Ester observed the place that he and Eva had just been brought into.
It was a small box like room that seemed roughly the same size as the front room of their driller, but unlike the driller that had numerous signs of it being lived in, this place was bare of everything but a table, three chairs, an orb stuck in the wall, their hover cart and five people.
Of all these things here, the thing that Ester was most concerned about wasn't the pickpocket taking a seat across from them without any pretenses nor was it the one guard accompanying the Sticky fingers, it was the orb in the wall.
Conventionally speaking, the Sticky fingers wasn't that strong as evidenced by how easily Eva had subdued him earlier in the morning, so if the need arose, they should be able to easily subdue the sticky fingers again.
And as for the guard that the Sticky Fingers had besides him? Well Ester only needed to distract him for a few moments for Eva to take the man hostage.
So if he was sitting down without any worries or concerns about what the two of them would be able to do, then either the man besides him was the strongest person on this planet 'Doubtful' or that orb had something to it.
Taking a seat in one of the three chairs, Eva joined him as the sticky fingers waved his hand.
"Leave us Tell."
Tell turned to look at the man with a visibly confused look on his face "You sure?"
"What I'm going to say is supposed to be secret, if you can keep it for me then-"
"I'm good." Interrupted the Sticky Fingers, Tell shook his head while adjusting his respirator. "Just holler if they're trying to kill you."
"Heh." The Sticky Fingers laughed. "If they're trying to kill me, I have a backup plan." His eyes darted towards the orb in the wall all but confirming Ester's suspicions.
Understanding what the Sticky Fingers said, Tell nodded his head albeit reluctantly, exiting the room and closing the door behind him with a clack of the lock.
Staring at the back of Tell's head all the way until the door closed behind him, after a few moments of shared silence interrupted only by the wheezes of the two respirators functioning quietly.
As the silence began to stretch on into awkward silence territory, the sticky fingers eventually interrupted the silence with a cough as he said. "Let me thank you again for killing those enforcers of the Tork Family, Architects know how much more harm they would've done to Ash Town if they continued to live."
Eva glanced at Ester's own eyes before channeling their shared thoughts not the speaker in her mouth. [Why do you keep on saying thank you for killing the Enforcers of the Tork Family? What have they done that you have to thank us for killing them?]
The Pickpocket leaned back into his chair. "Well there are lots of causes, but the main ones are that outside of collecting Taxes of Aether units from the town, they give absolutely zero fucks about Ash town as a whole."
"To be clear here, despite already killing anyone that gets in the way of whatever new whim those Torks" The pickpocket positively spat. "They thought it was a good idea to kill anyone trying to pay someone else's taxes."
'Wow that's crazy.' Widening their eyes at his words that seemed to border, the pickpocket spoke up again.
"Your faces are saying 'Wow that's crazy' or maybe 'If they were doing so much harm to Ash town, why hasn't anyone killed them all yet?', Well to answer the second question that would half be because of the strength that they have and half because of what type of existence stands behind the Tork Family"
"That leads me onto the second thing I wanted to say, a warning" The Sticky Finger's arms crossed.
"You should know by now that the planet has intelligent trash from all kinds of lows and highs." He raised a finger. "In particular, the highs."
"One of the trash from Maginum's noble class?"
"Kind of. It's more accurate to say that one of those nobles themselves was exiled here and is now the leader of the Tork Family which was why no one dared to kill those enforcers, something that you guys did."
"What."
The Pickpocket nodded his head as if he hadn't just dropped a metaphorical bomb onto their heads. "When I heard that one of the Nobles was exiled here from my higherups I was just as shocked as you."
Ester and Eva blinked in unison, locking eyes briefly before Ester spoke up. "...I thought you said you were the leader of the Handsy Weed?"
"That leads very well into the third thing I want to talk about actually." The Pickpocket picked at loose thread. "The Handsy Weed is indeed a gang I lead, but it is also subordinate to another gang that can keep the Tork Family in check."
His eyes locked onto Ester's eyes. "I trust you are familiar with the Carnivorous Flower?"
'Ah those guys.'
Ester's mind briefly fell into the past when the old man was still alive and kicking.
Back then, they were constantly near the old man, pestering him to create this or that for them using obscene amounts of Aether Units and whatever intact medical treasures they could get their hands on to the point that the old man constantly complained to the still young Ester."
Ester was pretty sure that the old man would've slaughtered them for annoying him if not for the fact that the Carnivorous Flower had a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips thanks to the roots that they laid across the trash planet.
Even five years after the old man went on and dusted himself with shotgun pellets, Ester didn't think that they would've strayed from their roots.
If anything, it seemed more likely that the Carnivorous Flower would've laid some more roots.
He nodded his head, confirming the Pickpockets earlier question. "Yeah, I vaguely know about them, it's that information guild right?"
"If you know that it's an information guild, I trust that you know what this is then?" Finishing his words, the man then flipped something through the air, letting Ester catch it without a second thought.
Lowering his hand and peering into what he caught, it appeared to be a purple plate bearing the appearance of a blooming flesh rose on one side and digesting flesh rose on the other.
[An identification tag am I right?] Eva said, having peered over his shoulder to see what Ester had in his right hand.
"Correct" The man said with a nod. "If you want anything from the Carnivorous Flower, all you need to do is show this to any one of its subordinate branches for them to provide the information you want."
The man paused before continuing. "For a price of course."
"That makes sense but..." Ester played with the purple plate, running it over his fingers before tossing it up and catching it. "Why are you giving this to us?"
"That would be because you are both the heirs of the Gravesmith."
Ester and Eva froze at those words.
The silence was defeaning.
But the sound that Ester and Eva both made in the next instant could rival it.
Instantly leaping into action, Eva smashed the orb in the wall with the final metal bolt in her crossbow whilst Ester burst over the table, his blade arm already unsheathed, hungry for the throat of the man in front of it.
And if not for the sudden wave of energy that slammed onto his chest, Ester would've succeeded.
Flying past the man who calmly got up from his seat when Ester burst over the table, the pickpocket adjusted his respirator as Ester collided against the floor, frozen thanks to an uncontrollable shiver of pain and uncomfortableness in his body.
"Come on heir of Gravesmith's teachings, surely you didn't expect that the orb in the wall was actually the real backup plan right?"
Spasming as he felt his insides collectively revolt against him, Ester spoke through gritted teeth. "How... did you... find out..."
The sticky fingers raised an eyebrow through his goggles. "Even if you aren't the heir of the Gravesmith I suppose that strong will of yours is enough for me to be impressed about."
He crouched down to better stare into Ester's eyes. "But to answer your question, it would be because of your hair color, it's widely known that the kid that followed the Gravesmith everywhere had grey hair after all."
"Of course, I wasn't completely sure until you suddenly tried to silence me once I said you were the Gravesmith's heir." The Pickpocket said while removing the hood on Ester's head, revealing the grey hair that he tried to hide. "I recommend dyeing it next time you enter someplace filled with people."
Ester's right arm flashed through the air causing the pickpocket to leap backwards in surprise as the blade left a tear in his sleeve.
"Woah! I guess that's my cue to leave."
Raising his hands in surrender while backing away to the door leading out of the room, just as the man was about to leave, Ester forced words to leave through his teeth once again. "What's... your... name..."
Pausing just as he was about to open the door, the Pickpocket opened his mouth. "Daniel, the names Daniel."
---
Deep underground, Daniel glanced back at the column of monitors depicting a network of dots scattered on a map that continued to have patches of it flicker as it updated the location of all the numerous of dots.
But even among all of these colorful dots that periodically shifted on the map, a singular grey starred dot bordered with purple slowly moved along the map in real time.
Staring at the grey dot, Daniel turned to look at a camera
"Greetings Master, in todays report I bring with me both good news and bad news." Daniel kneeled in front of the unblinking gaze of the camera transmitting the image to some place unknown.
The camera's lens focused and unfocused with a buzz and whiz, the light at the corner of its body blinking a soft crimson red.
Unshaken by the familiar yet still eerie silence, Daniel continued with his head down.
"In the bad news, I regret to tell you master that the enforcers you sent to Ashtown had all been killed by a man and woman, leaving only your great grandson and his confidants alive setting back your plan by a week."
The Camera paused its buzzing as it focused onto Daniel, an invisible pressure pressed down onto his shoulders with mounting strength as he struggled to continue his words.
"To continue the line of bad news, the two who had killed all of your enforcers hadn't been captured and have in fact escapED-!?"
The pressure suddenly leapt up exponentially as Daniel lay as flat as a pancake on the ground, his limbs splayed out awkwardly as he shouted loudly.
"THERE. IS. GOOD. NEWS. STILL. MAS. ter..."
Feeling the pressure that once pressed him against the ground rise, Daniel felt his neck where the sensation of his rapidly beating heart was transmitted into his hands.
Taking in several deep shuddering breaths supported by the respirator, Daniel hurriedly spoke up when a pressure began to appear on his shoulders.
"The Good news... Master... is that we were able to put a tracker onto them so wherever they go, Ashtown's forces are able to hunt them down without problem."
The pressure on his shoulders rose threateningly as the red light above the camera continued to pulse softly, prompting Daniel to speak up hurriedly.
"Before you punish me master! We were able to identify the ones who killed your Enforcers to be the Gravesmith's kid who was thought to have been killed alongside his master when the Smithsonian's attacked him."
The speaker crackled to life in that instant, a heavy baritone and basal voice filling the room with its sound as it struggled to receive the radio waves through the polluted environment.
[I-I-Is wha-aat yoooou say-say tru-true?]
"I swear on my life."
[I-I-I see-see]
The camera lens whirred and hissed as it widened its focus.
[R-raise you-our hand-and]
Daniel closed his eyes in acceptance as he raised his right hand.
*CRACK
The sound of shattered glass echoed from behind Daniel as a black rift in space spewing out purple mist appeared, a sword leaping through the black tear as it sliced through Daniel's pinky and ring fingers, the rip reforming to the sound of crunched tin foil as it crushed the part of the sword still extended through the rip in the air.
Occurring all in the span of a singular second, Daniel belatedly realized what happened as he clutched his hands spurting liquid.
[Y-your punish-unishment fo-for ta-taking to-to long to-o t-tell m-me som-ething l-like this-is]
The camera's whirred as the lens refocused, the dull crimson gaze blinking softly as the uncaring and unfeeling camera lens seemingly stared into his soul.
[K-keep t-the sword-d as-as a remin-minder of y-your fail-failure. D-don't disappoin-point me-e]
The red light signaling its activation blinked off as Daniel kneeled on the floor, seemingly convulsing from the pain of losing two of his fingers.
That was until he started to laugh.
"Hehehe... hahaha... Hahaha. HaHaHa. AHAHAHA!"
It was a laugh filled with the madness of someone who discovered the mountain that was as tall as the stars themselves was nothing more than a mountain that was as tall as the clouds.
They were both difficult to climb, but one was a whole lot more realistic to climb.
Letting his hand fall to the ground, the plastic hand with metal bones collided against the ground as Daniel revealed his real hand hidden within his sleeve, bearing the signs of several stitches and restitches from all the times a blade had cut it apart.
"It seems that the Noble lord of the Tork Family is feeling the aftereffects of age catch up to him if he isn't able to cut a hand properly anymore."
Usually, the Noble lord of the Tork Family would cut a set number of fingers from his hand, sometimes his entire hand itself, but every time without fail, the Noble lord would retrieve his sword before space could reform itself.
It was only as of late that the Noble lord was unable to properly retrieve his sword before space itself crushed the blade.
Picking up the blade and revealing its end that seemed to have been shattered beyond repair, Daniel took off his respirator mask, revealing a pair of small tusks poking out from the corners of his lips.
He bit into the blade
---
4 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER WAS EXECUTED
+++
Tree that didn't save their Sh*t and had to rewrite the already completed chapter
[Rewrite]