Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

“Yeah, they are crime lords, so shouldn’t they be greedy? Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to ask for the information directly and pay for it? We might even be able to buy her back for the right price.” the saint of the ugly sun asserted.

“Ray, we didn’t really bring a lot of money,” Lydia mentioned. Although Seth was Mr. Moneybags and would definitely approve Ray's method, given their current circumstances, Mike and Lydia didn’t really bring a lot with them. They doubted it would be enough to do as Ray said.

“Don’t worry about the small stuff. I will take care of the financial part. As long as it’s viable, I’m sure I have enough money pay to them.”

“I guess, if you have enough, they would see you as a client...?” Holly said uncertainly.

“Well, if something goes wrong, we can still beat the information out of them,” Lydia mentioned. She wouldn’t mind a chance to beat someone like that to death.

“If you really want to do that, you should start with Valentino. From what I heard, he is the one specialized in women and pleasure slaves. Bartholo likes- I mean trades primarily men and work slaves,” Holly advised.

“I can give you a rough map of the city and where you find their houses and businesses,” she added helpfully.

“What about you? Do you want to come along, or will you stay here while we are taking care of business?” Mike asked her.

“If someone comes by while you are gone and they notice I’m not here, they will start searching for me. I will stay and pack what little I have, just promise to come back for me,” she said almost composed.

…

Following Holly’s map, the three arrived at a modern mansion. As normal and even rundown as the lower rings looked, the architecture in the fourth and fifth rings was state of the art, according to Urth’s standards.

They were the kind of houses the super-rich would build for themselves on the outskirts of districts or as a holiday home. Lydia knew this kind of style since her family also owned a few of them. Currently, they were in the fourth ring, standing in front of Valentino’s business buildings which looked like a very nice hotel. If they didn’t know what his business was about, Lydia and Mike might have wanted to book a room here.

They passed the bouncers outside without any problem and entered the lobby. It looked like Valentino had no prejudice towards the look of his clients. Despite looking ragged and dirty from the journey, they were treated with the same business smile from their secretary.

“How may I help you? Are you here to make a purchase, or maybe look at the wares for the auction?” he asked in a soft voice.

“We are looking for a specific person that was captured roughly 6 weeks ago. We heard Sir Valentino might be able to help us. We are ready to pay the price for the information, even if the person in question is not here,” Ray simply asked openly.

Mike wanted to interrupt him and ask what he thought he was doing, but Ray stopped him with a simple gesture. With a nod, he pointed at the secretary whose eyes had become unfocused. A dim dark aura could be seen.

The Chosen of Maahes was able to sense a trace of divine power. It seemed that the power of Sol 'Fiam could be used for a lot more than just the dark magic they had seen during the journey. While Mike calmed down, the secretary answered like there was nothing wrong with Ray’s direct question.

“of course, Sir Valentino knows almost everything when it comes to the business. You are in luck; he is currently free. I will register your appointment right now and you can take a seat in the salon, while I go inform him.

Slightly perturbed by Ray's mind-bending powers that seemed almost as practical as Seth’s, they followed the man into the salon, where they took off their coats and sat down on the clean, expensive-looking furniture.

Ten minutes later, another secretary with a slightly confused look had brought them a cup of tea and they had just started enjoying it when the man of the hour finally appeared in the Salon. Valentino was by no means a tall man. His body shape was closer to a ball and the red velvet gown he wore didn’t help him look any less like a Christmas ornament.

“What did you do to Angelo? He knew I was taking a bath and would never interrupt me. What do you want?” he said in a grumpy voice. It didn’t sound like he spoke out of concern for his subordinate, but more out of annoyance that someone touched his things.

All three looked a little awkward at the short, round man. Had they known he was taking a bath, they also would never have interrupted him. They all could have lived a better life, without seeing what the way-too-short gown revealed freely.

“I’m sorry for the interruption, he will be fine in a while. We hope you can help us with information about a missing person. There is a high chance she was sold into slavery after being caught.”

“And you guys thought “ Oh, well! Dang diddledidoo. Let’s just go and ask the guy who is involved with most slave trade in this wasteland and hope he is nice enough to help.” Are you serious?” Valentino asked sarcastically.

“We are ready to pay you accordingly,” Ray said, dropping five fat gold coins on the table. “Just for the information. If you currently own her or can get her for us, we will pay at least twice her worth or 10 gold coins,” Ray talked about readily splurging big sums of money.

Mike and Lydia couldn’t help but ponder where the shaman had gotten so much money. Even if he plundered a bunch of bandit bases, wasn’t this too much? Wherever the money came from, it had the expected effect.

Valentino snorted appeased and sat down opposite of the group, giving another view they came to regret. The next moment, he also held a cup of tea, before he continued speaking,

“Fine, who are you looking for? Name, sex, and location they were grabbed from. Any description of the attacker, maybe the name of the group?” he asked for the basic information he needed to find someone.

Mike pulled out a crummy piece of paper and pushed it across the table. He had written down everything Seth had forwarded from his conversation with the pair of father and daughter. When Valentino picked it up and his eyes flew over the text, he suddenly laughed out loud.

“Meg Huffin? You are actually looking for Meg Huffin!? I would say this is the easiest money I ever earned. She didn’t come through my place, but she made a big scene at Bartolo’s before she was sold off to the Lord as a guard for the fields. Now that I think about it, I never heard of her afterward.”

After explaining it to them, he naturally, almost provocatively, took the five gold coins on the table and stored them in his inventory. However, none of them made attempts to stop him. This had been way easier than they thought.

They had come here, half expecting to be rejected. Even if they weren’t, they thought it would take ages of reading account books and stuff like that to find her name and location, if Valentino even had it. For the man to immediately know... what had that woman done to stay in his memory?

“What did she do for you to remember her so easily?” Ray asked the question they all had been thinking about.

“Hmm, okay, I will tell you. Bartolo, that idiot, gave her a high-ranking potion to sell her in pristine condition, only for half of his guards to be beaten black and blue by her. Only the lords' guards were able to stop that raging beast, after which he purchased her. That’s all I know. I didn’t hear anything about her afterward.”

“That means, unless the Lord of Morrento released her, she is still in his possession?” Lydia asked.

“I would guess so. This finishes our business. So please leave and annoy someone else,” Valentino ended their conversation, pointing at the door.

“Fine, then, let’s go,” Ray said to the others and stood up. A little more unwilling, the others stood up, too.

“How do we know he isn’t just making it up?” Mike whispered to the shaman.

“He said the truth. I’m the chosen of Sol’Fiam, I can detect evil energy, miasma, and intent. Had he lied, I would have picked up on it,” he explained on the way out.

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