The whole ordeal continued with me trudging behind Lilith. I honestly thought I was going to do all of the heavy lifting in this quest, as I had been teamed up with a noble lady, whom I thought would be delicate and sensitive.

Boy, how wrong I was…

The whole mission was proceeding faster than expected, but her ruthlessness was surprising.

She simply told me to follow her around, simply saying, "I know a guy that may have some information." I simply nodded and followed her, which was surprising as even with a limp she walked surprisingly fast, soon though we finally got to a place.

It was an inn, but when we got inside I quickly saw what this place actually was, it was a gambling den. A two story building that had the facilities downstairs and seemingly had some rooms and an office on the second floor.

As soon as one of the employees saw her he almost looked as if his soul had escaped his body, he rushed forward and greeted Lilith with respect I had seldom seen before.

"Lady Edeltraud! Welcome, welcome; what can I do for you?"

"Bring me Paulus, now!" She said with a menacing voice that even made me involuntarily place my hand on my sword; her threatening aura was simply overwhelming… 

The employee quickly replied in a terrified voice, "O-of cour-course my lady, I'll be right back." He said as he stumbled and ran away to the second floor, and soon enough a balding fat man with a pencil mustache rushed down and quickly knelt in front of Lilith.

"My lady, how have you been? I hope the goddess has been treating you kindly."

"Spare me from your stupid pleasantries, Paulus."

"Of course, please forgive me, my lady." He said while still kneeling on the floor, his eyes would not even dare look at Lilith, they seem to treat her as if she was a horrible monster or a demon; I honestly felt kinda bad for her, until I remembered what she did to that other man when I met her.

"There is something I want to know, so give me the information."

As soon as he heard what Lilith said he quickly ran to the offices on the second floor and came back with a bunch of papers, which she promptly handed to me, but as I started reading I saw that this was not the information we were looking for. "Miss Edeltraud, this isn't about the ring, these are just records of illegal gambling." I quickly responded.

The face of Lilith contorted in anger as she quickly said, "Stop playing dumb Paulus, you know what information I want, there apparently is an slavery ring in the city, and I want you to tell me who they are."

"But…"

"No buts, Paulus, give me the information now!"

"They will kill me if I say anything my Lady, please!"

"Perhaps I could ask your wife and son then, if that's what you prefer."

I could see tears forming in the poor guy's eyes as he banged his head on the floor and quickly said, "Please, please my lady, don't drag them into this, they have done nothing wrong!"

"Give me what I want, or you won't be the one suffering!" Although it didn't really sound like a threat, I knew she was not actually threatening the man, but rather his family; she truly was a vile person.

Paulus still looked terrified, perhaps this was too much for him to bear, but Lilith quickly sighed and gave him a very strong punch in the gut with the head of her cane, which knocked the air out from him and made him crumble to the floor.

"I have turned a blind eye to this sorry excuse of a gambling den for 6 years, why the fuck would you think I want your records, do you have a rock for a brain!?"

"I'll talk, I'll talk, just please leave my family out of it!"

"Then talk!"

 "I have heard that they meet up at the Marquis LaCroix house at night."

"Is that all?"

"Yes yes, I swear my lady!"

"Well then, expect me to come back if your information is unreliable…" She said as she looked at me and signaled me to follow her.

We started walking and quickly got to a mid-sized estate. She seemed to know the city fairly well; it made me think that she must have traveled through the city a lot.

I honestly was curious about a lot of things, like how people would see her and quickly hide inside their houses or how children would naturally steer clear of her and she would simply keep on walking without minding at all. I also felt this weird feeling, a presence lingering the longer I was with her, there was something weird with her; something sinister…

Regardless, we quickly arrived at the mansion of this Marquis LaCroix, and as soon as she knocked on the gate and a guard came she quickly unsheathed the blade hidden on her cane and immediately stabbed him in the head, without even letting him utter a single word.

"Be a dear and kick open the gate please." She then said with an apathetic voice; I was starting to really dislike Lilith, her cruel ruthlessness was a bit too much for me to bear, but I complied nonetheless.

We got inside the mansion and quickly got to the office, where the marquis was sitting while smoking from his pipe.

"Guards, guards! How dare you force your way into my house… Lady Lilith!?" Quickly, when he noticed it was Lilith, he changed his demeanor completely "Wait, please Lilith, no wait!"

She started to loudly laugh and threw me her cane, and then clumsily stepped forward and punched him in the gut, whilst saying "Tell me were the slaves are…"

"Slaves, what slaves?" He said in a hoarse voice and with difficulty as he truly was injured from the punch; he looked at Lilith with bewildered eyes, but her only response was to punch him again in the gut, which made him drop to the floor, coughing and laying still on the ground, but Lilith quickly started to stomp and kick him, repeatedly asking for the slaves.

"Stop, stop!" He said, but Lilith simply said, "Willing to talk now?"

"They are in the basement, just please stop!" He said in a defeated voice.

She turned to me, and extended her hand, to which I responded by promptly returning her cane and she quickly said, "To the basement then…"

She then stabbed the marquis on the back, instantly killing him. We then went to the basement and found the slaves. 

As we were standing there she turned to me and said, "You were mighty useless to be honest, well, kicked a door down at least… Regardless, I think this is a mission accomplished then." She then, without even sparing a glance to the slaves, started walking away and soon disappeared from my sight as she exited the basement.

With this my mission was finally over, I was finally free from the prying eye of the Church, with a quick and apathetic goodbye from the one they called the Lady of the Gallows...