章節 267: Catatoskr (4) : The Crimes of the Red Cat
A/n: a sponsored extra by Julian Weber.
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After receiving the Card from Vekel, Jon immediately went to the Market Square and stole the all the stall and the goods with a snap of his fingers leaving the card hanging through the air with a simple spell.
'Catatoskr is back!' that is how everyone understood it.
The person in question himself was sitting in a dark corner in the Bee and Barb in with a beauty on his lap, they were kissing and having fun together while some people started glancing at them.
A gigantic Nord man and a pale Dark Elf girl, a weird combination but not unusual in Riften.
They later started to 'disengage' when a third figure with a metallic mask joined them.
"I say you too go get a room." Alina said as she sat down.
"Sorry, it got to my head after seeing the stalls disappear just like that. So sexy!" Jull whispered quietly.
"Why is it your first time seeing Jon doing something… dare?"
"No, it is my first time seeing him being so naughty."
For the first time in a while, Alina and Jullanar had a difference in opinion about Jon's action.
Alina was somewhat not comfortable with Riften while Jullanar blended in nicely.
"So, how did you do it?" Alina asked.
"The market?"
"No, all of them." Still, Alina seemed to be a bit interested.
"Okay, ask away…" Jon sat back and relaxed ready to answer them all.
"They say the first impactful one was the Bell of the 'Temple of Mara'."
"Oh! That one was actually very easy. My friend Alessandra from the Temple of Mara…"
"Alessandra?"
"She is a priestess of Arkay who works in the temple's Hall of the Dead. A really unfortunate girl who is growing over the age of marriage without finding a partner."
"Oh, I see! Arkay priests marry Arkay priestesses, that's the custom among them. No one really likes to marry a priest of the God of the Dead."
"It sounded much sexier in Ancient Egypt but whatever! I was on a run with Vex which was pickpocketing, you know I don't like pickpocketing, right? Vex kinda like pickpocketing more than actual work even though she is the first pair of boobs I ever picked…"
"No details, Jon."
"... Right! Anyway, she made me meet her friend Alessandra, the two are Imperials you see, Alessandra tells me that she talked to her friend Dinya who is working as a priestess of Mara now, right? And she's married to that dude, Maramal, who's the head priest in Riften. And she tells him about the guards who are occupying a part of the temple saying it opened to the Ratway. Right? That one of them is like this scary face dude mixed up with criminals, but he's stealing corpses from the Hall of the Dead. And so, Maramal and Brynjolf are drinking buddies, and they get to talking, right? And here comes the good part. Maramal says, "Yo, man. This guy's got some shady business in our temple and chilling, the other guards listen to him and he may hurt us." Of course Brynjolf comes to me because he knows I got mad thieving skills. Of course, I ask him... "Did Alessandra tell Dinya to tell Maramal to tell you to tell Vex to come to me?" And he says, "Nah, lad. All she said is that it's super-legit and whatever's in it, it's up to no good." Jon told his story.
"... Huh?" Alina was completely lost.
""Pffft!!!"" Jon and Jullanar couldn't handle it anymore and fell on the ground laughing.
As they calmed down, Jullanar explained.
"That Alessandra reached out to Jon through a chain of mutual friends."
"Ah! I see."
Jon was obviously making fun of Alina who was out of her natural habitat but she still couldn't tell what's going on.
"Just spare us the story and tell us how you did it?" Jullanar said.
"Well, you see. Alessandra asked for someone who can deal with complicated situations when it comes to criminals who are in cahoots with the guards especially the criminal guards. There was that band of guards that started stealing corpses so I devised a plan to lead out the who townsfolk towards their location and catch them dirty-handed. Vex and I climbed the Temple's lighthouse and installed large mirror panels around the bell so people think it is stolen. Brynjolf made the people notice then a mob rushed at the temple and so they found the corpse robbers, Vex and I broke the mirrors and escaped afterward."
[A/n: actually Riften's temple has not tower or bell but isn't that a temple dedicated to marriage?]
Alina and Jullanar nodded in understanding.
"So that's what happened? So underwhelming! I thought there would be some profound art of Illusion magic that made the town go insane." Alina said.
"Actually, it is brilliant. Some mirror panels and you fooled the whole town." Jullanar said.
Jon smiled as he saw the difference between the Thrill Seekers Jullanar and the Nerdy Alina.
"Tell about the City Gate's time."
"That one was actually hard to pull. There is that guy in the guild called Thrynn, he used to be a bandit before he joins in and so he had some relations with them, he heard that a band of brigands is going to raid the town from the north gate in the matter of days and the guards captain was bought by them as it seemed he is going to sabotage the hinges and locks of the gate and leave the area poorly guarded. We had to make a stance and even Delvin participated in this one. I went out as a 'Loki from maintenance' who came to fix the gate. Of course our associates joined in and disgusted themselves as guards. Once we drugged the actual guards, we took down the gate and carried it out of town towards the other gate then left it there and disappeared afterwards. The next day, the Jarl puked blood from rage and put the guards captain to death."
""..."" Even Jullanar was underwhelmed this time.
"Yes, I know. In reality, the most boring answer is the right answer." Jon defended himself.
"Tell us about the Ship that was left in the Market Square, this one got to be amazing." Alina said.
"Yes, it got to be." Even Jullanar agreed.
Jon sighed and shook his head.
"This is the easiest and the shortest so far. Nurina was drunk! End of story."
"... wait! That's all to it?" Jullanar asked.
"No heroics? No good deeds? Does this even count as your doing?"
"Well, I hate to brag but convincing a drunk Arch-Wizard to lift up a large fishing boat from the lake and put it into the middle of the market is still an achievement."
"Hmmm!"
"The reason?"
"In winter, food prices get doubled in Riften and fish is basically our main food here. In one winter, the fishery's owner, Bori, decided to hide a large catch of winter fish in his largest fishing boat and get it out once the price gets the highest. This means that Riften's people would starve because of that greedy bastard. And then, the Gods sent down a boat full of fishes to the town, how beautiful to have faith!"
"So there was a good deed after all."
"Ehem, I am a humble person but yeah."
"Humble? You just called yourself and Master 'Gods'!"
"Did I?"
"Whatever… how did you steal the Jarl's voice?"
"That was no good deed, it was just a prank. I only added some poison to her mead which numbed her vocal cords.
"Okay wait! How could you get to the Jarl's drink?"
"You see, like most dirty politicians, Lela Lawgiver likes to make speeches with orphans around so that she can gain the sympathy of the populace. Probably the only move in her notebook, she did that yearly. One year, I happened to be invited to be one of the kids standing around her and you can guess the rest."
"That is really interesting to know." Alina said.
"I know, right?" Jullanar was more excited though.
"What about today's?" Alina asked.
"This one will satisfy you, Alina. I used [Greed] as I can shred it into a million pieces and attach it on anything. I simply made [Greed] mark every stall and crate I wanted to steal and pulled it all back to the Haven Cube."
"Oh! I see, simple but smart." Alina was finally excited.
"The main objective about today is to locate the Skooma sellers in the Market. I had Jull and Nefertiti search the stalls in my Haven Cube thoroughly and locate all the Skooma secret stashes. The stalls were marked with a Shadow Mark known to Brynjolf and he will make sure that the guards arrest all the owners of these stalls."
Alina was smiling brightly at Jon.
"I know I don't like Riften and how people treat you here but the idea of the heroic thief is really interesting. I think it opened my eye to a new aspect in life… even thieves can be heroes."
""Yeah yeah."" Jon and Jullanar looked at each other and shook their heads. Alina was one of Skyrim's nobility and most of what she saw of Jon was how a heroic warlord and domineering ruler he can be which she was totally agreeing with.
Seeing Jon walk among the thieves in the slums of Riften, exchanging insults with them and accepting and changing to be like them was a bit new to her but realizing that there is a heroic meaning behind all that made her change her mind.
It was a different story to Jullanar who swore to live in his shadow and be his merciless blade even if he is a villain.
Jon didn't have any of those thoughts in mind though, he hated both heroes and villains equally. He valued professionality and serving the greater good. He can be both a heroic figure and a merciless villain depending on the situation and the aim, Niccolò Machiavelli once said: "Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times."
"Anyway, I am going to do something for tonight but I hope that you guys mix yourself with the people around Riften, as you already know, we are going to deal with them a lot in the future. Alina, you normally govern Winterhold in my stead so keep an eye on how the underworld works."
"Sure, I will do my best."
"Jull, you will try to get along with the guild members, you lead 'Team 0' and you need to keep up with the guild's operatives, it is not that hard but don't underestimate anyone."
"Fine, but at least tell me about the big ones."
"Okay, the one who appears in public the most is big bro Brynjolf. He is actually the closest to me but don't let his large build and quiet appearance fool you, this guy has abilities that can put a supercomputer to shame…"
"A what?"
"Nevermind it now, Brynjolf is a Nord who can smell money, calculate money, make money, give birth to money, lay money eggs, scam money from people… he just knows it all when it comes to money. Brynjolf is Delvin's true protege.
After Brynjolf comes Vex, the silver-haired Imperial. She is a total badass Black Widow material, she is the mistress of action around the guild, from pickpocketing to lockpicking, there is no place where Vex can't go through… she is a lesbian but don't tell that to Delvin, he may actually die from sadness.
Then there is Tonilia the Redguard. She is the fence, fixer, dealer, trader and the manager of the internal affairs. She also gives loans and makes the large trades. She is in a relationship with Vekel and may actually kill any woman who approaches Vekel.
Speaking of Vekel, he is the owner of the Ragged Flagon, don't let his appearance fool you, this guy is a pro when it comes to evaluating people, even Delvin listens to his opinion.
Then there are other juniors like Catatoskr the Red Cat, your humble Jon Dare, there is also Etienne who oversees the supplies and the best person who can navigate in the Ratway and there is Cynric, a professional Jailbreaker, as well as many other juniors.
Next up we come to the two on the top.
Delvin is the mentor of most of the thieves and he created the system of the Shadow Marks. He can be silly sometimes but he is the best of the best and he likes to teach others too. His main power, however, is business and from him, I learned a lot. He is an economic bomb that can dry a town of money and sink another in money.
After Delvin comes the top dog, Mercer. He is the guild master and let's just say it bluntly, I hate that guy. He is bad news and the reason why the guild is in bad luck. No one has any clue why but it is better to avoid him for the time being."
Jon introduced all the people he is close within the Thieves Guild to Jullanar. Of course, the part about Mercer was only kept to himself, he still has plans for Mercer but that needs some preparation.
"Anyway, after the market incident the city will be on high alert but I need this will be perfect for me. I will busy myself with something tonight. And Alina, I am giving you a task to enchant some items for me before tomorrow." Jon handed Alina a paper with the details.
"I will see to it. What will you busy yourself with anyway?"
Jon smiled evilly.
"There is a certain hag that needs to meet a miserable end but before doing so, I need to get this baby fully charged." Jon said as he took out the Skull of Corruption from the Cube.
"Tonight will be a nightmarish night."
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