Chapter 107: Investigation (Part 2)
Maybe I should not waste my time killing these attackers, I must need to find a way to escape, there would not be so hard to find an escape for me. I noticed that the bunches of attackers were now stepping closer and closer to me so I immediately drew my sword while on the other hand, I held my 1911 pistol.
I looked around to see if there was any side from 4 sides that seemed to be less of attackers for me to make a route to escape or not but the attackers were full of four sides so I immediately ran toward the attackers from the south. The attackers noticed my movement but they kept walking slowly toward me, I also slowly walked toward them and then when I was away from those attackers about 20 meters (21,9 yards), I attacked them.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" - I stood straight, held tight to my M1911 pistol and then shot 4 gunshots to every attacker's chest, the attackers that got shot immediately dropped to the grass
The attackers awareness the gunshots and some of them closed their ears maybe the gunshots were too loud. I immediately ran toward them so they were shocked, scared so they separated, accidentally made a route for me to go through so I ran away from the attackers.
The attackers noticed I have gotten through their surroundings so they chased me with their wooden clubs, I stopped a few times to shoot them with my M1911 pistol and then ran away to the low ground. I have wasted about 22 rounds of my pistol shooting the attackers, I think!
I ran down the low ground and noticed that the attackers were still chasing so I made a trick on them, I immediately ran a bit to the west side and hid under a bush that seemed very hard to be detected. The attackers didn't see me yet so they would think that I have gone so far to the south and they would be fooled to chase me, they would head to the south and I would use that chance to escape.
I silent staying in the bush to peek out in a minute and noticed that the attackers have finally got down the high ground and were searching for me, they did not chase me to the south as I thought. They were dividing their group to search around the forest where I was hiding, I immediately took my pistol's magazine which still has 3 bullets and reloaded it with another magazine.
"Commander, more than 20 enemies from behind you!" - Advisor suddenly called me
I stayed inside the bush and peeked behind me and saw there were truly more than 20 attackers incoming to my bush, maybe I should use my grenades and my flashbangs from now on. Suddenly I heard the sounds of running from behind and I immediately looked back, someone detected me???
"Ahhh!" - My head has been hit by a wooden club or something but I managed to not bleed but I accidentally exposed my body out of the bush
That was so hurt, dammit! I noticed that my pistol has been dropped and was away from me a bit far so I tried to reach my hand to my pistol but later noticed that someone picked up the 1911 pistol. I did not have a chance to stand up because I was trying to do but it was so painful, I later noticed many hands grabbed my body and lifted me, I have been held tight.
The attackers in the leather armors were the ones who held me, one of them took my M9 bayonet and pointed it toward my throat to threaten me. They even disarmed my weapons, I looked at the one who held my pistol, that was...Hoster!!!
"Hello, John Rigen! It's a good day to see you here." - Hoster said to me
Why did Hoster get here? Did he plan to assassinate his father and his little sister and chased me to kill me with the purpose to have no one to investigate the case?
No, that was impossible! But the list of the assassination paper did not mention Hoster as the target for the assassination so there would be a high chance he was the perpetrator. But why did he choose to kill his father and his little sister? For any purpose? Did he get tricked by someone and be blamed to be the perpetrator in my eyes?
"Strange, you killed all of 200 well-trained assassins easily in the previous chase but you now you could not fight against 60 men with poorly equipment." - Because I was not fully equipped, goddammit!
"Hoster, why did you trick Zofe and Zofana to kill your father and your sister? Why did you do that! Who are you working for!"
"I didn't know what you were saying, I only chased you because I saw you go out of the Capital, that's all." - Maybe Hoster was trying to fool me, I must dig his mouth all of intel
"Ah, about the thing in my hand, if you are willing to teach me how to operate this "magic tool" then I will reconsider releasing you, tutor John, haha."
"Kiss my ass, the hell I will teach you!"
"Still annoying and headstrong, tch! Bring him to the river over there and "treat" him good until he is willing to open his mouth, now go." - Hoster ordered the attackers and then they held me tight and led me to go to the river
I looked back and saw Hoster was now examining my pistol and then pointing it to a tree nearby as if he was about to shoot the gun, my pistol has been fully loaded and in the fire mode so it could shoot when the trigger was pulled.
"Bang!" - Hoster took a gunshot and was then impressed by how loud and powerful my pistol
Hoster did not follow the attackers, maybe he was enjoying playing with my pistol by pointing it slowly to the tree and then pulling the trigger. The attackers kept grabbing me to an area that looked far a bit from Hoster's position and I saw there was a river alongside it.
Maybe they were about to dip my face under the water to torture me, to force me to explain to Hoster how would a gun work but I would not tell him, I must do something to escape.
"Commander, I see these people did not relate to the Warsaw guards at all, why don't you talk to them a bit?" - Advisor said I must contact the attackers, maybe I should...
"Hey, who are you people? Why did you people attack me and grab me to this place?"
"Should we talk to this guy, Karl?" - An attacker that grabbed me talked to the other one beside him
"Prohibit to talk with the target is not on our contract, we can talk to him, so what do you want, beard man? Want to give up right now?" - Luckily these attackers have willing to talk to me!
"Who are you people?"
"We are the low-class mercenaries, that's all, we fight for money, that rich man hired us to torture you so we are now doing that to earn his money."
Mercenaries? The army that fought for money, I was bringing with me 5.000 Atta coins so I could use that money to give to these mercenaries.
"How much did Hoster pay you people?"
"For all of us are 10.000 Gels, that price is for hiring 60 of us."
"Bah, that price is cheap like shit, what if I say if I pay you mercenaries double the price and you people have to release me?"
"Really, beard man?" - Those mercenaries were now fussing, they were about to be earned much money
"Check my bag from the right side of my back, take that money away, that's 2.000 Attas." - I did not think I would use the money that I gave Zofe and Zofana to pay these mercenaries
The mercenaries immediately took the money bag from my back and loose the rope of the bag to open it, all of the mercenaries were now like the fishes that saw water. Some of them picked up the Atta coins, licked the money and even bit them to check if they were having real money or not.
"Guys! The money is real, not fake, if we converse these coins to Gel currency then we will have 20.000 Gels, we will hold a party tonight!" - The mercenaries said to each other with smiles
"Can you release me and return my weapons now?"
"Ah, of course!" - The mercenaries stopped grabbing me and returned my weapons
"Now go, I will deal with Hoster later, remember to not let him see you people when you are ignoring your duty."
"Thank you very much, beard man! Now go, guys! We are free now!" - The mercenaries ran away from the forest in cheer, I was now alone to deal with this son of a bitch, must teach him a lesson!
I immediately grabbed my weapons and then sneaked behind a tree and peeked out to see if Hoster was coming here or not, I would a secret attack to take my pistol back, I would force Hoster to open his mouth.
I waited for a few seconds and saw a figure that was walking forward the river while holding the empty pistol, that was Hoster, this son of a bitch walked so freely without noticing he was in danger.
Hoster even walked without guarding around, I slowly stared at him to wait for him to go to the river, that was the time Hoster got to the river to see if I have been tortured or not. He seemed very confused because his mercenaries have gone away, I sneaked behind Hoster and then grabbed his head and pressed him rough to a tree nearby.
"I got you now, you son fucking of a bitch." - I pressed Hoster's face tight to the tree and also sealed his hand to not let him resist, I immediately took my pistol
"Where the hell are my people!" - Well, they quit!
"I showed them the way to return their home, now only you and me here."
"Tell me, Hoster! Did you plan to kill your father, your sister? You dare to trick those innocent twins to achieve your goal?"
"I didn't know anything!"
"Bullshit!" - I grabbed Hoster and then smashed his head into the tree, his head has drained out a bit of blood
"I told you the truth, I only stalked you because I saw you go away from the Capital, I want to force you to open your mouth to show me to use your magic weapons, I didn't know anything about the assassination!"
"Tell the truth or I will break some of your teeth, fucker!" - I smashed Hoster's face again into the tree, he was very painful right now but I did not care!
"I swear to the Goddess that I did not know anything!"
"Tch!" - Maybe he was telling the truth, he was too stupid to be the perpetrator, I should not waste my time playing with Hoster
"Get here, get over here, jerk!" - I grabbed Hoster to the river and was about to dip his face down the cold river to "clean" his face
"What are you doing! Please release me!"
"Teach you a bit lesson for messing with me, is it a problem to you? I see I need to teach you a bit."
"Please! Ahh!" - I dipped Hoster's face to the river and held him there for seconds, I would not let this fucker die
"Haah! Please spare me!"
"Can talk then I can't spare your life easy!" - I dipped Hoster to the cold water of the river again and held him there longer
"Haah! Please...spare...me...haah..."
"I will spare you but listen to these words carefully, jerk! I want to teach you a lesson."
"Don't fuck with John Rigen or you will die!" - For some reason, I sensed the word that I yelled out earlier seemed to be a curse or some sort like that
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
"Smash!" - I smashed Hoster's head to a big stone nearby and he went unconscious, I would "ask him to lend his money" a bit to pay for what he had done to me
I searched Hoster's clothes and noticed that he got about 40.000 Gels, I took all of the money and only gave his hand about 100 coins. I ignored Hoster and then cleaned the dirt in my clothes and checked my weapons and later got on my way to investigate again.
...
After a long way to go, I have finally stepped to Rassan village, I think! The village was quite small to me, the wooden houses were in front of my eyes. The village's entrance has no guard like the village located in Jager Kingdom that I forgot its name, I got there to do an Adventurer's quest before.
I walked inside the village and noticed that the villagers were now looking at me but they only bowed toward me and went away, the villagers wore simple tunics and simple dresses. Maybe they noticed that I was wearing noble clothes so they kept my distance from me, the villagers seemed to be a bit skinny but not so pale, they were still healthy in my eyes.
I walked deeper into the village and saw a garden on the right side that seemed to be planted some plants but the plants were growing weaky or something, they grew small as if did not have much nutrition for the plants to grow. I was wondering if this village has ever met lost seasons or not, some villagers kept plowing, planting in the garden as if they were trying to plant the feeding crops.
But the strange thing was that all of the villagers' appearances were very fine though the plants in the garden seemed very weak, maybe I should ignore seeing these commoners with their miserable lives to find the twins' parents. Who should I ask? Maybe I would ask the village elder, I immediately stepped toward a villager who was sitting on a wooden chair to cut the wooden logs with his axe.
"Hey, villager! Do you know where is the village elder? I want to meet him."
"Ah, you noble man! The elder is over there, the white beard man in a black tunic." - The villager pointed his hand forward to a house
I looked and saw there was a white, bald with a white full beard in his black tunic that was standing away from the villager that I asked not so far, that would be the elder of the village.
"Thank you, villager! Return to do your work."
The villager returned to cut the logs and I walked toward the village elder.
"Are you the village elder of this village?"
"Ah, yes! And you noble is...you are the man from the Royal, Sir?" - The village elder greeted me bowing toward me
"No need to bow, I came here from His Majesty's order, I want to ask you a bit."
"Yes, Sir! What do you want to ask me?"
"Do you know where is the household of the maids...village elder, I mean the family that has two twins daughters named Zofe and Zofana?"
"Ah, yes! The family of those girls is over there, Sir!" - The village elder pointed me to the shabby wooden house which was placed at the end of the right side of the village
"Thanks for your cooperation, elder! I will go now." - I walked toward the shabby house
"Yes, Sir!" - The village elder bowed toward me again when I went away
I immediately stepped toward the shabby wooden house, there were two windows to peek inside so I peeked to see the people who were inside the house. Those were an old couple with clothes like the villagers outside, one was a black old woman with long black hair mixed with gray hair, the other was a white old man with short green-haired mixed grey hair.
Those two were Zofana's and Zofe's parents, they seemed aged, about 50 to 60 or more, they were sitting on the chairs drinking water, maybe I should greet them properly.
"Knock! Knock! Knock! Hello, anybody home?" - I knocked on the door and waited for the response
After a few seconds, the door has been opened, the father has come out to greet me.
"Ah, Sir! You are..." - The father bowed toward me and then asked me with a bit of nervous on his face, maybe he was scared when he looked at the Warsaw crest on my chest
"Villager, are you the parent of the maids named Zofe and Zofana?"
"Yes, Sir! They are my daughters, this is their house, did my...did my daughter do something bad to His Majesty, Sir?" - The father was quite scared
"No, no, no! They did nothing, I came here today for His Majesty's request, those maids always said they want to go home to visit their parents."
"Your daughters miss you and their mom so His Majesty has sent me here today on behalf of them to visit you to ask if you two about your health."
"Ah, His Majesty is so kind to us, thank you, Sir!"
"May I go in?"
"Ah, yes! Right away, Sir!" - The father opened the door and let me get inside
When I got inside, the mother also saw me so she stood up slowly to bow toward me, the house was a bit shabby. Maybe this house was quite hard for me to live in but this old couple, they have stayed here for a long time so living in this shabby place was not a problem with them.
"Do you want to drink some water, Sir?" - The mother asked me
"No thanks, I came here today to talk with you two something."
The mother and the father heard me say that so they immediately sat opposite me with tension on their faces, maybe I should calm them down.
"I came here today by His Majesty's order is to ask you two about your healths, you two's daughters kept missing your two so His Majesty has the kindness to send me here, don't be so tense, just talk like normal."
"If...if you say so...Sir." - Both of the old couple bowed toward me to say as if they have understood but their faces were still tense
I should distract this old couple before heading to question them about the assassination.
"How are you two's lives here? Do you two have to stay starved someday?"
"Your daughters always worried about you two when they cannot go home to meet their parents."
"No, Sir! His Majesty is very kind to our people, he never let us starve." - The mother said to me with an expression that seemed to be very real, maybe she did not lie
"Yes, Sir! We are very healthy though our lives are misery when we have to live in our old bodies and do have not enough money to modify our shabby house." - The father said to me
"His Majesty is very kind, he never lows the taxes but he will use the taxes to buy food from foreign Kingdoms for our commoners to eat."
"Our Kingdom is always in the situation of losing season, our agricultural lands are very less and the plants are not enough to provide for all of the people in the Kingdom but His Majesty uses his taxes to buy food from other Kingdoms for us."
"If His Majesty sees any village that has the sign of starvation, he would send guards to the village every morning and the afternoon to provide us free food, he is very kind to us so we never starved."
"Our lives are still very fine, Sir! Our daughters always send us letters to ask about our health but we never wrote a letter to them so they keep sending us letters in nervous."
"We are not educated, Sir! So we don't know how to write or to read."
"We have to use the money that our daughters send from their job in the Palace to us and we use their money to hire a village reader in this village to translate us the letters."
"About hiring someone to write the letters for our daughters, we have to pay a very high price for it, we do not have enough money to hire."
"All of our villagers do not educate and the way to the Capital is very miserable for our old people."
"Only the youths have enough strength to get to the Capital to pay the taxes and our old people have to stay in the village to plant and to wait for them to return."
"But now most of the youths have gone to the Capital to change their lives, only the aged people here in the village, we live by depending on each other." - This old couple at least did not starve, though their lives were still miserable
"Ah, I forgot about this, Sir! How about our daughters? Does Fe or Fana make some trouble while serving their ruler?" - The mother asked me
"Fe, Fana?"
"Ah, Sir! Those are the names of our daughters when we call them at home, are they still well, Sir? Our daughters haven't sent us a letter for a month." - The father asked me
"They are still very well, only too busy at their job."
"Oh, thanks the Goddess that our little angels are still very well." - The mother chanted her hands while sitting on the chair to pray for the Goddess Katia
"Can you two answer me some questions?" - Maybe I should go straight to the point now!
"Ah, yes, Sir! What's this about?" - The father asked me
"Does your house these days have any strangers? That person may cover their face or shows their face to you and come to your house and give you people money or something like that?" - I asked this old couple so risky, shit!
"No, Sir! That's a strange question, what's wrong?" - The father was quite curious now
"Nothing, I mean if this village sometimes has passed by charity people to give you money to help your villagers' lives or not?"
"What's charity, Sir?" - Maybe this other world did not have this definition, the charities have not been founded yet
"You can consider them as the guards that provide you free food but those charity people give you free money to hel your lives."
"I never heard about it, Sir! Sometimes, the Adventurers or merchants come here to stay overnight and go away after paying us the money."
"Sometimes, some of them kind so they gave us some priced things but I never heard or saw the people who came to give us free money."
So there were no people who came here to give this old couple the money. If my deductive was right then the one behind the assassination had somehow tricked Zofana and Zofe to get out of the Palace and fooled them to make the assassination with the promise to give their parents money.
The action of Zofe and Zofana when they rushed outside of the dark alley, maybe they had just newly taken the paper at that time and were rushing to decide should they kill the King and Shera or not earn the money.
That meant the one who gave those twins the paper must be remained in the alley at that time and did not go out yet. And I so lusted for Zofana and Zofe at that time so I didn't notice and let the perpetrator escape, so the perpetrator must be someone in the Palace, that must be Prime Minister.
No, Prime Minister must have many servants below him so he could send them to meet the twins and trick them to kill the King and Shera.
Prime Minister Alt Toten did not need to meet the twins directly because if he did that and the twins did not willing to kill their rulers but declared to the King or Shera then he must be arrested immediately.
Even if Zofe and Zofana were willing to kill the King and Shera but if they failed and got captured both of them. Even if one of the maids were still alive and being tortured to question then Zofe or Zofana would have declared guilty and shown the name of the perpetrator.
The percentage of those twins who would commit suicide by biting their tongues or making some dangerous action to suicide was very low to me. Zofana and Zofe had been fooled to kill their rulers, they would not obey Minister Alt madly, even to die to protect him, poor the maids!
Prime Minister must have thought about the situation if the assassination failed so even if Zofe was still alive. She would not be able to declare the perpetrator's name because she did not know the person that gave her and her older sister the paper.
But I must gather more intel from this old couple to make sure that I did not miss any part of the investigation.
"Do you still keep your daughters' letters, villager?"
"Of course Sir! But why did you...ask me to give you Fana's letters?" - The father asked me, I must find an excuse for it
"I got information that your daughters sent a wrong letter to you, that letter is from a noble and they are mistaken to be their letter."
"That information is not recognized to be true or not so I came here today also with the purpose to check."
"Of course, Sir! I will go to take the letters, some of the letters have been lost but most of the remains are all stored in the small drawer over there." - The mother was about to stand up and go to take the letters but the father suddenly stopped her
"My wife, you are old and also can't look things at far away, let me take the letters for the Sir." - So Zofe, or both of Zofe and Zofana had myopia like their mother, that was from genetics, I guessed
"Thank you, old! Hehe, I wish if both of us can return to our youths, our daughters must be very jealous to see how beautiful I was."
"Our daughters may jealous to see me sticking with you, old! You were very handsome and big at that time, I bet Fana and Fe must fall in love with their father." - Maybe the mother seemed to have a mood to joke
The old couple smiled at each other and then the father walked to the drawer and brought out to me 49 old letters that Zofana wrote to them.
I checked all of the letters carefully, looking at the words and any strange sign symbols on them. The letters were written short, some were bad grammar or wrong words and all mentioned the nervous feeling of both daughters about their parents' health, nothing else.
"Sorry for disturbing, villager! There is no mistaken letter." - I returned the letter to the father
Should I ask the old couple to let me have permission to get inside their daughters' rooms?
"Hey, villager! Can I get into your daughters' rooms?"
"Why, Sir! You have behaved strange, have our daughters done something very wrong in the Palace?" - The father asked me in nervous while the mother panicked
"No, no! They are not, your daughters said they want to take some of their belongings that they missed when they got to the Capital to work."
"Yes, Sir! Follow me." - The father and the mother seemed very suspect my word, maybe they knew what I said to them was a lie but they obeyed me to show me their daughters' rooms
I followed the father to a room located next to the table that we were sitting at earlier, the father opened the door, inside exposed to me a small shabby wooden room that seemed to be abandoned for a long time.
"Fe and Fana stay and share a room, Sir! Our house is very small so this is the only private room in this house, used for our daughters, please check around if you like."
The father walked back to sit with his old wife and I walked inside the twins' room, I checked around all the way I could.
...
10 minutes have passed, I think! No proof in this room that showed the perpetrator or any more clues for this investigation, only some toys like the handmade stuffed bear the parents made for the twins.
I should not stay here anymore, must return to the King to report the result of the investigation.
But I felt that I must have been responsible for Zofe and Zofana, I paid them 2.000 Attas - 20.000 Gels so I must hand the money to their parents, they died for caring for their parents after all, what two devoted daughters.
I got out my money bag and counted until I got out 2.000 Attas to the other bag and then I walked outside of the room and placed the money bag on the table to the surprise of the old couple.
"What is this, Sir?" - The father pulled out the rope and looked inside the bag, he even pulled out an Atta coin to look at it
"Is it...money?"
"Yes, the money is a total of 2.000 Attas, if you go to convert the money to Gel coins then the money will be 20.000 Gels."
"That too much, Sir! With that money, we can develop the village or modify our house but...why did you hand us this much money?" - The mother asked me in shocked
"You two, please listen to me and calm down, this is very sad, please calm down and hear me, please don't be sad after hearing it."
The old couple kept silent to listen to me, they seemed to know something very bad that happened to their daughters.
"Both of your daughters...Zofe and Zofana...have died by illness, they died newly this morning."
"What?" - The father was shocked, he froze with tears flowing out
"No...please tell me that is a joke, Sir!" - The mother also cried, she pressed her head to the table and cried but kept fooling herself that her daughters were still alive
"This money is all I and His Majesty have to make you an apology for you two's daughters' deaths, please take it for me."
"I'm very sorry for talking to you about this bad news, I will go now, I won't disturb you two anymore."
"Ahhhhh!" - The father cried very loud, he fell to the floor, laid there and cried very much
"Fana! Fe!" - The mother was now crying while pressing her face to the table
Fuck! I should not talk to them about this but...they would know about their daughters' deaths sooner or later, I hope the old couple would be able to regain their health and their mentals after this trauma soon.
I opened the door and walked away from the village without looking back at the house, some villagers noticed the cries of the old couple so they ran into their house to comfort them but I kept going forward and ignored them.
I hope Zofana and Zofe would be pleased in heaven when they saw me give their parents the money, that was all I could pay for them.