Chapter 20: Journey into the Hills
“Oh, I’m sure your fellow adventurer is quite innocent.”
“Of course!” Vulp shouted.
“Want to know why I think that?”
Vulp hesitated, not wanting to say anything that would somehow draw more attention to Lupy. “Okay…”
“Do you see how one of those ax wounds is different from the other two?”
Vulp visually inspected the three wounds again from afar looking for any obvious features or omissions that varied between the corpses. Eventually, she admitted she wasn’t sure. “No, they all just look like axe wounds.”
“Hm, I see.” He pulled a wooden pipe out of his pocket, loaded a material of some sort, and ignited it using magic. After taking a few puffs, he continued, “The key to investigating murders like this is to reenact the murder in your mind. You need to be able to visualize how the damage was dealt by studying the body and the surroundings carefully. Look at that guy again.” He pointed at one of the corpses.
Vulp stared for a while and eventually shared a new idea. “The ax came down from above?”
“Very good! Quite perceptive, Vulp. Two of these ruffians took axes to the face, but one took an ax to the top of the head. Of course, anything is possible, but most likely the third person was killed by a second, taller assailant.”
Vulp could hear some of the surrounding guards muttering, likely because this conclusion had not occurred to them. They were probably also frustrated that a little girl figured it out before they did.
“Vulp, do you know anyone else who likes to fight with axes besides your friend? Especially, anyone who has joint combat experience with her?”
Vulp shook her head, being entirely honest. The only other ax-user she could think of was that minotaur Lupy was able to…
The retainer noticed Vulp’s very sudden change in facial expression. “Hm? Think of something?”
Vulp internally panicked, not wanting to give anything away in case Lupy actually did commit these killings. “N—No… I was just thinking some monsters fight with axes…” She hoped that was close enough to the truth not to get her into trouble without being traceable to Lupy or anyone else.
“Monsters? In the city?”
“Y—Yeah. That would be scary.”
“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time,” the man admitted. “People have done many strange things over the years. We’re not as bad as the Empire, but we’ve had some people try to deal in monsters. I once even heard of someone trying to put a slave collar on a monster.”
“Would that work?” Vulp asked, a bit worried that DM could possibly be susceptible.
“No idea. Not my problem. Anyway, I think it’s safe to say there were two killers, a short one and a tall one. The wounds suggest similar style axes were used. Oh, now for the exciting part.”
“Exciting?” Vulp tilted her head.
“What do you think we should do with this new information we learned?”
“Tell the city guard so they know who to be on the lookout for?” she guessed.
“Not at all. The last thing we want is for the culprits to know we are searching for a pair of two, one short and one tall, bearing axes. There’s probably no way to prevent leaking the fact we’re looking for people brazen enough to leave all three bodies just sitting out where they fell.”
“What about the guards who heard our whole conversation?”
“You just leave them to me,” he replied in a sinister voice. Then, he then walked around to the several guards within earshot, bribing them to keep quiet, all in service to the Lord, of course.
“Do I get something?” She figured it was worth a shot.
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That evening, the five girls met up at their inn to compare notes and plan for the coming days. At Vulp’s insistence, they started with Lupy explaining exactly what happened to those three thugs. Bandit already knew, and Vulp had more or less figured it out. Once the details were out, they discussed what to do about the situation.
“Lupy, you need to keep your minotaur secret,” Kat advised.
“Aren’t all of our monsters a secret?” she countered.
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“Yes, but yours for sure! If they figure out that you and a minotaur are walking around with axes, they’ll figure it out!”
“But I didn’t do anything wrong. They attacked me and I fought them. So what?”
Kat hesitated to respond, not sure what the best answer was, so Vulp helped her.
“Lupy, the problem is that you just walked away and didn’t report it to the town guard or anyone else.”
“So?”
“That makes you look guilty.”
“But it’s their fault! They should report it!”
Shiba wondered aloud, “How would three dead bodies report anything?”
“Can’t you make them into zombies?” was Bandit’s retort.
“That’s different!” Shiba argued. “I’ve only made a rat zombie so far.”
“Can rat zombies even talk?” Lupy asked her, changing the subject.
“What? Of course not!” answered Shiba. “Even if I made a person into a zombie, I don’t know if they could talk…”
“We’re getting off topic…” said Vulp.
“Didn’t that Harold guy say not to make people into zombies?” asked Kat.
“Yeah, but he’s really weird,” Shiba explained. “He’s really against some things but totally okay with other things. I don’t think we should go by what he says is okay or not okay. When I’m ready, I’ll try making other types of zombies too.”
Vulp buried her face into her hands.
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Eventually, the girls got back on track and they all agreed to keep as quiet as possible about Lupy’s ax usage as well as her ability to summon an ax-wielding minotaur. The Lord’s staff seemed to already know about Lupy, and she was gaining some notoriety as a dual-wielding ax warrior, so to some extent the cat was already out of the bag.
They discussed several other topics as well. Bandit explained her current mission in detail to the other girls, including the fact that she was off on a mission with her target tomorrow. She already knew she was higher level and likely more skilled in combat, so she wasn’t particularly worried about him victimizing her, but it was always possible he would try something underhanded like ganging up on her or using a secret weapon or something like that. Bandit agreed to be extra careful throughout. They all figured in the worst case DM could probably rescue her.
Shiba provided a more detailed account of her necromancy training under Harold. Kat summarized her studies at the Church. Vulp explained how her introduction to noble society was going. With the exception of Lupy’s recent violent run-in and lack of anything to do when the girls weren’t adventuring, everything seemed to be going smoothly.
They thought back to DM and the two dungeons. DM didn’t have a good way to send word to them whenever something new happened. They trusted him and knew he was quite capable of defending his dungeons, but they still worried a bit when they were away for too long. Also, they wanted to visit him in the dungeon whenever the opportunity came up. After all, they all agreed to work for him. Having to keep their connection to the dungeon a secret was becoming increasingly inconvenient.
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The next morning, Bandit proceeded to the Guild alone. Lupy was available to join her, but to support Bandit’s mission, and also because of her need to lay low for now, she stayed behind.
While pretending to read postings on the request board, Bandit encountered her target.
“Nina, are you ready?”
“Don’t we need to choose a request?”
“Oh, I already know which one we will do. Let’s go to the counter.”
Alarm bells were ringing in Bandit’s head. He already knew the request but didn’t say anything yesterday? That seemed odd. On the bright side, him acting suspicious was good for Bandit. Although it would be nice of this guy was actually totally innocent, that would just mean the guilty party was somewhere else, likely victimizing others.
As a pair, their mission would be to forage and hunt small animals in the hills west of the Lower Gordu Forest. The clerk hesitated to register the two, but Bandit wasn’t sure why. Ultimately, they departed and began their mission without issue.
Traveling on foot, the journey to their area would likely take all day. They’d camp, hunt and forage for the next day, and then return on the third day.
After their lunch break, as they continued walking, he asked Bandit a somewhat awkward question.
“May I feel your tail?”
The circumstances here were weird. On the one hand, Bandit didn’t really care who touched her tail so long as they didn’t hurt her. She had a developing vague sense, as she grew older, that it was probably wrong to let just anyone touch it, but that didn’t seem like a big deal to her, or at least not yet.
The problem was that she had initiated her mission by playfully rubbing her tail against her target as she walked past. If she suddenly acted like her tail was totally off-limits now, it would seem suspicious. Although she was leaning towards just allowing him to touch it, her hesitation must have been obvious based on what he said next.
“Is there a problem with letting someone touch your tail?” His voice was a bit colder than it had been previously, although Bandit still wouldn’t go so far as to find it disconcerting.
“No…” Perhaps feeling even a bit more reluctant now, in the spirit of her mission, she stopped walking and turned her tail towards him.
He also stopped and reached out with one hand to gently pet it. “I see. I don’t think I ever touched a raccoon tail before.”
“Oh.” She suddenly found the whole thing a bit creepy, but they proceeded on like nothing had happened. She still wasn’t sure whether this guy was evil incarnate or just good at creating somewhat weird situations.
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When they arrived at their destination, Bandit and her target encountered a group of other male adventurers hunting.
“Hey! What brings you here?” one of them asked the arriving pair.
“Nina here and I are on a mission. What about you guys?” Clearly, they already knew each other, leaving Bandit as the odd-girl out. Quietly using her sensing magic, she could tell they were all about the same level as her target. She found the circumstances incredibly suspicious.
“Nina, is it? So, we were completing requests up in the Union and a mission brought us down here across the border for a bit. It’s lucrative. You want in?”
“How lucrative?”
Bandit kept quiet while her partner discussed terms with the other group. Apparently, their mission was high-paying and low risk provided the adventurers didn’t mind doing a whole bunch of traveling over a short period of time.
“And?” One of them asked, not tipping Bandit off to what his actual question was.
“I’d say an eight,” Bandit’s partner replied.
“That’s soft!”
“Well, your mission pays much better than ours. You sure it’s okay for us to join up with you mid-request?”
Bandit noticed how she wasn’t even being consulted in any of this.
“Yeah, that shouldn’t be a problem. We’re just finishing up here though so we’ll need to set out at first light. We’ve still got stuff to do along the route back north.”
Finally, he turned to Bandit. “Sound good?”