A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 317: Stories (1/4)

Chapter 317: Stories (1/4)

"Alright, alright, that’s enough arguing out of you two. Can you actually tell the tales now?" Morrigan reprimanded the two bickering men, getting them back on track.

"Right, sorry Traytora." David apologised sheepishly.

Ba’arhim also apologising, "Yeah, sorry about that. Anyways, which would you like to hear about first, the basically a cult story, or the dungeon dive story?"

"Uh, I guess the cult story since that happened first?"

"Very well then!" Ba’arhim said boisterously as he began telling this tale. "It all began just a few days after the festival concluded..."

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(Umbryal, Lunira 35th, Past)

(Ba’arhim POV)

I was working in my office, doing some paperwork, when all of a sudden, one of the assistants came barging in a panic, saying that the Duchess wanted to see me.

Of course, I stopped everything I was doing and urged her to come in. Whenever she comes and visits, it’s always something serious, and she needed our help dealing with a problem.

"Greetings Duchess Krara." I welcomed her as I kneeled in front of her alluring figure that was currently sat upon a chaise.

"Rise Ba’arhim, no need for formalities here." Her voice was cold and commanding, a bit contradictory to her words, but this wasn’t a formal sitting. This was a serious talk about something that could threaten the stability of the city itself.

I sat down on a sofa opposite the Duchess and leaned my arms on my legs as I Inquired as to her visit. "So, what’s the issue this time?"

She began explaining, "I believe I have found traces of some sort of cult. Worshipers of dissent. Something you’re familiar with."

"Aye, that I am." This was not the first time something like this had happened. There had been small groups like this that had popped up in the past, and the guild would deal with them each and every time.

But something felt different this time. The Duchess isn’t normally this serious. Whenever she came to visit in the past, she would bring a small basket of gifts, not quite a bribe, but close to one.

Not as if the people involved in dealing with didn’t get paid or anything. The Duchess still paid for the services and any possible losses and all that. The basket was just a little incentive to "encourage" along the process.

This time though, she brought no such gifts, so I could tell that this was something much different from what I was used to facing.

This was bigger. Much bigger than previous instances.

She continued, "This one I believe has been festering for a while now, and may have even created those previous groups as a tactical diversion to lead us away from discovering their main institution."

"Hmm..." I lowered my head into my hands, my face darkening as I mulled over her words. "If they’ve done such a good job at hiding and covering their tracks, why get sloppy and be discovered now?"

The Duchess shook her head, "I don’t know. I suspect they’ve been planning something big this whole time, and they’re close to their goal, so they’re likely blinded by their arrogance and inflated ego, thinking they can’t be stopped."

"Mmm..." This was a grim situation right now, what with the Dungeon raid that was going to happen at the end of this week.

’Wait a minute...’

"What? What is it?" The Duchess asked as she saw my look of surprise.

"What if this cult is connected to the Dungeon issue?" I suddenly blurted out in a moment or realisation.

The Duchess has already been informed of this problem shortly after Traytora brought it to my attention. Her response being that she would aid us in dealing with in financially.

But if both of these problems are connected, then this becomes much more complicated.

When the Duchess heard my statement, here eyes widened in shock, a look of clarity falling down upon her face.

"That... That makes so much sense. From what my spies have been able together about this supposed cult, they worship something of a vicious and sinister nature. Something that wants to end this city and maybe even the world." Her mind whirled as she connected the dots.

"If that’s the case, then this has become a much bigger problem." I pointed out, my own mind racing, trying to figure out how to deal with this problem.

"I don’t think we can do this with just the people that we have on hand..." The Duchess proclaimed despairingly, her voice much lower and grimmer. "We need to call for aid from the capital."

"The capital? Wait, you don’t mean call in the royal forces, do you?" I hollered, not expecting her to suggest such a thing. If she was serious about this, then the current situation was far worse than I had imagined.

"I’m afraid so. Without them, I doubt we’d be able to do anything substantial. We could likely hurt them sure, but we wouldn’t be able to eradicate them to their roots, and then they would just keep on hiding and plotting for next time."

"Mmm. I understand." There was just one thing I didn’t understand though, so I asked, "But how are you going to call for their help? They’re like three cities away from us, which is like an entire two weeks journey at the least."

"Don’t worry about that, I’ll take care of it in the next few days." The Duchess assured confidently.

"Alright, if you say so. But what do we do in the meantime? The Dungeon raid was scheduled for tomorrow." That was another concern of mine. Not just the fact that we would have to delay the raid, but also the consequences of doing so.

"I’m afraid that you’ll have to postpone it for now. There’s nothing else that you can do. Otherwise, if you do do it, they may catch on and prepare for when we come for them after. That is if they truly are connected, which I believe they are."

"Hahh... That’s going to upset a lot of them." I muttered with a slight bit of concern.

"I know, but this has to wait until reinforcements arrive from the capital. I’m sorry, but I can’t allow these dissenters to cause more chaos in my city." The Duchess apologised sincerely.

*Sigh* "It’s fine, don’t worry about it. How should I go about preparing all of this though?" I inquired, as this would take much more preparation to execute and eradicate these dissenters.

"..." The Duchess went quiet for a she got up to leave little bit before she gave me a piece of advice, "Don’t trust anyone whom you have no confidence in. They might betray us or rat us out. Only those you know and can confirm should have leading positions."

That was a big piece of advice, and a real eye opener as well, as the prospect of such a thing happening hadn’t crossed my mind.

"Mmm, I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you for your visit. I hope all goes well on your end." I got up and said my goodbye to her as she left.

"Mm, you too." After that, I was left in my office to think about what to do next.

Taking a deep breath, I went back to my desk and sat down, taking a moment of respite to process all this new information that I had absorbed.

After a few minutes, I had figured out what to do and how to rearrange everything, as well as come up with an excuse as to why I was postponing the raid.

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(Umbryal, Pyronis 50th, Present)

(Traytora POV)

"And that’s when I remembered you. I’d sent a couple of adventurers to inquire about you and if you were ready. But when I found out that you had left on some errand somewhere. So, I got the idea of saying that some people that would be vital to the mission where not here yet."

That was where Ba’arhim left of his story for now, likely wanting to come back to it in a bit.

"Did it work?" I asked, even though I could’ve guessed the answer based on what I already knew.

"That it did. They bought the excuse, and to make it sound more convincing, I even said that there were multiple people that we were waiting for, instead of just one as that would’ve been rather suspicious." Ba’arhim grinned with a prideful expression, likely elated that it worked.

"So what happened next?" David asked, intrigued by the story, and far more eager to hear more than I was.

"Seriously? How did you not hear a word of ANY of this?" Garrick moaned frustratedly.

"OI! Don’t start arguing again." Morrigan thankfully cut them off before they could start arguing again.

The two of them then slouched like little boys that had just been told off. I laughed at their own, self-inflicted misfortune.

Suddenly, a smaller voice, of the smallest person in the room rang out, "I’d also like to know what happened next."

It was Asty’s. And considering she hadn’t left her room for a long while, she would of course also be curious as to what happened with the cult and the dungeon.

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