"Are you insane? Why the hell are we letting that guy go?" Tibaut asked, becoming visibly irritated.

"As much of a mean-looking bastard he is, there's nothing concrete about his crimes. That's the whole reason we're here in the first place." O'Reilly responded.

Grace had a finger on her chin and tilted her head. "What do you mean? He's obviously their leader and who else would order them to attack?"

O'Reilly had a hand over his face and looked dejected as she said this. He sighed before he responded.

"We've already discussed this with our local judge but he said just believing he's responsible and the fact he leads his current group isn't enough evidence to get him locked up."

"Current Group?" Tibaut asked.

"Yeah, the thing is he'd call those in there with him the Loch Independence Society. However, when his possible lackeys start attacking the lord they make sure to clearly call themselves the Wrath of Lochmull. We all know they're the same bunch but if he brought the case to a judge outside the parish we'd be shit out of luck and he'd walk scot-free."

"What about the women? Surely you have proof for that?" Tibaut asked.

O'Reilly shook his head, and one of his men responded.

"We know women are disappearing but we've never seen the act happen and the assailants always make sure to wear clothes that hide their identity. The last time it happened, we followed these bastards around and somehow the next day, the town they had visited the night previously had some of their women stolen. We were fucking fools to think they wouldn't notice us."

"Damn, so they have a group purely for kidnapping?"

"Seems as much," O'Reilly commented.

"So what do we do?"

"I think it's obvious," Grace commented. Tibaut turned his attention to her. "They're just gonna stand guard here and make sure they don't cause any trouble."

"Hu-what? What does that solve?"

"Nothing," O'Reilly commented with a painful look on his face. It was as if he was forced to swirl a razor blade in his mouth before spitting it out. "But that's all we can do. Just hope the bastard makes a mistake somewhere. Anywho, we'll be spread around the village making sure everything is in order."

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With that he turned away and most of the guards scattered around town with one staying in the same general area as Tibaut.

"Tch, for looking like a muscle head, he does make sure to cover his ass." Tibaut bitterly commented.

"Come on, there's no use sulking over this. How about we explore the town for a bit." She said cheerily.

Tibaut looked around. Houses and more houses. With the occasional stable to spice things up.

"What's there to do?" He asked.

She looked around as well and remembered the only place of interest they encountered so far was the bar.

"Hmm. We can play dice again."

"That was a quick pivot."

Tibaut had no intentions of having a hundred-game win streak again so he decided to explore the village in the meanwhile. Grace decided to follow him along.

The lack of people walking around, especially women, really cemented how people felt about that Cormac guy. He soon bumped into O'Reilly and asked him a question.

"Where the hell are the police here? I've been walking for some time and I haven't seen any in that uniform (Well technically armour) you're wearing besides the men you brought with you."

"Well…" He looked around and lowered his voice. "It's a bit of an open secret, lad, but you see those men walking around in tunics and trousers?"

He looked at a man walking.

"Yeah?"

"Well, with this whole kidnapping business, most of the force has decided to stay in their own villages and keep a lookout. That bloke over there is just off duty."

"Oh, so they're staying home to protect their own," Grace commented.

"Shh, don't say it like that. While I don't agree with it, we reached the decision months ago since we were already being stretched thin."

Tibaut gritted his teeth and didn't say anything. After waving he continued walking around Grace.

"What bastards. I honestly wouldn't wrong these guys if they decided to lynch them in the bar."

"As long as I get to see that big guy suffer, I'm all for it," Grace commented.

After enough time passed it was starting to get dark, the men in the bar finally decided to leave and made a huge ruckus as they did so.

One of the officers came up to Tibaut when this happened and told him what they were gonna do.

"A few of us and the old man O'Reilly will be tailing them. You stay here with the ones left back and watch out for any shady bastards." With that said he quickly left.

"Well, looks like we're not going to sleep anytime soon," Tibaut commented.

"Come on, let's go to the bar already, they've emptied out so let's see if there's anything left."

"Well…" With the moonlight as the only source of light and it sometimes being blotted out by the clouds, he decided he could take a break and ask the barkeep if he had a torch he could borrow before going back outside.

"Fine, just make sure we don't take too long."

He saw others with torches outside and at least felt confident he'd hear something if trouble occurred.

The light from the bar almost blinded Tibaut from the brightness and Grace ran in like a kid in a toy store. She immediately had all her joy drained when she was told no liquor was left.