Rise of the Godking 43 A Hin

Standing in the shadow of one of the houses closest to the tower, Daneel kept his eyes on the door, waiting for his mark to arrive.

Three days had passed since he had laid his plan bare to the family whose hospitality he was enjoying at the moment. Three days of useless ideas, torn-out hair, and morning beatings that seemed very bad on the surface, but were actually quite bearable due to the fact that the crystals were always there to heal him when he hurt too much.

Finally, just this morning, the old man had succeeded where all three of them had failed.

He still remembered the nonchalant way in which he had hobbled into the house, his eyes crinkled with amusement as he watched the three young men in front of him argue about an idea to handle the gigantic brute.

He had even made himself some tea and sat down on the table to let the argument take its course, and at its end, when all three of them were fuming as none of them had come out on top, he had broached the topic as casually as if he was talking about the weather.

"So… how would you like to find out the past of your target?"

Daneel had stared at the man as if he had gone mad, and Gerard had laughed. After all, if they knew where he had come from and how he had become the powerful being he was now, wouldn't it be easier to make a plan to handle him? He had looked for an avenue to investigate this matter, too, but had come up with nothing.

The old man had gone on to explain how there were only a couple of retired individuals in the Refinery. Most who worked for decades were offered a place on the third layer where they would be allowed to rest, but some always declined for some reason or the other. Through an offhand comment, he had found out that a particular retiree had worked with that brute on multiple occasions before, and at one point, as the man had even been employed by the Lord, it was definitely probable that he had inside information on that inscrutably powerful savage.

His name was Zackery. With a long wispy beard and not a hair on his head, he waddled along the central road, looking straight ahead as if the rest of the world didn't matter to him. He was quite thin and small, his skin wrinkled severely by age, his back bent over into a prominent 'C'. He seemed completely like an unsuspecting netizen of the third layer, but if anyone found out that his illustrious past included the deaths of at least 20 individuals that he was responsible for, they would certainly be shocked.

Daneel still couldn't bring himself to believe that this individual had once ratted on a small uprising in the Refinery, made up of like-minded individuals who had hatched a plan to propose that the living condition should be made better if they were supposed to work efficiently. This was what had catapulted him into the service of the Lord, and according to Gerard, many said that he had only come down here as he wanted to be a snobby, but wealthy man in a place where the rest were poor.

He was in charge of checking a few parts of the tower now and then, but it was mostly just a placeholder role. As he reached his home that was the same as all the others, Daneel ducked away from the road as the man looked around before entering.

He waited a minute until after the man disappeared inside to go forward. With a quick knock on the door, he ran to the side and jumped over the wooden fence surrounding the house. Crouching, he took silent steps toward the back where a small backyard was present, and by the time he heard the front door open, he had entered the house through the one at the back.

He had been ready to break through if it was close, but luckily, he hadn't had the need to draw attention to himself. This meant that he would be able to carry out the most optimal plan, so after hiding himself in the small room in whose counterpart he had taken up residence, he waited for the perfect opportunity.

It arrived a few minutes later. It wasn't easy to stay still; after all, he wasn't a veteran thief used to such high-stakes situations, so he couldn't stop himself from sweating so profusely that his clothes were drenched in merely a few moments. His heart was thundering in his chest, and at one point, it was so loud that he was sure that the old man would hear it find the intruder in his house.

Thankfully, no such thing happened. He kept hearing sounds from the rest of the house. He heard a plate being set on a table, a knife and fork being used to cut something, a glass from which something was drunk, and then, finally, footsteps that were in his general direction.

Even though he knew that the old man was heading to bed, the slight panic that he was going to be found out put him on edge. With adrenaline coursing through his veins, it seemed to take a long moment for the house to fall completely silent, and when it did, he tiptoed out of his waiting area and made his way to the main bedroom.

One of the floorboards creaked on the way and he froze, waiting for the tell-tale signs of the old man waking up. When all he heard after a minute was a shuffling sound made when someone turned on their bed, he breathed a sigh of relief and continued.

He was wearing clothes he had taken from Gerard. Although they didn't fit perfectly, they served their purpose well enough. They were indistinguishable from the drab robes worn by the workers of the Refinery, so the hope was that after this encounter, his target would be none the wiser about who he was.

Holding his breath, he used one finger to slowly open the door…

… and came face-to-face with a knife flying right at his forehead.

'System, help!'

His first instinct was to rely on his companion. He had been able to gauge that even if he ducked, the chances that he would be impaled were high, so he hadn't hesitated from asking for aid.

Everything happened in a blur. He didn't even hear the system's response properly; all he felt was his body moving at a speed that it was definitely not capable of, right now, and in just an instant, he had leaped into the air in the direction of the inhabitant of the room after successfully dodging the attack.

Daneel saw now that the baggy robes had been hiding a sinewy body with not an ounce of fat. Even his abdomen was so pronounced that it looked as if it belonged to someone half his age, and as a hand closed around his throat, he found a snarling face with none of the wise patience of old age that he had seen on the road outside.

'Make him faint!'

If he hadn't taken the precaution of covering his face with tar, he would definitely have been regretting this entire operation by now. His other hand moved like a snake jumping at its prey, and the punch knocked the man out cold.

A few minutes later, after checking to ensure that the ropes around his hands and legs were tight, Daneel roused him by splashing water on his face. Hiding behind the hood that he had added to the robes, he asked the question he had come here to find the answer to.

"Tell me everything you know of Jezara."

Struggling against the bonds, the old man shot Daneel a scornful look. Turning to his side, he spit on the floor and growled, "You're dead. I haven't seen your face before, but I'll find you. You're so dead! You-"

He fell silent when Daneel took out a knife from his pocket.

It was the same one that had come flying at him, deadly sharp with a wooden hilt that was smooth, as if it had been used many times.

"You can't kill me! You'll never be able to escape!"

Seeing the panic that was slowly appearing in the old man's face, Daneel was satisfied, but he wanted a way to speed things up.

'System, any hints from his micro-expressions?'

[Responding to host. Subject glanced at a spot below the dining table after waking up.]

Raising one eyebrow, Daneel moved to his right, where the table was. Through the corner of his eye, he saw the old man's eyes widen more and more with each step he took…and finally, when he reached his destination, Zackery cracked, while Daneel grinned.

"I don't know why you're asking, but I'll tell you! Just take the answer and get out of here! I'll forget you were ever here, I swear! All I know is that he was born in the third layer with the name Jeza! That's all! If you want to find more, you'll have to go there!"

Chapter end