The group finally entered the inn. Even though there's a building outside, the inn is actually a large cave with small chambers connected to it. Once they stepped inside, Koneko was the first one to notice. "...The smell of blood." She muttered.
The Loki Familia members are not surprised by her words as it's typically that the Demi-Humans with beast characteristics have better senses. However, they're still unnerved by the two white tails swaying behind her.
The walls of the cave are fully decorated with candle stands that also give this place its lighting. After walking for several seconds, at the end of the corridor, they found two people watching over the room and Finn knew both of them, "Hey Bors, Willy. We're planning to stay for a while. So why don't we help you figure this out as quickly as possible?"
Bors is a well built muscular man with black hair and teal eyes, with an eyepatch covering his left eye. He wears a sleeveless open jacket that shows his muscular body, arm covers and gloves, blue pants, boots, and a belt with a red monster face carving and fur. He's the current leader and the strongest Adventurer in Rivira.
Willy, on the other hand, is a black-haired cat person and was currently mulling to himself as he looked towards the corpse with half of its head busted. He's the owner of this inn.
While Willy ignored Finn, Bors looked towards Finn, "Tch! You sure like to talk, Finn. Doesn't matter if it's your lot or the rest of the Freya Familia. Always walking in here, thinking you own this place 'cos you're strong."
The girls of the Loki Familia, especially Tione, could only give him a dirty look.
Rivira is self-governing, and the Guild has no presence. The trick to keeping rowdy types in line is being strong enough to shut them up . Bors, at Level 3, is the strongest adventurer in Rivira and is therefore in charge.
Finn let go of Bors's attitude as he's always been like this and asked, "Do we know anything about who the victim is? Or about the attacker?"
Instead of answering him, Bors turned towards the black-haired cat person, "Oy, Willy! This is your place. Get your head out of your hands and speak up!"
Startled by the sudden loud call, Willy looked around the room and finally noticed that there's a lot of people in it, "Ah... Um... That guy over there wore full plate armor. Couldn't see his face because of his helmet. Last night, he and a lady in a robe... Couldn't see her face either, but they both showed up and asked me to rent out the whole place."
"The entire inn to themselves? Ahh... That's what they had in mind." After hearing Finn's words, everyone from the Loki Familia, except for Ais, instantly understood what he meant. While Riveria, Tione, and Tiona didn't have any particular reaction, Lefiya started panicking with a blushing face, "!!! Awawawa!"
Seeing this, the trio finally understood that the lewdest of them all is the innocent Elf.
"Lefiya?" Ais asked Lefiya in confusion and the fantasizing Elf replied in a hurry, "N-N-N-NOTHING AT ALL!!!"
Ignoring them, Willy continued his words, "You got it. And take a look at this place. Since it's a cave, even the slightest moan echoes forever. But they paid. If I get paid, I've got no reason to say no. I stepped out for the night and came back to this mess. That was damn shocking, I tell you."
Bors nodded, "So the guy bites the dust and his lady disappeared. She's the culprit, no doubt about it."
Finn shook his head, "At the very least, she knows more than we do." He then faced Willy, "This woman in a robe, you said you couldn't see her face, but did she have any other identifying traits?"
Reaching this point, Bors and Willy's face became filled with lust, "Well~! Now that you mentioned it, that robe couldn't hide two really nice physical traits~!" Willy said while doing a dirty gesture on his chest.
"Ohh! Come to think of it, I saw a lady like that around town yesterday! A real fox, that one! Don't know her face, but that's her!!" Bors followed up.
However, they suddenly felt a piercing glare from the two Amazons and shuddered, shutting their mouth.
"If you run this place, How didn't you hear anything from the front counter?" Tiona asked.
Willy shook his head, "He brought that beauty in here and flaunted her. I knew what was up. Like hell, I'm gonna stay here with that going on. I hit the bar right away."
"Has anyone seen this robed woman since last night?" Finn asked Bors.
"Nope. I've got my boys looking into it, but nothing yet."
"Wh-What about the emblem used to pay?" Lefiya asked, wanting to help, "Money is just extra baggage in the Dungeon, so Adventurers use their emblems instead, right? We could learn the victim's Familia and their name as the guarantor if we see the paperwork...?"
"That would sure speed things up..." Bors then looked to Willy, "Yeah?"
"Well, about that. Sorry. They just plopped a bag crammed full of magic stones on the counter and that was that."
"So is that as far as we get?"
"Just you wait. We can ask this guy's body directly." Bors then shouted towards the outside, "Oy! Where's that status thief!"
From the entrance of the inn, a Human and a Boar Person entered, "Bors-san, I got it!" The Human shouted back.
Lefiya frowned and asked, "Status Thief? Isn't that..."
"It's an item solely designed to reveal our statuses."
"'Cos sometimes, you gotta break the rules." Bors justified his actions.
The Boar Person then started using the Status Thief on the back of the corpse, "That guy died like a total tool. Bet you anything he was some bottom-of-the-barrel punk from a no-name Familia."
"Job's done, Bors." The Boar Person stood up and stepped back.
"Let's see... Son of a... I forgot I can't read Hieroglyphs. Oy, you there. Go find an Elf outside and bring them in!"
But before the guy who Bors instructed could go, Riveria and Ais stepped up, "Wait. I am able to read Hieroglyphics." "Me too."
The two of them then started deciphering the words behind the corpse and the first one to speak up was Rivera, "His name was Hashana Dorlia. He belonged to..." "...Ganesha Familia." Ais finished her words.
"!!!?"
Bors and his men started panicking upon this discovery, "Ganesha Familia!? They're one of Orario's best!!" "Hey! You sure about that!?"
Bors then recalled something, "Hold it!"
"Hold it, hold it, hold it! What did you just say!!!?" With a panicked expression, Bors continued, "This is Hashana!? This ain't a joke... The Strong Fist Warrior, Hashana... is a Level 4!!!" Of course, he would start panicking since contrary to his expectation, the killed person is actually a very strong person, which means, an at least Level 4 murderer is roaming around Rivira.
Finn's eyes became serious and asked Bors, "Bors, I need to know. Has anything been moved since the body was discovered?"
Bors shook his head.
"With no sign of a fight, or that anyone else came in, then the culprit has to be at least Level 4, or even a Top-Class Adventurer." Inspecting the body and the room again, The only damage on the corpse is its twisted neck and the blasted upper head. Finn concluded that the lady in the robe is really the culprit and overpowered the Level 4 Adventurer, "The culprit already killed Hashana by twisting his neck, but seeing the state of his head and the cut opened bags of him, we can assume that the culprit smashed his head out of frustration after she couldn't find what she's looking for."
Editors:
28th00
Alexander
I'm sorry for the really late post.
I won't be able to post as much cus I injured my dominant hand the other day and can only type with one.
Thank you for your understanding.
.
.
Also tried voice to text... Not my thing.
"D-did this person really manage to overpower him? What about poison?" Lefiya asked.
Riveria, who had read his status, answered her, "Hashana possessed the 'Immunity' Development Ability. At 'G', even the most potent toxins would not have had much effect.
"The robed woman couldn't find what she's after, then she lost her temper and took it out on the corpse? That's disgusting but makes sense to me." Tione muttered.
Finn went through Hashana's bag and found something that was covered in blood, "There was nothing useful in his pack, unfortunately. This is all I could find."
"Is that a quest request form?" Bors asked, "It's all bloody. I can't read any of it."
"A few places are still legible. 'Floor thirty.' 'Alone.' 'Retrieve.' 'Secret.'... With all this, we can deduce that Hashana accepted a quest and went to the 30th Floor to pick up the 'thing' the culprit was after." Finn explained to everyone, "He probably disguised himself and didn't tell his Familia."
Willy then recalled something, "Uh... Ahh... It's true that Hashana always wore a helmet. It hid his face a lot, like Ganesha-sama's. But I know for a fact he never wore full plate armor." He's already convinced that what Finn had described is what really happened here.
However, one of Bors's men, the Human who came with the Boar Person couldn't easily accept his words, "Y-you're telling quite a convincing story, but..." He then pointed out the Loki Familia girls, "You guys could be pretending you just got here when one of you is actually the killer!"
" "Huh?" " Tione and Tiona didn't expect that, along with others, they'll be suspected.
Scratching his head, Bors saw his subordinate's point, "I get it now... There ain't many women strong enough to strangle a Second-Tier Adventurer. But if we're talking about the scary folks of Loki Familia... Leaving Finn off the list..." Bors and his men then inspected everyone and the first one to get their attention is Tiona.
"Not that one." Bors immediately struck her out of the list, "Ahahaha. Nope. Not a chance." And the three other men agreed with him.
"HEY!!! Where were you looking when you said that!!!?" Ais had to grab Tiona from behind so that she wouldn't beat them up.
Bors and his men then transferred their sights toward Tiona's sister, Tione, and carefully inspected one part of her for a few seconds before muttering, "...A body like that could lure any man she wanted into a trap, don't you think?"
A vein immediately appeared on Tione's forehead after hearing that and stomped her foot on the ground, creating a small earthquake, "WHAT!? AS I'VE SAID, I BELONG TO THE CAPTAIN!!! THE HELL WOULD ANY OF YOU KNOW ABOUT IT!!? ANY FUNNY BUSINESS AND I'LL TEAR YOUR BALLS INTO SHREDS!!!"
" " " "EEKKK!!!!" " " " Bors and the rest covered their crotch as a defense mechanism.
Sighing, Finn also said, "Haa... Bors... These women aren't cut out to manipulate men."
"I... I see. Sorry for suspecting you." Bors apologized then faced the three girls he isn't familiar with, "And who're they? They're not from Loki Familia, right?"
"They're from the Hestia Familia and came with us as a supporter to gather some experience," Finn answered.
However, with Bors's rude behavior and dirty thinking, he immediately said without thinking much about his words, "Heeh... So they sold themselves to you." Since they're from an unknown Familia, such possibility instantly entered his mind as it is not a rare story either but no one would actually point it out as Bors did.
Of course, he would soon regret those words ever leaving his mouth.
The moment he closed his mouth, the atmosphere suddenly changed as the Mana in the surrounding became turbulent and Riveria and Lefiya hurriedly looked towards Sona in shock.
Extremely cold air suddenly manifested around her, so cold that the surroundings were starting to get covered in frost and her violet eyes were shining in eerie light which scared the four men. As the heir of the Prince-rank clan of the Underworld, the Sitri Household, and the little sister of the Devil King, Leviathan, Sona actually has the same potential as Serafall. It just hasn't developed yet since she's still too young, "Wh--?!"
But before they could make sense of what's happening, a heavy feeling, almost suffocatingly, descended onto them as the surrounding Ki also became turbulent and everyone looked towards Koneko as they could tell that the heavy feeling was coming from her. Her eyes became wine red as white flames started crawling up her arms. Contrary to its attribute, the sight of those white flames were giving them chills down their spines, including everyone from Loki Familia.
The four dirty men already couldn't speak, but they haven't felt the worst as the third, nightmare-inducing feeling descended up everyone as their souls became pressured by Aika's Reiatsu-Ki. What makes it more terrifying is the minuscule aura of the two beings that are stronger than any other God and shouldn't exist in this world.
As they aren't their real target, everyone from the Loki Familia is only feeling a fraction of their auras, however, despite that, they couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat and become speechless.
But the moment when Finn saw Aika touching her nodachi, he immediately stood up and went beside Bors. He then put up his spear beside Bors's neck. A split second later, a loud, resonant metallic sound rang out as Aika suddenly reappeared in front of Bors with her nodachi drawn and stopped a few inches away from his neck with Finn's spear, "Stop!"
Aika didn't look at Finn and only eyed the shaking and nervous Bors and said, "If you wish to die, please let me know. I would happily separate your head from your body." Aika then stepped back and took back her blade before going back to her comrades and calming their auras down.
Realizing that he almost died because he ran his mouth against these three mysterious Adventurers with the Loki Familia, Bors dropped down to his knees and immediately apologized, "I'm very sorry!!!"
Seeing their boss dropping down, the other three did the same, "We're very sorry!!!" Different from the girls of the Loki Familia, these three unknown girls seem to be more willing to kill which scared them to their cores.
After their apologies, Sona, Koneko, and Aika completely calmed down.
Finn, on the other hand, frowned at their willingness to kill. He can't exactly reprimand them, but he can at least give them some instructions while they're within his group, "Please remember that I won't allow you to kill another person as long as you're with us."
In her usual demeanor, Sona also apologized, "I also apologize for our rash actions. But please, don't let anything like this happen again." While saying these words, she gave Bors a cold stare. Bors, in response, kept nodding as if wanting to break his neck.
With the intention to brush the incident under the rug and resume what they needed to do, Finn went back to the topic of the murder, "Now that you believe we aren't involved in this incident, Bors, please seal off the town. Don't let any Adventurers still in Rivira leave. Someone of Hashana's caliber was asked to take on a secret quest. Whatever the culprit was after, it must be extremely valuable. I highly doubt she would leave empty-handed." While biting his thumb, Finn continued, "I'm pretty sure she's still here. Just a hunch though."
"G-got it! You lot-" "Wait." Bors was about to instruct his underlings but Sona's calm voice immediately froze her from his spot and unconsciously saluted to her, "Yes, ma'am!"
"I would like to state my opinion. Is that fine?" Sona asked Finn.
"Sure, go ahead."
"Please also do a search with the male Adventurers."
Finn frowned yet again and asked, "Why?" If they were to do that, then it would take too much time and the culprit might find a way out of the encirclement. Besides, they already concluded that the culprit is a woman with a voluptuous body, so there's almost no point in searching the male Adventurers too.
Instead of answering his question, Sona asked a question, "What else is missing from him? If you can answer that, you'll know what I mean."
"Missing?" Finn looked back to the corpse and started inspecting it again. The girls of the Loki Familia also did the same as they temporarily pushed the incident to the corner of their minds and focused on the current issue.
Everyone searched the corpse's body again but they couldn't find what's missing, "What's missing?" Finn asked as he couldn't figure it out.
Instead of Sona, Aika gave him and everyone a clue, "Focus on the head. Something big is missing."
Everyone looked at it again and only Finn and Riveria finally noticed it, "Some parts of the smashed head are missing... More specifically, the hair and the skin for his upper face..." Finn muttered as he guessed what Sona and Aika are trying to tell, "You mean the culprit might have used Hashana's skin as a mask?"
"Wh-!?" The girls of the Loki Familia reeled back at such a possibility and looked towards the trio and asked in their heads why they could think of such a possibility.
Sona nodded at Finn and explained, "Yes. She could just hide her figure by wearing full plate armor and that should be available here in Rivira. And if she wanted to use half of his face skin as a mask, then she could just cover the lower half with a scarf or bandage."
"Bors... Immediately seal off the exits. We'll do a search on everyone! Watch out for every female Adventurer and those with partially covered faces."
"Understood!"
28th00's Editor Section, for he is always alone till people edit his edits and he gets sad.
I (Alexander) do feel sorry for you, but nobody is perfect. If you just wait for a few more hours without editing, you can do the same.