For the past two weeks Rage and the other clan members haven't been sitting idly just doing paperwork for the garrison, they have been going out to clear the forest from the remaining wolves each day, accompanied by Nyx and a select few of troops that were chosen for special training.
Fangmaw seemed to level up the more wolf corpses he ate, it weirded out Rage at first, but absorption skills were very common for boss-type monsters, so he shrugged it off.
Over the course of the two weeks Rage has been bothered by the Mine Incident, how come the miners nor the elders never notice the massive passage being dug underground? Moreover, how did the two dwarves escape the town so easily?
Madeen and Rage started poking around the town hall and investigating into Thaddeus's recent activities, they have been monitoring his movements and his actions, the one thing that stood out was his liking to one of the kitchen maids, every night before he went to sleep he had to meet the maid in the kitchen, they never got close enough to see what was going on, but they thought it was just an affair which was very common among nobles, additionally it was none of their business whether Thaddeus had an affair or not.
Madeen had just came back from the forest an hour ago, he rested at the tavern and grabbed a drink before heading back to the town hall, it was getting late and it was time for the usual meeting between Thaddeus and the maid, he contemplated just going to sleep but decided against it and went to his usual spot overlooking one of the kitchen's windows.
Strangely this time Thaddeus was nowhere to be found, neither was the maid.
He rushed outside the town hall and dashed above the tilted roofs of the small-town buildings checking every street and ally but there was no trace of them.
After a minute he found himself at the town's gate where two guards were stood, he descended into a nearby ally before walking casually towards the gate, "What a nice evening fellas, have you seen the elder around?"
"He should be at the town hall resting by now, shouldn't he?" One of them answered with a confused look.
"Ah yes my bad, I just wanted some small talk, by any chance has anyone gone out of the town lately?" Madeen asked casually.
"Well two people just went out an hour ago towards the forest saying they were hunters, we tried warning them that's dangerous at night but they didn't listen" The other guard shrugged.
"Kids these days, am i right?" Madeen scoffed with a chuckle, but the guards found it a bit awkward.
"Ehm, I'm sorry, can you describe these two hunters?" Madeen cleared his throat speaking more formally.
"Well, there was that red-haired woman padded leather armor and there was another person, but they were hooded so we don't know exactly"
"That must be the elder and that maid, but I remember that she never had red hair" Madeen thought to himself before taking off towards the forest without a word.
After looking around for a while he found a trail of footsteps leading further into an offroad that stemmed from the Forest's main road towards a small hill, Madeen used his skill soul harvest to conjure ten ravens and sent them out to scan the surrounding area, the skill allowed him to summon any life-form provided he has enough souls, it also allowed him to share his vision with some of the summons like ravens which made it a perfect tracking skill.
After a minute he saw an area where the air looked a bit distorted, he recognized it as a barrier, it was poorly set, at least to him since he was used to extremely high-level barriers back from phase 1.
Madeen recalled his ravens and rushed towards that area, he didn't know how to undo a barrier spell, but he didn't have time to go back and grab Jimmy, so he just conjured a small squirrel and sent it inside sharing its vision.
The squirrel followed Madeen's signals and climbed a nearby tree looking for the elder and maid inside the barrier area, he looked around to find a dimly lit campsite with a small bonfire in the middle, around it Elder thaddeus stood with the maid who some-how had red-hair now, in front of them was a figure he vividly remembered, it was the Elven mage that they fought back in the mines.
The squirrel went a bit closer but maintained a safe distance on top of a nearby tree, it was close enough so Madeen could eavesdrop on their conversation.
"I swear I did what you asked please just let her ago!" Thaddeus yelled with a concerned look at the mage with the maid standing closely behind burrying her face into his back.
"And what I asked wasn't sufficient, or would you like me to use your precious little daughter for my next experiment?" The mage laughed as he mocked and threatened Thaddeus.
"That variable was not something we could anticipate, I thought he was just a spoiled brat who knew nothing but sit on his throne and order his companions around, how would I've have known he was that powerful?" Thaddeus replied.
"I took a fragment of his essence alongside that meathead that accompanied him for research, they seemed rather interesting" The mage said in a curious manner, looking towards the squirrel.
Suddenly Madeen lost contact with the squirrel as he immediately realized that the elf was aware of his presence, he dashed back towards the town but strangely enough he wasn't interrupted nor ambushed on the way.
He quickly made his way towards the inn where his friends were staying, he barged in taking Eve by surprise only to see Sensei and the rest including Cedric sharing a drink at the bar.
"MADEEN, MANNERS!" Sensei yelled before Madeen slapped him on the face.
"OW! WHAT WAS THAT FOR YOU BASTARD!"
"I-I DON'T KNOW LISTEN, ADRENALINE RUSH, UHH" He looked around to find a full tankard of ale that he snatched and gulped down in one go before he calmed down a bit and sat on a nearby chair gasping for breath.
"Madeen what's wrong?" Rage questioned with a worried look.
"We need to talk somewhere private" Madeen replied looking at Cedric and Eve before the clan members made their way up into their room.
Madeen started explaining what happened and what he saw in the forest, describing how he trailed the elder and the maid back to a cliffside where a barrier was set and how they met the elf mage from two weeks ago.
"You did what!" Rage exclaimed, "You could've gotten yourself killed you idiot, why didn't you run back and tell us immediately?" he continued angirly.
"I would have lost their trail, that's not important right now, what's important is this, the elf mage seems to be holding the elder's daughter as hostage, and judging by how the maid was there, I think she is an illegitimate child from an affair between both" Madeen replied.
"Well, it seems like the elder is not doing this out of his own will, it also explains the meetings between the elder and the maid each night" Jimmy replied.
"I mean it was fairly obvious they had an affair, but a child is an outside variable we never thought about" Rage said.
"Well, how about we talk to the elder about it then, we can certainly help, can't we?" Hunter asked.
"I mean that's an option but judging by the fact that the mage knows that they were being watched, he's most likely going to place a curse on the elder to not leak any information, do you remember the spell 'Silentcloak' Jimmy?" Rage answered, while looking to Jimmy for an answer himself.
"Yeah, it would insta kill someone if they break a certain rule, I think the mage can definitely use it to shut the elder's mouth, but if he did that and didn't interrupt Madeen on his way back, does that mean he thinks that whoever was stalking them will go ask the elder if he needs help and it will result in the elder dying?" Jimmy contemplated.
"Well, he's a smart man, i think I know what his plan is" Sensei said, "The only ones in the town with high enough levels to conjure a summon are us, he already knows that one of us was the one stalking him, and he thinks we will immediately ask the elder to help, that will result in the elder dying and us framed as the murders, two birds with one stone" He continued.
"What a genius bastard" Jimmy scoffed in amusement.
"Well, if we need to help the elder, we need to know the Silentcloak's condition first" Rage stated thinking to himself.
"That won't be easy since it's impossible to do without actually killing him" Hunter said.
"Hunter that's genius!" Rage replied excitedly.
"What? oh yeah of course! ..what did I do again?"
"Do you guys remember my unique skill, demonic authority? it allowed me to summon Fangmaw as a companion and basically resurrect him after we killed him, right?" Rage said.
"Yes, but Fangmaw is a monster, why are you sure it will work on humans?" Jimmy asked.
"Well, Varon is linked to me and he-" Rage tried to say before he was interrupted by Jimmy.
"I knew you were going to say this but remember, Varon still isn't human, he's a demon" Jimmy said.
"If it works on humanoids it will work on humans just trust me!" Rage yelled in frustration.
"Sure, let's go kill the elder and be put in the empire's dungeons for life you moron!" Jimmy yelled back.
Immediately the door barged open with Eve and Cedric falling to the floor with a loud thud.
"Fuck.."
"Please don't kill my father" Cedric muttered lifting himself up from the ground.
"Cedric i know it sounds horrible, but you really need context for-" Rage tried to say before he was interrupted by Cedric.
"I heard everything, I know your intentions are good but please, do not risk my father's life just to test a theory" Cedric replied.
"Father is a good man I promise, but we can find another way to help retrieve my half-sister" Eve said which left everyone shocked.
"Your fa- You are the elder's daughter?" Sensei was shocked, he felt like he was slammed on the head.
"I am also an illegitimate daughter, but my mother died while giving birth to me" Eve said, "Father was trying to protect me just by making me work in the inn instead of throwing me in the streets, he paid a ton of gold to the previous innkeeper to just raise me and take care of me until I was old enough to manage the inn myself, he doesn't do what the other nobles do, trust me he is a kind man" She continued.
"Wow, mans got rizz" Madeen whistled before Sensei smacked him on the head.
"Now I understand why he became so irrational recently, he raised the taxes and started sending soldiers out on dangerous missions probably by this mage's orders" Cedric sighed, "And I was starting to hate him for it" he continued disappointedly looking to the ground.
"Well then, first course of action, let's find that damn mage, he must've changed his location after being discovered so we'll divide and conquer, Cedric you'll stay here in the city, you need to supervise the garrison's trainings and monitor your father, report back every move" Rage said addressing everyone in the room, "And Eve, try to get in contact with your stepmother, she probably didn't get cursed since she seemed to not know anything at all according to Madeen and forced the elder to take her with him because she was worried about her daughter" He continued.
"Got it" Eve replied with a firm nod.
"Alright lads, rest up, tomorrow we begin the hunt for the mage"