To Reclaim the Treasure

It was a more pleasure trip on the way back from the Plegian desert. The clear blue sky above and the red lady beside.

The one-eyed mercenary thought to himself as he headed western, from Plegia's capital. Compared to when he was involved with the desert thieves, traveling on his own was much much better. Beside him was Emilia, the flamy red haired lady, which her charm was as fiery as her hair color, if not her beauty as well. She had been traveling with him from that one event, and was still apparently.

The road he was on led him to a hilly view at front, which his one eye couldn't see much of it yet, but his experience already alerted him that he was already near to 'Midmire'.

Midmire was known to be thief hideouts, and no sane people will traverse to that place without a real necessary reason. Many believed that one may find various stolen valuable by wandering in that valley, and they would be rich only if they got out of that trap alive.

For the mercenary, it was easy to tell that he was there for his mission, and he had to be paid handsomely enough for him to take this job. Few days ago, a particular millionaire in the capital was robbed at his own mansion that he found out his precious treasure was taken away. The culprit didn't hide well enough that the guards saw him, they just failed to capture the man. Still, it seemed to be enough to tell that the criminal came from Midmire.

Emile was still with him when he found the rich man's agent, approaching for a contract once he learned from the barkeep that this blind man was from 'the guild'. It seemed to him that the task got her interest that she volunteered coming along.

And Wolfe was not a type that refuse a company of the opposite gender.

"How fair are you, milady?" He asked in general before giving her a gentle smile, knowing that Emilia was not one to fall for his trick easily. "The road is not as difficult as I thought, I think we will enter the danger zone real soon."

"As I've assumed so, milady." Wolfe chuckled a bit in return, as Emilia's answer was no her. He still remembered the first time they met and she made her point clear that no one was to touch her treasure. He somehow found that attractive, or rather challenging. "In this unknown land, I think having a streetwise person like you as my companion would be the wisest option, aside from the value-add of your skill and beauty."

Another wink had been shot out, wastingly or not?

In fact, it was exactly as Wolfe said to the lady. He doubted he will take the risk to pay a visit to this dangerous place. Although he knew that those mountain thieves were a group of untrained fighter, only well-trained pickpockets, thievery and robbery. He anticipated that he could take many of those kids at once, however, having someone to watch his back would be much safer.

"So, since we're talking about danger, Emilia," Halting the 'milady' title a bit before it got too bothering, the lancer got to the next topic in general. "how much do you know about Midmire? and probably its local bunch?"

As they approached, Wolfe noticed that the wind kept blowing stronger. It had to be from that spaces between valleys that worked so well as wind pipes. Sometimes, it was good to have only one eye to cover from dust.

Wolfe listened carefully. So far, there was not much difference from what he had been informed by the mercenary guild, despite the addition of some insight detail which could be useful. Also, he liked how this woman phrase things in her own way as he found it quite fascinating. It was as hell-straight as a conversation can be and there was no place for mercy or fantasy in it. It told him Emilia had been seeing the world more than most women in her age group.

He began to understand how her speech never ceased to impress him.

"Not so different from the info I have, great." The lancer replied as he went deep in thought. He had a rough procedure of how to get this job done, and he had to see it possible to accept such dangerous job. He repeated what he had in mind. "First, we will need to find this thief guild, and then find the right culprit to retrieve item. If it goes well, maybe we can negotiate with them. If not, I guess we will have to threaten them a bit."

"Anyway, milady, I didn't know you're working for a guild." He turned to Emilia with interest, and then asked. "If it isn't too much to reveal, could you tell me what guild had so much honor to have your cooperation?"

So it's another thief guild, huh.

As he was not so certain before that what kind of profession Emilia was doing, the question was said. He guessed before she was a kind of treasure huntress, and probably worse, but didn't dare to believe as fact. However, even after he confirmed the truth with her, that she was doing illegal job like thief, he had no mean to judge or stay away from her with that as a reason. He just accepted it.

"I'd assume so." replied Wolfe, without any input, and only chuckling. "Last time was a little mess, so I guess we can work like pros today without those kids."

How exciting.

He noticed that the dust condition is getting better as they got near to the valleys. On the other hand, the wind became stronger and colder. Not that the weather was too cold to stand though. Finally, they had reached the entrance of Midmire.

"I think the dust is mostly gone now, what a relief."

Wolfe laughed with Emilia when she demanded to do the job mercilessly, he knew all well she didn't say it as a joke though.

The windy valley left no footstep for them to trace, nor any remaining smell to notice. He could only hear sound of the blowing wind as though it was warning him to turn around and leave. Aside from that sound, there was only their stepping and their conversation. If anyone was hiding near here, they would find it not so difficult to eavesdrop. Having something to barrier the wind should do the job.

He also had a feeling that they were already watched. In fact, Wolfe didn't just notice, but his sniper eye had just spotted a moving shadow from the corner.

"Instead of searching, I'm thinking that we should lure them out." The blind lancer said, without much effort to make it a secret plan. He knew there were many thieves, and one must be fool enough to take the bait. "That being said, milady, would you mind pretending to be more... less cautioned?"

Wolfe was thinking if he was missing something to catch the attention of the thieves. He wondered if they should come up with some kind of acting, to let the audiences believe they were millionaires, or that they had something valuable enough to get robbed. Whichever, he will need Emilia to play with the plan first.

So quick to get into action.

Not even she agreed with his plan, she appeared to understand his whole plot as though she took it from his mind. Wise people seemed to think alike, and this was what the sniper would call teamwork. He quickly adjusted himself to roleplay with the given plot. He quickly concealed the lance tip with a part of his cloak, making it similar to a walking staff with a satchel.

"Worry not, my Elizabeth!" He said, adjusting his tone to be bigger like an older man, saying stupid things. "We have enough gold to buy this whole mountain, let's not worry with buying new horses from these poor commoners! There is nothing in the world that our gold cannot purchase!"

The act ran on.

======

From not so far away hill, a shadow behind a rock moved back away to rejoin with others, he reported what he saw.

"I've spotted new preys, boss!" The thief scout didn't wait to report what he saw. "Seems to be an unlucky noble couple, I'd say, let's go get them before others do it!"

"Any defense?" Another thief asked.

"None!" The first one quickly responded. "they seems to talk about they broken cart or something, there maybe more valuables!"

A small group of thieves were discussing about their new preys that looks careless enough. A lie or not, they thought they were outnumbered anyways. Also, the large jewel from that woman alone was enough to risk. Therefore, they ended up giving it a try.

"Whatever the lady said," The rich man wannabe said as he skillfully swung his spear down just to stop it before hitting the man crotch. That certainly stopped the thief from doing anything. "And peace, it isn't like we're here for your life."

"Th--then, what do you people want?" Appearing scared enough, the lone thief questioned.

"Well, long story short, we come here to get back a treasure," Wolfe paused a bit before going on to the point. "stolen by one of you thieves not long ago."

The thief thought, as though he was trying to come up with escape plan. He said. "and what make you think I'll have such information, huh? We're all savages here if you don't already know, so why would I care."

"Oh... a tough one, aren't you?" The blind lancer replied. "But really, I really suggest you to spill anything you know right now, if not..."

"If not...?"

"See the hot lady here?" said Wolfe, his eye glanced at Emilia before looking at the mountain thief again. "Trust me, you don't want to make her angry. I may just use your 'belonging' as a hostage, but she'd cut it off already to interrogate you."

Both males then turned to the woman at the same time, though the lancer was the only one to ask. "Excuse me, would you do that, milady Emilia?"

"O---okay, I'll talk!"

Feeling the chill from Emilia's knife and his own blood dropping, the thief had no choice but to speak. The thief girl already said everything Wolfe wanted to notify this thief, so he had nothing to add now. How convenient. He only nodded to the man, and still held his weapon in a ready manner.

"The one you guys are looking for isn't in our clan, he's a member of Verric's gang. their base is on the uphill fortress there."

The thief pointed up to the hill behind him, of which even Wolfe's sniper one eye couldn't see anything but fog all over. It appeared that the wind didn't blow much up there compared to the valley bottom he was at. He shifted his sight at the local thief. "Who is this Verric guy? and how many men he is commanding? If you know."

"Erm.. he is just a thief like us, he just had a better bit of fighting skill. Rumor has it that he's an ex-soldier of the north." said the thief, appearing not all sure about what he said. "Some of the bastards began to wag tail at him when they saw his fight, guess he has about... not over twenty? Not sure, they ain't present in Midmire all the time...like the one you people are after. He came back last week, with some treasures in exchanges with a wound at his arm."

"Seems like to be the same one, good." "What do you think, milady? I don't think he's telling a lie though."

"Uwah, and I was thinking to have him lead us."

Wolfe pulled back his weapon and looked at the dead thief. Although he knew how merciless Emilia was, this was still a little unexpected. Though when he thought of it again, it was understandable why she did so for both of them as much as for the success of this mission.

It reminded him again that he had been too far away from ordinary life were he was just a delivery man of a flower shop.

"Let's keep walking then, we'll need to find a way to walk up this hill." The blind lancer pointed at the foggy hill above and walked off. "Anyway, have you ever heard of this Verric at all?"

In fact, Wolfe knew a man named Verric during his service in military. The man and himself had been good war friends for the most part, but that ended when he lost his eye. If he remember right, his last meeting with Verric was when he was departing from the Longfort, back to his hometown in despair. It was just a simple good bye and nothing special.

However, he didn't presume that it will be the same Verric, he didn't see that his war friend would sink so low to become a mountain thief. It didn't make sense to him at all.

"Seemingly a dangerous guy, especially if he can cause you such trouble." replied the blind lancer, pondering. "Whatever, our target isn't with him but his underling. If we're lucky, maybe a fight with him and the gang is avoidable."

A fight with a dangerous bandit was not worth his pay this time, the mercenary thought. It would be great if they can get to the treasure without encountering the whole lot of thieves. It was sad how things never went as easy in this profession though.

"Naw, it's the first time I hear of the name." Wolfe shook his head in refusal. "However, I did know a man named Verric during my military service, a fun fellow to party with, but I seriously doubt this will be the same man. Wait, I haven't told you I used to be a soldier, have I milady?"