After taking care of the kids and heading back to the inn, I event Kira, Elsaris, Samira, Beatriz, and Jay at a table drinking wine.
I go to Kira’s shadow and stand there, with her sense it was easy to notice me, so she waves to the others showing that I’m there.
Soon after everyone nods and finishes drinking before paying the girdle and going to the room, then Elsaris takes out an item that creates a barrier inside the room.
“Did you find out why the Church of Light was in town?” (I)
“We found out, they came after you.” (Elsaris)
“They used to be looking for a criminal to enter the Grimo Realm with their army, but they had to swear an oath in the name of their God to do nothing but hunt down the criminal.” (Kira)
“Am I that criminal?” (I)
“Yes, a heinous criminal by their words, check this out.” (Samira)
“…” (I)
I’m talking to them while hiding in the shadows, unlike me, Orion doesn’t know how to speak from within the shadows, in fact, he is only able to mentally speak to me.
During Samira’s explanation, she pulls out a paper on which an old image of me is drawn in a very accurate way I must say, but it was an image before I gained horns and scales.
Underneath the image was listed my crimes as a Heretic, Murderer, Kidnapper, Thief, and Demon.
I also had a bounty on my head, dead or alive, of 100 crystal coins.
(Author’s message: remembering the value of coins:
1 crystal coin = 10,000 gold coins
1 gold coin = 1,000 silver coins
1 silver coin = 100 bronze coins)
I was surprised at the great value they placed on my head, but why are so many false crimes on top of my head?
“I didn’t think they would make up so many lies to come after me.” (I)
“I don’t think they invented anything, you know what you did.” (Elsaris)
“You stole items that belonged to the Church of Light like the Dragon’s blood and the crystal where Nix was.” (Kira)
“You ordered the kidnapping, torture, and death of an Archbishop of the Church of Light.” (Samira)
“Let’s face it, you have the looks and lineage of a Demon, even if you’re not one, you’re pretty close to being one.” (Beatriz)
“And about the charge of being a Heretic, well I don’t think I need to say more than that, right?” (Kira)
“…” (I)
I don’t think I can deny any of that.
“But how would they know anything about me? How do they know I was the one with the Trash Archbishop?” (I)
“Besides, how do they know where we are?” (I)
“From what we learned from interrogating some of them, they had a special way of tracking anyone from the Archbishop Rank up.” (Jay)
“While you were evolving last time and were at odds for months, we were being chased by them, that is until the Archbishop died.” (Elsaris)
“Also it was this Archbishop who spread the word that you were a thief and a Demon, Vampires are considered a type of Demon by the Church of Light.” (Elsaris)
“They weren’t following us either, when we last fled from them we were close to the Grimo Kingdom, plus they had months to spread their troops across the Grimo Kingdom to find us.” (Samira)
“Finding them in this town was just an unfortunate coincidence.” (Kira)
“…” (I)
I’m sure this situation is the fault of this damned bad luck, I’m holding myself back from crying as I remember this stain on my near-perfect status.
Sigh
“Now they’re gone, so let’s just let it go.” (I)
“Have you taken a look at the location of the illegal markets?” (I)
“Yes, there are only two big illegal markets that would dare to sell Elf slaves, one is the Black Market and the one as far as I know belongs to one of the Dukes of that Realm.” (Kira)
“I guess no one knows he’s the leader, right?” (I)
“It’s actually an open secret that everyone knows but no one can prove.” (Kira)
“That’s why we found ourselves quickly, otherwise we wouldn’t have time to investigate something on this scale.” (Samira)
“The Black Market has some Elves smuggled in from other Realms into this one, they do it because they know the Elves of that Realm will buy them for any price.” (Elsaris)
“But the Illegal trade of this Duke I spoke of before, they kidnap Elves in this Realm to sell in another Realm, they do the opposite of the Black Market so they don’t make excuses to meddle in each other’s business.” (Kira)
“For you to be saying all this, I must assume there’s a slave shipment in town, right?” (I)
“Yea.” (Kira)
“It seems the name of this clandestine trade organization is Grimorio Negro, a play on the name of the Kingdom, I must say that is very bold of this Duke.” (Kira)
“This duke must be a fool, the royal family here must surely know about him and even without proof it’s not hard to get rid of someone using assassins.” (Elsaris)
“But if that hasn’t happened until today, then he must be useful in some way to the Realm, something that makes up for the trouble that trafficking Elves can cause for this Realm that has a long history of alliance with the Elves.” (Elsaris)
“I don’t care, compared to the Black Market that is all over the world, this clandestine organization is just small staying in this one kingdom of this one continent.” (I)
“Have you confirmed that they have Elves with them?” (I)
“Yes, we also know where they are.” (Kira)
“Their security is good, but compared to the security of the Black Market, it’s nothing.” (Beatriz)
“What will you want to do” (Elsaris)
“We are going to rescue your slaves and at the same time we can steal from them.” (I)
“What happens next is none of my business, let’s do it tonight and leave this town at dawn.” (I)
“I don’t have the time or desire to pry into this Kingdom’s internal affairs, so let’s take what we want from these criminals and leave.” (I) ．
“Simplistic as always, I like it Dad.” (Samira)
“Fine by me…” (Elsaris)
Samira looks at her sister and punches her with her elbow, then looks at her seriously as if expecting something, the two exchange a few glances as their expressions changed, they seem to be communicating somehow.
Sigh
“I’m fine… Father…” (Elsaris)
“…” (I)
“See, it wasn’t that hard.” (Samira)