Chapter 186: The Pursuers

It took two days for Wu Qingsong and Ram to catch up with Bernar and the others. They had already crossed into the territory of the Grand Duchy of Yagata, on the edge of the vast forest known as the Endless Green Sea.

Unlike the more developed Grand Duchy of Sentalus to the south, this area was a mix of forests interspersed with occasional manors. Correspondingly, the spirits of the beastpeople here seemed much better, and there were more travelers and merchant caravans on the road.

Although they hadn’t encountered any pursuers from the south or seen any wanted posters or related notices, they decided to split the group into two for safety, to avoid being easily identified.

Wu Qingsong led Ling, Liuli, Beck, and two hound warriors as one team, while Ram and Bernar led Daryl and three other hound warriors as the other team.

The two teams set off separately, pretending not to know each other on the road, and headed east. When they passed through Greenfield City, they finally saw wanted posters about them. To their surprise, the posters weren’t about the death of the steward named Justin, but about their previous attack on a squad of soldiers.

“An unknown band of robbers, including one tigerwoman, one half-elf, one wolfman, and several hound people fled led east after attacking the garrison in the Haldoge Valley. Reward: 20,000 renals, dead or alive.”

“Tigerwoman?” Liuli was surprised.

“They probably mistook you for one,” Wu Qingsong said, shaking his head. “And they put you at the top of the list because you left a very deep impression on them.”

Bernar and Ram weren’t mentioned at all, but their presence in the battle had always been minimal, so it wasn’t surprising that they weren’t remembered. 

Oddly enough, Ling also wasn’t mentioned. Could it be that the enemy didn’t clearly see her features?

“With so many people, yet only a twenty-thousand reward, it seems they don’t take this matter seriously. However, given these conditions, it’s easy for people to become suspicious. We need to reorganize our team,” Ram interpreted the situation differently. “Wu, Daryl, it’s best if you both dye your hair. Actually, it’s best if everyone changes their appearance a bit.”

Such a wanted notice would hardly be significant, but it never hurt to be cautious.

***

“Check that group.” 

While they were joking and dyeing their hair and fur, a half-elf was watching everyone on the main road leading to Yagata City with a suspicious and vigilant gaze.

His name was Klaus Middleton, a senior officer under the Chief of Security of the Grand Duchy of Sentalus. 

His name revealed nothing about his origins, but anyone familiar with the Grand Duchy of Sentalus would immediately recognize his grey hair and light blue eyes and know that he was undoubtedly a descendant of the Sentalus family.

In fact, he was a cousin of the current Grand Duke Sentalus. However, as a half-elf, his lineage was not officially recognized, and he could only bear his mother’s surname.

The Sentalus family was among the first great noble families in the Elven Empire to support the widespread use of half-elves in the military and various regions. It was said that the previous Grand Duke, Rodrigus Sentalus, systematically created over three hundred half-elf descendants with his own bloodline, providing them with sufficient education and training. These half-elves became the first batch of stewards, administrators, and officers for the Sentalus family. Following his example, other family members also demonstrated their support through their actions.

In a sense, the current Grand Duke’s extensive interests, though widely criticized among the upper echelons of the Elven Empire’s nobility, merely follow the family tradition to an excessive degree. 

Overlooked behind his notorious reputation was the fact that almost every family member had over a dozen illegitimate children. These half-elves, raised with near-elven education, were mostly placed in various positions throughout the Grand Duchy of Sentalus to serve the main family according to their qualifications. This made the Sentalus family more prosperous and better governed compared to those elven families still strictly adhering to pure bloodlines.

Among the so-called nine grand duchies of the empire, Sentalus boasted the strongest mobilization and combat capabilities. As the empire’s largest military power, they have long been responsible for guarding the southern coasts and the Gates of Kahango, achieving remarkable military success.

This formidable strength was, of course, built on the brutal exploitation and oppression of the millions of slaves within their domain. 

However, from the perspective of the rulers, such practices were not only unproblematic but entirely justified. Unlike other noble territories, Sentalus rarely faced issues of overpopulation and famine. On one hand, nearly every piece of arable land had been developed, and on the other, no slave on this land lived to middle age. They were worked to death long before they could become a burden to the territory.

Justin was also a member of the Sentalus family. However, due to his mediocre talents and disposition, he was placed in a remote area as a steward. Like stewards in other regions, he had the task of finding and offering beastwomen of various races to the family’s higher-ups. This duty gave him direct communication with the upper echelons, making him a somewhat notable figure in the family despite his low rank.

Since he often stayed out overnight, his concubines did not immediately notice his disappearance. It was only after the inn fire was extinguished and his personal belongings were found among the charred bodies that people realized he had been killed.

Soon, another inn near Baron Elyar’s domain caught fire, and news of the innkeeper’s death in the blaze was reported via carrier pigeon. 

This immediately made the Chief of Security realize that these were not ordinary accidents but deliberate acts of arson and murder, and that the two incidents were likely connected.

“This cannot be allowed to happen on our land! This is an affront to the family’s honor!” declared the Chief of Security.

He promptly appointed Klaus as a special investigator to handle the case. Klaus quickly pieced together the timeline of the two murders and arsons, realizing that the latter incident was likely a continuation of the former.

Most of the valuables in both inns had been destroyed by the fire, indicating that the perpetrators were not robbers. Therefore, the motive for the killings and the arsons could only have been to hide their identities.

“These individuals are not ordinary travelers,” Klaus quickly deduced.

Without an intention to rob, there was no reason to kill the innkeepers. 

Klaus, based on his collected information about Justin’s habits and behavior, hypothesized that the assailants must have had a conflict with Justin, killed him, and then set the fire to cover their tracks. To further conceal their identities, they returned to the previous inn, killed the innkeeper, and set it ablaze to destroy any evidence linking them to the crime.