Second World

”I am tasked by commander Guss to investigate the recent incidents with the disease. I believe the incident might originate from this place. Since Sloan is not available, how about you help us? I have some things to ask.”

The soldier laughed. ”Yeah, right. A bunch of boys thinks they are someone important.”

The other soldiers left their cleaning when they heard the laughter. The first soldier told them about Jack and Bowler and soon they all laughed mockingly at the two outworlders.

”These soldiers are very rude, letʼs teach them a lesson!” Bowler exclaimed.

The soldiers who heard it laughed even harder hearing Bowlerʼs threat.

Jack himself was embarrassed by Bowlerʼs words. Did this idiot not use Inspect yet? He was the one that told him to practice Inspect on everyone. If he did, he wouldnʼt have uttered those words. Although they were all only Basic humans, the lowest level of these soldiers was level 38!

He had been thinking about taking his League of Champions Badge out, but he was not sure if his current quest was linked with this faction badge, since Gruff and Guss both issued different quests. After some thoughts, he took out his Themisphere Nobility Faction Badge.

The soldiers were still laughing when he showed the badge, but one of them realized something and looked closer at the badge. He then knocked on his comrades who were still laughing and gave Jack a bow.

”I am sorry, I donʼt know you are a Baron, please accept my apology!”

The others were baffled by his action, but after they checked the badge for themselves, they quickly bowed down and apologized to Jack.

Their reactions were more exaggerated than Jack would have hoped. Although these soldiersʼ ranks were all only Squire, his Baron rank was also the first rank within the Nobility rank, so Jack thought that his rank was roughly equal to them. It was apparent now that Nobility rank gave better respect compared to the Military one. He felt relieved to have chosen the Nobility branch.

Since they respected his rank, this should make things easier. Jack was about to give them some questions regarding the quest, but Bowler took the initiative first.

”You think a simple bow is enough for slighting a noble? You should at least kneel down and kowtow!”

The soldiers did not hesitate to do as Bowler had asked.

Jack sent a silent message to Bowler, ”stop messing around. I still need their cooperation.”

Bowler replied, ”since they are afraid of your nobility status. You should act more imposing to make them fear you more. That way, it will be easier to make them comply with your demands.”

Jack thought it make sense, so he demanded the soldiers to kowtow ten times before he let them stand up.

”Now, I need some information. If anyone dares to give me a false account, I will make him pay! Do I make myself clear?”

The soldiers nodded vehemently.

”Good. Good. Now does this mess hall keeps a record on the soldiers who dined here?”

”It has,” one of the soldiers answered.

”Good! Take this gentleman and showed the record to him,” Jack said as he gave Bowler the notes with patientsʼ names.

”Go and check to make sure if most of the ones here correspond to the record of the soldiers who dined here,” Jack said to him.

”Iʼm doing the checking by myself?” Bowler asked dejectedly.

”Yeah, I will need to check on other things. I can only leave the easy stuff to you,” Jack said.

Easy? More like boring, Bowler complained in his mind. Still, he followed the soldier obediently.

After Bowler left, Jack asked the other soldiers, ”normally about how many soldiers dined in this hall?”

”This hall can hold a thousand occupants. Usually, we have a full occupancy with four batches. Each batch is allowed fifteen minutes to have their meal.”

That was a lot, Jack thought. Considering the number of patients, even if all of them originated from this hall, it was still only a small portion.

”Are the food served from the same counter?” Jack asked.

”Yes,” the soldier confirmed.

Jack asked the soldier to bring him to the food counter. It was a large counter at the side of the hall. Behind it was a large open kitchen. There were several containers at the front of the counters, Jack assumed that was where the food was placed.

”So there is only one food counter?” Jack asked again for confirmation.

”It is,” the soldier affirmed.

The foods were all mixed up here. So if the disease came from here, there was no sense only so few were afflicted. Just as Albert had said, the food was not the cause.

Jack walked around the hall, checking if there was anything out of ordinary, but nothing came to mind. He soon arrived at the room where Bowler was checking the registry.

”How is it?” Jack came to him.

”There were a lot of records in this registry,” Bowler said. ”I only checked the day and hour from our notes. Although I havenʼt checked all the names in our notes, the ones I have were indeed registered in this hall before they found out that they were infected.”

Jack turned to the soldiers who were still following him. ”If I give you a soldier name, can you go and find them?”

The soldiers said that they can. Jack then gave them some names, they were the names of past patients who he had interviewed the day before.

As the soldiers went out, Jack continued roaming around the mess hall, hoping to pick up some clues, but no luck. He ended up just sitting on one of the tables that the soldiers used to dine on. He hoped those past patients could get here before lunchtime, it would be difficult to conduct an investigation if this place went hectic.

”Hey, if you got nothing to do, how about you give me a hand?” Bowler called out.

”Have you found yet any names in our notes that did not originate from this mess hall?” Jack asked.

”Not yet.”

”Then no need to continue checking any longer. We can just assume that every patient came from here. Even if it is not the case, the majority of them do. So we focus on finding out what had caused them the disease in this place.”

As Bowler came to sit beside Jack, the soldiers came back with a few other soldiers in tow. Jack recognized them as the ones he talked to yesterday.

That was fast, Jack thought. Finding people in a small town was indeed much easier. Not to mention that they were military, so their stations were always on the record.

The soldiers who were past patients recognized Jack back and greeted him friendly. They were probably still expecting him to buy them some drinks. The soldiers who brought them here were rather alert at how casual these other soldiers were treating the young Baron.

Jack asked them to sit down and went directly to the point. ”I checked your files, before you people were sick, you have your meals here. Can you all confirm this?”

All of them confirmed. Some needed time to recall their memories, but eventually they confirmed it too. Jack then asked what food they ate. Although the soldiers were served with the same food, they could pick to not eat some. So it could probably be one type of food that was the cause, like the fruit or the soup for example.

It was more difficult to remember the food one ate, and it had been quite some time, so the information they gave was rather sketchy. But one statement stood out, which drew Jackʼs attention. This one particular soldier said that he did not eat any food because his stomach was not feeling so well. He just came to the mess hall to accompany his friend.

Could it really not be the food? Was it the place? Jack then asked them where they sat when they had their food here.

Same as the question about the food, the soldiers had trouble remembering where they sat on that particular day. But luckily they had a habit of sitting in the same area, so Jack knew roughly the area where they sat. Which interestingly were in the same area. It was at one corner of the hall.

Jack went to that corner with them and looked around the place. His gaze stopped at an item. It was a large water barrel. There were two such barrels near the corner. At the other corners and also at the mid-wall, there were other such water barrels.

He turned to the one who said he did not eat any food on the day he got sick. ”You said you did not eat at that day, but did you drink?”

The soldier nodded.

”Where do you get the water from?” Jack asked again.

The soldier pointed to one of the water barrels at the corner they were at.

😉