Second World

”Come with me,” Captain Salem instructed.

There were stunningly small woods and a small man-made lake inside the estateʼs ground. Jack could see some fishes in the lake when he passed by its side. After coming out of the woods, a huge mansion was seen. It stood magnificently at the center, lording over the rest of the estate. It looked like a castle, there were three towers at different corners of the mansion.

The front of the mansion was a garden with flowers and small trees which were professionally trimmed by gardeners. A large statue of an officer riding a stallion was erected at the center of the garden. Captain Salem took Jack past the garden and to the front entrance of the mansion.

There were two small lion statues by the large wooden double door which was the mansionʼs main entrance. The captain knocked hard on the solid door. Not long after, the door opened and revealed a middle-aged man in a butler uniform.

”Winston, this is the adventurer the duke has been waiting for,” the captain informed.

The butler called Winston scrutinized Jack with his eyes, before he stepped aside and made a gesture for Jack and the captain to come inside.

The inside of the mansion was as extravagant as the rest of the estate. The foyer hall was decorated with various artworks and antiques. An enormous golden chandelier hung above them, while the whole ceiling was decorated with an enormous painting depicting heaven and angels.

”Come with me,” the butler said, and then added, ”do not wander off, do not make yourself at home.”

He brought them past several rooms and into a long hallway, before coming up to an inner courtyard filled with decorated plants and trees. At the center of the courtyard was a tall fountain with water shooting out from its top and fell to the pond underneath the fountain. A man was sitting on a bench gazing at the fountain, his back was facing Jack and the others as they came into the courtyard.

”Your Grace, the adventurer for the quest that you posted in the Adventurers Association has come,” butler Winston addressed the man on the bench with a bow.

Duke Alfredo stood from the bench and turned around. He looked to be in his fifties, with a square jaw, trimmed mustache, and sharp eyes. He was wearing a luxuriant green robe that flowed down to his legs. His hair was short and tidy, its color was brown with a sliver of grey.

Captain Salem made a small bow when the duke approached. ”Your Grace,” he said.

Jack copied the captainʼs salutation and bowed as well as he uttered, ”Your Grace.”

The duke nodded. ”You are the first outworlder I have met. I always heard that they are a bunch of rough men and women, and have no respect for courtesy and tradition. But I see that you are not as the rumor had described.”

”There are many kinds of us, Your Grace. It is true that not many of us are respectful of rules,” Jack said, then added in his mind, not many would bother with courtesy in a game.

He for one had treated this world as real, and this way of thought had helped him numerous times.

”Then Iʼm glad you are not the disrespectful kind,” the duke said. ”However, rather than politeness and respect, I am more hoping that you are capable enough to solve my trouble.”

”Iʼm all ears,” Jack said.

”All right,” the duke said, he waved to Winston to dismiss him. The butler made another bow before leaving. He then invited Jack to join him in sitting on the bench. The captain took his place standing beside the sitting duke.

”I needed help in finding a possession of mine that had gone missing,” the duke said after Jack took a seat beside him.

”Is it a painting?” Jack asked.

”Mm, something like that,” the duke answer.

”When had it gone missing?”

”Two days ago.”

”So it was just recently, the thief might not have gotten far yet.”

”Actually, the thief has not gone anywhere, he or she is still within this estate,” the duke said.

”Oh? Why are you so sure?”

”Because I activated the barrier formation around this estate once I found out the thing is gone.”

”Maybe the thief has left before the formation was up.”

”Not possible, not even three minutes have passed between when I last saw the thing and realized it to have gone missing. I activated the rune diagram immediately, not possible for the thief to have gone out from my estate within that time frame.”

”Then the thief must still be in hiding somewhere in this estate.”

”No, itʼs not possible as well,” it was captain Salem that answered this time. ”I came soon after the dukeʼs report. We have swept the whole estate and the mansion as well, there was no stranger within this estate.”

”How are you so sure? The thief could be hiding at some corner or digging a hole into the ground.”

”If that so, we will still find them,” the captain said with confidence.

”Why?”

”Because we have this orb of detection,” the captain brought out a small blue orb. ”It can detect any living being in the vicinity. So if someone is hiding, we will still be able to find them.”

Orb of detection? It sounded similar to the radar of his God-Eye.

”So you cannot find any stranger, thatʼs mean the thief is someone who belongs in this manor,” Jack uttered.

Duke Alfredo nodded with a smile, ”Iʼm glad the Adventurers Association didnʼt send someone dull.”

”But isnʼt it an easy case then? Just search everyone then, the missing item should be in their possession.”

”We did,” captain Salem answered. ”But none of them have it. We have searched their rooms as well, and even spent the entire day combing through every corner of this mansion. We still couldnʼt find it.”

Jack pondered about it. A strange feeling washed over him, why is the quest suddenly turned into a mystery game? The quest did not seem to have the prospect of combat involved in it. This was more like those mystery novels he enjoyed reading in the real life.

Except in those novels, it was usually a murder case, in a closed environment, and the murderer was someone present within the group. The detectives in those novels would then have to investigate and made a deduction to find out the culprit amongst the people within that group.

Now since this situation was similar, Jack figured that he could just try to copy the method used by the detectives in those novels. Apart from listening to the story of how the case happened, he would need to look at the crime scene and interview each people involved.

He sighed, this quest turned out to be quite a hassle. He liked to read mystery novels, but he would prefer to just play hack and slash kind of games, or at least simple puzzle games.

”Okay, tell me how it happened,” Jack said to the duke. ”Donʼt leave out any details. Every single thing you can remember will be helpful.”

The duke nodded, he then started, ”two days ago when this happened, I was in my workroom as usual. It was my routine to stay there the entire morning. Working with all sorts of documents and letters that required my attention. The… painting that was lost was also inside this room. It was kept in a small glass-case stand in the room. I was in the room working at the time before Winston came in to advise me about a friend of mine that had come to visit. I told him that I would come down soon to meet this friend, he then left. I tidied up my work before going down. The maid, Joselyn came in bringing another cup of tea. I told her to bring it downstairs. She cleaned the empty breakfast tray from my desk while I walked out. I had a glance before leaving the room, and the painting was still inside the glass case. I waited outside the room while Joselyn was cleaning my desk. After she came out, I locked the door, and then we walked down together.”

”Wait, so the maid was the last one in the room?” Jack interrupted. ”Then shouldnʼt she be the most likely to have stolen the painting?”

😉