Published at 7th of February 2023 10:58 am

Chapter 89: She Knows I

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"Some features?" The thieves guild leader asked on with a curious look before immediately dropping it. "No matter, I've already send some of my best to deal with the mess."

"Moving on to the next topic, I had a few things lined up for you to do, but those plans have been put on hold for now. I've got something far more interesting in the works, courtesy of this diary." The elf spoke while tapping his chest, and from the sounds of it, it seemed as though the diary was being stored away in his breast pocket. "I don't have a task for you yet, but come back in say an hour or two and I may have an important errand for you to run."

"I'll come back in a few hours then." Merlin nodded his head, said his goodbyes and made his way out of the thieves guild hideout once more.

While he was out on the street, making his way out of the slums, he stopped by where he had killed the guard. To Merlin's surprise, the guard's corpse and all the blood were already gone, it was like nothing had happened there only minutes prior.

When Merlin finally stepped out of the slums, he made his way into the crowd, following the flow of traffic further into the city.

"She knows what you did..." Once again, someone whispered directly into Merlin's ear, causing his hair to stand on end. And yet again, when he turned around, there weren't any sketchy people leaning in or even uncomfortably close, just a handful of merchants and their carts in the general area around him. As he turned back to face the direction he was walking, the voices spoke out once more. "The oracle sees all..."

As if to confirm his suspicions, the creep was so kind as to disclose the person they were affiliated with. He had a feeling it would be this one, mostly because of what happened while he was in the middle of a dungeon, but also because she generally gave him a bad feeling.

Merlin dipped out of the crowd and made his way into the mercenary guild. Eyes locked on him as he entered, but there weren't as many hostile or wary gazes as last time, it seemed as though the guild master for the Orchomenus branch was doing his best to fix Merlin's reputation.

He walked over to the front counter, where the same woman as last time was sitting around looking bored.

"Welcome back! Job, News, or Alcohol?" The receptionist asked without any additional small talk.

"I'll take whatever news and rumours you have, thanks." Merlin responded.

"Alright, let me see what we've got here." The woman pulled out a handful of documents, and began flipping between them quickly after skimming the titles. "Well first up, there was a major incident in Orchomenus a day ago, the undead that had been spotted roaming the nearby forest decided to attack the town, killing several civilians, town guard and specifically a noble from the Redmond house before leaving. Rumours say this undead was killed that same night by someone the mercenaries are calling The Ghost."

"Also in Orchomenus, we just received news of this a little while ago. The president of Lychester's Provisions, Arwell Lychester, had been found within that same forest with a handful of arrows in his body. His guards say they were attacked by wolves, but the arrows seemed to be from a goblin, and those two races haven't been seen getting along in that area." She continued. "There are rumours that Lychester was killed by someone he had a disagreement with the day before. The suspected culprit was seen escaping from the town when asked by town guards to come in for questioning."

"So far there have been no further reports from the king's patrols into the frontier, Charisia still refuses to respond to the outside world, a handful of scouts were sent into the Tegean Marshlands, but not a single one had returned." She began reading off a few updates from older information. "And earlier today the skies above the temple of Artemis lit up once more. We are yet to receive any reports about the situation in Lycoa, but just based on the size of the light, our best guess is that yet another large group of otherworlders have appeared.

As she started shuffling through the documents while skimming them, she found one last piece of information that Merlin would possibly find interesting. "And finally, there seems to be a large amount of missing person cases appearing out of... Orchomenus, yet again. What is going on with that town?..."

"Anyway, it seems it as though there have been several kidnappings of people travelling between Orchomenus and Caphyae. We believe it to be a large bandit operation hiding out in the forest. It doesn't seem as though the Orchomenus town guard can spare any manpower to deal with it for now, especially due to the recent issues in town, so for now it is probably best to avoid travelling along that road." She finished explaining and placed the documents down neatly. "Scary times we live in."

Yet again, there was plenty of information there to dissect. It was always a good idea to listen to the local rumours and news from neighbouring towns, in most cases it would hint towards major quests, but sometimes it could give hints to possible hidden questlines or other secrets.

"Thank you. Scary times indeed." Merlin thanked the lady before making his way out of the mercenary guild building.

While he had time, he decided to see what the crazy snake lady had to say. He wasn't particularly fond of her after hearing about the elf's story, and having people stalk him and whisper into his ears didn't help her case either. But a sense of curiosity grew, just what did she want with him?

After a short walk, Merlin found himself at the walled off compound that the Serpent-Bearer Kilo resided in. He approached the gate that featured the strange symbol of two intertwined snakes biting each other's tail.

A loud clank sound rang out as the gate dramatically swung open, revealing the same young supermodel butler who guided him last time.

"The oracle has been expecting you." The butler spoke in a seemingly emotionless voice. "Please, follow me."

The butler led him up the same set of stone brick stairs and through the large door that he entered through last time. As he entered the building, the first thing that happened was that his senses were overpowered by the smoke emanating from the braziers situated around the room, once again burning the snapdragon looking plant.

And as he opened his eyes and took a look around, he saw all the same individuals he saw last time, all dressed up like dolls. Due to his talk with the thieves guild leader, he now knew that everyone currently in this room were related to the thieves guild. They were spies that had been bewitched by the woman, or demon, calling herself Kilo.

As Merlin walked to the other side of the room, he noticed the heads of everyone in the room slowly track him, it was like a scene straight out of a horror film. One of the dolls that was dressed up like a classy businesswoman stood by the door, she slowly opened it for Merlin and then quickly closed it behind him as he walked through.

'This is as terrifying as always.' Merlin thought to himself as he walked into the spherical room.

He made his way towards the switch he was told to flick last time, and he flicked it without being told, causing the skylight in the centre of the dome roof to open, alongside a loud metallic screech.

"You really should oil that." Merlin quipped as he made his way over to the king sized bed in the middle of the room.

There was a silhouette laying on the bed, hidden behind the white lace curtains that were draped over the bed's canopy. Merlin watched as the figure slowly rose out of bed, crawling towards the side of the bed only to push the curtains aside.

The oracle revealed herself to Merlin once more, a tall pale woman, wearing nothing but a white silk robe, and her long wavy orange hair partially concealing the turquoise ball python that was still wrapped around her neck.

"I'll take your advice under advisement." Her soft voice rung out. "My, you have been quite busy, haven't you?"

"The hero of Orchomenus, as well as the villain who stole away the life of a trusted merchant." The oracle's voice picked up a darker tone as she accused Merlin, "You are quite the schemer. And for your schemes an innocent man was suspected for your crimes. No, it was a man you intentionally made the suspect through planted evidence."

"But I..." Merlin noticed that the woman's eyes were slightly glowing as she stared at him, but they quickly returned back to normal only a few moments later. "I caught you."

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