After we left Lord Ravenscall's office, I couldn't help but let out a sigh. I can't believe that what we would have to do was investigate these disappearances. Something so vague. It also made me extremely unhappy that I would have to swallow my frustrations and interact with those rude people. When I voiced that to Alexius, he tried his best to reassure me.

“Don't worry! If need be, I will just talk with them every time. You don't have to deal with it if you don't want to.”

As tempting as that was, I have no intention of becoming a burden and get protected from everything, especially if it's just mental distress. I can deal with it.

“Don't worry. I will deal with whatever comes our way, even if I do really want to just leave these people to their own misfortunes. Why is it that we should help people who clearly don't want our presence here, let alone our help?”

Alexius looked slightly awkward when he replied.

“Well, according to Grace, daughter of Virtue, a good action need not be acknowledged, though a good man might. Also, we should not get ourselves caught up in how only those who are good to us need help, after all not being able to be good may sometimes mean that they might be in great need of help.”

I really like these kinds of conversations, I really do. But perhaps that wasn't the best moment for it. We really should get going and be done with this whole thing as fast as possible. However, before I could interrupt Alexius, Kardenon interjected.

“Okay, okay, I'm sure there are many interesting things that Virtue and Grace talked about, but we really should get started with this investigation, shouldn't we? Better to get started early, since although Lord Ravenscall said we could use this building as lodging, there would be no service, so we are going to have to do everything by ourselves.”

Nice one! Good arguments. I guess it really is better to have Kardenon with us. At first he seemed like this really dense guy that couldn't get any subtleties, but it seems like he's actually pretty good at it. Maybe he just needed some time to familiarize with us?Alexius' response, on the other hand, was pretty unbelievable.

“Oh, true, you're right. By the way, do you believe in the truth of Virtue and Grace, Kardenon?”

It's like my eyes almost popped out of its sockets. Why did he have to bring up such a topic? That was definitely not the time to talk about it.

“Alexius! This is not the time or place to discuss this! You just agreed that we should get going! Come on, let's go. Unbelievable, truly unbelievable!”

I put on my best look of reprimand. Alexius responded with the look of a puppy that just got denied a treat. Almost like a child that just said something incredibly foolish and after being told it was the case, cannot understand why.

“I... Okay, okay... Let's just go.”

We left the building, ready to ask around. Of course, we had to start with the two people who were most likely to somewhat cooperate with us: The two guards employed by Lord Ravenscall.

“Anything related to these disappearances these past few months? Can't say I have any idea. Shortly after they were recognized as this regular thing, the Lord ordered us to stay only around his house and protect his family. He also said no investigation was needed. I'm not going to complain and disobey him, he's the one paying me, not the people and he gets enough backtalk from these people, so I don't think I should be insubordinate. Have you heard anything Hans? You're the one who frequently goes to the tavern.”

The other guard chuckled at that.

“Hah! Good one, Frederick, you know that nobody wants to talk to one of the lord's loyal dogs. It's almost a wonder that the tavern owner accepts my money at all.”

I had to resist my first reflex of feeling outraged. How could a noble abandon his people like that and prioritize merely his own family in such a brazen manner? But then, I remembered the attitude of the people in this town. Even though it doesn't seem to be such a poor place, there seems to be something fundamentally broken about Ravensguard. We decided to ask Hans for the location of this tavern he frequented, as it would probably be a good place to gather information.

Sure enough, at the tavern we did get some information, albeit mixed with a healthy dose of contempt and rudeness, although by the time we went there I suppose I was slightly more accustomed to it. I don't think that's the kind of think I want to get accustomed to...

“Oh, so it seems the great lord of this town finally wants to do something about these kidnappings, huh? And I see he's got some better dressed dogs this time. Huh, strange, he talks about not having anything, yet he got to hire people like you. Very strange.”

Alexius did his best fake smile and responded with a slight hint of threatening undertones.

“Whatever business we might have with Lord Ravenscall is none of your business, now, if you have anything useful to tell me, I would appreciate it, if not, then I will just ask someone else and be done with you.”

The man didn't look all that happy with that response.

“Well, you're such a well dressed guy, probably really wealthy, right? Maybe if you could share a bit, then I might start feeling talkative.”

Oh no, that's probably the worst kind of attitude to have with Alexius. When we learned together about the stories of Virtue and of his daughter, Grace, Alexius always seemed to react the most to the stories that depicted greedy people. He took the man by the collar and pushed him onto the table, he looked quite surprised. The people around were shocked. It was rare to hear Alexius talk with such a threatening voice.

“Look. We are mostly doing this to help people like you, you're not doing me a favor by talking about these things to me. Do you have a family? A wife, kids? If not, then a mother, siblings? Do you think that keeping them exposed to the danger of disappearing is worth trying to get a few coins from me? Have you no decency?”

It was clear that some men around wanted to approach and attack, or at least grab Alexius. However, Kardenon was doing a good job of looking menacing and keeping them off Alexius' back. I hadn't realized it, but I was holding one of my projection talismans.

“Okay, okay! Fine, geez, upright, aren't you? Must be good to have enough money to talk down on people for asking for it.” For a moment, it felt like Alexius would punch the man, but he didn't. “I've got a pretty good memory of who has gone missing, if any of you well-educated folks can write, I suppose I can provide a list of who's gone missing and who are their immediate relatives.”

That was actually really good information. It did end up costing the tavern keeper asking us to not come back, but who cares, why would I ever want to go back to that seedy looking place. I swear, once we are done with this, I don't want to ever come back to this stupid town in the middle of nowhere.