Author's Note: Hello, everyone. I'm back with another update for this fanfiction. Now, we are going to go over an important element in most Assassin's Creed games. It's a short saga that will be covered in a few chapters.

Hope you all enjoy it. Any and all comments are welcome.

(Raymus' POV)

The morning after my passionate night with Leone, she told me that she enjoyed it and would like another go at it some time in the future. I admit, I actually liked the idea. But for now, we had a full day ahead.

I greeted Tatsumi in the training yard before practicing assassination skills together. He's gotten a lot better at hiding in the shrubbery and awaiting his target. Unfortunately for him, he was no match for my Eagle Vision.

Our session was interrupted by Akame, who called for us on behalf of Najenda for an emergency meeting. Tatsumi and I packed up our equipment and followed Akame to the meeting room. Everyone else joined in after us. Leone sent a wink my way before being the first to speak.

"Sup, boss. Got a new job for us?" Leone asked before noticing the concerned expression on Najenda's face. The Night Raid leader crossed her hands together and leaned her face above them in deep thought. "Uh, is something wrong?"

"I'm not sure." Najenda answered sullenly. "You see, I just got another message… from the Pariah."

I wasn't alone in my surprise. Everyone here knew that strange alias. The Pariah was the mysterious ally who summoned me to the imperial nation while also sending Night Raid my way. This was the first time we've heard from the Pariah since our alliance was first formed.

"The Pariah?" Bulat asked. "How do you know?"

Najenda reached her flesh hand down and picked something up from right next to where she was sitting. She pulled up a piece of paper with small bits of tape on each edge. "When I woke up, I found this note taped to my window. It has the Pariah's signature all right. Read it aloud."

Sheele took the paper, adjusted her glasses, and read it out loud and clearly for us to hear.

"Night Raid and Assassins. I am pleased to learn that you have finally made your alliance. Now, I have something important to tell you. I have identified another Templar which you need to take care of as soon as possible. His name is Vita, and he's a wealthy collector of rare antiques and relics for the Empire. While some of his purchases are legit, many of them have been taken by underhanded means. Vita has a section of the police garrison in his pocket, and he pays them to fake raids to other people's houses and confiscate their rarest items. If the rightful owners protest, they are immediately arrested and sentenced to death. Vita cannot be allowed to get away with this injustice. For the sake of the nation and its people, you must kill him."

Once Sheele had finished her letter, she looked around to see our shared expressions of confusion.

"How does the Pariah know this kind of stuff?" Lubbock asked. "He knew where we were. He knew how to find Templars. He was even able to sneak a message to the boss while she was asleep. And she's not easy to sneak up on in her sleep. I tried, like, twice."

"Why do you automatically assume the Pariah's a he?" Mine asked. "For all you know, it could be a girl. Sheesh, get a clue."

"We can look into the Pariah later." Najenda said. "Leone, you spend more time in the Capital than the rest of us. Have you ever heard of a collector named Vita?"

Leone nodded. "He's definitely a collector. Keeps a lot of strange knick-knacks to himself. I have heard rumors that he's been stealing some of that stuff, but I never knew for sure. But one thing's certain: getting to him isn't going to be easy. He lives in a mansion the size of a fortress and it has just as many guards."

"Your call, boss." Bulat said looking over at Najenda.

She contemplated roughly before making up her mind. "So far, the Pariah hasn't steered us wrong. And there's no way to find out what their agenda is without seeing where this is going. So for now, let's look into this job. Raymus, Tatsumi, since this is allegedly a Templar-related case, I want you two on the case. Take Lubbock with you for backup."

"What? Not one girl?" Lubbock asked before getting a serious look from his boss. "All right."

Vita's estate was located at a high hilltop just on the outskirts of the capital city. Leone wasn't kidding. The mansion itself was much bigger than any house that I've ever seen. Tatsumi and I watched from a tree branch hiding behind a bunch of leaves.

"That's a big house." I said before cracking a smile. "Do you think he might be compensating for something?"

Tatsumi laughed a little. "Okay. That's pretty good."

Immediately after, Lubbock joined us from his surveillance patrol. He sighed before looking at us. "It's not looking good. I checked the entire mansion, and there's no way to get to the target without first dealing with the small army of guards in our way."

"Guards never bothered us before." Tatsumi reminded.

"Yes, but this time, it's different." Lubbock replied. "Vita's room is at the very center of the mansion surrounded by three layers of guards. If we fight at least one of them, Vita will be alerted and forced to retreat. I suspect he might have a secret tunnel somewhere in there, and if we fight one of those teams of guards, Vita will disappear and we're likely to lose him forever. Our only chance is to engage the last team and dispose of them quickly so we can catch Vita before he escapes."

"We can't just go around them?" I asked.

"No chance. They have all areas covered. Our only options are either a full-frontal assault or find a way to get the guards to leave their posts."

I laid back on the tree I sat on and thought hard about this. "Can't take the direct route. Can't sneak through. Our only option is to get the guards to leave their posts, but how?" The problem echoed in my mind while I pondered a way out of this mess. Just then, something caught my eye.

One of the side doors of the mansion opened up and three guards walked out. Two of them were dragging a fourth man by his ankles across the field.

"What's that?" I asked pointing my comrades' direction to it. "I think that man is alive."

"He certainly doesn't dress like he belongs there." Lubbock said observing the man being dragged away. He was wearing a brown trench coat that matched the dirt on his face. He wore a small, worn-out cap on top of his messy, short, black hair.

"If he's alive, then we have to help him." Tatsumi said readying his sword.

We followed the three guards as they dragged the dirty man to a nearby lake. Once they stopped, they grabbed the man's head and forced it underneath the water. The captive man suddenly woke up flailing his arms and legs around wildly, but the guards kept him pinned. After a few moments, the guards raised the man's head up. His face was mostly cleaned, but still had some traces of dirt on it.

The leading guard snickered and approached the dirty man. "Filthy street rat. Did you really think you can just steal from Vita and get away with it?"

"Would you be surprised if I said yes?" the dirty man asked with an arrogant smile. That smile was then knocked off by a metal kick to his face.

The guard kicked his stomach three more times before grinding his foot on his face. "Where's that smart mouth now?"

"Probably in prison where I should be." The dirty man said. "Sure, prison isn't normally the place I'd want to be, but I hear the male prisoners get free treatment from their female captors. That sounds like it's worth a visit. You know, before I escape."

"You're not going to prison, bastard." The guard said. "You're going to get cleaned up right now, even if it drowns you. Finish him, boys!"

The two guards dunked the man's head again while their leader laughed. Now, it was time to make our move. Lubbock used his Teigu to slice the leading guard into a dozen chunks. At the same time, Tatsumi and I cut down the remaining two guards with our hidden blades. After all three guards were dead, we pulled their victim out of the water and let him cough out his breath.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Well, you know, I'd like to be pleasured by hot ladies, but thanks anyway." The dirty man said.

"Man after my own heart." Lubbock said. "Who are you? And why were those guys trying to kill you?"

"Right. I suppose you earned that much. My name is Rob. And those guys were trying to kill me a little because I tried to steal from their boss."

"You actually thought you can just get away with trying to steal from someone like Vita?" Lubbock asked.

"Well, I am the leader of a thieves guild after all."

Rob's words caught the three of us completely by surprise. "Leader? Thieves guild?" We then nearly broke out into a fit of laughter that we were trying to hold back.

"That's not quite the reaction I expected." Rob said.

"Sorry." I apologized holding back my laughter. "It's just… hard to believe. The hobo-looking man who was nearly drowned is the leader of a band of thieves."

Rob gave a soft chuckle. "Well, I can see how you might think that. Honestly, times are hard. Seeing how you saved my life, how's about I take you to my guild. I guarantee you'll be welcome."

"Appreciate the offer," Lubbock said, "But we can't. We're trying to figure out how to break into Vita's place."

"Oh. You're trying to pull of a heist too?"

"Something like that." Tatsumi answered.

"Well, maybe we can help each other." Rob suggested. "I managed to get pretty far in the mansion. Perhaps if we put our heads together, we can find a way to take his most precious exhibits. What do you say?"

The idea did sound enticing. I exchanged interested looks with Tatsumi and Lubbock.

"It may be useful." I said. "All right, Rob. Take us to your place."

Rob immediately lead us to one of the dirtiest blocks in the city. He then brought us to a dark, narrow alleyway which had a gray door on the right wall. With a few knocks, the door opened and he beckoned us to join him inside.

Rob brought the three of us down a flight of stairs before we finally saw some light brightening up the entire room. It looked like a tavern with round tables, a bar, and even a chalkboard. Several people mingled around, but stopped when they all saw Rob come in with us.

They smiled and raised their mugs. "ROB!" They then chugged their drinks all down their throats.

"I'm back, everyone!" Rob announced proudly as he approached the bar. He sat down at an empty seat while Tatsumi, Lubbock, and I sat in other seats. He greeted a woman who was a little overweight, but was still very pretty with her long, blonde hair tied into a ponytail and her white dress with a brown apron. "Hey, Stella. How's my favorite big sister?"

The bartender girl that he called his sister chuckled. "Fair, all things considered. So, I see you're back from that Vita heist. Did you pull it off?"

"Well… not exactly." Rob admitted unsure. "I may have… gotten caught and nearly drowned. Thankfully, these three men saved my life." He pointed at us.

Stella dropped her smile and sighed. "Bro, I told you it was too dangerous."

"Oh, it wasn't so bad." Rob said. "Anyways, thanks to these three, I feel my next try will get us exactly what we need."

"Next try?" Stella asked. "Rob, you need to stop. I worry about you."

"Uh, excuse me," Tatsumi said, "But what exactly is going on here? I get that you'd make a lot of money with something from Vita, but…"

"It's not the money we want." Rob said. He reached over the bar counter and grabbed a framed photograph. "It's what it can get us."

Lubbock, Tatsumi, and I leaned ourselves over. Like my friends, I took a good look at the picture. There were three people there happy in front of this very bar. The one in the middle was Rob, only cleaner, nicer, and wearing a black bowler hat. There was also a very large, muscular man with a bald head, a gray beard, iron straps over his chest and shoulders, and an iron club hung behind his head. The last person was a beautiful, blonde woman wearing a sexy, sparkling, red dress and fishnet stockings over her shapely legs.

"Is that you?" I asked Rob placing my finger at the man at the center.

"Yep. I used to wear a bowler hat. The big guy is Mammot, the leader of the Mercenary Army as well as its strongest member. And the lovely lady is Violet, the head of the Courtesan Club."

"Whoa. She's a real babe." Lubbock said with a perverted smile on his face. "And you said she runs a club full of courtesans? Sign me up."

"Focus, you moron." Tatsumi and I said at once with an annoyed look.

Rob chuckled. "Don't worry about it. Violet gets that a lot. She, Mammot, and I were once in a great alliance called the Capital Underground. We were in control of basically the entire crime rate in this city."

"You guys are criminals?" Tatsumi asked. "But you seem friendly."

"Tatsumi, remember who we are." I reminded him.

"True, we did lend a hand at crime, but we were also responsible for making sure the criminal underworld didn't go too far." Rob said. "No innocent person was hurt. No lives were ruined. We basically did what we thought was best for us and all the public got were minor annoyances. It was the perfect system."

"Well, what happened?" Lubbock asked.

Rob lowered his head dropping his smile. "What always happens. The Empire intervened. They manipulated our businesses to further suit their needs. They put the Mercenary Army and the Courtesan Club into a huge debt. Mammot and Violet were disposed of and imprisoned by the one who now has a tight grip over both groups: a banker named Silvia. If I can get into Vita's mansion and manage to fence one thing from his private collection, I can pay back the debt and finally free my friends."

Stella looked sympathetically at her brother. She rested her hand on his shoulder and kept him up. "Rob, I've heard rumors about Silvia. You know she manipulated both groups into being in debt. There's no way she's just going to let them go."

"I know," Rob said, "But I have to try. Mammot and Violet… They're my friends."

I turned my attention to the picture that Rob was admiring. I observed the pure happiness shared between the three before feeling bad for them. A decision came to my head and I turned to my comrades, who nodded in understanding.

"Okay, Rob. We'll help you break into the mansion." I assured. "But first, we're going to save your friends."

"Huh?" Rob asked. "But the debt…"

"Screw the debt." Lubbock said. "This Silvia woman isn't just going to give up her keys to the criminal underworld. And sooner or later, she's going to have you taken out too. So what we're going to do is save your friends, one at a time. Then, we can all work together to break into Vita's mansion."

"That's sweet of you," Stella said, "But what makes you think that Silvia's just going to let us go when you ask her to?"

I chuckled at the sound of that. It was an amusing question, so I made my point clear. "You trusted us with your secret, so we'll trust you with ours. You see, we're not thieves. We're assassins." I revealed my hidden blade which the siblings were surprised to see. "What the hell makes you think that we're going to be asking?"