The God of Jesters
Chapter 497 - 8.02.5 The monster in the city.

Chapter 497: 8.02.5 The monster in the city.

Since coming across them two years ago in the seas, Rosso had followed the Radiant knights without a moment’s pause.

They were after the very same person he was after, and unlike them, he lacked the means and resources that the Radiant Knights were capable of moving. So using them for his own was a good choice.

However, one issue arose a few months back.

There had been no movements of the Radiant knights he usually stalked from the darkness, instead, he later learned that a different batch of Knights had left to look for Malidi after a bit of snooping where he came close to losing his life. If not for his overpowering strength, he might have fallen to the Flames of Devotion long ago.

: If your information is true, then it puts us in danger.

Came the message, which went silent for a while, and like before, the individual on the other hand was obviously looking for confirmation and then they replied again.

: Our goals don’t intersect, so I don’t see the issue in helping you. : As long as you allow us, that is.

"I don’t mind it, but I would prefer it’s something within my means, over it. And if you go over it, then I can only leave it." There was no friendship between the parties, even if they belonged to the same camp, there was little trust.

So like he did before in the Bartender’s guild, Rosso needed to provide value for his request, and unlike the Bartender’s guild, the individual on the other hand the pager was not interested in money.

They were into something more.

: Simple assassination to create chaos.

Was the response on the other end?

: Kills can be random, but they need to be influential. : The only requirement is time and place

Hearing such a request a few ideas formed up in Rosso’s head. "A scapegoat, a distraction, or a bit of both, I wonder what you are interested in." But Rosso didn’t voice such thoughts in the pager, he just agreed to the exchange and informed the other party. "Send a message around six of the evening. I am free by then." With those words, Rosso disappeared from the Butcher’s shop.

Though for the bit of time he stayed there, he didn’t mind leaving a simple Purple iron coin in his room with a small letter.

As for his reason?

The reason was the accord that had just been made. Although it was a dangerous job in a city filled with monsters, with his particular set of skills, killing wasn’t that hard. All that was needed was some effort and an environment where he doesn’t have to interact with the outside world anymore.

A choice he can only take when there are others doing the job for him. ’This money is not needed.’ So it was with such a thought that Rosso his new home.

It was around three of the night and unlike some other cities, there was no curfew here, the nightlife was still active, and you might be able to find a few people on the road from time to time. This was a city of happiness. There was no danger anywhere, so people didn’t mind getting a bit vulnerable.

This might be the reason why the people who followed Rosso at this very moment didn’t treat their target so seriously.

In their eyes, the target was like the other people they had followed, a puppet whose only job was to act as a medium between two parties, and in this specific case, the contact medium between the bartender’s association and his master.

As for who the master was? That’s what they intended to find out.

Sadly, these men didn’t know the kind of individual they were dealing with. ’Ah, some followers...’ A simple tilt of his hand and his right eye, which still hurt due to his meeting around the evening with that old pawnshop owner, Rosso understood that he was being followed. And from the looks of it, the people who followed him seem to belong to different parties.

’It did expose me.’ Killing these people would generally cause a greater amount of chaos.

His face was renowned in the Bartender’s guild, and he was not one of those shape-shifters that can easily change themself without an issue, once found out, they wouldn’t stop until they hunt him down.

But isn’t it the better option to not aggravate the parties that were just curious about you, no matter how offensive their actions are? Well, that is one way of doing things.

Just like there was another odd way of doing certain things.

A tear of blood flowed out of his eye like a tear, which slowly transformed into a mosquito, but this was not alone.

Multiple small mosquitoes of similar sizes were born out of his tears, which flew into the darkness of the night and a bit into the necks of these individuals. Though none of them treated it as odd.

This whole neighborhood reeked of blood, there was a small river next to the houses where most of the blood from butcher shops flowed. Meaning loads of places for mosquitoes to prosper. Even at this very moment, countless mosquitoes were buzzing around these men, so they didn’t find it that odd when the mosquito bit them.

Including some Knights of apprentice and adept level, who almost treated it as normal, never finding it odd how a mosquito was able to penetrate their skin so easily.

"I apologize, but scaring is the only way to make you back off."

With those words said, he disappeared in the dark alley, confusing all those that followed him."He was a knight?" Some found this absurd, thinking what kind of Knight would bring himself to work at a butcher shop. "Well, the trace is gone too... it would seem that man had some magical artifacts on him."

They kept looking for Rosso’s traces till morning before all of them returned to their own organizations.

Which mostly consisted of three in actuality, the Bartender’s, the Church of Truthful Deceit, and the Radiant Eye.

And each of their men returned to their bases, not thinking much about this odd individual.

Each day, countless odd people come to this city, and among those, there are always some odd ones out that show suspicious movements, hence entering the eyes of the intelligence agencies.

As for how to deal with them? It varied depending on the information collected. If nothing is known of an individual and as long as they don’t cause trouble then the city won’t touch them. And in case that doesn’t happen, and they learn that the individual poses some threat to Rudrain’s peace, that individual disappears without a moment’s notice.

And then there were those like Rosso, that do show odd movements, but their background is never found and they run away. This has happened multiple times which is why these people were not that surprised that someone escaped their grasp.

Well, they never had to worry about it, as the moment they reached their headquarters and were giving out a report to their handler. All of them felt a pain in their neck at the same time. "What?" It was a small pain at first, before soon turning unbearable.

"What..." They scratched and scratched, then cried in pain attracting the attention of higher-level officers in their respective buildings.

And they did come, along with multiple meds and potions to help relieve the pain of their men, but nothing worked. The small mosquito bites started to spread, bulging like a flower bud one by one all over their bodies.

The pain, the pain made the victim’s face horrified, they could feel it, countless little critters eating away at their blood vessels, their bodies.

Their everything.

And before they could say the last few words, the bulging pieces of meat on their bodies blossomed into a beautiful flower.

"Move away." The people in the Radiant Eye were the fastest to react, moving back from the spores that were released from the flowers before a Radiant Knight came and shouted. "Flames of Devotion" Before burning the whole body along with the spores in one hit.

"This.... Who, who was he following?" Asked Remira, her eyes bloodred overseen Flower man in front of her burn.

But no reply came from anyone, everyone remained silent, still too shaken by what they just witnessed.

And Remira, who had grown up, appeared more robust than before. Also turned silent. "This." This was not the first time she had seen something like this, but this was the first time she had seen how tragic the death is for those infected with an odd power like this. "Find out who he was following... As for those who tried to save him, come with us, we need to make sure the infection hasn’t spread to you."

The scene that happened here was just one of the many. Though, unlike the Radiant order was able to deal with the problem swiftly, the same can’t be said for the rest of the people interested in Rosso.

"Noooo!" It was a powerful curse that spread unceasingly, causing massive damage to the organizations as well as countless innocents who dared to be close to them.

"Please save us." Were the cries of men, women, and children alike, as an entire street was quarantined after the infection burst out. As for survivors, there were none.

"Monster... A monster has entered Rudrain." Spoke Heroth as he read the recent Newspaper. "Don’t go out recently, who knows if that monster is walking among us."

It was safe to say, the irony was lost on Heroth, who was considered the greatest monster in the seas.