33 2.22

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When I reached Riverwood, I was met with a surprising scene.

The villagers were gathered in the middle of the village, between the Blacksmith and Lucian's shop. Curious, I made my way through them, and what I saw made me smile.

The three bandits that had run away from me were now on their knees, begging. In front of them were Hadvar and Ralof, looking confused. I also spotted the Dragonborn, standing in the forge along with the blacksmith, Alvor.

"Please, put us in shackles, and bring us away! He is coming!"

This was definitely a surprising request for a bandit.

Ralof and Hadvar looked as confused as everyone else, but as I made my way through the crowd, they spotted me.

Hadvar, the Imperial Soldier, looked at me with a complicated face, probably because I had killed so many Imperials under Helgen. However, he had also been one of the only ones bothered by the execution of unrelated people in Helgen.

He probably thought I was angry with the Imperial Legion, and that had been my revenge. If only he knew I saw them as Points.

Ralof, on the other hand, looked happy as he laughed, "Alexander, my brother! I didn't expect to see you again so soon."

The three bandits, who were begging, turned around, and the moment they saw me, they started screaming like mad men, "He's here! Save us!"

One of them, however, decided to take the initiative, as he jumped to his feet, unsheathing a knife. He did not go for me however, and instead went for the closest villager, obviously intending on taking them hostage.

Funnily enough, out of everyone he could have tried to take hostage, he decided to go for a blond lady in a blue robe. She was Delphine, the innkeeper.

Out of the entire village, he had to go for the one that happened to be a member of the Blades in hiding, a woman, although astonishingly annoying in the game, would also hunt dragons alongside the Dragonborn.

She could have easily defended herself, but since I could stop the bandit, and she wasn't supposed to be a capable fighter, I extended my hand.

Just as Delphine's body tensed up, about to defend herself, the bandit abruptly stopped in place, his hands going for his throat.

Using Force Choke, I had completely stopped him in place, and now raised him from the ground, turning him my way.

"I let you run, and you decided to stop here? How stupid are you?"

Shaking my head in disappointment, I tightened my grasp, and his neck broke.

The gazes of the people had turned uncomfortable around me, probably because Nords weren't known for liking magic, but I had saved Delphine's life in their eyes.

Letting go of the bandit's body, it dropped down like a puppet whose strings were cut, and I asked, "Anyone who wants to make the trip to Whiterun with these two?"

I asked that to everyone, but I only looked at Ralof and Hadvar. Seeing neither of them reply, the bandits panicked, but they didn't get to beg as both of their heads were sent flying.

The crowd was silent as I wiped my sword against the bandits' armors, until Hadvar exclaimed, "Is that Loraine the Skinner?!"

This drew a few gasps from the crowd, and I picked up the head by its hair, asking, "You mean this guy? He was these ones' boss."

The moment I said that though, much to my surprise, several of the villagers suddenly spit at the corpses, and the heads were kicked away.

Raising an eyebrow, I asked, "So he was famous."

To my surprise, it wasn't Ralof or Hadvar who replied, but the Dragonborn, instead, "Infamous, rather. He is at the head of a group of a hundred men, has ties with both the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild, and became infamous because he likes skinning his victims. He has a shared bounty through all the holds of Skyrim, as well as in Cyrodiil."

Tying the head back to my hip, I said, "Well, that's some more septims for me. Now, if you don't mind, I have a transaction to finish."

The crowd started dispersing at that, and looking through them, I spotted Lucian, who was walking back to his shop. Fishing the Golden Claw out of my bag, I hollered, "Look what I found!"

Lucian chuckled tiredly, and gestured toward his shop, in which I followed him. As I did, I felt several gazes settle on my back, one of which was Delphine. She probably was eyeing the Dragonstone.

Dropping the Golden Claw on the counter, I said, "It was quite the adventure, I must say."

Lucian looked at me, then the claw, then back at me, feeling guilty as he said, "If I knew it was Loraine the Skinner's band who had taken it, I wouldn't have asked you…"

Snorting, I patted the head at my hip, saying, "Why? They didn't kill me, I killed them. Honestly, the Draugrs and the Frost Troll were much more of a bother than these guys."

Lucian looked shocked as he asked, "There was a Frost Troll in the barrow?"

Shrugging, I replied, "Yeah, there was that hole in the mountain. It probably fell in and survived thanks to its regeneration. But it wouldn't have been a danger, it would probably have died of hunger before long."

Lucian sighed, "I feel even worse now… I intended on rewarding you with my last shipment of gold, but Loraine and his bandits as well as a Frost Troll, it is far from good enough."

Waving my hand, I said, "Nah, I only had to fight Loraine's band and a Giant Frostbite Spider to get to the Golden Claw. I just continued on my own because I wanted to see what was at the end. Speaking of which," I took off the equipment I had been dragging around, that is the two enchanted bows, the enchanted necklace, the enchanted crown from Loraine and the enchanted mace, and asked, "Any idea where I can get these appraised? I'm curious about the enchants on them."

Lucian looked down at the items, and said, "I can do it. Let me see."

As he picked up each of them, looking at them closely, I asked, "You know magic?"

Concentrated on the items, Lucian still replied, "I tend not to show it around here, Nords aren't too comfortable with it. Besides, I only know some basics."

He finished looking through all of them, and his eyes lingered on my gauntlets, before he revealed, "You got quite the haul. The mace has Turn Undead, the crown has Fortify Alteration, the hunting bow has Soul Trap, the other one has Frost Damage, and the necklace has Fortify Smithing.

"Out of the four, the mace probably is the most valuable, although your gauntlets… they look good. Very good."

Raising an arm, I smiled, "I know what they do already. And they aren't for sale. Not that I think you could afford them."

He continued staring at them for a moment, before shaking his head, "You are probably right. So, do you want to sell these?"

I picked up the hunting bow and the necklace, and said, "I'll keep these two, and sell the other three."

The reason I kept the necklace was obvious, I wanted to learn Smithing. As for the hunting bow, I wanted to have at least one weapon with Soul Trap, in case I manage to get an enchanted weapon.

In my understanding, these were quite rare, so I wasn't selling them for now.

Lucian still looked bothered though, and I quickly understood why.

"I would like to buy these, but if I do then I won't have any gold left to reward you for bringing the claw back."

I grinned and reassured him, "Don't worry, I'm sure you have other things to pay me with. To start off, I need something to be able to store more things. Any idea?"

Lucian shook his head, unfortunately, "None that you could get here. Maybe you could find some enchanted bags, but I don't have any."

So I'm still stuck with getting a bigger bag. Great.

Looking at my sword, Lucian said, "I would sell you a sword and an armor, but there's a blacksmith capable of doing a much better job just across the street, so…"

I snorted, and nodded, "Fine, I'll take all your spell books then."

"A-all of them? Do you know how expensive they are?"

I nodded, and placed my second bag on the table, the one filled with septims, spiritual gems and precious gems.

Lucian gulped seeing the bag, "I understand why you want a bigger bag now."