Chapter 178 - Investigation
Chapter 178 – Investigation
It has been a few weeks since Ren left New Grenton. During his absence, Harold’s shop became the grandest business in the whole city. He dealt with every business that wasn’t illegal, from selling weapons, armor and other adventurers necessities to selling bread, fruits, and other exotic ingredients, in the eyes of the commoners Harold’s shop seems to have it all.
He even hired the other business owners as his shop attendants and most of the blacksmiths in the city now work under him. At first, some of the other merchants that were losing out tried to forcefully remove Harold from the competition by sending some thugs and assassins.
…
The assassins found it difficult to enter the city due to Valdel, while the thugs that were in the city were scared of Lara. The ones that were able to get through Valdel and Lara were killed by Harold’s butler Oliver.
The merchants who hired the assassins and thugs were quickly caught by Iselv. He made their execution a public spectacle. After recounting their crimes Iselv allowed the people to be the ones to pass judgment onto the merchants.
The people were at first confused at what Iselv was saying but once they understood what was asked of them, they quickly shouted for the death of the merchants.
Once the people spoke Iselv personally cut off the heads of all the corrupt merchants. Seeing their leader, the third prince was listening to them and acted upon the decision they made. That one act made the people feel that he was truly on their side.
…
While the whole fiasco about the merchants was happening Kithra was gathering every bit of information she could find about Harold. After extending their information business to the neighboring Kingdom of Serbek, Kithra gained a bit more information about the supposed country to the west.
In Reschbeauch which was located near the east end of the continent information about the west was scarce, especially since there was a desert to the west which made traveling through it a difficult task for the people of Reschbeauch.
The Serbek Kingdom, on the other hand, was located south of Reschbeauch and has some dealings with various other races. With the relationship the Serbek Kingdom has with non-human beings they had a wider range of gossip and information. This was something that the Reschbeauch kingdom a human-centric Kingdom lacks.
Using these new sources of information Kithra was able to find out that there was indeed a Kingdom to the west, beyond the desert, but it wasn’t a human Kingdom. Though Kithra wasn’t able to acquire any information as to what type of beings inhabit said Kingdom to the west, she was now able to gain a bit more understanding as to what she was dealing with.
Harold was either a non-human that was infiltrating the independent city of New Grenton, or he could just be lying about coming from the west. It was also possible that he was neither of the two. Though they haven’t gotten any new information that could actually help, Kithra still felt that this was better than knowing nothing at all.
As she continued to gather information about Harold, Lara decided to stalk the guy and figure out the truth behind his actions.
…
Lara had been shadowing Harold for a few days now, and she couldn’t find any evidence of any bad dealings. In fact, Harold was one of the most outstanding citizens in New Grenton. He pays all his taxes, he treats everyone fairly no matter who they are, he helps the elderly when he has time. He even goes to the orphanage and helps teach children how to read.
If Lara wasn’t informed about Kithra’s conversation with Harold, she would’ve thought that Harold was a very good guy, almost at the same level as Valdel. Yet knowing how shady the deal he had with Kithra into making his shop, Lara just couldn’t trust anything he did.
…
After a few more days of shadowing Harold and getting no result, Lara was starting to feel a bit frustrated.
‘Ren might be coming back anytime now. If I’m able to find out something about this Harold guy he would surely praise me… On the other hand, if I don’t figure out anything about the guy, Ren might feel disappointed in me… AAAAHHH, Damn it! Do something already!’
Lara still retained her poker face as she was screaming in her head while watching Harold close his shop.
‘If I remain passive like this, nothing is going to happen. I need to get in there and search the place.’
Once Lara saw Harold leave the shop Lara covered herself in darkness as she hid in the Shadows. Lara’s ability to use darkness spells to hide was only second to Ren, not that he uses it for that purpose. She was also wearing equipment that covered her face and body making it hard to determine who she was, it was even hard to determine if she was male or female.
….
After double-checking that Harold had left Lara quietly entered the shop, it was rather dark inside but Lara had pretty good eyesight and was still able to see the inside of the shop rather well.
After successfully entering the shop Lara started to investigate every room. Of course, most of the rooms were locked but Lara wasn’t that bothered by it. She decided to quietly break the locked doors down.
As she was investigating each room Lara suddenly felt a chill. She quickly moved aside and dodged. Someone had tried to punch her from behind.
“It would seem another rat has found his way inside.” Lara wasn’t surprised to see Harold’s butler, Oliver was the one who attacked her. The moment she saw Oliver, Lara decided to escape since fighting Oliver might expose her. Seeing as Oliver hasn’t done anything wrong and Ren hasn’t ordered her to kill him, she didn’t really want to hurt the old butler.
As Lara was preparing to escape, she saw Oliver disappear from her line of sight. She quickly ducked and rolled over to the other side of the room. By doing so she was able to dodge Oliver’s kick.
“Oh?… It would seem that you aren’t just any rat.” Seeing Lara was able to dodge his first attack, Oliver decided to attack seriously on his second time. Yet Lara was still able to evade, that meant Lara was the real deal.
Lara could feel Oliver’s killing intent was becoming sharper like a sword. He even changed his stance, it would seem that escaping would be harder than she thought.