Volume 10 Chapter 24: Confusion

I feel that as a quality individual, such a good quest mustn't be wasted, so I shared the quest with everyone.

Just as I sent it, Aliyah, who had been sitting nearby and packing up, jerked upright.

I helplessly shrugged and Aliyah shook her head, grabbed her bag, and came over.

"Ms. Melody, if I remember correctly, you had asked Fir to help you to improve your combat abilities previously. Why are you so interested in improving your strength?"

"I......"

Melody looked at Aliyah, then back at me.

"That's......could we talk somewhere else?"

"Of course, let's go to the seafood pasta."

I pointed towards the school entrance.

"I don't think you would mind eating dinner with us."

"Of course! Of course I wouldn't."

Seeing the panicked look on Melody's face, I was curious.

Didn't she seem like a withdrawn and expressionless girl before? What's changed?

Well, forget it.

So, the four of us went over to the Italian-style restaurant across from the school and sat in a private booth.

Of course, along the way I got a cordial response from Bai Yueguang in the form of......

'You guys aren't idle at all! There's a lot of work ahead, why are you bringing in a new quest?'

'Blaming me?'

'Before you had shared the quest of finding the intelligence network and you wanted us to find it. The collection quest was so much trouble and now you've found a long term quest? Do you have any idea how painful it is for people who like clean taskbars?'

'Then are you refusing the quest?'

'Won't.'

'Eh?'

'Only a fool gets exp without earning it.'

'Then you are an egg.'

During the chat with Bai Yueguang we had gotten ready and finished ordering. I threw Bai's nonsense aside and looked at Melody.

"Well, let's get to the point. Ms. Melody, you want me to teach you how to improve your strength as a magic swordsman? If I knew the source of your power I might be able to make it stronger.It's fine if you don't want to say, everyone has their own secrets, right?"

"It's ok, it isn't something I can't say......"

Melody paused and began to talk slowly.

"Actually, I want revenge. And the target of my vengeance, is my father."

"......Eh?"

We gasped in shock at the same time.

"Ms. Melody, what did your father do to make you want to kill him? He's your father after all."

"No, the sort of man who turns his wife into a death puppet and calls it a shortcut to immortality is not my father!"

"......"

Melody's face was very emotional, but it was understandable.

How insane would it be for his father to turn his mother into a death puppet?

And the death puppet has no soul. To turn his own wife into a soulless thing, how big does the hole in his head have to be?

"Since it's a death puppet it's a form of necromancy, so why don't you report it to the church? So you would be the one to punish your father? I know the people in the church are never soft on those who use necromancy."

"It's no use. My father used a single use magic scroll, and he hides the undead ring he uses to control her in a secret place and no one was able to find it. If I told the church, my father would have moved it and it would be impossible to find it."

"So in other word, you are going to kill your father and look for it, right?"

"Yes, otherwise......maybe I'll be the next person turned into a death puppet."

Melody said with a sorrowful expression.

"Obviously......my mother was the one who raised me. My father spent the entire year running his business without being seen except a few times a year. Except last year, my father came back a changed person. He locked himself in his room every day and did unknown things. Until one day......I saw that my mother had become a dead puppet. And my father was a demon, he actually stood by my side and showed of his masterpiece. What the hell! Why would you do such a thing?"

"......"

I thought for a moment and replied.

"Then why didn't you ask for help? And why did you suddenly come to ask me to help you now?"

"Because you can help me improve my strength. Originally I had found Mr. Fir and because of that he had helped me on a number of things, except......"

Don't talk about me like I'm dead, alright? I just changed bodies.

"But why did you want to be a magic swordsman in the first place? Were you originally supposed to be a swordsman?"

"That's......come to my house and you'll find out."

"No."

I righteously refused with a word.

"Eh?"

"After dinner."

—————————————————poi——————————————————

At the same time, site of the battle

"I have to say Lanya, that thing isn't reliable at all. There isn't anyone here."

Falan was complaining to Lanya, who was looking at the debris on the ground.

"There is so much waste here. To be quick......Ah, here it is."

Done, she picked up a round object from the ground with a pair of pliers.

"This is......"

"The tracker. But when the item it was attached to was used it broke, causing us to loose our clues."

Lanya said as she put the small piece of iron back in her bag.

"What should we do? We've lost him."

"Are you an idiot?"

Lanya looked at Falan with resentment.

"Now we can look at who used this site in the afternoon to reduce the number of suspects?"

"Oh, that's true. I'll look into it a bit.What did you put the tracker on anyways?"

"Er......a magic crystal."

Hearing this, even the silent Yerbil laughed out loud.

"You idiot! It's easy for it to fall off of that! Hey!"

Now it's Falan's face that had a look of resentment.

"Well, you look into it."

Yerbil pushed on her ear, seeming to have finished a call.

"My servants in the city have reported that the master of the Bell household has been practicing necromancy. I'm going to investigate that."