Shadow Slave

”Here you are.”

Sitting on a plastic chair in a cheap tent bar, Sunny smiled.

There were no other customers under the flimsy canopy — and no wonder. With how violent the rain had become and how cold the winds were, most people of Mirage City were huddling at home. The rest were in the process of abandoning the flooded areas, so they had more important things to do than stop at a cheap eatery in the middle of a stormy night.

Even the usual drunks were nowhere to be seen... nevertheless, Sunny was not at all surprised to see the clasp being pulled open as someone came in from the rain.

The man glanced around the empty tent, then gave him a pleasant smile.

”Ah... were you waiting? It breaks my heart a little to see how predictable I have become.” Pulling up a plastic chair, Mordret sat opposite Sunny and took off his cap. Drops of water fell from his hair, and he brushed it back, shivering from the cold in his threadbare coat.

Sunny pointed to an unopened bottle of soju standing on the table between them.

“Here. Warm yourself up.”

Mordret obliged, then gave him a curious look.

“You’re not drinking?”

Sunny gave him a friendly smile.

“The last time I got drunk, I killed someone. So...”

His smile widened a little.

”I thought that if I were to kill you, I’d rather do it sober. You know, to fully enjoy the process.”

Mordret chuckled and poured himself a glass, then emptied it in a single gulp.

”So how did you know that I’ll come find you again, Sunless?”

Sunny lingered for a few seconds, then shrugged.

“It’s obvious. We have your other self, after all. You’d want to get him back at all costs, lest Morgan actually finishes him off.”

He leaned back and sighed.

”Of course, I did not really know who you would choose to follow — me or Effie. But I had an inkling that it would be me.”

Mordret studied him for a while, then shrugged.

”Quite astute. Oh, I saw you visiting the other’s assistant earlier... I hope you got what you wanted from him?”

Sunny nodded.

”I did, I did. I know who is trying to kill us now.”

Mordret raised an eyebrow.

”Really? That was quick.”

Sunny chuckled.

“Well, I have an advantage or two when it comes to solving this case.”

He glanced away with a wistful expression. ”Actually, pinpointing the assistant as the traitor who kept supplying the mastermind with sensitive information was not that hard. On the day of the first assassination attempt, Mordret changed his plans randomly, but his schedule and route were still leaked. The same happened yesterday. Who had immediate access to that information in both cases, though? Two people, really: the driver and the assistant. Coincidentally, the assistant was the one who drove Mordret yesterday, so he was the only suspect left.” ŕ𝙖𝐍ȯ𝔟Ęṥ

Mordret winced.

”You know, it is quite unpleasant to hear you refer to that man as Mordret. Insulting, even. I disapprove.”

Sunny stared at him for a few seconds. ”Well, tough.”

He leaned back.

”In any case, the assistant had some information, but not all of the information. Getting it out of him was not too hard, and piecing it all together wasn’t too difficult either... not because I am a genius detective, but because I know more than people in this city know.”

He sighed.

“In this story that the Castellan created... what is the connection between the victims of the Nihilist? How do we, the uninvited guests, fit into it? Who wants to kill Mordret? And most importantly — why now? It is all a proper mess, and finding what ties it all together is not easy at first glance. Oh, but it is all tied together. Just in an unexpected way.”

Mordret smiled.

“It seems you really do have a suspect in mind.”

Sunny nodded.

”Yes, but... sorry to disappoint, it is not someone exciting. It is, in fact, the most boring contender — the most obvious one, too, whom everyone would suspect from the very start. It’s the Chairman of the Board... the reflection of your dead uncle, Madoc.”

Mordret seemed a little surprised. It was impossible to tell if his surprise was genuine or if he had known the answer already, though.

“Uncle dearest? How nefarious! To think that he would conspire against his own nephew... ah, but it is a story as old as the world itself. A scorned uncle conspiring to oust a noble prince. A simple power grab... quite trite.”

Sunny shook his head.

“It is Madoc, yes. But a power grab? No. The power will simply return to his brother’s hands if Mordret dies, after all. So, he had a different motive. He is desperately trying to bury his own sins.”

He watched as Mordret poured himself more soju with a look of envy, then glanced away.

”The thread I needed to pull to realize the truth was not whom Madoc tried to silence, but the timing of it all. And for that, I simply needed to get the details of what Mordret has been doing for the last few days out of his assistant. So, do you want to know what provoked all this? Was it his policies? The clash of interests over the Valor Group’s future? A political agenda, perhaps?”

Sunny shook his head with a smile of dark amusement.

“No... it was all because Mordret unexpectedly decided to implement flood prevention measures in the city.”

Mordret raised an eyebrow.

“Does Madoc want the city to suffer more water damage to inflate the numbers in the repair contracts Valor Construction will receive after the floods are over?”

Sunny shook his head again.

“Not quite. But it does have to do with Valor Construction... that is where the skeletons are buried. Are being buried, actually, and would have been flawlessly hidden if not for the fact that Mordret suddenly threw a wrench into these plans. By requesting Valor Construction to mobilize its forces before the floods, he inadvertently gave himself a reason to look at it closely.”

He sighed.

“The reason Madoc is trying to kill Mordret is because Mordret inevitably noticed a slight discrepancy in the numbers presented by the Valor Construction in their report about the flood prevention efforts... and ordered a full audit to be conducted.”

Sunny smiled wistfully.

“It is as they say, I guess. No good deed goes unpunished.”

Mordret chuckled.

”Oh, I wouldn’t know. I am not known for doing good deeds, personally.”

He paused for a second and then asked:

“So what is it that the Chairman of the Board is so desperate to cover?”

Sunny shrugged.

“What else? Embezzlement.”

He remained silent for a while, and then glanced north.

“It’s not the fact of the embezzlement that is important, though, it’s what he embezzled the funds from. The last major project of Valor Construction... the restoration of the northern dam.”

Sunny sighed.

”Which would not have been a problem, if not for these abnormally heavy rains. Because of them, the northern dam is not going to hold.”

He glanced at Mordret with a neutral expression.

“Mirage City is going to drown.”