11 Chapter 11: Being Sure

At the front gate, a maid came and offered to escort me to her Lord. As I followed along I passed the fountain in the middle of the garden, it had the statue of an eagle in the middle and the thing seemed almost alive as its eyes shone red.

After that uncomfortable experience, I went inside the mansion and the first thing I noticed was the banner on the wall. Something that would catch the eye of anyone who entered. It was a red hawk spreading its wings in a black and green field.

This was Arthur's banner, and also where his new banner name came from 'Redhawk'.

He was more of a snake than a hawk. But the banner rarely represented the people that owned it.

"This way my lady," said the maid as she pointed where we would be walking towards. Damn, that man, he still kept calling me a lady to this day and even his servants did the same. I knew he did this to spite me...

As we went on the third floor, at the end of the corridor. I was guided towards a room with two guards outside. When I got closer I could hear the means of a woman.

"Ah!... Ah!... Ah! Yes!... Fuck me, my King!"

Ah yes the two slave whores he bought, the degenerate already had three kids with three different mothers. Two were slaves and one of the women was a maid.

"Cum inside me my King!" A loud screech followed after that demand.

I heard a grunt and then. "Guards call for Elissa, the cute blond maid real quick... I need her for something."

And there was the degenerate himself. It was almost unbelievable sometimes that a man as successful as him had so much free time.

The maid who had guided me here shifted nervously next to me. "My Lord, Elissa is taking care of the kids."

There was no answer initially and only the sound of some shuffling within the room. After that, the door opened, and out of it came Arthur. He was wearing only a pair of short pants and his surprisingly muscular body was quite a sight.

I always assumed that the tales of him being a Warrior were lies. But it seemed like there might be some truth to those rumors.

But all of those thoughts of him being some Warrior disappeared from my mind once our eyes met. His dark eyes locked into my brown ones and an almost unnoticeable smirk appeared on his face. "Well hello there, my lady. I am truly sorry… for you to have found me in such an embarrassing situation."

I just snorted in annoyance at his lies. "You know everything about everyone so spare me the pleasantries, Arthur."

For a split second I felt a chill go down my spine, as I looked at him, Arthur was still smiling. "I let such a lady like you wait for me outside of my door. That is very rude of me… please come inside, my lady."

No way I was going to his creepy harem room. So I calmly stated. "No thank you. I only need a moment from you."

He went back inside the room and came back out after not even a minute. Now he had put on some clothes and looked presentable, wearing black pants and a baggy aristocratic white shirt.

"Follow me, my lady, let me escort you to my office." He said politely, the polite smile never leaving his face.

As we went to the room closest to the bedroom he just fùcked two women.

"You guys stay outside." He ordered the guards as we entered the new room that seemed like a normal office. Though it seemed a little too modest in comparison to the rest of the wealth displayed in the mansion.

He sat on his chair behind the desk and then gestured to me to sit down too. I reluctantly sat down.

"So tell me," he started the conversation first. "What do you want to talk to me about?"

Heh, now it was time to play this man who thought with his balls and not his brain. Lover everyone else, even Arthur had a weakness.

"I looked into the merchants' deaths recently," even though I started the conversation like that. There was no reaction from him. "Not surprisingly, I have found some suspicious activities that might indicate foul play… on your part."

"Oh?" Arthur raised a questioning brow, seemingly unbothered by this. "Is that so?"

There was an uncomfortable silence between us as neither said anything. Arthur sighed and leaned back on his chair.

sigh* "What are your... so-called accusations?" He asked in a bored manner, looking at his nails.

This vile man truly knew how to annoy someone! I took a deep breath before I exploded at him. "There are accusations that you might have hired assassins to deal with your rivals."

He frowned for a split second, and then his face relaxed. In the end, he just waved off my insinuated threats. "I am sure they are all lies. After all, the Iron Bank has already investigated the problem, and even though the deaths may seem suspicious they were truly accidents."

Yeah, I knew that he and the Iron Bank were as thick as thieves for some reason. They were always backing up and covering for each other. This was all due to after losing my business to Arthur, he started selling ships to the Iron Bank for the best prices, only 130 Gold for medium-sized ships.

"Yeah, but I have been thinking lately." I drew on, trying to make him squirm. "Because someone might be assassinating the merchants. I am planning to put this on the attention of the Sea Lord."

His expressions didn't show anything. But I knew that he was smart enough to know that he would be in big trouble if the Sea Lord, the voted ruler of Braavos, was to get involved in this.

Arthur would be under constant watch if the Sea Lord got involved and the bastard wouldn't be able to do anything. And in case he slipped up, he would be held responsible for his actions.

I had everything planned and used all of the savings to hire thirty Sellswords. They would escort me to the Sea Lord's Palace. When I got out of here, just in case…

Of course, Arthur was undoubtedly smart enough to see what I was insinuating here. There was a way for him to get out of this.

He just needed to bribe me to not talk. That would buy my silence… temporarily. Until I eventually will come back and next time demand more. So let's see, what will your answer be Arthur? You have already lost, all just because you underestimated me!

"Go tell him, I don't care." He shrugged, still acting unbothered by the situation.

Oh, so that was your answer? Well then...

"Excuse me," I got up and turned around, ready to walk away.

"Oh yeah Mora you forgot something," Arthur called out to me, and as I turned around…

Swish!*

Huh? I felt something piercing my neck, and it felt like hot liquid was spewing out. I looked at Arthur and saw the indifferent look on his face. Oh… I get what was happening… I could feel my vision going dark around the edges of my eyes… but before darkness calmed me, I heard some words… from my killer.

"When you search for something, always be sure what it is that you are looking for. That way you won't be led astray." His words felt strange for some reason.

Then I heard footsteps, probably his. The sound stopped and I faintly heard him say something again. "Oh, and I never underestimated you just because you are a woman. That would be foolish, you were ambitious so that also made you dangerous and I always expected for you to bear your fangs at me."

Then I felt him rubbing my hair. "But you were still very useful nonetheless..."

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The Iron Bank isn't an entity that looks at things or gets angry, it isn't one person, no, it is an organization that only cares for their profits. Some people seem to misunderstand that. Sure, some members of the Iron Bank might not like Arthur.

So what? The Iron Bank was after profit, that was the goal of the institution and each of its members. They would be incompetent bankers if they didn't accommodate his business. The Iron Bank didn't become the strongest Bank on Essos by holding petty grudges.