The determination to focus on the secret weapon’s creation was immediately met with endless roadblocks. Magic nullification, dampening, or even immunity were taboo subjects of research. While not illegal, it was a fast track to becoming a reject of society. Ruena was not afraid of such things, but this did mean it was near impossible to find information or trustworthy experts on the subject.
It was during this dilemma that Ruena happened upon a new request that had been offered to the Alodan Warriors. A nearby village wanted their services to chase out a vagrant who dealt in taboo sciences. This was normally the kind of request that she would cast aside without a second thought, but that certain phrase caught her attention. If nothing else, it had a decent reward and it would serve as practice for a more hostile situation.
“Are we really going to drive this person out?” Ember asked with discomfort.
“That depends. If this vagrant is truly a threat then I shall see to it that he is captured and dealt with appropriately. If it is merely superstition and discrimination, then I will help relocate him instead,” Ruena explained, “However, I accepted this mission hoping that this person might be the one I have been looking for.”
Ember seemed relieved at those words. Rosalie sent her cat partner ahead to gather more information while they prepared to depart. There was no point in dallying when someone could be in danger. Whether it was this supposed vagrant or the villagers was yet to be determined. For this particular mission, Ruena had decided to personally accompany Rosalie’s team. She wanted a chance for more field experience as it had been a while, and she wanted to personally meet this vagrant.
Just before they entered the village, Rosalie’s cat partner came back with some information, and relayed it after leveraging a new catnip scratching post. The solid gray shorthair had discovered some useful bits of intel. First, the vagrant was renting a cottage on the outskirts. Second, he was feared for a monstrously hideous appearance. Third, his subject of taboo research was something related to anti magic called magic rejection.
Of course the cat did not bother to explain what any of this meant as he did not know himself. His job was to gather information, not understand it. Job done, the gray feline sauntered back to the Forest of Traniva. Magic rejection sounded dangerous, and very taboo. However, she was concerned about what it meant for someone to be considered monstrously hideous commonly enough for a cat to take note of it. Cats never bothered with the appearances of humans, but they did pay attention to common rumors.
Upon entering, Ruena found the village to be incredibly ordinary. It was not terribly small, but still not large enough to be considered a town. It was, however, close enough to the main road to Altea City that strangers were a common occurrence. Perhaps this was why they were even more concerned about the suspicious traveler doing taboo research there.
A village guard, one of a handful of official guards belonging to this village, approached them once they made it to the central market. “Welcome to Ridfeld,” he greeted, looking over their clear uniforms, “Have you come to take on our request?”
“That depends,” Ruena responded, “I would like to hear the details and requirements that were left out of the request overview that was sent to us.”
“Ah, this must be about the removal services,” he realized. There must have been another request that they either did not notice or receive. “It’s simple. We don’t care how you do it. We just want him gone. Trust me, he will be impossible to miss. There is an old cottage on the east side facing the Forest of Traniva. You must have passed right by it when you entered.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“You don’t care how we do it,” Ruena repeated, “Very well. We will look into it and see what we can do.”
“Thank you,” the guard said, “Ridfeld thanks you for whatever assistance you can provide on this matter. There isn’t much we can do about him since he keeps to himself and we have no proof of his research atrocities.”
And yet, they assumed there were atrocities without such proof. Was this superstition against anti magic, or was it a reaction to the person himself? Ruena would need to meet him to find the answer to these questions. Ruena decided to lead the way back where they had come, looking for a noticeably old cottage on the outskirts facing the forest. At least the location was convenient.
While the cottage was visibly aged, it was not dilapidated. The shutters were open but the curtains were drawn and the door was heavy and bolted deep into the stone frame. The cottage itself was formed from cobbled stone that had long been caked with moss in every shadow and crevice. It did not look like the kind of place someone would research taboo science.
The curtains fluttered slightly as they approached the door, Rosalie insistent and standing at the front for Ruena’s safety. He knew they were coming, and he was waiting. Everything came down to how he would react. Ruena gestured for Rosalie to knock. The hollow sound of her knocking was followed by the clicking of several locks being undone. A single chain lock remained as the door opened just a crack. Enough for them to tell someone was behind it, but not much else.
“What did you want?” the man asked warily.
“I am the first captain of the Alodan Warriors. We are here to speak with you regarding allegations of potential illegal research,” Rosalie replied honestly, “We were hired to drive you out, but it is our belief that we should hear both sides of the story before we take action.”
“Ha!” the man scoffed, “You want to hear my side? Are you sure about that? You seem to have already made your decision about the legality of my research. Now, what do you actually want?”
Ruena motioned for Rosalie to step aside so the man could see her. “It seems there is no point in pretense,” she told him, “I know exactly what you are researching, and I came here to see if you are trustworthy enough to welcome into my organization. I believe there should be no such thing as uncomfortable topics when lives are at stake.”
There was a sigh as the chain was undone. “I will let you see why I am doing my research,” he replied, “If you cannot handle what magic rejection has done to me, then there is no need to continue this conversation.”
As he spoke he slowly opened the door. At first, all she saw was the slightly unkempt image of a normal man. Then she saw the deformed shoulders and the twisted arm he used to hold the door open. Then the second, more normal arm. A third, stubby arm. The man before them had six arms total, four of which were heavily deformed in one way or another.
“Magic rejection did that to you?” Ruena asked in shock, staring at the obvious deformities. She couldn’t think of any magical being that looked anything like that, “Is it like some sort of curse?”
“Not exactly a curse,” he explained, seeming somewhat relieved that she hadn’t immediately been repulsed by his appearance, “I would say it is more like a serious disease or affliction caused by the body completely rejecting the existence of magic.”
This was not what Ruena had been expecting, but her gut told her that the man before her still held valuable talent and knowledge she could not lose. “I will need to hear more about this,” Ruena decided, “Would you be willing to follow us back to the Alodan Headquarters? At the very least we can offer you temporary housing. I doubt we are the only mercenaries the village hired.”
“I doubt that as well,” the man agreed, and paused to consider before reaching out with one of his most normal arms. “My name is Ferris. I look forward to working with you, but I will reserve my right to refuse any requests that go against my morals.”
“I will respect that,” Ruena promised as she shook his outstretched hand. Even if he didn’t have the skills to help create the secret weapon, he still held valuable information that could be lost because of foolish superstition. “I am Ruena Alodan, commander of the Alodan Warriors.”