Chapter 14 Black Powder

The assassin he had assigned to the rescued couple came back as he was reaching the Adventurer's Guild, when Harry was ready to report about the mercenaries and the women he had found. For this reason, he didn't hear the assassin's report until much later, once he and Shizu were back at the hotel.

"A burning village you say?" Harry asked incredulously at the arachnid assassin. That married pair had survived one strike of bad luck only to be homeless at the next. According to the report there had been no survivors, and the pair was going to try to reach another village they knew of after camping for the night. Harry's instructions had been to protect them only until they arrived at the original destination however, so the assassin had left them at that and returned.

"The smoke was dark and toxic, probably the cause of death for most villagers"

"Hmm… think about nothing but that burning village until I count to three, ok? One…" he started as he looked directly into the assassin's eyes "two…" he could see it, the flames devouring a village that was oddly surrounded by walls, it looked more like a military base than anything really, with six watchtowers standing tall around it "three" he said breaking the gaze at the same time he heard a last thought of What was that about? from the assassin. Thanking him, Harry told him to return to his usual, invisible position before frowning pensively at the floor.

The whole scene was quite suspicious; he wasn't sure what to think of it. He decided to send the shadow demons at the lowest bars, since he always got a nice amount of information that way, before he and Shizu went out to meet with Peter's silver group.

Most deemed it weird, that an adamantite team would go out to a bar/restaurant with a silver group so regularly, but Harry felt more at ease learning about this world from them than with the Guild master and the Magician Guild's head of the kingdom. His little mistakes didn't have much repercussion this way and they had been nice enough when they first met in the cemetery.

Going to a new bar none of them had visited before, both teams talked amiably for a long time before something strange began to happen. They had had some beers before changing to water, since they didn't want to get drunk but would like to stay chatting a bit longer. This was a common ritual for them, so Harry was surprised when the silver group started to act as someone heavily intoxicated would, laughing at random, stupid things.

"Hahaha Jameees! hahaha your eyes are blue!"

"…yours too"

"HAHA I KNOW!"

Curiously enough, this only happened after the second glass of water. Harry tuned out the giggles and… well, idiocy of the silver group, giving Shizu a confused look.

"Did the water have something?"

"It was mixed with a substance I don't recognize" she said in her usual deadpan voice, nodding once at him. He raised an eyebrow, wondering why she didn't bother to say anything before dismissing the issue, deciding to talk with her later and focusing on the situation at hand.

So they got spiked drinks. That would explain why only the silver group was affected, both Shizu and himself had immunity against poison. Considering this, Harry had mixed thoughts about how he should react. On one hand, he had a heavily intoxicated group of friends that were laughing and pointing at random things, Woodwonder was already on the floor, his heavy form obstructing partially the entrance, and the other people in the bar were looking at it as if this was normal. Actually, they seemed to be giving odd looks at Shizu and himself, as if they were the ones causing the unnecessary ruckus.

…On the other hand, Harry could abandon them and investigate what the hell had caused this to begin with, but they may get hurt without supervision… ugh, he didn't really have a choice. Placing a muffliato only around him, he ordered the assassins to stay and gather information, two among the commensals, one in the kitchen and one in the storage they were sure to have, the last one with instructions to take a sample of each stored good and bring it back.

"Please forgive my impertinence Hadrian-sama, but that would leave your high person without guards…"

"Shizu is with me, there's no need to worry. I'll retire for the night once I take care of them so nothing should happen" Harry would dump them at the Adventurer's Guild, thinking that may be the safest place for the intoxicated idiots.

"Understood. Please excuse us" they left after bowing, so Harry took down the muffliato and looked at the silver group with resignation. Peter was singing very off-key along with Lukrut, their arms around each other's shoulders as they swayed from side to side with a dumb smile painted on their faces. Woodwonder was still on the floor, mumbling something and laughing as he pointed at the ceiling, while Nynya was telling very bad jokes at an unamused Shizu. Now, the issue was how he was going to take them to the Guild's building without using magic, since even with Shizu's help it as two against four…

Letting out a tired sigh, he took his unfinished glass of water and emptied it in a smaller container he always carried for appearance's sake, since he didn't really need any substance. Having collected his sample, he let the empty glass on the table before standing up

"Take Nynya and Peter, I'll get the other two"

"Understood" much to Harry's chagrin however, the pleiade carried both adventurers, placing them easily over her petite shoulders in a manner one would a sack of potatoes. The rest of the people in the bar were gaping incredulously at her strength and even the intoxicated ones let out surprised gasps at the image. So much for getting out unassumingly.

Mentally shrugging in defeat, he did the same with Lukrut and Woodwonder, the voluminous adventurer letting out a delighted short laugh before screaming "Awesome! Can ya' lift me higher? I wanna touch the ceiling"

"Don't try my patience" was Harry no-nonsense answer before he got out of the bar, Shizu following after him. After that they ran using the roofs of the buildings, since they would have dragged too much attention in the roads, even if the quantity of people was significantly smaller since it was around midnight.

It couldn't have been that long, but Harry let out a relieved sigh nevertheless when they finally arrived at the large building that represented the Guild. They left the unconscious bodies in one of the unused meeting rooms, placing them uncaringly on the hard floor. The inebriated talk was simply terrible, so they had paused on their way here to knock them out before continuing.

Closing the door of the meeting room with a soft click, they went back towards the hotel's room, where Harry questioned

"Why didn't you mention anything about the water?"

"James-san ordered me to act according to the restrictions settled. Detection of toxins was not among the allowed abilities I could show"

That… was right and so very wrong at the same time.

"You cannot show them, correct. But it doesn't mean we can't take advantage of them… what we need to do is use them discretely, to keep our adventurers persona at the same time we use every bit of information in our favor. That's how infiltration works" Harry passed the time telling tales as examples for most part of the night, even going so far as to use illusions to demonstrate his point. Snape and Pettigrew were just a few of the mentioned names he used to explain about infiltration, both in their favor and against them.

By the time the Shadow demons and Assassins came back, the sun was beginning to come out. Harry handed over the contaminated water, and told the assigned assassin to go with Shizu to another room so they could identify if any of those was the source.

Once they leaved, Harry focused on the Shadow Demons, listening attentively to the reports, tidbits of conversations transforming in pieces of a greater puzzle, relating in some way or another even if Harry had yet to understand the whole picture. The last piece was given by Shizu however, when she showed him a small pouch that contained the very same dark powder the married pair had had.

So they had been drug dealers. Harry wondered why he hadn't heard anything about one of the most famous drugs in the Kingdom. Later in the morning, he and Shizu went back to the adventurer's Guild and requested a meeting with the Guild master, were he used the events of the previous night to inquire freely about the poisonous substance.

By the time the reunion came to an end Harry had learned about the extent of the problem, and by Merlin it was huge. Ignored by the higher ups since the users didn't become violent, not even in a 'bad trip' and the ignorance of the villagers that believed it didn't have harmful, secondary effects lead to the massive propagation of the drug.

This was a work of the Eight Fingers, a criminal syndicate writhing about in the darkness of the Kingdom. Sebas had sent a report about them not too long ago, but the information they had was very little to actually understand the magnitude of their secret rule.

Harry sighed and looked up at the sky wondering if he should do something about that before quickly dismissing the idea. Every society had their underworld, so he would just ignore the whole thing for now, until they got more information. He and Shizu were leaving the Guild's building when whispers of a conversation reached him

"He's really handsome!"

"Shhh he'll hear you"

The young woman that had spoken first just giggled in response before sweetly saying "I'm hoping he does"

Harry ignored them and went on his way, by now quite used to the giggles of the ladies and the envious stares of the men. There had even been customers that had been antagonizing towards him due to their crush on Shizu too, those cases were always entertaining.

Two weeks after that, Harry was walking around town disguised as a normal citizen, when he saw a crowd of people jamming up the road in front of him.

The sound coming from them was either vicious cursing or mocking laughter, accompanied by the sound of something striking something else. Cries along the lines of "Someone's going to die" and "Better get the guards" rose up from them.

He was about to change paths when he saw the familiar figure of his butler part the crowd easily, trying to reach the center. He must have wandered farer away than intended, for him to encounter Sebas on town. He was curious about the intent of the Dragonoid however, so he ended up walking towards the crowd, cutting through it effortlessly at the same time he placed a notice-me-not charm on his person.

He stopped once he could see the center of the crowd clearly, were several unkempt-looking men were kicking and stomping on something. Sebas moved on without a single sound, stopping only when he was within arms' reach of the men.

"Fuck you doing, old man?!"

The men stopped to snarl at Sebas, moving to circle him threatenly. Due to this, Harry could now see what exactly they had been kicking around all this time. It looked like a boy. He was curled up on the ground and bleeding from his face, seemingly unconscious after being brutalized for so long, but he still looked like he was breathing.

Sebas had a blank expression on his face as he asked:

"I don't know why you're doing this, but don't you think it's time to stop?"

"Hah?! This punk got his food all over my shirt! How could I let that slide?"

One of the men pointed to a spot on his shirt, judging by the blush and the slight movement they made even when standing it was fairly obvious they were drunk.

"Public safety in this city is quite bad." the butler said calmly before glaring daggers at the leader of the small group "Begone."

"Ah? The fuck you say, old man?"

"I'll say it again - begone."

"Damn geezer!"

The boss-like man flushed red and clenched his fist — and then he collapsed limply to the ground. Sounds of shock came from all around them, including the four remaining men. Harry had seen the punch clearly, but the crowd of humans simply didn't have the capacity.

"Do you still wish to fight?" Sebas quietly said.

His calm and strength cut through the men's intoxication. They backed several steps off and chorused an apology before grabbing the unconscious leader and fleeing. Sebas did not bother watching them however and instead went over to the fallen boy.

The butler seemed to hesitate for a second before kneeling down; touching lightly the immobile boy's back and infused a bit of ki into him. That should be enough to ensure his life at least.

"...Please take this boy to the temple. His ribs might be broken, so please take care when loading him onto a board for transport, and don't shake him too much."

Sebas ordered to a random man before leaving, the crowd moving out of the way with each step the butler took forward.

From where Harry was standing he could see several people following the dragonoid, which stroke him as odd. Had Sebas and Solution run into trouble? They would have reported if that were the case, right?

Just as he was thinking this an oncoming message interrupted him. He quickly placed a muffliato around him, worry grasping his heart as the voice of Solution reached him

"Is that you, Hadrian-sama?"

"Solution… so there's been an emergency" He answered at the same time he began to walk to follow Sebas, if they needed help Harry might as well apparate them to Solution's location.

"Yes."

"What happened?"

There was a small pause, as if Solution was actually hesitating before she answered

"Sebas-sama may have betrayed us."

He paused on his tracks momentarily before forcing himself to continue walking, shock numbing him for a minute before he frowned in confusion

"…that's a heavy accusation, what has caused this line of thought? Do you have proof?"

"Yes. Although, it might not quite count as proof…"

He listened to Solution intently even as he turned around and went on the direction opposing Sebas. While he wanted to follow the butler he figured it would be better for everyone involved if he instead used remote surveillance to check on him, now that he knew what the emergency was about.

Once Solution finished her tale Harry couldn't help but sigh tiredly.

Really Sebas… just what kind of trouble had you caused?

AUTHOR NOTE:

I'm not dead! And I would like to remain that way so please don't kill me. I haven't had the time to continue this fanfic, university and internship just don't let me any free time but this chapter was already written (at least half of it) so I got enough time to finish it.

Hope you liked it; we're already on the fifth novel! How about that? Time sure flies when you're having fun.

For those wondering I don't have writer's block, far from it! I have at least 8 pages in a Word document that focuses solely on ideas for this fanfic. I just don't have time #sadreality

Also, thanks to the readers that had added this story to their communities, either small or big I can't help but feel honored that my story was included and recommended in them.

As always, you're free to do whatever, my suggestion of favs, follows, reviews and kudos remains the same.

See you around!