Chapter 91: Cracks of convergence. (8)

Nerissa raised her hand in a sharp and silent manner the moment Tarmund pleaded, evidently quite prepared for his surrender. The inquisitors stopped immediately, almost looking frozen in the air for a second before they stepped back to their original positions. Her gaze landed on Tarmund, the book in her hand drawing a line in the air as she gestured towards a nearby table.

“Well then, how about you join me for a little chat? Arvold, Duvain, ensure that nobody leaves this room until further orders are given.”

Nerissa strode over to the table and took a seat, for a moment the only sound in the apartment came from her chair scraping against the wooden floor. It was quite a shift from how she earlier said to detain and take his family in for questioning. Evidently, she knew very well what sort of reputation they had, she would probably have brought up the protocol herself if Gabriel hadn’t spoken up when he did.

Tarmund naturally had no choice but to take a heavy seat by the table, the inquisitors splitting up into groups as they secured the room. They didn’t just block the entrance, but also the doors of the other rooms, Nerissa had said This Room, not This Apartment. And so, Tarmund’s family was stuck in the room as she started to question Tarmund, it was a rather efficient scare tactic as it always kept his weakness right there, in the corner of his eyes.

While Nerissa questioned Tarmund, digging up every last piece of information about the suspicious transactions and the like, Gabriel walked through the room. As the main area of the apartment, it was naturally quite large, shifting naturally into the kitchen without a dividing wall. He moved as if he was inspecting the room, allowing his fingers to slide across the furniture in the same way he looked for secret switches in the hidden dungeon the first visited.

Eventually, he made his way to the kitchen, slowly making his way through it. For a moment, he stopped in front of the window above the sink, it gave a rather good view of the surrounding city. His hand rose and his finger stroked the glass, his eyes narrowing as he looked like a man scrubbing a stain or smudge. Before long, parts of the marks he left on the window formed a mark, but it was broken before long as he rubbed the window a bit more. In the end, he stopped rubbing the window after a little over five seconds, clicking his tongue in apparent dissatisfaction.

Then, he simply resumed his investigation of the kitchen, carefully observing every inch. The hidden compartment that seemed to have housed the ledger was naturally also inspected, but there was nothing else to find so he returned to the inquisitors and waited for Nerissa to finish her interrogation.

“Thank you for giving me so much of your time, I am always fond of such constructive and informative talks.”

Nerissa ended the conversation with a polite smile, her chair scraping against the floor again as she rose from her seat. Tarmund was quite pale at this point, having rambled on about every last thing he knew. Every time he wanted to stop, Nerissa’s simple and eerily calm smile forced him to continue. She was looking straight at him, but he could swear that he saw his family’s reflection in her eyes. The inquisitors never harmed innocent people, but they wouldn’t hesitate to drag them in if there was a chance that they could be guilty.

“Now, since you’ve been very cooperative so far, I’m sure that you won’t mind following Ertagan over here back to our headquarters for a bit? Just while we organize all the evidence and get it all sorted.”

Nerissa maintained her polite smile as she pointed towards one of the inquisitors sent by the Woodime family. Tarmund felt like crumbling under the weight of that smile, but that luxury was not one afforded to him. At the very least, what he had done wasn’t all in vain. She wanted him to follow them back. Not his family, but him. In that, he could at least find some comfort, eking something of a smile onto his face.

“I naturally don’t mind. Astinos, Artinus, Daddy will be back very soon so don’t worry, just eat properly and don’t forget to stay on top of your studying.”

Tarmund flashed a smile at his two sons, ruffling their hair for a short moment before he exchanged looks with his wife. They exchanged no words, but Gabriel could see the emotions in their eyes. In that sense, they were like him and Alice, words weren’t needed to exchange meanings.

Nerissa exchanged a few words with the inquisitor she had singled out. He didn’t belong to her division since he worked for the Woodime family, but Nerissa was given command of this operation so he had no choice but to follow her orders. He brought Tarmund with him as they left, requisitioning a carriage and an additional horse so that he could bring the man back to the Amber Inquisitors.

He went off in one direction while Nerissa and the rest headed off in a different one, moving on to the next target. As for who the next target was, it would naturally be the company that it turned out Tarmund had been working for. According to Gabriel’s accusation, piercing through the three proxy companies they would find upon digging into Tarmund would lead to the Third Son of Duke Sorin so they naturally focused on that part of the accusation. The part that linked it to a duke from the Kasarias Kingdom would be next in line, but finding the leak on their own side came first.

“You did a good job of cornering him, Viscount Indra. You were quick on your feet.”

Nerissa addressed Gabriel, without turning her head because they were still riding at almost full speed. The best he got was a sideways glance, placid blue eyes reflecting him for but a moment before he responded.

“I did nothing that you would not have done yourself.”

Gabriel had no intentions of standing out excessively or trying to make himself look good in Nerissa’s eyes so he deflected the compliment without much thought. He wasn’t terribly used to trusting other people with his own tasks so most of his mind was currently running through ways he may have to handle things if the need arose.

“That may be true, but it is still commendable to be so adept at pinpointing and utilizing someone’s weakness. It is a useful talent, so accept the compliment.”

Nerissa didn’t pursue the topic for long, merely giving Gabriel a second sentence before she stopped talking. She spurred her horse to speed up a little, hurrying towards the next portal that would take them further north in the Sorin Duchy. They were a bit lucky with the first two targets, well the first one was taken care of in advance so perhaps only Tarmund counted, but there was no telling if they would have the same luck with the next targets.

The used the portal and stepped into Vermilion Dawn, a coastal town famous for the sight of the sun rising over the ocean. Here, their target was a somewhat famous bar that was located just a bit too far away from the docks or beaches to become truly popular.

They maintained their rapid pace as they rushed through the town, Gabriel’s eyes stealthily sweeping the area. It was quiet. Other than the sounds of the city, it was quiet. No cooing of birds, no squeaking of rats or mice, no meowing of cats, no barking of dogs. His expression wanted to sink, but he maintained his rather blank look as they approached the bar.

“Curses.”

Nerissa released a small groan as they got close enough to see the bar. People were gathered outside, swarming around the entrance as they tried to peer in, guards holding them back. Nerissa stopped her horse close to the crowd and jumped off, flashing her insignia as she pushed through the crowd with a large stride.

“Grand Inquisitor Nerissa Sylla, here on orders from Emperor Earhart, move aside!”

The crowd, and guards, naturally had to step aside to make room for Nerissa and the others, who quickly entered the bar. Once they pushed open the doors, a familiar scent tickled Gabriel’s nose. The sweet scent of blood and death hung in the air, and it seemed quite fresh.

“… a few beats too late.”

Nerissa’s expression sank slightly at the scene that spread out in front of them. The inside of the bar was rather messy, more than a handful of corpses scattered about. Bottles of alcohol had been torn out from the shelves, over half of the bar had been torn up. Judging by the marks, it was clear that both magic and normal weapons had been used to tear this place up.

Gabriel’s expression also darkened slightly at the sight, but it was for a different reason than Nerissa. He recognized some of these corpses, they belonged to his Night Pack. He’d signaled two different groups of them when he drew on the window previously. One group was ordered to come here and kill the owner of the bar, he wasn’t the lone mouth that Gabriel had in mind.

“Three groups, at least.”

Nerissa muttered darkly as she made her way through the bar, accurately judging the situation. She could make out the people who seemed to be just workers or patrons of the bar, they could be easily spotted by their clothes. Then there was a group of people clad in black clothes that covered everything but their eyes, judging by the composition of their muscles and equipment they seemed to be trained assassins. And then there was a third group, similarly dressed in all black. But the style of their clothing was a bit different, as were their builds and equipment so they didn’t seem as uniform as the assassins.

“The weapon marks appear first, magic was only involved later. Did the ambush get ambushed?”

She was able to somewhat assess the situation as she moved. Judging by the position of the various marks it seemed that the attackers originally tried to use only weapons to take care of things. But eventually, they were forced to use magic of varying types. Most likely, it would be because the second group of attackers intruded.

“Search everything and everyone. Only half of the bar has been overturned, there may be traces left yet.”

She spat out the order and the inquisitors sprang into action. Gabriel had the same thought as her. The bar was so overturned that someone had clearly been looking for something. But only half of the bar was in such a disarrayed state. Was it because they found what they were looking for, or was it because they were stopped before they could finish. As they kept searching, it eventually became clear that…

“Grand Inquisitor, I found something!”

…That it was the latter.

Naturally, what the inquisitor found wasn’t on one of the bodies of the attackers. Assassins and the like had to constantly be aware of the fact that they may die, wearing something that could incriminate their employer or affiliations would be foolish. No, what they found had been within the ‘undisturbed’ part of the bar. A ledger, as well as a couple of letters.

Naturally, everything was encrypted quite heavily so they couldn’t decipher everything straight away. But they could get a few bits and pieces of information by mixing together parts from each family’s own encryption knowledge, at least enough to point them in the right direction.

“We must move quickly. You, you, and you, stay behind and handle the cleanup, everything must be brought back to the headquarters.”

Nerissa’s face was solemn as she fired off orders. If their meeting with Tarmund could spark some suspicion that Gabriel might be on to something with his accusation, this bar turned those sparks into fire. Why would you kill people who had nothing to hide? And it just so happened to be the company that they found after interrogating Tarmund?

And there were even two groups fighting over the chance to kill them, seemingly wiping each other out in the process. It was painfully clear that something was going on here, and it may indeed be as big as Gabriel’s accusation insinuated.

She reported to the emperor as they left the bar and mounted their horses again, they would have to hurry to the next destination while hoping that they hadn’t been attacked yet. Naturally, she also requested that the emperor preemptively send some guards to the target they had dug out here, just to add another layer of security.

They quickly hurried out again to reach the next portal. But as they moved, both Gabriel and Nerissa received a report. One received it through sounds that resembled a street cat while the other received it through the earrings she was wearing. Gabriel would have preferred to receive the reports in the same way, but Nerissa and the others were sensitive enough that they would definitely feel the magic in the earrings activate when he received or sent something.

The report made Nerissa’s expression darken further. The carriage that Tarmund was supposed to take back to the headquarters had been attacked. The inquisitor had been beaten and knocked out while Tarmund had been killed. Clearly, someone was erasing the witnesses one by one. Luckily, the inquisitor reported that he had slain two of the attackers, and that one of them had a mark they could use to identify him so it wasn’t a complete loss.

She spat out a few orders to the inquisitor on the other side, Gabriel maintaining his expression as they moved. Naturally, the ones that killed Tarmund were his men, they were the second group he had signaled as he touched the window. As for the identifying mark… That would be the mark he drew on the window.

But would his men really have marks that could be used to identify them? Was he really foolish enough to let them have something like that when he sent them out? No, of course not. It was time to drag the Vritara’s into this.