The moment Kelsey got far enough away from Whitebranch to feel somewhat safe, she stopped running, leaned over, and vomited for the second time that night.
I fucking killed someone... I murdered her...
Now that her adrenaline was gone, and she was no longer in such a stressful situation, tears began falling from her eyes in an uninterrupted stream. She couldn't stop them, didn't want to stop them. Her heart was pounding, and she wasn't able to calm down enough to enter meditation. She breathed in rapid gulps of air, her chest tightened, and she began to feel like she was suffocating. Her mind was completely consumed with the image of the woman's headless corpse, blood draining from the neck. The look of her lifeless eyes staring at her with hate.
I could have waited... I should have stalled... If I had just waited, Theo would have come and stopped her without killing her...
No. Kelsey thought as she slapped herself, trying to gain control of her rampaging emotions. That woman was complicit. She was just as much at fault as Bertrand or the Viscount... She was a threat... I had no way of knowing that someone would be coming through that portal a few minutes later. She deserved to die, they all deserved to die...
The things those bastards did to those people... I should have wiped them off the face of the planet... Scattered their limbs across the city... Paraded their corpses down the streets...
As the violent thoughts passed through her mind, Kelsey reeled. The shock of having those thoughts instantly refocused her mind, helping her to think more clearly.
I'm not some cold-blooded murderer. I tried to talk her down from attacking me. I gave her the option. At that point it was self-defense.
Kelsey breathed in a deep calming breath, finally entered meditation and cleared her mind completely, letting her heartrate settle.
She felt a strange mixture of emotions as she exited her meditation. One on hand, she was happy that she was able to free so many men, women, and children from their captivity, and that the people responsible were hopefully going to get punished for their crimes. On the other hand, she had no guarantees the government of Whitebranch and Cardona will follow through with seeking justice.
Theo was another wild card. There was always a chance he was involved and would simply hide the documents away, never letting them see the light of day. But she had to trust Gregory. If Theo was the Classer he sent, he was probably trustworthy. If he wasn't the Classer Gregory sent... she was screwed... But he didn't simply kill her outright, which was probably a good sign. He was so much stronger than her it would have been trivial for him to have killed her, hidden the body, and claimed she ran away. The fact that she was still alive was extremely good evidence that he wasn't involved.
She turned her attention back inside and examined her emotions. Kelsey realized that she didn’t really regret what she had done, she was just sad that she had been forced to do it. Now that she had taken some time to sit and think, she felt that she was dealing with the shock from killing someone much better than she would have anticipated. Maybe it’s the Willpower attribute? It does say something about assisting in regulating emotion.
It wasn’t like she didn’t care, she felt deeply upset about taking someone’s life, but she was able to push past it now that she had spent a few minutes calming herself.
She had wanted to avoid killing anyone at all when she set out, but she couldn't risk the young boy's safety on a slim chance that she could take the woman down without killing her. She had tried it once, and it hadn't gone that well.
As she walked, her thoughts moved from the night itself, to how something like this had been allowed to happen in the first place. People started disappearing from the slums, the mayor takes note of it and charges the captain of the guard to look into the problem... Weeks go by, nothing is being done and the kidnappings just become more frequent. At this point, the mayor, nor the captain of the guard issue a contract to the adventurer's guild to look into the kidnappings... Why?
I get back from my trip, discover that the guards don't believe the refugees, despite the fact that all of them are making the same claims... That can only mean that someone above them has given them conflicting information, and they believed whoever their superior was over the refugees of a different city... That does still make sense... Wouldn't the captain of the guard wouldn't have found-- The captain of the guard... it's them... they're the missing link.
Kelsey's mind began racing as she realized what must be the answer. The Captain of the Guard themselves absolutely must have been involved. The mayor goes to the captain of the guard, tells them to look into the issue. The captain tells all of their subordinates not to look into the kidnappings, and that they aren't actually happening, that the refugees are lying.
If the mayor said he wanted to post a bounty to the guild, all the captain would have had to do was say they were getting closer, and it would be a waste of resources, or some other such nonsense.
Everything began falling into place as Kelsey connected the dots. The Viscount's job was to delay the refugee's entrance to the city, because once they were within the walls, kidnapping them would become all but impossible. Bertrand must have been their lookout, choosing the targets... Who the hell was that woman then? Just a hired mercenary? No. It's likely that she was the Captain of the Guard herself. There couldn't have been that many people involved. The more people involved, the higher likelihood someone makes a mistake.
Kelsey began pacing on the road, trying to think as carefully as she could. Filtering back everything Thadius had ever said to her about the government of Whitebranch, hoping to find the new missing link. Sadly, it wasn't much, and that line of thinking was clearly going to be a dead end. She didn't even know if the captain was a man or a woman.
Now, she had to figure out what she wanted to do. With the Captain of the Guard's involvement being almost certain, she had to make a decision. Did she go back, and risk being arrested for killing Emelia, or did she continue traveling towards The Trial, trusting the town to deal with it.
After half an hour of consideration, she landed on the option of neither. During the day, this road would likely be packed with travelers. She was nearly certain that one of them would know the name of the Captain of the Guard. Now that the prisoners were freed, and there was a good chance the culprit was already dead, she decided not to rush into anything, and wait patiently.
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Deciding to push the thoughts of the night out of her mind, Kelsey stood up and began moving back towards Whitebranch. She would only get close enough that she would be certain to find some travelers coming from that direction in the morning.
Kelsey set up camp a few meters off the road and laid down for an extremely tumultuous night of rest. Her mind was still racing, and she was unable to calm herself enough to fall asleep properly, but even a bad rest was better than no rest.
The morning sun pierced through Kelsey's tent, waking her from her light slumber. She instantly heard the sound of horse's hooves on the nearby cobblestone road, her heartrate skyrocketing with anticipation.
She quickly got dressed and exited the tent.
The people riding the horses were still close and Kelsey could see that they had on the uniform of Whitebranch guards.
Perfect.
"Hello! Excuse me! Guards! Come here please!" she shouted, trying to make her voice loud enough to be heard over the sound of the horses.
As she shouted, one of the guards heard her and tapped his partner on the shoulder. They both turned around and looked at Kelsey before calmly riding towards her.
"How can we help you, ma'am." one of the guards asked.
Kelsey smiled at them as warmly as she was able. "I just had a quick question. You two are from Whitebranch, right? Can you tell me the name of the Captain of the Guard?" she asked.
Both guards looked at her quizzically, and sternly. "Why do you ask?" the other guard asked seriously, her voice extremely sharp.
Promising...
"No reason, just curious... actually..." she said trying to look embarrassed. "I am thinking about joining the guards. I've been adventuring for too long and want to take a break." she said in what she hoped was a bashful way.
The guards glanced at each other and nodded. "Her name was Emelia Whitil... she was killed last night." the first guard said somberly. "It seems that she was involved in some pretty bad stuff... not a good woman, as it turns out."
Kelsey smiled inwardly; her instinct had been right. "Oh no! That's terrible. I guess I won't be joining the guard then... how's the adventurer's guild in Whitebranch?" she asked, hopefully diverting their attention.
They answered her honestly, saying that it was a good guild, but didn't have many, if any, high level contracts. She continued asking questions, trying her best to make them forget she had ever asked about the captain. Eventually, she ran out of questions and thanked them. They quickly moved their horses away and continued down the road.
As soon as they got out of sight, Kelsey walked over to her tent and stored it in her vault. Now that she knew Emelia was in fact the captain, she had no real reason to go back to Whitebranch, she was sure the mayor would handle it. Thadius and Gregory were both still in the city and were aware of Kelsey's involvement. There was no way they would let the people responsible walk without putting up a huge fight.
Now, it was time for her to focus on herself.
With that decision made, Kelsey activated her teleport rapidly and passed the two guards, giving herself enough distance between them that she was able to slow down and think about her next steps.
First things first, I need to get to The Trial. Then, I need to get as strong as possible as fast as I can. If I had been stronger, maybe I would have been able to help those people without having had to resort to killing.
The entrance to The Trial was over 1500 kilometers away, and at her normal pace, that would take Kelsey around 30 days of walking about 10 hours a day. She was planning on walking at a completely normal human speed, wanting to spend some time enjoying the scenery. Plus, she had some books to read and some skills to learn.
During the day there were dozens of people in front of her and behind her at all times. They were merchants, farmers, and travelers walking between villages or making their way to different towns or cities. She also saw her fair share of patrolling guards at frequent intervals who were clearly there to deter things like banditry and theft. The road she was traveling on directly after leaving Whitebranch was called the North King’s Road and it spanned from the south of Whitebranch all the way to the southernmost point in Cardona. She wasn’t going to be following it the whole way, but she would be on it for at least the next 10 days or so.
Seeing this many people on the road was new for Kelsey. When she had been traveling north with Owen and Lisa, there hadn't been any travelers. Likely because there was very little to the north. According to Owen and Lisa, there used to be a larger northern population, but the entire area was wiped out a couple hundred years ago by an Immortal tier Ice Wyvern before any adventurers were able to slay it. The idea that an entire civilization could come crumbling down because of one monster was a troubling thought.
As Kelsey walked, there was one thing that stood out to her more than anything else; the vast untouched landscape of Anoura was breathtaking. She was walking on cobbled roads, yet the beautiful wilderness still felt like it surrounded her. Thanks to the guards, she never felt like she was in danger as she could tell that each of them were equivalent to a Gold rank or higher based on the necklaces they were wearing. Must be a pretty high paying job if it’s enough to convince Gold rankers to take it. She mused as she followed a group of guards who were all laughing and joking with one another as they patrolled.
Something else interesting stood out to Kelsey as well. As she passed through small towns and villages, she found that the average level was much higher than she was used to, or, more likely, people were just much more open with the power they had. They were significantly less worried about people knowing their levels and she even saw some villagers with their levels and classes completely unhidden. She frequently saw people using their skills in broad daylight. From people using air magic to dry clothes, to people using fire magic to start cook their food. Magic and skills were everywhere.
Why is Whitebranch so... different?
While traveling, at least a few times a day she would see someone rushing along the road at full combat speeds. That was something she had never seen in Whitebranch. She had never seen a single person using their skills or moving at anything but normal human speeds in public. Thanks to her domain she had been able to see people use their skills and such in the privacy of their homes, but never in front of other people. It was quite a drastic difference.
Each night, Kelsey set up camp a little way off the road and studied her new books that Thadus had recommended to her. The one she started with first was the one she was most interested in, the book on Identify. She already had the skill, but Thadius had recommended she buy it anyway. She wasn’t interested in the skill itself, but she was curious why he had thought it was important to include that one specifically.
She quickly figured out his reasoning. Most of what was in the book she already knew. But there was a small section near the end of the book that talked about a theory that some scholars had; that there was a way to evolve the Identify skill. The book said that there were stories that mentioned something called the Magus’ Eye and it was supposedly able to bypass the defenses from sentient creatures as well as ignore level differences in monsters. It also mentioned that there were many class skills that could pierce a hidden level, but it was theorized that the Magus’ Eye was a general skill that anyone could acquire. If that were true, it would be one of the most useful general skills in existence, and everyone would be taught it. The fact that everyone didn't know it, made Kelsey think that it probably wasn't possible.
That didn't mean she wasn't going to try.