Odd Jobs 2 [Solo/Job/Part 1]

I pace back and forth, wondering what my plan of action should be. A friend of my mother's, a woman of high class and great wealth, was worried that her husband was cheating on her with a much younger woman. She'd seen the signs for months now, but had been too scared to speak up about it until now. She'd broken into tears during a conversation with Ivris's mother, and had revealed all the details of what had been troubling her so long. However, she had no proof, and she thought she might just be overreacting. But nevertheless, I planned on getting to the bottom of it. Making up my mind, I head out, headed for the woman's house. I was going to go talk to the man and confront him about it, and hopefully things wouldn't escalate. After all, if he had nothing to hide, then why would they?

Walking down towards the large home, I'm about to knock on the door when I see a man leaving the back entrance, surrounded by three bodyguards. It seemed he was deciding to go somewhere, which also meant I wasn't going to be able to just talk to him with his hired protection to defend him. No, I'd follow them and if I saw that the man was headed nowhere, I'd confront him then. However, there's a possibility he was doing something that he'd rather not be caught doing if he was using the back door.

I followed him, staying close but not too close as she followed them through the city. It seemed they were trying to take a route that would end up losing any pursuers by going through the crowded market and briskly taking turns down streets, but I wasn't going to give up that easy. I began to close the space between them as they tried to pick up speed, always keeping just one step behind them. There was, however, one time where I almost lost them as a cabbage merchant wheeled his cart across the street in front of her. However, I was able to catch a fleeting glimpse of one of the bodyguards turning a corner, and did my best to catch up. After about an hour of ducking into alleys and walking in circles, it seemed that they'd finally come to the building that was their destination. A small, shabby building near the west side of town, it definitely didn't seem like the place for anyone of this man's rank and wealth to be at. In fact, it most definitely wasn't because this was no normal house; it was a brothel! This was definitely suspicious, but still, I needed to make sure I had the full picture. I had to be able to put my mother's friend's fears at rest once and for all, even if that meant going in there after him. However, that meant I was going to have to fight his bodyguards, and that wasn't going to be very easy either.

The three bodyguards stood outside,  looking very imposing and strong. But I knew they were just hired bodyguards, nothing serious. Thankfully, I had just the spell to deal with these goons, but I needed to draw them away to keep the man inside from hearing any commotion. So, taking a deep breath, I hit one of them with Water Whip, which drew all of their attention to me. I took off and so did they, just as I'd hoped; they definitely weren't that bright, but then again they weren't paid to be. I lead them to the outskirts of town just a few minutes away, as to avoid getting any pedestrians caught up. Thankfully, all they had were swords with them, otherwise this actually might have been a challenge.

"Tell me what your boss is doing and I'll leave you alone," I say, turning to face them once we were far enough.

"We-we can't do that," the first of them says, panting and glaring at the same time to make some weird facial expression.

"Yeah, why do you care anyways?" the second one asks me,  in somewhat better shape than the first but still obviously sweating from our little run.

"He probably won't pay us if we told you he was-" the third one began, but shut up when the other two glared at him. Obviously not the smartest of the bunch.

"I didn't want to have to do this the hard way, but you leave me no choice," I say, casting Maelstorm and knocking them all out almost instantly. I felt a little bad, so I dragged them into the shade of one of the shacks in the outskirts and gave the woman there some money to watch over them and make sure nothing happened to them. Heading back towards the brothel, I think about what the guards had said. They seemed very defensive over something like this, which while not necessarily strange, was a bit unexpected. It should be obvious I'd seen him going in there, so why hadn't they just told me?

In any case, it seemed I was about to find out. I walk into the brothel, which I'd thankfully never been to before, and inquire about the woman's husband. At first, the owner didn't want to talk, but some money quickly changed his mind. Apparently he'd been in here multiple times in the last few months, and had never left a name and always had his guards pay for him to avoid being seen. However, there was one specific thing of interest which the man didn't seem to want to divulge - that is, until I handed over just enough money. And so, unwillingly, I did. Hopefully he'd put it to good use and start up a real profession.

"Well, the thing is... you see," the man who I'd been paying says," the person  you are asking about... he only asks for male clients."

It took me a moment, but eventually it sunk in. And with that, I left the brothel, promising myself I'd never return. After divulging the information to the man's wife, I decided to take a nap. This day had been a very long and tiring one.

1035/1000 word count

170/200 magoi

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