Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

Wrik considered whether or not to take the fifth glass of alcohol. He saw the servants going around with the tray that held the wines. The people were drinking with no concern. He could just refresh himself just by swirling his mana a little, not to say the poison resistance he gained in the test. But drinking more of it will still have a bad effect on his body, not to say about the psychological effect.

The dance floor was full now. He saw Davin dancing with Byul. Both of them appear too stiff to enjoy the moment. 

He chuckled and saw a manservant coming his way. Wrik shook his head, showing he wanted no more drinks, but the servant came anyway. He raised an eyebrow to find the servant pulling out a piece of paper, he held it to him. 

"A gentleman asked me to give it to you, Sire" the servant said. 

"Did he say what his name is?" Wrik asked, and took the paper. He unwrapped it to find there was only a single line in it: 'Come below and look for an odd-looking vehicle.' There was no mention of a name or anything other than that single line. 

"He said, Sire will recognise by the note," the servant continued. 

"Give me the description of the one who gave you this note," Wrik said, finding it odd. There were not many people he knew in this new environment and if it was someone of his friends, they should just come at him. There was no need to play this game. 

"The one that gave me this note appeared to be a servant," said the manservant. "He is a short and bald man in his midlife. There was nothing distinctive about him apart from the high-pitch voice he talked." 

Wrik's eyes narrowed. There was only one short, bald man he knew and his voice was high-pitch at times as he recalled. Ryat Higgs, the omega salesman. Ryat wanted to recruit him for some business, and after finding out it was unlawful thievery, Wrik pulled a clear line between them, saying he wanted nothing to do with this. 

Why had the bald salesman come to him again? He wondered while gesturing for the manservant to leave. There was only one way to find out.

Davin and Byul were still dancing, though their sense of rhythm and motions were horrible than most. They felt his gaze behind them, and Byul was the first one to notice it. 

Wrik gestured to them that he was going out for a while and would come back. They nodded, and he moved his way towards the stair to the ground floor. 

"Finished enjoying the evening, Mister Everknight?" Kelek Silfare said, standing there with two fair maidens and a couple of noble lords. Kelek seemed to be the focal point of every ball he went in, and he never stood alone. All the time, there was someone with him. Women most of the time. 

Some rumours got into his ears that said, most of the nobles did not like this Young Lord, though there was a few young lords from lesser standing nobles who stayed with him. Especially Young Lord Tharoor and Turgon.

Wrik gave him one of his genuine fake smiles. "I'm going to get some fresh air," he said. "You guys enjoy the evening."

"Take care of yourself," Kelek said. "Even though it is in the citadel, nobody could tell about the heart of men." 

Wrik gave him an odd look and left. It appeared the news of him getting attacked reached most of the people. 

The outside was vacant and the slow wind was blowing unsympathetically. There were a few servants on the way and many cars in the parking lot. 'Now where do I find the odd-looking one?'' he wondered as all the vehicles there looked odd-looking to him. 

He walked on the sidewalk and felt a little chill in the stiff wind. The inside was far warmer compared to the outside. His eyes worked scanning all the directions to find the most odd-looking one. And after a few breaths of time, he found one that looked quite odd with all the futuristic models. 

It was an old-looking vehicle. Wagon would be a better word to describe it, though there was no horse or other animal for it to pull. He wondered how it travelled and scanned the vehicle with the [Eye of Insight]. He found nothing but suspicion about this vehicle. His senses did not appear to work with it. Whenever it went in contact, the wall of the wagon sucked it in. 

"Come in inside," Ryat's voice said from the inside of the wagon as the door of it opened.

Wrik released a breath and went on inside. The inside was not as cramped as he had thought. A single person could do many things inside and when he reached for a seat, the many things turned to a few. 

There was no one other than the bald salesman in it. Before him was a small table that held a couple of glasses and a bottle of wine. Ryat poured a glass for him and was about to pour another when Wrik said: 

"I already had enough of those. Get to the topic first."

"Very well," Ryat said and sipped in the wine and examined him slowly as if his word had no meaning to it, though he continued shortly. "I heard you are attacked." 

"Not just me," he said. "Other than Byul and I, Anton, Michelle and Jacob were assaulted as well, and that was inside the dome." 

Ryat nodded and continued to drink his wine. 

"I heard Scythe's backer had nothing to do with it," he said in a not so certain voice. Clearly wanting to get confirmation from this guy. Even though the one before him wore white and works as an Omega salesman, there was a shady side of him. He knew many things that even higher-order inquisitors did not.

Moreover, He only heard it about an hour ago from the young lady of the House Kavan. There seemed to have a certainty in her words, but he was not so sure. 

"That should be true," Ryat said in a complacent voice. "That judge who was in charge of the test had been called up to Eden at the headquarters, and he did not appear to have the balls to try anything. As for the bigger fish above him, they were busy avoiding doing other things." 

"So, the people that attacked us were just looking to put a fast one on?" he squinted his nose. 

There was another group they had offended, him specifically. Arjamith Adam D'borge. But the Borgemen loathe doing this kind of thing. That left him with no other suspect. It should be someone he did not know, yet they came at him for an unknown vendetta. The last sentence from Kelek made him think there was something more, he didn't know. He was oblivious. 

"Or they could be trying to look for some answer or something," Ryat added and poured another glass of wine. 

"It appeared you know more than you're saying." He frowned. What answer could the attackers be looking for? Were they trying to steal something? He shook his head. He had nothing of that much value and he never heard anyone could transfer omega credits by killing a mahasayer. 

'Wait, they could threaten me to voluntarily give it to them,' he thought, recalling he had quite a sum of omega credits. 'But the important question is that how did they find out? No, they can't be possible. I already turned on ghosting with the privilege of the level-4 encryption that Lucas left behind. There is something more. What valuable things or answers do I or others have? Anton has nothing, and the same for Jacob. Michelle, her red necklace?' 

That was the only thing valuable in their group and the other was the silver bracelet of Tanya. Both were fine artefacts that could not be bought with credits. Are they after it? 

"The more you look into it, the more you will get yourself involved in the web." Ryat sipped in the wine. "If you do not want to involve yourself you better just leave." 

"I don't think, I have a choice there," he said, sighing. "They already attacked us, and they will do it again if they were looking for a specific thing. Tell me whatever you know, please; then I would decide what to do with them."

"That's the reason I'm here for," RYAT said. "As you have already turned down my offer, I came for a trade this time. But unlike the other time, I'm looking to buy something from you. Something that will solve all your problems." 

Wrik raised an eyebrow and saw the salesman bringing something out of his inside chest pocket. It appeared to be a weird item carved as a Key--but more importantly, Wrik very much recognise it.