The Mother and twin daughters stared at the elf for a while, however after seeing no reaction Jue asked, “Do we know how long this is supposed to take?”
Merino shook her head before saying, “Honestly I’m not even certain this will work, the dosage I gave was appropriate for elves according to our neighbor who has met and traveled with some in the past. However the antivenom Tommy gave me is designed for humans and one I have not seen before.”
“At this time all we can do is wait and see if she wakes up.”
After speaking Merno turned and left the room followed by Jue.
Tue gave one last look at the unconscious elf before muttering, “Why did he bring you back here anyway, am I not good enough for him? Idiot.”
Afterwards she also turned and left the room while closing the door behind her.
***
Tommy returned to the Forest Rest, however he did not try to enter via the main entrance this time but instead went down the side of the building to where there a pair of trap doors were embedded in the ground.
Before leaving earlier this morning Merno had told him that she would leave the trap doors leading to the cellar unlocked so that he could sneak into the building through them.
Tommy took a quick look around to make sure the coast was clear before he lifted one of the trap doors and dropped down into the cellar below.
He noticed that Puniz’s corpse was gone and the blood stains had been cleaned up before he went up the stairs and out of the cellar.
As he emerged into the bar area three women turned to look in his direction with surprise before all three gave him beautiful smiles.
“Your back, we were worried after the ground shook.” Jue said happily.
“I’m fine, thanks.” Tommy replied. “I just completed my task.”
“You managed to kill them all so quickly?” Merno asked in surprise.
“What can I say, I’m good at what I do.” Tommy replied with a shrug before asking. “Any news on the elf?”
Tommy noticed that Tue gave a slight pout when he mentioned the elf while Merino shook her head before saying, “I got the dosage amount from our neighbor and administered the antivenom, all we can do now is wait.”
Tommy nodded in understanding before saying, “I’m going to go rest then, I only got a few hours sleep last night with everything that happened and then two young beauties who barged into my room waking me up.”
Jue and Tue both smiled with embarrassment, happy that he addressed them as beauties while embarrassed at how they just barged into a man's room.
Merino chuckled before saying, “I did warn you that they were both worried about you. Anyway go get some rest and we will wake you if the elf’s condition changes or some guards turn up.”
“Speaking off, have they not come and done an inspection yet?” Tommy asked curiously.
“Merno shook her head before replying, “No, though to be fair it’s not very surprising. The security of the city looks good on the outside, however it's actually very lacking.”
“The guards will normally only put in effort into something if they are getting something in return. For a murderer on the loose in the city they probably just gave the impression they were performing a man hunt while actually not doing anything since they don’t want to risk their lives for nothing.”
“Seriously? No wonder drug dealers got away with selling drugs on the street without worry.” Tommy replied with exasperation.
“What do you expect when the streets are basically…. Or should I say used to be run by those criminal leaders.” Merno replied.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
(I guess that’s why all those guards backed down so easily before.)
((Were sure it probably has something to do with how our gun killed them so quickly, but yeah if Merno is right, they probably didn’t really want to be there in the first place and the captain was just forcing them since he would likely get a reward from catching us.))
“Understood.” Tommy said before turning and heading out of the bar to get some rest.
Merino noticed how her two daughters watched him leave with a slight look of desire, something she didn’t realize appeared on her own face as she turned to watch Tommy leave.
***
“What do you mean my forge is gone?” Erden asked disbelievingly.
“I’m afraid it's as I said master Erden, almost everything inside the building has somehow vanished without a trace from your forge hearth with the bellows to all your other equipment, minerals and even those items you had on display.” Replied the guard who had been tasked to go retrieve all the items Eden requested.
“How is something like that possible?” Erden asked in despair.
“There are two possibilities that could account for this situation from my understanding.” The guard began. “First is the use of teleportation magic to move them elsewhere, however I can’t understand why they would waste so much time and effort to move everything of value while leaving the building behind, it would be much simpler just to transport the entire structure and its contents.”
“The second and more likely scenario is that the person in question stored everything away in a magic bag. As I’m sure you're aware, just the most basic magic bags cost more than an average citizen can afford, while the more their storage capacity increases the more expensive they become. I would surmise that the person in question’s magic bag’s storage capacity was great enough to fit the forge hearth and everything else inside, however it was not large enough to fit the entire building, after all only the imperial family and the dukedoms are known to possess such magic bags.”
“FIND THE BASTARD, FIND HIM AND RETRIEVE MY FORGE AT ALL COSTS.” Erden yelled in anger before he slumped back on the chair.
(Why, why did I never consider this possibility, where did I go wrong?)
***
“Could you repeat that Mii?” Tinen asked Glador’s concubine that was currently licking her feet.
“Of course, my queen.” Mii replied after giving Tinen’s foot one last lick with a look of pleasure. “As I was satisfying the king's pathetically small cock, his assistant arrived to report on the investigation that recently happened at Erden’s forge. Apparently after questioning all the city guards that attended the recent incident at master Erden’s forge, they have been able to determine what actually happened and as you suspected my queen, master Erden was not entirely truthful,”
“It seems master Erden did indeed go speak with the guard captain at the local barracks claiming to have information regarding who killed Yua Huang. However he agreed with the guard captain that if they could get their hands on this new weapon first, the king would most likely reward them greatly for enhancing the kingdom's military might.”
“Erden probably also expected that shrivel dick to offer him the chance to examine and attempt to reverse engineer this weapon since he is one of the empire's top blacksmiths.” Tinen commented as Mii returned to licking her foot with relish.
“What’s going on exactly?” Tirma asked with a mixture of embarrassment and curiosity as she watched Glador’s concubine willingly licking Tinen’s feet.
“You have much to learn little Tirma since you have agreed to join our faction.” Tinen said.
Chelna rolled her eyes before saying.” This woman who is fathers concubine is actually a spy working for mother that she arranged to become his concubine.”
“How is that even possible?” Tirma asked.
“It’s quite simple,” Tinen answered before explaining. “ I learnt what that shrivel dick likes in a woman quickly after our marriage, so I arranged for Mii here, who would meet his fancy to cross paths with him.”
“When I was still a girl, younger than you are now, I quickly learnt what my role was to play in the imperial family, I knew that one day I would be married off to someone in a political marriage or as some reward, simply put I would not be allowed to marry someone of my choosing.”
“I was not happy with this however I also knew I had no power to go against the will of my father, so instead I promised myself that I would not allow the same thing to happen to my own daughter I would one day have.”
“With that thought in mind I along with a few close female friends such as your mother arranged the creation of a secret order that rescues the homeless women on the streets that no one cares about.
“In exchange for saving them from a life on the streets and promising them that they will live in comfort they must pledge their loyalty to us via a magical binding oath and become our spies.”
“After pledging themselves to us we found loyal teachers to teach them how to read and write, how to do math, how to behave and act like a proper lady in public and a whore in the bedroom.”
“We collected women of all types from all over the empire and trained them before subtly arranging for them to cross pass with powerful, rich and wealthy men, as long as the man was powerful enough or important enough to be privy to confidential or private information.”
“With this we now have spies that often sleep in the same bed as these men reporting back their activities and plots.”