Chapter 48: [48]Sacrificing Pawns for the Queen

--Chapter 48--

Title: Sacrificing Pawns for the Queen

"Orrick! Bro!"

The voice came from the mouth of the lane, close enough that Takeshi felt it ripple in his teeth.

There was no time to think cleanly, nor was there time to waste. His legs moved just as his mind began figuring out what to do next.

Lana still had Orrick against the wall, the red trail of blood staining her mouth, her crimson eyes too bright as her body remained caught between hunger and the shock of being seen.

Orrick on the other hand was already limp and slowly going pale.

Whatever fight he had left in him was a thing of the past. And If there was any life remaining in him, it was hanging by a very thin thread.

Takeshi moved forward and took Lana’s wrist, pulling her half a step away from the dead Orrick and to himself.

"Stay visible," he said under his breath. "I need him to see you first."

Lana’s gaze snapped toward him. For half a heartbeat, confusion crossed her face. She didn’t seem to be catching up.

Choosing to listen to him instead. She didn’t move an inch and simply waited.

The approaching footsteps grew louder and more incoherent against the wet stone. As crates went crumbling down .ß

Brenn Cald shoved into the backlane with drink still in his blood and Orrick’s name on his tongue.

"Orrick, stop pissing around, dickhe---"

Brenn was barely past the mouth of the alley when he noticed the blood. The frame of a woman standing in the darkness.

And Orrick folded against the wall like discarded meat.

The rest of his sentence died in his throat. But that pause. That moment of shock and hesitation was all Takeshi needed.

He moved from the side angle rather than the open mouth of the lane and drove his reinforced forearm into the back of Brenn’s head.

The strike was ugly and direct. Just as he intended.

Brenn’s body dropped forward before his open mouth could form any sound.

His shoulder struck the wall, followed by the rest of him as he collapsed onto the ground.

Even though the man was barely out of consciousness. Takeshi was already moving toward him with purpose.

Crouching beside the man’s body. Takeshi knew very well that there was no point intimidating him.

These two had hated him on sight. Fear would only make Brenn panic and start shouting.

And noise right now was his greatest enemy. But so was proof.

Lana’s mouth was still stained with blood, and Orrick’s neck made the situation impossible to explain.

And as such, Takeshi decide to take a more drastic approach. He pulled the dagger from Brenn’s belt and turned toward Orrick.

The throat was the problem. And Takeshi had a quick solution in mind. After all, Orrick wasn’t surviving this.

Which meant Takeshi needed to something to make the entire scenario look anything than it obviously was.

Splat!

He drove the dagger into the already ruined area of Orrick’s neck, and then again and again in a messy scene.

The stab wounds were rough and close, the kind a drunken fight could leave behind when one man got on top of another and lost control of himself.

There was nothing clean about it. It didn’t look at a duel or an execution...just a random back-alley killing.

All the while, he was doing all this. Lana just watched him without saying a word.

Even though her lips were primed to speak. The words simply didn’t come.

Takeshi glanced at her for a moment, his silver pupils were dull but very focused on what he was doing. As if he had it all pre-planned.

"Can you use your magic to cloak this?"

Her crimson eyes squinted and then moved over the alley, taking in the blood, the bodies, and the traces left behind. And she understood the assignment.

"The important parts, yes."

"Then do it," he replied and moved aside.

Even though he just got here only a few days back. Takeshi knew this world has ways of reading leftovers.

It was a world of magic. There was possibility of mages with divination-natured spells.

So...if he wanted to create the illusion of a back alley murder. Takeshi didn’t need a clean lie sitting around for anyone with the right spell to find.

Lies worked better when they were in layers.

Not needing further explanations, Lana moved into action immediately.

She raised a red colored nails, and the shadows listened to her call.

The shadows that stretched around began to gather around the edges of the alley in the form of a curtain.

In reality, the traces in the air that showed that there was more than two people there began to slowly fade beneath her influence.

Footprints, scent, touch. All of those traces became difficult to distinguish from everything else lingering in the filthy street.

It wasn’t perfect erasure because it didn’t need to. It only needed to make the truth more difficult to find should magic ever got involved.

Takeshi grabbed Brenn by the back of his coat and dragged him closer to Orrick.

He positioned the two men so that, at a glance, it looked like they had turned on each other in the alley.

Brenn was still breathing. Bloodied knife in his hand. The back of his head had an intentional gash.

Enough to cause a concussion but not to kill immediately.

A pair of corpses would raise questions. A dead man and an injured companion gave anyone investigating the scene a much simpler explanation to work with.

Takeshi stood and looked over the alley. Two bodies laid there but it was the blood on Lana’s lips was still the biggest problem.

She had already cleaned most of it away with the back of her hand, but the faint red stain remained.

Takeshi looked at her and walked over to her before he used his thumb to clean off the last bit of blood from her lips.

"Anything else?" He asked

Lana just stood there without moving a muscle, it was only after he asked, did her gaze move across the alley once more before she shook her head.

"This is sufficient."

Takeshi nodded in agreement and checked the mouth of the lane.

The tavern was still loud beyond it. There was no fresh footsteps. Or another voice calling for either Brenn’s or Orrick.

Luck was on their side. But

For now...

"We’re leaving," Takeshi said with calm authority.

Lana stepped away from Orrick. Even as the shadows around the alley settled with her, leaving behind nothing obvious enough to immediately reveal what had actually happened.

Takeshi took one last look at the two men. Then he turned away.

"Now!"

<End of Chapter>