Gateway heechee saga, p.4
Bunny Girl Evolution 2: A Monster Evolution LitRPG, page 4
That confirmed some of Elise’s fears, filling her with dread. If this woman, who was close enough to the Gray’s to come out to the forest alone to look for them, didn’t know where they were, that meant no one did.
The knight knocked and called the names once more before trying the door. It was locked, so she circled around the side of the house. She chose the intact side, of course, so she made it to the back door without noticing the problem. She tried that door as well, then circled back around to the front, going the same way she had first come. Elise’s sense of dread was overcome by frustration as she watched the knight continue pounding on the front door.
Should I help her?
At this rate, she would break down the door without even realizing that there was a massive hole on one side of the cabin. Elise’s skill was off cooldown, so she could transform into a human and go talk, but was now the best time to reveal herself?
Will there be a better time?
Not knowing the answer, she decided that she might as well give it a shot. The knight clearly didn’t know what had happened to the Grays, but she probably knew more about them than Elise did, so she would be a valuable source of information. If Elise could get her to talk, that is. How would she introduce herself in a way that wouldn’t seem suspicious? She could pretend to be lost in the woods, perhaps. No, that would be incredibly suspicious. What kind of person would get lost this deep in monster-filled woods?
There was also the problem of her clothes. They looked normal-ish to her, but they were made by dwarves whose knowledge of fashion on the surface was 400 years out of date, so it would no doubt look strange to the knight. No, the best plan would be to bluff and do so shamelessly.
She flew down to the ground, then transformed into a human and deactivated her wings. She took a brief moment to make sure that she looked relatively presentable, then stepped out from behind her tree.
“Who are you?” she asked.
The knight whipped around at the sound of her voice, drawing her sword. Finally getting a full frontal view, the knight looked even younger than Elise thought. If she were any older than Elise, it was only just barely. She was also taller than Elise expected. She still wasn’t as tall as Nick, but having spent so much time with dwarves and drow, Elise had forgotten how short she was. She was a full head shorter than the knight, and between the height difference and the sword pointed at her face, it was becoming very difficult to maintain her false confidence.
“Wh-Who are you?” asked the knight.
“I asked first,” replied Elise. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”
She used {Charm}, followed by {Suggest}, to hopefully get her to let down her guard. While she probably wasn’t as strong as someone like Sindri or Naomi, if she decided to attack, Elise very well could die, since her physical stats were so low.
“I- My name is Penelope,” said the knight, lowering the sword. “I’m looking for my friends. One of them, he… His family lives here. They went to visit for Spring Break, but he never came back. Do you know what happened to them?”
“I do,” she said. “But first, please put your sword away.”
“Of course!” replied the knight, sheathing it. “What happened? Where are they?”
“They were attacked.” Elise was surprised at how steady her voice was. “A Winter Warg attacked the cabin while they slept.”
“A warg?!” exclaimed Penelope. “Here?!”
“Yes,” said Elise, nodding. “Follow me.”
She walked around to the destroyed side of the cabin with Penelope following closely behind. When she saw the destruction of that side of the house, she gasped.
“The cabin was professionally enchanted…” she muttered. “Does that mean that they’re—are they… dead?”
Elise’s mind raced as she tried to calculate how much information she could give her. She didn’t even have a cover story in mind. How would she explain how she knew what she knew? She couldn’t lie either.
“The parents are,” Elise said. “But there were no other bodies.”
“Then Nick is alive?”
“I don’t know. I hope so.”
Penelope looked at the wreckage of the cabin for a couple more seconds, then turned to her.
“Who are you? How do you know this?”
Elise still hadn’t figured out a cover story. What kind of cover story would even make sense here?
“My name is Snowberry,” she started.
“Snowberry?” asked Penelope.
Snowberry?? Elise thought.
“Yes. Agent Snowberry. It’s a code name.”
What am I saying?? Why is my name being translated to Snowberry?
{Tongues} seemed to be working properly otherwise. She could hear that whatever Penelope was saying was in Common, even if she understood it in English. She could feel all the unfamiliar words on her tongue as she spoke them, despite thinking them and hearing her own voice in English. However, despite the fact that she was definitely saying “Elise,” for some reason, she heard “Snowberry.”
“Oh, you’re with the IB,” Penelope said, a look of comprehension crossing her face. “But when I asked, they said all their agents were busy? Did they already have one working on this case?”
“Not the IB.” What’s the IB? “I’m an investigator working for a private organization.”
“A private organization?”
“Correct,” she said, nodding. “You probably haven’t heard of us, and we like to keep it that way. We look into unique cases such as this one that other organizations might be less qualified to handle.”
“What makes this case unique?” asked Penelope.
“Well, everything,” she said. “This is supposed to be a safe area, only spawning low-level monsters that couldn’t even hurt a child, and yet a warg was living here. On the night of the attack, we detected a dimensional anomaly.”
“A dimensional anomaly?” Penelope’s eyes widened. “What does that mean?”
“It’s less serious than it sounds,” she said. “It’s just a term to refer to a long-distance teleportation spell being used. Three people were transported away that night.”
“To where?”
“We don’t know,” she said. “That’s another thing that makes this case unique. In fact, I was just about to start reaching out to friends and family to see if anyone had news about their whereabouts. Have you heard anything?”
“I haven’t,” the knight said, shaking her head. “That’s why I’m here.”
“Do you know who else might know? Someone else they might have gone to first? Maybe some of their family?”
“Family?” asked Penelope. “I don’t know. Nick never told me about any other family. I don’t know if he had any. I’m pretty sure he said that his mom’s family didn’t talk to her. Oh, but Bianca’s might! I tried to get in touch with them before I left, but they never responded to any of my letters.”
“You sent letters? Then you know where they are?”
“Doesn’t everyone?”
Not me!
Elise panicked for a moment, wondering what to say. Apparently, Bianca’s family was well-known enough that Penelope didn’t even feel the need to say their names. That meant that Elise should have known who they were, too. Did she get caught? No, there was still a way out.
“Who exactly is Bianca?” she asked.
“I thought you were supposed to be investigating this,” said Penelope, her eyes narrowing.
“I am,” said Elise. “I knew that the Gray family lived here, but I did not know who the fifth person here on the night of the attack was.”
“Ah,” said Penelope, not looking totally convinced. “Well, the fifth person was Bianca Lappin, the youngest daughter of the Lappin family.”
“Oh, I see.”
Elise immediately knew she had made a mistake. She probably should have known before she opened her mouth, since Penelope wasn’t exactly being subtle about her suspicion. Elise took a few panicked steps back as the other woman drew her sword.
“You’re not an investigator. Who are you really?”
3 - The Alliance
“W-Wait, I’m not an enemy!” said Elise.
“Prove it!” said Penelope. “Who are you? Why are you here? How do you know what happened here? Or were you lying about that, too?”
“I-I can explain everything! Please put the sword away.”
“Not until you start talking.”
Penelope stepped forward, and Elise retreated another step back. She had no idea what to do. Half of her just wanted to cut her losses and turn tail and run. The other half wouldn’t let her. Penelope might have been her best lead on finding the Grays. If she ran away then, she’d have to start over from scratch, and there would now be someone wary of her. She couldn’t change what her human form looked like, and all her other humanoid forms looked almost identical, so her cover was more or less blown.
What she needed to do was get Penelope on her side. Whatever she might have been trying to do before had failed, but it was doomed from the start. The moment she called herself an “agent,” the lie got too big. She needed something more subtle. Something more believable. But what?
Penelope was asking very valid questions. How did Elise know what happened? With the official investigator cover already blown, there was only one valid answer: she had witnessed it.
Should I just tell her the truth?
The problem with telling the truth is that Elise had no idea how Penelope would react to the knowledge that Elise wasn’t human. Her time at Ostra had taught her that the answer might be “not well,” but how much could she trust the testimony of a group of monsters who, for the most part, had killed their way to sentience?
I should try it. If it doesn’t work, I run.
…Fine.
“I’m sorry for lying!” said Elise. “I-I had to.”
“Why?” demanded Penelope.
“I’m not a humanoid. I heard humanoids don’t like non-humanoids.”
“Not humanoid?” Penelope looked Elise up and down. “Then what are you?”
“A changeling.”
Penelope scowled. “A fey,” she spat.
“Wait!” said Elise. “I swear I don’t want to hurt anyone. I-I can prove it to you. I’ll let you ask three—no, five—questions! If I don’t answer truthfully, I’ll- I’ll be cursed! I have a skill that can make that happen.”
Elise activated {Fey Bargaining} as she spoke. It was a risky proposal, and not one that Elise gave much thought to, but she also didn’t throw it out thoughtlessly. If she had judged Penelope correctly, the knight wouldn’t do anything actively harmful with her questions. She would ask about Elise, and then about the Grays, and that would be it.
“I know better than to make a deal with a fey,” said Penelope. “I won’t agree to that. I’m going to tell you how it’s going to go: you are going to tell me the truth, or I’m going to turn you into a corpse.”
“It can’t hurt you!” said Elise. “There are no conditions that can hurt you. It will only restrict me! Just think about it, please. Five questions, and you can ask whatever you want. If I don’t answer truthfully, I’ll be visibly cursed for it.”
Penelope scrunched her brows.
“Fine,” she said a few seconds later.
Elise felt the icy feeling in her chest as the skill took hold, barely keeping herself from shivering. Penelope flinched as well, but after seeming to read something in front of her, she relaxed a bit and turned her attention back to Elise.
“A-Ask away,” said Elise.
“Are you planning to trick me or hurt me or try to kill me in any way?” asked Penelope.
Elise almost answered with an immediate “no,” but realized that she couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t try to trick Penelope later. Revealing that she was not humanoid had already gone badly, and Elise didn’t want to find out what might happen if she revealed she was reincarnated. That would probably be better, but with what the dwarves knew of the Rune of Fate, she wouldn’t have been surprised if there was some kind of history with reincarnates as well.
“I have some things I don’t want to tell you, but I promise I’m not trying to hurt or kill you. I just want to find the Grays.”
“Do you want to hurt or kill them?” asked Penelope.
“No! I just want to find them and make sure they’re alright!”
Penelope frowned. “Why?”
“I—” How do I explain this? “I wasn’t always a changeling. I used to be just an ordinary Forest Rabbit. I gained some levels due to pure luck, but I was still too weak to fend for myself. Sophie took me in, and I lived with them as a pet for a little while. Then, the warg attacked. Corwin and Sylvanna d-died, and Nick, Sophie, and Bianca took a teleportation scroll away. I barely escaped with my life. That was three months ago, and I haven’t seen them since.”
“You were their pet?” asked Penelope.
“D-Do you really want that to be your fourth question?” replied Elise.
Giving up a freebie like that might have been stupid against someone else, but it was more important that she gain Penelope’s trust than anything else, and that meant she had to make small sacrifices.
Penelope squinted at Elise suspiciously. “No, I don’t. If that happened three months ago, why are you still here? Why haven’t you gone to look for them?”
“I was in a… a situation,” said Elise. “It’s a really long story. It would probably take a whole book to tell you everything that happened. I had to resolve an issue somewhere else, and now I have, so I can look for the Grays.”
“Really?”
“If I answer, that will be your last question.”
Elise watched as Penelope frowned again. The other woman was clearly feeling conflicted. One {Suggest} might be enough to push her over the edge, but Elise was worried it could also have the opposite effect. Penelope was on the edge of trusting her, and one slip could ruin it all.
“I just want to help the Grays,” continued Elise. “I don’t want to be your enemy. I just want to help.”
Penelope stared at Elise for almost a full minute without saying a word. Then, she sighed and sheathed her sword. Elise blinked in surprise. Was it over?
“So Mr. and Mrs. Gray are really… dead?” asked Penelope.
“Are you sure that—” started Elise.
“Yes. Just tell me.”
“Yes, they are. I-I put their bodies somewhere safe, so that they can have a proper burial.”
The coldness in her chest vanished, and a System window appeared in front of her.
[ {Fey Bargaining} has leveled up! 14 -> 15 ]
Penelope stared at the ground, nodding lightly. “And Nick and Bianca and Sophie teleported away?”
“Yes.”
“To where?”
“I don’t know. Corwin said it would take them somewhere safe, but if you haven’t heard from them…”
They stood in silence for almost a full minute before Penelope spoke again.
“They’re not dead,” she said. “They can’t be dead.”
“I hope so too.”
“I’m going to find them,” said Penelope. “You said you want to find them too? Let’s work together.”
“What?” said Elise. “Really?”
That was exactly what Elise wanted, but she hadn’t expected the conversation to get there so quickly.
“Yes,” said Penelope. “You might be a changeling, but… Well, I’ve never heard of a fey that acts like you. And the System said your deal was real, and that you weren’t lying. Maybe you’re tricking me somehow, and the deal was fake, or maybe you lied when you answered, and you’re just hiding the curse, but I tend to trust my gut, and my gut says I should trust you.”
“Oh,” said Elise. “Then I… look forward to working with you?”
“I look forward to working with you as well.”
“Do you have a plan?” asked Elise. “Or at least a lead we can follow? I’ve never really left this area.”
“We need to talk to Bianca’s family,” said Penelope.
“Wait, are they actually…?”
“I exaggerated how well-known they are, but they are powerful. I don’t know why they never responded to my letters, but I know they’re not the type to just leave Bianca for dead. They’re probably searching for her as well.”
“Then why didn’t they come here?” asked Elise. “This cabin has been untouched since the attack.”
“Maybe they checked it remotely,” said Penelope, shrugging. “They can afford to do that. They might be months ahead of me in my search, but since I couldn’t get in contact with them, I had to come here myself.”
“It sounds like we should definitely be paying them a visit then,” said Elise. “Why didn’t you do that first?”
“They don’t live in Jelor. It would take longer to get to them than to get here.”
“Where do they live?”
“Do you know about the Jungle? Probably not, if you’ve lived your whole life here.”
“I do, actually. Do they live near the Jungle?”
“Yes,” said Penelope. “But on the other side, so it’s really hard to get there. Going through the Jungle is pretty much impossible if you’re not 7th tier, and going around can take months, and teleportation is stupid expensive, so I came here first.”
“I see,” said Elise. “So we need to get down there.”
“It will be a long journey, unless you happen to have a couple dozen gold stashed somewhere.”
“Actually…” Elise turned her attention to Astrid’s Star to double-check how much Hallbjorn had given her. “I do.”
“You do?” said Penelope, looking up at her in surprise. “Where is it?”
“Right here,” said Elise, holding her hand up as a gold coin appeared in it.
“Wha— How did you do that?”
“I can’t tell you,” said Elise. “But I have a few hundred of these.”
Penelope squinted at the coin. “Where are they from? I don’t recognize that symbol.”
Elise pulled the coin closer to her face to look at the engravings on its faces. On one side, there was a dwarven warrior in heavy armor, wielding dual axes. He reminded Elise a bit of Sindri. On the other side, there was a symbol she vaguely recognized as having been carved on a few things in the castle.
