The fight—if it could even be called that—ended in seconds. Just a few strikes with my blade and the group of disorganized, leaderless, and barely-awake slavers were taken care of.

  Then, I scavenged the whole camp for supplies, clean clothes, and anything worth taking. I released the hostages, removed their chains, fed them, and gave them a change of clothes. There were twelve young people here; most were women, with only three men. Once they were fed and wearing appropriate clothing, I slowly led them out of the forest back toward the place where I had my horse tied down.

  As I untied the horse and we reached the road, a large, empty coach heading toward the city stopped in front of us. A coachman—a man in his forties, looking very average, one of those types you would never notice in a crowd or on the street—spoke with a practiced smile.

  “Greetings! Did something happen?” he asked, pointing at the saved hostages who were limping and helping each other out of the forest, looking beaten and haggard.

  “I saved them from an illegal slave ring. We need to go to the city so that they can have the fake slave crests removed. What are you doing here with an empty coach at this hour?” I asked, curious to see a lone coach on the road in the middle of the night.

  “I was just returning to the city when I saw...”

  “LIE! He is lying, Vic!” Alrune's voice sounded in my head.

  In that second, my face turned serious. I started to unsheathe my blade as I spoke, advancing toward the coachman. “What are you really doing here?”

  Seeing me advance, the coachman just cursed under his breath, “Shit!” and right after that, he disappeared in a puff of black smoke. The hostages stepped back, even more scared and worried about what was happening now. Seeing him vanish and the worry written all over the villagers' faces, I stopped and whispered, “What the fuck is going on here?”

  I quickly scanned the area around us, making sure nobody else was there. Just in case it was meant to be some kind of ambush, but there was nothing. Not even a sign of people ever having been there. The whole thing was confusing. First, the feeling of being watched, then the weird man bumping into me in the restaurant, and now this. There was definitely something fishy going on.

  I took a moment to calm down, then had all the hostages climb into the abandoned coach. I tied the horse to the back of it and rode toward the city.

  “Thanks, Alrune!” I whispered.

  “No need to thank me, Vic. It’s a shame he ran away; I would love to know what is going on here. Too many weird things are happening too fast to not be related.”

  I nodded. “Exactly my thoughts! But why would somebody do all that?”

  Neither I nor Alrune had an answer. We just rode in silence.

  Once we passed the gate, I parked the coach in front of the stable where I’d rented the horse and asked about it. The response was surprising: the coach had actually been rented out by someone from them not even an hour after I’d left the city. It was creeping me out. Somebody most likely waited the entire time just to initiate contact. But why? What was their goal?

  Since there was no way to answer my questions yet, I left both the coach and my rented horse at the stable and led the group of villagers to the guardhouse. I made sure the guards would handle everything from this point, I handed over both books, and left behind a note for the Guard Captain, asking him to take me with him if he was going to arrest the person helping the slavers.

  With that done, I went home to sleep.

  I wasn't even done with my late breakfast, after a decent sleep, when somebody knocked on my door. The Captain of the Guard stood at my door. One of my maids led him in, and he spoke.

  “Greetings. You asked me to involve you when I went to arrest the co-conspirator from the city?”

  “Greetings. Yes, I did. Are we going?”

  “Not now, but today after nightfall. Be at the western gate to the Academy District at ten tonight, if you want to come!”

  I nodded. “Sure, I will be there! How are the victims?”

  “All good! Those snakes at the Slaver’s Guild removed the fake crests from them and we drove them home. They should already be with their families.”

  I nodded, smiling. “Good! Did the books help?”

  “The trade ledger did. It helped us pinpoint the trajectory they used to move the victims, and we already sent warnings to guards in target cities, so we should be all good on that front. As for the other book—that was even better. Baron Gobley, the person mentioned as ‘the boss’ in the book, is a wealthy baron here in the city we've had our sights on him for a long time. But we had no proof, just suspicions. With the book, we can search his mansion and do a crest-check on all of his slaves. I am sure this will take him off the street for a while.”

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  Before, I had just skimmed the book to identify it, not looking for names. But hearing the name Baron Gobley, I froze. There were two reasons for my shock. Firstly, he was a character in the novel, as was his daughter, Jacqueline Gobley. She was one of the core members of the main character’s harem, and Baron Gobley was one of his main benefactors—he basically funded his rise. Secondly, I’d met him a few times at the orphanage when he was there with his daughter helping kids.

  Hearing that he had his fingers deep in the illegal slave trade and even owned slaves was news to me. In the novel, he was depicted as a nice guy—always smiling, always helpful, not a villain. Either the novel got it wrong, or something changed.

  “He owns slaves?” I asked, caught off guard.

  “Not officially; he never bought anybody from the Slaver’s Guild. But he has more than twenty different servants in his mansion and no contracts with the Servant Guild. How many people do you think do maid or butler business in this city without registering? Why? Do you happen to know him?”

  “Seen him a few times around the orphanage. Philanthropist, very active in the Healing Heart Orphanage—paying for like five kids there right now!”

  “Oh, I forgot! You are pretty involved with the orphanage too. You have little Selah there, don’t you?”

  “You can say that.”

  “Yes, he is very much involved in all kinds of charity around the city. Not sure why; maybe he wants to look good to people?”

  I spent a moment thinking about it and realized what was most likely going on. The Baron had one giant weakness: his daughter. Maybe she was the one who liked to do the charity, and he just nodded to everything she wanted, just as he did in the book.

  We ended up chatting for a while longer, and then the Captain left. I relaxed for the rest of the day, deciding to just wait and join him during the night.

  When the time came, I slowly walked up to the meeting place where the Captain, a large group of guards, and a person from the Slaver’s Guild already stood. The guy from the guild was here to check the crests. From there, the group proceeded swiftly, and not even fifteen minutes later, we were kicking down the door at the Gobley mansion.

  Just a few minutes later, guards lined all the servants up in one room and isolated the Baron with his daughter in another. The Guard Captain stepped up and spoke.

  “Gobley, we know that you own illegal slaves. The representative from the Slaver’s Guild already told us that much. And that’s not all—they even had forbidden crests enforcing absolute obedience! There is no way you will wiggle your way out of this one! So speak. Did she know about that?”

  The Captain pointed to the half-collapsed, crying daughter of the Baron. The Baron visibly panicked and started shaking his head pleadingly.

  “Please, don’t drag her into this! She knew nothing about the slaves! Just leave her be!”

  The Captain looked at him, not sure what to trust. Meanwhile, Alrune spoke in my head, matter-of-factly. “It’s truth!”

  Hearing her, I spoke up. “May I, Captain?” He turned to me and nodded his head, signaling for me to speak. “He is speaking the truth, I am sure of it!”

  Trusting me, the Captain gestured for me to continue.

  “Why did you help the slavers?”

  “I wanted nice and obedient maids...”

  “LIE!” spoke Alrune.

  “Bullshit! Speak the truth!” I reacted quickly.

  “I had gambling debts—big ones. From the time when my wife died. I long since stopped, but the debts were still there. They told me that if I helped cover the slave trade, they would erase them. Then they blackmailed me to do more, to fund their mercenaries once I put my finances back together. They even forced me to employ those slaves as an insurance policy!” spoke the Baron, visibly giving up. This time Alrune didn’t even have to speak for me to know this was the truth.

  “Who are ‘they’?”

  The Baron’s face changed to pure fear as he shook his head. “I can’t tell you that. T-they would harm her.”

  I sighed. “We will take care of her,” I said, trying to calm him down.

  “No, you don’t understand who you are dealing with! They would harm her! I can’t help you!”

  “On my honor as Guard Captain of this city, I guarantee no harm will come to your daughter!”

  “That’s nice, but I can’t risk it. She is all I have!”

  I decided to try something. “You don’t have to speak. I bet you are hiding something here in the house that would speak for you.”

  The Baron’s head, eyes filled with fear, snapped to me with lightning speed.

  “You got him!” chuckled Alrune.

  “So it is hidden here! Where would you hide it, Baron? Where?” The Baron watched me like a hawk, his muscles tensed. “How about one of the bedrooms?” The Baron didn’t react at all, just kept looking. “Then how about the basement?” Still stoic. “I see, so it is your study?”

  “There is nothing in this house! Just take me to prison already! I did it, so take me away!” Retorted Baron quickly.

  “Hit! His face twitched, he is getting desperate. It’s going to be easier to read him.” she spoke, her voice playful.

  “So it’s the study. Captain, let’s go there, and please take the Baron with us!”

  The Captain nodded, and we all moved to the study. Once there, I continued. “So, where would you hide it? Is it in your desk?” No reaction. “In one of those books?” I pointed to a giant bookcase filled with books. I could see his twitch, but before I could think too much about it.

  “Bullshit! This one was fake!” sounded in my head from Alrune.

  “Nice try, Baron Gobley, nice try! So where is it, then? Some hidden room?”

  “You have him! He reacted again!” Spoke Alrune, enjoying the hot and cold game very much.

  “Cap, there is an entrance to a hidden room here somewhere. Could you please have your men look for it?”

  The Baron paled. He fell down to his knees and pointed to a small bust of his daughter in the corner of the room. “Turn her head left!”

  “Thank you, Baron Gobley!” I spoke and did exactly that. The next second, a bookcase slid to the side, revealing a small area with a metal cabinet. The Captain of the Guard approached and found everything: proof of the blackmail, names, dates, places, what they requested, who they threatened, and how the Baron helped.

  “This will do! With this, you will still have to stay behind bars for some time, but your daughter and your fortune will remain intact and you will get to return to it in a few years. I promise you that I will have your daughter guarded day in, day out. Nothing will happen to her!” He turned to me. "We'll take it from here. Good work, Victor."

  I left the mansion and stepped into the cool night air. One problem solved. But the coachman, the man in the restaurant, the feeling of being watched—those were still out there.

  Whoever's circling me, they're not done yet.