The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'-Chapter 373 - Nice To Meteor You Guys, But Can You Stop Hammering Me With Questions?
Chapter 373: Chapter 373 - Nice To Meteor You Guys, But Can You Stop Hammering Me With Questions?
A cultivator stumbled up to a fort’s main gate as the sun beat down on the region with not a whit of cloud cover. Days of following beside, then tracking Madrigil’s erratic path had left him exhausted, frustrated, and deeply... questioning his employment choices.
The mad noble had simply vanished from their camp two mornings ago. And he had left behind only a hastily scrawled note about ’destiny calling like a host of screeching Voidlings’. If he wasn’t a good person and worried that the man would run into that very thing, he would have left it alone.
"State your business."
A guard looking over the wall noticed his disheveled appearance and called out with caution. It was rare, but it looked a lot like a sort of tactic that bandits used to gain entry and pilfer rations once they realized whatever they had stocked in their hideouts was not enough.
"I’m looking for my... employer. A noble that goes by Lord Madrigil. Tall man, wild hair, probably rambled something about sigils and how progress shouldn’t be stopped? I think he would have arrived here sometime yesterday - or maybe this morning."
The guard’s expression immediately shifted from wary, to warier, to more complicated. He signaled another on duty and within a minute the unguilded cultivator was being ’invited’ inside.
"You need to be brought to speak with Commander Huri. Now."
One in, Aleck could tell that there was a strange buzz of energy about the people on duty. Especially over toward the workshop area of the fort, which seemed to have an unusual amount of cultivator activity. Army soldiers had cordoned off one particular building and officers could be seen moving in and out with grim expressions.
"That’s where your foreign noble was last seen. Along with Lady Goltbred and a Shadow Whisker scout sister."
"Lady Goltbred? Nothing... happened to her, right?"
Aleck’s voice cracked slightly. He knew the obsessed man had seemed to think the heiress had some kind of connection to what he was looking for. The girl had been kind to him at the competition... and he was now regretting not seeking out work with her immediately.
’Especially if... he murdered her or something. That’s not what they are going in to look at, is it? Oh no, am I an accomplice now?!’
"We don’t know exactly, that’s what we’re trying to determine. The door was smashed open to get inside with a handprint pressed into the wood at adult height. Like someone was in a great hurry. But all three of them are now missing without much trace."
The younger man sighed in relief. It wasn’t good news, but it wasn’t a corpse. Aleck suddenly shivered at a thought.
’At least not... where they’ve found it yet.’
⟠ ⟠ ⟠
Commander Huri’s office felt cramped with the number of people present. Besides the fort leader himself, there was a Void Defense Society representative who refused to be named, and someone from the Shadow Whisker Sorority who looked like she wanted to kill something or someone.
As well as an ignored junior officer taking notes who kept glancing at her like he really wanted to be that someone. Gesturing to the single chair across from his desk, the man in charge fixed a look on Aleck.
"Sit. Tell me everything you know about Lord Madrigil’s mental state up to now, his intentions on coming here, and what he might have been carrying on his person."
The young man swallowed hard, looking around the room at the stern faces. He’d been questioned a time or two, but usually one on one by a passing guard. Never brought in to see important people with questions this important.
’Maybe I should have just joined a Guild so I’d get more experience with these things?’
"Commander, I need to first be clear - I’m not particularly loyal to the man. He pays me, barely, and I was already considering leaving his service to try and join the strikeforce. If he’s done something to Lady Goltbred or anyone else, I’ll tell you everything I know."
The Shadow Whisker representative leaned forward - and so did the junior officer to get a better look. A corner of the meteor hammer wielder’s eye twitched at seeing the blatant leering.
"So you think he was capable of doing something. Start with why he came here. What was he seeking?"
"Information on the healing brooches. He’s been obsessed with them for who knows how long. Ever since I ran into him and offered to bodyguard... and somehow kept being called an assistant."
"And?"
"He... believed Lady Goltbred was the one creating them." frёeweɓηovel_coɱ
Conspiratory and confirmation seeking looks were shared by the officials, but no one had any answers. Huri spoke up next.
"What was he carrying? Any artifacts or unusual items?"
"He had several things used to conduct experiments and tests, but most of those were left at the camp the last time I saw him. His traveling pack might have had research notes. And..."
He paused, remembering something.
"He mentioned something about acquiring an ’ancient treasure’ recently, but I never saw what he meant by that. I’m not sure if he had it on his person or if it was just a turn of phrase for knowledge."
The officers exchanged more glances. Aleck was being more helpful than they expected, with no signs of trying to decieve, but none of it came off as proof or even quality circumstantial evidence to investigate more on.
"Describe his mental state in the days before he disappeared."
"Worse than usual, honestly. More erratic. But I figured I’d just met him on some good days? He has conversations with people who aren’t there and his spiritual pressure fluctuates wildly."
"He speaks to himself?"
With a nod, the young man thought back to all the behaviors he put up with these weeks. Before wondering again why he hadn’t just left. He didn’t think he had a sense of duty quite that strong and when he took on the bodyguard job he expected he’d actually get to fight something.
"Sometimes he’d go hours speaking to thin air about sigil theory, then suddenly become lucid and focused for brief periods. Then he’d talk about social politics and his continent’s abandonment of the principles of... rigorous investigation."
Aleck shifted uncomfortably in his chair. While he said he held no loyalty to the mad noble, now that he was painting such a picture of him out loud? The cultivator started to feel like he was somewhat betraying someone who had confided in him.
’For all that insanity, he kept it fairly tight when he was around other people than me...’
"Commander, if I can ask... what exactly happened in that workshop?"
"That’s what we’re trying to determine now."
Knuckles struck the desk as the woman took the stage again. Forceful and apprehensive.
"Our Sevra apparently reported to the guards that she was delivering something important to Lady Goltbred. She checked in yesterday morning but never checked out. Now all three are missing."
She clearly thought that her side was the key player in this, despite there being no good evidence. But she was also one of the few in their Sorority who knew much about the other scout’s past... and it was hard to conclude an old pattern hadn’t returned!
"Belongings scattered in a corner looked like a struggle, or like someone was searching for something urgently. One of them was identified as a known belonging of the young sigilist. Current theory is a mugging."
The Void Defense representative had spoken up for the first time. Laying things out more calmly. Aleck wondered why he was part of this, considering their specialty... but supposed that they also had some of the best trained in gauging essence disturbances.
’More vaguely Aspected elementalists are poached by them than other guilds...’
"But there are strange markings on the workshop in places - sigils that none of our specialists recognize. Very advanced, very old styling. But very... new carvings."
Aleck felt a chill run down his spine. The man clearly went out of his way to not say *how* new, how many there were, or if it was suspected that the noble had done them before disappearing. His epiphany was right, of course - the illusionist had filled ’her workshop’ with lots of little innocuous things to pass the time and make her Element self training easier.
"Advanced sigil work was exactly what Madrigil was obsessed with. He said more than once on the way here that Elua’s techniques of adopting advanced ancient practices were likely centuries ahead of current methods."
The room fell silent for a while before Commander Huri leaned forward, ready to ask the final key question.
"Is there any possibility your employer might have... taken them somewhere? Against their will?"
"I honestly don’t know, sir. He had been increasingly fixated on meeting her. But taking anyone by force..."
Aleck firmly shook his head. It wasn’t about loyalty or friendship, duty or anything else. He just wanted to call it like he saw it.
"He’s never shown violent tendencies, just... desperate enthusiasm. The closest he came was a very long-winded argument with another noble - Lady Aarengraf, before you have to ask."
The Shadow Whisker representative abruptly moved for the door... and so did the junior officer until she glared at him. He sat back down meekly after dropping his quill, but the smile didn’t leave his face. Aleck was beginning to question whether the mortal was actually that one-sided over mere appearance - or if they had a real history.
"We need to search his belongings wherever you left them. My sisters are already working on determining what Sevra was carrying for the heiress... and tracing where she picked up the delivery contract."
"Three people don’t just vanish without trace. We will find a clue."
Commander Huri nodded grimly at the representatives ready to leave the interrogation. They hadn’t learned much more of value, but at least it had put a few questions to rest and would let them filter new information differently now.
"Agreed. We will keep at this. And we need to get word to the strike force. Qatrand er Yecine needs to know his spouse is... missing."
After they left, he intended to take another dose of stomach medicine. If that didn’t kill him soon, he was sure that an angry parent - if not an angry, hero-to-be husband - would have his head. The quiet but assured ones... were always the ’worst’!
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