Published at 7th of February 2023 10:58 am

Chapter 145: A Heartless Woman I

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Merlin made his way to the elf, through the sea of tables as usual, he took a seat beside the man.

"So, how is the Madame Hartlace situation fairing?" Merlin asked immediately upon sitting down.

"Hello, nice to see you too." The elf spoke in a sarcastic tone, "It's always immediately to business with you..."

"Oh well. At least you're reliable." The elf muttered while taking another sip of his alcohol, and after placing his glass back on the bar table he continued. "There have been some developments with the Madame Hartlace case."

"What sort of developments?" Merlin asked.

"Well, we finished getting all the testimonies from all the people you had saved, and we made sure that all their stories matched up." The elf explained, "Then we leaked the story to the public, and it spread far enough for the city guards on Madame Hartlace's payroll to pay a visit. They brought in a handful of victims to interrogate them further, but there were a couple of our spies and some neutral parties present, so they couldn't silence the kids."

"There was enough evidence to take Madame Hartlace in for interrogation, which put a stain on her reputation and gave the rumours some validity. But unfortunately the court of public opinion isn't going to be deciding her fate, but rather a judge on her payroll." The elf continued. "Almost everyone who will be deciding her fate today will be on her side, so legally there is nothing we can do."

"So, when can I kill her?" Merlin asked.

"Well, we received word that she intends to do a public speech after the court case to try and regain some of the public's favour." The elf explained. "The speech is planned to be outside of the temple, as it has a wide space for a large group to gather."

"A wide open space outdoors, and I take it she will be on an elevated platform, or perhaps the steps." Merlin mumbled to himself. "If I kill her from a distance, would it be possible for you to retrieve the ring for me?"

"Kill her from a distance?" He asked, "Are you going to shoot her with a bow?"

"That's the plan." Merlin nodded. "Killing her with an arrow in front of a large group of people before disappearing."

"While that sounds interesting, I don't think shooting an arrow into a crowd of people is such a good idea." The elf shook his head. "And in the case that your arrow does hit her, all that will do is cause panic."

"Her team will then work overtime to clear her name and pin the mysterious killer as someone plotting against her." The elf continued, "It'll be better if she died in her office, away from the public's eye. Oh, and I have this for you, it may come in handy."

The elf pulled out a folded pile of clothes, placing it on the table in front of Merlin. The clothes were lightly glowing, indicating that they could be stored away. And Merlin couldn't help but feel like they were somewhat familiar.

"Oh, and I almost forgot this. Since someone happened to shatter the original, this one is a replica." The elf muttered as he placed a familiar looking black mask on top of the clothes. "You can probably piece together the plan from this, you're a smart one."

"Ghostsaw..." Merlin muttered as he picked up the mask. "I liked my idea, it was simple and fast... But your idea is just evil."

"Such kind words are wasted on me." The elf chuckled, picking his drink back up and indulging in it once more. "She will likely be making her way back to her office in about an hours time, so make your preparations now. The mask will get you inside, the blade will get you out."

Merlin inspected the mask once the elf stopped talking.

┌───────────────────

[Replica Ghostsaw Mask. (Common)]

A replica of the mask commonly worn by the late Ghostsaw, a famous assassin in Macedonia.

└───────────────────

Merlin threw the mask and the outfit into his inventory. He asked the elf where Madame Hartlace's office was before leaving the building.

He took his cloak off as he made his way upstairs, and after waving goodbye to Fae, he left the building. Merlin stepped out into the slums, only to find that it was relatively late in the day, on the cusp of night.

"System stream." Merlin muttered as he began his walk out of the slums, causing a large window to appear before him.

The system stream window was full of options, buttons and sliders. A streamer could spend hours messing around with it to get their ideal setup, but Merlin just planned on setting up the basic stream for now.

He hit the initial setup button, which brought up a selection for various streaming services, alongside an option to enter a custom link instead. Merlin clicked a familiar icon of a popular streaming service that he used before, and a login screen appeared before him.

Alongside the login screen was a floating keyboard that allowed him to type in the boxes. Merlin started filling in his login details, eventually logging in to the site. He was given a window where he could see the website from within the game, and even click on other streams if he wished, but he decided to type the name of the game in the search bar.

A topic for New Genesis had already been created on the website, and although nobody had streamed it yet, the topic itself had over ten thousand followers.

Merlin was excited, as at least a fraction of those followers would become his, which would boost his career. It was just a shame that he couldn't start streaming just yet, as he didn't want to show everyone that he was the one who killed Madame Hartlace.

Merlin closed the streaming window and slipped into the crowd as he left the slums. He decided to make his way to the mercenary guild. He found that the receptionist at the desk was the same woman he met last time, the one that was more friendly.

"Hello there." Merlin greeted her as he approached.

"Oh, good afternoon." The receptionist responded while seemingly fighting off a yawn. "Would you like to take a look at our job listings, learn about any news or rumours, or purchase alcohol?"

"I'd like to hear about local rumours. I heard some people talking about something and I wanted to get the full story." Merlin said. "Do you have anything about the Madame Hartlace rumours?"

"Well, it hasn't been absolutely confirmed, but Madame Hartlace was escorted to the city guard barracks for questioning, so there must be some truth to it." The receptionist said in a hushed voice. "Rumour has it that she was leading a child smuggling operation within her orphanage. But someone broke a group of children out during a transport and the children alerted the city guards to Madame Hartlace's vile crimes."

"There is supposed to be a court trial ongoing, but those who have seen the woman mentioned that she doesn't seem worried at all by the trial or it's possible results." The receptionist spoke even softer this time around. "And the rest of this is just speculation by people who do not wish to be named, but some people worry that the trial itself wont be fair."

"That's all I have for you." She said, "Would you like news or rumours from other locations?"

"No I'm fine, thank you." Merlin responded, "That helped me understand the situation pretty well, so thank you once again."

"It is my pleasure, please take care!" The receptionist spoke as Merlin turned around and left the building.

Merlin made his way outside of the building and slipped back into the crowd, his target this time was the spacious parkland that surrounded the temple.

When he arrived at the temple, he noticed that several people were waiting around, they didn't seem to be there for the temple's service, but rather that they were waiting around for something to happen.

Merlin took a seat on one of the park benches situated around the parkland and enjoyed the scenery while waiting around. His attention was pretty drawn to an anxious looking hooded individual who was sitting by a tree and muttering to himself.

There seemed to be other people standing around the parkland with similar feelings, mostly anxiety, which was somewhat strange. But what caught Merlin's attention more was that they each seemed to be wearing rather pricey clothing that was usually seen on nobles.

Merlin's eyes locked on to a man who came running into the parkland, he stopped for a moment to catch his breath before yelling something at the top of his lungs.

"The Madam was found not guilty, spread the word." The man yelled out, which caused all the anxious looking individuals to spring up from their positions and dash out into the city.

"What on earth..." Merlin muttered to himself as he watched the group scatter.

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