How to manipulate an elf? The answer was fairly simple at this point.

They were extremely misunderstood creatures in my opinion. As far as I was aware, they weren’t that different from humans, especially in their early years. Until they were twenty or so, they were basically no different from any human except for their ears. Sure, they generally looked a bit better than humans, but that was mostly only a generalization. There were ugly elves, morbidly obese ones and those who couldn’t feed themselves and looked incredibly thin.

And then some lived in the human realm. Most of them were slaves, but some still lived in relative freedom. They didn’t have any rights though and lived mostly in seclusion. If you were to murder them, there would be absolutely no recuperation. Still, some survived in this place against all the odds. So did the girl I scouted out earlier.

She was in her late teens, and luckily I could confirm this because she was born here. Otherwise, she could be very well over two hundred years old. She obviously lived in the slums and survived by either stealing or odd jobs, but she was still incredibly thin, almost emaciated. I only glanced at her as I walked past her with two guards at my side and found a blonde-haired woman. She looked at us with rather lifeless green eyes and didn’t resist at all as some thug slapped her cheeks all of a sudden.

I had no intentions of stepping in between. After all, I paid this thug to do exactly that. Three times, he hit her hard, but she just didn’t resist. This was going to be harder than expected.  

After Luke liquidated the thug, we went back towards our shelter where I tried to come up with anything that would help us. She was almost certainly accustomed to violence at this point. We couldn’t guide her into a certain direction using violence and yet, she needed to get onto the main road just outside the eastern gate. Luke apparently had a plan though and soon handed me a piece of paper after we arrived.

‘Threaten to kill her.’

“Are you sure this is going to help?” I asked doubtfully. He nodded swiftly, but still couldn’t convince me. “She is someone who lived her whole life in the slums. She is familiar with death and the way she acted … no, this won´t work. Hey, Jack, do you have any idea?”

“How should I know? Just give her money and she will do whatever you say.” He said swiftly, simply not bothered to think too deeply about the problem.

“That’s not what the boss wants.” I stated. Giving her money would be too obvious. We needed to stay hidden while doing this.

“I don’t give a damn about her.” Jack said, showing once again how troublesome he perceived Lucinda.

“Watch your tongue.” I said in her defence.

“What? Is she your kid or what?” Jack said and chuckled.

“… I hope you know what you are doing.” I growled threateningly.

“Come on, Felix, help me out with this idiot here. We are doing all the hard work and she profits? She isn’t risking anything and if this goes south, we will be hanged and she gets away.” From their perspective, it may look like it and I was damn sure she wouldn’t regret discarding everyone in this whole room. But she also invested heavily into this endeavour and her whole position would be endangered if we failed. Failure was thus not an option, not for me, nor for Lucinda.

“All nobles are shit, Jack. But they are still on top of the food chain. You got to play their game if you want to climb the ladder as well.” Felix stated and kind of supported my position.

“Then why are you still here? You don’t need money, you don’t need to climb the social ladder.” Jack asked.

“Because I want to blow up shit and Tom is providing all the funds I need. The moment this changes, I´m out.” Each and every one had their own reasons for staying here. But they all had in common that their loyalty was incredibly low.

“Hey! It is great that you present me your non-existent loyalty, but can we please focus on the task at hand?” I asked, trying to shift the conversation away from this dangerous topic.

“Fine, have you tried giving her something she wants?” Felix asked.

“And then wh… Felix, you are a genius.” Naturally, there were things she wanted. Security for example. Nobody liked to get hit because of what you were. She lived in a simple tent, wore ragged clothing and didn’t have much food or water. And this was what we were going to exploit. “I have a great idea. She didn’t resist earlier because she had no reason to. Struggling or not, it would all result in the same. But what if we give her something? Something she desires like food? Pauline, could you give her a loaf of bread or so? And then we steal it again and simply lead her to the main street?”

“So we are betting everything on a loaf of bread?” Asked Jack, slightly doubtful about our plan.

“We could use a baguette if you want.” I said.

“How about croissants?” Jack added.

“Wow, now it´s getting ridiculous.” We didn’t have to spend so much money on a plan like this. A few copper coins should be enough, we didn’t need a sophisticated bun for a starving elf.

“Alright, it´s decided then. I´ll give her the pretzel and you hire someone to steal it again.” Pauline commented.

“Wait-“ I interjected, but Jack jumped in between.

“We have to find a bakery that sells cakes though. They only exist in the noble district.”

“Maybe we could bribe a few guards with cookies?” Felix said, completely ignoring he dug tunnels underneath the walls to circumvent this problem.

“Alright, fuck this shit. We use buns. End of discussion!” I said angrily, hoping to end this nonsensical argument.

“But-“

We were arguing for days and missed our timing. We all were beheaded by Lucinda afterwards, with various bakery products stuffed in our mouths. At least, that’s what an urban legend said.