Chapter 8 "Daud"
When I woke up,I found myself yet again in the Void. The familar blue haze enveloped everything as far as the eye could see. I then hear a voice belonging to the only being present here beside me.
"I have to say Naofumi, I am having a great time watching your story unfold." The black-eyed God said to me, to what I replied
"What happened to me? Am I dead?" This questiom just had to be asked, especially now.
"No, you're not dead... And you will meet the second bearer of the Mark very soon."
"I remeber his name... Daud,was it?" I Asked the him, just to be sure.
"Yes, the very same one. He kept tabs on you, but waited for a right time to get you." He said and continued "He has a lot of blood on his hands, mainly noble blood... But why, he might tell you himself. Until next time, Naofumi." And he ended the conversation and disappeared into nothingness. I went unconscious myself shortly after.
I woke up lying in bed. As I opened my eyes, I heard a man wearing a blue coat saying something to someone else present "He's awake. Call the Master."
"Very well." I heard a short reply.
I sit up and groaned and as I did that a notification popped up and it said "The Slave Contract was canceled." 'She must have asked to lift her curse herself after I was taken away... I was right about her in the end.' I also noticed that I lack the Barbarian Armor 'Good riddance. I didn't like the desing of it one bit.' I thought. I then looked around, observing the new surroundings. I think I was still in Melromarc, but in an unknown district. 'I guess it's the location of his hideout. I have to say, I'm impressed'.
Then a man walked into my room. He was wearing a red coat, dark brown gloves that were covering the forearms. Underneath his coat was a simple white shirt. He was also wearing light brown pants and slightly lighter boots that were reaching knees. He had brown hair, and on the right side of his face there was a vertical scar, reaching from his lower forehead down to his neck. He cleared his throat, as to capture my attention.
"I know a great deal, Hero of the Shield. I recognise the Mark on your hand. A gift from your friend, the one who talks to you in the dark. Talks to you when you visit his Shrines. I have visted those shrines too." And as he ended this sentence, he sat down on the chair that was present in my room.
"Let me guess, you're Daud?" I asked him
"In the flesh." He answered shortly."I Watched you for some time now, but only recently could do anything to meet you in person. As you may know, being discreet is vital in my line of work. Your rune is here with you don't worry. Alomg with everything you had in your bag." 'Oh yes, he's an Assassin for hire. How could I forget?' I thought he ended that.
"Tell me, why did you have to kidnap me then?" I inquired
"Because if you had stayed, the King would call you a Practicener of Black Magic and would make that duel inept. All that so that your demi-human companion, Raphtalia was it?, would be taken from you." What he said actally made sense. 'This country has always been against me.'
"What will hapen next?" I asked him after a minute of thought.
"We have faked your death. As you may noticed, you lack your amor. In about 2 minutes of so, your former armor will be found covered in blood, cape tattered. Because from our reputation as Assasins for hire, you'll be presumed dead. Entire kingdom will be at Joy because, and I qoute: "The Criminal Shield Hero is Dead!". And now, you are a Dead man walking. Almost everyone will think you are dead." He then gestured at a pile of clothing "Your uniform if you please. From now on, you are a part of Whalers." He ended.
"The what?" I asked clearly confused.
"Oh, I've forgotten that you were kept in the dark by this kingdom regarding many things... For years I'd held together a shadowy band of ex-mercenaries, street kids, and refugees through discipline and a bit of black magic." He explained "We will do any thing for coin, but this I do for free. Consider it a favor."
"And let me guess, when the time is just, you will cash in that favor." I replied.
"Maybe..." He said indiffrently "I also used my black magic to slightly alter your shield. Now you can place it on your back and cover it with your cape... Or a cloak for this matter." He then got up from his chair and said as he was leaving "I expect you on our main training grounds in 5 minutes."
'I don't know if I can trust him, but I think I don't have much choice. He was also marked by the Outsider, so I guess I can trust him.. At least for now.' I got up from my bed and grabbed the coat that was folded on top of the rest. It was the same one Daud was wearing, but it was in grey color. I put it all of the clothing on and then I noticed a simple mask. It even bare some resemblance to a human skull that had it's jaws apart. I put it on and rearranged the belts that were forcing it in place. I then opened the interface of my shield and used the command "Change placement of the Shield. Current placement: Right forearm." I clicked the Option "Back" and the Shield reappeard on the back after disapering.
'There, the problem of the Shield was just solved.' I thought that and grabbed a simple short grey cloak an put it on. I then left the room.
I asked for direction to the Training Grounds, to which one of the Whalers pointed me towards a hallway and said "Go throught there and turn left after you exit." to what I just nodded and proceeded to move.
I found myself in an open-aired space with numerous training dummies scattered about. Numerous Assasins were here too, all of them training either the art of sword fighting or using the dummies as punching bags to practice their martial arts. Furthest from me, I saw some of them using some weird miniature crossbow mounted on their wrist. I noticed Daud standing in the middle of this area.
"I see you made your way here." Daud said as I walked in "Here, catch." He added as I approched him throwing me a Rune. I catched it.
"There are three powers inbuded within it. First is Summon Assassin. Pretty self-explanatory. You summon one of my Associates to fight on your command. Aiming at a person and summoning them will make them prioritise killing them above anything else. Second one is Pull. Also straight-foward. You pull objects towards you, and it works on humans too. But if you use it on humans you instead lift them and lock them mid-air." He then cleared his throat and continued "The Last one is a passive ability called Blink Assault. Whenever you exit Blink in front of a person you send a powerful kick into their abdomen sending them flying several feet backwards." He gestured at one of the dummies "Here, come try this out."
'Well, he got me interested with that last one. I'd like to see it in action myself.' I thought as I nodded and stood in front of one dummy. I clenched my fist, causing time to stop. After that, I aimed at a dummy and casted the power. As I exited, the mentioned Ability triggered, causing my right leg to kick forwards. The dummy send out a wood breaking noise and broke in half.
"Good." Daud commented."Now go practise some takedown techiques with other Novices."
I nodded and approched one group of Assassins that were also wearing Grey jackets.
"Can I join you?" I asked them.
"Yeah, go on ahead." I heard a muffled reply coming from one of them.
And with that, my first day of training as the Whaler has began.
It was now evening, one hour after the training had end. During it, I learned how to succesfully parry the opponent's attack and punch him in the throat. As he's stunned I reach out and forcefully choke him unconscious. The second one is from air; I can either use the terrain or the Agility to get myself above the enemy. I then fall on him, quickly grab his head by his temples and bang the back of his head on whatever surface is under us.
'Those are all non-lethal options. My shields unables me to carry out the lethal ones, as I cannot grab a sword.' I thought lying on my bed 'I wonder why did he pulled me out of this. What is his motive?' After that I went to sleep.
A.N: I hope I did clear some of the doubts that appeared from the last chapter. The next one will be an intermission focusing on the aftermatch of his faked death. The one after that... I don't know yet. I may focus on Raphtalia's feelings about it as well.