{Narrator POV}
Once again corvo makes his way back through the distillery district.
Now that Emily is all rescued and safe, he can take his time in collecting all the runes and bone charms in the area as he kills his targets.
He dosent head straight for the golden cat though, taking a detour into doctor Galvanis private residence.
Walking into the front entrance, corvos eyes scan the room. His gaze meeting and coming across a clearly expensive room with a lot of the wealth out in the open to be displayed.
But probably knowing that this building would be prone to robbing hazards, guards walk up and down through the first floor to 'guard' against any intruders abd thieves.
Seeing them corvo pulls out his blade… but hesitates for a moment before sheathing it, making a decision.
'Ive killed enough for today. These people are an obstacle, but they aren't in my way.'
He Decides to spare those in front of him. Perhaps the decision may seem hypocritical with how he took out a big group of guards just 20 minutes earlier. But with more death/more corpses, the plague is just given a bigger conduit to grow and spread more freely.
So he see it as an investment.
Corvo dosent know if he will stay here after the 'story' ends. But if he does he dosent want to stay in a kingdom full of rats, corrupt nobles and a place where all the civilians die out so easily every single day.
He wants a place where he can meet people, have friends and enjoy life, to thrive in essentially. Not to just survive, as that's not truely living.
And although the 'Luke' who isn't used to this world and the differing laws and culture brought away by it is dissipating, already having become 'corvo', a man who thrives in this sort of environment where whoever has the strongest fist is right. Having already lived in it. Though not even he enjoyed the constant violence and the 'freedom' brought by it due to being strong, the reason he became almost soft after coming to Dunwall.
Anyway since he has more strength now, he has enough strength to outright avoid some obstacles.
Though enough of corvos future plans for now…
A few blinks take him all the way to the second floor of the building. Seeing a safe at the end of the dinning room,he quickly goes over, pushing in the code and opening it.
Realisation dawns on him That he might have spent to much time gaming after having the Code memoried from the game.
But he pushes the now uselsss thought away, eagerly looking inside the safe.
….. only to find a single coin pouch, not the gold bars he was expecting.
'Great.'
Though the amount tucked in there is a whopping 500 coins, but what it could have been disappointed him greatly.
Going up another floor with a heavier heart corvo sees one of the guards standing with his back turned towards him.
Capitalising on the opportunity, corvo blinking to behind him before choking the guy to unconsciousness.
And then loading up a sleeping dart, he shoots his cross bow at the other guard in the next room.
Now final where he needs to be, he grabs tbe audio file as well as the rune inside the secret room hidden behind the bookshelves.
'That's four runes now.'
Taking the key from the unconscious guard, he uses it to open the second Belcony door next to him.
Blinking out across the street, he heads back to the bottle street gangs territory, as much as he dosent like the gang and as paranoid as they make him.
But out of knowhere Corvo is suddenly ambushed, a bolt digging into his shoulder.
His jump to another building is also cut short by the shot, causing him fall off and hit the ground, hard.
"Argh… fucking whalers."
He shouts out loud glaring at the people in mask in front of him, already shooting more bolts at him.
With a timely blink he appears behind one of them, running his blade through the assassins neck before he disappear from his arms… dead.
The others didn't react to the death of their companion but came shooting bolts and swinging swords at him.
Corvo slows time down, helping him dodge the group of bolts heading his way as well as the swords.
After getting a feeling for the power, he isn't slowed down like before, being able to maintain his usual speed and making it easy to blitz around, slicing the throats if the assassins in a few moments.
Only after dispatching all of them is he given a chance to determine how bad his wounds are. Pierced in multiple spots by crossbow bolts and a dislocated/potentially broken shoulder.
'Fucks sake.'
He groans in annoyance as he pulls some crossbow bolts from his body causing blood to leak out, enough to stain his clothes.
Apparently having witnessed the fight, griff walks out of the place he was once trapped inside off holding a bunch of medical supplies.
"Are you alright, sir? I saw you get shot abd fall off the building, though I'm shocked by humour survival I brought some bandages for you."
Corvo just gives him a nod though before grabbing them and walking off.
The one or two cross bow bolts managed to penetrate where his body wasn't protected properly so they went quite deep, for such a wound bandages alone isn't enough.
A couple gang members led him into bottle street saying their boss wanted to talk, so corvo followed. But as he saw a fire he quickly walked up to it anf unsheathed his sword.
This alerted the gang members around him, but weirdly stare at him watching the masked terror resting his blade onto the fire as if he is trying to cook it.
They don't say anything though… just watching as he pulls it out when it starts getting burning hot, then lifting up his coat and pressing the blade onto his wounds, creating a sizzling sound and spreading a meaty smell all around.
Some of them cringe at the sight, others just watch in fascination apparently finding it interesting.
But after burning the wound closes he pulls out some elixir and pours some in the bandages he brought with him, drinking the rest after wrapping the elixir soaked gauze around the fresh wounds.
The sight of the elixir cause the eyes of the gang member to sparkle with greed, before suppressing it due to the bosses orders.
Corvo obviously ignored all this, knowing that none of them stand a chance in the end.
Finished up with everything, corvo heads over to slack jaw, the boss of the bottle street gang.
Entering this office where he stole all that money from previously, corvo saw a man now behind the desk.
"My men were right. You do look like a man out for murder."
The man, slackjaw, states. Even if the only men corvo saw was left behind… in pieces.
He stands up and circles around the desk to get a better look at corvo wnd standing close to him.
Perhaps for intimidation, perhaps curious of who he really is, but definitely weird.
But corvo stands his ground not knowing if this is some sort of hazing ritual or whatever gangs do.
"Way I figure it, there ain't nobody worth killing 'round here except for those two pendletons over at the golden cat. I'm right, ain't I?
See… slackjaw knows.
Those two are twins. Rich, mean and weird. Worse than most of their ilk too. They been Layin' low there for a while. Not sure why."
The mana expression twists up slightly at the mention of the two aristocratics, though considering his origins as a 'whores son' it is understandable.
"There will be a lot of security there tonight, some sorta event happening this evening. You will have a hard time getting in there.
Though maybe I got a way to take care of the two of them for you. If you do something for me first. Understand?"
Slackjaw proposed a deal between the two of them, holding his hand out for a handshake to agree to the deal.
"Hmm. I suppose I can hear you out first."
Corvos robotic voice makes slackjaw flinch back slightly, though he conceals it with a smile as corvo clasps his hand in turn and shaking it.
The handshake is broken as slackjaw a whole atmosphere turns serious.
"Someone, I don't know who is killing my men, taking my territory, stealing my goods. Might be a fellow going by the name Galvani. I went my best men to investigate.
But he went missing and … well, now I need someone to find what happened to him in turn. So will you help me."
The gang boss asks with seemingly true sincerity, actually caring about his men or at least this one.
"Well. Funnily enough I was just over there and I think I know who your talking about."
"What?! You found him, is he alive?"
Slackjaw is shocked but quickly calms himself.
"No, he's dead. But I found this inside one of those audio players."
Corvo tells slackjaw of his mans demise, pulling an audio file out of his sachet bag and handing it over.
Slack jaw takes it into his hand before plugging it into an audio player on his desk.
….
….
….
"I see,So, Crowley's dead. Too bad. He was one of my best men. Still, you and me had a deal, and Slackjaw never goes back on a deal.
Take this key. It ain't Forthe Golden Cat. No. This key's For The Captain's Chair, a hotel abandoned since the plague gutted this part o'town. Take the stairs to the top. You can use it to get to the roof of the golden cat."
He pauses and raises his arms out, looking awfully proud of himself.
"See that? Slackjaw keeps a bargain, just as good as them men who run the city.
Maybe a little better. You think obout that.
Now… maybe be we can help each other out a again?
I could get rid of the Pendletons for you, quiet-like and without killin' em. But you gotta do something for me in return."
The man puts another deal after the other ok the table, wanting to continue there co operation. But corvo dosent want it.
"No. I don't mind getting my hands dirt."
"I see. Well slack jaw will he right here for when you change your mind."
Corvo gives a small nod, stuffing the key into his pocket before leaving.
But before leaving the bottle street gangs territory corvo grabbed the other bone charm hidden there, as well as the loot he couldn't carry yesterday. But now with bigger storage it's all carried easily.
——
Word count: 1,815
Went a bit of script this chapter so it's shorter. Next chap will finish this mission and perhaps start the next straight away. I will deciding when writing🤷♂️