25 days after the explosion - city

Prince was pretty delighted since he got away without problems

He went with Aria to the police station so she could testify (and he made sure she didn't say anything about their group)

After putting the recollection of every witness and the police work, it made a pretty interesting story

First came Aria's testimony and her dog nose

And then it came the testimony of the guard Roger that found the blade

It turned out that while prince and chief were asking questions, Roger decided to try mimicking Aria's idea and tried to increase his senses

Luckily he found a small scent of blood and after following its trail, he found the blade

And that's where the police finished the details

After digging around their wagons and asking around other people in the caravan, It turned out that both of them were drug dealers and competitors

Almost everyone on the caravan knew they didn't get along, and some of them found it strange since the dead merchant lended money and sold antiques(where it turn out  he hid the drugs) and the culprit sold soap(where he also hid the drugs)

Now that it was revealed that both were drug dealers, it made a lot of sense and even give a perfect explanation of why he killed him

As for why he hid the knife on his own tent, it was because he didn't have the time to find a better hiding place thanks to Aria quick finding of the body

Of course the soap merchant denied his involvement on the drug dealing and the murder, saying it was a set up and what not, but no one believe him, especially after the confession of some of the civilians and guards that they brought some of the stuff from both of them

And they didn't get in trouble since consumption was legal, only selling was illegal

So after leaving both the wagons from the dead merchant and the culprit(including the culprit of course) to the guards as "evidence"(bribe), the chief didn't get blamed for the incident, and the caravan could continue on its way

27 days after the explosion - Caravan

After the murder, the caravan lost half it's people

The civilians that were taking a ride to the last city, plus some more, stayed there and thanks to the rumors, no new people joined

And since there were fewer people to protect, some of the guards left since they felt uncomfortable there and it wasn't necessary to stay till they reach their destination

So even after a couple of days passed, there was still gloom on the air and everyone was quiet

In a way, this was better for the prince since this kind of situation allowed to draw the attention away from them and save them of answering questions

Still, even if it was better for them, it was still depressing

As for the dead guy, the prince didn't really care who did it, as long as he wasn't involved in it

Even though he wasn't completely sure it was the soap merchant who did it, the way he saw it, there were 2 less scumbags in the world

So as long as there wasn't another murder, he didn't care if the real culprit got away

And, in a way, he got what he wished for, and in another way he didn't, since that morning, 2 days later after the murder, they found Roger crying while holding a dead girl on his arms

27 days after the explosion - woods near the road

The caravan decided to stop and bury her on the side of the road while performing a small memorial service

Unlike the murder of the merchant, there was no doubt that there was none to blame since the girl died of overdose of drugs

She was one of the caravans "companions" and was a known druggie

Some saw her a little more stoned than usual this last few days, but with everything that happened, no one paid too much attention or even cared

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

As for how they found her, it was Gorge who, after his night watch, went to her tent and found her dead

No one thought that he did it since people saw her alive before he started his watch, and when he started screaming and crying the moment he went to the tent, the body was dead cold

As for why he cared so much, simply it was because they were lovers, kinda

It was known that the 2 were together, as the couple usually worked in caravans

While Roger worked at night, the girl also "worked at night"

And if the client got too rough with her, he would get too rough with the client

So when he found her dead, he wouldn't stop crying and when he finally calmed down, he asked if they could bury her on the road since she didn't have a family

It turned out they were childhood friends from the same orphanage, and when they ran away when they were young, he became an adventure and she became a hooker

Of course he didn't like it, but she got hooked on drugs and would go back to the night every time he went on a mission, so he ended up taking guard duties with her as the "caravan companion" to at least be able to watch over her

A common story with a common ending, but still sad anyway

33 days after the explosion - City

After a long travel, the caravan finally reaches their final destination, and after getting paid, prince group left the caravan without any problems

They even got a bonus for sticking to the end even with the two deaths

So after eating one last time with some people from the caravan and saying goodbye, they went to the guild to confirm the success on the mission and got ready to head to the capital

As for the people on the caravan, the prince never saw them again but each kept doing their own stuff

Steve kept doing his guard duty on different caravans over the years

The chief was never found as the true owner of the drugs but still lost quite a bit of money and his reputation thanks to all this. Still, this didn't stop since he knew it was a risky business

As for Roger, he did a subjugation request the following week since he had to eat and didn't fell like working in another caravan, but since he wasn't at 100%, he screw up and lost a leg

Luckily, he didn't die and after some troubles, he worked as an instructor, married and have some kids

Prince never knew all this, or tried to find the actual culprit (it wasn't worth the trouble) but he had his theory since the guy was found without pants

For now, he had other stuff to deal with instead of trying to become an ace detective

Right now, they were at 500km from the capital, the people that were probably searching for him already lost his trail, and he had some stuff to settle over there

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Note

For those interested, I changed the prolog a little and submit the mystery to the contest

 I hope you guys enjoyed this little mystery, in case you are wondering, the culprit was the dead hooker

Roger found her all bloody after trying to increase his senses and decided to hide the knife on the other drug dealer tent

She died because couldn't handle the pressure of killing someone, so she used the drugs she stole from the dead merchant until she overdose

 As for why she killed him, it was a mixture of rage, drugs, disgust and greed since he was forcing her to have sex with him in exchange from drugs, and when she refused, he told her she still own him money and it was about time she "paid" what it was own, and even when they finish, he told her it only serve to "pay the interest" making her completely flip