It collapsed inward and Chad was completely unscathed. It wouldn't have hurt him even if he didn't jump back but it was weird. Upon closer inspection, I found a few spears and a weird contraption mixed in with the rubble. A trap?

"I heard the noise of a gear turning, a harsh metallic grating noise when I touched the doorknob. The dead shouted that I should run so I jumped back, but it ended being nothing," said Chad.

"Nothing? This was a trap. You could've gotten skewered by these spears if you hadn't jumped back," I responded.

"Look at how rusty this crap is. It's extremely old and it failed. Any more traps we might find will probably be the same. There's nothing to worry about."

"Extremely old? Then is this place even worth checking out? This place is cracking up to be more of a haunted mansion than a lordly manor."

"Hey, this place is not haunted. I would be able to tell if that was true. Actually, a haunted mansion would be great as we might be able to get some cool stuff to channel and help us."

"Shouldn't we go back to town and ask a local for directions. The lord obviously isn't here."

"Who cares if he is here or not. Let's go explore. If the lord is here, then great. If not, we can always go with your backup plan. If we go back and this ends up being the lord's manor then that means we wasted our time."

It seemed pointless to reason with him. He was dead set on exploring this mansion set up to make him dead. I couldn't see this as the lord's manor anymore. All I could do was just go along with him. After all, we were short on members ever since I got in that dispute with Claris. Hopefully, this ends up being worthwhile.

"Too much rubble to get through this way. We'll have to look for another entrance. Any suggestions?" asked Chad.

I looked around and found a few ways to get in. One was a balcony on the second floor that could be reached by climbing some vines. Another was a hatch on the ground that probably led to some sort of basement. And finally, we could always go around the building to look for alternate entrances. Honestly, I felt like climbing the vines up to the second floor was the safest option. Other entrances were likely to have traps and going into the basement seemed like a bad idea.

"Let's climb those vines and enter through the balcony," I said while walking towards the vines.

"Sounds good to me. However, how are you and Foa going to get up? You're crippled and Foa is a fox," Chad said.

"I can always give it a try and Foa doesn't need to come along."

Chad shrugged and slung his staff and Geld's bow behind his back. Then he grabbed one of the vines and started climbing. The vine held his weight and he didn't struggle with climbing. While he was climbing, Foa jumped onto his shoulders and stood above his head while he climbed. Chad didn't seem too impeded by this and halfway up, Foa jumped onto the railing of the second-floor balcony. From there, it looked down at Ralph as though it was mocking him and proving his previous statement wrong.

I walked up to the vines and tried to think of a way to climb it. I couldn't do it with one arm nor could I throw away Adrian's staff. Would it be worth setting it down just so we could enter from a spot that was less likely to be a trap?

"Just throw the staff up to me and try climbing up with both your arms free," said Chad while climbing over the railing onto the balcony.

Why didn't I think of that? I threw Adrian's staff up and Chad caught it. Then, I took the vine with both hands and slowly pulled on it to shift my weight onto it before I started climbing. Right when I was about to lift my feet and started scaling up, the vine broke and fell to the ground beside me. It appeared that I was too heavy for that vine. Risking other vines would probably just end up with me falling to the ground as they snap halfway.

"I'll just find another way in. Go on without me," I said.

"Do you need Adrian's staff?" asked Chad while waving the staff.

I looked at my unbalanced peg leg and my slumped posture. It would be a good idea to keep using the staff as a crutch until I got used to it or got a better peg leg. However, how was I supposed to ever get used to it if I relied on a crutch. This wasn't the time, though. My time was better spent staying stable and alive.

"Yes, throw it down. Without it, I won't be able to move properly," I said.

"Whatever," said Chad as he dropped the staff and headed into the manor with Foa.

I caught the staff and then searched around the place. I did not want to go down into the basement. Thankfully, there was an entrance in the back of the house. When I opened the door, there was a weird fizzing noise but nothing happened. A failed trap. Inside, there was a plain looking room with two doors leading deeper into the building. I had to choose one of them.

It didn't really matter so I opened one of them at random and it led to absolutely nothing. There wasn't even another door to go through. Next was the other door I hadn't opened. When I started walking towards that door, I heard a strange noise. It sounded like hurried footsteps above me. Was Chad running around upstairs? I needed to find a way up there.

The next door opened up to a room full of brown leather sacks and a ladder leading to the next floor. Should I stop and check the sacks or climb the ladder and reunite with my comrades? While considering this, a series of strange sounds rang out from above.

More footsteps, a whizzing noise, and then coughing and slamming noises. I had no idea what the hell was going on. My comrades could be dying up there. I didn't have time to waste on checking sacks; I started climbing up the ladder. It was a bit inconvenient to grip with my peg leg, but three limbs were more than enough to climb a ladder. As I climbed up, I saw a strange smoke start to wisp down towards me. I closed my eyes and held my breath as I climbed up.

When I reached the top, I opened my eyes to see Chad and Foa lying on the ground around me, motionless. I felt my fingers and toes get a bit numb while my eyes started to water. Were they dead? No, I saw their chests heaving up and down, breathing. Ahead of me was the person who brought them to this state. A man wearing wealthy clothes. He was sweating and staring at me as if he wanted to swallow me. He was hostile and somewhat panicked.

There was this feeling that clicked in my mind. This was him, the tyrant. All I had to do was kill him and this would all be over. His eyes darted from me and the ladder I just came from. I made sure to stand over the ladder while looking around for other exits. There didn't seem to be any other than the ones behind me. The tyrant was trapped. I pulled out my axe and tried to intimidate the tyrant.

"You dare!" shouted the tyrant while unsheathing a sword and charging at me.

I tried dodging to the side but he managed to graze my arm, drawing blood but not doing much damage. In response, I swung my axe and hit him in the side. Due to my awkward footing, it didn't go too deep but it was bleeding badly. The tyrant backed off and put pressure on the wound. His face went pale from the thought of dying.

"Why? What did I do to deserve this? Who hired you to kill me? I may have done some bad things but not enough to warrant an assassination," said the tyrant.

"The gods themselves hired us. As for why, you'll have to ask them when you meet them. Then again, the wording was defeat so I don't have to kill you necessarily," I responded.

"That's crazy. Do you realize what you're saying? The gods themselves? Are you one of those extremists?"

"No. I don't like what I'm doing at all. If I don't do this, I'll either die or get haunted by nightmares. This is all too real. Think. What could you have done to reach the gods’ attention?"

"The attention of the gods? Well, I've skimped on going to services quite a bit. I've also acted mostly out of self-interest. I fired my entire servant staff and keep guards away from my manor out of paranoia. Oh, and I've blackmailed every family in the city that's connected to important people or guards so they won't ever betray me. Not that it worked, a resistance formed from the people I was blackmailing. Thankfully, they just complain about me in supposedly secret meetings and don't do anything."

"So, you're not going to wipe out this resistance?"

"Why would I? I've got dirt on all of them that would make them sooner tear each other to shreds than attack me."

"This blackmailing is messed up. That's probably why we were supposed to defeat you. I don't feel like killing you over something so minor. Could you drop your weapon so we can talk things out and we can get your wound healed."

The tyrant dropped his sword and sat down. He shivered in pain from his wound and looked towards me with fear. Tyrant wasn't the proper term for him. Misguided or corrupt was better. I kicked the sword away and then prodded Chad with Adrian's staff. He stirred and made strange noises as his body twitched a bit. Other than that, he seemed just fine.

A few minutes later, Chad was up and healing the misguided lord/tyrant by channeling Adrian's staff. Whatever that stuff was that knocked him out still affected him as he swayed back and forth during the treatment. Foa was still twitching on the floor, her smaller body making the effects last longer for her. I got up and decided to check out the sacks below the ladder in the meantime.

"Wait! Where are you going?" asked the misguided lord/tyrant.

"I saw some strange sacks down below. I'm going to go check them out since I'm curious about their contents," I responded.

"Please don't. Those are my possessions."

"What sort of possessions," cut in Chad with a slight slur to his voice.

"The town's treasury and all my blackmail material," said the misguided lord/tyrant.

To be honest, I felt the temptation to loot that room, but I decided not to. Robbing the treasury would be nice, but it'd hurt the town. As for the blackmail material, it should be destroyed. The town might go through an unstable period from the disappearance of the blackmail, but it'd be for the best.

"Once you're done healing lead us down there and point out the blackmail material. We're going to destroy it all to remove this fear of blackmail in the town. Then, we can work on your paranoia issue. If you keep blackmailing everyone, a real assassin might come along and kill you," I said.

"All of it?" the misguided lord/tyrant frowned.

"By the way, why the hell is the town's treasury in a barely guarded building with broken traps," asked Chad.

The misguided lord/tyrant started to say, "Broken? What are you talking about? These traps were made by Vel, the best craftsman in town. Everything he's made for me has been perfect despite the fact that he—"

A voice from outside the building interrupted Lord Brandon.