Hello Scrolls and Followers of Justice, Mr.Bones bringing chap.07, a new arc begins, if you like the Solution, I'll bring you some of it. I hope you like it, comments, theories and analyzes are welcome.

With you

The One Who Came Back

Chapter 07: Solution in the land of racism

Two months had passed since the dispatch of the investigation teams. The reports were sparse, as the scarce information made it difficult to search for clues.

Solution Epsilon was the most prepared to investigate and proved to be able to gather small information about the path followed by the "traveler". As soon as she left the Great Tomb, Solution took a portal to the Dwarf Kingdom and followed her trail through the villages that were between the cities. The first thing she noticed was that "Telcontar" changed his name upon arriving in the Dwarf Kingdom.

In the city of E-Libera it was easy to get information about a bard who didn't use instruments and just told stories – he usually stayed in the city square, entertained the children during the day and the idle at night, but when asked about his name he called himself Lovecraft, a strange name for anyone, even a flashy one. Everyone would remember such a strange name.

Nothing more useful could be gathered there, only that he stayed for a week and continued on his journey. At the inn where he passed, little was known about him, he asked more questions than he answered, he wanted to know stories about tombs, ruins and ancient kingdoms. Without learning anything new, it seemed he gave up and went on his journey.

In addition to his other name, Solution was able to confirm the city he had come from, E-Pespel. She passed through the small villages on the way again and noticed an inconsistency in the travel time: even if the traveler was lucky enough to get a lift every time he was on the road, he moved very fast, arriving days earlier than a normal traveler could. It was as if he ran all day and only stopped at night, or if he never stopped walking, neither to rest nor to eat. Would that be another clue to his godkin origin?

Another thing she noticed was that the traveler didn't just tell stories. In one village, he helped a person with a broken leg, only low-level healing magic to heal the fracture, but for the rest of the wound he used a kind of plaster, no herbs, just a paper with writings glued over the wound which, according to the villager, took a day to heal what would normally take weeks. When asking if the villager had kept such an "amulet", as it was called by the old man, he said that after being removed from the leg the item simply burned, indicating that it was really magical.

So, he could use Level 1 magic, but the amulet was something unknown to Solution. She knew that message scrolls and greater healing scrolls as well as the talismans Entoma wore burned, and that healings could be administered by the power of mana by clerics or anyone with potions, but wearing an amulet that stuck indefinitely and that took time to take effect was inefficient and unknown to the maid.

In E-Pespel it was a little more difficult to get information about the traveler, as only a small portion of the population had memories of him, but after a little persuasion someone remembered where a talkative traveler had stayed. He maintained the modus operandi, registered at an inn near the city square as Lovecraft, spent the day there talking and the night in the taverns. Solution imagined that if you were looking for information about a dangerous place, you would be more discreet, so she started to investigate on the outskirts, but he always went straight to the center of cities, he seemed to want to get as much attention as possible and was not worried about the possible link between the Nazarick of the story and the Sorcerer Kingdom. How did someone like that go unnoticed by observation teams?

Even after gathering as much information as possible this past week, Solution couldn't determine the traveler's origin. In the surrounding villages and in the ones heading towards the Theocracy, the maid got nothing, it seemed that he had ignored such places, so the only indications were the ones he himself had provided: the capitals of the kingdoms. Solution asked for permission to advance directly to the Slane Theocracy capital, Kami Miyako, and now she really needed to show off her skills.

Upon arriving at the capital, the maid immediately felt the change of attitude of the residents, everyone seemed to act as if they were superior to others, not just with other races, which was obvious when it came to the elves, all mistreated and with ears cut off at the ends, but among themselves too. It was not just common classism, it was enough to have the wrong hair color or attitude for you to be treated worse than normal, and in a slave society this thought was fostered and encouraged by the government and the temples. She wanted to burn everything there.

Following the traveler's pattern, Solution went straight to the city squares, but this was a gigantic capital and one of the oldest, with several business districts, so everything needed to be checked discreetly. Pretending to be looking for her missing brother, she used the sketch Shalltear had drawn and searched for storytellers, but to no avail. Meanwhile, some residents of the less favored neighborhoods looked at her strangely, as if they recognized someone.

Solution went on to wear a hooded cloak over her short adventurer outfit, which seemed to have the opposite effect of what she intended, some people got scared when they saw her so she tried to smile, but gave up after the first ones ran away even faster.

Her time was running out, she knew that. Asking questions was risky here, even someone looking for a lost brother was information, and information in this town was sold on street corners. On occasions she had to be even more than persuasive with informants, one or two of them and some guards had to disappear, after all a girl needs to eat, so in a few days there were rumors of something hunting in the alleys.

The trail had completely cooled down, so it wasn't until she reached one of the commercial areas furthest from the center that there was recognition – "Strange" – thought Solution suspiciously. In this city, the traveler didn't seem to want to attract attention, the modus operandi had changed! However, intensifying the mistrust of the maid, the recognition was not of a bard but of a tavern owner.

The tavern in question was called "The Beast" and had been sold for over a year, and the current owner recognized the portrait as that of the previous owner.

"Yes, I've known TW for years, I think I was his oldest friend, but I didn't know his name was Lovecraft! He was a talkative guy, full of stories to tell, none of them about him", exclaimed the man.

"See, this could be my brother, he's been missing for several years, a jealous husband stalked him and he must have changed his name a few times, so we lost contact…", said Solution with an uncharacteristic sweet tone.

"I get it, that doesn't sound like something he would do, I really don't remember him having more than a few nights with anyone, but he's always been respectful of women. Sylvia here already worked at the tavern before me and she said that TW never tried anything with her, he said that relationships at work never end well", articulated the tavern keeper pointing to the young woman who finished cleaning the last tables.

"You're a half-elf, but without cropped ears, are you really a slave?", pried Solution.

The young woman looked at the maid with suspicion, saw the tavern keeper nod in approval, and then spoke.

"Yes… more or less. I was bought several years ago by TW, I was a servant in one of the slightly more affluent houses in the area. I was lucky, my owner had never abused me and I was there for most of my life, so when he died there were debts that the rest of the family decided to pay off by selling all the stuff, myself being one of those things".

"A pristine half-elf was worth a good deal of money. I was being prepared to go to auction when TW showed up, he saw me in a panic, in a cell like all the other elves that were going to be sold, then he said something to one of the sellers, they seemed to know each other, but there was no kindness between them. The salesman huffed and swore and then turned to me, opened my cell and said today was my lucky day, handed me over to TW and took a bag of coins from him with what should have been the minimum price for me at an auction, the seller said that the debt was paid and that he never wanted to see him there again".

"TW took me through the streets holding the chain without saying a single word, brought me to the tavern and locked the door, as soon as he turned around his attitude changed", continued the half-elf.

"I thought that would be where I would be devastated, I was ready for it, I pretended to be strong. Instead, TW smiled, took off the chain and asked me to sit, I sat on the floor like a good slave, he ran up to me and said – 'no, here you sit on the chair'– I was confused, did he want to play with me!?"

"Then he started talking about how he hated this place, and what they did with people, I wondered which people, it felt like he had read my mind, looked and pointed at me while gesturing 'people'".

"No one had called me a person before, we were things, objects, goods to be used, that's when I cried, I cried as if everything in my life had come at once, that simple act broke the barrier I had raised, he just stood next to me holding my head, so when I stopped crying, he said 'Tea?' and he offered me a cup".

"The first few weeks were embarrassing. I would try to do something to my new master and he would push me away, he said I should not call him that inside the tavern, outside we needed to keep a certain appearance, but not in the tavern or alone. I would ask him why he was doing all this and he told me he couldn't save all the elves, but if he could save just one it would have been worth living in that place", continued Sylvia.

"TW was always careful about how to act with elves – interrupted the tavern owner – "everyone who frequented the tavern had something against the way elves were treated, but most had nothing to do, just little helps and acts of kindness. After I took over, I kept things his way".

"What does 'TW' even mean, and if I may ask, why did he sell the tavern?", asked Solution.

"Oh, I have no idea what TW means, the initials of his name I think, but he never talked about it and we didn't ask, and the tavern wasn't sold, he lost it", said the owner, smiling with great pride.

"Just like that? I don't understand…", Solution asked, pretending not to understand. One of the easiest ways to get information was to let people brag.

"Look, it was like this: for the last week he had been complaining about the weather in the city, since that Sorcerer King appeared, everyone seemed apprehensive and irritated, except for the worshipers of Surshana, these were ecstatic, it seemed that the son of god had descended to earth to guide them.

"TW said it was time to move, in fact I know he was worried, like someone was following him. So, one night while we were playing cards, I had been out of a job for weeks, my savings were on the gaming table, it was the last chance to get something to support me for a while, it was just me and him, the rest was already gone, it was then that he betted the tavern. You know, there was a lot of money in the game, but the tavern was too much, I knew he might be bluffing, but he never bluffed, not once, I was friends with him, but I had a really good hand and I thought 'Ah! What the hell"'.

"So, I won, it was amazing! He didn't even hesitate, smiled at me, gave me a hug and said he was just going to get some things and that he was leaving. Before leaving he asked me as a favor not to play anymore, because I was terrible at it, to take care of Sylvia and the "Beast", he said goodbye to us and left".

"I was dumbfounded, it seemed that he had planned everything, I had nothing and now I owned a tavern".

"I don't know what to say about that" – 'I really think he planned an escape just in the nick of time' – thought Solution – "but by the way you talk, don't you worry about me telling everyone about this different way of dealing with the elves? Surely this can cause problems if the temples become aware of it".

"I know that, but he made it very clear when he left, 'if any girl comes to me, tell my story and don't hide anything, say I'm gone, you'll be safe' and you know what, you're the second girl looking for him, will more come?", said the tavern owner.

'Second girl? Was it the person who was following him? Why leave such information and orders?', these and other questions ran through Solution's head.

"About the girl who came looking for him before me, what did she want? Was TW in trouble again?"

"I can't say much about her, she wore a hood, but she was certainly less friendly than you. She wanted to know where he was, where he had gone, where he came from, all the questions I couldn't answer, I almost had my head cut off, she was very strong, luckily Sylvia came to my rescue. The girl was surprised by a "slave" defending her "owner", Sylvia told her the same story, it seemed to change the girl's mood, so she left".

"So, TW expected her to come after him and you told me the same thing just because I'm a girl looking for him – 'a coincidence, maybe' – thought Solution.

"Thanks for the help, maybe I can find my brother outside the Theocracy's lands. I wish you both good luck", said the maid when she saw that the half-elf held the tavern keeper's hand with more intimacy than a servant normally would have.

Upon leaving the tavern, Solution put on her hood. At that moment, she felt a presence and immediately knew that someone was watching her, subtly, but for her the sensation was quite perceptible.

Following the street, Solution headed towards one of the alleys. When she got there, someone spoke.

"So, it's really you! Who could have imagined that!?"

'Who is she talking to?', thought Solution.

"I never thought you would come back to this city after all… Clementine!"

'WHO?'