Chapter 95: Elijah?
Nathan and I waited as the guard left, while the other guard firmly kept his eyes on us, suspicious as he should be.
I can't exactly take credit for this, but Nathan was able to figure out most of the backstory behind this guy.
In the original game, while Natan was just at his home, Elijah would've come all the way to his own house in an attempt to kill his own mother after killing many others. The noble himself wasn't the most powerful, but he was still able to cast basic spells. In a sense, this was kind of like the tutorial for outdoor combat in the game.
While holding onto the hilt of his sword, the guard spoke to us.
"You are truly on official business?"
"As hard as that may be to believe, yes."
But one might ask what exactly the motive behind this was. After all, it was rather strange for a noble to just come down to the slums and attack people. Although they may not always be doing the most productive things as nobility, they still probably had better things to do.
Well, apparently the person in control of Elijah's body wasn't Elijah himself. Nathan decided to read all the lore you get, and happened to read into Elijah's place. Apparently one of the maids had suddenly died when Elijah himself had suddenly changed.
And as it would turn out, that was because the maid had taken over Elijah's body.
Nathan began tapping his foot.
"He's taking an awfully long time."
The guard responded with a bit of contempt.
"The land is large. He will not be able to move that quickly, especially while equipped with that armor."
Backtracking from there, the maid herself was also originally someone else. Although there was no clear indicator of how back this chain went, what Nathan found out was that the original person was someone from the slums and one that held grudges.
Somehow or another, he was born with an anomalous mana that could allow them to take over someone else's body through a certain amount of physical contact.
If we were to go for the specifics, there was a maid's diary that mentioned another maid that used their body to 'please' Elijah, but ended up dying. While I don't think the transfer process was that rigid, there were at least decently strong restrictions if the person was actually willing to go that far.
The guard that had originally left was now coming back to us.
I was able to spot that he still had the brooch in his hand, meaning he didn't steal it. Not that he would, considering what I got from his personality.
Anyway, the transfer process itself doesn't mean that the guy is able to take the memories of the person they take over. At best, they are shaky memories, and it seems that his general sanity also goes down each time it happens, or he was just always crazy.
And because he didn't have those memories, he would do everything possible to pretend to be Elijah, including acknowledging fake memories.
The guard handed back the brooch to me cordially.
"You can enter."
Even if they didn't really exist.
The guards, though a bit surprised, opened the gates and stood at its sides, waiting for us to pass through.
Nathan stared at me for a few moments before silently going forward. I naturally went along with him. A smirk formed on my face. Since we were granted entry, that must mean Elijah himself was unaware of those memories.
On the contrary, if we were denied entrance, it would probably be because Elijah remembers not making any strange promises like that.
Before long, we were taken to the study, after which Elijah looked at the two of us with an eyebrow raised. The guards left to go on their post and he didn't seem concerned about them leaving. In fact, he looked rather composed for someone that was supposed to be insane. He was sitting down while sipping on a cup of tea, with his pinky finger pointed out.
I felt a bit strange but decided to shake it off.
Instead, I decided to play around a little bit.
"So you understand what business we are here for, sir?"
Elijah narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. A sly smile gradually spread out from his face.
"To be frank with you, I have not. I couldn't possibly understand what business I have from two wanted killers."
I narrowed my eyes ever so slightly. After a moment, I drew my sword.
"Can I take this as you cutting ties in our partnership? That won't end well for you, I must say, Sir Elijah."
Despite my threat, Elijah still only had a smile on his face. I couldn't help but wonder if I had miscalculated.
"Oh, is that so? But I don't recall ever making any ties in the first place. The reason why I let you in is that I recognized that only the families that are incredibly wealthy are able to acquire objects such as these."
He raised one finger into the air, and in a flash, twenty separate spears made out of rock had formed behind him.
...This level of magic was definitely not possible for Elijah that was possessed.
In other words, I fucked up. My calculations were entirely wrong, meaning he let us in despite not knowing who we were. After slowly putting away my sword, I gave him another look.
"It appears we were mistaken. However, there is still business between the two of us that can be discussed."
Elijah raised an eyebrow before putting one leg over the other.
"Oh, is that so? I don't see why I shouldn't just kill you right here."
I let out a small laugh.
"One reason is that you will end up dying soon, though if you don't care much about that then it should be fine."
Elijah simply smirked derisively in response.
"Haha, and how have you come to that conclusion? I can't be killed so easily. Besides, I have not formed any grudges with any of the nobles. If you truly were a noble with power, then you wouldn't have gone so far as to wear a disguise, but rather approach me directly."
I let out a small sigh.
"It is indeed true that we were lying about having previous business with you, but that was on the assumption that you had already died."
Elijah frowned.
"Stop speaking utter nonsense. If I were dead, there wouldn't be any fake business to have."
I raised a finger.
"But what if that person was able to steal your body?"
Elijah looked back at us blankly.
"...You have some ridiculous claims, I must say."
I tilted my head to the side ever so slightly.
"Then are you willing to entertain these claims? You may see something rather... surprising."
Elijah looked at us for a good few seconds before setting his teacup down with a clack.
"Very well then, how will you prove such claims?"
Damn, he actually listened? Well, that makes things simpler.
"Call all of your servants here for an emergency meeting. I wish to have a small talk with them."
...
"So, what do you plan on doing now?"
Elijah looked at me with a smile. We were standing in a fairly large hallway, with all of the butlers and maids lined up. They looked somewhat nervous, but seemed to be holding it together for the most part.
"It is more interesting if the plan isn't revealed at the start, no?"
While I said that, I honestly didn't actually have any real plan. To be honest, I was just expecting this to be a relatively easy kill mission. However, things ended up becoming a guess the faker instead. It's not like I never played Amogus, but still.
For starters, I tried to observe how everyone's mana looked since I was able to get a rough picture of it. At first, I was expecting this to be a bit easier, assuming that most of them wouldn't have any mana affinity, but as it would turn out they actually all had at least some affinity with mana.
And here I was thinking there was a small chance only the fake would have any mana.
To start, I clapped a few times to bring attention to myself.
"Hello everyone. I'm sure you are all wondering why I have brought you here. Some of you may recognize this face already, and some may not. I will let you know now that I am a wanted killer along with my friend here."
Most of them were quite shaken up. It looked like my prediction was right and that some people already noticed. My eyes were open as wide as possible just to take in all the reactions at once. Thankfully, there were only about thirty of them so it wasn't too hard.
Seven of them widened their eyes considerably, meaning they felt a bit of fear and perhaps confusion. Regardless, it seemed that showing overt reactions was something they were trying to avoid. I doubted the imposter would genuinely be afraid of a wanted killer in this setting, so I crossed those seven off in my mind.
"Please do not panic, for I am not here to harm... most of you. After all, your master is right here watching. I wouldn't do something so bold."
Three of the remaining twenty-three people began fiddling around with their fingers. Such a line could make the fake person uncomfortable, but I was pretty sure that they would be able to control themselves.
"Though, I will be picking on one particularly unlucky person. As for them, I'm afraid they will have a rather terrible fate."
Two people were far too calm about my words, almost like they were rebelling. A person trying to blend in wouldn't try to stand out at this point and try to bring attention by showing a lackluster expression.
As for the others, they were all fairly natural, so I couldn't decipher much from them.
"As such, I will naturally be inspecting just a tad bit more closely."
I began walking near people. This time, it wasn't for the sake of intimidation, but rather trying to see how they would react to how I smelled. It might have only been a day, but after rolling around in the dirt and getting a bit bloody, the smell obviously wasn't going to be pleasant.
Of the remaining eighteen people, fifteen of them had their face tense up ever so slightly, while the remaining three made an actual disgusted expression, albeit only for a moment.
In this case, the original person came from the slums and thus should be both used to that smell and new to it. Since they didn't show any obvious signs so far, the person in question was definitely good at acting.
While they may have been used to a bad smell ordinarily, their new body should have a newly tuned sense of smell that would find it disgusting. They would not have the experience to keep a straight face despite feeling disgusted.
So that meant it was probably one of the three.
"Hey, you, you, and you. Take a step up. I would like to question all of you."
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