The woman, who I assumed was Rennac, froze.
She had blond hair and a bowl cut.
She was younger than I'd expected, maybe in her mid-twenties.
How come someone like her did something like this?
The men around her, far shorter than the average man in this world, looked from her face to the tall shadow figure by the stairs.
Their smiles died instantly, and the fear sobered them up.
I didn't speak.
I simply raised one hand and pointed a single finger toward the stairs.
They bolted.
Shoes clattered. Chairs toppled. They shoved each other, scrambling past me, desperate to get away from the cold and dark - to get away from me.
The last one tripped on the bottom step and practically crawled his way up.
They would just have to wait up there while I dealt with this. I assumed they were prostitutes or something like that. But they would have to wait upstairs because I don't think they had the ability to leave.
The recruits I left outside would stop anyone.
No drunk, bartender, or prostitute upstairs could do anything against five armed recruits.
The door slammed shut behind them.
Leaving Rennac alone.
She swallowed loudly. Even that small movement released a puff of white fog into the freezing air. Her velvet jacket had frost creeping across it.
"H-h-hold on," she stammered, taking half a step back. "Whatever - whoever you are, we can talk-"
Huh? She's a wimp?
My gauntlet closed around her throat before she even finished the sentence.
Her eyes bulged as I lifted her effortlessly off the ground. Her boots kicked at empty air, scraping the ice beneath them.
Even if she was basically just a fraud, I had to teach her a lesson.
I had no pity for her. I wouldn't pity a guy, so why would I pity a woman in this world?
Frost spread from my fingers onto her skin, leaving pale spiderwebs along her neck.
She clawed at my wrist.
It was like grabbing stone.
I leaned closer until my black helm was inches from her face.
When I finally spoke, my voice was low, resonating, cold enough to frost the air:
"You dared to strike at my people."
There was only a wheeze and terrified eyes as a response.
"You disrupted my routes… my men… my territory."
She shook her head violently - yes, no, she didn't even know anymore.
I tightened my grip just enough to make her panic spike.
"You intruded upon what is mine," I said, each word slow and deliberate, echoing in the icy basement. "And I do not tolerate such insolence."
Rennac tried to speak, but only a strangled noise came out.
I let her hang there a heartbeat longer, watching the realization dawn in her eyes - she understood. She knew she was completely, unquestionably out of her league. That whatever she had thought about attacking my territory and men was completely wrong.
I lowered her just enough so that she could gasp in air.
Her legs collapsed beneath her when I released my grip, and she fell to her knees, clutching her throat.
She stared up at me with wide, watery eyes.
"Please- please-" she rasped.
I remained still.
A towering shadow.
An executioner deciding whether the blade would fall or not.
Then I spoke again, cold as the frost climbing the walls:
"You have one chance."
She froze.
"Submit to me. Work for me. Bring your entire little empire under my command."
I let the silence stretch before I finished:
"Refuse…"
Shadows rose from the floor like black smoke, coiling upward as the room dimmed further.
"…and I will end you. And everything you cling to."
It was a good line. A big, dramatic, villain-sounding line. And a lie.
But she didn't know that.
Rennac nodded so fast she almost toppled over.
"Yes- yes- I'll work for you- I swear it- I swear-"
I stepped back, letting the darkness thin just enough for her to see the outline of my armored form.
"Good."
I didn't raise my voice. I didn't need to.
"Then from this night forward… you belong to me. Never cross me again. Never question me. And do as you are told."
It bothered me a bit that Rennac didn't even try to fight me.
The idea that the enemy boss confronted her and she didn't do anything didn't sit right.
I mean, if I were in this situation, I'd prepare myself for a situation like this at least somewhat. I wanted her to have a hidden knife or maybe a panicked spell.
Anything to justify the looming, doom-laden entrance I'd just pulled off.
But no.
She folded instantly.
She clutched her throat. Jabbered something. Promises of loyalty and so on.
Kind of pathetic.
Still, results were results, and honestly, what could she, or anyone else, do in her situation? It didn't seem like she was combat competent, and her enemy was basically invincible.
Giving up, or dying, was her only choice.
Once she was done nodding herself half to death and swearing fealty to me, I ordered her to follow me.
I exited the Old Briar Inn the same way I'd entered - silent and cold receding behind me - and the five new recruits straightened the moment they saw me.
When they saw Rennac still alive, a ripple went through them.
"But do not mistake mercy for forgiveness," I told them. "She cost me three men. And another two will never be the same. Vengeance must be done. And none can hide from it."
I lifted my hand.
The goo responded instantly.
Dark matter slid down my fingers, stretching, thinning, hardening - five long lengths forming in my grasp.
Whips. Flexible, glossy. I handed them out one by one.
Their weight surprised the new recruits. No wonder. They were heavy as hell.
Their expressions changed when they realized what I meant.
"You will each strike her ten times," I said calmly. "Ten lashes. One for each life damaged by her greed."
One of them swallowed hard.
"No- wait, wait!" Rennac started.
I raised one hand.
She stopped instantly.
"You live because I allow it," I said. "But debts must be paid. It is consequence."
In truth, it was a severe punishment. One she'd earned. She was nothing but a murderer, so why should I feel guilty giving her her rightful punishment? - Her rightful punishment should actually be rotting in jail, though that wasn't an option here.
I stepped aside.
"Begin."
The first stepped up, one of the women, and her whip cracked.
Rennac cried out, again and again.
The second followed. Then the third.
By the time the green-haired woman, the last of the five, stepped forward, Rennac was sobbing, barely upright. She was only supported by a wall she leaned on, and blood was dripping all over her.
When it was over, I dissolved the whips back into goo, and I absorbed them.
Rennac collapsed to the ground in a pool of her own blood, barely conscious.
I stood in front of her.
"Remember this," I said, sternly. "Every scar. Every breath. You work for me now - not out of fear alone, but because you know what comes from failure."
I stood.
"Clean her up," I ordered the recruits.
No questions. Just nods.
When they were finished and Rennac looked half presentable, we moved.
I led them across the city toward one of our places - well, now my places. The main printing press building, the heart of my little empire. On paper, it was a boring little operation that slowly churned out ledgers, flyers, and permits. Anything that anyone requested from us, which, as of now, was mostly work from the state and the church.
There wouldn't be any legitimate and honest workers there, as it was night, but on the dirtier side of the business, work had already begun.
Gullyman would be there.
The guards at the door stiffened when they saw me.
I entered without slowing.
Gullyman was already there, in his office, hunched over a table covered in documents. He didn't look happy at all.
And when he heard my steps, he looked up and paused.
"…Boss?" he said carefully.
I stopped in front of him, heavy and imposing and entirely impractical for office work.
"The problem has been dealt with," I said. "The unconscious woman was the perpetrator. She and her entire operation now belong to us."
Gullyman's eyebrows shot up.
I continued, gesturing back over my shoulder. "These are new recruits. Use them as you see fit."
His eyes flicked to them and then back to me.
"…All of it?" he asked, slowly.
"All of it."
A long pause.
"Wow, boss," he said. "Then I'll need to-"
"I leave the details to you," I interrupted.
He straightened immediately. "Of course."
Because outwardly, I was a dark lord. A crime boss.
But inwardly? I had no idea what I'd actually just inherited. Maybe a rudimentary grasp of it because of the reports I had read.
Routes. People. Gambling rings. Protection schemes. Who was loyal, who wasn't, who needed bribing, and who needed watching. How much of Rennac's mess was profitable and how much was about to explode in my face the second I wasn't looking.
I resisted the urge to sigh.
That's Gullyman's problem now.
I'd solved the violence part. The scary part.
He could handle the rest.
I turned dramatically as I went to leave.
"Oh, and Gullyman?" I said.
"Yes, boss?"
I pointed at the green-haired woman. "I want her to be in a higher position."
"You got it."
Then I left. Gullyman was already ordering them around.
Good.