Chapter 97 - I Don’t Like That Smile At All

"And then?" Erick asked. "What do we do once we’ve found him?"

"Before I decide that I first need to determine what kind of man he is," I answered while sipping the wine that the waiter set down in front of me.

"According to what I know, he’s a pretty good man," Erick shrugged. "But it couldn’t hurt for us to find out if that’s true."

I only nodded at these words, letting my gaze drift over all of the people sitting at the tables as I swirled the wine around.

"And what do we do if he isn’t a good man?" Erick finally asked.

"Then we pivot," I shrugged.

"Pivot to what?" Erick asked.

"We’ll figure it out if it comes to that," I smiled, finding the frown on Erick’s face amusing.

"You know I thought I finally got you over this entire ’winging it’ belief of yours," Erick sighed.

"Come now, Erick," I smiled, raising my glass to him. "That method brought me this far, so I might as well stick to it."

"You’re either going to become something extraordinary, or get us all killed," Erick mumbled.

I couldn’t help but laugh at those words.

"I’m not interested in either of those options, thank you," I laughed. "A nice and quiet life would be more than enough for me."

"You do know that everything you do basically contradicts that entire statement, right?" Erick smiled.

"How’s that?" I asked frowning.

"Don’t worry about it, eventually you’ll probably see it," Erick answered.

I wanted to press him on that, I mean how could he say that everything I was doing contradicted my dream of a nice and quiet life, according to me everything I was doing at that time was to build that quiet life.

"Anyway, it’s still early, we might as well start our search," I finally said, deciding to completely ignore his obvious mistake.

I’m a good person like that after all, I don’t believe in pointing out people’s shortcomings like that.

"Sure," Erick answered. "I think we should probably start with the military barracks at the edge of town."

"If he’s in the city, that’s probably where he’ll be," Erick continued, standing up after leaving a couple of coins on the table for the tab, the number of which almost made me cry. "If not, we’ll be able to find out to which skirmish he was sent to end this time."

"Sounds like a plan," I answered, grabbing my purse back from Erick, and clutching it to my chest like a long lost child. "Let’s go."

I didn’t even dare to open the purse and see the damage this single day had done, simply throwing it into my storage the moment I found a place where no one would be able to see me.

Erick laughed as he followed me out of the inn, and down the street. I stormed down the street toward the western gate of the city, walking directly toward the military camp that was located there.

I was walking at such a pace that I didn’t even notice, or bother to, look at much of the city.

I had a lot more on my mind at that moment after all.

Erick and I made our way out of the city in silence, after almost half an hour of walking, we finally reached the western gate.

Nestled against almost the entire western side of the wall, were hundreds of small houses, and one massive building, which I assumed was the mess hall. Surrounding this area was a low wall, with guards patrolling this wall, and two guards standing at each of the gates that led into the camp.

"So how are we going to go about this?" Erick asked as we stood looking at the massive military camp nestled against the wall.

"Let’s just stick around here for a few moments," I answered, walking over to an alley facing the camp.

For minutes Erick and I simply stood in the dark alley, leaning our backs against the wall, not taking our eyes off the camp for even a moment.

After hours of simply standing there, finally there came some movement from the camp, a man even taller than Erick ,as broad as a brick wall, and with a face that seemed to be carved from stone came walking toward the gate. As he made his way through the camp every soldier he passed saluted him with pure respect on their faces.

"Let me guess," I whispered. "That’s him."

"That’s him," Erick nodded. "Jeremiah, the Captain of the third battalion."

"A Captain eh?" I mumbled. "These men are treating him much better than a captain of a battalion."

"According to what I’ve found out, he’s well respected by the entire military," Erick said. "Except for the higher ups of course, those are all in Charles’ pocket."

"Interesting," I smiled. "If he’s the kind of man I expect him to be, this could actually become quite fun."

"How’s that?" Erick asked.

"You’ll see," I answered, stepping away from the wall, casting concealment and a sound bubble around Erick and me. "Let’s follow him."

Erick and I walked after Jeremiah, chatting about almost anything, as he headed along the outer wall of the city. I had actually expected him to head toward the inner city, but he was already busy surprising me.

We followed him all the way to the Southern gate, which was where we had come in from, where he turned toward the inner city, down the exact road we had travelled only hours ago.

As we followed him down the road, I saw him stop a few times to hand some coins to the homeless people I had noticed in the alleys as we came in.

"Interesting," I mumbled with a smile, the more I saw of that man, the more he impressed me. "It seems that he will be perfect for our plans."

"However, I would like to test him some more before I make my decision." I said.

"And how do you plan to test him?" Erick asked with a frown.

"That, my dear friend, is where you come in," I smiled at him.

I don’t know exactly why he suddenly got very nervous when he saw me smile at him though, I mean it was just my standard charming smile.

"I don’t like that smile at all," Erick muttered.