The Blackwyrm Chronicles #2: My Little Campaign of Carnage Gets out of Hand

Chapter 59

After Stanford left, I looked at Saul, "So why exactly did you come here?"

He smiled wearily, "I want to join your lot-even if it's for a month or so. My old life is wearing me down, kid. I've grown softer throughout the years, and some members of the Crimson Dawn don't take kindly to that. I dunno, I'm tired of the volatile and unpredictable lifestyle that's attached to being an assassin. If you don't mind, I want to help you out on your missions."

I grinned, "I guess the mission in Freim opened your eyes?"

"Yeah, it did." He admitted, "I now know what you were talking about during the duel, and I'm not okay with taking a contract to kill you. That...that doesn't sit well with me."

"I understand where you're coming from." I began, looking at the rest of my team: "Hey guys, Luna, Sylvia and I are going on a supply run in the marketplace. You can either tag along or hang out in here until we get back. After we get that out of the way, we're going to go learn what our next mission will be."

Nova, Horace, Erron, and Dorrian volunteered to tag along while everyone else opted to stay.

"Sorry kid." Saul began tiredly, "I gotta rest these rusty-ass bones for a few moments. I'm spent..." He promptly fell asleep.

I chuckled, "Alright, we'll be back shortly."

Ana gave me a thumbs up, then fell asleep herself.

After Sylvia hopped onto my back, we left the room and made out way out of the castle. Five minutes later, we were walking down the streets of Helios and making our way over to the marketplace, which was just starting to open. As usual, Sylvia looked at everything with a sense of wild curiosity about her, and she laughed jovially when a butterfly flew past her. When we finally arrived at the large hub of commerce, Luna and I split up and tackled the shopping list we'd come up with on the walk over to the marketplace. Essentially, I bought fruits, vegetables, and meats while Luna handled everything else. If you're wondering how the meats and other perishable foodstuffs are going to keep in my home, I was fortunate enough to sweet talk Fred into installing a freezer into my house about a week ago. It's worked-to varying degrees, but it does its job well thanks to ice magic. Moving on, it took us about twenty minutes to buy everything we needed before we met up again at the center of the marketplace.

"Did you get everything?" Luna asked as she handed a large burlap sack of supplies to Erron.

"Yep. Did you?" I prompted her as I handed a sack to Dorrian, who grunted when he grabbed a hold of it.

"Of course." She replied, "If we're done here, let's head back home and put all of this away."

The beauty of having four extra people tag along with us is that they get to help carry all the supplies we purchased. Only Nova grumbled having to be a 'pack mule', as she phrased it.

Don't worry Nova." Erron told her, "Think of it in this way: these supplies will be used to make excellent food."

She sighed, "I know..."

I chuckled, "Don't worry Nova, I'll make sure to make something extra tasty tonight for dinner. Let's just get back to my room so we can store them."

She huffed, "Fair enough..."

The trek back to the castle was slow, but we made good time nonetheless. We were passing by an alleyway that was situated in between two buildings when I caught sight of a group of boys crowding around...something.

I sighed, "Hold up guys."

Everyone stopped and looked at me curiously.

"What's wrong?" Luna asked.