It is going to be easy, she said. You just have to rob the second most protected place in this city, she said. Here, take my great plan and make it a reality, she said. Well, at least Lucinda and I agreed on one point: We needed to rob the merchant’s guild of all their possessions if we wanted to make this place our … her playground.
In any case, my trip towards the capital city was already tiresome enough as it was. As soon as I spotted the gates I was, like always, given the choice to be honest and queue up on the citizen line for an hour and wait like all the other commoners or, I could queue up with those who didn’t have a registered residence and suffer, just like them, under the warm sun. There was another option that existed though: To be entirely dishonest and steer my cart towards the shortest line of all. I sighed and knew there wasn’t much of a choice here.
“Name?” The guard asked as it was my turn.
“Tomblado Christopher Wiesenwald.” The guard eyed my weathered clothing slightly suspiciously but nonetheless handed me my papers back immediately.
“Welcome to the capital.” The whole process merely took a few minutes. I seriously loved the advantages of being a noble. Luckily enough, I arrived quite early, making it fairly easy for me to navigate south to my first destination.
It wasn’t my first time at the capital, or rather it was fairly uncommon for me to not be there. My time with the bandits was truly an adventure in many ways as it threw a city dweller like me into the wilderness. It was great to be back, the noises, the bustling, everything felt so familiar, even the stench that I certainly didn’t miss. I roamed these streets for a long time in the past, directly after I said ‘Adieu!’ to the rest of my family. As such, it wasn’t very difficult to find the most prominent building in the commoner district, the headquarters of the merchant´s guild. Going purely by the wealth it radiated, it could surely compete with more than three-fourths of the noble mansions in this city. It was a grandiose building, functional, yet also a prestige symbol. The pillars, supporting the front roof, were made entirely out of marble, the roof was covered in beautiful red tiles. I was damn sure Lucinda would have liked to blow it up when she had the chance. All the wealth that would go up in flames, all the chaos it would cause… I´m sure she would love it.
I wasn’t here to blow it up though. Armed with a heavy sack, full of gold coins, I entered the building and directly walked over a beautiful black and white floor towards the first free counter I could spot.
“Hello, Miss …” I looked at her nameplate and smiled lightly. “Miss. Geiz. I am here on behalf of Mary White who wants to deposit this gold here in your vault.” I placed the heavy back on the counter and rummaged through my pockets while Miss Geiz stared at the contents of it. “This here is proving I am her proxy.” I waited for a few seconds for her to take the document I was handing her over, but as she didn’t react at all, I waved in between the sack full of gold coins and her face. Only then did she finally snap out of it and took the document, still slightly perplexed.
“I need to speak with my superior about this.”
“Alright. Take your time.” I needed time in here as well, taking in every bit of information I could gather. I could already spot three disguised guards the moment I let my gaze wander around, four regular guards near the door and seven more near different doors that led to who knows where. Going in by force was definitely out of question, especially because the city guard also patrolled this area rather heavily.
“Mister Wahrheit, it is a pleasure to welcome you to our humble establishment.” And there it began. I´d rather talked to Miss Geiz again as she looked really good, but a bald thirty-five-year-old was apparently more qualified to take my gold.
“It is always great to be here again. Could we speed up the process though? I am really short on time.” I said and looked outside again.
“Naturally. We will deposit the money under her name and as written on this document, you will be able to access it.”
“That’s good to hear ... can I get a broad overview of how much we have left in your vault myself? Since the fire of the mansion, we are struggling to retrieve all of our official documents.” I said.
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“We can put you a list together, but we sadly aren´t able to lead you inside to value these items yourself.” The man stated.
“Why not?” I asked, already wondering how I should ever get enough intel to rob this place.
“For security reasons. We beg your pardon.” I smirked slightly but nonetheless proceeded to sign the documents they required. I really hoped I could see the vault if I went to them with such a large sum. It didn’t work out, but I still got an impression of the inner workings of the merchant’s guild, or at least that part that functioned as a storeroom for valuables.
On my way out, I looked around once more. This building was too well protected. There were even more guards now, sixteen in total at least. I was pretty sure there were quite a few more though, not to forget the numerous other security mechanisms, magical and mechanical alike. Breaking into this would be impossible to achieve through normal means.
The worst part though was the unknown. Neither I, nor Lucinda, knew where the traps were, what they prepared for us, or what the best possible way inside was. We were definitely not going through the front door and Lucinda already found a way to go around most of these traps, but we still needed knowledge. We didn’t know what was inside the vault, how it looked, where it was precisely and how it was protected from the outside. Visiting the merchant´s guild headquarters didn’t help much in that regard either as no customer was allowed to be even close to the vault. It was all done by the employees and not your average ones at that. Heck, I didn’t even know if this manager who spoke with me knew how to open the vault in the first place.
Bribing our way into the vault was thus out of question. Everyone who knew how to get inside also had a strong incentive to keep the door locked tight. And even if we managed to get in touch with one of the managers secretively, it was nearly certain that whatever I offered, he wouldn’t accept.
What´s left was either a forceful approach or sneaking our way inside. Lucinda didn’t choose the forceful approach in her plans though. It was probably too risky in the first place as one ill-placed trap could mean the end for all of us. So, how do you break into a house nobody has ever dared to steal from? The answer was fairly simple: Whores. Okay, that was only part of the answer, but it was the beginning of all.
A bit unhappy about my findings, I climbed onto the driver’s seat of my cart which was a lot lighter now and headed back northeast until I hit the main road again. A few minutes later, I found the crossroads I was searching for. It was only a matter of time until I parked my cart again on the wayside, grabbed another bag full of cold coins and strolled towards ‘The Red Baron’, a high-class brothel I used to frequent in the past. I mean the girls were … friendly. That´s what it was. Definitely.
“Tom! You´re back!” Exclaimed one of the girls standing outside. She already smiled seductively and leaned forwards to force me to look at her neckline if I wanted to have eye contact. I naturally wanted to … don’t judge me, busty brunettes were my thing. I just couldn’t resist these freckles on her cute face, which may also have attributed to me, being one of her regulars in the past.
“Hey Pauline, I need to speak to your procurer.”
“He´s currently away, should be back tomorrow. You can wait inside if you want.” This was an offer I definitely wasn’t going to decline.