Chương 74: (B2.10)

10) Anroll Greylan It had taken much longer to get back to Merriweather than he'd hoped, but that still put Anroll there only a couple weeks into spring. Not many adventurers did much traveling during winter, so he'd had far too many tasks to handle. His own abilities let him move with greater ease than most, even if it was still grueling to travel during the cold and snowy winters of Thallis. Merriweather was a natural stop on the way back to Mount Onroc.

Not only did it let him resupply, but it gave him a chance to check the rumors and see if people had heard anything unusual about the dungeon and its owner. Ellen had done well thus far, but she was still inexperienced and clearly not suited for adventuring work. Anroll didn't trust her to manage to keep herself secret for long. What he did not expect when swinging by the Guild to check in was to find his niece out front, loudly telling a story.

It wasn't a bad story, and it was about the monsters in the dungeon, but it was exaggerated. Either she was deliberately fudging things, or this Ellen had never been into the dungeon. Either way, he wasn't sure what to think of her loud voice and wild gesticulations describing the monsters any challengers would need to face.

"She's pretty good at holding their attention, isn't she?" Anroll jerked to the side, startled. His senses immediately cut through the low-level Perk that he saw making Ellen less noticeable, but that didn't explain how she'd snuck up to stand right beside him while he watched. She had a hood up and loose clothing on, so it wasn't easy to see she was the same as the girl loudly shouting out her stories nearby, but he should have caught her earlier.

"How did you do that?" The hooded Ellen just nodded to her louder counterpart.

"Stage Ellen, that's how. I've been testing it for the last two days. If you look at me, you notice me… but she draws the attention. Very few people seem to have any defense against that. It doesn't matter if I am not hiding all that well when people just aren't looking for me." It made a horrifying amount of sense to Anroll. It was the same tactic criminals used, but he'd never heard of the diversion plan being so effective at low levels. Against ordinary people, sure…

but he was an experienced hunter, and should have seen it coming. There was only one problem.

"Stage Ellen, huh? And which one are you?" He sighed.

"And how many of you are there now?"

"Call me Whisper. Merchant Ellen died to a horse cart that turned out to be a murder, and that's where I come from. There's fifteen of us now, but the situation is a lot more complicated than just us dying." She gestured to the Guild Hall.

"Let's go inside and I'll explain." The Merriweather Guild Hall wasn't like the ones in the capital. While every Guild Hall had a place to meet and chat with other adventurers, the Merriweather version's common area was much larger and doubled as a general planning area. This was pretty normal for Guild Halls out near the frontier, and it worked to Anroll's advantage now. This sort of place maintained plenty of partially-obscured tables for a level of privacy.

Whisper slid into a chair without comment, and Anroll only hesitated a moment. This Ellen seemed a lot more serious and competent than what he'd remembered. She lacked the energetic attitude he was used to in his niece… and he wasn't sure he liked that absence, even if she was more careful.

"I've been looking into the murder after interrogating one of the culprits," she opened without preamble.

"It all points to an agent of the Theocracy hiring some goons to make it look like an accident, probably so they can move in and manage the dungeon before the kingdom realizes the owner is gone, to try to stake some kind of claim on it." Anroll settled into his chair and placed his hands on the table.

"You found that out all by yourself? That sounds bold and risky for the Theocracy… they've been occupied at their southern border for years now. Then again, maybe they're that desperate for the resource a new dungeon would prove to be. I'm still skeptical." Whisper smiled.

"Yeah, you should be. I know it isn't the Theocracy. I was hoping you could figure out who it really is, you're better at this kind of thing." Raising an eyebrow, Anroll leaned back in his chair.

"You know already? Now I'm curious how. Something I taught you, I hope. Who do you think it is, then?"

"Sort of," Whisper admitted.

"I know it isn't the Theocracy because they just wouldn't be that sloppy. They know the Ellen who owns the dungeon has a sister who lives in the village. Even if Ellen died, they would have to know her immediate family would have a claim, right? It wouldn't default to the crown right away, there'd be a genuine contest." Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! Anroll watched as Whisper leaned back, tilting her head back to stare at the ceiling.

"And I know they know because I'm based off of the original Merchant, who was in the Treetop Inn when the Theocracy spy was there. Village Ellen sniffed him out because of something you mentioned in your stories about how the Theocracy uses a certain kind of incense. So we know they know about the sister, and it would make more sense for them to try to negotiate something."

"That's true," Anroll murmured.

"So what does that tell you?" He was already constructing his own theory, but it sounded like this Ellen had been focusing on this problem for a few days. She might need his help, but he was curious how far she'd taken it. Whisper shrugged.

"Obviously, someone wants people to believe the Theocracy did it for some reason. They want the relations strained. I doubt this would cause a war by itself… the evidence is too flimsy for that. So someone just wanted things confused enough that they could make a move on their own for whatever their real objective was. It may not even be the dungeon, that just might be a convenient valuable location to mask what they're really doing."

"I find it hard to believe that a Theocracy spy was caught so easily, though." Anroll drummed his fingers on the table.

"But I can't find the angle on that without knowing more details."

"Oh, he wasn't easy to find," Whisper corrected quickly.

"Village Ellen is a werewolf now. One of her Perks negated the personality change. She can smell things we can't. Did you know werewolves get their own Perk and Ability trees? Bookkeeper and Scholar are really looking forward to finding out more about that." Anroll froze, but Whisper continued.

"The original werewolf was taken care of, don't worry. Village Ellen got him before he could infect anyone else, and she and Hunter have been patrolling on the full moon to make sure no others slip through. Village says she has an upcoming Ability that would let her control her shifting, too." Frowning, Anroll shook his head.

"I would still be cautious, but that behavior doesn't match what I know of werewolves. I do know it is possible to retain your self, but I don't know how that would work. I've only encountered it once." The redhead nodded.

"Yes… she did mention her award implied she wasn't the first to do that. So that matches up with what we knew. The System duplicated her though, and it called what it was doing a failsafe. You should talk to Village for the details, maybe you can get a better hint at what's going on because she remembers the message."

"Enough about that," Anroll grumbled.

"This is making my head hurt. It sounds like you need my help to track down who was really responsible, and I'm going to need to do that anyway. The Duke will want to know who is trying to frame the Theocracy, and I'm sure the Theocracy will want to know as well. You should be careful, the Theocracy agents sometimes have some kind of Ability that can tell someone's Class and approximate Level. They might be able to distinguish you."

"A little late for that, Uncle," Whisper sighed.

"There's an adventurer staying at the village who can do the same thing, but at least he doesn't seem to be able to identify any Class he doesn't know about. We have a bunch of strange Classes anyway. And mine lets me hide what it is, so I don't have to worry… but that doesn't make the others consistent." More and more things to file away as unusual. Anroll was starting to wonder if this was his father's plan after all… it was convoluted enough. Then he shook his head.

His father was a great man, but a poor planner.

"So you want me here instead of up at the dungeon? It sounds like this is where the biggest mess is right now, and I think I need to talk to all of you at one time about what I found out." Whisper lifted both eyebrows.

"Did you find out something about our condition? I can't imagine it's happened before… we're going to be found out eventually, too, unless we decide to split up and wander the countryside alone or something."

"I don't think anyone would be happy with that," Anroll sighed.

"I did find out some things, but I'll wait to discuss them. Let's look into this problem first. If someone is willing to kill you once, they'll try again, especially if Stage keeps making a scene."

"Stage can take care of herself, she's my bodyguard," Whisper reassured him.

"I'd be more worried about them arranging another accident, whomever they are, but we may not be useful to them any more. Or maybe we've already been useful, if they're trying to frame the Theocracy like I think." Anroll tapped a finger on the table. His niece's sleuthing was better than he'd expected, but he also saw the problem right away. Even if she'd picked up a talent for it and had a Class made for it, she was still inexperienced at doing the digging.

If she pushed too hard, she'd reveal herself and the game would be over. Meanwhile… if they murdered Merchant Ellen, they almost certainly didn't know Ellen's real identity. Some of his reputation was exaggerated thanks to his father, but Anroll was fully aware that it didn't need to be true to be effective. Nobody would want to cross the Greylan family like that, not yet. Maybe someday, once they realized he wasn't actually all that great of a hero. But not now, when his reputation was still strong.

Everyone was still intimidated by the shadow of what his father had done.

"They won't expect someone like me to look into this," he muttered.

"That's why you're asking me. You know they don't know I'm coming." Whisper spread her hands with a smile.

"Am I wrong about it? I know this isn't the job you think I would have taken, but aside from the part about bullying people, I kind of like it. It's like a puzzle… sort of like the merchant game I played back when I was training to be a Merchant first time, but with connections and rumors." Anroll snorted.

"You were always good at puzzles, just too impatient to bother with them. I guess you've learned a little caution. I'll see what I can find and get back to you, then we can clear this up and head back to Onroc together."

"Only took a few deaths to get careful," she quipped in response. While true, the blithe reply didn't sit easy with Anroll.