Chương 82: (B2.18)

18) Stage Ellen Ellen didn't even realize she was humming to herself until Uncle Anroll cleared his throat.

"Sorry," she apologized with a smile.

"It's something Lauren sometimes sang to herself back when I was working at the inn. Well not me me, previous me. It's catchy, isn't it?" Anroll just gave her an odd look at first.

"Do you actually think of the previous ones as different versions?" Ellen stopped and looked across the street at the temple, just using that as a distraction while she thought about the question. The Faith of the System was not a strange or uncommon belief, large enough to have a sizable temple here, but it wasn't the major religion by far. Most of Thallis believed that the gods shaped destiny, while the System was merely their instrument. The Theocracy was notably backwards.

She wasn't an expert on religion by any means, but the core clash of beliefs was well-known. It was fortunate that they no longer fought over this. She'd heard some of the conflicts in the early days of Thallis had been incredibly bloody. It all seemed dumb to her, though she was nominally a devotee of Celeste. But that wasn't what the question was about. It was about an awkward topic that Ellen felt confident about, but knew people who weren't her might struggle to understand. She was distracting herself.

"It's hard to explain," she mumbled.

"I lived the experiences, but because I also woke up knowing I'd died… well… Whisper and I, we decided to try something new with our lives. If it helps, think of it like someone had an experience where they nearly died and decided to live their life differently. Some Ellens try to be like the original and just specialize in something, but we just decided to be something new." Anroll lifted an eyebrow, only sparing a glance at the temple. It wasn't time to make their move yet, so she had to try to explain to him.

"So you aren't actually trying to be my niece any more?" Ellen scrunched up her face in a grimace.

"No, not that. We can't change who we are. I'm still Ellen, just like the others are. Whisper and I are just going farther from how the original planned to live her life. Did you know original Ellen was actually a little shy? Not much, but she was afraid of doing public speaking. That was sort of why I went the way I did. I'm the Ellen who decided to fight that fear." The thoughtful answer drew a briefly confused frown from Anroll, followed by him rubbing his chin to consider his own ideas.

"Makes me wonder if you're really doing a time compression thing like you all thought when you take a class. But I'm not sure I'm qualified to guess on that. It does open up some new questions for me to ask if I can find the right sage." He almost said something more, opening his mouth… then he snapped it shut.

"There's our signal. Let's move." Anroll was all business suddenly, moving with purpose toward the temple. Ellen just shrugged and strolled along behind him, activating her Perk to draw attention. They'd see both coming, and that was the point. When Anroll pushed the doors open, a few of the attendants were already headed toward the atrium. As much as Ellen liked to think that it was from her Perk, a lot of it was likely because Anroll was a pretty famous adventurer.

He was also known to be a devout of Bomar, so visiting a Temple of the System was an immediate attention-getter.

"Hello everyone!" Ellen shouted firmly, waving as she hurried up beside her uncle. She had to help make a 'scene' of some kind. She was having too much fun to pretend to be too sad, so she hoped that they'd read her excitement as eagerness to bring someone to justice. Following that, Anroll spoke in a loud, firm voice.

"We are looking for some information. The young lady here had a sister who met with an unfortunate accident… but it seems the accident may not have been by chance at all. I don't suppose you could fetch some of your priests for a few questions?" It was "just a request" of course. Anroll had no authority here, and couldn't demand anything without being accompanied by a constable or something. There were many perks that came with being a famous Gold Rank adventurer, though…

and one of those was that people rarely wanted to disappoint a simple request.

"I can… see who is available," one of the attendants said. The dark red robes marked him as some kind of low-level functionary, which didn't surprise Ellen. The Faith of the System just hadn't gotten much foothold in Thallis, so this temple most likely catered to travelers from the Theocracy as much as it did to locals.

"See that you do!" Ellen shouted, hands on her hips.

"This insult is not one that will be ignored! Do you know what happened and how bad it would be if the Temple were found to be at fault? Hurry up, we don't have all day!" Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

"Laying it on a bit thick," Anroll whispered out of the corner of his mouth. He didn't look at her to say that, letting his voice do the work while he just stood and crossed his arms, spear tucked over his back. Even if none of the low-level functionaries here knew who Ellen was, Anroll gave her an air of legitimacy. With a shrug, Ellen leaned in enough to mutter back.

"I don't think they'll care, all we have to do is flush him out. You're sure this is the place?" Anroll gave her an amused look.

"You never used to question me, you know. I'm not sure to be sad or proud of it."

"I like Whisper the way she is. New Ellens don't always pick up where the previous left off," she mumbled.

"I'm just looking out for her." Her uncle nodded and whispered back, "We'll just have to hope this works." Whisper Ellen Ellen did not really like this plan, but she had to defer to Kaluk and Anroll. Both of them were far more well-versed in espionage than she was, even if she'd been technically doing this her entire life. It really depended on the guilty party doing something predictable, and just from her experience with herselves. Ellen wasn't keen on that.

The only reason she'd gone along with the idea without comment is because it would give her a chance to test her new Ability. Contact Trace was unfortunately vague on a few matters, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to tell Kaluk about it to see if he knew of the Ability. The Theocracy spy seemed like a good enough fellow, but he was a spy so of course he was good at seeming personable. In the end, she'd decided not to ask.

It might be well-known in the espionage community, but Kaluk already knew there were multiple Ellens. He'd been polite enough not to ask, but she was sure he was watching her carefully to see if she let slip anything about the situation. She'd let him wonder if there were just some very talented quintuplets or something that were involved in the counterintelligence division of Thallis. All four of those involved already knew which priest had actually made the request.

Ellen couldn't get close to him, she'd just yanked the info from Cale, who had been all too agreeable for some reason. She hadn't even been sure if she could trust the information, but asking around had confirmed that the trio of scoundrels had been around here, which seemed amateur to her. Why not meet in a place that isn't connected to anyone? It didn't seem believable precisely because it was too easy for her.

Ellen wasn't an expert on this stuff yet, she shouldn't be able to outthink the perpetrators of a murder and conspiracy. Anroll had explained that it was normal. People just didn't expect to get caught, and real professionals often made assumptions that looked stupid as well. She didn't quite get that… if they knew better, why wouldn't they be more careful? It didn't make sense to her, but she wouldn't complain if it made the real killer easier to find. Ellen shook off her thoughts when she saw movement.

Kaluk had snuck her into the temple and had her hide between two of the columns, deep in shadow. If all went to plan, the priest they'd identified would show up with Anroll, or he would try to slip out the back and be "absent" for the interrogation. Either way, Ellen would get what she wanted. Well, one Ellen would, anyway. She narrowed her eyes as she saw the man quietly slip from the offices and into the room she hid within.

His feet were remarkably quiet on the stone floor, yet he strode with a quick pace despite the silence. For the first time, Ellen got a clear look at him… not that he stood out. Youngish, but balding and with thinning dark hair, a somewhat stocky build, and otherwise the only distinguishing feature was the crook in his nose that looked like it had been broken once. That was a little odd considering the healing magic available to the temple, but some people kept old injuries like that for various reasons.

She mentally noted it but didn't think anything of it for the time being. Instead, she simply marked him with Contact Trace, then waited for Kaluk to emerge from his own hiding place. Only then did she step out.

"Weird that he'd run off," Ellen mumbled.

"Do you think he's actually going to see the person who gave him the instructions? Do you think he was bribed or what?" Kaluk motioned for her to keep quiet, though it was halfhearted given she hadn't been speaking very loudly. After he checked the door, he motioned for her to follow and stepped outside. Ellen hurried after, drawing the hood of her cloak up to hide her distinctive hair.

"It is not impossible for a priest to be bribed," he finally answered.

"It is very rare, however. Most likely there is something else he wants, or perhaps a blackmail situation. It is clear he panicked, as we had wanted. While there is more to this situation than we know, in real life conspiracies are not like the stories. They are only as strong as their weakest link, and someone wanted this man to be caught." Ellen sighed, looking about the city streets.

"Which means he's not going to have the information we really want… and maybe not the person he's meeting, either." Kaluk nodded.

"Indeed, but we can hope that they have some sort of clue to point to the real culprit. Someone went through a great deal of trouble to kill your sister and make it look like it was the Theocracy. Someone up the chain will have covered their tracks better than these. When we encounter them, that will be the real challenge. This is just the simple work." Simple? Ellen shuddered. If she was going to be the spy Ellen, she had a lot of learning to do.

A glimmer of yellow caught her eye, and she glanced toward a young woman just walking past. It was a very faint aura, but she spotted it… the work of her Contact Trace in the wild. She had no idea how Kaluk was able to shadow the priest when he wasn't in sight, but with concentration Ellen could follow the very faint trail of yellow outlines. It wasn't easy to make them out, but she surmised these were just people he'd passed close by or perhaps brushed up against. It was working.

Now all she had to do was pay attention and pick out the brighter lights. Maybe she'd figure this out after all.