Following Ryuji’s announcement about the nature of fingerprints, looks of awe and sudden comprehension bloomed on the faces of everyone there at the barracks. The whole group marched over to the other barracks. The suspect refused to let them take his fingerprints and caused a big commotion. By the time Ryuji arrived in the room, the man was unconscious and leaning on the table. Ryuji didn’t ask any questions; he just dusted the man’s fingers in the black powder and rolled them one at a time over the tacky paper.
As soon as he was done, he handed the sheet to a guard that was waiting for it. It took the man less than three minutes to find a perfect match on all three pages. The guards all cheered and the unconscious merchant was dragged off to one of the holding cells. Suddenly Ryuji found himself surrounded by guards yelling things like: “How did you do that, How did you know all those things, and wow are you ever smart.”
As embarrassed as he was, he still took that opportunity to explain to all of the guards about fingerprints. He then cautioned them that most fingerprints that could be pulled up would be too poor to use but sometimes you would get lucky. He told them that most prints wouldn’t be whole and cautioned them that prints could be planted but it was hard to do so unless it was a high noble or royalty being accused it probably wouldn’t happen.
He also got asked by several people how to make the powder and the paper but that he refused to tell. Instead, he told them that if they needed any that they could just order some from Potions and Such wizarding shop. They all clamored to find out how he knew it was there and were all stunned speechless when he told them that he was Dorn’s new apprentice wizard.
He left the barracks in a great mood but then he remembered the murdered woman and he got depressed. At least the sorry bastard won’t be getting away this time, He told himself. He started to feel a bit better when he remembered that he had also made progress on protecting the local children from drowning. “Now I just need to get a certain family of beastfolk settled into a new store and then I can settle down and concentrate on my wizard studies.” A few minutes later it started raining and Ryuji cursed and ran to the inn.
Later, at the Duke’s Estate
Sitting in an elaborate but well-padded desk-chair behind a huge ornate desk covered in papers and a few scrolls and maps was a single man. This man had the bearing of a high noble that he had trained since birth to go with his buff physique and handsome good looks. His stature was the result of many years of military service. A military that he would still be a part of if not for a severe shoulder injury that prevented him from being able to swing a sword.
This man was of course the Duke of the city of Lyrill, Duke Alfonse Reynold Ars Lyrill. He was a handsome man in his early forties with short bob of brown hair and unnerving hazel eyes. Normally he perpetually wore a slight scowl owing to the pressures of running one of the larger walled cities in the Tzho’off kingdom and from the usual flow of depressing news coming from the ever-present warfront that was alarmingly close to his fair city.
This day, however, found the duke in a quite jovial mood, despite the foul weather outside the window. In front of the duke stood one of his guard captains, a man named Krass or something. The duke made a mental note not to try using the man’s name till he made sure he knew what it was and prepared to throw forth a barrage of questions as he gazed once again at the astonishing report in his hand.
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“Are you certain of the information in this report? This seems a bit… no this seems entirely too good to be true! Did we really catch the killer? He’s actually in our custody right now? And we know for sure we got the right man?
As guard captain Kraise nodded with a huge grin on his face the duke continued. “but how? Did he finally mess up and get caught committing a murder? Did somebody credible see it happen?”
Kraise looked a little nervous and scratched his hair looking off to the side as he replied. “No milord, the killer was actually caught using a new method. I detailed all of it in the report. I daresay that I’m not the best choice to explain this new method but it involves fingerprints. It was shown to us by the new young wizard who’s apprenticing with the old wizard in town.”
Duke Lyrill had a bemused expression on his face. He wasn’t sure he heard that quite right. He had known Dorn Firefist for a long time, including serving with the stubborn old mage during his time in the military. It was for that reason that the old guy had come to him when he retired from the military. The duke was only too happy to find a good spot for him to open a wizarding shop in town, although, he had really hoped at the time that the old man would begin training wizards that he could send to the warfront. Instead, the stubborn old coot had refused every potential mage that came his way claiming that none of them had any talent for wizardry.
It had been… the duke cringed at the realization that it was about fifteen years ago that his old war buddy had come to him. He lamented the gray in his beard and hair every time he saw his reflection and this only served to remind him of how old he was getting. Still, to think that Dorn would take on an apprentice after what the duke had heard was fifty years of refusing. This guy must be quite amazing to convince the stubborn old coot to teach him.
The duke began reading the report in hand again and finally got to the part about the new wizard. Something caught his attention; the wizard was a sun elf named Ryuji. Where had he heard that name? It had been something recent. The duke set about tearing through the piles of paper on his desk until he was holding the offending report.
It was a transfer of ownership rights report from the tax office. The new owner of the property was listed as Lord Ryuji. That was a bit strange, why was this one named as lord? He looked pointedly at the captain. “Was this elf a noble by chance?”
The captain looked a little startled at first and just nodded his head. Then he looked pensive for a moment until realization dawned on him. “I suppose I did forget to mention that in my report. You see milord, sir Ryuji asked that I not address him as a noble because he lost his memory. I did mention that in brief in my request to let the guards teach swimming lessons for the citizens but that was several days ago.”
As the captain mentioned it the memory surfaced about that report as well and a smile spread over the duke’s face. He had just gotten a great idea. He beckoned the captain over as he pulled a fresh sheet of letterhead and drew his quill from the inkwell.
A quarter candlespan later Captain Kraise was standing in the tax office delivering the duke’s letter. The woman in the office looked utterly bewildered as she read the note. She checked the authenticity of the seal but then she remembered that one of the captains of the guard had personally delivered it and looked back at the man. He looked like he was waiting for something. “Tell the duke that I will be certain to fulfill his request.”
At her words, the captain gave a shallow bow and exited the office. Aleen sat back in her deep cushioned armchair and took the cup of tea that the butler offered to her. How was she going to find him? The duke had ordered it so there was no question of whether, it was only a matter of how. She would have to find lord Ryuji but how? Then she remembered that he wanted to buy another piece of property and she sat back in her chair and relaxed. She only needed to wait for him to come back, there was the other part but surely, she could enjoy her tea before rushing into that.