Novel Full Chapter 761: Meeting Her Contact
I went back to report to the Guild about what happened and everyone there had the same look of dread on their faces.
The news I gave them was definitely not a good one and it suggested something pretty bad.
The mask that I had broken might have been a cursed item that controls a person to act against their will. That means those masked persons that we encountered might not have even been the same person but multiple different people who were controlled by more masks.
We could be dealing with a whole group of them here and these people were just innocent people that got entangled in it, which meant that we should avoid killing them if possible.
Well… That is if I can help it of course… Since… You know… There’s magic to revive people in this World anyway. Just that it’s preferable to not subject them to death if we could help it.
Still, the problem also comes with the fact that the masks seemed to transform the affected people’s abilities to match the controller, which was a pretty big deal since one was already quite strong by themselves. What would happen if he manages to possess an entire town?
Now I was suspecting that he might have attacked all these people to test out his strength against different opponents and maybe even scope out potential recruits that he could make use of.
That still leaves a number of questions though, like why didn’t he just take the slaves if he was looking for recruits and why didn’t he just capture everyone he defeated anyway.
Also, why was the first one I encountered changed into a Shadow Summon?
Could it be… That was the real Off-Worlder himself? Or was he just trying to save one of his puppets from death by substituting it with a Shadow Summon?
Then again, there was another swordswoman who cut him down and his body disappeared right? Maybe there’s a function that switches them out for Shadow Summons when they ‘die’?
So many questions…
Without another lead to follow, I left the Guild shortly afterwards to look for Linette. Hopefully she would have some news for me from her contacts about this.
I made sure to put on a cloak with a hood to hide my face since that Razzle Dazzle Rex guy… Fuck, I’m just going to call him Rex… Anyway, I’m wearing this since that Rex guy already knows my face so it’s better to hide it.
I didn’t even stand out since there were also others like me who also wore cloaks walking along the street.
No, they aren’t the puppets of that Rex guy because they weren’t wearing masks. Those are cloaks meant for travelling through the desert to shield them from the sands.
Even though this town may be within the borders of Lehcarouc Kingdom, it was still located along the edge of the desert and still subject to harsh desert winds.
As I approached the inn where I was supposed to meet Linette, I found her wagons in the midst of pulling up to the inn.
Seems like I came just in time.
I went to the inn as the wagoneers began to guide their Dune Bison to pull the vehicles into the inn’s wagon lot. The only exception was Linette’s carriage as it stopped just outside of the building to allow the merchant to disembark from her carriage.
She didn’t notice me since I was wearing my cloak and went inside the inn on her own, leaving her carriage driver to park the carriage with the other wagons.
The Mercenaries Linette hired were also staying in the same inn and while most of them followed Linette into the inn, a few of them went with the wagons presumably to escort them.
I strolled towards the inn, walking past the carriage before looking at the building in front of me.
The building seemed simple enough.
It had four stories and the exterior looked like a proper inn comparable to those that were found in the Merchant district of the Capital city.
I’m more surprised that they even had an inn of this quality all the way out here at the border.
Deciding that it probably was due to the fact that most merchants might pass through here to get to Shendhala, they might have seen this as a good business opportunity for them to stay a night before they actually go into the desert for god knows how long.
It was the final town before they actually have to see nothing but sand or the first town they visit after leaving the desert so they invested into getting better accommodations I guess?
I stepped past the doorway to enter the inn, only to come face to face with the end of a sword pointed at my face.
I would have attacked the person pointing the sword at me until I realised it was Meela at the other end of the sword.
“You, you’ve been following us for quite a while now haven’t you?”
I pulled back my hood, “It’s me.”
She gasped and quickly pulled back her sword, “Aster! My apologies! I did not know it was you!”
I shook my head, “No. I only just arrived from the opposite direction so if there’s another cloaked person tailing you girls, it wasn’t me. What happened?”
“Wait… So the person that had been watching us from across the street while we were at the market square wasn’t you?”
“No, I went to the Guild here to report about that weird guy we encountered. Turns out quite a lot of other people also fell victim to him as well. So someone else was also watching all of you?”
She nodded, “They weren’t even subtle about it either. They just stood at the side of the street and stared at Miss Linette as she was conducting her business. Wherever she goes, he would follow while staying at the side of the street. We thought about confronting him but he would immediately leave before reappearing if we tried to approach him.”
“Was he wearing a cloak and mask?”
“You suspect it might be that weird guy?”
I shrugged, “That’s my primary suspect, yes. Unless Linette has other enemies around here?”
Meela scratched her cheek, “He was wearing the cloak but the hood obscured his face so we weren’t able to tell if he had a mask on.”
“I guess we should just operate under the assumption that it’s that masked guy then. He might be coming here to look for revenge after I beat him twice.”
“Twice?”
“Yeah… Another Mercenary teleported herself to the Guild to ask for help as her party was being attacked outside the town. I flew there and beat him up.”
“Did he escape again?”
“It’s… Complicated. Where’s Linette? I should tell her about this as well since you girls might be involved. I’ll tell you all what I found.”
“I had her wait near the inn’s counter so she should be–“
The door suddenly opened and a cloaked person was shoved in by Heather and Bev.
“Leader, we caught the guy that’s been stalking us.”
“I am not a stalker!” The cloaked person protested.
Heather scowled, “Like hell you aren’t. You’ve been following us for a good long while haven’t you? Ever since we were at the market until the inn.”
“That’s because I was called to meet up with Linette!”
Ah, this person’s actually talking coherently so they must not be related to the brainrot guy.
“I’m guessing you’re the contact that Linette was supposed to meet with to ask about something?” I assumed.
The cloaked person reached up and pulled back their hood, revealing themselves to be a rather young female Mahun with grey hair, “Yeah, that’s right. She sent a message asking me to meet with her and to be discreet. Are you her guards or something?”
Meela nodded, “We are. And may I just say that you were being anything but discreet.”
“Tsk. Give me a break. I’m a merchant, not a rogue. I wasn’t sure if Linette wanted me to keep quiet about our meeting from you girls so I had to keep my distance, ok? Where is she?”
“I’m here.”
We turned to see Linette standing behind us, the merchant nodding at the newcomer in greeting.
“Greia, it’s good to see that you are well.”
“And you too, Linette. You wanted to meet me?”
“Yes, in private. Miss Aster, she is the one I wanted you to meet, would you be joining us?”
I nodded, “Of course. And I think it would be a good idea for Meela to join us as well as this might concern all of you.”
Linette tilted her head slightly but did not protest, “I see. In that case, would my room be sufficient?”
Greia frowned, “If this is important… Is it sound proof?”
“Do you take me for an amateur, Greia? Of course it is.”
“Then that would be sufficient.”
Alright then, guess we’re going there.
Hopefully there’s more information that this woman could give me about Rex.
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