Chapter 146 - 145: Survivor

Chapter 146: Chapter 145: Survivor

As he spoke, he took a dark, lumpy object from inside his clothes, his hands trembling.

"Lords of the... of the Blood Axe Gang, please spare me! I... All I have on me... is this..."

’Blood Axe Gang?’ Hesia mulled over the name. ’Sounds like a group of bandits.’

"We’re not bandits." He slightly adjusted the orb of light in his hand, making the glow gentler so it no longer shone directly into the man’s eyes. "We’re Adventurers passing through, just investigating something."

Hearing this, the vagrant looked up, his expression a mixture of shock and suspicion. His gaze swept over Zoya, dagger in hand, then fell on Bruce, who stood to the side baring his teeth and letting out a low growl. The fear in the man’s eyes only intensified.

"Ad... Adventurers?" he muttered, as if recalling some unpleasant memory. "More Adventurers..."

"How long have you been living here?" Hesia asked, motioning for Zoya to put away her dagger and giving Bruce a look to quiet him down.

Seeing that Hesia and his companions truly seemed to mean no harm, the vagrant relaxed slightly, but his body remained pressed firmly against the wall.

"A few... a few years now. Ever... ever since everyone in town ran off, I’ve been living here."

"Ran off?" Hesia seized on the key piece of information. "Why? This place looks to be a decent size—it could almost be considered a small town. Why was it abandoned?"

"The Blood Axe Gang... It was the work of the Blood Axe Gang!"

RUMBLE...

His stomach rumbled, and he swayed on his feet, whether from hunger or agitation, it was hard to tell.

Hesia saw him staring at the dark lump in his hand and took a partially eaten meat pie from his pack, offering it to him.

"Eat something first. Take your time. We want to know what happened here."

The aroma of meat filled the air, and the vagrant’s murky eyes nearly bulged from their sockets.

He snatched the meat pie, shot Hesia a wary glance, and then began to tear into it like a wolf, swallowing chunks without even bothering to chew.

Hesia was worried the man might choke to death.

"Slow down. Here’s some water," Hesia said, handing him a waterskin.

After a few bites of the pie and a few swallows of water, the vagrant’s taut nerves seemed to loosen a bit.

He slowly slid down the wall to a sitting position and began his story in fits and starts.

"This place... it used to be called Shadow Split Town. And this estate is Shadow Split Manor, home of the town’s Baron."

"One night, a few years ago, the Blood Axe Gang suddenly stormed the town. They pillaged the manor, killed the Baron and his family, and then... then they looted and burned the entire town to the ground..."

"Everyone who survived fled, and this is what became of the place."

"Pillaged by a gang of bandits?" Hesia frowned. "Didn’t the Baron organize the Guards to fight back?"

"The Guards?" Deep fear filled the vagrant’s eyes. "I don’t know why, but that night, the Guards didn’t show up right away! By the time the Blood Axe Gang stormed the manor, all I saw was... was a bald man carrying a giant axe! He smashed the manor gates open in a few swings. The Guard captain, a powerful man, charged at him with his shield up, but... but the bald man cleaved him and his shield in two with a single blow!"

Hesia’s heart tightened.

’Looks like this Blood Axe Gang is no joke. With the strength to easily crush a Guard captain, they’re probably not just a disorganized mob.’

’And the fact that the Guards didn’t assemble immediately suggests there might have been a problem within the manor itself.’

’Still, I have a good idea now of why the town was abandoned.’

"What happened after that?"

"After?" The vagrant scoffed. "Not long after the Blood Axe Gang left, the Adventurers showed up. Every one of them claimed they were here to ’investigate the truth.’"

"They didn’t find a damn thing, and on top of that, they cleaned out everything in the manor the bandits hadn’t bothered to take! A pack of hyenas, greedier than the bandits themselves!"

That explained why the manor was so empty, but that wasn’t Hesia’s main concern.

"If there’s nothing left here, why are you still here?" Hesia’s voice suddenly turned cold, his gaze sharp as he stared at the man. "And how do you know all of this in such detail?"

The vagrant was taken aback by the question. His eyes darted away as he stammered, "I... I was a servant here at the manor. I looked after the stables. I hid in a haystack that night."

"After the disaster, I heard that Rose Town, up north, was getting busy thanks to that damned Gray Mist, so a lot of people headed that way. But I... I thought it was nice here. Quiet. So... I just stayed and made do."

’It was true that Rose Town had started to flourish after the strange phenomena appeared in the Gray Mist Forest.’

’It seems its prosperity wasn’t just due to Adventurers; it had also absorbed much of the population from the surrounding towns and villages.’

"Is that so?" Hesia steered the conversation to the heart of the matter. "Have you seen... any unusual creatures? Skeletons, for instance?"

"Ske... Skeletons?" The vagrant’s face turned deathly pale. He shook his head so violently it looked like it might fly off. "N-no, I haven’t! I haven’t seen anything! I swear!"

He pointed to the small door behind him. "I... I only ever dare to use this back door. I come in, find something to eat, and leave. I never go to the front hall. Without the master’s permission, we servants weren’t allowed to just run around in the front of the house... Besides... besides, the main entrance was blocked off with stones long ago! You can’t even get in that way!"

Hesia caught the contradiction and fear in his words.

’A servant still adhering to the so-called "rules" in an abandoned manor where his masters were all dead... That in itself was the most illogical part.’

’This vehement denial didn’t mean "I haven’t seen anything," but rather "I saw something so terrifying I don’t dare admit it."’

’He was lying. Or rather, he was concealing something he feared.’

Hesia tried probing him a few more times, asking questions from different angles, but no matter what he asked, the vagrant just trembled and denied everything, repeating the same few phrases over and over: "I don’t know," "I didn’t see anything," "Please don’t kill me."

Seeing this, Hesia knew he probably wouldn’t get anything more out of the man.

Pushing him any further would probably just cause a mental breakdown.

’Still, what he said wasn’t entirely useless.’

’Since Adventurers came to investigate before, and clearly the matter was never resolved, then... the quest is probably still posted at an Adventurer Guild somewhere.’

’The closest one, of course, would be in Rose Town.’

"Alright, we’re not going to hurt you." Hesia stood up and placed the rest of the meat pie in front of the man. "Keep this. We have to go. You should leave this place soon, too. It’s not safe."

With that, he ignored the vagrant’s reaction, gave Zoya and Bruce a meaningful look, and turned to head back the way they had come.

’Since the direct lead is a dead end, I’ll have to start with the quest.’