Chapter 112: Chapter 110: An Avatar conducts a Investigation.

Dinner had been an awkward affair. Falaen kept teasing Veronica and Jack about what had happened in the mansion. When the meal was finished, they decided to split up taking a look around the city for goblins. Jack had already tried locating them, but to be honest had some difficulty surveying the city due to Alacanar's influence. Falaen split from leaving Jack alone with Veronica.

While they were foremost seeking goblins, they were also looking for places to bring Eramis around tomorrow. Basically, they had to avoid any area where Alacanar held a great deal of power, which mainly was the middle district of the city. Veronica suggested visiting the market, after which he should take her to a nice meal. While that sounded alright, while they were walking, Jack happened to see a large museum. Taking a look at it gave him an idea of what he will want to do with Eramis tomorrow.

When he realized this, Jack realized it was looking more and more like a romantic date if it was supposed to be just the two of them. When he mentioned as such to Veronica, she nodded and said "That would be my guess as to what Cagey actually intended for the two of you to do. As for her motive I am unsure, but it seems benign for the moment. How do you feel about this My Lord? If you wish, I could follow you tomorrow keeping out of sight."

Looking inwards to his feelings, he found he was unsure of what he felt. "I do not know how to feel about this just yet. I won't lie, I did have a sexual thought about Eramis. To me she reminds me of a Brat, but underneath that she is a very loving person. Though I have to say I'm not romantically interested in her. What do you think I should do Veronica?"

"Just be yourself My Lord. You can be two friends hanging out, looking around the city. You can trust yourself My Lord." Veronica looked at him and placed her hand on his shoulder.

Jack nodded and said "Thank you for your support Veronica." He continued walking along. They had moved into a district with medium sized homes. Upper-class that weren't nobles tended to live in this area. They had stopped at a corner when Veronica pulled out a paper and took a look at it. "See something?"

"Yeah, I think we are actually near the first site of murders that took place in the city walls. Do you want to take a look to see if we find any clues that the Guards missed?"

Jack looked at the large house where Veronica was pointing. He thought for a moment and then nodded. "Sure, we haven't seen any goblins in the area."

They walked up a short path beside the building to the backyard of the home. There was a large pool of water besides a garden where various vegetables and the like were being grown. Mana lights in the bottom of the pool lit up the water reflecting off the surroundings in a light blue color.

The yard was surrounded by a tall stone block fence. The tall fence was at least twelve feet high. Going to it, Jack ran his hand along it, finding it to be a little rough yet no purchase along it. A person would struggle to climb it if they wanted to. If someone wanted to jump the fence, they would need to be either quite strong or have some sort of tool to allow them to climb over.

Next to the garden was a cleaned up space on the patio where the body of the victim was discovered. According to the notes provided by the mission guild, the victim worked as a maid here in this household. The people who own this house reported the victim had finished for the night and was leaving back home. Before that, she was placing several tools in the shed when she was assaulted and killed. The tools had been located next to the body, making it clear she had been ambushed on the way to the shed.

The victim's body was found on the patio in the morning by the owners of the household. They alerted the guard at eight in the morning when they had come down for breakfast. Jack noticed that along part of the overhanging roof by the door there were some party decorations that looked to be celebrating someone's birthday.

Looking around the backyard, he noted besides jumping the fence, there were only two ways to enter this back area. The first was the route they took from the street, and the second was through the house itself. Jack frowned and looked at the street entrance for a second and then said to Veronica "Can you go to the street for a second? When you get there tell me what you see?"

Veronica nodded and walked to the street. When she got there, she messaged Jack "I'm unable to see the backyard. The garden shed is blocking my view."

"Thank you Veronica. You can come back now."

When Veronica came back, she asked "Did you figure something out My Lord?"

"Yeah, I was wondering how the killer discovered the Victim. There was no way that they could have seen her from the street. Maybe the killer knew the victim's routine?"

"Or associated with her personally."

As they were both chatting trying to guess how the killer knew she was here, lights suddenly lit up the yard from the back porch. The backdoor of the house opened and a man came out wielding a sword that when Jack took a look was determined to be merely a decorative piece. The Man yelled at them "Who are you and what are you doing in my backyard?"

Raising his arms to show he was not carrying any weapons; he took a step forward. Jack said "We have taken the job of investigating the murder that took place here for the mission guild. We are sorry if we disturbed you. We were in the area and thought it would be a good idea to see the crime scene during the night to see what the killer likely saw."

A sad look crossed the man's face, and he lowered his blade. "Do you have a guild card to prove who you say you are?" 

Veronica pulled out her card and showed it to the man, and he nodded. "While I appreciate you looking into Eliza's murder, you gave my wife quite the scare. Thought the two of you were the killer coming to kill her."

"We apologize for disturbing your wife. Would you have a moment to answer a few of our questions about the murder?" Jack asked.

The man frowned and then said "Fine. You at least look more serious then the pair of wet nosed pricks the guards sent here. Come inside, I don't like to be out here, since you know." The man sighed, and they followed him through a large kitchen and then into a living room, where a woman was standing in a robe looking concerned. The man said "Helen, these folks are from the mission guild looking into poor Eliza's murder."

Jack nodded at the woman and said "Hello Mrs, sorry for the alarm we caused."

"Oh, it's no problem. I thank you for looking into this. I'm not that confident that those guards will be able to track down the murderer based on who they sent."

"It is a tragedy. We will do our best to find the killer and bring them to justice. We would like to ask the two of you a few questions, if that is alright."

The woman nodded and said "Yes that is alright."

"Could you tell us about the day of the murder?"

The man said "Last week, we had a birthday party for our son. After the party my son went on a trip with some friends. Eliza had helped us set up and clean up afterwards. I was tired so I went to bed early, my wife and Eliza stayed up to clean."

The woman continued."We cleaned up the inside of the house and were planning to finish up the cleaning of the yard. It was late, so I suggested she simply stay on our couch, but she had to go home to take care of her mother. I was exhausted, so I headed up to our bedroom. Eliza said she would take some of the tools we had left out to the shed and then head home. That was the last I saw her alive."

Veronica asked "Who was the one who discovered her body?"

"I did." The man said. He shook his head "It was gruesome."

"You said you had a party that day, did you have any strange visitors or people come to the party? Did Eliza get into a fight with anyone that day?" Jack asked.

"No. Just some of the mothers of my son's friends came over. I've never seen Eliza get into a fight with anyone." The wife said.

"Did you know if Eliza was seeing anyone."

The wife shook her head along with the man. "No, as far as I knew she was single. Only had time for her mother." The man said.

"That night, when you went to bed, did you hear anything coming from outside?"

The man shook his head and then said "I'm not quite certain we would have been able to hear anything. We have quite a good soundproofing installed recently in our bedroom to deal with the construction noises. Plus I was dead tired and slept through the night. What about you dear?"

The wife nodded "I got up late at night, I had to use the bathroom. I had too much to drink before bed, so I had to go. I didn't hear anything while I was up. Now that I think about it, I did notice something odd."

"What did you notice?" Jack asked.

"A half eaten portion of cake had been left out in the bathroom. I thought Eliza had missed cleaning it, but now I'm worried that the killer had been inside all this time."

The man coughed and said "Dear that cake was mine. I forgot to clean it up after I had left the bathroom."

"What have I told you, Edward, you can't have cake anymore. It causes your acid reflux to act up."

"I only had a little. I was fine."

Jack nodded and said "That's all the questions we have for you. Thank you for your time, if you remember anything please go to the mission guild. We appreciate any help you can give us. We will show ourselves out." Jack led Veronica to the back entrance and was headed out, when the wife caught up with them.

"Wait a second. I have something I have to give you." The woman said and went to a nearby closet and pulled out what looked like a piece of wood. She brought it to them and gave it to Jack. "After the guards cleaned up the body, I found this in our yard. I don't recognize it. I showed it to the guards, but they don't believe it's related to the case. It is possible it can help you out."

"Thank you. We are sorry again for your loss."

The woman looked hesitant, then looked back into the house then stepped out. She said in a whispering tone "I have to tell you something. Eliza and I were having an affair. I was supposed to meet with her again that night when I went to the bathroom. But she didn't show. I thought she bailed, but I was wrong." She looked down.

Veronica asked "Is your husband aware of the affair?

The woman shook her head. "No, Look, I love my husband, but he works all the time. Even during that party he was busy working. Eliza just gave me the attention I needed."

"I understand. Much appreciated for informing us. Do you know if Eliza had any past lovers?" 

The wife shook her head. "No, she told me that she was her first serious relationship. We talked about how I should leave my husband."

"I see." Jack said. "Alright, if you remember anything else, you can find us at the Dea Leno Delictio inn. Just ask for Jack."

"I will, thank you."

Stepping away they made their way back up the road. While they were doing so, Jack took a closer look at the piece of wood. On one side of it was incredibly smooth to the touch. Looking closely it felt like it had not been cut by any sort of tool. Even sanding wouldn't make it feel this smooth. 

When they reached the street, he held it up to the light to take a closer look at it. Veronica looked at it as well and said "My lord, this wood looks very similar to the wood that was used to hide the slums from the mains streets. Look it even has the white paint used on it."

He agreed with Veronica that it likely came from the slum fencing. "We should take a look to see which part of the fencing this matches. This could be a valuable clue!" Jack said a bit excitedly.

They swiftly made their way to a nearby gate in the wall. Veronica said "There are fourteen main roads. I don't believe it would be the four royal roads as it has golden paint on it. That leaves the ten other main roads, I think we can eliminate the two northern roads and three southern roads."

"Why?" Jack asked curiously.

"They frequently use those roads as military parade routes. As such the walls tend to be more upkept. The paint on this piece looks to be chipping. Which gives us another clue on its location."

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"It does?" Jack said.

"Paint usually peels when the sun shines on it. Thus, we need to take a look at the northern side wall. The southern side overall receives less sunlight."

"That's a good guess Veronica. I can even do you one better. Do you smell that?" He held the piece of wood under her nose. She frowned and shook her head. "It's faint, but I detect the smell of fish. The same smell that is coming from this street."

They began searching the northern walls. As they were looking over the walls, Jack received a message from Riley that they had encountered the Gremlins and were hunting them down. He sent back a reply that they were currently busy looking at a possible clue to the murders.

While they were searching Veronica asked "What do you feel about that woman having an affair without the husband's knowledge?"

Jack shrugged "it's her own choice, though I don't think it's the right thing to do. I can understand why she does it, but communication is key in any relationship."

"It goes without saying My Lord."

After searching the walls, they eventually found a small hole that was cut incredibly cleanly in the wall. Jack took the piece and slid it into the hole and found it was a perfect fit. Taking it back out he peered through it and saw a small building next to the fence with a door. Jack picked up Veronica and jumped over the fence, landing in a very tight space between the fence and a run down building. The building looked to be made out of scrap wood and metal.

Walls of other buildings were built up right next to the fence making it impossible to leave this area except either over the fence or through the door. Turning back to the fence he looked through the hole and saw it was pointed towards the gate entrance. The hole was smoothly cut out, and Jack could feel no trace of magic in regards to how it was cut.

While he was examining the hole, Veronica tried the back door of the building and said "My Lord. The door is unlocked."

Turning back to her, he followed her into the small building, which was more of a shack then an actual house. Finding a switch nearby, he activated a dimly lit mana light at the top of the room. It lit up a bare empty room that only had two doors to it. The floor of the room was packed dirt, running his hand along it Jack could tell it had been pressed down hard into the surface. It was almost to the point of turning it into rock.

Casting his senses downwards, he saw there was nothing but solid dirt and rocks beneath the dirt. Looking around the building, he saw no hidden spaces within the building. The only thing of note was that despite being located in the slums, the building itself inside was incredibly immaculate. 

It was in Jack's opinion quite strange. There wasn't a speck of dust, even the metal walls were free of rust. The bugs that were common in the slums were absent. It felt like it had been recently cleaned. Wanting to make sure this was indeed strange, Jack looked with his powers into the neighboring buildings and saw they were inhabited by people who were clearly junkies. They were living in massive filth that he recoiled from looking at.

Veronica asked "Could this be a hide out for the Killer when they were killing women in the slums?"

"Perhaps. Whoever used this building it looks like they cleaned up recently. I'm not getting any sense of anyone who stayed here. Based on the hole, they might have used this place to spy on people leaving and entering the city gate."

"It is possible they abandoned this place when they realized they lost the piece of wood."

"That could be the case. Though I wonder why they were carrying it in the first place. It would make more sense for them to leave it in place to hide the hole."

Going to the doors, Jack concentrated on them and made a subtle alarm that would go off if they were opened. "There, just in case the owner decides to return. We should speak with the neighbors and see if they saw anything."

"Alright." Veronica nodded.

Exiting the building, they found themselves in a very tight road that was barely wide enough for Jack to stand facing down the street. Looking right, he saw it lead to a dead end, the left led into the maze of the slums. Going to the building across from the hideout, Jack knocked on the door. After several poundings on the door, a sick looking man opened the door and said "What you want?"

"Sorry to bother you so late at night, but we are looking for the person who owns the building across from you."

The man scratched his arms and asked "They owe you money or something?"

"Something like that. Have you seen them around?"

The man looked them over and sniffed. "Five small silver coins and I tell you everything I know about them."

Jack nodded and put the coins into the man's hand who jammed them into his pocket. The man grinned, his mouth filled with rotting teeth. "That guy is creepy as fuck. Came once in a while all deathly silent like.  I only noticed them at first when my dealer dropped by at the same time. That place used to be Ted's till he took too big a hit and his heart exploded. Two days later, this creepy guy shows up and takes over."

"What do they look like?" Jack asked.

"Not sure, never seen their face. Don't want to, not after what happened to Evage. They were wearing a large black jacket and they covered their face with a creepy ass mask."

"What happened to Evage?"

The man scratched his chest and said "Evage was a local pusher. He ran the area, decides to visit the creepy fuck to show who's in charge. He goes in one night and comes screaming out, with his arm torn off. Never saw Evage again after that night."

"When was the last time you saw them?"

"Not sure, I've been on a bender for the past few days. I think I saw them last week, not sure, though. Sometimes I have nightmares of them, hard to tell the difference."

Seeing the Junkie was starting to lose focus, Jack said "Thank you for your information. Have a good day."

The guy nodded and then closed the door. They tried several other places, but the other neighbors were too high and out of it to be much help. Veronica said "That could be our killer. Certainly sounds vicious enough. Though I'm not sure we should be taking the word of a drug addict like that." She stopped and looked at Jack "I'm not sure you should have given him coins. He is just going to use that coin to fuel his addiction."

"I didn't." Jack said.

"What?" 

"I gave them to him, then I took them back. I replaced them with some medicine that I got from Maetrin. If he takes one he will recover a little bit. People are free to do as they wish, but I won't support them destroying themselves."

Veronica nodded, and since they had finally reached the end of what they could look into, they headed back to the inn. Entering the room, they found Telvin and Riley sitting with Falaen who was sitting next to a child sized doll. As they came in, all four of their heads turned to look at them. Thankfully being a System, he was used to surprising sights, Veronica on the other hands yelped in surprise.

"What the hell is that!" She exclaimed at the doll.

"What I am is Jenna Rayce." The doll proudly proclaimed. Jack took a closer look at it and realized that inside of it was a human soul.

"Nice to meet you Jenna, my name is Jack."

"Oh nice to meet you too. Falaen here told me that you might be able to help me with my situation."

Jack glanced at Falaen who nodded, and he said to Jenna "That I might be able to do, depending on what you want. Before that though, I need to have a word with Falaen."

The doll nodded and Jack took Falaen to his room and closed the door. He looked over her, and she shrugged. "I saw an opportunity to help you, and I took it."

"What do you mean?" 

"JP mentioned to me that you are currently looking for Alexia's soul. If you manage to find it, you will need to figure out a means of getting a new body for her. What you can do with Jenna is practice creating a body for her. It's a win-win situation. Not only does Jenna get a new body, you also get to practice creating a new body for Alexia."

"You're assuming that we will even be able to find Alexia's soul."

Falaen glanced at him and then said "Jack, you underestimate your powers. Her soul is out there, you just need to find it."

Jack frowned and then said "I don't want Jenna to feel like I'm just using her to practice."

"It's fine. I've already explained that to her, and she just wants to escape the body of the doll."

"Fine, go out and tell her to come here. I need to consult with the other gods before I even attempt creating a body for her."

Falaen nodded and then left the room. A few seconds later Jenna walked in, she took a seat on the bed. Jack took a few moments examining her and then remarked "That doll body is... odd. While you were lucky, it caught onto your soul when it did, I have to say it doesn't look like it was meant for you."

"It wasn't." Jenna shook her head. "Now that I know what the dolls were meant for that I was building for him, I suspect this doll was meant for his daughter. Which is disgusting based on what he desired from this doll. I want to leave this doll as soon as possible and destroy it."

Jack nodded and then said "And you don't wish to go to an afterlife?"

Jenna shook her head "Not really. I still have so much I want to accomplish. If you can't help me into a new body, I will just have to live with this doll form. It is possible I might be able to create a new doll body that wouldn't be so bad."

"I would have suggested becoming my User, but I see you already have a contract with a god."

"Yes, my family has always been lifelong followers of Bonus Eventus. In fact I suspect it was he who helped my soul latch onto this body." Jenna said.

Jack nodded "That could be the case. I will be honest with you. I have never done this before creating a new body for a soul. There are a few people that I can get in contact with that can help me figure out what to do. So I can't help you right away. That being said, if you require anything, Just let me know, and I will strive to help you out."

"Much appreciated. If it's alright with you, would it be alright if I stayed here in the common room? This body is incredibly weak, I'm nervous if I go outside, I can't defend myself."

"That would be alright."

For the next several hours Jack and Jenna discussed natures of the soul, and what she really wanted.

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