Chapter 56: Chapter 54 – Unravel

"What do you mean…?" I stumble towards Lefer. "What do you mean he's dead?" And I grab both of his shoulders.

[...] My mind is blank and I cannot think of anything right now.

"Alright, alright." Lefer steps back. "Let's sit down shall we? People are looking at us." 

I look around and he's right, every festivity did stop and only stared at us. 

I nodded to agree. "Okay." And I sat down at the nearest table to me.

"Alright everyone please return to what you were all doing earlier." Lefer bows his head to apologize for the commotion before turning back to me.

And then, "Mori-sama." It's Gabril. "What happened?" She asks.

I told her what I know so far and then, "Tell that to everyone else, I wish to talk to Lefer one on one. I need to not be distracted." After I told that, Gabril nodded and proceeded to talk to the relevant parties.

And now, "You ready?" Lefer sat down and stared at me across the table.

"Yes." I nodded.

"Alright, first off..." 

We know that everything was fine all day, after finishing his deal with you on the abandoned house he dealt with a few more customers before he went back to the El-Niño residence to report back to Lord Norkin himself and finalize the deal. He went to the finance minister to process the money and it took the whole afternoon to create the deed to your land.

It was decided that instead of tomorrow as planned, Nir would give you the deed tonight and so went ahead just as the sun was heading down to this inn to give the deed to you as a form of surprise. 

But then…while heading there he was stabbed, he was stabbed multiple times and died.

That was the explanation.

"We got the information from the people that came into contact with Nir before his demise, which was the residence of the Margravate." He told me just before telling me the final part.

Which was even worse. "...And while checking his body, the deed to your house was nowhere near to be found." And that right there sealed the deal for me.

Smash!

I hit the table incredibly hard, "Who did such a thing?!" I shouted in anger.

I immediately knew why he died. [Why would someone kill him and have the deed conveniently leave?!] They were clearly after my deed.

"We do not know, we are currently checking for any motives to his death. And the missing deed was your house, so that's why we came here asking questions." Lefer told me.

"Okay." I agreed.

But deep inside, [Shit! What the hell did I do?!] I'm getting more and more angry from this.

Not only from the fact the deed was missing, but they also involved someone as innocent as Nir! "How in the hell someone that nice and hard working deserves to die like that..." I am truly mad right now.

"Morus, do you know any motivation as to why Nir was murdered?" Lefer looks at me with an ice cold look. "Nir was one of Lord Norkin Tridin's trusted retainers, it is completely unacceptable that the Margrave's people could be soiled like this. So we ask again Morus, do you know anyone that has a motive?"

[Motive…] I began to think. There are two that come to mind.

"The slave trader Pucki and Jshovenne." I told him.

"Hmm..." Lefer pondered.

Now it's time for me to question, "From what you told me it seemed like Nir didn't have any guards protecting him, was there a reason for that?"

Lefer immediately replied. "We thought there was no need to. First off he was in disguise when he left the Lord's residence so he could surprise you. Second, he was beloved by the people. And lastly, only the Margrave and his people knew that he held the deed in the first place." He listed off every reason.

But there was something that intrigued me when he listed the reasons. " If only the people around Lord Norkin knew about the deed, could it possibly be one of them?"

"Preposterous! How could one of the Margrave's own people kill one of their own?' But Lefer thought about it deeply, and deeply, until… 

"Wait..." He looks at me again. "Who was one of the people that may have a motive against you?"

I nodded and said, "Pucki and Jshovenne." 

And in turn Lefer put his palms to his face. "Do you mean Jshovenne of House Tranchant?"

When I nodded, Lefer's face turned pale.

"What happened?" I ask.

He whispers to me, "Baron Jshovenne is also the finance minister to Lord Norkin." And with that revelation.

He was immediately my main suspect, "...From what you told me, he should have been the one that handled the transfer of my funds to the house." And that cemented the fact that he did it.

But, "Hai..." Lefer took a breather of sadness. "Morus, I know that you are already pinning him to be the culprit, but you proclaiming him to have the motive is just circumstantial evidence. I need more concrete evidence to be able to catch him."

"Shit…" Even if I say that he's my enemy, obviously that isn't enough. 

[What do I do?] I began to think back at my conversations with Nir.

...

And during that, [Eureka!] I found it.

"Wait!" Lefer was surprised by my outburst. "Nir said to me while discussing the sale that there was also another buyer that especially wanted to buy the house, which was Jshovenne. He had to apologize to me that he couldn't sell me the house at its original price because many people were already bidding for it."

After explaining that to him, his eyes widened at first before burrowing his brows deep in his face. "That...certainly seems suspicious." After a bit of contemplation Lefer finally stood up from his seat.

"Morus." He gives me a handshake. "Thank you for cooperating in this case." He continues. "We will immediately investigate the lead you have provided for us. We just need to find the bidding records for the house and we're able to catch them from there." He said to me in a tone of reassurance.

"Well no problem Lefer, I'm more than happy to cooperate." I continued," We need to immediately find who was responsible for this mess." 

He nodded, "Of course, you wouldn't be able to get your house without the deed, no?" He said in a joking manner and both of us had a chuckle.

But his tone became serious afterwards, "With all due respect Morus, there had been a lot of incidents linked to you these past few days. Today was the most severe one thus far, so hopefully in the future you wouldn't antagonize so many people that someone as innocent as Nir wouldn't get involved." 

"...Of course." Lefer's face looks incredibly dark right now so I was a bit scared to answer.

"Good." He nods and with one more handshake, he turns around and says goodbye. "We'll meet again once progress has been made." Those are the words Lefer said before he left.

And now, "Fuck." What do I do now? 

Everything has been derailed. [It wasn't peaceful for very long huh?] I wonder about that myself.

And then there's the matter with Nir, he's dead. Moreover, he died because of me. "No Morus I shouldn't blame myself for this, think straight." I bit my thumb in frustration.

Right now the whole Starting Point Inn has largely returned to normal. Except for me of course.

And one person, seeing how Lefer has left, approached me. "Morus dear?" It's my mother Marea.

"Mom…" I look at her with worry. "Someone died, someone died for me..." And before saying anything.

Pat, pat.

My mom patted my head this time. "Morus, it wasn't your fault." She told me. "Don't blame yourself for the death of Nir."

"..." I was silent for a moment. "I know. I promise I won't, mom." I reassure her.

"To be honest, I don't know enough about him to really grieve but still…"

I do not want people dying under me.

I look up to my mom again and she tells me that. "Me too. I only met that lad earlier but it really is saddening to know someone I met had just died as well."

After that the two of us were silent before Itia and Gabril came.

I told them about the situation but these two, who did not even know who Nir was, had minimal reactions.

But it was thanks to these two that I was able to focus on the most pressing matter right now, which is. "The deed." Itia points out.

"We need to find the deed to your property, Mori-sama." And Gabril elaborates on.

I wholeheartedly agree and nod to both of them. "I know." But the problem is, "Where do we even start?"

And this one made the two of them break expressions. [Even for them it's not easy finding a piece of paper in this city.]

"How about we check out this Jshovenne person Mori-nee." Itia tells me.

But I rebutted her, "It's too risky, we don't even know where he lives and we have to get inside and risk getting detected."

"..." Itia cannot rebuttal.

Now it's Gabril's turn. "I can fly Mori-sama while also being invisible. So we can steal it."

"That's…a good idea." But, "We can't, they might have a lot of people and while I'm confident you can defeat them, you might have a lot of bodies be left behind and also you might get detected, which is very bad."

"..." Gabril is stumped as well.

"Sigh…" Honestly we got our hands tight with this one.

[The problem isn't we can't take it, the problem is we can't take it while not being detected.] I'm sure the deed is protected in that Gabril or Itia can't just swipe it without anyone noticing.

The air is tense around us, we need someone to break the tension and thankfully.

There's one. "Morus, everyone." It's my mom. "I think we have been overthinking too much about this situation." She explains.

"First of all, the deed itself cannot be used during this time. Think about it, if this Jshovenne came out with the deed on hand then he will be directly implicable with the murder of Nir. The chances of him claiming your property is slim to none."

After my mom explained all that, my mind became clearer. [Technically I already own the house and the deed is just a physical representation of that. It's already in the record books.] But if we assume the deed itself has little value, the next logical thought is.

"Then why the hell did someone get killed over it if it can't even be used?" What was the point of Nir's death then?!

"Ugh..." This entire situation is making my head hurt. "For now..." With everything I thought of and with everyone's ideas, I decided to…

"Let's wait this out." That's what I decided. "Although we won't be able to see our house for a while, this is better than if we get directly involved ourselves." I continue, "There's already an investigating body over this case, and we might get in conflict with them if we partake in it." Lefer already warned me about getting into trouble.

I look beside me to see the three's reactions.

"I…agree Mori-nee." Is what Itia said.

"It is frustrating but I see no problem with it." Is what Gabril said.

"Yes dear, it's better if we don't shed more blood." And is what my mom said.

"Okay then." I nodded to the three of them.

[Time to end this uneasy night.] It's tragic but there's no helping it this time.

I thank my mom, sister and companion for helping me calm me down and telling them to go on their merry way. 

Afterwards I took in a sigh, "...I still can't help but be worried about this situation." Everything surrounding it, the murder, my deed getting stolen. All of it feels very unusually creepy.

But I digress. 

Just when I was about to stand up and take a breather, "Mori-saaan!" My leg got hugged by a red headed midget.

"Mary?" I feel bad but I forgot about her at the moment. "Why are you clinging to me Mary?" I'm confused.

"Mori-san! Come. Quick! Quick!" She pulls my clothes.

"Uhm, chill out Mary, I'll come I'll come." I reluctantly agreed but asked her to calm down for a moment.

"Sorryyy..." She apologized before holding my hand. "Follow me okay?" Mary asks more cutely.

"Okay~" And of course I said yes.

I follow Mary around the inn.

[I'm impressed.] She can easily maneuver her way around the rowdy and drunk customers with ease. [Must be used to this.] 

But anyways, Mary stops and it seems we arrive at the destination, near the door.

And near the door sitting in one of the benches is someone I recognize, "Rudas?" She's back.

"Morus!" She can't see me but she definitely can hear.

"Hey Rudas." I heard she'll be coming back but I'm not too surprised right now.

[But it does feel overwhelming now with what happened.] So my mood isn't as excited as it would be if Lefer didn't come.

"Hehe yeah, I saw her coming Mori-san!" Mary mischievously tells me. "I was talking to her about some really fun stuff."

"Oh really." I patted her head. "I'd love to hear that from you two." I try my best to stay interested with the two children.

"Yeah, we talked a lot about magic actually." And then Rudas's cheery tone disappeared. "But unfortunately I really can't right now and well...I heard a lot happened just now." Replaced with nervousness.

"Yeah." There's not much to say.

She took note, "I came here right after I heard the guard's clanking armor coming out the door so yeah."

And with the awkward atmosphere surrounding us, Mary was stuck. "Rudas, Mori-san?"

"Sorry about this Mary." I once again patted her head in apology.

"Yeah Mary, I'm sorry to say this as well but..." Rudas waves her hand out towards Mary's voice to hold her hands. "I need to speak to Morus only right now, so yeah...I promise I'll play tomorrow."

And with that, "Okay…" Saddened but understanding of Rudas's words, she left with slump shoulders.

[...I feel bad for her.] Now that I see her not happy I finally had a realization.

"Mary is just a regular kid." Besides being talented in magic and shorter for someone at her age, she's just a regular kid. "Meanwhile..." I look at Rudas.

I dunno if she's really blind but she noticed my words. "We're a bunch of weirdos. So Mary can't really join in and follow up on our conversations huh." I put on a worried smile.

[It feels like you stole those words right out of my mouth.] It crept me out a little bit.

"Ha~you're right." I couldn't help but scratch my head on that one.

Anyways, "And Morus, this conversation I'm gonna say definitely doesn't need Mary to know about it." Rudas is now in serious mode.

Of course, "What is it?" I stopped being jovial and answered in kind.

"Please Morus, we need your help!" Rudas bows her head. "Soumis and the Nest needs your help right now."

"..." Honestly, [I don't really wanna go there right now.] Earlier I was eager too but with what happened, I just wanna take a rest and reflect. 

But still, "Why does he need my help?" It's people I care about so I will put the murder on the side for now.

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And fortunately, "Someone needs treatment really bad right now." It really is serious enough for me to go.

"Alright." I immediately agreed, I do not want another soul leaving this world that's related to me. "Who's this someone that needs help?" I need to know first.

"Well…" I became worried about how hesitant Rudas was before finally telling me who that person was. "It was the girl that was captured by Kumo and Itia." 

And this time. "Huh?" I was confused. [Captured? By Kumo and Itia?] Then I remembered. "Wait…was it the people that perpetrated the attack in the brothel?"

And she nodded deeply.

[Shit...I really did not remember the details on this one.] If I remember correctly I ordered Itia, Kumo, and Gabril to capture the rats that ran away back to Soumis and the inn. 

[I was so drunk afterwards and with the morning all used up by my mom, I didn't even congratulate them.] I hold my head in frustration at my own incompetence.

One thing is for sure though, "Why would I treat someone that hurted the brothel Rudas?" I asked and almost like she knew u would ask this, she was quick.

"Well you see, this one is different. When the captured bastards were brought back, Soumis, well, dealt with them in his own way before giving them to the guards, except for the tiger girl." I interrupted.

"Tiger girl?" And once Rudas nodded. [What the hell…] Why didn't Kumo or Gabril tell me this? "Continue on."

"Yeah. Her eye has been gouged out and while we tried healing it, it was way too much and she passed out before we could give her to the guards." She continues. "But before she went out, she told us that if she was able to be fully healed and meet a certain someone, she would tell us everything."

After Rudas's explanation, I ask first thing, "How do we know if she'll tell us anything?"

"Well, Mr. Kumo said that the tiger girl was the one in charge of the other rats so she would know more." And Rudas then smiles. "We could also threaten her life if she doesn't cooperate as well." She smiles brightly.

[Jeez…] She may be just a little bit older than Mary but she's definitely more brutal.

But yeah, "Okay." I agree. "I also wanna know more about this absurd situation." And plus,

[I'm very interested in this tiger girl.] Even in Endless tiger-kin are pretty uncommon. So seeing one here would be fascinating.

"That's good." Rudas smiles and stands up from her chair. "Wanna get going?"

"Yeah, I'll go talk to everyone first." Turning around and conveniently, Itia and Gabril are here. Even Marina who has been stuck inside the kitchen this whole time.

Marina comes up first, "Sorry I wasn't able to come up to you till now Morus, but with how things are going you'll be going out again so..." She hugs me. "I heard about the situation from Leo chatting with one of the guards earlier, be careful now okay?" She whispered.

"Yeah. I will Marina." I hug her back before she lets go and goes back to the kitchen.

"Mori-nee"

"Mori-sama."

It's the two girls.

"You two, first off—good job with your task last night." I properly congratulated them on their mission. "Sorry it took this long,  and tell this to Kumo as well, okay?"

And the two nodded.

"Good." I smile and hold each of their shoulders. "Well I need to go out for a bit. I promise I won't cause any trouble, I'll just need to help someone." And finally, "I'll reward you three when I come back."

And with that,

"Yeah, come back soon Mori-nee."

"I wanna relax with you soon as well, Mori-sama."

The two seemed satisfied and turned around. "Let's go?" Rudas is at the door opening it and getting ready to get out.

I smile, "Yup." At the cheeky blind girl in front of me.

•••

This was a small tangent but I had to include it nonetheless.

Whilst heading to the Succubus Nest, I stumbled upon the scene of the crime.

It was an unassuming T shaped sidewalk with an alley heading into the middle. From what I can see there are still blood splattered about, an audience checking what happened and guards pushing the people back so as to not have them tamper the scene.

I'm on the other side of the road so I can't  see it too well, but there are a lot of whispers going about.

And if I can focus a bit more I can see a carriage, and inside is a bloody body bag. I can see the feet sticking out.

It's him, it's Nir. An office clerk lookalike in this other world. Someone who in more ways than one looked extremely similar to Rin, my past self. Someone whom I even thought may be my soulmate. 

Now that person is dead. Because of me.

I do not feel sadness as much as in anger.

[I will get my deed back that they fatally stole and hopefully avenge him as well.] 

Still though,

[Rin, Nir...what a creepy coincidence.] It made my back hair go up, and I don't usually do that.

One more thing, "I cannot see but the smell of fresh blood is strong from here." Rudas said that ominous comment.

I only reluctantly nod before moving past this gruesome and regretful scene with silence.

•••

After walking for a while and encountering some not-so-good events, we finally made it.

"We're here!" Rudas shouted, as she immediately dash towards the brothel.

"W-wait!" I run as well and then.

"Be careful—" I grabbed Rudas by the chest, she hit a ledge between the cobblestone sidewalks.

"Jeez, you're too excited." I told her. "But it's impressive that you know your way around this place."

She tells her reason while I place her back up. "Well, I've lived here for so long, you know. Kinda have a map in my head about it now." 

"But also…" She then looks at me and says, "Thanks with the help of Itia I'm able to see something."

That surprised me, [Immediately?!] I already know what she was talking about.

It's "Mana." She told me with a grin. "It's still really vague right now but I can at least see something in my dark world for once."

And with a young girl like this smiling like that, I couldn't help but rub the top of her head. "Keep going at it Rudas, I'll teach you in the very near future but for now just repeat what you're doing and make sure to take breaks okay?" I let out a big smile as well.

"Thanks Morus, I can't see it but you must be smiling at me right now." Once again Rudas and her predictions.

Anyways, we continue chatting until we finally reach the entrance.

"Well, time to save a tiger-girl." I tell Rudas as I turn the knob open.

"Mhmm~" Rudas nods. "Yeah let's heal her quick—"

Click!

I open the door and what greets me?

"What do you mean I can't join?!" A loud voice echoes through the room, interrupting Rudas mid-sentence.

The one loud voice was arguing with, "I told you Kim we cannot allow you to be part of this brothel, how many times do I have to tell you that?" Was Visoko. 

Who seems to be trying to ask this Kim girl to get out. [Kim huh, I swore I heard that name somewhere.] I can't put my finger on it yet.

Meanwhile, "Ugh." Rudas made a disgusted expression. "So that brat still hasn't returned back to her home huh."  Clearly she doesn't like this person.

"What happened?" I tried to ask and Rudas answered in a tired manner.

"Well that girl always does come here and tries to apply here. But due to obvious reasons we can't and usually she leaves after half an hour." Rudas says that but sighs afterwards. "But today she has been here since this morning, she stayed in the lobby for an entire day and we had no choice but to give her some food." No wonder Rudas looks exhausted, this Kim is a massive headache.

But back to her now, "Why! Why can't I at least do menial jobs before I work in this industry?"

Visoko holds her forehead before telling once again like a routine, "Look, we cannot do that okay? You're too young and also we need permission!" 

And during their heated exchange, "Hey…?" It seems that Visoko hasn't noticed me and Rudas standing right in front of her.

Thankfully though, "Wait...ah! Morus!" She finally notices us. "I was so surprised to see you appearing like that, and Rudas too? Hahaha…" She laughs and scratches her head for the oopsie of not seeing us till now.

"Visoko, Morus is here..." Rudas tries to help me come in but,

"If you say I can't join you because I'm too young then what about her?!" The complaining girl points at Rudas. "She looks about the same age or even younger than me, how is that fair?" She rages

"Look." Visoko looks down at her, "Rudas was literally born into this life, her mother was also a prostitute here and gave birth to Rudas in this very same building. You on the other hand are not, that's the difference."

[Yikes.] I looked over to Rudas and saw her reaction but surprisingly there was none.

"But my parents were prostitutes too!" And the two continued arguing for a while.

And then she finally spoke, "You interested in my life, Morus?" 

Normally I would be but right now, "Not right now I guess." This situation is just so bizarre to me.

But back to Kim, "Please… I wanna know, I'll do anything to have a job here..." It seems she finally started getting desperate. 

"Uhm look girl..." Even Visoko was perplexed.

It was then as the situation became desperate and awkward. 

"We would love to have you here." Someone finally came to mediate the situation.

It was Polnyya. The hot milf elf. "We really do, Kim. You have beautiful creamy-like skin, a light pink tinge on your hair, and are also an elf like me. If you develop a bit more I know you would be popular." She points out every good thing about her.

She tries to speak. "Then—" 

"But." Polnyya shut it down. "We need to get permission from your parents or guardians to do such a thing. Age does not matter if you look that good. My instincts are telling me you'll be popular with the way you are now. But age does matter by law as you need an adult representing you to be able to agree on your behalf. I'm sorry." 

And in conclusion, with sadness Polnyya tells her that, "Kim, we are a reputable establishment, we cannot hire you unless we meet with the nuns that run your temple."

And with that. "I-I…" 

She broke down.

"I can't!" She's sitting down and weeping. "Today is my only chance, my last chance even! I cannot stop their decision at this point…" Kim stood up and rubbed the tears and mucus off her face. "I don't wanna be taken by them, those hooded bastards…!" Then she cried once more.

[My god.] Although it was irritating to see her screaming constantly, even I felt bad with her complicated situation.

"Honey…" It was the same with Polnyya, as she went towards the crying child and hugged her tight. 

"Hi—hii—uwaah…!" With someone supporting her, she finally belts and cried  through Polnyya's clothing.

This went off for minutes, and everyone including me was silent the entire time.

And finally, when she seems to have calmed down and vented out all her emotions, Polnyya speaks. "There, there, it's alright. I do not know what your situation is but it must be very intense to leave you like this." She spoke gently and kindly consoled her like what a mother would do.

Polnyya continues. "Although for the sake of this establishment and everyone that works here, we still cannot allow you to work here. But as a compromise we'll let you sleep here, free of charge and food for free as well, we'll let you stay for the night until we bring you back to the elven temple."

Polnyya then looks at me, "I heard there was quite a big commotion over there this morning." And winks.

And awkward sweat comes to my forehead. "Hahaha…" I laugh it off nervously.

"Okay..." Kim was too tired to reply with a straight answer and just kept hugging Polnyya tight.

Now that everything has somewhat calmed down now, everyone has started to move again.

Visibly exhausted, Visoko turns to Polnyya and asks. "Hai… I need to take a break from all of this. Hey Polnyya, can I go rest for a moment?" 

Polnyya nodded and got out of the little reception area she was at and looked at Rudas. "Wanna come as well, Rudas? I think you and I can both let out each other's steam from the amount of work we had today." Visoko made an incredibly mischievous smile.

"Yeah, we can fuck." Rudas has no filter at all.

"See you soon, Morus." Rudas waves goodbye before being separated from me and holding Visoko's hand.

[What a strange pair.] I thought to myself. [But before anything else...] I stared at Polnyya who stood up with Kim in her arms. 

"Morus, Polovina is probably at the hallway behind me so go follow her to get to Soumis's office." She pointed her face towards that hallway. "Originally I would have been the one that guided you there, but as you can see I have a lot on hand at the moment."

[I think 'a lot of hand' is somewhat of an understatement.] I think though, it's just my opinion.

"Well, take care Polnyya." I waved goodbye to her as I went to the hallway.

And lo and behold, "Hey Polovina." She's actually there.

"Hey Morus, sorry for asking you here." She apologized.

"No worries." I shrug it off, but more importantly… "Jealous?" I said in a grin.

"Hell nah!" Polovina immediately snaps back. "Why would I be jealous of a brat like her? Hmph!" She crossed her arms and did the classic tsundere pose.

Anyways though, we started walking towards Soumis's office. While we're heading there the two of us had a bit of small talk.

"How much do you know about that girl?" I ask.

"Well she always comes here so a lot I guess, we have to though. We did a background check and found out she was one of the orphans from the elven temple downstreet, and it seemed she was running away from her would-be parents. But that's all we know for sure."

"Then she really can't be hired huh?" I ask again.

"Yeah. Not even mentioning her new family we need the permission from the two nuns in charge of that temple. But yeah, her age doesn't really matter that much I guess as well, her performance does though but yeah, she doesn't bring the nuns here obviously."

The two of us talked and talked until we got to the door to Soumis's office.

And from all of our talk, I thought of this situation. [So the elven temple has a lot more than meets the eye huh…] I know for a fact that Kim is in the very same temple I was in with mom this morning. Why do I know for sure? Because I finally remembered one of the kids, Lifi, mentioning her name while teasing the other kid Lukk.

[Something feels very wrong about it.] Why would Kim not want to go to her new parents so much?

[I feel like there's a lot happening around me but I do not know where and how to pin it down.]

"Almost like, everything is about to unravel." Those are the words I was murmuring about before entering into Soumis's room and save the tiger-girl's life. My original goal in this trip.

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