Cain’s face twisted as he saw the man she was dragging, his arms were pointing backward and blood dripped from his skull, his legs had clear bite marks on them. Selena has whipped the ground with him before bringing him here.
“For now put him off the ground, we need to make sure he stays alive.” Smack! Selena simply smacked him onto the ground, CRACK! Another one of his bones seems to have been shattered.
“Like this-nya?” Cain just looked at him cringing. He felt that. “Go call Sebas for me.”
As Selena rushed to call Sebas, Cain crawled out of his bed to check on the caught stalker. [Lesser Healing] It’s better to stop the bleeding.
Should he interrogate him, Cain wasn’t that knowledgeable about nobles. Being tricked was a big possibility, enough to make him want to let someone else handle this.
This was better-taken care of by William, he knew his nobles well and could extort valuable information from this idiot.
“Master, I heard you needed me.” Sebas entered the room with Selena, Alice, and Gracie.
“Prepare the carriage. I will be heading to the lord’s mansion with Alice. In my absence, make sure to tighten the security and keep everyone inside.” Cain quickly pointed toward the unconscious man, “Tie and threw him in the carriage as well.”
“What about us?” Sofia asked taking a step ahead.
“You and Selena will stay here as guards and protect the mansion in my absence.” Cain was serious if one of them had approached Lexi they might attack someone else. Taking that in mind, Selena was their party’s strongest melee fighter and Sofia was a decent spell caster so they would make a decent defense team. Add to that Gracie and Spindle, Sebas who could hold his own, and some guards, and it’s perfect.
“Master, I’m more worried about your safety…” Sebas asked with an unchanged face, his wrinkles and Calm voice carried a gentle tone to them.
“I have a trump card, and this city would turn to ashes before I’m dead.” Cain’s confident demeanor wasn’t faked, he still had Sylph as a backup plan. If she was to be unleashed, the city would crumble.
After carefully studying Cain’s expression, Sebas bowed and stormed out dragging the stalker as quick as he could to get the preparation ready. Cain was left alone with the girls and he changed his clothes alongside Alice.
They didn’t wear anything fancy, it was their regular adventuring sets. To Cain, they were back in the job of adventurers rather than going to have a noble meeting. Cain was still feeling weak so he took Sebas’s cane with him again.
Cain quickly rushed downstairs where he grabbed a few bits of leftover bread and milk before heading out to the carriage. The trip was short but to Cain, it felt like ages, he was keeping an eye outside all the time, focusing to see if they are being followed, and the results were negative.
In the lord’s mansion, they were only able to meet William and Lisa as Leon seemed to be busy with the military and the preparation for the winter. The firewood stock didn’t satisfy him so he was leading the soldiers to the forest to log, he had also said it will serve as training for them and increased both their stamina and geographical knowledge about the area.
“Alice!” William rushed as soon as he spotted his daughter. Lisa by his side just smiled but that soon turned into a serious frown as she saw the man being dragged by the guards behind them.
Alice masterfully dodged her father’s quick attack, no hugs for him today it seemed. “Father, please stop. It has just been a couple of days and you’re acting like this.”
“B-but, have you been healthy, are you eating well. I asked you to send a letter daily, did you forget?” William cried like a caring mother. To his surprise, Alice replied quickly and with a sharp cold tone. “I didn’t forget, I just didn’t send them since nothing major happened. I only intend to send one a month with small details!”
“You husband getting sick is a big thing, I have to prepare your room in case he d…, Ahem didn’t get well quick enough.” William stuttered. Cain looked at him, ‘I swear it felt like he was going to say I died’ Cain thought as he heard William.
They quickly made their way inside, seeing the maids rush in and out Cain realized that they all seemed to be above thirty years old. William’s preference perhaps?
A maid rushed toward Lisa and bowed deeply, “Madam, we’re still working on the office so Can you use another room this time?” Lisa nodded as there was nothing they can do about it.
“What happened?” She asked as she lead them to a suitable room. This time it wasn’t William’s office as it seems to be under cleaning so they just sat in the butler’s office. As usual, tea was served and Lisa took care pouring it for everybody.
William quickly turned serious, “You know there is a limit to how much we can punish in a short period with it not being suspicious?” William asked glaring at Cain with doubt, they just dealt with the matter of the guards, and now this.
“Today I was being stalked by two unknown individuals, some have stalked my maids and now that man was caught stalking the house, presumably targeting Alice and the others.” Hearing his daughter’s name and the word stalker in the same sentence has turned his face beet-red with rage.
“That bastard!” William growled, smacking his hand on the hard wooden desk, “Can’t they just let my daughter alone?”
“I presume there is a reason why you didn’t interrogate him alone, why did you bring him to us?” Lisa asked what seemed like an obvious question. Her curling eyebrows and bent lips conveyed her worries.
“I’m suspecting that a noble has a hand in this so it’s better to be handled by you. It’s embarrassing for someone who supposedly lived here but I don’t know a single noble name.” Cain replied. The truth was that he didn’t know a lot of them in his past life. Now since it had been that long he had forgotten most of them due to irrelevant to the bigger picture they were.
Lisa nodded, as she understood what he meant, to interrogate someone you need a sure way to confirm the information you got, otherwise you will be tricked.
If it was a noble, they are dealing with. Attacking them directly will only serve against them. It was better to take this satiation slowly and professionally, with calculated movements to expose and frame whoever noble that betrayed them.
“I can guess they might be allying with Ourals’s bastard, betrayal won’t go unpunished!” William stated as he stood up and stormed out.
Cain feels as if he has been in this satiation before. He sighed and took a big gulp of his tea. Leon was to take care of the military and prepare for a possible war while dealing with the diplomatic mess of Ourals. William will deal with the internal struggle between the nobles and try to find the betrayer to keep order. Sylph on the other side of the world must have concurred the Thorne and is preparing for the world tree and the confrontation with the dragons. Lastly, he has to think and prepare traps for the catastrophe.
Cain simply wished to have a calm day where he could lay in a field, touch grass, and smell the flowers, without worrying about problems.
The conversation did hold for a bit longer but it ended without any further discussion of the matter. It was just William ranting about how much he missed Alice and Lisa trying to Calm him down.
As much as Cain liked to stay and chat it was time for them to leave as it was about to get dark, tomorrow the Alchemy shop owner will come and visit to make Cain’s alchemy set up. It was a big step forward as it will finally enable him to refine poisons and potions as well as create a workplace for one of the five unallocated girls at home.
After that, he might visit the guild and grab a quest or two, simply for money, as he needs more of it now more than ever. He also wanted to buy some jewelry for Alice, as they didn’t get a chance in Ourals. Cain hated nothing more than being unfair to his girls.
It was going to be a long night with how much work was awaiting him. Cain felt his eyes close in exhaustion, he should probably sleep more now that he is recovering.
“Alice, Let’s head back I’m a bit exhausted. We can finish the discussion at a later date.” As Cain stood and did so by his side, bowing to her father and stepmother, “Please take care.” She said as they quickly left.