Abe the Wizard

When Carrie went past the ivy wall that separated the camp, she saw that a great fog was blocking her sight. It was the visual effect of Abel’s seclusion circle. She knew that, and she knew that it would be rude if she was to intrude Abel’s private space. If the seclusion circle was open, Abel was probably in the midst of his training session.

However, an order was still an order. After placing her hand on the seclusion circle, Carrie released a small amount of mana to it. If Abel was inside the circle, he would know that someone was calling for him.

Soon, the fog around the seclusion circle began to disappear. A tent started to appear. Abel was walking out in a robe. He was holding an alchemy bottle in his hand.

“What is it, Carrie?” Abel asked with a surprised look on his face. He was obviously in the middle of something.

Carried said in a somewhat apologetic voice, “Well, um. Come with me for now. Grand Duke Edwina wants to have a word with you. She wants to talk on a communication circle.”

“Oh, alright. Let me tidy up first,” Abel asked as he raised the alchemy bottle in his hand.

Abel didn’t expect the words to go by so quickly. He thought that it would take a few days for Grand Duke Edwina to hear about the assassination. He was already prepared to provide his own alibi, of course. If he was going to be asked about Prince Adolf’s death, he was always ready to have a few eyewitnesses to prove his innocence.

Now that Grand Duke Edwina wanted to talk to him, he knew that the opportunity to come clean was coming to him. After pretending to pack up his alchemy bottle, he came out of his tent and went into Carrie’s.

“Ahh!”

A high-pitched scream took Abel and Carrie by surprise when they were about to walk in. It was from Lady Morrie. She was pointing at Abel with her clothes worn loosely around her.

“Why are you so loud for, Morrie?” the other elven ladies said as they came out of the tent. When they saw Abel, they all took a step back with a dubious look on their faces.

Carrie commanded as she knew how much gossip these girls were capable of, “Be quiet for a while, Grand Duke Edwina wants to have a word with Bennett on the communication circle.”

All the elven ladies became quiet after that. With her arm covering her chest, Lady Morrie threw a cautious look at Abel. Abel was a bit speechless. Honestly, he thought that they would be on a lot more guard than this.

When Abel came into Carrie’s tent, he could see the hologram of Grand Duke Edwina in the communication circle.

“Greetings, your highness,” Abel said as he quickly came to give a bow.

Grand Duke Edwina smiled in response, “Sorry for calling you this late, Abel.”

Abel was a little nervous since Grand Duke Edwina didn’t go straight to the point, “It’s fine, madam. What matter did you call me for?”

Grand Duke Edwina chuckled, “Oh, nothing in particular! I just got some news that some organization is out to assassinate you. I just want you to be extra careful these days.”

“Thank you so much for the notice, your highness,” Abel bowed to show his gratitude.

Grand Duke Edwina waved her hand before she cut off the call, “Okay now. I hope I’m not a bother. You can rest now.”

Abel and Carrie looked at each other in doubt. That was more than just abrupt. Grand Duke Edwina called Abel all the way from Angstrom City, and that’s all she was going to say to him.

Unlike Abel, Carrie really had no idea what’s going on. Unknownst to her, Grand Duke Edwina was calling for an investigation on him. Now that he gave his response, it was up to her to call the shots.

Meanwhile, Grand Duke Francisco was sitting next to Grand Duke Edwina. They were inside the Grand Duke’s office building. The atmosphere was getting very tense around here. Grand Duke Francisco wasn’t saying anything, but it’s almost as if he was a volcano that was about to erupt.

“How’s the investigation, Edwina?” Grand Duke Francisco finally broke the silence. The tension was finally starting to loosen up a bit.

“You know how many rivals Adolf’s got, Francisco. From what I’ve been getting from my intelligence force, they’ve already found a mountain of suspects that could’ve done it.”

Grand Duke Francisco said in a low, assertive voice, “Yes, Edwina, and I want to know the most likely suspects. This is your city, and since you’ve already cleared up my entire intelligence force, I’m sorry, but you will have to take the entire investigation process into your own hands.”

Grand Duke Edwina tried to calm Francisco down, “Sure, I’ll tell you. Promise me, though: Once I tell you the names, make sure you don’t do anything unsensible.”

“Adolf’s dead, Edwina,” Grand Duke Francisco said with a calm, almost tired voice, “I’m still sitting here and having a conversation with you. I’m sure you can see how much I’ve changed.”

Grand Duke Francisco might look like a middle-aged man, but he was actually very old by the standards of the elves. With that in mind, since he’s lost the potential candidate to inherit Jochberg City from him. He didn’t have a successor to develop the city he had committed so much for.

Grand Duke Edwina continued to speak. She wanted to point out some very suspicious thing about the case, ‘I hear you, Francisco. Alright. On the night that Adolf died, there were three elves on the island that he was at. It was him, his butler, and an elf that went unidentified. Adolf and the butler were dead at the scene, but the other elf went missing.”

Grand Duke added, “That’s all I know for now. For newer updates, you’ll have to ask my intelligence force yourself.”

“You, tell me more about this,” Grand Duke Francisco took no time to point at an intelligence force standing in front of him.

The intelligence officer bowed after seeing Grand Duke Edwina nod her head, “Your honor, we just brought back the carriage man that was transporting the missing elf. Since it was a rental-purchase, we couldn’t recover any information that could be useful.”

“That being said, when we confirmed the location that the carriage was paid for, we came to one important conclusion: the carriage was, without a doubt, purchased somewhere that was close to the Blood Hand Union’s main base.”

Grand Duke Francisco interrupted the report, “I’ve seen Adolf’s body. A sword went straight into his vertebrate from behind. Both the blade and the poison on it were meant to be lethal. Still, I did give him some passive defense magic items. Even if it were the assassins that did it, I’m pretty sure that most of them couldn’t have done it.”

“With respect, sir, the intelligence forces have already contacted the security forces to arrest the entire Blood Hand Union. We couldn’t make much progress from there, though. If there was anything useful that we could find, it would be that their leader went missing after he left that night.”

Grand Duke Francisco nodded in approval, “Tell me more about this leader.”

“Yes, sir. His name is Arvid. He was an elven warrior at the level of a knight’s commander. He’s the one who built the Blood Hand Union all by himself. Despite being the head of the largest assassin’s union in Angstrom City, the local police have chosen to tolerate his existence since he’s never done a hit inside the city.”

On a side note, it wasn’t just Angstrom City. Most human cities had their own assassin’s union. On the one hand, it was good to have them around since they could deal with matters that the noblemen weren’t willing to get into. On the other hand, since it was impossible to completely ban such organizations from operating, it would be a lot easier to control them if they were legalized in the first place.

The intelligence officer continued his report, “Arvid was an experienced fighter. Apart from his infamous assassination techniques, he could use most elven and human weapons. His famous kill was on a level nine wizard; his reputation grew amongst other assassins after that kill. After using a facial composite, the carriage man has confirmed that it was indeed him that was on the carriage ride.”

Grand Duke Francisco shouted in rage, “Find him! Whoever finds Arvid, I’ll send him one million gold and the status of a duke! Tell everyone that they just have to find him!”

The case was settled for Grand Duke Francisco. He was already certain that it was Arvid who committed the murder. Grand Duke Edwina was quiet the entire time. From her understanding of the Blood Union and Arvid, she knew that Arvid was too cowardly to attack Prince Adolf. Arvid was only interested in money and power. He might rob Prince Adolf, but it was certainly not in his best interest to kill a prince.

Actually, Grand Duke Francisco knew just as much about Arvid as Edwina did. That being said, he also knew how much gold Adolf had hoarded in Jochberg City. Arvid was a greedy man, so in his mind, it was completely possible that he would kill Adolf for money.