Chapter 159: Mission and patience (1/2)

//For all those confused, this is a new set of characters, but a familiar location//

A knocking sound sounded within the small carriage.

”Come in,” a middle-aged man sitting inside ordered without taking his eyes off the document scroll in his hands.

”Sir, we have arrived,” a young man in casual clothes opened up the doors to the carriage before reporting.

”So quickly?” the man inside asked while raising his eyebrow a little before putting up a wide smile on his face. ”That's great. Anything strikes your fancy already?” he asked while scrolling up the document back into a simple roll. He then put it into one of the many shelves made just for this purpose before standing up and moving outside of the cart.

”Make sure to ditch and burn it all,” he ordered the same young soldier before turning his face to the group of slightly older people. ”Are you ready, guys?” he asked.

”All for the...” the leader of the group attempted to respond, only to be silenced by the man's quick wave of a hand.

”Keep the damned formalities to the minimum,” he ordered as his smile took a slightly unsavory note. ”Out here, I'm just Jacob, not your boss,” he added while still keeping his smile up, although it lost all of its warmth.

”Sigh...” the leader of the group shook his head. ”Jacob, we are ready. But are you?” he then asked in a casual tone.

”Yeah, let's go,” Jacob nodded his head before heading forward, straight for the massive gate of the militarized camp at the border with the desert.

While someone could still recognize specific members of the group during their approach to the city, once they reached the massive flow of adventurers and mercenaries going in and out of the camp, even this little chance of them getting compromised no longer existed.

As they were traveling under the guise, Jacob couldn't use any of his means to get past the queue. Even if some of them didn't draw too much attention, the guards would be sure to remember his appearance.

And as the most creative bunch of rumor-makers, they would be sure to announce his arrival in the city far and wide.

”Your documents, sir,” one of the guards at the gate asked as soon as the group reached the most important and congested crossing point in the entire camp.

”Here you go, sir,” Jacob replied with a lenient smile. 'It is nice to see that the guards are actually doing their duty,' he thought, looking around as he passed a small token that served as the identification in one of the guilds in the outskirts of the civilization.

”Woah, sir, to come here from so far...” the guard muttered as he ran all the checks necessary.

”Life can get unpredictable, doesn't it?” Jacob asked with a small smile, refusing to elaborate either on the point he brought or on the details of the guard's question. 'It's better just to let people have whatever guesses they have rather than feeding them any real details. The more false information you spread, the easier it will be to catch you on a lie,' he recalled one of the teachings of his master and the current overlord of information.

”Here you go, sir,” the guard smiled as he passed the crystal token back to Jacob's hand. ”I wish you a pleasant stay in the camp!” he added before moving both his eyes and the entire attention to the next guy in line.

The group managed to assemble within the city in the predetermined rallying point roughly two hours after they entered the massive river of people at the gate.

While this kind of time didn't sound too efficient given their status, this was a misconception only an amateur could have. 'We could save roughly one and half hours by sneaking in, but the risk wasn't worth the effort,' Jacob thought as he watched more and more of his people assemble in the dining hall of a random inn.

”Jacob, do you wanna drink anything?” one of his men approached the man before hitting him with this seemingly natural question.

”Yeah. Could you get me two cups of vodka?” Jacob asked, openly passing his orders in a way that no random listener could properly understand.

A minute later, way earlier than any of his drinks could arrive, Jacob stood up and left the place. And right at its doors, two of the men from the main group already waited for him.

”So I'm going with you guys?” Jacob asked before a smirk took over his lips. ”Well, let's get going then,” he ordered before turning on his heel and moving deeper into the city.

For the next three hours, the group of three simply wasted their time. They continued to walk around the place as if in search of something while keeping the appearance of just randomly strolling around.

”That's strange,” Giern muttered after some time. ”Shouldn't we notice something by now?” he asked while turning his face to his leader.