Chapter 206: Fishing in Troubled Waters

"You're the Turtle Man?!"

The Half-Elf's words stunned Quest. 'There was only one who transformed into a Turtle Man. It's impossible for me to forget that. Doesn't that mean—'

"Seize him!" Ron immediately raised his hand. The Turtle Man was about to dash for the door with a speed uncharacteristic of his race, but he felt the space around him turn as thick as glue. He hadn't even taken two steps before the Shapeshifting Demon Monk pinned him to the ground.

"You almost got away with it!"

Quest gritted his teeth, pressing his long staff against the back of the other's neck. The man couldn't break free, no matter how he struggled.

The Slow Magic Ron had recently learned from Mazarino came in handy. Though this "Turtle Man" was incredibly agile, he couldn't escape the time stream altered by the Magic.

"Quest!" the Turtle Man began to scream. "You traitor! What do you think you're doing? Helping a human oppress your own kind?!"

"What did you tell us before?!"

"I told you all before that we couldn't get involved in this kind of shady business!" Quest snorted, smashing a fist into the other's temple. Shapeshifters were a type of Transformed Creature; while this spot was vulnerable, the blow wasn't fatal. "You agreed back then, didn't you? So why didn't you keep your promise!"

'No matter what kind of lord took us in, we had to make a good impression. That was the only way to slowly and subtly get them to loosen the restrictions on us. But this guy pulls a stunt like this right from the start! How can I possibly face Ron and lobby for more freedom now?!'

"It really does have lightning-shaped cracks!" the Shapeshifter who had turned into a Half-Elf came closer and shouted. "Everyone, come and look! This guy took on my previous form!"

"Jack, why didn't you say something earlier!" one of the Shapeshifters complained. "We were detained all this time for nothing!"

"I'm used to changing my appearance every so often," the Half-Elf said with a shrug. "How could I possibly remember every form I've ever taken?"

"The original for this Turtle Man was a roadside beggar we met on our way here. I thought the patterns on his shell were interesting, so I copied him for fun. Who knew this guy would copy me!"

"This is a complete disgrace to our people!" The craftsman from Cloud Port spat in the Turtle Man's face. "Change back to your true form and let the Lord see what you really are!"

"You..." The Turtle Man tried a last-ditch struggle, but Quest wasn't one to be trifled with. After a quick beating, the Shapeshifter obediently reverted to his race's true form: a cement-colored face with no distinct features other than eyes and a mouth.

This was the first time the others had seen a Shapeshifter's true form. They frowned, commenting on the innately sinister appearance. Ron, however, had seen Quest's true form before. Comparing the two...

Other than their clothes and equipment, he couldn't tell them apart at all.

"Hey, I know him!" Outsiders might not be able to tell Shapeshifters apart, but that didn't mean their own kind couldn't. The middle-aged man squatted in front of his kinsman, studied him carefully, then shot to his feet. "Quest, you definitely made a mistake! That's Hubert, a criminal wanted by the City-State Alliance! He's just a thief and a liar!"

"How could you recruit him? Rose City has a bounty of Six Thousand Gold Coins on his head!"

"What?!" Quest exclaimed in shock, hurriedly pulling out the roster he'd prepared. "No, no, no, Johnny, Lord Ron, that can't be right!"

"Look at my list. I definitely didn't write his name down. Why would I ever recruit someone so infamous?"

Ron took the list from Quest. Just as he'd said, the name Hubert was nowhere on it, nor was there anything with a similar spelling.

'Then how did this thief manage to sneak in?'

"Ha, Quest, you idiot!" Hubert roared with arrogant laughter from the ground. "I got rid of that silk merchant you were supposed to recruit, then I took on the form he was using. You didn't suspect a thing and let me get away with it!"

"You deceived me, and...?" Quest stared at him in disbelief. "You killed Benjamin for this?!"

"What do you think?" Hubert sneered. "But you know what, Quest? I may have been the one to do it, but you're the one who got him killed! If you hadn't been running around telling everyone how wonderful it is here, I never would've had the idea, and he'd still be alive!"

"Do you get it? His death is on you! And you lied to me—you lied to all of them! This place is nothing but a pathetic cesspool, and you tricked us into coming here to suffer!"

"How much did this human pay you, huh? Does he pay per head?"

"Nonsense!" Quest roared. "I made the situation here perfectly clear! Everyone came with me voluntarily. I didn't force a single person who didn't want to come!"

"You're the one who's a lazy, good-for-nothing maggot! What's the matter? Did you realize this place isn't a big city like Rose City, with no room for a little thief like you to ply your trade?!"

"Heh, heh heh," Hubert sneered. "Say what you will. So, my Lord, what are you going to do now?"

The Shapeshifter struggled to lift his head and look at Ron. "You heard him, right? I'm worth Six Thousand Gold Coins! Are you going to send me back to Rose City for the reward? The lords of the Rose Council would certainly be impressed with you!"

"But... but!" He laughed mockingly. "How can you be sure there aren't others like me among the ones who are left? Hmm?"

"They're just more patient than I am! They're keeping their hands to themselves for now, but it's only temporary! You'll never get a group of 'honest, simple Shapeshifter folk.' You'll only get thieves, liars, and spies!"

"It's because of bad apples like you that our race gets branded as monsters," a Shapeshifter in the crowd said coldly. "It's because of people like you that we can never find a land where we won't be shunned!"

This Shapeshifter dropped his disguise, stepped out from the crowd, and stood before Ron. He gave a slight bow. "Lord, after an incident like this, it seems this place is also fated to be unable to tolerate our kind. Please permit me to take my leave. I must return to my home city-state as soon as possible."

"By the way, I serve a Lord within the City-State Alliance and was once a colleague of Quest's. My purpose in coming here was to embed myself and assess the possibility of an 'unaccepted race' living normally among the 'majority races.' It appears your experiment has suffered a setback before it could even begin."

"There's a reason creatures like us have been rejected for so long."