Chapter 55 – Unravelling

"Morus! You're finally here!" Shouts Soumis who got out of his overly large armchair. 

I shook my head around to push my current thoughts about Kim and the orphans aside to talk to the one I wanted to originally meet in the first place. I stare at the young brothel owner Soumis.

"Hey I'm here." I quickly grabbed the running Soumis in my arms and gave him a little kiss. "Excited aren't cha?" 

He nods, "Hmm-mm…" and looks at the elf next to me, "Thanks for bringing Morus here Polovina." 

"No problem Soumis." She bows and looks at me next. "I'll be going now, Morus; as I don't really wanna bother you right now haha…" 

"No probs as well, Polovina." Telling her not to worry.

She smiles and nods her head at everyone, "I'll be going now you two." 

The door creaks and shuts close as Polovina leaves.

Now that me and Soumis are the only ones here, at least the ones who are awake, I look around the room.

"Man, this place seems too big to you haha…" I remarked. "I mean your chair is even bigger than you."

"Yeah, I wasn't the owner of the brothel for very long. My big half-brother was, when our father got killed. And then…" He looks down for a moment before looking up at me again. "...Nevermind that, he was killed by one of his male partners but yeah, I'm here now."

I can see that it is definitely bothering him right now. "I'm sorry for your loss, Soumis." I tried to console him.

But then, "Really, it is no problem, Morus." I stopped. 

Because... "I wasn't supposed to be the one running the brothel, but now I don't regret it at all. My brother treated the girls here like family, and I am determined to do the same as well." Well, there's no need to console him if he has already moved on.

"I see..." I couldn't help but show a genuine smile. "That's a really good thing to do." I told him

[I guess this is the first time that I'm impressed by you, Soumis.] I thought to myself.

Back to Soumis, "Thank you." He smiles but then takes a serious turn on his face. "Although I accepted my role as the operator of the brothel, I still want to avenge my brother and father's death. So..." He looks left.

I also looked in the direction he was looking at—a couch.

A long couch, one long enough to have an entire person sleep on it, and there was a person on it.

"There it is..." I muttered.

"Wanna go?" Soumis holds my hands and is pulling me towards the one being rested on that couch.

"Yeah." And so we move towards it.

More and more I got closer, the more and more I became concerned about her condition, and finally…

"This is her huh...the tiger-girl."

Covered neck to toe by blankets, and a towel on her forehead, breathing heavily. It is clear that this girl is sick.

But not just any kind of sick. "Wait a minute..." I activated my magic. "Wait just a hell of a mother fucking minute…" Even without any magic on I saw a glimpse of something very bad.

{"Activate my elven eyes."}

My eyes glowed and small magic circles surrounded my eye like a pair of sunglasses. I stared into the tiger-girl and what I found was…

[Rudas was wrong…] I thought immediately when I saw what was happening to the tiger-girl.

"This is horrific." I told Soumis. "This... definitely isn't just some form of sickness."

"W-what is Morus, tell me!" Soumis's actions changed to become more desperate as he realized this wasn't just a simple cold.

I told him the cold hard truth. "This is mana poisoning." I can see it.

I can see all sorts of foreign mana swirling around the tiger-girl. Different colors, different waves, all of it inside one body.

[This is bad.] I grit my teeth.

I knew of this type of poisoning back in Endless. You had several alchemist players condensing the mana of many monsters and creatures into a powder and mixing them all together to create this horrible concoction.

Once ingested this mixture of foreign mana attacks your own and converts your mana into one of them. Then your mana attacks them and it causes a chaotic reaction all over your body.

Although pain receptors in VR were highly regulated, the NPCs that were being tested on described the feeling like there was a battlefield of wizards inside your body, and you were the ground that battle was being fought on.

I gritted my teeth even more. "Jesus Christ..." I cannot believe that this barbaric practice still lives on till today. 

"Who's that?" Crap, of course Soumis doesn't know.

"Some foreign deity." I quickly told him. 

"But Soumis." I look at him intensely. "This is bad Soumis, really bad."

I explained it to him, what mana poisoning does, everything.

"..." Soumis was silent.

But I continued. "And mana poisoning is even more terrible for beastmen like her. As you know beastmen are the ones with the least mana out of all the other races in the world. So getting poisoned like this is even worse as most likely there isn't even enough mana to combat the foreign mana inside."

I stare at him. "How did this even happen?" I explained. "Mana poisoning only happens naturally in a specific case, not this one. Someone must have injected or given her a tablet of condensed mana to put into her system for it to occur. This isn't natural Soumis." 

[I had assumed that this would just be a regular case of a cold or infection…] But clearly now that isn't the case.

Soumis was silent for a while until. "By the Three Dragons..." He puts his palms upon his lips. "...Even the garrison was compromised..." He told himself.

"Explain it to me, Soumis!" I need to know.

Soumis nods and now looks at me intently this time. "Morus, the garrison… This morning after we interrogated the people that Kumo and Gabril captured, including her, we were done. We gave them to the guards and to the garrison to help with the investigation. But strangely enough the guards returned this girl back to us, saying that this girl was terribly sick and couldn't even answer the questions the guards asked of her." He took a deep breath before explaining the situation again to me.

"At first I was suspicious that she was so sick but didn't think hard about it, as while we were interrogating her she was already weakened and sick by then, with all the parts removed to her. But being brought back with the help of the guards and couldn't barely speak… I should have been more suspicious." Soumis too grit his teeth and clench his palms tight in anger.

"To think she was poisoned..." He looks at me. "Morus, don't you think that..."

I nodded, "Yeah I know." We came to the same conclusion. "There was someone at the garrison that works for the same side as the criminals." A rage inducing revelation.

"And that someone from what I'm guessing poisoned this woman because she was of a higher rank than the thugs alongside her and so might be able to tell a more detailed testimony to the guards." Soumis clenches his hands together. 

"And so that fucker working for that slave trading bastard Pucki poisoned her. That's my conclusion." 

I look at him when he says those words, "You knew that from your interrogation?"

"Of course, but unfortunately we weren't able to know much more than being hired by Pucki to inseminate my girls and threaten me for a cure." Soumis continues. "And we weren't able to get much out of the tiger-girl since she was already sick when we interrogated her."

"I see…" I look at the girl.

And now that Soumis's words are processing in my brain, I took a look at her more and found some even more disgusting details.

"She has no ears..." She has body stripes like that of a tiger but no cat-like ears.

[Normally that would mean she had human ears but no as well…] My stomach curls at the realization.

"Someone had cut them off." Soumis tells me the truth I don't wanna hear. "Along with her tail." And something even worse.

"No wonder she was weak and sick." If she had parts cut out from her like that, infection and a numerous host of disabilities would render her like this, along with the poison.

More and more I am sickened by this horrible sight. "And you also tell me one of her eyes was pulled out as well?" I can see that she had tape over it.

"Yes, Kumo told me that her eye was used like a switch to activate the bombs on the thugs so he had to pull it out." He told me in sadness.

"..." My hand clenched in anger. I am gritting my teeth and my head is shaking in anger.

[They used this girl like she was a fucking toy.] They removed parts that are undesirable to them and used one of her body parts as a glorified button to blow people up.

[I gotta save her. Just the inhumanity of this alone justifies it for me.] 

It might be hypocritical of me since I also have done modifications of creatures myself, it was all professionally done with no pain and harm done to the creature in question. Plus it was back when Endless was a game.

There is no hesitation for me anymore, but there is someone I need to ask.

"Soumis." I look at him directly. "Is there any reason why you want to save this girl?" I continue, "You told me earlier that you weren't able to get much out of this girl. So tell me why now." He was the one that brought her here, so he'll be the one that decides the fate of this girl.

[But if he doesn't I'll take her away and heal her myself.] Just a thought.

But anyways, "...This is something I was gonna say later but here it is. There is one more detail about all of this Morus." He told me what it is.

"When the guards carried her back to the brothel, she was so weak that she fell down to the floor. But she was still conscious." He told me with shaking hands. 

Soumis then holds the girl's hand. "Just before she fell unconscious, she told me in a weak voice this: 'I will tell you everything, I promise.'" 

"Everything huh…" That's it, I can feel my mana channeling to my arms as I prepare myself to clean the tiger-girl of her foreign, poisonous, monster mana inside.

But Soumis is not done. "And I will tell you everything as well." He told me one last thing.

I carefully look at the tiger-girl before staring back at Soumis. "Tell me." I am taking in every information I could right now.

[There is definitely a conspiracy going on.] I'm sure of it.

And it seems like, "My father, my brother, that bastard Pucki was involved in both of their deaths." I was right.

[Pucki…I will kill you.] Everything wrong has been connected to him somehow. 

"Before my father's time, the brothel was engaged in illegal activity and part of the underground black market, including slaves brought in by Pucki. But it was during my father's time as the owner that he turned this whorehouse into a proper and legitimate business. I knew Pucki was angry at this since we were one of the biggest and most profitable brothels in the city and now he couldn't sell to us. So he had my father killed." Soumis continues without stopping.

"Then it was my brother's turn, my brother liked men but he treated the girls like he would his own siblings, then once again refused the offers Pucki was selling since they were often traumatized slaves. Then the bastard leaked the fact that my brother liked men and proceeded to pay one of his partners to kill him."

Soumis crouched his back and held his chin to his knuckles. "I know he killed them this way, but there just wasn't enough evidence to arrest him." He furrows his brows. "And now with this, Morus."

"Yeah." Soumis is the one ordering this conversation now, and I am just listening.

"I need your help, Morus. No matter what Pucki may have done in the past, I was always a coward and just wanted to avoid him, but now..." He looks at me with pure determination and grabs my hands. "He may have killed father and brother, but I know he has harmed my girls. And seeing the lengths he would go to do that...I don't wanna sit this out anymore."

Soumis then… "Please, I wanna get my revenge, Morus." Bows down his head to me.

"Soumis..." How could I not help this cute little femboy? 

I rub and mess up his hair as I give him a kiss on the forehead. "Of course Soumis. It's also in my best interest to get rid of him as well." I of course agree to his revenge.

[I have a feeling that he would start interfering in my business as well.] 

After all of this, I look at the tiger-girl breathing heavily on the couch. 

"Let's do this."

•••

Chaos inside the El Niño estate. 

"How dare some dirty unwashed thugs slay a Page of the Margrave!"

"He may be a commoner but he is still one of the Margrave's men, this insult should not be swept under the rug as it is an insult to the Tridin family name!"

This incident has circulated throughout the entire manor and estate of the Margrave. Being employed under the Margrave should have been enough of a deterrent for criminals to avoid messing with them, and now that logic has fallen apart.

Many of the maids and servants are now talking as if they would be next on the chopping block.

Obviously this news is of great concern to Norkin. Since he is inside the barely used morgue, a room constructed simply for the sake of having it in the manor. There weren't supposed to be any corpses being used there, until now.

"—May the Three Great Dragons judge his soul, with the protection of Arin and His golden light, and may the String Goddess Silkco herself put you in her great tapestry in heaven." Norkin gave a prayer to his deceased Page.

After Norkin was done, he placed down his banner atop his retainer's casket.

With silence, Margrave proclaims this with a low voice. "And whilst the Gods guide you to heaven; I shall do everything in my power to bring you to justice Nir. You were too good of a man to die as pathetically as this." Norkin then places his hand on the casket one more time. "Especially under my watch."

He let go of the casket and stood straight with his hands holding tight. "My opponents may call me a pushover and lenient lord, but I do not tolerate having my men slain under any circumstances."

Norkin stood silent for a while until he heard,

Knock! Knock!

A knock on the door.

"Come in!" He boomed out loud, and the door creaked open. "Have you found anything, Your Highness?" He knew immediately who it was.

"Well, it was interesting to say the least." It is Gérmann. "In a bad way of course." 

"Tell me." Right now with the current situation, there was no time for banter and so Norkin was blunt.

"It seems to me that your Chamberlain Jshovenne is highly suspect in this." Gérmann continues holding a piece of paper. "A lot of the documents to this were...let's just say hidden during my search in the treasury but eventually we found it. It was confirmed on record that during the bidding process of the house Nir was involved in selling, Jshovenne was found to have bet a large amount of funds to buy this single house."

Gérmann gives the paper to Norkin, "And as you know already, Nir was supposed to give the deed and keys of the house to the one that managed to buy it—" and the two of them,

""Morus.""

Both of them said her name at the same time.

"...So she was involved again…" Norkin holds his head, "That woman, I like her but she is one hell of a magnet for trouble." And gives one big sigh.

Gérmann gives a dry laugh. "Well I'm sure she most of all hates the situation she got herself in the most." He tries to reassure him.

"I am even beginning to think if she's good for the city or not." Norkin grumbles a bit more before finally calming down. "But I still agree that she is an important person we have to get to our side or else. No matter how much trouble she attracts."

"Yup." Gérmann is trying to motivate Norkin. "And I'm sure Morus herself would gladly cooperate with us." He told him.

"That's good." It worked.

Now that the two powerful figures in the manor have calmed down, they say their prayers to the deceased Page one last time before leaving the morgue.

And whilst the two are walking alongside each other, they discuss what to do next.

"No matter what Your Highness, that house is suspicious." Norking narrows his eyes and brushes his beard. "Why would they kill my Page for a deed of an abandoned house?" He wonders.

As the two figures are in the presence of the maids and servants, the two had to act appropriately.

"I did a bit of a background check on it, Lord Norkin." Gérmann continues. "The previous owner died not too long ago. He was a hermit, old and decrepit. Apparently he was a baronet, the lowest of nobility, and he sold his land and titles and lived out his days using the money he earned from that alone in that house."

"Disgusting." Norkin was visibly angry knowing that someone sold off his nobility granted to him for money. "But even still, a Baronet is a title that is not inheritable, so even selling that off wouldn't make him set for the rest of his life."

"I am stuck on that mystery, Lord Norkin. I checked his records and he first settled here about four decades ago and is paying his taxes properly all this time despite living as a hermit. So the money he earned definitely won't cut it." Gérmann scratches his long hair. "The only conclusion I have now is that he had some other sources of revenue we do not know about."

Norkin nodded. "Money he earned that is not on the record…" He is incredibly suspicious about this. "Your Highness Gérmann, let's launch an investigation into that house."

"Got it." Gérmann nodded back. "Also, are you going to launch an investigation into Baron Jshovenne as well?" He asks.

"Unfortunately, I would have to." Norkin looks forward with a stern but sad expression. "Jshovenne's father was a sentimental figure of mine, and House Tranchant has served the Tridins dutifully for generations. So it is a painful choice to make." He stops.

"There's also the matter of the recent matter of a lot of children disappearing lately." Gérmann grumbles about more trouble in the realm.

"Yes that too…" Norkin closes his eyes and sighs.

"But you gotta look at this, Your Highness." Norkin looks forward.

He stops by a large window in the manor overlooking the city of El Niño. 

"Beautiful isn't it?" Seeing all the lights flickering in the night made the Margrave smile.

"Yes it is." Gérmann agrees completely.

He then tells a tale like the old man he is.

"The legendary founder of the El Niño family, the line from which my current Tridin blood comes from, was a young adventurer that left his ancestral home in sadness to travel across the seas and oceans to settle in the land in which to this day, is named in his honor." Norkin continues. "That man up to his deathbed only wished to return to his old home. But realizing that is impossible, moved forward to create the city in which we live today." 

He looks back at Gérmann. "And so as a Tridin, the blood of which came from El Niño, it is only proper that I must do my duty even though my heart says otherwise." Norkin laughs at himself. "Let's go Gérmann."

"Of course." Gérmann and Norkin continue their walk.

And as they pass through the corridors, they pass through the halls of which paintings of the past heads of their house are displayed. Two things are always constant through these paintings, the first is the family sigil of a trident thrusting down with a pattern of hearts in the background. 

The other is the family motto, which is:

"Your heart is yourself, everything else is your duty."

"So you can read Gérmann." Norkin laughs.

•••

"She waking up?"

"No."

"She waking up?"

"Still no."

"She waking up?"

"..."

"No?"

"No."

This was our conversation.

[It took me two and a half hours to fix all of your problems tiger-girl. Be grateful.] These are the words I thought of when she woke up.

There are two things I gotta do first to fix her up, clean out the foreign mana and regenerate the missing limbs. Cleaning out the foreign mana was the most important as it is a poison that would kill her if I start meddling my mana in, so I did the grueling process of taking the mana out from her while making sure it doesn't cause havoc in her body.

It was extremely tedious, as there are like six different mana that I managed to identify. One by one I compressed the mana together without it bothering the others, pulling that condensed away from the magic circuits, then controlling that mana and finally converting it to my own.

Converting the different mana together took the longest time as unlike pure mana, the mana I was converting was already tailored to the creatures it was taken from, in this case several rat, goblin, and bear mana put into her.

If I were to put an analogy to it, it would be like in painting it is easier to paint over a blank canvas then it is to paint over an already completed painting.

Next is healing her limbs back, or should we say regenerate them. Traditional healing is used by most of the good aligned races, it is instant and not very mana inducing at all; though the drawbacks to it is you can't heal wounds already healed by scars and more importantly can't heal back entire limbs and more. Only divine healing could do that.

So I had to use dark healing or regeneration, which is used by most dark aligned characters. Regeneration unlike healing is gradual not instant and costs on average more mana, but it can grow limbs back and can be used passively as opposed to casting it in a spell like heal does.

Though you would need to be good enough to regenerate entire limbs without it turning into a mangled mess.

Anyways, overall it took two hours to get rid of the poison and half an hour regenerating her tail and ears.

"Why haven't you done her eyes, Morus?" Soumis, who has been in and out of this room, asked me.

Finally a good question. "Well I haven't regenerated her eyes since that would push me to four hours and frankly, I'm tired. Plus…" I dunno if I wanna say this but here it is. "I don't wanna be entirely generous to her, she was an enemy and Kumo took her eye out because she'll use it to sabotage our plan. It might sound petty but I wanna leave her a reminder of what'll happen if she crosses us again." I told it straight to Kumo.

Surprisingly, he seems chill with it. "Fair if guess." He shrugs it off. "I'm not a saint either, the main reason I asked you to save her is because she promised to tell me everything, and if she can't fulfill that then..." Soumis made a really devilish smile.

[Oh okay…] I look back at the tiger-girl.

Staring back at her, I almost didn't notice how cute she looked. She may be a tiger but she's as hot as one sexy—

"She gotta wake up yet?" Great.

"No!" It finally tilted me over the line.

But then, "Shut up!" A third voice appears.

"..."

"Uhm…"

We all jolted in surprise. Both of us instinctively turned around and saw….

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" The tiger-girl is opening her one eye. "...Nyyaaaah, fuck...ing...bastard..." It seems that the anger was not intentional and just came from her dreams.

I took a sigh of relief while Soumis is still shocked.

"Uhm....I thought that people who just woke up are pretty meek, you know." He told me.

"Well... she's part of the tiger tribe you know." I laugh it off with him.

Then the two of us proceeded to properly wake her up now, trying to avoid the cat swipes from her hands.

Soumis wasn't so lucky.

•••

"...How are you doing?" I try to ask the tiger-girl, with a crooked smile and one imaginary big sweat on my side.

"Shit, obviously." The tiger murmured to herself while sitting with her knees up and hugging her leg.

Meanwhile, "I'm here~" Soumis returns with a cup of milk. "Actual real and warm breast milk, here you go." He handed over that dubious milk to her.

But, "I'm a proud member of the tiger kin! I don't drink milk like a cat would dumbass!" She is being all tsundere about it.

And…

Gruuuumble~

[Wow. How many days has she not eaten?] I didn't say that out loud in fear I'd get slapped into space. 

Her face is as red as a tomato.

"Well, your body certainly doesn't—" Soumis was about to make a witty remark of his doom.

But, "Fine!" She immediately conceded and took the cup of milk from his hand.

Soumis's eyes twitch, "Well you certainly don't feel any remorse despite the fact you put a scar on my face." It's true he wasn't lucky.

"It's an accident, okay!" She drinks the milk.

Soumis, who now has a small tape over his face to cover that swipe, is making that devilish smile again.

So I… "Alright you two!" Intervened. "Before you two have a cat fight—"

"Hey!"

"—Just a fight." That made my eyebrows twitch.

"Before you two do anything stupid. Let's start again shall we?" I mediate between the two.

"Fine, ugh."

"Of course Morus."

The two (somewhat) agreed.

"First is Soumis, you sit on my lap." I told him.

"Okay~" He agrees and I hug him tight.

"Alrighty then, tiger-girl." I stare at her and she...

...Is telling me her name, "Tiga. Call me Tiga." 

"Alright Tiga, what happened earlier."

And with that,

Bam!

She dropped the cup; thankfully with all the milk drank, to the floor.

"T-those—!" Her eyes reddened in rage, her fangs unsheathes itself out from her fingers. "Bastards...!" Every single hair from her head to her body stood up, she looks more like a lion than a tiger right now.

I looked to my side and saw Soumis visibly shaken and took a step back from her.

I look back and stare at her long and sharp claws, [If that had swiped Soumis earlier he'd be a goner.] Even I gulped at that fact.

Then I saw Tiga bite her claws. "They betrayed me, they betrayed me, they betrayed me, they betrayed me, they betrayed me—" It seems she lost her mind. "They fucking betrayed me!" Finally, Tiga swipes down her claws into the wooden couch.

It gnashed through the wood and fabric, leaving a gaping hole in the couch.

[Crap, her instincts got out of hand.] Stupid me, this is a beastmen we're talking about, of course they do this!

"Hey." With Soumis already staying as far away from her as possible, I took the initiative to calm her down.

"Hah?!" She shouts, her teeth already turned into a pair of sharp fangs.

"We're here to help you." I did not break eye contact with her.

[I'm dealing with her wild instinct right now, so I cannot appear weak to her.] She'll jump on me. 

This is one of the traits of beastfolk like her, since they have bodies of that of wild animals, they also have a tendency to lash out their emotions like this.

"Fuck you!" She openly threatens me, but I did not even move a flinch as I came closer to her.

"Calm down Tiga, we're your allies." I calm her down with my soft voice, soothing her to make her know that she is not being threatened.

"Look at your tail, look at your ears. We gave them back to you from the people that took it." I pointed at the restored body parts on her.

Then I touched her ears

"Wha—! what…." She jolted in surprise but was immediately shocked. "Hah? Huh?" She touches her ears, she touches her tail, everything she touches.

[Must be surprised to feel a part of you that was lost huh?] I thought that in sadness.

And then, "Sniffs..." She cries.

I looked behind me to see Soumis, and told him, "It's fine now." And urge him to take a seat.

"Okay Morus." He agreed and sat back to where he originally was.

"Okay then." I stare back at the tiger-girl, Tiga.

She notices my stare and stops herself from crying, "Thank you Ms. Morus, thank you." Tiga has now become submissive and I can see that she's very much wagging her tail very hard for me. "I lost myself earlier, I'm so sorry for that

"No problem Tiga." I can now feel comfortable with this tiger-girl now. "Tell me what happened earlier okay? And don't berserk out again." I gave her a light warning.

"Hm-mmm..." Tiga nodded, "Here we go." And she told me what happened.

"After I was captured by that handsome monster, one of his partners; the pretty looking lady, took me back to this place along with the grunts." She continues. "I already had the sickness the day before but I wasn't able to take a break since I'm a dirty demi-human. Then when he gouged my eyes out my condition became even worse. Though…" Tiga glances at Soumis.

"It was a blessing in disguise since I could use my sickness as an excuse to not answer their questions much and lay down for the night." She told us.

I took a quick glance at Soumis for a bit and he's definitely upset about that fact.

"When I woke up I was told I'm gonna go to the garrison to get an actual interrogation. I hid my expression as I was genuinely happy at the time, as I had contacts on the garrison and was able to be released with minimal consequences."

"I knew it—!" Soumis was right, there was a mole in the garrison. 

[It's like this in every world huh…] Criminals on the side of justice.

"But before that, they gave me a meal, a shower, and a change of clothes. The food was the best I had, the fresh shower I never had, and the best clothing I ever had. Even if it was brief the things the whores here did for me made me feel like I was actually a person. Before I left I secretly said thank you to everyone." I can see Tiga's face glowing red again.

"It's no problem!" Even Soumis is looking red right now. "I always believe in providing the best service to the people staying here, so yeah..."

"Fufu…" She giggled a bit before continuing on. "Yeah, I was at the garrison and secretly met up with one of my accomplices. At the time they were taking care of the lowly thugs, and so I conversed with my accomplice. He told me every good thing I wanna hear like I would get out and how Pucki would forgive me, etc. etc. But…." I saw Tiga unsheathed her claws before properly controlling herself this time. "It was all sweet nothings. A damn ruse to completely bring my guard down." She's controlling it very well but I can see blood dripping from her lips. She's still really mad at this.

"You were tricked huh..." Soumis felt bad about her, while I...

I felt bad as well. "That's what you meant by betrayed huh..." 

"Yeah. You guessed it right, haha…" Tiga made a self-deprecating laugh. "I was tricked, played like a fiddle." She continues.

"Just before I was brought to the interrogation room, I was given a meal by my accomplice. I should have known by my keen sense of smell that there was something bad in that meal but I took it anyway because I was so desperate." She continued in sadness.

"Once I finally got to the room, my mind and body turned blank for a moment before collapsing. I did not know anything much afterwards as my consciousness faded away, but I remember just as I fell into slumber, I saw a faint resemblance to you Soumis." She tries to remember. "I was filled with rage but I can't remember."

Then it was Soumis's turn. "You said to me, 'I will tell you everything, I promise.' That's what you said." 

"Yeah…" And she smiled. "Once again, thank you all for saving my life. I'm sorry that I was still very confused, you know."

"No worries about it." I told her. "Also, no need to be so formal with us. He's a brothel owner and I'm well, I'm me haha." I try to lighten the mood up a bit.

"Oh really, hahaha!" I guessed it right. "Well I gotta speak from the head then, you bastards!" She's a tiger, so why would she be so submissive?

But there was one person here who was silent. "Uhm..." It's Soumis.

"What is it, Soumis?" He was pretty silent the whole time.

"I wanna know everything, Tiga…" He meekly asks. "I thought you said you'll tell everything."

[Ah, so he's impatient.] I can relate to that.

"Yeah, Tiga." I look at her. "We can have fun and festivities afterwards, but we need to know about everything first. What's happening?" I need to know.

Tiga took a breather. "Nyaaa..." She looks aloof to it all before looking at us with…

A smile. 

"With pleasure." A vicious smile.

"He enslaved me for long enough, time for me to have my revenge." The smile of a predator thinking of his prey. 

One that hurt her pride and wants to take it back.

""Tell us!""

Finally it's here.

"Hahaha..." Tiga is savoring it all, and then stares at Soumis. "Yo Soumis, I saw someone interesting before." She told him.

"A young elf girl with light pink hair as opposed to your hot pink. Who was she again?" She asks with a grin.

[Wait, what she on about?] Only one person fits that description...

"...You mean Kim?" Yes, her. "What do you want with that child?'' Soumis asks.

"I saw her when I first left, she fits the description very well." She told me with a devious smile. "Is she still here?" 

Soumis nods.

"Good, bring her here." Tiga leans forward. "It's for her own sake as well."

Soumis was obviously creeped out by this. "Uhm...sure." But still he followed her orders and left to get her.

Once Soumis left the room, I stared at the only other person here in this room. "Tiga, why do you want a kid like Kim to be here?" I am sweating, "She's a kid, why does it have to do with all this?" But Tiga did not let go of that big smile.

[...What the hell is happening?] Is the temple connected to Pucki somehow? Is Jshovenne somehow involved in all of this? 

[I feel like I'm gonna uncover something horrific.] My stomach is curling.

"I promised to tell you all about everything right?" She continues. "It seems that you're on the same side as that handsome monster, young monster, and powerful beauty that defeated me the night before right?" 

[She must mean Kumo, Itia, and Gabril.] It could only be them, so I nod.

"I knew it." She looks at me and rubs her forehead. "To be honest you're the most monstrous one I've met so far, Morus. I'm completely terrified of you. But I know that fear is good because I know you can take Pucki down. I'd rather be terrified with you than be happy with him." Tiga looks at me with complete determination.

"There's a reason why they tried to kill me, Morus. I'll tell you all." And then…

She lists them all.

"Why Pucki wanted this brothel so much."

"Okay then…" I'm intrigued.

"The cause of the recent string kidnappings."

"Wait, they're involved in that too?" That is extremely concerning.

"The hooded people adopting elf and beastmen orphans." 

"Hooded people...wait isn't that what Kim was shouting about?" 'Hooded bastards' she called them. 

[So this is why she's involved….shit.] But even this I don't have to process yet as the madness continues. 

"How the Chamberlain Jshovenne and Pucki are pulling all of this." 

"The worst fucking combination." I grit my teeth in anger knowing two of the people I hate are both working together. 

Then…

"How the Kurumi church is the reason behind all of this." 

This is what surprised me.

"What?!" My jaw dropped.

[Kurumi?! What the hell do they benefit from this?!] My brain is in scrambles.

But this is not even the final one.

Nope.

"And lastly..." She begins to tell and at the same time—

Knock! Knock!

"I'm here~" Soumis is back. "I brought little Kim with me here." 

"Hi..." Kim tells shyly.

But I did not even care right now.

"........" My mind was blank.

The knocking along with Soumis and Kim's voice overlapped with what Tiga had said.

I heard everything.

…

…

…

...

After a long and deafening silence. "...Can you tell me again?" I finally said something.

"Okay." Tiga sighs, and everyone listens. Including me.

Making sure everyone heard what she said.

"How one abandoned house up for sale is the nexus in all of this conspiracy."

•••

Back in the Starting Point Inn.

"Wooo! What a good night!" Marina stretches her arms high after cleaning one of the tables.

She looks around to see the tavern all empty now as the tavern service is about to close for tonight as the people that rented a room go upstairs and the rest leave with a full belly.

"Once again thank you all for your help during this night. We had great success thanks to you all. Itia, Gabril, Kumo, thank you." Marina bows.

"It is no problem Marina." Kumo response.

"Yes, it was fun tonight." Itia as well.

"It's tiring but I had a great time." Lastly, Gabril.

"Really, thank you—" But then…

A heavy hand landed on Marina's shoulders. "Hahaha no thanks for me?!" It's Leonon.

"I always thank you in my heart Leo, so it's no need." She shoo him off.

And then, "How about me!" It is the jolly Mary's turn.

"Well you kept playing with Itia and that Rudas girl instead of working!" Marina exaggerates her voice. "Otherwise you've been such a good girl lately Maria dear." She rubs her head.

"Ey! No fair what about me?!" Leonon pushes for equality afterwards and fails.

Right now the atmosphere is very bright and pleasant, with everyone getting along. But there is one crucial factor missing in this.

[[[Morus.]]]

Everyone is thinking about Morus.

[Sigh when will she be back…] Marina thought.

[It's almost time for bed now, and she still hasn't come back…] Marina looks at Leonon and both faces go red as they quickly avoid contact.

[Sigh, we're waiting for Morus to come back and have sex with the three of us…how immoral.] Marina quickly push this thought out of her mind as she grabs a broom and continues cleaning.

But then, eventually,

Ding!

The door ring opened and she came back.

"Morus—!" Marina immediately drops the broom and goes to meet her but she froze.

"Morus…?"

Morus's atmosphere is totally different right now.

"Morus-sama?"

"Mori-sama..."

"Mori-nee??"

"Mori-san…."

Everyone felt it too.

[She's terrifying right now…] Marina's legs can't move from the aura she's giving out.

And then, behind the scary Morus comes along three other people, one of them she recognizes.

"Soumis! It's you and the other two…?" One is an elven child with a similar hair color to Soumis, the other a beastmen with weird patterns all over her.

Then… "W-what—!" Kumo bursts in anger. "What did you do to Morus-sama…!" 

"Wait…!" Soumis immediately comes forward. "Morus has something to say!" And Kumo stops.

"..." Morus's eyes moved to look at Soumis before she finally spoke once more.

"All of you. Meet up." Morus said.

"What…?" Marina was confused.

"Meet up!" Morus shouts, and everyone listens.

"Everyone…" Soumis tries to explain to everyone. "Morus wants everyone to come together and explain the situation using the two girls behind me."

Everyone was confused, including Marina.

[So no sex tonight huh…]

Chaaruzu_Corner

hey everyone, me here! 6626 words. My god, I made another monster, and 666? Is this a coincidence or divine intervention? I dunno. But anyways wow! There has been a lot of eureka moments in this chapter. When I first started this one did you know that I was afraid that this chapter might be too short? :p hahahaha xD but yeah. I thought a lot of stuff like the Norkin and Garmann part, that was initially just filler the jump of Morus starting and finishing her operation of Tiga not so jarring. Like a jump cut before and after thing. But it became so much more xD I literally just thought of it on the spot, with no plan for it before I wrote it lol.

Ah the beauty of writing. It's really amazing sometimes xD but yeah. Everything in detail will be told next chapter, but you guys have been given the parts to the whole conspiracy in this one, so come up with your own theories ;) I'll love to read it ;P but yeah, what do you guys think of the conflict? Is it good? Bad? I wanna know :) but yeah. Arigatou and thank you so much! :3 :P ;D