Chapter 76: CH 75 – The Purple Needle (Part 7)

"Let's start with Fin," I said.

"Very well," Freida replied and put the other box aside to allow more room on the small table for the first box's contents once it was opened.

I picked up the opening rune key atop it and placed the miniature golden oil lamp's faucet against the keyhole.

"So you know how it's done," Freida hummed but didn't press on how I knew what to do.

I felt the hand holding the lamp rune tremble, and a small puff of purple smoke escaped the keyhole.

Click.

The box unlocked. I set down the oil lamp and lifted the box's top to reveal its contents, each providing a different perspective to the question I had posed.

Freida's specialty was being extensive and detail oriented in finding information. It was impossible to leave her shop without your questions being answered and then some. She wasn't stingy about sharing what she uncovered after having been paid.

The first item that caught my eye was a map of a building and its surroundings. Little curved bulbs indicated where the trees sat, and inside the building were shapes portraying furniture. I lifted it up and placed it on the table before us.

"Good, we might as well start with the location," Freida said. "While this is no longer the case since three days ago, Fin was previously held captive in East Genise at coordinates B-18."

"B-18?" I was surprised.

East Genise was poor and impoverished. However, it had many parts that were decent to live in as well. The lower the letters and numbers, the better the condition of the area typically was.

"Yes, he was staying at the residence of one Krok Tomfrees," Freida replied. She tapped his name that she had written out on one of the corners of the map.

I frowned.

I recognized the name. Krok Tomfrees was considered a charitable man who took in orphans and provided a better life for them. He had a sizable fortune and was well respected in the upper-echelon circles of Adovoria. Yet, he lived in East Genise to better accept and provide for parentless children.

Or so that's what the story was.

"And he works for the Spiders?" I threw out a guess.

"Indeed he is," Freida said and pulled out another parchment from the box with sketches of faces along with their names and background.

At the top of the list was a picture of Krok Tomfrees.

Her drawing skills are thankfully better than mine.

I leaned forward and inspected Krok's face. She had captured him as the image he portrayed publicly; a well-humored man in his forties with a set of kind-looking eyes.

"Krok Tomfrees runs an orphanage, taking in children that need a place to stay temporarily due to circumstances. Then when the time comes, he gives away the children he had taken in," Freida recounted what I knew.

She pulled out another parchment paper from the box detailing more names and dates but didn't include any faces.

"However, the true purpose and his business is human trafficking and kidnapping. The Spiders work with Krok on placing children they've taken under their control into his care. And depending on how their guardian behaves, the children live a comfortable life at his abode or are sold off based on the value found in them."

I looked at the list of names, all children currently being held by Krok, and saw Fin's among them. The date beside his name indicated that he had been taken approximately two weeks before I had restarted my new life.

"Is this when the Spiders recruited Denise, Fin's sister?" I pointed to Fin's capture date and asked with a glimmer of hope.

I hoped she hadn't been working for the Spiders before this because it would have complicated matters even more. Her being a blackmailed victim herself, even if she helped bring about Jasper's death and attempted to poison me, was preferable to her having been an accomplice all this time.

"Yes, she was recruited by the Spiders much like the other children being held captive within Krok's residence."

I felt relieved at Freida's answer.

"And then when she died—"

"Fin was assessed for his value and found out to be a mage," Freida confirmed. "He has since been taken in by the Spiders for the mana-enhancing procedure."

I ran my hands through my hair. I felt a tinge of guilt, knowing that Fin was undergoing something excruciatingly painful but that I wasn't going to save him in this lifetime. I planned to turn back time as soon as possible, and besides, I didn't know where he was now; that would have required a second question to Freida.

"Coming back to thirteen days ago," I collected myself. I refocused my attention on the map and the list of faces and bios. "I presume these people are working on the property and holding the children hostage?"

"Indeed," Freida said. "Four people are working the grounds that actually take care of the children and have no combat experience, albeit they are well aware of the nature of the business being held."

She tapped through the two women and two men at the top, right below Krok's picture. Just like Krok, they appeared like good-natured and kind people.

Appearances are often deceptive.

"The rest of the men and women are working as guards to prevent any vigilantes or other enemies to their work from coming in and taking the children away. There are usually six to nine of them working the area at any given point in time."

I inspected the list and description provided for each of the guards. There were four sword specialists, two range attackers, and three mages. I found the last part ironic.

"What sort of mage would willingly work for the Spiders?" I asked.

"'Willing' is the key word," Freida cautioned.

I read the descriptions for each of the mages closer. I realized that each of them had a runic exploding spider tattoo imprinted on their necks, similar to the one Fin had. Except Fin was able to find a way to undo its curse.

Did the Spiders actually do any of their own dirty work, or did they manipulate and puppeteer everyone instead while keeping their own hands clean?

"On the other side, you'll find the typical schedule the guards hold," Freida said.

I turned over the parchment paper and noted that, interestingly, in the afternoons, security was the lightest, with only six of the guards in position. However, two of the six were mages, which posed quite a bit of trouble.

I'm going to need help sneaking into the orphanage and taking Fin. But where am I going to find a mage that would be willing to help?

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Julius, Princess Evelyn's idiotic mage guard, flickered into mind. While his intelligence wasn't all that high, his mana was clearly at an impressive level based on his exhibited abilities.

I'd have to find a way to convince Princess Evelyn to let me borrow him for an afternoon. Or find some other means.

"Shall we move on to the next box?" Freida suggested.

I nodded in agreement, put the contents of the first box away, and tucked the oil lamp opening rune key into one pocket.

I unlocked the second box, much like the first one.

"You asked about information regarding the Selvine and Mentisun families," Freida recalled. "Specifically, their relationship with the Frey Merchant Guild and anything that could indicate a strain. Unfortunately, there were two main breaking points that I have identified with each of the other families."

I pulled out two ledgers detailing the business conducted by the Frey Merchant Guild and the Selvine Family Merchant Guild over the past two years.

How in the world did she manage to get a hold of this?

I peered up at Freida.

She was an incredible information broker, but it felt eerie when the information dug up was on your own family and its dealings, especially when that business fell into the gray spectrum.

I'm happy she's on my side, and practically no one knows about her.

My eyes skimmed through the two ledgers.

"So it's greed?" I guessed, having taken in an obvious pattern.

The ledgers indicated that over the past two years, the Frey Merchant Guild had managed to quadruple in size, while the Selvine Family's business had dwindled to a shell of its former self.

"That's one part," Freida replied. "However, there is another side to the story."

She pulled out another parchment paper.

It was a sketch of a young man I recognized as the second oldest son of the Selvine heads.

"Didn't he pass away a year ago?" I mused.

Freida didn't respond and instead pulled out a piece of hard red candy from her pocket, plopping it in her mouth.

I gazed down and noticed that she had written his date of death on the parchment. And the cause.

I blinked in surprise.

"Don't tell me they blame his passing on our family?" I asked.

"Unfortuntely, that is the case," Freida replied, with her teeth clanking against the hard candy. "The young man had passed away after partaking in a good that your family sold, and since it was brought into the country by your family's business, the Selvines have blamed his death on the growing business of the Frey Merchant Guild and the smuggling of dangerous goods."

Tsk.

On the one hand, I could understand them. Their child died, and their business had dwindled, and placing the chips of blame in one place was an easy option. Yet, it wasn't like our family intended anyone to die through the goods sold. Just like it wasn't the responsibility of a seller of knives to prevent their clients from using them as weapons instead of chopping up carrots, it wasn't our responsibility if some wealthy son of a family friend decided to snort up some foreign herbs instead of using them to brew a potion that could relieve a headache.

"What of the Mentisun Family?" I asked.

Unlike the Selvine family, my family wasn't on nearly as cozy relations with the Mentisuns, but it was an amicable relationship by all accounts.

Freida pulled out two other parchments of paper from the yellow box.

"Just like with the Selvine family, there are two layers," she replied.

I inspected the first parchment paper and balked at its findings.

"They hoped to make their own son the king consort?" I read. "But their son is in his fifties! And wasn't he married and with a child?"

I couldn't even imagine the combination of the twenty-something Princess Evelyn and the obese Philip Mentisun, who, even in Freida's portrait, reminded me of a giant hog. I wouldn't have had an issue with his appearance normally, except the prospect of him marrying my future sister-in-law was nauseating.

"He planned to divorce and remarry Crown Princess Evelyn," Freida replied. "And as a prominent politician, he had the backing of the palace court to do so successfully."

What a swell guy, abandoning his family to obtain more power.

"And then Micah came into the picture," I said.

"Yes," Freida said, the hard candy clinking in her mouth. "Micah and Princess Evelyn were in a long-time secret relationship. Despite not having the same backing as Philip Mentisun, they planned and have successfully gotten engaged. The Mentisun family was entirely blindsided by this."

"So it was greed for power that the Mentisun family's relationship with the Frey's gained a crack?"

"That's the first part," Freida said and pointed to the second parchment paper. "The second, and perhaps more important reason was 'pride.' Just because Princess Evelyn had a prior relationship, that didn't mean her marriage to Philip Mentisun wouldn't have been viable. Plenty of royals have flings before settling down with someone of what is considered of an… appropriate stature."

I rolled my eyes. From the whispers I overheard at the ball, it was very apparent most courtiers and nobles took issue with someone like Micah marrying into the royal family.

I picked up the second paper.

It recounted the events at the Fievells' party, where Elda blew up a fountain, Jarvis had all the children drooling from eating his cookies, and I released a barrel of frogs. And most notably, among the party's havoc and distractions from our various misdeeds, the wife and child of Philip Mentisun disappeared.

I didn't even remember that it was them that had vanished that night. All I recalled from my original life was that the wife and child of some prominent politician had disappeared. I didn't realize it was the same Philip Mentisun.

"So Micah did pull something at that party as well," I mused, reading the paper's contents and the truth of what occurred at that party.