Chương 44

Edmund Briar Edmund looked up as the door swung open, letting a cold draft into the room. It was a momentary buffet, so he merely shivered and turned toward the fire before nodding to Miriam. The house had a proper foyer, so not too much of the warm air escaped. Miriam huffed as she strode across the room to hang her cloak up. She'd already shaken it off, but the snowfall outside was getting bad enough that it had gotten damp. Edmund held his tongue, as he saw that she was in a serious mood.

Not that most could tell… but he could. Vincent looked up from where he was whittling a stick into something, and he frowned at her.

"You were gone a long while," Edmund noted carefully.

"And I'm guessing there's some bad news? What's wrong?" Slumping into a chair, Miriam put her head in her hands with a heavy sigh.

"That little brat you kept trying to recruit!" Abruptly, Vincent stopped with the precise, careful swipes of his knife and looked up. The quiet man didn't say anything, but Miriam had his full attention. She had Edmund's, as well.

"What do you mean?" Edmund prodded.

"We got paid, we got the credit for the first exploration of the dungeon… seems to me like we got everything we wanted." Miriam rubbed her temples and took a deep breath. The mage wasn't scowling, for once… that was how Edmund knew this was serious. His question had been from genuine worry.

"I looked into the area around the dungeon, to see who really owned it." She tried to calm as she spoke, placing her hands on the table.

"They'd made a request to keep it private, so I had to call in some favors. I finally managed to get a family name, at least. The whole mountain is owned by the Greylans." Even Edmund had to flinch at that. He knew Miriam hated leaning on her family connections… even if the nice house they were staying in over the winter was her family's. Comfort tended to make one pragmatic about one's pride.

"Someone aside from Anroll, I assume? I can't imagine he'd buy up land, he doesn't seem the type." Edmund rubbed his chin, scratching at the beard that had grown in.

"I don't know the rest of the family though. I think I heard there were others who didn't adventure? Anroll probably has some illegitimate kids, too…"

"I'm getting to that," Miriam grumbled.

"And you're right. Anroll is the younger of two brothers. Gabriel had three kids, but the middle child died young. The ones who are left are Anroll and his older brother Rance. Rance didn't become an adventurer, he owns some property just outside the capital." This time Edmund didn't interrupt. He could see Miriam was leading somewhere. Miriam gestured to the side.

"Rance married a young woman from Cambrath. I couldn't find her name—the family hasn't done anything of note—but I have a guess. What I did find out was that their daughter recently came of age. Now, Rance is still out by the capital, and Anroll was until recently in Kalten. Yet someone bought the land just before we went to the dungeon. In fact, they bought it just before the dungeon was announced. Pretty shrewd, don't you think?"

By now, Edmund was getting an uncomfortable feeling that he knew where she was headed with this. Miriam looked at him expectantly, leading him into a heavy sigh.

"Yeah… red hair is common in Cambrath, I get what you're saying. And now some of the other things she said while I was working on the report make a lot of sense." He rubbed at his forehead.

"She also mentioned her uncle being 'fairly successful' so there's that, too. The pieces line up a little too cleanly. You're saying Ellen and her sister are Greylans and Ellen owns the dungeon, too?" Miriam nodded, then frowned as she crossed her arms.

"At least, that's what makes sense from everything I've seen. It even makes sense she'd want to keep her family name secret. I know I can relate to that. The only thing that doesn't match up is that my source said Rance only had one child. You'd think twins would have gotten the attention of everyone."

"Quintuplets." Edmund looked over at Vincent as the large man spoke that single word. He had his arms crossed, and regarded both Edmund and Miriam with that contemplative look of his. The three had been companions long enough that he didn't need further prompting to elaborate.

"I read her Class." Vincent shook his head.

"You said she was a Hunter by her card, but the one who traveled to the dungeon with us was a Merchant, and her sister a Tender. Yet when we met her at the dungeon entrance, she was a Fighter instead. She also held herself differently and was less sure of herself, more fidgety. Then later she came to me while you were working on your report, and she didn't have a Class at all." This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Edmund glanced at Miriam and sighed.

Vincent had some odd Abilities, but was not very forthcoming about what he knew.

"And you didn't think this was relevant?" Miriam scowled.

"Blazing skies, Vincent! What if she's some kind of Rogue Monster? That village is all alone with her!" The large man just shrugged.

"Rogue Monster wouldn't have a Class. Wouldn't go back into the dungeon. She seemed surprised it was trying to kill her, too. I didn't know why she was pretending to be the same person, but it isn't my business. Or ours." Edmund started to raise his voice, but Miriam held up her hand and shook her head.

"No… he's right." She sighed and dropped her head into her other hand, covering her face.

"Whatever is going through her… their head, we probably don't want any part of it. Getting messed up in Greylan politics seems like a terrible idea. She probably doesn't want it known that she owns the place, that makes sense. I'm just still not sure what to think of quintuplets. I doubt that's natural."

"So that's it?" Edmund demanded.

"You drop this on our laps and now we have to ignore it? What's the point, then? Are we supposed to stay away and miss out on the first dungeon in our lifetimes?"

"No," Vincent said with that firm, calm tone.

"We just don't bring it up. If she thinks we are ignorant, then nothing will happen." That gave Edmund some hesitation, but Miriam was nodding along with it.

"She even made up that twin story… likely so that if someone saw two of them in the same place, they could wave it off as that." Miriam tapped her chin thoughtfully.

"I don't know why or how, but there's too much at stake to just confront them with what we know. We pretend to be clueless, and we might get a little more information. Maybe even get one of them to trust us enough to tell us what's going on." Edmund groaned and slumped backward in his chair.

"Why does adventuring have to be so complicated? I just wanted to see the world and stab some monsters!"

"You use a slashing sword, though…" Miriam pointed out.

"Shush." He grumbled and looked to the window as the shutters rattled.

"Well, we have a few more weeks before the road is passable anyway. If we think of a way to deal with this besides just blundering through the dungeon, we have some time." Miriam glanced at the window as well.

"Winter is probably a lot worse for them. They're actually in the mountains, instead of the foothills. So yes…

"Plenty of time." Anroll Greylan Seeing all the different copies of his niece together in the daylight was unnerving, and Anroll fidgeted with his spear while he looked them all over. Some were more enthusiastic than others, and some more intent on being an adventurer like the one he'd left behind all those months ago, but they all looked like her. Even he could see the differences in their personalities, though. It was a little disturbing.

It also made him feel awkward that even if he knew their differences in personality, he still couldn't tell any of them apart except the two that had come from 'Hunter' Ellen.

"So I've had time to think about your performance in the dungeon," he announced, finally getting it out.

"You could survive it… if you have a full team. You all work very well together, and a full team of you with proper Class differentiation could easily clear the first floor." The eight redheads watched him raptly, though a few were shivering and hugging themselves. It was a warmer winter day, but still below freezing. He couldn't keep them out here long. At least they seemed to be listening.

"The problem," Anroll continued, "is that alone, you don't cover your weak spots. I know I trained and encouraged you, but maybe I did so a little too much. Your parents are right… you're bad at adventuring, at least solo. It takes a certain kind of personality to be a good solo adventurer. Your grandfather could do it. I can sometimes do it. But even I take a full team in for any job that's high Silver or above." That got their attention, even if a few of the girls pouted at his assessment.

Good, that kept their attention.

"Now what I'm about to say next is important. I'm going to leave for a while, and I'll only be back briefly to drop off what I pick up in Merriweather for you. So what I say now, I want you all to remember." Anroll crossed his arms and waited for all of the Ellens to look toward him dutifully. That was when the black cat hopped through the snow and stopped in front of one of the Ellens, dropping a dead mouse at her feet. Everyone was silent for a long moment, before the giggles passed through like a wave.

Anroll sighed, but he couldn't blame them. He'd been told a lot of feral cats were in the area, and they weren't something that could be predicted. At least the 'gift' showed the cats were accepting the new townsfolk well enough. He waited for the snickering to die down, cleared his throat, and finished what he was saying.

"You're all very careless." Anroll frowned at the group.

"I think that's why you've been ending up this way. I want you to promise me you won't go into the dungeon without a full team. That means at least four people, preferably five, one of which is a front line fighter with adequate protection and one healer. You've done well adapting to the dungeon's attempts to go at you mindlessly—that's good—but that also means you're going to be fighting constantly." The Ellens shuffled slightly, and one of them—he was pretty sure it was Merchant—cleared her throat.

"So we basically can't go without a chaperone? Then what are we supposed to do?" Anroll tried not to think about whether he got the right designation.

"It's winter, and you've built a house. You've been doing very well for yourselves… except for when you're careless or jump into danger. So no dungeons! Build up your home and we'll see after that if we can get you a good crew. I won't be able to watch you during every run. I don't have the time."

"Yes, Uncle," the Ellens all chorused. One of the two that had split off Hunter cradled the cat now, which looked barely tolerant of this behavior. So basically like a cat.

"Good." He sighed heavily and looked over the group of eight nieces he had now. Way too many nieces. Then he huffed and clutched his spear.

"I'd better not see any more than this when I get back."