Once the troops had arrived to secure the store, Raghav and I left the Dhobhi Ghat.
Currently riding through the streets on Raghav's horse, Gati, heading towards the residence of one Markus.
Located in the Lord's district of the New Plied.
A sad attempt at replicating the class and respect of the Lord's district.
"I understand that Mister Markus's name was mentioned in that ledger, but why are we abandoning all other leads to follow this one?"
The wind whistled past my ears as Raghav turned his head to the side to look back at me.
"He approached Eldrain and Shin on Thursday night and offered to be a CI, confidential informant, but we rejected his offer on Friday morning, when he shared with us a letter from another Earthling named Mark. Who appears to be within this city at the moment, planning something drastic for tomorrow, which may or may not include the One Hundred and Fifty One billion metric tons of the purest Mana Stone that An and Eldrain have come across in their lives. Which was extracted from Markus's mine yesterday."
Okay, now I get why that might be important, but who is this Mark, and what does he want with...
"I beg your finest pardon, but did you say One Hundred and Fifty One billion metric tons? How much is that in kg?"
I swear to God, Raghav answered my question in the most unbothered way imaginable, as if it were a totally normal thing to say.
"One Hundred and Fifty One trillion Kilograms."
Whistle
What do I even say to something like that, that is like an entire mountain's worth of Mana Stone? What would someone even do with it? Putting it out in the market in such a bulk quantity would crash the Mana stone Market.
Maybe understanding who Mark is would help me understand what he wants.
"Raghav, who is this Mark? I want to know so I can try and understand what he might be trying to do."
For a moment, Raghav remained silent, and it seemed as if he didn't hear a word I said, so I was about to ask again when I was cut off.
"He is the mastermind behind the plot to frame Galreid, the mastermind, who sent Serna, the progenitor of the Sarp Yoni on Paneria, to attack Marne. He told Markus to stay safe because he is a part of whatever plan he is conducting here tomorrow."
Woah.
This just went a whole lot above my pay grade.
"Given all the details, I can say this with confidence: this whole operation suddenly went way above my pay grade."
"Fear not, it is exactly going as intended. Our main task for now is to question Markus about his involvement. It is no coincidence that his name, or he himself, conveniently comes up in all the wrong places. It may just be his luck that he finds himself at the wrong place at the wrong time."
Raghav's words made sense. If we are looking at the bigger picture, looking into Markus should be our priority, not only because of the ledger but because of Mark.
On our way over, I saw that the operation was still going strong, bringing in more accomplices after interrogating the ones we caught yesterday.
The weather was good, neither rainy nor sunny.
It was cloudy, with a chance of rain.
God, I love the monsoon, especially after the summer we just had.
Forty One Degrees Celsius, was the sun looking to slime someone or what?
Focus!
Can't afford getting distracted again, especially after getting lectured by multiple people.
Mark's existence was unknown to us, but if it is as Raghav states, that Mark was behind the plot to frame Lord Galreid, then that means he has been in Paneria for longer than six years at the bare minimum.
The underworld is not an ancient concept for this world.
Criminals in this world were unorganised opportunists up until Twenty Years Ago.
Coincidentally, that was the exact time Markus started his businesses.
Maybe he had something to do with the underworld since the beginning, and maybe he and Mark have crossed paths before.
Whatever it is, we will get our answers from Markus very soon.
Just as I said, Gati came to a halt in front of building number Twenty Three Thirty Four.
Man, it must be good being rich, his house is a building the size of the one I live in.
"Shin will be joining us soon; he has safely escorted Alu and Palu's family to Eldrain in the City Hall. So for a little while it will be just you and I.
He pointed out, while dismounting Gati.
Not to be left behind, I quickly dismounted Gati as well, only to be reminded of the condition my knee was in.
Yet I did it to the best of my capabilities, before proudly flexing the muscles on my right arm while slapping the upper arm with my left.
"You can count on me; I may only be as strong as a pre-teen, but I can hold my own."
Raghav nodded before walking towards the front door and knocking on it.
"Mister Markus. It is I, Raghav Suryanshi. Are you in there?"
We waited for a few moments before Raghav knocked on it again.
This time, a loud noise came from within the building.
THUD!
Without a moment's notice, Raghav forced the door open and ran inside with me on his tail.
As soon as we reached the stairs, he turned around, grabbed me by the collar and just jumped straight up through the gaps in the staircase straight to the top floor.
Before swiftly yet carefully setting me down and running towards the room on the right.
Shoulder slamming the door off its hinges.
I rushed after him, only to freeze up the moment, my eyes got a glimpse of the state the room was in.
Books were scattered across the table, and the bookshelf toppled over to the side, which was probably the sound we heard downstairs.
Pages stained in red lay a path across the room, taking the shape of a cross.
At the centre of it was the sight that shook me deeply.
Hanging in the middle of the room was a man.
Markus himself with a noose around his neck.
His arms were tied in a way that made it seem like a crucifixion.
All the clothes were ripped off his body except for his underwear.
Very kind of them to leave the man with some dignity in his final moments.
I really wanted to believe that he could still be alive, even barely, but oh boy.
This man was fifty shades of dead right about now.
Who wouldn't be after getting brutally stabbed in the torso the way he did?
Sucks to be him.
Even without a closer examination, I can see a minimum of forty individual stab wounds.
"You were warned."
The silence shattered as Raghav uttered the words, breaking me out of my thoughts as I looked behind the man and lo and behold, the same words were written on the wall with Markus's blood.
"Should we take him down?"
I asked as Raghav looked at me and nodded.
Right then, he stepped forward, pushing me back with his right hand, and I could see a Mana spear in his left hand.
All of it happened so fast for me to register, but I swear, I saw three Mana arrows shatter the front window, headed for each of our necks.
Raghav dodged his spear and pushed me out of the way before throwing the spear out of the window, embedding it in the wall across the street just above the street light.
I fell on my butt as I looked at Raghav staring at the spear across the street, while I turned to look at Markus's corpse, which was slumped on the table, with his hands still tied.
"Duck."
Not wasting any time, I ducked while twisting my torso.
Barely dodging a knife, headed for my neck.
Pushing myself up from the ground using my left hand, I reached up, locking my right arm around the attacker's throat and pulling him over my bent knee and down to the floor.
This time he tried to stab me in the stomach, but I was anticipating that, an amateur move.
Just simply twisting my torso, I let the blade slide past me while I brought my left arm close to my body, locking his forearm in place before grabbing onto his upper arm with my right and pulling it in while I threw my body to the left.
Breaking his arm at the elbow, prompting him to yell out in pain as he rolled around.
I grabbed the knife and stood up to help Raghav.
Only to discover that he was fighting four people at once and absolutely beating the breaks off them.
Unarmed and outnumbered, yet he was still unmatched. If I was in his place, I would use my sword against these men who were using hatchets.
Even in such a situation, Raghav found the time to look at me, and I saw his jaw tighten as within a single moment, he grabbed his sword with his right hand and threw it handle first at my face.
I knew it was not meant to hit my face, so I leaned to the left, letting it glide past, and I heard someone getting hit in the face and the Sword bounce up.
Before turning around and engaging the enemy, I gave Raghav a nod as I saw him reach for his belt with his right arm and singlehandedly unbuckle it in less than a second before slapping one of the men in the jaw with it.
Looks like they will be getting straight belt to ass treatment; I guess I'll hand out some of my own.
Finally turning around, I grabbed the falling sword, and for a moment, I felt as if it would drag me through the floor with how heavy it was.
But then I felt the weight ease on me as I felt two hands grasp my own around the sword and guide me to use it.
Immediately, I brought the sword up to block a downward strike to my left shoulder.
In doing so, I got a good glimpse at the man's face.
More so, his eyes had a light blue glow within them.
No worries, Raghav's got my back. I pushed forward, throwing the man off balance, causing him to blindly thrust his sword forward.
This time I moved to the left, swinging my sword to the right, then spun my sword over my head, bringing it to my left.
Let's see if this works.
Letting go of my sword with my right hand, I moved it to grab the hilt of his sword and pull it towards myself and out of his grip.
Understandably, he tried to pull the sword back, which was when I joined his effort and pushed the sword in his face.
Most likely breaking his nose from the pommel.
His left hand moved to cover his nose, leaving him open for an elbow jab in the sixth rib.
Crunch
Accompanied by a loud and satisfying sound of the bone breaking.
Never knew I had that dawg in me to deal serious damage.
I mean, I am operating at the physical and biological peak of humans compared to Earth, but here on Paneria, I am only at fifty to sixty per cent of the average human performance.
Anyways, I watched the man fall over next to his supposed friend. Logic says I should kick him when he's down and knock him out, but that would not be the morally right decision.
Oh well, if it comes to bite me in the butt later on, so be it.
Taking the man's sword, I turned to look at Raghav, grabbing the open end of his belt with his left hand to tie it around the last man's swinging arm before wrapping his face as well.
To finally turn around and throw the man to the ground over himself.
I thought that would be that, but Raghav did not stop; he pulled his belt back, probably giving the man a skin burn before whipping the belt high up and slamming it back down straight on the man's back.
Being honest, I clenched myself and sucked in an uncomfortable breath through my teeth as I felt the man's pain.
Worst thing about it is that it sounded like a damn gunshot.
He got those Asian Father genes in him.
I heard loud footsteps from outside the window drawing near and prepared myself for the attack.
Raghav, on the other hand, completely ignored the arriving steps and started tying his belt around his waist.
Right then, the figure flipped through the window and revealed itself to be Shin.
He wasted little to no time, looking around at the attackers and then at Markus.
A few carriages came to a halt under the building as dozens of footsteps filled the staircase and corridor, and within minutes, the building was filled with officers from the City Watch.
Chief Palo walked in, leading the unit and took one look at Markus's carcass.
"Oh, no."
Then he shook his head and walked over to Raghav, and I could see the two of them talking about something else.
Shin, meanwhile, was still looking at Markus, and for a moment he smiled wickedly before stopping and walking over to me, placing his elbow on my shoulder.
"I bet you are feeling as if you are Back In London, with the amount of stabbity stab stab going around."
"Eh!"
That was all I could say to him in that moment, before someone called out to us.
"Jacob, Shin."
Shin and I turned to Raghav in unison as he gestured towards the door.
We did as he commanded and regrouped in the corridor.
"I will have to stay behind here to help with the investigation; you two carry out the rest of the investigations, and Shin, take the cloak that is embedded across the street in the Mana spear to An and ask her to look into it and what it could lead us to."
"Alright, we can do that. Anything else you need done?"
Shin said what we were both thinking as Raghav shook his head and extended his left hand towards me, and I reached out, shaking his hand.
"I was asking for my sword, please."
That's embarrassing.
"Oh, sorry."
I then handed him his sword back as Shin and I made our way down the stairs in silence, and once we were out on the street.
Shin looked across the street at the wall and ran forward, casually walking up the wall and grabbing the cloak as the spear dispersed into tiny shards of light, fixing the wall.
When Shin returned, he held the cloak in my face. "Recognise it?"
I had to look hard at it before it clicked in my head.
"That woman who attacked us."
Hmmm
"I guess we will run into her again soon, but for now, let's head back to the City Hall."
The two of us then began our walk towards the City Hall as the Sun reached High Noon.
Leaving us with around Twelve hours before Sunday began, the day Mark's plan will take place.