will know tomorrow anyway. Durante, hand me one of those tainted Desires, would you?" Arturo asked and immediately was handed a small pill.

"Hopefully none of you have developed a taste for this little miracle drug. Our lovely [King] has been experimenting with his own version, which has just about completely erased the older version at this point. Some of the original still exists, but it's mainly this new one—this Desire X—that I've been pushing at the request of Sir Romulus. I'm sure you knew that already, given how you spied on my brothers meeting with the [King's] men on our resupply day."

"Guilty as charged," Oscar said.

"You know that we know your secret, so why ask for our help? Shouldn't you want to silence us?" Arturo dropped his cigar and placed one hand over his heart.

"No! Of course not! You see, this [Crimelord] has developed a heart… and his heart is telling him to bear unto all that he's been demanded to do by his very own [King]."

"You mean that you're going to tell the whole city that..."

"Yes, that their [King] Romulus has been poisoning the churches wine with this mysterious new Desire X... Oh, how terrible!" Arturo said with a toothy grin.

"My speech will be tomorrow at noon, and if everything goes as planned… there'll be riots in the streets. No doubt that Romulus will have [Assassins] and whatnot assigned to steal my ghost."

"Which is why you want me by your side."

"Exactly, I just need your protection for the day. After that, I'll have managed to secure myself a spot that promises safety." Oscar pretended to think about this for a moment.

"I'll have to decline, thank you for the consideration." Arturo cocked his head and looked at Oscar for awhile before stretching his hand out to the side. Durante placed a hammer inside his waiting palm.

"Truly? Must we make negotiations hard?"

"Injuring the man you want to watch your back isn't a good negotiating tactic…" Oscar said, as his heart-rate began to increase. Durante circled behind and pressed his hands down onto his shoulders, weighing him down. Arturo flipped the hammer in the air and as he caught it, he instantly brought it down onto Oscar's knee. Durante's hand removed itself from one of his shoulders and covered his mouth, masking his scream. The pain was terrible, but he didn't believe anything to have broken.

"Thank you, Durante. I hate it when they scream so loud…" Oscar pried away the man's fingers, and spoke through gritted teeth.

"You hate the [King], yeah? Is that why you're exposing him?"

"I don't know if I'd say I hate him. In some ways, I think that I respect him," Arturo said.

"He's got this intensity to him that allows him to be ruthless and do what he wishes… which I can relate to as that's similar to how I reached where I'm at now," he tossed the hammer to the side.

"The generic answer to why is that I think I'd like the crown for myself… but also not really. I don't know, Oscar… I think I just want to see chaos fuck this little city."

"Chaos?" Ariesa repeated.

"You're… all you want is chaos? You want the crown for yourself, but not before throwing the city into chaos?"

"I suppose so," Arturo replied with a shrug.

"There's not a place in the upper city for a man like me to wedge my way into. No noble would ever accept a man of lower birth being respected within their ranks. So… I need to dismantle the entirety of the upper cities hierarchy with some finely tuned chaos. It's then, amidst the downfall of the nobles society that I may create my own spot amongst the rubble."

"Are you actually serious? You think that when the dust settles that you'll find a place amongst them?" Ariesa said and followed with a disingenuous laugh.

"I know those worms in upper society! They'll never accept you not matter how badly you wound them."

"Were you not listening? Or is it that you just didn't understand?" Arturo asked.

"Do you think I'm inciting a peaceful riot? I'm not talking about a gentle hand here, no, I'm creating a fist and making the fuckin' thing godsdamned bloody."

"You don't want to just dismantle the upper city… You want them all dead," Oscar said. Arturo pulled out another cigar and with a flick of his fingers, Durante lit it for him.

"Every noble-born women, man, and child needs to die in order for a new order to be born. I'm going to burn this infernal city down. And once those flames die down, it'll be me who provides the survivors their new gospel for this new age that I'm ushering in."