Published at 7th of February 2023 10:58 am

Chapter 62: The Ghost Hunt I

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From what Merlin could tell, the rewards he received for finishing the quest was a small amount of experience and the four vials of holy water. He was satisfied with the rewards, it wasn't that important of a quest. He wasn't yet sure of the consequences that completing the quest would bring in the long run, so ultimately he wasn't pleased with his current situation.

Sir Redmond was a corrupt noble, and he most likely had connections with other corrupt nobles. Merlin couldn't know for sure how many factions had some form of connection with the man, or what kind of power vacuum his death would have created.

Due to his quest not giving him a strict warning about consequences in the town, like his quest to assassinate Arwell Lychester did, he wasn't completely worried of extreme changes. But this didn't mean that his death wouldn't cause changes, just that they weren't considered important enough by the system to be mentioned.

Merlin slowly entered the old man's office, what was once a neat and tidy room was now a mess. The desk situated on the other side of the room was scratched up and knocked onto its side, various drawers that stored countless documents had been either knocked over or smashed. There were shredded pieces of paper scattered around the drawers and shards of glass were practically coating half the floor.

It looked like the room had been ransacked, rather than a monster being let loose inside of it. Merlin walked over to the window, he could no longer see the monster that Sir Redmond called Evaline. What he did see was a lot of damaged property and loss of life. Even if they were tiny silhouettes in the distance, he could see people grieving over their losses.

Merlin turned away from the window, there wasn't much he could do for them at the moment, and he didn't want to start feeling guilty again.

He spent the next couple minutes looking around Sir Redmond's office, and during this time no servants of the house even came to check up on him, much less kick him out. He wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for, but all he did know is that he probably wouldn't have the chance to search Sir Redmond's house after this.

Besides the several hundred documents that were covered in numbers, Merlin found two things that sparked his interest. One was a flask full of a strange black tar-like liquid which he found in a locked compartment on the desk. Fortunately he stole the lockpick from the thieves guild, so he didn't have to search for the key. The second item seemed to be some kind of diary, and the only reason Merlin found it was because it was hidden between two drawers, but one had been knocked over, causing the diary to stick out.

Merlin threw both items in his inventory before grabbing one of the lanterns off the wall and leaving the building. As he stepped out of the building, he dragged his cloak out of his inventory and put it on, making sure to pull the hood up before he set off.

He was surprised that he didn't find any valuable trinkets or money, but he realised that they probably would have been stored away in a treasury or his room, and he didn't really want to spend a lot of time raiding a noble's house for a small sum of coin. There was also the chance that he'd be branded a criminal, especially if the servants called him out.

Not really wanting to bother with the potential trouble, he concluded that it wouldn't be worth the effort. Plus he had something else to do that was more time sensitive, destroying the ghost once and for all.

As he walked down what was once a bright marketplace, but was now a dark road covered in blood, corpses and with the occasional patch of shattered glass from the lanterns. He passed by several individuals, some seemed to be hurt, but were still alive, others just mourning over one of the many bodies littering the ground.

As he got closer to the gate, he started seeing a surprising amount of players. There was a large group of players, mercenaries and town guards forming at the gate. Merlin turned down a street and made his way to the mercenaries guild instead of joining the crowd.

As he walked closer to the door, he heard that it was loud inside. It wasn't the same as it usually was though, it wasn't the guild being rowdy, but rather it sounded like there were people aggressively arguing instead. But as usual, when Merlin entered the building and people started realising he was present, they began quieting down.

Merlin thought it would stay this way, but people actually started shouting again, although he couldn't figure out what they were actually shouting about until he saw two people wearing the town guard outfit talking with the bartender.

From what Merlin could gather, the town guard wanted to request the mercenaries to join their forces in hunting down the monster, and the main issue that arose was due to them not offering a reward. What seemed to have escalated this issue was that one of the town guards had a haughty attitude and made an incendiary remark.

There was typically a theme of knights and mercenaries not getting along, although this wasn't always the case. There was usually the mindset amongst knights that mercenaries were no better than criminals, throwing honour away for a paycheck. What made things worse was that knights generally had some level of nobility, or were raised to a noble status after knighthood, while mercenaries were almost exclusively commoners.

Merlin ignored the crowd as he walked up to the counter and took a seat. The bartender who looked like he was about to start shouting noticed Merlin approach before giving his attention back to the guards.

"No matter how you want to spin it, not many people are going to risk their lives for no reward." The bartender spoke to the guard with a stern tone. "I can post your quest as is, but I can guarantee that the only people here who would accept it are already out there looking for revenge."

The two guards settled on this, realising that they weren't going to sway any opinions using buzzwords like honour and duty. They quickly retreated out of the building, getting sworn at by the crowd, but they all quietened down the second they left.

"Now that they're gone, lets have a chat." The bartender still looked annoyed, but this time it seemed a part of that was targeted towards Merlin himself. "You asked me about Sir Redmond, and an hour later a monster burst into town, killing dozens of people before breaking into the Redmond's mansion and dragged his corpse down the street."

"And this monster just so happens to perfectly match the description of the monster who massacred the bandit fort." The bartender continued, "Now, can you honestly tell me right now that the two situations aren't connected, and that this is a really unfortunate coincidence?"

After hearing that, Merlin realised that it didn't exactly look good for him, but he could probably explain it away. Merlin couldn't respond right away, instead he spent a few seconds compiling his thoughts.

"Well... It's not a coincidence." Merlin revealed his cursed arm, showing the bartender that the few spots he saw a few days ago had now spread to the point it enveloped Merlin's entire arm. "Remember when I said I got attacked and cursed by a ghost a week ago? It's the same ghost, it has been stalking me every night."

The bartender looked at the arm again, he couldn't help but feel some level of disgust. In his defence, it did look like some nasty disease that would be easily spread, and overall it didn't look very appealing.

"I'm a victim here too, but when I visited Sir Redmond, I found something interesting." Merlin began explaining, "When the monster invaded the mansion, Sir Redmond called it Evaline. Do you know who that might be?"

The bartender's face briefly showed a surprised expression before reverting back to the stern frown he was using up until that point. The bartender let out a sharp exhale before speaking.

"I don't think there isn't a person in this room who doesn't know who Evaline is. Well, excluding you of course." The bartender spoke, "She was the original owner of the Rosewater bathhouse. She used to grow every single rose herself, in her own private garden."

"She was a kind soul, a noble woman who treated commoners with respect. She was famous around town for greeting everyone as she tended to her garden every morning. Some people started referring to her as the fairy of the rose garden." The bartender laughed to himself before continuing. "She was kind and compassionate, but what made her especially famous was that she was beautiful."

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