Chapter 70 – Conspiracies

Sophia didn’t immediately answer Vel’s question, giving it a few moments of thought before speaking again, but when she did respond, it was clear she was still somewhat unsure. "I would assume they were looking for the Crossroad, but it's impossible to find it without the keys. I’ve never been there personally, so you would know more about it than I do, but it is said that anyone who tries to find the Crossroad without one of the keys ends up stumbling around in a sea of fog. And that’s only if they can get that close to the Crossroads in the first place."

"Yeah, that pretty much lines up with what we experienced. Vel was the one that first spotted the way out of the fog, no doubt thanks to the amulet." I confirmed what she had heard before for her before going on and presenting my own idea. "What if they were trying to find a physical map and find the entrance to the Crossroads using the tracking coin? You said that only a powerful necromancer could raise tier 3 undead. Maybe they were trying to brute force their way in with magic."

"Maybe…" Sophia thought to herself as she tapped her chin with her finger. "That is technically possible, but from the old stories and lore I’ve been able to uncover, doing so would require an insane amount of power."

"Only one man has ever been able to enter the Crossroad without using a key, a fact which branded him as a mortal enemy of the ancient elves long before he wrought the seeds of their destruction, Urdoth Sinn. There is much speculation about how high a level the infamous lichlord was."

"Some say he managed to achieve the mythical fifth tier, but there is no evidence of that. What many believe, though, is that he was the highest level person to ever exist. But he is long dead, and if someone has the power to rival him and force their way into the Crossroad again, there are larger concerns than just you and your amulet's safety. The whole world could be in danger once more. Most likely, though, whoever this group and their necromancers are, they are just misguided in believing they can find a way into the Crossroad without a key."

As Sophia finished sharing her opinion on the matter, I segued to another topic that could be useful to know. "Speaking of this group, you said earlier that you have uncovered more information about them and how the power in the city has shifted since Damien left."

"Ah, yes." Sophia nodded her head before going on to share what she knew with myself and Vel, who had been quiet most of this time but was just silently taking in what was being said. As shy as she could be, I knew the young elven woman would speak up if something came up that she thought she needed to say.

"After my father’s death, I started subtly enquiring about certain things. However, I was much more careful than he was. I’ve used various proxies, stand ins, and false identities to seek the information I have gathered over these years, but even then, what I know is relatively little, but gravely concerning."

"There’s a group operating in the darker parts of the city that I believe was involved in my father’s death and has seen significant growth in the years that have passed since then. On the surface, they appear to be a gang of criminals operating in the slums, but the other criminals in the area don’t ever deal with them, preferring to stay far away and keep their eyes closed when it comes to them. In fact, this gang does very little of what such a shady organisation normally would do."

"Over the years, I’ve come to understand it's a front for something much darker, but what that is, I don’t exactly know. Considering that most organisations that are fronts for something else present themselves as being upright places of law and order, the fact that their cover is a criminal organisation is concerning." Sophia shook her head after saying that last bit.

"What I do know is that this organisation occasionally receives shipments of various alchemical reagents, enchanting supplies, and illegally enslaved individuals. I’ve managed to backtrack a couple of these shipments to see where they came from, and every time I lost the trail somewhere around the city of Thalen, the capital city of the duchy ruled by Duke Indus Thorn, which is also concerning for its own reason."

"How so?" I asked for further information.

"Indus Thorn’s daughter and heir, Madela Thorn, is currently serving as the High Mage of Artellan, advising the king and tutoring his children. What's more, there are rumours about her illicit relationship with Prince Heir and how she has him wrapped around her finger. If the Thorns are involved in this shady organisation and the killing of my father, then the king may be in great danger. That said, I have no actual proof tying the Thorns into the plot against my father, and what little I do have implicating the shady organisation is definitely not enough to go to the king with. Especially not when the real power players might still be out there, protected from any damage outing the organisation might bring."

"Is Madela Thorn a powerful enough spellcaster to create reapers?"

"Technically yes, she is a tier 4 spellcaster after all, but I doubt she created it. The creation of the undead requires the souls of sentient beings to be consumed and a lengthy ritual. An undead as powerful as a reaper would require the soul of an upper tier 3 martial class, something that she could not easily acquire under the scrutiny of the Crystal Palace and the Royal Knights. It’s more likely her father created the reaper though. If he is involved, he is just as powerful as her, if not more, and he has all the privacy in his own lands that he would need to source and perform such vile magic."

"Yes, that is concerning…" I said as I trailed off deep in thought, to which Vel and Sophian nodded in solemn agreement.

Madela Thorn, Duke Indus Thorn… This is quite something. To think, only a few days ago I was blissfully unaware of this conspiracy. It was certainly not something I was expecting to get involved in during my reincarnation.

Hopefully, it's just a conspiracy and nothing bad will actually happen. All I want to do is safely live with Vel and Saph while having as much sex as possible. The last thing I want is to be fighting against some mysterious, powerful necromancer and their secret organisation. At least this Urdoth Sinn guy, the most powerful person to ever live, is dead… wait…

Urdoth Sinn… Indus Thorn…"

"Do you have a piece of paper and something to write with here?" I suddenly spoke up, interrupting a tense moment of silent contemplation and drawing both Sophia and Vel’s eyes to me.

"Yes, I should have some paper and pens in here," Sophia responded as she retrieved what I had asked for from one of the desk drawers. Although the pen she held in her hands looked similar to those I was used to back on Earth, the tip of it was made of a small crystal point. Apparently, pens here were magic, or at least the pens that the upper class used were. I was just thankful I didn’t have to use a quill and ink to write, as I had no idea how to.

"Why do you want them?" She asked as she held them out for me to take them, but I didn’t.

Instead, I said. "How do you spell Indus Thorn?"

Although Sophia didn’t say anything, she did give me a curious look as she brought the pen to the blank piece of paper and scratched down the name in the way I correctly assumed that it was spelled. Without a word, I then took the pen from Sophia and began to write something else down on the piece of paper.

Once I had written down what I wanted, I began to draw lines from the letters of each of the names, all the while being thankful that the people in charge of my reincarnation were kind enough to find me a world where they spoke and wrought the same language as I did, or a close enough counterpart that I couldn’t tell the difference. After I was finished, I slid the piece of paper over to Sophia and stated my discovery aloud, with the evidence there for her to see for herself. "Indus Thorn and Urdoth Sinn are anagrams of each other. That is if that is how Urdoth Sinn is spelt, which I’m now realising I don’t actually know for a fact if that is how you spell Urodth Sinn."

Sophia did not say anything immediately. Instead, she just tapped her chin with a finger as she stared at the piece of paper, deep in thought. The fact that she didn’t immediately correct me on the spelling of Urdoth Sinn was a good sign, though.

To the side, Vel gave me and the paper a confused look as she asked. "What’s an anagram?"

"An anagram is when you can rearrange the letters of a word or phrase to form another, different word or phrase," I explained.

"And the fact that Indus Thorn and Urdoth Sinn are anagrams proves what?" She continued to ask, not understanding why this was important, which was understandable.

"Well, it doesn't really prove anything by itself, but it is suspicious," I said, becoming less certain that my discovery actually meant anything as time passed. "The fact that the organisation implicated with the death of Sophia and Damien’s father and the use of a reaper, a high tier undead monster is receiving shipments from the duchy of a Duke whose name is an anagram for Urdoth Sinn, a powerful lichlord, is incredibly suspicious. It's too much just to be a mere coincidence."

"I can’t help but agree with you. This is too much to merely be a coincidence." Sophia spoke up, nodding her head as she continued to stare down at the names on the paper. "That said, it's still not clear what this means. The fact that the names are anagrams of each other would imply that Indus Thorn is Urdoth Sinn, but that would be impossible. He is dead. If Urdoth Sinn had survived his battle with the Guardians of the Forest and found a way back after what should have been his final death, according to the history books, there is no way someone of his power or ego would have waited over a thousand years without revealing himself again."

"Maybe he did die and Indus Thorn is merely his descendant or Urdoth Sinn reincarnated." I shrugged, presenting whatever theories or ideas popped into my head.

"Reincarnated is unlikely. Surely the gods are having such a horrid man’s soul tormented in the deepest pits of hell for the rest of eternity." Sophia spoke with a fervour I hadn't heard from her before. It took me a second to realise why she might be so angry at a man who had been dead for a thousand years when I remembered that it was he who worked the baleful curse into existence, something which had no doubt killed countless women and children over the years, including Kehlana.

"The forces of the universe responsible for reincarnation are not infallible. Sometimes souls slip through and people don’t get the reincarnation that was meant for them. Mistakes happen." I reasoned, earning a curious look from Sophia.

Since the woman had no reason to suspect why this was my opinion, she just shook her head and went on to say. "No, I think the more likely explanation is that the Thorns are direct descendants of Urdoth Sinn. The histories never spoke of him having a family or children, but it's entirely possible he kept such things hidden. I’ll have to do some research in the royal library and look more into his ancestry. If Indus is a family name, passed down from father to son, then it might shed some more light on the issue."

"For now, though, if there is nothing else that you want to ask or tell me while we are safe in this protected space, I should probably be getting back to the Red Den. Although my establishment runs fairly well without me and my second in command, Arriana, is well versed in keeping things under control in my absence, I prefer to keep my hands on the reins. "

"Ah, no. I think I have learned everything I wanted to know. What about you, Vel?" I asked as I turned to look at the young elven woman who had a rather overwhelmed expression on her face.

"I’m good." She said, trying her best to put a smile on her tired face. "If anything else comes up, then we can ask you when we next see you."

"Alright then. Take the rest of the day to settle in and make yourselves at home. The staff should be serving lunch in about an hour. Feel free to ask any of them for anything you need. I’ll be back around dinner before going back to the Red Den for the late-night rush. After that, if you’re up, Eve, we can discuss you potentially working at my establishment tomorrow if that is something you are still interested in."

"Ah, yes, it is something I'm still interested in. Thank you." I said, after being taken a little by surprise as I had forgotten all about the prospect in light of the conspiracies we had just been informed of.

With that bit of business taken care of, Sophia led us out of the secure room and locked the door shut behind us. From there, she said her goodbyes to us before going off do to so to her family and head back to the Red Den, leaving Vel and me standing alone in the middle of their utterly huge manor house.