Chapter 27: Chapter 26

I ended up waiting at the edge of the forest for the rest of my group. My plan was to pretend that I had got a bad feeling about something- if any of them bothered to look into my file at the guild they’d find I have an Ability tangential to prophecy or scrying- and ran off as I had no actual combat experience. To better sell this, I sat laid out against a tree with my mask easily seen to be laying next to me from the direction they’d be coming from. This plan might be a bit overkill but I enjoy theatrics and the more subtle things you can do to sell a story, the better. 

 

It was a little bit before I heard footsteps coming towards me, and a quick check verified that it was Pebble, Mouse, and Mack- the last one looking not too great. I overemphasized my fumbling while putting on the mask like when I first got it and heaved myself to standing before hurriedly jogging over to them. I made sure to get the first words in, quickly spouting, “Are all of you okay? I got a bad feeling and ran before I thought to tell anyone. I’m not used to being in groups like this, so when it happened before I just ran.”

 

“W-we found Mack i-in a bush near some m-messed up bodies. H-he hasn’t been talkative, but it was p-pretty gruesome.” Interesting and possibly concerning. If Mack saw whatever happened and decided to talk before I figured it out, it might cause problems.

 

I turned to Mack softly saying, “If you ever want to talk- I’m all ears. I promise I won’t bite.” That provoked an obvious flinch- did I do something, or was he just a bit too stressed?

 

“Needs reporting. Possible monster- likely demon,” Pebble chimed in.

 

This was followed by Mack mumbling, “Definitely a demon,” while pointedly not looking in my direction.

 

“If I may ask: what’s the difference?” I asked. “I’ve heard of both terms, but couldn’t differentiate them.”

 

Mouse very excitedly started rambling, “I-in general monsters refers t-to animals that have gained an A-ability, but aren’t any smarter. Demons a-are a subset of m-monsters that gain increased intelligence a-and for whatever reason become m-more humanoid. T-the issue is that they retain t-thier instinct and behaviors- so they are t-territorial or standoffish. In general, t-they are quickly killed or driven off as a p-precaution.

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“Oh! T-there are also some stories and s-speculation that people can become demons, o-or an equivalent. This is thought to m-manifest in behavior or personality changes. S-stuff like sociopathy, loss of empathy, or g-getting pleasure from suffering. There hasn’t been m-much study in this field as t-there are very, very few confirmed cases and lots of r-red herrings.”

 

“Huh, that makes sense,” I replied. “Should we head back to the guild to report this and get some help for Mack if he wants it?”

 

On our way back, I asked Mouse a bit more about demons and monsters. While not necessarily evil or really dangerous, the possibility of intentional or accidental attacks or disruption from one makes them a concern for merchants. This is made more difficult by the sheer number of monsters- while not quite at the one-third mark as with people- around a fifth of animals become monsters in a technical sense, with a smaller portion having a noticeable Ability. Monsters also tend to become alphas in groups where they are present and- while it shouldn’t be genetic based on studies done with people- in these cases monsters with similar Abilities start to emerge within that group, making the problem snowball. If the same thing happened but with a demon, the problem is made worse by the increased intelligence of the leader making them less predictable and more likely to preemptively deal with perceived threats like towns and caravans.

 

Pebble added that while unlikely, there was a chance that this is connected to the murder case within the city. When I inquired about the case and the possible connection, she made it clear that it was just wild speculation and that the Vigilanties had just been told to look out for leads on the case. She didn’t really know anything about the murder, just that it happened and had some oddities to it. Pebble was certain that the bodies would be recovered for autopsy just to be certain- even if unrelated, how the victims were killed led to some serious questions about how to deal with whatever did it.

 

Over the next few days, nothing much happened. I was on my own when it came to guild activities: Pebble was busy with the investigation, Mouse decided to not chance going out, and Mack was mysteriously missing whenever I looked for him. I was brought into an office to get my statement, but my story of having a bad feeling and running covered me there. I did learn from Charlotte that more resources were being given to the murder investigation for whatever reason- including the group of investigators she was a part of. Didn’t they have anything better to do, or was crime really that little of an issue in this city?

 

Also relating to Charlotte, Deryl started training us on some basics of our weapons. Charlotte appeared to have some experience, and I could copy some vaguely remembered scenes from movies and random tips I saw in the other world to not completely mess everything up. At some point over the last few days I had gotten even stronger, which made handling the sword really easy. Deryl even commented that I might want to treat it like a smaller sword when it came to forms and handling, as I kinda already was. I joked about just getting a heavier sword- but he seemed to actually be considering it.

 

Finally, as I was going about business in the city, I heard whispers of there being a demon about. Definitely related to the murder and other incident. No one was openly talking about it, but I found a few more people in the library than normal- usually with monster and demon ecology books. There were also some louder mentions late at night from the drunks downstairs as I tried to sleep. Hopefully this would all just blow over soon- and should if nothing else happens. Maybe I shouldn’t say that, or find some wood to knock on.

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