Chapter 762: Show Me The Suspicious People
We entered the room that Linette had rented for the night, the merchant closing the door behind us and sliding the lock into place.
“So what did you call me for, Linette? You wouldn’t ask me to be this secretive without a reason,” Linette’s contact asked.
Linette gestured to us, “I suppose introductions are in order. Aster, Meela, this is Greia. She’s one of my business partners in this town and I trust her. She has a store here and works as an information broker as well.”
“Business partners. Heh… Why don’t you just tell it straight to them that we’re lovers?”
Linette rolled her eyes, “Yes, yes. She’s also my lover. Happy? Now, Greia, this is Meela, the leader of the Mercenary group I hired to escort me for this trip. This is Aster, the one that I told you about.”
Greia’s eyes widened, “Wait… The one who saved your life several years ago?”
“The very same.”
The merchant turned to me and grasped my hands, “Thank you… Thank you for saving her.”
I was a little surprised by her words since I didn’t expect her to be thanking me for it.
“Err… That’s no problem for me, really. It’s something anyone would have done.”
“Still, I thank you all the same.”
Meela cleared her throat, “Ahem… So should we get to the point of why we are here?”
I clapped my hands together, “Right! Before that, there’s something I need to tell you about this guy though and it’s not pretty.”
I went ahead to tell them about my findings, especially the part where the masked individuals seem to be normal people who were possessed and put under the control of that brainrot guy.
Since we had managed to beat him back, I was concerned that he might come and find us to try and ‘recruit’ us as revenge or something.
Meela frowned, “That is indeed concerning… I suppose we would need to keep watch tonight just in case then.”
Greia turned to Linette, “Is this what you called me for? To warn me about a crazy idiot going around possessing people with some kind of mask?”
Linette shook her head, “Aster here is hunting that guy and we were hoping that you could help her with that. Originally it was just meant to be a payment for her help and saving my life a second time but… It seems like this would be another favour we would owe her since this was clearly something that would affect both of us.”
Greia raised an eyebrow, “I don’t know how you want me to help though? I’m not a fighter and this guy is clearly strong enough to take on veteran Mercenaries by himself so I doubt you’re asking me to hire more Mercenaries as guards.”
“No, no, what we need is information about him,” Linette explained.
“What makes you think I would know anything about him? You’re not thinking that I’m in cahoots with this guy, are you?”
I shook my head at her, “That’s not what we mean. We’re not asking about him specifically. What we need is information about the people of this town so that we could narrow down the potential suspects of who might actually be the one that is controlling them through the masks.”
“What kind of information are you looking for then?”
“This guy comes from a cult of sorts and they’re relatively new around here. What’s more, they’ve been away from society so their members typically have weird habits like that way of speaking I had mentioned. Do you know anyone who might fit the description of a newcomer that is rather weird in that sense?”
The merchant thought for a moment, “A weird guy that just recently came into town… Since the most recent event was a few days ago… I’m assuming he would have arrived around this area at least a week or two ago… Hmm, hmm…”
“They would most likely be renting an inn or using temporary lodgings while they’re here,” I supplied, hoping that might help her narrow down the list of suspects.
Greia taps her chin with a finger, “There are a… A few of them I would say… But I can’t pinpoint a specific one that I would say for sure could be that person… Do we even know if they are male, female or a futa?”
I was about to say that the person was a male before pausing.
Sure, the voice sounded masculine but that might just be a function of the mask or he could be intentionally distorting his voice to sound that way. For all I know, the person I was hunting for might just be a brainrot female.
Heck, that person might have originally been a male and chose to transmigrate themselves as a female too.
I shook my head, “Unfortunately, we don’t.”
“Well that’s a problem… Give me a moment.”
The merchant then pulled out a roll of paper from within her cloak to lay it out on the floor, prompting all of us to gather around her to inspect it.
The roll of paper was revealed to be a map of the town, looking like it was drawn by hand and to scale as well.
She then took out a few Small Copper coins and started laying them on the map, placing them to mark different buildings.
We watched as she laid out the coins until there were a total of eight coins placed on the map, each of them marking a different location.
“I suppose I would say that these eight people would fit the description and timeline of who you might be looking for, all of them arriving here about a few weeks ago and are staying inside the town in inns and are still inside the town for some odd reason.”
I tilted my head, “Some odd reason?”
“Normally, people only pass through this town to either prepare themselves to go into Shendhala or Lehcarouc, they don’t stay for that long.”
She then starts pointing to each of them in a clockwise fashion.
“This one is a female Mahun who stays inside the inn all day and only leaves her room at night to buy food before returning back to the inn. No one knows what she does inside her room nor what her purpose is here.”
Ok… Yeah, that sounds plenty suspicious I guess.
“This one is a male Mahun. He actually behaves rather normally. Goes out in the day to visit the market, then returns back at night to the inn.”
I frowned, “Why is he considered a potential suspect then?”
“Because he doesn’t buy anything from the market and he’s still staying here for some reason. Like I said, no one stays here for no reason.”
I nodded in understanding and she continued, “This one over here is a futa Mahun. She… Well… For the lack of a better term, seems to just be here for sex. She would visit places and pick up both girls and guys to bring back to the inn just to have sex with them.”
Meela raised an eyebrow, “Are you going to say that the people she has sex with never come out the next day?”
“No, they do. The weird part of her is that she’s paying them to have sex with her and no one knows where that money is coming from.”
Hmm… I would say that she might just be some rich and horny futa here to have a sex trip or something? But I guess I should take note of her nevertheless.
“Next one is a male Wrunch who–“
“Ah, they’re all Mahuns, so we can eliminate anyone who isn’t a Mahun.”
“That would narrow down the numbers a little,” Greia nodded, taking three of the coins off the map and leaving only five left.
She then pointed to the next coin, “This one is another female Mahun and she claims that she’s here to look for work, but I’ve never seen her actually going to anyone to ask for jobs or actively do anything to look for employment here. No, that’s incorrect. She would go to the stores around the town and look at them from the outside but never go in to actually ask for work.”
Linette scratched her cheek, “Could just be a market researcher dispatched from another company here to look for potential sales or competitors?”
Greia nodded, “That’s a possibility, but I thought to just mention her just in case. And for the last person… I would argue they are the weirdest of the bunch.”
She points at the last coin, “This one is another futa Mahun and she always leaves the town at night and disappears somewhere but would already be back at the inn in the morning. The weird thing is that everyone seems to lose sight of her whenever she leaves the town and no one actually sees her returning to the inn but she would already be there in the morning.
Plus, she goes in a different direction each time she leaves the town.”
That actually might sound like my target, seeing that he has been going to different places to rob people.
Maybe I should start with that one?
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