Ken was sitting on Simm's bed, rocking the two of his more energetic babies to sleep while Simm fed him dinner from her plate. The other two had already fallen asleep before he came home. Not wanting them to be startled awake, Ken and Simm had to converse in whispers.
"So you used the excuse of searching for the pet's body to use scouting spells on the riverbed?" Simm said. Ken nodded in affirmation.
"But I could not find the real source of the manapoisoning. All the fish there are inextricably coated by it. It's impressive! Someone has been dumping tons of poisoned, edible trash in the river for the aquatic life to consume. This has been going on for years, maybe even close to a decade!"
Simm was less excited about it than Ken. Both of them had seen much larger, more hideous schemes in their lives. But it couldn't be denied that whatever this scheme was meant to achieve, the lives of countless innocents could be involved in it, not to mention all the mages who had been killed to suppress the news that the water of the Capera River was being poisoned by some miscreants, powerful miscreants.
"So we need to be ready for attacks on our hideout. Whoever has been doing it must have some connection to the fishing business. They'll come to know that you assisted the parasite tourist during the search with your magic, and it's not like any decent mage has to look particularly hard to sense the abnormality underwater."
Ken nodded with a supercilious smirk on his face, which seemed to stimulate Simm's memories. Eyebrows rising up, she took a deep breath and said, "Spit it out. I know that look. You did something insidious again, didn't you?"
Ken didn't expect to get caught so quickly. Coughing awkwardly, he began to explain.
"Look at it this way. Mages have been disappearing after sensing the manapoisoning in their daily hauls at regular intervals. The law enforcers are being forced to come and examine the site repeatedly. But as long as there is a single decent mage among the investigators, they should have found out what's going on. It's hard to believe that a locality as developed as Shamrock City wouldn't have mages in its law enforcement forces. So why could nobody figure it out?"
Simm's brows climbed higher on her forehead. "You're saying that they already did, but chose not to speak out."
Ken nodded like a chicken. "Guess what can make the law enforcers remain silent when a crime as heavy as that is being committed."
Simm did not answer, but they both knew it. There could only be one entity behind the scheme.
"But what would the Duke stand to gain by poisoning the aquatic lives in that river?" Simm said, her mind on overdrive.
"You would have known the answer if you visited Shamrock City in the last couple days. The city is holding a huge festival right now, celebrating their victory over some Super Rank Necromancers many years ago. Can you guess which race these Necromancers were from?"
It took Simm five seconds to come to the correct conclusion. "Water...river...wait, Mermen? The merfolk have a high population of Necromancers, right? And Capera River falls straight into the ocean down west! They've been feeding the fish with manapoison so that the poisoning eventually reaches the merfolk? This whole scheme is just a method of exacting revenge?"
"Only that would be inadequate. They're doing so much more! I released my fish totems a few times in the river and ordered them to follow their own kind. Some of my totems ended up leaving so far that I lost their tracks and my magic dissipated. Not only are they feeding poison to the fish, they're continuously guiding the suitable ones to migrate to the ocean. Those that remained in the river are also not alright. A few of them have been attacked despite their species being vegetarian. The other fishermen have noticed it too, and said that it's the breeding season for these species and it lasts a long time. The number of poisoned fish migrating to the ocean should be numbered in hundreds of thousands."
"Sss..." Simm sucked in a breath. "If the merfolk contacts the poisoning, they might not be able to contain the spreading. Manapoisoning has never been an easy disaster to face at that scale. Entire cities might end up in ruins when the mages become explosive ticking bombs upon coming into contact with the migrated aquatic lives."
"The Duke sure holds a grudge," Ken said.
"Doesn't that mean we need to be ready to escape? Since the Duke himself is endorsing the killing of mages who sense the traces of the scheme, he'll definitely send men behind you!" Simm grew panicky, almost forgetting that she was no pushover herself. Even if the Duke sent Mutant Rank hunters to chase after Ken, she could probably take them down.
But Ken understood her sentiment as he glanced at the children in his arms. These brats wouldn't be safe if their enemies caught up to them. They would in fact be Simm's fatal weakness in a battle.
"That's why I made the parasite dig out the best possible evidence of the whole scheme alongside the remains of his pet. He might not be the smartest person in the city, but he has a high status. The only reason his spirit pet could be attacked is if the Duke orders it. But if the Duke intends to kill him directly, attacking the pet to lure him so far out of the city is unnecessary. Since they did it, it means that as long as he's inside the city, he might have some form of protection. He won't die that easily. He knows that as well as the Duke does. So now that he has learned of the scheme against his life, would he sit quietly with the evidence of the Duke's bigger scheme in hand? Hahahah!"
Simm took a long moment to digest the twisted plans Ken had drawn up in his mind.
"If I were in his place, I would use the evidence to blackmail the Duke for compensation," She said, breaking the silence.
"Exactly! He will know that he might have lost a precious body meant for possession, but he has gained a trump card thousands of times more valuable. Either the Duke could kill him, or he could only acquiesce to his demands.
A parasite would never let such an opportunity slip. He will visit the Duke at the first chance he gets, and he will also give himself a shroud of protection by relaying the news over to whatever faction backs him. No matter how desperate the Duke is to kill him, the threat of his scheme being revealed to the merfolk would be enough to keep his movements chained like a dog. He could, of course, try to track me down and silence me. But am I even a threat at this point when the parasite's backers have the same information in their hands?"
"They will wonder why the plan to lure the parasite out of the city failed, why the spirit pet ended up in the river," Simm said.
"That they will. That's where you come in, dear. Didn't you say you needed a sparring partner to get yourself back in shape?" Ken said, smiling deviously while pulling out a small knife that had been tucked under this belt this entire time.
Simm's eyebrows nearly disappeared above her forehead as she snatched the knife out of his hand, examining its properties.
"A Rare-grade weapon! Pretty good one too! How much did you spend on this?!" She squeaked so loudly that the babies in Ken's arms nearly woke up.
Trying his best to rock them back to sleep, Ken replied, "Not a single greengold. You'll be surprised at what people are ready to sell for an entrance pass to the core city. That's where you get the best of everything this city has to offer. A Rare grade knife is hardly worth an opportunity to sneak in there, heh."