Captain Callan continued his task and asked around but this time, rather than asking about the released slaves, he asked about the current ruler of Agrona.
“Ah, yes, Lord Casimir is the current ruler of Agrona.” Said one of the human fruit vendors.
Captain Callan nodded and took a bite on the apple he was holding. “Since when?”
He was inside the marketplace of the Marionette faction where he found several humans and demi-humans who were willing to talk. Behind him was the crowd of people passing by and buying stuff on the stalls scattered around the area. The voices of the vendors and shoppers were resonating throughout the place.
The fruit vendor put his hand on his chin while looking up. “Hmm, for more than a month now.”
“I see. It really does make sense now, the moment he acquired the control of the entire town, he released all the slaves from the slave shops operating in the town.”
The fruit vendor smiled. “Yes, the moment he took over, that’s the very first thing he did. He’s a very good person, he’s treating us all equally, even us humans are well treated under his governance.”
“From what I heard, he is a demon, isn’t he?”
The fruit vendor nodded. “Yes, he is. A strong one to be exact.”
“May I know what variant of demon he is from?”
The vendor’s eyes instantly narrowed and chuckled. He gently tapped Captain Callan’s shoulder. “You know, Mister Callan, as much as I want to help you on your investigation, there’s an extent for what information I can give, I hope you understand.”
Captain Callan just nodded. “I understand.”
“Well, that’s all I can say, see you around and enjoy your stay here.” The vendor waved his hand.
“Thank you for your cooperation.” Callan turned his back and walked towards the exit of the marketplace. “Of all the people who I asked the same question, all of them said the same thing. It only means that their current ruler is from a powerful demon variant. If he’s really that strong, maybe he’s related to one of the demon generals or much more, the demon lord himself.”
After a few hours of walking around and asking different people, he received the same answer over and over again. Knowing only the name of the current ruler and his race, nothing more.
When noon arrived, Captain Callan came back in front of Mister Rudwick’s inn. Upon arrival, he found the 14 knights gathered at the side of the gray bricked road.
“Captain.” All of them walked towards him.
“I’m already hungry, how about we take our lunch?” He announced.
“So we are.” Said one of the knights while chuckling.
“I know a great restaurant around here, we should go there.” Captain Callan walked towards the alleyways between the buildings under construction at the edge of the marketplace.
Their group walked through the alleyways towards the restaurant Captain Callan knew about. None of them were speaking and just silently following him.
While walking through the silent alleyway, Captain Callan spoke. “How’s your investigation?”
One of the knights scratched the side of his head. “We can’t find anything about the issue of the released slaves. Every person I asked about it just laughed in my face.”
“People here are welcoming and willing to cooperate, but would never answer certain questions no matter what.” The other one added.
“Don’t worry about it, I already confirmed that the slaves really came from here. Nevertheless, it’s not the main issue to begin with, we already know that the slaves came from here since the beginning.” He looked back at the knights walking behind him. “Furthermore, I found something more interesting.”
“What is it, Captain?”
He smiled. “Contrary to what we were believing in, the current ruler of this town is not Tanya Latora, but a demon named Casimir. Has anyone of you got something about him?”
One of the knights with blonde hair at the back of the formation raised his hand. “I did. I did some digging about him.”
Captain Callan immediately stopped and walked towards the blonde knight. “You did?”
“Yes, I heard about him, the people of this town would correct you once you mentioned that Tanya Latora is the ruler of this town, I accidentally did say it in front of them and they immediately told me about the name of the current ruler of this town.”
All the knights with them looked at the blonde knights with surprise on their faces.
Captain Callan nodded. “What else did you find?”
“I asked several people about him, but the only thing I found out was he became the ruler of this town more than a month ago and he is a demon. What variant? No one wants to say it. No one was willing to say anything about the important information about their ruler.”
Captain Callan nodded. “Just like what the people I asked said.”
The blonde knight looked around to make sure no one was around before adding more. “I tried to track him down but the members of Marionette corps have a strict policy of not letting anyone get close to him without his permission, and the more you get close to him the more scouts will follow you around while expressing their killing intent. As much as I want to discover who he is, I didn’t push my luck and risk our operation.”
Captain Callan tapped his shoulder. “It’s good that you didn’t, if we try, we will get in huge trouble, we’re surrounded and being watched in every direction. The only reason they are not attacking us is because our kingdom has a good relationship in this town.”
“Yes, that’s what I thought.”
Captain Callan turned his back and proceeded to walk through the alleyway with a smile and a face full of determination in it. “I need to meet him. I have to do something to make it happen. Whatever he’s trying to do right now, I have to uncover it.”
And proceeded to walk towards the direction of the restaurant they were aiming to go to.
