Chapter 13: Confrontations

“You’re back, and so soon too,” Milanda said without looking up from the paper she was reading.

“Yes,” Finn said and took Fendrin's diary from my hands before I could react. He leaned an elbow against the woman's desk and placed the book softly in front of her. “We need to talk to the chief guard as we have crucial evidence to take down the necromancer plaguing this town.”

She looked up now, right into his eyes. I saw one corner of her lips tilt just slightly up but the rest of her face didn't move, as if it wasn't by the movement of muscle but by some other means.

Creepy.

“He's in the big office in the back,” She went back to reading a paper.

“Thank you,” Finn took the book off the table and waved for us to follow him. “Let's go meet our lovely town captain.”

“But,” Milanda said, letting her word hang for just a moment too long. “I would suggest cleaning first. You all reek.”

Gronan took out of his backpack the flask of cleansing wash. “We’ll have to be conservative,” He went to open the flash.

“Absolutely not in here,” Milanda commanded. “Outside.”

“You heard the woman,” He said. We followed him out of the building. Opening the flask, Gronan poured a small bit into his hand and then rubbed it over his head and clothes. Like magic, the noticeable grime was wiped away, much of it spilling away onto the ground. We each took turns and by the end, we were all clean. Even so, when I took a whiff of my armpits, I knew that we weren’t fully clean. But it would have to do with the circumstances.

We went back inside and then down the hallway that I had suspected to look like a cop movie. It turned out that idea was correct as we came to a room of over a dozen cubicles, each with a few papers. There were several guards, dressed in all-black clothing with no armor, writing what I assumed were reports at their desks. It really was like an Earth police station, just with large lanterns instead of LED lights, no computers, and an ink-and-quill instead of pencils and pens.

There was a room in the back that had a large window, inside of which was a large desk with a stack of papers on the side, and beside it was a silver nameplate with the name 'David' engraved in it. Sitting at the desk was a man who I assumed was named David, the chief guard of this town. He wore a blue checkered button-up shirt and had a close-cut haircut. If someone had told me he was from Earth, I would've completely believed them.

Finn opened the chief's door and held it for us all to go inside. We all went in and he came in behind us, closing the door.

“Hello Adventurers,” the captain said with a business-like smile as he looked up from a report he was writing. "What is it you all need from me?"

Finn held up the book, “Sir, we have a contract for a necromancer in town, this is his diary. Turns out it is someone you should know quite closely.” He placed the book on the table.

David gave us all a glance, looking skeptical before opening the book. The room was silent for several moments as he read through a few entries before he snapped the book closed. He put his elbows on the table, lacing his hands together, and let out a large sigh, “So, you are implicating Fendrin, our town mage, is a necromancer?”

“Correct, sir,” Hazel said. “And we believe the mayor knows about it.”

He nodded and looked down at the book. “I feared you'd implicate him too. This is a pretty hefty allegation to throw at the two of them.”

“An allegation?” I asked, “You have the evidence right there.”

“This book does not prove that either one of them is guilty of anything, it could've easily been forged in order to frame them. I'd have to send it out to have it looked over to have its validity checked.”

"But there's more,” I said, gesturing toward Gronan who took the Necronomicon from the bag. I had hoped we wouldn't have had to give anyone this book. If someone bad got ahold of it, well, there'd be another Fendrin running around. Reluctantly, Gronan placed it next to the other book on the desk.

The captain looked at it, “A Necronomicon, I assume?”

“Yes sir,” I said.

“This could still be a frame job, it'd be simple really. The diary could've been created and placed next to the other book to allude to Fendrin being a necromancer.”

“Do you really find that more likely?”

He shrugged, “I find Fendrin being a necromancer just as likely.”

“We found his lair, we could show you then.”

He shook his head. “Could've been made as part of the frame job.”

“But Finn saw-”

“Look, these two books and an eye witness are simply not going to be enough to implicate Fendrin, and especially not the mayor of any wrongdoing.”

“Why are you so against trying to put a case against them?” I felt my blood pressure begin to rise. We had done so much just for these two items only for this dickhead to tell us it's nothing.

The chief's voice became very quiet, “Because Fendrin and the mayor are two very important officials to a very important resource town. If we get rid of them, there will be a void in power that won't be passed down the bloodline as neither have any kin.”

Finn scoffed. “So you aren't even going to try to help us here?” From what I had seen from Finn, that reaction was a massive downgrade to his usual emotions.

He put his hands up, “I'm sorry but my hands are tied here. I would love to help, but simply put, there isn't enough evidence.”

“So what kind of evidence would we need, them to confess personally?” I asked.

He sighed and looked back at the book. He nodded, “Pretty much, this empire is just not in a position to get rid of these two people on effectively a hunch.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Have you no want for justice?” Gronan asked.

“I do,” He said, stacking both books and handing them back to Gronan. “But I also want my job, and I wouldn't have it for much longer if I helped you. Come back when you have something of worth, good day.”

Gronan gave him a long stare, not taking the books from him.

We weren't going to get anywhere with this guy, there was no point in riling up conflict. “Gronan,” I said. “Take them.”

He practically growled but he took the books.

“Good day,” I said.

Finn opened the door back up for us and we shuffled out. Gronan put his bag onto his arm and put the diary back inside, keeping the Necronomicon in his hand.

“Dick,” I whispered.

“Nobles,” Hazel said.

“Nobles,” Finn agreed. I had the feeling that these two had definitely dealt with this sort of thing before.

We made our way out of the building back outside.

“Well, one more thing that's similar to Earth,” I said. “The powerful always stay in power.”

“It's trentshit,” Finn said and kicked a rock at the mayor's house. It soared through the air and smacked into the wall.

”Well, now what?” I asked.

“I think I have a suggestion,” Finn said and shot an eyebrow at Hazel. “Think it's time to put our old skills to work?”

She gave him a disapproving look, “We are not sneaking into the mayor's house.”

“Oh come on,” He looked back toward the house and pointed. “A window is open at the side,” He was right, it was wide open. “It was like that earlier too. When it gets dark and he's asleep, we can go inside and snoop around and maybe get some good dirt on him."

Hazel looked at the house and thought for a moment. She looked back at her brother. “I thought we left that life behind, Finn.”

“We did, but Adventurers sometimes have to do dirty work too.”

Hazel didn't respond.

“Look, we can think about it more later, the sun is still high in the sky.”

She nodded. “Does anyone have a suggestion on what we should do in the meantime?”

“We do still have the hunting contract,” Gronan suggested.

“You want to do the contract that that crook gave us?” Finn asked.

He gave a slight shrug. “It's good coin, isn't it? And it's not just helping the mayor, it's helping this whole town get rid of a major problem.”

“He has a point,” I said. “We're Adventurers, we get rid of problems. It doesn't matter who told us about them.”

Finn groaned, “Fine.”

“Oh don't be so mad about it,” Hazel slapped his shoulder. “We used to deal with worse for coin.”

He huffed. “Suppose you're right.”

“Come on, the cart driver is back, he will be able to take us.”

We made our way down the dirt road and to the cart at the end of town. “One gold for all four of you,” The cart driver said before digging a pocket watch from a breast pocket. “And you'll have to wait for a bit, we have another man coming in a few minutes.”

“A gold?” Hazel asked.

“That's what I said.”

“Four silver.”

He gave her a blank stare.

Gronan took out the gold from our group fund.

Hazel deftly dug into Gronan’s bag and pulled out the three silver, “Here.”

He only looked at the gold in Gronan’s hand and put out his own hand for Gronan to place it in, “That’ll do.”

She huffed, “Fine. Gronan, give it to the man.”

He did so and Hazel put the silver pieces back into the group fund bag.

The cart driver nodded, “Pleasure doing business, hop on.”

We got onto the back of the hay cart and sat down. “You guys have clocks?” I asked.

“Yup,” Gronan said. “Small ones such as that one are rare and expensive except for those who are given them for their job. We used to use them for our mine.”

“Our father had one,” Hazel said. “It was one of his most prized possessions.”

I nodded and put my back into the wood, trying to get as comfortable as I could. “Interesting.”

“So you have them in your world?” Hazel asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, but they aren't very rare or expensive besides the really nice ones.”

“Clocks aren't rare?” Gronan asked, “But they are such complicated machines, how do they make so many?”

“Uh, well,” I scratched my head. “They’re mass-produced mostly. It's more complicated than that for me to really explain.”

He nodded, “Fascinating.”

“I'd love to take a look at your world, it's so strange,” Hazel said.

I shrugged, “It's honestly pretty boring. Most of us just work nine-to-five jobs in an office, there isn't really much adventuring going on.”

They all seemed interested in the words I just uttered, even Finn.

“Your world seems bizarre,” Gronan said.

“Ah,” the cart driver said. “Here he is, finally.”

The cart driver had said a man, but this guy was more of a boy. "Sorry I'm late!" The young man yelled. He was clean-shaven, had a baby face, and wore brown rags, “Here's your copper,” He said as he handed the coin to the driver.

"I knew you were scamming us!" Hazel began to get up but Finn grabbed her arm and pulled her back down.

"Calm down, it's just twelve silver."

"Just twelve silver?" She whipped her head in Finn's direction.

"We'll get it back and then some after this job," Gronan said.

She scoffed, "Fine."

The cart driver was laughing and turned to us, "Sorry, Adventurer's tax."

"Asshole," She whispered loud enough for everyone to hear.

The boy hopped in the cart, his eyes wide as he looked at the commotion. "So you guys are the Adventurer's in town?" He asked as he sat down in the corner away from us.

"As cool as you imagined?" Finn asked.

The boy's face lit up with excitement, "This is awesome! My name's Harold. Tell me, is it really true that Adventurers don't have to use the bathroom?"

None of us seemed to expect that question.

"Well," Hazel began, "We do not need to go as regularly as many non-Adventurers, but we do...well, we do go."

"So cool," He said wondrously. "How long have you all been Adventurers?"

"I've been one for a whole two days," I said, "the other three have been Adventurers for about a month."

"Oh wow, so you guys are new. How is it? Is it cool? Wait, is it true that you have to kill someone to become an Adventurer?"

"Yes and yes," Hazel answered. "But you also can be graced by the Goddess"

He looked to the sky and rested his back against the wooden cart and sighed. "Wow, you guys are lucky. Oh, wait," He snapped back to attention. "Are you guys going to take down our bird problem on our farm?"

“If you mean the one on the cattle farm, then yes."

“Great, I can't wait to see you guys in action! Do you guys think you can do it? It's a pretty good-sized bird.”

Gronan spoke. “If it can take off with cattle, I'd have to think it's pretty big.”

He shrugged. “Well, it's big for a bird but honestly, I don't know how it can take off with such a big animal.”

“Wait, so it's not bigger than the cattle?” Hazel asked.

He shook his head. “It's weird, right?”

“Quite.”

“It's okay,” Finn took out one of his daggers. “No matter the size, one good hit will take it down.”

"This is going to be awesome!" Harold squealed, literally squealed. Finn gave Hazel a quick wink, he knew that'd get a good reaction.

The cart ride grew quiet and we all began to take in the forest around us as we bounced this way and that. I had only ever been on a hay ride as a kid and even that was pulled by a tractor. I didn't think I'd ever get used to being in this new world. Yet, as we jostled onward toward our next destination, I could see Harold's smile stay plastered on his face. He was so excited to see us. He was excited to see me.

That was one thing I could get used to.