Chapter 126: Chapter 197 – Personal Investigation

After taking one more glance around the stylish, royal lounge, the girls jumped into Selene’s gate and left Asterios alone with Suanori. The guildmaster took a deep breath to prepare herself for the upcoming discomfort and he extended a hand to her with a reassuring smile.

Moving closer to stand shoulder by shoulder, they were enveloped by darkness and plunged into the ground. The ominous void caused a lot of anxiety for Suanori but Ast’s presence made it a little bit more bearable, for whatever reason. She assumed it had to do with the fact that Umbra was his familiar, most likely.

Soon, they landed back in the Adventurer’s Guild, right in her office. Asterios assisted Suanori for a moment longer as she calmed her thumping heart down. Clearing her throat afterward and assuming her dignified aura back, she nodded at him appreciatively and stepped aside.

“Thank you. Now, I guess I should see if there’s anything that can be done about those old books and texts. Could you please lend them to me for a moment?”

“Of course. It’s not like any of us can decipher those so it’s only natural you have them,” Asterios replied and focused his thoughts.

~Grea, do you have a second?~

~I have all the time in my life for you,~ the red-skinned demon woman answered with a clear smirk in her voice.

He chuckled and lightly shook his head. ~Bring me the elven books, please.~

~A chance to use the gates again? Right away, love!~

Less than a minute later, a dark crimson portal rose from the ground and Grea lunged out of it with a stack of books, notebooks, and pieces of paper.

“Who ordered a bunch of old and barely recognizable scribbles?” She grinned at the other two from the right side of the pile.

Suanori received the small tower from her and placed it down on the desk. “Thank you. I’ll try my best and let you know if I find out anything interesting or useful.”

She turned around and started checking the old tomes one by one. Asterios decided not to interrupt the guildmaster anymore and glanced at Grea. She grinned at him, caught his wrist, and pulled him into the gate after her. They came out in her underground research chamber, the same one they had dirtied a bit not that long ago. But, it was back to its clean state already.

Grea spun around and bumped into Asterios from the front, joining their lips in a light but very sensual kiss as she flung her arms over his shoulders. He indulged his passionate ex-professor for a good while, exchanging soft brushes and tender pecks, with Grea nibbling on his lips and pulling on them now and then.

Finally letting him go, she withdrew herself and he could recognize something akin to a faint blush on her crimson-skinned cheeks. A wide smile curved the corners of Grea’s mouth.

“I seriously can’t get enough of how good you taste.” She giggled with an upturned gaze. “I think you will have to bear with me doing shit like this on every occasion for a week or two before I calm down a bit.”

He smirked at her and leaned forward to leave one more kiss on her full lips. “If it were up to me, you could very well stay like this forever.”

She bit on her bottom lip as her skinny tail made frantic wags with its tip. “Don’t do that. That’s dangerous. You know how irresponsible it is to give me bad ideas.”

Asterios chuckled. “Alright. What are you going to do now?”

Doing a little spin to gently swat him in the face with her tail, Grea walked up to one of the higher counters with a mischievous giggle.

“I almost caught up with the missing piece. I plan to go through my research from the start to finish and see how much that thing changes it. Maybe I’ll finally be able to give you something more useful than basic information on what you are, which you usually discover by yourself anyway.”

He caught up to her and hugged her from behind. “I’ll be looking very forward to it, then.”

Grea glanced back at him over her shoulder with a raised brow. “Oh? Where’s the ‘you’ve done so much for me already, that was just my fault’ and the other of your usual shit?”

“Overshadowed by the curiosity and excitement about what someone as brilliant as you can figure out from the information we have gathered.”

She snorted while doing a motion indicating an eye roll, but Asterios saw clearly the happy smile Grea tried her best to tame down from forcing itself onto her pretty lips.

“I’ll leave you to it.” He brushed her cheek with his mouth. “Call me whenever you need anything.”

“What if I really need a dick in my pussy?” she asked while guiding Ast’s hands all over her front.

“Anything,” Asterios whispered to her ear and she hummed delightfully.

“I won’t be polite, then,” she purred and stepped out of his hold. “Now go before I need a change of underwear again. I have a feeling I’ll need to go shopping soon. With just one set per day, I’ll be forced to run bare and rare in a blink with you just existing near me.”

“Why do I feel like you would love to do that?” he asked with a shake of his head.

With another sweet giggle reaching his ears, Asterios plunged into Umbra’s darkness and transferred himself to the main plaza. Venuzathor lifted his impressive eyelid the moment he fully materialized in front of him.

“Hi. I hope you don’t mind me interrupting your nap. I just wanted to ask if you could locate someone for me perhaps? I’m not sure how well you are aware of what is happening around the town,” Asterios asked politely.

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to point you towards the person you are looking for without marking them first,” the Storm King answered through the spiritual energy. “Unless there’s something special about them, like with you or your mates and other companions.”

“I don’t think so. At least, I’m not aware of that person being anything special. He seems like your usual human with a quite decent weapon.” Asterios shook his head with his hands on his hips. “Alright, thank you. I’ll let you know when we find him so that you can leave the mark on him for the future.”

A deep but quiet rumble of affirmation rolled through the air and Venuzathor closed his eye once more.

“Umbra?” Asterios glanced at his shoulder and the big, misty raven formed on top of it. “You certainly remember the guy, right? Can I ask you to search the town for him?”

~Naturally, Master. Give me just a few minutes.~

The ominous bird took off his shoulder and plunged into his shadow. A crimson portal opened next to Asterios and his three mates joined him.

“Maybe we should ask someone where he lives and check his home?” Tina suggested while looking up at Asterios with a warm smile.

He nodded and lovingly ran his fingers through her long, dark azure hair. “Great idea. I bet the Committee members know more about him than they would want to.”

They all headed to the town hall and exchanged a few words with the kind residents. A few people thanked them deeply for investigating the monster attacks, saying that they felt much more relieved and safe now.

Ast’s group soon entered the cylindrical meeting room and took a peek into the adjacent chambers. They found Danny sitting behind his desk and smiled at each other. There was no better person to inquire about John than the representative whose main field was population.

“Hello, Mr. Danny!” Miria greeted the man with an energetic wave of her hand.

Danny raised his gaze from the documents and stood up. “Welcome. Is there anything I can do for you today?”

“We are looking for the residence of a man called John,” Selene replied.

“Oh. Well, then you came to the right person.” He chuckled. “Let’s step back into the middle. I’ll show you where he lives on the map.”

They returned to the previous chamber and watched how Danny unrolled a simple and easily readable map of Glimmervale. It displayed basically just the clear layout of the streets and buildings with some kind of numbers inside most of the geometrical shapes, out of which the majority were squares or rectangles.

“What are those numbers for?” Miria couldn’t stop her curiosity.

“We figured out that writing and erasing names on the map could quickly make it deteriorate so we just put numbers there instead. The higher they are, the more recent the registered acquisition by a new owner or tenant. We have a registry with numbered pages to quickly and effortlessly check who hides under a specific number,” Danny explained.

“That’s smart,” Tina complimented him. “You don’t even have to erase the numbers when something changes, just write down the new people in that registry. It’s easy to track the history of the building that way too.”

“Thanks. It was Ulyssen’s idea. I’m sure we are not the only ones to have thought of it.”

“Who knows? Maybe they don’t do that even in the capital. We’ll ask Silvia after she returns.” Asterios shrugged. “In any way, where’s John’s house?”

“It’s technically not his, at least not yet, but it’s here, on the eastern side.” The man tapped a small square on the map.

“What do you mean by that?” Miria frowned and tilted her head.

“The house belonged to his mother. She passed away a few months ago. Heart attack from what I know. John found her on the floor after coming home one day.” He shook his head gloomily. “She was a great woman. Thanks to the timing of the lord’s death, she at least didn’t have to suffer losing another person she had some feelings for after her husband lost his life. People like to think that the lord followed after her as he might have still felt something for the girl who brought him a child.”

“That’s so sad…” Tina blinked a few times to clear out her eyes.

“Unfortunately, she hadn’t anticipated her untimely death and didn’t write down her will, or filled the necessary documents to make her son inherit the house. She was renting it instead of having purchased it so the contract states that without those formalities taken care of, the place returns to us and becomes vacant.”

“Then the man does not live there anymore, right?” Selene twirled a strand of her white hair while staring at the map.

Danny scrunched his nose a little. “Well, we discussed this amongst ourselves and asked the residents for their opinion too. In the end, everyone agreed to bend the rules for her a little bit so we extended an offer to John. He could receive all the rights after signing the required documents, and of course, continuing to pay the rent, with a month of unpaid time so he had a moment to sort himself out after the death of his mother.”

“That’s very noble of you. People of Glimmervale are so compassionate and charitable.” Tina showed a sweet smile.

“We are one big family here.” He smiled back at her. “But, even so, things didn’t turn out as well as we expected. John refused to cooperate. He immediately began his attempts to be taken in by the lord, pursuing the inheritance of his lineage, as he kept saying. He did reluctantly sign some documents but refused to pay anything. Up until now, he paid nothing, and technically no longer has any rights to the place. But, people decided to tolerate him, somewhat pitying him for losing his mother and then father, so he still stays there.”

“Now, that’s not nice, no matter how tough it was for him.” Miria pouted and crossed her arms under her chest. “It looks to me like he hasn’t changed a bit and still is a complete asshole.”

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“What was his relationship with the lord before he started to actively pursue his inheritance?” Asterios asked while stroking his chin.

“Uh, there wasn’t any? The two had never met before he began visiting the castle.” Danny scratched his head.

“So, he was just a normal guy before his mother passed away, right? If I haven’t misunderstood the story of his mother, she wanted to remain with her husband after conceiving and to raise the child as their own, so no one knew about his real father, yeah?”

“Yes. I think I did mention that before but we learned of this after the woman’s death when John began pursuing his birthright. He showed a letter addressed to him that spoke the truth. It was no doubt written by her. She must have felt guilty for keeping it a secret and wrote it even before taking care of her will, which she didn’t get to do in the end,” the man summarized.

“It’s of no surprise that he came straight to the lord after finding it. He does strike me as a man who cares only about wealth and power,” Tina commented and glanced at Asterios, finding him deep in thought. “Ast?”

“Hm? Ah, sorry, I spaced out a little.” He chuckled wryly and ruffled through her beautiful hair. “Thank you for the information, Danny. We need to ask John a few questions so knowing him a bit better helps us a ton.”

“I’m just doing my job, My Lord. We are always glad to be of assistance to you. With how much our community is receiving, I’d say it will be extremely hard to repay such generosity without doing our best too.”

Miria giggled cheerfully and hugged Ast’s arm. “We are happy to be doing things for everyone too! I’ve never thought about becoming a chief myself but it’s so fun to be the chief’s mate! It’s so nice to have people appreciate what you do for them even though they don’t really have to!”

Tina smirked at the panthergirl a little. “I can’t disagree with that. I thought leading a family was something incredible but leading an entire town is just incomparable. I really enjoy it too. It makes me want to do more for the people so that I can see them be even happier. I wonder if that’s how Silvia and her father feel.”

“That’s the second question we now have for the princess,” Selene said with a smug grin. “Better write it down before we forget.”

They all chuckled together and Asterios turned to look at Danny.

“Thanks again. We’ll go and see if John is home. If you guys need anything, let us know.”

“Will do, My Lord. Have a nice trip.”

The man made a polite bow, rolled back the map, and returned to his office.

~Umbra? You can speak now if you didn’t want to interrupt before.~ Asterios reached out to his familiar through the bond he shared with everyone.

~I’m afraid I haven’t yet succeeded in fulfilling my task,~ the Lord of Shadows responded.

~Huh. You didn’t find him?~

~I’m doing a third lap around the town and its vicinity but I can’t locate that human anywhere near. I can broaden the search if you would like, Master. It will take a moment, though.~

Asterios furrowed his brows.

~Venuzathor, has there been any movement near the hill?~ he asked the Storm King.

~None that I am aware of. A scout reports to me once per hour if nothing happens. Should I raise the frequency?~

~There’s no reason to do that if they will inform you about any suspicious movements anyway.~ Asterios shook his head. ~Thank you. Keep up the great work.~

“Do you think he knows about the circle?” Tina asked after Asterios stopped the mental conversations.

“I don’t know, but considering that he shows up to fight off the beasts, I thought he might have somehow followed us during one of our trips there. I would rather not have him find the array and stupidly try to be a hero by destroying it if he really is doing all of this for fame and recognition.”

“That’s sound logic,” she agreed. “But that also means he is not home right now. Are we still going there?”

Asterios shrugged. “Technically, it’s not his home, so we have all the right to check it out.”

“Besides, we are the law!” Miria beamed a toothy smile at them while bouncing up and down.

Everyone chuckled again at the adorable panthergirl and they moved out of the town hall. Asterios recalled Umbra for now and the shadowy raven led them through the streets while flying above their heads. They reached the house occupied by John after seven minutes of leisurely walking.

A small, single-story, cozy building stood in front of their eyes. It was made of the same, creamy stone, although assuming a slightly whiter shade. The roof was covered by rows of red as fine wine tiles, fitting the neighborhood perfectly. Dark mahogany door and two windows with closed shutters of the same color decorated the facade.

Miria grabbed the knob and opened the entrance with a slight surprise. She glanced back at the others but everyone just shrugged and followed her inside. No one sensed anything or anyone else inside.

The interiors were as simple as the outside. A short but decently spacious hallway connected a bunch of rooms together. They took note of the kitchen, the toilet, two small bedrooms, and a slightly bigger living room. Most furniture was crafted from dark mahogany too and created a warm atmosphere in the homely residence.

“I don’t think we will find anything here if the door wasn’t even locked but I guess we should at least take a look,” Tina said as she glanced inside the kitchen.

“Perhaps no one would even want to come here so he didn’t bother locking it up,” Miria replied as she took a peek into one of the bedrooms. “Or he just wanted us to think that there’s nothing to find here.”

“Let’s spread out and see what we can do,” Asterios added and walked towards the living room.

Each of them searched a different part of the house to their utmost abilities. Miria followed her sharp senses to sniff out any suspicious scents, Selene used her Spiritual Sight and Spiritual Sense to prod for any signatures of mana, and Tina summoned her smaller familiars to cover more ground, asking Firo and Ori for help. 

She felt a bit awkward about going through someone’s things but she quickly got rid of that feeling after reminding herself what kind of a person John was. After that, she resumed her search with renewed vigor and determination, almost as if she wanted to find something incriminating the rude man who had yelled at their friend.

After about half an hour, they met up in the living room.

“I found no hidden compartments or weird elements in the furniture and the walls,” Miria informed them with slumped shoulders as her ears flopped down a little.

Selene ran her hand through the panthergirl’s hair and scratched her head gently. “Don’t feel down. I haven’t noticed any unusual traces of mana either. Only some leftover bits and I had to focus intensely. I can confirm that the sword was here not that long ago, less than a day”

Tina sighed softly and the two familiars sitting on her shoulders bobbed up and down. “We also have nothing. The only thing we found is dust. This place hasn’t been cleaned in months, most likely since that guy’s mom passed away.”

They glanced at Asterios together and saw him staring at a wall with a somewhat neutral and cold expression.

“Did you notice something, Master?” Miria stepped closer to him and followed his gaze.

“No, I haven’t. I even asked Umbra to have a try at verifying if we haven’t missed anything but that brought nothing.” He shook his head. “I just have a really bad feeling about that guy for some reason. No matter how I look at it, he’s extremely suspicious. He suddenly came out as the lord’s son just like that with no regard for anything else, not even caring about what was going to happen to the home he grew up in with his parents.

Selene crossed her arms under her impressive chest and glanced around. “What if he didn’t find the letter after his mother’s death but… before.”

Tina put her hands on her hips and frowned as she too ran her gaze over the living room. She then turned to the fox lady and her eyes went wide.

“You don’t think that he…”

“...killed his own mother after reading it?” Miria finished and turned really uncomfortable. “But why would he do that?”

“Because she lied to him and he got furious? Because she tried to stop him or to convince him against revealing it? Because she was in his way to be adopted by the lord?” Asterios presented a few reasons he could think of right away.

Everyone fell silent as they contemplated his words until Miria stomped the floor with an angry expression.

“But why?! Why would he hurt his own mother?! People said such nice things about her! If she was a bad or evil parent then maybe I could understand, but… but… but…”

Asterios walked up to Miria as she tightly squeezed her hands into fists. Her lips were firmly pressed together as a few small tears began welling up in the corner of her eyes. He pulled her into a gentle and loving hug and began tenderly patting her head.

“Nothing is confirmed yet. We don’t have any evidence. I can’t say that it’s an unbelievable scenario considering all that we’ve learned, but let’s wait with assuming things until we question him properly. If he shows any signs of hiding something, we’ll have Umbra dig everything out,” he consoled her in a soothing voice.

She sniffled quietly into his shoulder while embracing him back. Tina and Selene joined them and also brushed through the panthergirl’s hair. They felt equally sad and angry at the man. As Asterios had said, they could see any of his suggestions happening in the past.

Then, they all jumped slightly when someone knocked on the front door. Their eyes shot to the entrance in a blink.

~It’s Yumi,~ Umbra informed them and everyone exhaled in relief.

Asterios placed a delicate kiss on Miria’s forehead and she released him with a sweet smile. He walked to the door with the others behind him. They peeked over his shoulder as he pulled the knob.

As Umbra had noted, Yumi stood on the other side, respectfully holding her palms over her maid skirt.

“I’m sorry for interrupting, My Lord. There’s some commotion in the main market and your presence is being requested.”

 

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