Chapter 1

Drifting in and out with the morning wind, the acrid stench of charred pine filled Andrei’s nostrils. Well away from their destination, he could already imagine the sight that would greet him at the end of their walk along the winding stream. Still, upon making the final bend, Andrei sighed as he confirmed his suspicions.

“That’s three now.”

His companion said nothing, and Andrei stepped up to the base of the burned-out mill. He reached out and broke off a piece of its blackened frame, and it crumbled between his fingers. Another sigh filled the air.

“Proceed with the investigation.”

Andrei shot a look over his shoulder.

“I already know where this trail will lead us, Sanju.”

“How?”

“…how?” Andrei raised a brow at the Elder Lich, “It should be obvious by now. The first two ended up the same way.”

“This is an unacceptable leap in logic,” Sanju said. “Investigative processes must be handled with due diligence.”

“Call it intuition,” Andrei replied. “I’m a Ranger, after all.”

“I see.”

Andrei rolled his eyes. Most people held at least some reservations about trusting in the pseudo-mystical skills that came with certain vocations, but the Sorcerous Kingdom’s servitors were the exact opposite. They shrugged off any attempts at reasoning around their stringent procedures, save for when you mentioned the pseudo-mystical skills that most people held in suspicion. Andrei was a Ranger, and Rangers could track – that was the end of it.

He went around the ruined mill, double-checking for any attempts to cover a trail or create false leads. As expected, there were none, and as expected, the trail of their suspect led back down, following the path that they had taken up to the site. There were no attempts at concealment, not even with the stream right next to the muddy trail: whoever it was just walked straight back down to the village below the mill without a care in the world.

I bet they even tracked mud straight to their bed.

Villagers scattered when Andrei and Sanju came out of the woods and into plain view. The residents of the quiet lumber village rarely saw the Undead and were far from being used to them. The county at large, for that matter, was still not used to them. The Undead security forces mandated for their territory were kept away and out of sight, and the nobles were still trying to figure out how to juggle their populations so that Undead labour could be employed.

Even in Crosston, the capital of the County, the Undead sentries were kept inside their posts for fear of startling the citizens and any merchant traffic coming in from Re-Estize. Merchants had their own brand of bravery, but that bravery did not include braving the presence of Death Knights. It was all well and good to have them out in the open in E-Rantel, where the merchants had invested too many days of travel to turn around without taking significant financial losses, but Crosston was the first town across the border.

The sound of a woman’s angry shouting filled the air, and a door nearby was thrown open. A harried man in his smallclothes was unceremoniously ejected from a wattle-and-daub cottage, and a pair of mud-caked boots flew out after him. They struck him in the back and sent flakes of dirt into the air.

“That’s our man, but…” he held up his hand to stay Sanju’s advance, “but! Let me talk to him first. He’s not going anywhere.”

Andrei came forward with an easy air towards the man wincing and rubbing the marks on his back.

“Damn woman,” the man muttered, “as if I’m…oh gods…”

The man paled as Andrei approached. He fell onto his rear as his legs gave out on him.

Andrei stole a glance to his rear. Sure enough, Sanju was right there.

“Good morning,” Andrei turned back to greet the man with a friendly smile, “we’ve come from Crosston, mister…”

“V-Verne,” the man stammered. “Robert Verne.”

Verne…

It was a pretty common name for someone living in a lumber village in a former territory of Re-Estize. There was no reason to suspect anything about him. That was Andrei’s thought, at any rate. Sanju would probably insist that they check with the government registry to ‘confirm the existence of one Robert Verne’.

“Well met, Mister Verne,” Andrei held out a hand to pull him back up. “We just have a few questions we’d like to ask about the fire.”

The man started to tremble. His mouth worked as he shook his head silently.

“Relax,” Andrei caught him as he was about to fall again, “I have a pretty good idea of what happened. We just need you to confirm things…you should probably get dressed first, though.”

Robert looked down at his state of undress and scurried back into his house. The woman’s shouts drifted out of the window again. After several minutes, he reappeared: looking rather dishevelled but mostly intact. The man shifted nervously, clutching a straw hat in front of him.

“Sanju here will be taking your statement,” Andrei explained in calm tones. “He’ll be using a spell that’ll prove that you’re not lying. Do you understand?”

The man looked fearfully at Sanju. He audibly swallowed before slowly nodding.

“Resistance is illegal,” Sanju said as it stepped before Robert Verne, “and will be punished to the full extent of the law.”

What little amount of courage Robert had worked up visibly crumbled away. The villagers that dared to look out from the buildings around them watched on with worried looks.

Am I allowed to put an arrow into this idiot? He’s not going to be able to resist you anyways…

The Elder Liches probably didn’t say anything like this out of malice. It was simply a statement of fact, and they didn’t care what others thought about what they said. That didn’t help the person that they were speaking to, however – or anyone within earshot. Sanju raised a bony hand.

“「Charm Person」.”

Robert Verne’s eyes dulled as the enchantment washed over him. His expression turned affable as he looked Sanju full in its skeletal visage. The Elder Lich produced a pen and clipboard.

“Robert Verne,” Sanju asked, “did you set fire to the newly-constructed mill?”

“Yes,” he replied, “I did.”

The scratching of the Elder Lich’s pen filled the air. In the wake of Robert’s reply, it was a condemning sound.

“For what purpose did you do this?”

“A friend told me to, so I did it.”

“Who told you to set fire to the mill?”

“I…I don’t know,” Robert seemed to struggle with himself. “I got up out of bed to set the mill on fire, then went back to bed right away.”

Yep, this again…

The other two incidents followed the same pattern. Andrei clapped the man hard on the shoulder, and he flinched.

“The feeling from the spell just now,” Andrei asked, “was it the same as what happened last night?”

Robert remained silent for a moment, frowning at the question.

“Yes,” he replied. “Yes, it’s just the same.”

Andrei looked over at Sanju, who nodded once after it finished writing.

“It’s just like we thought,” Andrei said. “Thank you for your cooperation, Mister Verne – you’re free to go.”

The man nodded and turned away, walking back into his house on unsteady steps. Shouting filled the air again, and his boots flew out the window.

Shaking his head, Andrei walked towards the village entrance with Sanju. Along the way, he eyed the villagers hidden around them.

See? The scary Elder Lich didn’t hurt anyone…

They didn’t come back out. Not that he expected them to.

A good kilometre away from the village, Andrei stopped to speak with Sanju. Sunlight filtered through the forest canopy, sending streams of light down on the unpaved lumber road.

“I’d say third time’s the charm,” Andrei said, “but it’d end up being a bad pun.”

“Charm was used in all three incidents,” Sanju replied.

Andrei’s lips tightened at the typically humourless reply. He looked up, tapping a hand against his leg.

Charm and Domination spells were used in investigations conducted by the Sorcerous Kingdom’s authorities. It enabled them to take statements without worry over whether a witness or suspect would lie. The new legislation did help quite a bit, but, as they quickly learned, Charm and Domination-type spells had a number of weaknesses.

Simply put, those under its effects only knew what they knew. The three cases that they had investigated were an annoying combination of the two.

Those who had been charmed remembered everything that happened while they were charmed. They also understood that they had been charmed. The three suspects they had tracked down admitted to their deeds, but also knew that they had been charmed in order to commit those deeds. What they didn’t know was who charmed them, or why. Like Robert Verne, they had been charmed unawares – either in their sleep or by someone that they could not see or identify – then sent to do their dirty work.

“There isn’t some convenient spell that can stop all of this, is there?” Andrei asked.

“There are spells that defend against mind-affecting spells and abilities,” Sanju answered. “But they must be on the target.”

“Spells and abilities?” Andrei frowned, “Are you saying that our culprit could even be some sort of monster?”

“It is not impossible,” Sanju replied, “but monsters hostile to the Sorcerous Kingdom’s subjects are suppressed when detected.”

What about all the other monsters?

Andrei reminded himself that they were subjects of the Sorcerous Kingdom now. Be they Humans, Demihumans or Monsters, all were allowed to live in peace as long as they obeyed the laws of the realm. He wondered what Lord Völkchenheim would do about his future kids’ coming-of-age ceremony. Something like that wasn’t needed anymore, he supposed.

“So there’s no way to prevent this before it happens,” he said, “unless we know it’s going to happen in advance.”

“Correct. A ‘lucky guess’ is also possible.”

‘Possible’ my ass.

There were over forty thousand Human subjects in Völkchenheim County, and there was no discernable pattern to the movement of their culprit or even a specific area that they were operating in. For the last three weeks, they had been chasing this mysterious villain all over the place. He half expected that there were incidents in other territories as well.

“Has anything like this happened in Jezne County yet?”

“Yet?”

“Yes, yet. Whoever is doing this is moving around unimpeded. Unless they have some reason to target this territory in particular, they’ll eventually pop up elsewhere.”

Except for Zahradnik Barony. Rumour had it that the place’s security was absurd. Doing the same thing in Völkchenheim County was impossible, however – it was easy to keep watch over a thousand subjects in a handful of locations, but forty thousand was another problem altogether. They didn’t have the resources to secure the thousands of potential targets spread out over the land.

“I will contact my colleagues in Jezne County,” Sanju said.

“Just make sure they don’t start turning the place inside out on a mere suspicion,” Andrei said. “We’ll be back to how things were in the spring if that happens.”

Sanju raised a hand to the side of its head.

“Eh? You’re doing it now?”

The Elder Lich merely started to stroll down the road, engaged in some distant conversation. Andrei could only shake his head as they made their way back to the meadow where he had left his horse.

Things had been peaceful since the annexation of the Duchy of E-Rantel, but Andrei couldn’t say it had been uneventful. It had taken a month for things to return to a semblance of normalcy.

Early in the spring, Völkchenheim County was extremely small for a county; its past with House Fassett having reduced it to a mere two baronies. At the same time, the collapse of the border territories pushed House Völkchenheim into a role that it was ill-suited for. Everything changed when House Fassett was abruptly dissolved and the remaining territories in the west consolidated under the Völkchenheim title.

The Sorcerous Kingdom truly did not care for tradition or even the web of relationships between the former nobles of Re-Estize. Everything was thrown into chaos, with the Royal Court looming over their heads expecting the young Lord Völkchenheim to deliver the Sorcerer King’s new order. There were suddenly three barons in his court when House Völkchenheim had had none for the last two generations, and he inherited a land in disarray.

Crosston, his new capital, sat at the crossroads of four baronies. Though nowhere near in as terrible a state as Fassett County, it was still bad. To make things worse, the Royal Court was using Corelyn County as a measuring stick for every fief in the duchy. From the outset, it was plainly obvious no one could come even close to that monster. All they could do was keep their heads down, work hard, and hope that they didn’t disintegrate overnight like Fassett County.

Through sheer, desperate effort, they managed to stay ahead of the executioner’s axe, or whatever was used in the Sorcerous Kingdom. Not everything was terrible, though.

Over the months, as the minimum standards of order expected of them by the Royal Court were established, Count Völkchenheim established a rapport with both his new noble vassals and subjects alike. In a time filled with depression, uncertainty and anxiety over the future, his conscientious, positive attitude that might have been seen in other times as soft and foolishly optimistic won the hearts of his people. Now, as stability settled over Völkchenheim County, a wedding was soon to take place: between Count Torkel Völkchenheim and Adelia Allard, the younger sister of Baroness Allard.

Andrei couldn’t say that the timing of the incidents was bad, as they had first started three weeks previous, but it cast a dark cloud over an otherwise joyous event. He owed his current happy marriage to the late Count Völkchenheim, so he felt obliged to ensure that the late count’s son – Torkel Völkchenheim – could find his own happiness too.

Sanju lowered its hand, indicating that its silent correspondence had ended.

“What did you find out?” Andrei asked.

“There have been no similar incidents reported outside of Völkchenheim County,” the Elder Lich replied. “I have also received a number of suggestions.”

“Oh? Let’s hear them.”

“Round up every magic caster in the territory and investigate them all.”

“That…that won’t work,” Andrei waved his hand. “It’s impossible. We don’t even know who our magic casters are. While it’s true that professional mages register with the Magician Guild, Charm Person is a First Tier spell. Any dabbler in the arcane arts can learn it. Bards can do something similar with Spellsong, and some Divine casters can use charm spells as well…not to mention all the things that live here now that might have the ability to do that sort of thing.”

Undaunted by the rejection, Sanju carried on.

“Cordon off the constituent territories and restrict movement, then wait for the perpetrator to act.”

“They won’t. They’ll just stop if we do something so heavy-handed. All we’ll do is disrupt our industry and merchant traffic. We need something that doesn’t harm us more than it does them.”

“In that case, there is a…floating order,” Sanju said.

Andrei turned to look at the Elder Lich. It wasn’t often that hesitation entered its voice.

“A floating order?”

“Perhaps it would be better to describe it as a pending order. One to be exercised when the opportunity presents itself.”

“That sounds awfully convenient.”

“Relative to our standard procedures, it is irregular,” Sanju told him, “but it is there nonetheless. The order itself has been issued with His Majesty’s approval.”

“After hearing that, I’m not sure whether I’m more curious or worried,” Andrei sighed. “What is this ‘order’, exactly?”

“Baroness Zahradnik may be summoned to investigate any incidents in Völkchenheim County.”

The sound of Andrei’s boots over the road came to a stop.

“That’s a joke, right?”

“The administration’s orders are not jokes.”

“You do realize that the last time Baroness Zahradnik went to ‘investigate’ something, an entire county ceased to exist, right?”

“I am aware. The report was quite educational.”

Educational? He wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

“Let’s continue our own investigation for now,” Andrei said. “Maybe we’ll figure something else out, or this criminal will slip up on their own.”