A Journey through Kingdoms

CHAPTER 29- ESCAPE PLAN

"So you two are serious about this?" The bartender asks as Tetsuga and Derrick tell him about their first action as newly appointed brothers in crime, which was to plan an escape out of the kingdom. "Well, we can't live in your basement forever now, can we? So, what do you say, Barty man?" Tetsuga says with a sly smirk on his face, while Derrick just stands beside him with a polite-looking smile. "You do know I have a name. My name's-" and as the bartender was about to give his name to Tetsuga, who, throughout his time in the tavern, learned everyone's name, the bartender's- gets silenced by him as he quickly places his index finger on his lips. "Shush! No names. Not in this line of work," Tetsuga says as the bartender rolls his eyes at him before shoving Tetsuga's finger away from his mouth. "So, you have any idea where to start?" he asks the two, who took a moment to glance at each other before looking back straight at him. "Nope. No clue where to start." "Maybe we can start with the patrol routes of the knights?" The two say in unison, which almost made the bartender take a palm to his face. "At least one of you had an idea," he says before giving Derrick a pat on the shoulder.

"Psshh, I could've thought of that. The kid just beat me to it," Tetsuga says, trying to act cool. "Well, let me go and get my map, and we can try plotting out the knight's patrol routes," the bartender says as he makes his way back up the ladder to fetch the map for them to use as a basis. But something that they couldn't expect but should've been their first concern was happening elsewhere. Over a few blocks away from the castle vicinity, a warehouse had its roof broken in. It was as if something had crashed through. And considering past events, it's not hard to assume that the thing that crashed here was none other than the hunter himself. But with mere first glances, it seemed like the hunter was very much unconscious or hopefully dead, considering the abuse that the hunter endured 2 days ago. But unfortunately, the dread that was the hunter was not over yet, as his foot started to twitch all of a sudden before springing back to life. "Ack!" The hunter coughed as blood shot through the cracks in his mask, which was still on top of his face. After his coughing fit, he slowly rises from the ground, and as he does so,. The mask begins to crumble off of his face as piece by piece falls off before all of it ends up on the floor. The hunter, now de-masked, wobbled to his feet before catching himself on some crates.

"Alchemist... Tetsuga!" The hunter muttered as blood trickled down his chin. The hunter then tries to walk out from behind the crates and finds himself at the exit to the warehouse. But luckily for him, it opened up for him as a random civilian worker opened the doors, which flooded the inside with light. "Guess it's time we check the warehouse out. Two days should be..." The worker was about to say but suddenly stopped in his words as his eyes laid upon a gruesome sight. The hunter looked at him. The light finally hits his unmasked face, revealing a hideous and grotesque sight. The hunter wasn't human or didn't look the part, to be more specific, as his facial features were instead replaced with wrinkly and monstrous-looking flesh, which was paired with a mouth.

He had no eyes, no visible nose apart from two tiny holes where it should be, and a mouth with blood trickling down from it. The two stood in silence before the worker finally processed everything and was about to scream. Unluckily for him, the one that he saw was a skilled and blood-hungry hunter who used his inhuman speed to drag him back in and close the warehouse doors, which were then followed by muffled screaming, then gurgling, before complete eerie silence. moments later, the door opens up again, and the hunter exits, now donning the worker's outfit but also brandishing himself with a new mask, which was a piece of cloth wrapped around his head to conceal his face. He looked over at his hands and saw some blood still lingered, so he wiped it on the warehouse walls before walking away from the scene. Though, not before seeing the multiple posters of Derrick's and Tetsuga's faces, he angrily tore off their posts and crumpled them.

....

"Alright. First things first, anywhere near the castle will be full of knights on patrol. So don't go there, which is already obvious," the bartender informs them as they all huddle around a map of the whole city of the kingdom. "Now, there are some stationed over here, here, and here. They all rotate out in shifts and patrol within these routes." The bartender begins marking down places and streets with a pen while the other two listen intently. "Wow. You sure do know a lot about this," Derrick compliments, as he finds it fascinating. Tetsuga was more curious as to why. "Yeah, how?" Tetsuga says as he gives the bartender a questioning look. "Why do you think I own a battle axe?" The bartender says in response. "Oh, that's cool," Tetsuga mutters before they all go back into planning. "The other most heavily monitored place would be the city gates. They both question anyone who comes in and out at all times, from what I heard and saw," the bartender informs as he marks a big red cross on the gate. "Then that leaves us with the marina, right?" Tetsuga assumes as the bartender confirms with a nod.

"There's a cruise ship that's about to sail off this afternoon, so you two need to get to the marina, sneak on, and hide away until the bout starts sailing away," the bartender says as he maps out a route for them to follow on the map, which leads them to the marina. "Alright. Looks straightforward enough. Pack your stuff, Derrick. We're leaving at noon," Tetsuga says, ordering Derrick to pack up. "Got it!" Derrick responded before walking away to pack his stuff. "Alright. I'll stay upstairs and I'll signal you guys out once it's time. Also, take some cloaks with you so you two won't get recognized as easily." The bartender reminds them as Tetsuga gives him a silent thumbs up. The bartender then leaves the cellar to tend to his still-running business upstairs. And so they waited for noon to come. To pass the time, Tetsuga and Derrick played a few games of go-fish as they sat about waiting for the signal.

"You got any... kings?" Tetsuga asks as he peeks over his cards to look at Derrick. "Hmmm. Go fish!" Derrick exclaims with a smile as Tetsuga sighs and draws from the middle pile. "Y'know, this reminds me of the time over at that quaint village we were at before. I busted 2 guards playing go fishing, and I stuffed one of them in a barrel. You should've seen it, kid; his legs were sticking out and everything, haha!" Tetsuga chuckles as he recounts the moment. "It would've been quite the sight I'd assumed," Derrick replies. Suddenly, knocking was heard from over at the cellar hatch, which alerted the two. "Looks like we got our cue. Time to get out of this place!" Tetsuga says as he and Derrick stand up from their seats and prepare for their escape. They grab their cloaks and put them on, all dramatically. "It's time to roll out!" Derrick exclaimed. "Nice one," Tetsuga compliments before giving the kid a fist bump. Soon after that, they began to climb out of the cellar after 2 whole days of being cooped up in it and were met by the bartender, who was waiting for them to climb out.

"You got the map?" the bartender asked. Derrick nods. "I got it right here," Derrick says before showing him the inside of his vest, which held the map. "Good. You two should be ready to go. Remember, keep your hoods on and get to the marina before the cruise ship sails off," the bartender reminds them. "I got it crystal clear," Tetsuga replies with a thumbs up. "Alright, Derrick. Let's get going before we lose any more daylight," Tetsuga says as he and Derrick proceed out of the storage room. But then Tetsuga gets stopped by the bartender for a second, who has one last thing to say. "

Tetsuga." The bartender starts as Tetsuga listens. "Since you're not going to be able to come back to this kingdom, I thought you should have a little something to remind you of this here tavern," the bartender says before taking out something from his pocket and presenting it to Tetsuga.

"Aww, Barty, you shouldn't... have?" Tetsuga says before realizing what the gift actually was. He takes it from the bartender's hands and sees that it is a grey metal flask with the tavern logo on it. "What? You don't like it," the bartender says with a raised brow. But Tetsuga stayed silent as he opened the flask and took a swig from it. "This is the best gift I've ever received in my life. Thank you so much, Barty," Tetsuga says as his lips quivered from the emotions that were welling up inside him. "Glad you think so. And I would've liked you to know my name considering we won't be seeing each other again, but I know that you don't want to. Not in this line of work, as you said so yourself, so this is what I thought of instead," the bartender says with a small smile. Tetsuga sniffles a bit before embracing the man in front of him. "Thanks for everything, Barty," Tetsuga says. "Don't sweat it. Now get outta here. Derricks' waiting for you," the bartender says with a little pat on Tetsuga's back. They separated and took one last look at each other before leaving.

"And there goes my best customer... heh." The bartender chuckles as he watches the two exit the tavern. He goes to look over at the hatch and notices a pouch that was left at the side of it. "Did they forget this?" he wondered as he walked on over to it before opening it. And what he found inside was very much of a surprise, as he found a bunch of gold coins and a note from Tetsuga that read, 'I never really got to pay for those drinks the first time I was here. So consider this debt paid'. "Heh, hahahah!!" The bartender then starts laughing. "That guy..." he mutters with a smile on his face. And so with that, Derrick and Tetsuga traversed the streets and tried to make their way over to the marina, finally closing this chapter of their lives as brothers in crime.

But unfortunately, someone else says otherwise.