The four arrived back at the inn as the day ended. They ordered food and sat down. Jenora nodded immediately before food arrived as soon as the barmaid walked away. “He was murdered.”
Emilie nodded without wavering. “Yeah, he was killed.”
Victor’s eyebrows shot up so fast that if Cawthorn wasn’t on his head they might have flown off. “Wow, that was fast what makes you say that?”
Emilie threw her hands up. “He had so many enemies. Admittedly most were in the Freedman’s Guild, but others had pretty bad things to say about him. He’s a vengeful spirit but in life, he was a ruthless banker. He foreclosed on people and evicted them the minute time a loan ran out. He loaned money to people at twice the rate Freedman’s bank does and it’s no wonder he went out of business after another bank opened up here with the way he acted.”
Jenora continued. “The problem is we couldn’t narrow it down to save our lives. He has so many enemies that he may as well have painted a giant kill me sign on his back. Everyone is a suspect. He was killed in that alley by a statue crashing down on his head to make it look like an accident for sure. Might have been magic or someone with a stealth skill but this many years later the killer could be gone.”
Emilie sighed stretching across the table. “I don’t know how you’d ever find the person who did this since he was such a piece of trash.”
Serena leaned forward cupping her head in a hand. “That is why Victor and I poured over old financial records. I have a list and so does he of several possible large transactions around the time he died. After doing some research on the list Victor and I found several discrepancies in amounts for some large transactions, and we found several. Some of these might just be bad accounting errors at 5 to 50 gold off. Other discrepancies are larger, much larger into the 1,000 to 10,000 gold range.”
Emilie looked up from the table. “Do we even want to do this? The guy was an absolute piece of shit. He doesn’t deserve vengeance.”
“His killer is still out there. What is to say that this is the only victim?” Victor looked at her.
Emilie groaned hitting her head on the table. “I hate this. You’re not supposed to be right. I’m supposed to be right.”
Swordie commented. “Don’t worry! He’ll regret it later and dive into deep self-doubt which I and Cawthorn will have to bail him out. Do you hear me, Cawthorn? Be ready to cheer him up after we find the killer and inevitably, he’s an otherwise good person.”
Cawthorn crowed throwing up his wings. “CAW CAW HAH MY MAGE WILL ALWAYS BE CONFIDENT AS LONG AS I AM BY HIS SIDE!” Victor patted Cawthorn on the head to him slowly causing him to drift off. “My… Mage… is…”
Cawthorn leaned against Victor's cheek as Victor shot back to Swordie. “No matter how good they are they killed someone. There are better avenues for justice than murder when it isn’t in self-defense.” Serena slowly chuckled putting her hand over her face while looking at Victor. “Why are you looking at me?” She kept snickering harder and harder. He immediately realized what she was laughing about.
Swordie noted. “A mirror he is not.”
“Saving someone else is a form of self-defense you’re just defending another life. That isn’t the same as killing someone because they are a jerk or greedy.” Victor insisted.
Serena wiped away a tear. “I’m sorry dear. The way you said it was just-” She kept giggling and shaking her head.
Emilie sat up. “Fine talk about the inconsistencies. Who has inconsistencies? Go ahead.”
Serena took a deep breath calming down. “There are 6 large inconsistencies. Just 1 of those is dead.”
“If I’m right his death means that he’s not the one. I’d guess his death would cause the ghost to pass on as that could be considered justice.” Victor noted.
Jenora tilted her head back and forth. “It’s a shame we can’t just kill all 5 targets.”
Victor paused truly shocked by the statement. “No. We cannot just kill all 5 targets.”
“I wasn’t going to do it! That’s why I said it’s a shame we can’t! It would save so much time.” Jenora defended herself.
Serena turned to her. "Your mind is ruthlessly efficient. I love it.” She reached out to bump her gauntlet. They bumped their fists and smiled. “That said I don’t think we can do that. So, we have 5 targets.”
She looked at Victor. “First is Caleb Scott. He’s a trader and has been here a long time as his tax records go back 11 years. He became a guild member of the Freedman’s Guild 7 years ago. There is a 1211 gold difference between his declared gold for that year and the amount he paid taxes on. He’s pretty wealthy for a trader and it is possible he did the deed. We will need to investigate.”
He looked back at her. “Second is Lilly Anderson. She’s a noblewoman of immense wealth who owns the theater in the center of town. She joined the guild 6 years ago and declares more on her taxes than she does to the guild. Honestly, I think she’s just cheating the Freedman’s Guild not a murderer, but we can look into her. The gold differences range from 3,239 to 7,231 gold.”
Jenora interrupted. “Wait I thought you were only looking at 4 years ago.”
Serena smiled turning to him. “We both independently realized we’d have to dig back farther. We started comparing large numbers and realized some did stand out. Even if we don’t find the killer this made me realize something.”
Emilie glared at her. “What is that?”
A devious smile spread across her face. “We’ve effectively just gained blackmail on all 5 of these people.” Food arrived and they all began to eat.
Victor shook his head. “I do not want to think about that right now Serena. Can we continue?”
Serena went on. “Next is Nathan Price. He’s an adventurer in Freedman’s guild. He joined 4 years ago. Exactly 4 years ago he received a 3,000-gold service transaction which was never reported on his taxes from an unspecified individual during a mission about 1 month after the murder. It wasn’t reported so there is no record anywhere in the mayor’s office as far as I can see to where this goes. He’s my primary suspect. He did report it to the guild.”
Victor agreed. “He’s the one I find most probable. His motive could be simple money and he’s the killer hired by someone else.”
Emilie nodded along. “That sounds incredibly likely. Who are the other two?”
Victor went to the next name on their list. “Fourth is Georgia Young. She’s a woman who briefly owed money to Farson’s Bank 4 and 5 years ago. Her debt was wiped clean, and she isn’t in the Freeman’s Guild. The difference in gold was only 923 gold but she went from being so deep in debt she paid 0 in taxes to paying taxes on 10,203 gold.”
Victor paused and thought out loud. “How much does the average non-adventurer make?”
Jenora noted. “Depends on the area but in most places, people make between 1 and 5 gold a day for ordinary unskilled work like moving boxes or farming. Adventuring makes far more which is why people go into the profession. Artifact Hunting makes more than that. The danger of being a farmer is pretty minimal unless your village is raided. Something like half of the adventurers are dead in one year. The survival rate for artifact hunters is even worse.”
“Oh, so we are talking big payments. Like absolutely huge.” Victor noted.
“There is no way he wasn’t in a mage tower before Swordie found him. I refuse to believe otherwise.” Emilie just stared at him dumbfounded.
“Agreed.” Jenora nodded at Emilie. “Who is the last one?”
The two looked at each other. “Well, there is an entire missing year on the tax records for Phil Farson.”
Victor paused and looked at her. “He deposited more than 10,000 gold the year his brother died into the Freeman’s Guild bank. It’s possible that was just transferring his gold after the death of his brother since it’s not marked as new income.”
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Jenora snapped her fork. “Did that bastard kill his own brother?”
“It is possible that he did.” Victor sighed. “I’ve been considering it for an hour. If we bring him to justice and still get him the items in jail, legally, we get the building.”
Emilie sat back. “Oh, that would be justice.”
Jenora snarled. “Agreed. Murdering your own brother? Irredeemable. Normally Emilie is the one to recommend this but cleansing by fire is the only appropriate response to murdering your own sibling.”
Emilie performed a few small rapid claps while sitting up in her chair. "I love it when you want to purify the wicked!”
Serena lifted one eyebrow. “Well, there’s some history behind that but I’m going to respectfully leave it be.”
Victor nodded. “We need not know if you don’t want to tell. This is a bit of a pickle. Do we work on this together or split up again?”
“We can’t split up on this. We need to all see their faces.” Jenora insisted. “A liar always tells you they are lying. They just never realize how.”
“How do we get to speak to them? Some of these five are high-class people.” Serena grimaced leaning forward and looking at the names.
“We could leverage my title.” Victor looked around the table.
Jenora tapped on her chin. “That might work.”
Swordie’s sarcasm could cut their meat in half. “A title of such honor is not intended to be used like a knife.”
“Ok, we will use my title to get an audience with them.” Victor nodded with a resolute table smack.
“Is this what my foolish knight feels like every day? I hope never to know again.” Swordie insisted.
“Another question is what order do we do these interviews?” Serena looked at the names. “We need to do Phil last since him catching on would ruin any chance of us catching him if it is him.”
Jenora spoke up. “Agreed. To do this correctly we should first rule out the least likely targets and finish with Nathan Prince and Phil Farson. The least likely is Lilly Anderson in my opinion. My gut reaction is she has no connection to the death so she’s someone we speak with for a few minutes before moving on. Georgia Young and Caleb Scott are both unlikely but possible so they should be second and third. That’s my opinion on the matter.”
Victor looked around. “Any objections?” No one spoke up. “Well, Jenora would you like to lead the investigation tomorrow?”
“Me?! I mean. Uh… I guess I can but that seems foolish if we are using your fame to get in.” She noted.
Victor pondered for a moment. “That is a good point. I am not experienced leading these, but I will do my best.”
Jenora pulled back a bit. “Well, I can help speak to them. I’m pretty good at interrogations but I’m not all that diplomatic when I am getting information.”
“You can follow my lead. Where I’m from there is a phrase good cop, bad cop. One of the cops plays the nice guy who is just trying to help the other one is ready to scream at them and intimidate them.” Victor extended his hand across the table.
Jenora reached to shake it. “I’ll do my best.”
Emilie smirked. “She can be intimidating when she wants to be. Neither of you has seen it yet but she’s intimidating when someone is after me.”
Serena turned to Victor. “Now that we have covered that matter, I have another matter entirely. An elf mage approached me looking for a group and a guild that wouldn’t be racist against elves.”
Emilie groaned. “Oh god an elf? They’re so self-serving. They won’t endanger themselves ever because they are immortal and arrogant. Their life is the only thing that ever matters to them.”
Jenora paused for a moment thinking before saying. “I don’t think their immortality is the issue. It’s their attitudes. They consider themselves superior because they often train for literal decades before emerging from one of their enclaves. So, they are much more powerful than someone else of their level. This is especially pronounced at lower levels where they have higher stats from achievements, and more skills from secret unlock conditions. They tend to be arrogant because they are stronger.”
Serena pulled the conversation back. “Personally, the only elf I’ve ever interacted with owned me I hate them. That said It’s becoming clear to me you won’t tolerate hating anyone unless you have a good reason, I’m willing to choke it back if you insist.”
Emilie shook her head. “How did I end up in a party where we talk with undead and consider recruiting an elf? I’m against it but for some reason, I feel like that will be forgotten in your zeal.”
“Helping Forala out seemed to work fine, and you’d never have helped her.” Victor crossed his arms.
Serena nodded with a deep sigh. “That is why I am willing to let him join and try it out. You’re not the best judge of character.”
Swordie cut in. “To say the least.”
Serena continued without missing a beat. “Agreed. However, you have changed my opinion of first impressions, probably forever. I’d give him a chance.”
Emilie shook her head. “Fine, I will tolerate it until he does something wrong.”
Jenora leaned forward and whispered. “Who is it?”
“Remember that mage at the front helping the captain? That’s him.” Serena tapped her fork. “The only consideration is that this makes us very offensive as a party with only Serena defending two people.”
“Do you know what kind of mage he is?” Victor asked.
“DEEP MAGE!” Cawthorn crowed.
“I see.” Victor scratched his chin pulling out Swordie. Without explaining or saying a word Swordie pulled up the page.
Deep Mage – Your mage level counts as 20 higher for the purposes of skill and spell ranks. Gain access to the Spell Modification Skill. Gain Access to the Spell Enhancement Skill. Slightly improve spell damage multipliers. Prowess value increased for offensive spells.
Stats- +24 Prowess
Stats per level - +12 Prowess
“Oh, wow so his spells will pack a punch given how much more powerful rank makes your spells and skills,” Victor noted.
Emilie yawned. “Yeah, but he’ll run out of mana like a child will run out of candy. Most spellcasters aren’t like you or me. They can tackle one or two encounters and then poof they are done for a long time possibly even the day. That and the lack of priests is one of the main reasons people can’t get to higher levels fast.”
Jenora finished her food. “Deep mages have another problem. They almost always eat experience for breakfast. If the party is using their long-range to snipe a target the mage may be the only party member who gets any experience whatsoever. Their spells are so potent, but they never have any flow.”
Victor scratched his chin. “When I was fighting Zolvorn I was able to cast my spells in different forms and even control the rank. Couldn’t a deep mage use lower-level spells to consume less mana?”
“Well yeah, but none do. The main problem is they need equipment. Powerful mana regeneration artifacts and defensive artifacts are usually required for them to function.” Serena noted.
“Wait how would he get those if no one wants him in a group at lower levels?” Victor turned to them.
“He wouldn’t. He’d need to level up on his own doing ordinary work.” Serena explained.
“There is no sense of community here at all.” Victor shook his head.
Jenora put up a hand. “Well, I hear the elves are supposed to do that. They spend an excessively long time preparing usually 50 to 70 years in their enclave typically hitting level 15-20 in completely safe circumstances. Community is one of the big advantages of both dwarves and elves against all other races. Why he’s out in the world on his own before hitting 100 years old hell if I know but we should talk to him.”
Victor shrugged. “Should we just talk to him in private early tomorrow?”
“Ah, hell let’s do it.” Jenora slapped the table. “You might be wrong but if he’s trustworthy then we make ourselves a powerful ally.”
Emilie downed her drink. “I don’t know about this but I’m on board if she is on board.”
Serena shrugged. “I’ll deal with it. That said if we vote to keep him in the group and it’s 2 to 2, I insist we let him go. No reason to split the group over this.”
Victor nodded. “That seems fair to me. Given our current composition, I think if he learns to control his mana output, he’ll do well with us.”
Emilie yawned. “It’s time to sleep. I’m going to my room. Good night.”
Serena grabbed Victor. “I agree. We’ll see you in the morning. Good night.”