Published at 7th of February 2023 10:58 am

Chapter 90: She Knows II

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'I caught you.' The oracle's words replayed in Merlin's mind. Then he remembered the Oracle's glowing eyes.

'Damn it. So it was scrying... I was careless.' He rebuked himself in his thoughts. He didn't expect that he'd have to worry about scrying this early in the game, but he had made himself known to someone who claims to have an oracle's power, and clearly made more of an impression than he expected. 'I'll have to figure a way to counter that, but for now, how do I get out of this?'

He stood there in silence for several moments, lost in thought while staring at Kilo's confident expression. He wondered what would happen if he just splashed her with holy water, would she sizzle like the rose wight did?

A demon who publicly flaunts its enslaved victims dared to reprimand Merlin about his wanton disregard for the life of others, even going so far to accuse him of murder without any evidence. A plan formed in his mind, although he wasn't sure it was a good one.

"So, you're accusing me of murder?" Merlin asked with a shocked expression that was obviously forced, "If you truly believe I have done something so abhorrent, why are you interacting with me instead of delivering all the evidence you have to the town guards?"

The oracle's confident expression crumpled into a frown, it seemed like she just expected him to confess immediately upon being confronted. Merlin figured she probably wanted to use it as a bargaining chip, or as blackmail, but he didn't feel like playing the demon's game.

"Perhaps you don't have any evidence that you could use to turn me in. In which case, did you perhaps want to coerce me into confessing to a murder I had no part in?" Merlin asked with an accusatory tone.

"No part?" The oracle repeated as she stared at Merlin, and with her confident grin returning she began recounting every action that Merlin took during the assassination in great detail, including the part where he killed LordKyle and started framing him. "From my observations, it seems as though you had quite a significant part in the murder of Arwell Lychester."

"Well, that's quite the imagination. But if you're accusing me with nothing but a story, I don't see how you expect people to believe you, especially when all the evidence seems to point towards someone else." Merlin pressed the issue further. "As far as the records are concerned, I had left through the northern gate earlier that day, and there are at least six people who can confirm that I was in fact north of Orchomenus around the apparent time of the murder."

"More importantly, if you believe I was the one who killed him, then what is my motive supposed to be?" Merlin asked. It didn't matter if she saw every single part of the kill, she still wouldn't have any of the context as to why he did it, which would have been a major reason for his suspicion.

"From what I understood from the news and rumours around town, it sounded as though the kill was premeditated." Merlin pretended to think as he spoke. "Surely someone who puts that much effort into a murder must have quite a strong motive, and there is someone who fits that description much better than I."

"The man you framed you mean?" The oracle asked. "Yes, it was quite crafty, I will admit. Using a man who publicly harassed Arwell Lychester as the scapegoat for your crime was ingenious. And while I don't know why you decided to murder him, there is nothing saying that it simply couldn't be an indiscriminate killing."

"If you truly believed me to be a villain who murders indiscriminately. Why would you be comfortable standing here before me without any form of protection?" Merlin asked as his eyes narrowed in on the woman's face. "Unless of course, this isn't your real body?"

Merlin expected some kind of reaction with those words, and he did indeed get a surprising reaction, but it wasn't anywhere close to what he expected.

Rather than the oracle reacting, it seemed as though she froze, there wasn't even a flicker in her eyelids. However the snake that was wrapped around her neck, the one that hadn't moved an inch since Merlin entered the room, it quite obviously flinched upon hearing his words.

'Interesting.' Merlin thought to himself as his eyes locked onto the snake. He noticed before, but the snake really did have intelligent looking eyes. 'Then it's not just a case of body-snatchers. Perhaps it's a parasite?'

The oracle started moving again a few moments after, it was like she temporarily lost control of her body's motor functions, and Merlin could tell something wasn't quite right with her now.

Kilo looked at Merlin with a great amount of suspicion, it seemed she had grown cautious of him. Merlin decided that he had to break the oracle's suspicion, because he didn't know what sort of rash actions she would do if she felt cornered.

"Well, it doesn't seem like you're an illusion." Merlin spoke out loud as he stared at the oracle. "So I suppose you really are here. I'm going take that as it meaning that you trust me enough to not murder you like the supposed serial killer you believe me to be."

"Which begs the question, do you really believe that I am someone capable of such violent and irredeemable acts?" Merlin asked, "Or if not, what is the real reason you brought me here?"

A few moments passed, and the oracle let out a long sigh. "It would have been easier for me if you just let me blackmail you. This is why I cannot stand schemers."

The oracle had dropped all pretext, and had seemingly broken character. She narrowed her eyes at Merlin, inspecting his demeanour before she explained herself. "One of my pets went missing during their tasks, I want you to go find them for me."

Upon hearing this, a quest notification appeared before him.

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[Uncommon Quest]

Lost and Found.

One of the oracle's envoys has been captured on his way to Caphyae. There have been several reports of kidnappings of people travelling between Orchomenus and Caphyae. There is a significant chance that a large bandit group is behind the kidnappings, therefore combat might be a requirement.

The oracle has requested that you search for her envoy and bring them home safely. If the envoy is killed the quest will end in a failure.

Bring the lost envoy home safely.

• Reward: 300 EXP, 1 Gold, +5 familiarity with Serpent-Bearer Kilo.

• Failure: ???

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By pet, did she mean one of her envoys? She had the audacity to kept people as pets and treat spies as nothing more than dress-up dolls. Merlin's only thought was that the woman was nothing but bad news.

He took notice that the serial kidnappings had been mentioned, meaning this was probably something that would blow up to be a larger quest chain, or lead to something interesting at the very least.

"Fine, I'll do it. All you had to do was ask." Merlin agreed to the quest, not because he was interested in helping this strange woman or her envoys, but because he was interested in the kidnappings and expected that something would come out of it.

"Oh? It was that easy, I see." Kilo escaped into her own thoughts as she made her way back over to her bed. "Turn the lights off on your way out."

Merlin watched as the tall figure vanished behind the lace curtains, Kilo was no longer responding to questions, so he decided to leave the building.

When Merlin left the spherical room, back into the room that was usually full of smoke, he was met with quite a strange sight. All of the attractive dolls seemed to be unconscious, idling around in their usual locations. Merlin saw that the butler had seemingly passed out mid walk and had fallen over, the rest had fallen unconscious in seating positions, so they were all generally okay.

Merlin stepped around the unconscious bodies as he made his way to the door. He realised that the reason they were like this was most likely because of what happened with the snake. This practically confirmed the parasite hypothesis, or at least Merlin believed so.

Opening up the door to the exit, Merlin breathed in fresh air once more. The sickly floral scent of the strange snapdragon-like plant had filled his nostrils, leaving him feeling a bit lightheaded.

'I hate this place.' Merlin thought to himself as he practically leapt down the stone brick staircase before making his way to the gate.

When the gate to the compound swung open for him, Merlin walked out of the building as fast as he could, and once the gates closed behind him he walked off into the nearest crowd. As he did so, he received a message from Snowbunny.

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[20:03:41] Snowbunny: Hey Merlin, we just entered Macedonia, we're waiting at the entrance for you.

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