19 The offer
After seeing the merpeople I could only guess my dragon smell had scared them from attacking my family. Looking for land markers of where I was nearly impossible. Going off where the mountains were in relation to me I can only guess I am in somewhere between Italy and the Byzantine Empire. If this world follows my first world's history Egypt should be under Byzantine rule until 730 ad. Wanting to raid some of the Roman magical archives I need to make a fake pilgrimage to Rome which luckily some English king had set up a route of housing all the way to Rome and if I can find a hostel I can blend in.
Flying for hours I finally found the road which led to Rome. The road was made by Rome and was impeccable unlike the ruins of villas of the Roman Empire which had fallen three hundred years prior. Once I had found an inn I walked in to finding a Frankish Noble wearing tons of jewelry and guarded by a small army. The man was named Boso the 2nd on his pilgrimage to the Vatican. He acted like a pig grabbing the inn maiden inappropriatly. When I was noticed by one of his knight I could only guess he was insulting me. He was speaking the high German that his country men spoke. I could only speak English, Norse and Latin thanks to the three years I had to take Latin in highschool. France only began speaking French when the Frankish King was named Holy Roman Emperor in 800 ad. I spoke to him in Latin only for the knight to look like a fool as he didn't speak it. A priest stepped in to interpret.
The priest introduced himself "Good day, my name is Phinehas. This man is Sir Egbert and he wishes to inquire as to why a heathen is going to rome." I answered "This heathen wishes to be baptized in the Vatican. Praise be to God in the highest." This through the priest for a loop as I was still I had full on braided hair with an axe strapped to my side. I looked like a viking raider while the pilgrims wore tunics and carried swords. The knight spit on the floor and began to insult the Aesir gods. It was a bad attempt to prove that I wasn't Christian. Not getting a response he returned to his table as I sat with the priest.
The priest then began to explain that the noble was traveling to get a blessing from the pope on his ascension to duke. The noble had ordered him and some knights to protect him as he has a younger brother who wishes to claim the Dutchy. While sitting the waitress brought us a stew as we talked. Giving her a couple silver coins I was told I could sleep in the dining room as the other rooms had been bought by the noble. I was going to portal back to my realm but I needed to be close so I could follow the noble to Rome. After we had eaten everyone left to their room and I layer on the bench remaining awake watching movies in my mind palace.
After 8 hours I could hear movement in the upstairs rooms. With my Vampirism my hearing was boosted allowing me to hear the tiptoing of someone. At first I thought that it was someone coming downstairs but the went from one room into another. After a few seconds an iron smell wafted into my nose. Instantly I knew that it was blood and someone had been assassinated. Using my hearing I heard two people whispering unable to understand anything except the word for heathen that the knight had repeated in an attempt to rile me. The voice was also similar to said knight. While listening I deduced that the knight would blame me for the murder. With a quick thought I yelled out "assassino" waking the whole building. I could hear swords being unsheethed as the assassins heart rate increase. Then I could hear fighting break out as i stayed in the dining room. As the fighting continued two men came downstairs. It was the noble and priest, the priest asked "Did you raise the alarm?" I answered with a nod as the priest asked me to stand aside as they were going to hide. The two got to the door as the asshole knight came down the steps. His clothes and sword covered in blood. With a sneer he yelled for the priest to stop, which he did when the noble raised his sword yelling at the knight.
The priest made a plea to me "Protect us and my lord will pay you handsomely. The knight is planning to kill you and be the sole survive." Standing up I nod at the priest as I could use the guard position to visit the Vatican library. I looked at the priest telling him "Take the noble outside I need room to fight." The priest complied as the knight laughed when I pulled out my axe. I couldn't use magic as it would cause a mess. When I was going to attack I had a wild idea. I used legilimency to invade the knights mind. Attacking his brain like a hammer I pushed through his memories looking for his younger memories. While searching I had seen memories about the knight raping and killing villager making me disgusted. Finding his earlier memories I found when his mother and a monk teaching him the high German he spoke. He was a knight as his father was as well allowing him to afford a priest to educate him. Copying his memories I would have to rewatch to learn the language. Once the memories were stolen the man began to bleed from his nose from my forceful legilimency. Needing to make a scene I broke the table and chairs as the knight fell to the ground. Then I cut of his head with my axe.
After I was done I walked upstairs to see the damage. I found all the guards had been killed and the hosts were also dead. In one room with two beds a man was killed in his sleep meaning the empty bed was the second assassin who must have died when I yelled about assassins. Thankfully it looked like the hosts were killed rather quickly limiting the pain of the nice lady. I quickly looted the hosts as they weren't going to need it. I exited the building using my hearing to hear the heartbeats of the priest that were hiding in the forest. I yelled to the the priest as he left the noble in the woods he aproached.
The priest said "Thank you stranger. My lord has asked me to inspect the building and collect his belongings. We are going to head to Ravenna to get more guards. Once I am finished my lord would like a chat with you." I nodded as the priest went inside and collected the items. When he returned I could see he had puked as his tunic was stained. The smell must have been awful but to me the blood made my mouth water. I would have tried some but I knew if I was seen drinking blood my plan to visit the Vatican would fail. Helping the priest load up the horses the priest pointed to a horse saying "You can have that one as you killed its owner." After everything was finished the noble who I could smell had passed himself walked out of the forest opting to change his clothes behind the building.
Once the noble was finished we had a negotiation for my protection resulting in me collecting what he said was the pay for his guards. I could hear his heart beating faster meaning he was lying but my goal wasn't the money but rather a cover to enter the cities. We then began our ride as we all took a horse and left the building as it was. I could have looted the dead soldiers but it was best to be keep up the charade of a pilgrim. The extra horses were tied to the priests horse as we followed the road south. The closest large city wad nearly a 12 hour ride which happened to be Ravenna