‘BANG’

“WHERE IS MY MONEY?!” A man roared, and everyone in the room shuddered.

There were seven people present. One fat balding man in fashionable suit, who just knocked a wooden table. Two men behind his back, who held makeshift wooden clubs. And four men who shivered in front of them. All four were wearing simple pieces of armor and gambesons, and held onto their sheathed swords.

One of the scared men tried retorting in a meek voice: “But we paid you the last week!”. In response, the fat man fleered: “You did. Did pay a quarter of your debt. Lord was very disappointed, you see? So, if you’d be so kind… Pay everything.”.

The extorted man shuddered as shivers ran down his spine and cold sweat ran down his face.

“E-every-thing…?” He stuttered in shock.

“Everything.” The fat man repeated after him, in voice full of feigned kindness, with the smile as false as was his voice.

The scared man stepped forward, despite dreadful gazes of two armed men at the room’s door.

“You… Do you even have an idea?! Please, for the love of God! You know there were no monsters in the forest! You know we are sitting with barely any work! Please! Give us some time!” He pleaded. Tears streamed from his eyes as his voice faltered.

“He-he, sorry, ‘friend’. Not my problem!” The fat man barked and gazed at the people in front of him. His gaze was full of disdain, full of indifference.

“I swear! W-we swear, we w-will return everything! Just…! Just give us some time!”

“Swear?” The fat man sneered, and his lackeys laughed in response. “Your swears don’t cost a broken copper!” Then, all three of them laughed.

The scared man could only clench his teeth, suppressing the indignation.

When the loan sharks were done mocking, the fat man spoke again: “Listen here, you buckets of s*it, either you pay everything. Or we strip you naked and throw you outside. Maybe the folks underground will help you~…”

“This…! THIS IS UNREASONABLE! WE WILL…!” But the scared man was cut off.

“Will what~? Go complain to the guards~?

Hey, lads! Did you hear this? Those idiots want to cooomplaaain~!” The two men behind the fat man’s back laughed even louder, with even more ridicule.

The fat man took a slip of parchment from his pocket, and waved it in front of him: “See this? Go, complain to everyone you want. To the king himself! Ha-ha-ha! Y-you, do you t-thi-hi-hink somebody would help you~? HA-HA-HA!!! ALL FAIR, AND YOU KNEW WHAT YOU WERE SIGNING!!!” The fat man roared in arrogant triumph. The slip contained everything.

They took the loan. And now they refused to pay it. Ledgers confirm, the slip confirms, the judge shall confirm too.

The four men’s faces lost the remaining color. They knew it too, it was the dead end.

“But… I am very, very generous. If you lick my boots, I ‘may’ give you a day more to sell your stuff for as much as you can~. Some say adventurers hoard all sorts of valuable junk~. He-he-he!” With this the fat man put forth his leg.

“See you later~.” He sneered for the last time, and the door shut behind him.

The four men stared at the floor, completely lost.

“Manuel… What can we do now…? Where do we go…?” One of them asked the man who was speaking earlier with the loan sharks.

“What can we do…?” Manuel mumbled back.

What could they even do? They were legally in the deepest pit of Avern. Whatever money they gain will be passed on to their lender. If they don’t pay, they really will be stripped naked and thrown outside, to live among the homeless in slums. Eating grass and whatever they find, the worst kinds of it…

But Manuel saw some hope in their despair: “Guys… How about… We just escape…?”.

“Impossible.” Another man shook his head. “They will just… The guards all over the city already know: we are basically like debt slaves at this point… Nobody will let us escape the city walls. They get paid when they're stopping us…”

“Don’t be so pessimistic, Mack.” Another man intervened. But he then dropped his eyes and stared at the floor, unable to say anything else.

“Then… What about the… the catacombs?” Manuel said the last word quietly.

Everyone stared at him. Stared like he was a lunatic.

“No way, man! They say that place is even worse than the slums! The slums! It’s such a s*ithole nobody can run from there!” Mack swung his arm around, and raved about all sorts of nasty rumors that surrounded the former hive of bandits.

“But…” Manuel put his finger to his lips.

‘Can’t we just escape the city through those tunnels~.’ He grinned. The others grinned back…

Four adventurers quietly left the room, heading to a shady alley, hoping that the approaching night and the coming rain shall cover their run…