69: The Hit List (1)

With dark rings around her eyes from the insufficient amount of sleep she had to endure, Vivian was confronted by her father who scolded her for not telling anyone about her midnight reading. She could only justify herself by saying that she was saddened about the news of Voros' wife and couldn't sleep so she found herself in the study to distract herself.

While having breakfast, the news about the attack on the Blackguards Market seemed to have reached the gazette. It was announced that the attackers were two assassins, a female human and a Duergar who wreaked havoc and performed an evil blood ritual according to surviving witnesses. Of course, the title was "The Blood Swan Killer On The Loose!" and it was more of a drama written from the imagination of the writer mixed with the uneducated opinions of the drunken eyewitnesses and uncultured harlots.

Such a juicy story is exactly what the press needs but saying it is an evil ritual and all that was just pure comedy to Vivian, who kept sneaking peeks at the back of the newspaper in her father's hands.

But the important matter was the situation regarding Voros' wife, Anastasia.

Vivian scoured the ledgers she stole last night almost till 4 AM and barely found Voros' name, who seemed to have long been forgotten by the slavers who started to call him the Animal. He was flagged as a Craftsman but from what he told her, he barely worked on anything and only helped in the smelter to get by during his 14 years of slavery.

Vivian looked for the name Anastasia in the records before and after but aside from a few crossed unreadable names, Vivian had to guess that Anastasia's name was most likely deleted from the records.

Now there were methods to restore such crossed lines but Vivian wasn't an expert and most likely no one still is. However, what Vivian remembers about this restorative process from Nadia's memories is that if the ink used for writing and the ink used for crossing were different, the two types would be analyzed in a lab. Then a compound would be synthesized to make some effect such as dissolving the ink used to cross the entry or making some ingredients of the entry ink glow.

Whatever it is, Vivian needed an alchemist and the best place to look is in her company.

Once she got to her company, the place was so busy that it was impossible to breathe properly outside her office. Right now, the Moore Conglomerate has tasked ViTech to take a step towards producing a direct and constant electrical current, which led to bringing many scientists together in order to figure out how.

With Vivian guiding the project with her futuristic hints, the scientists were on the verge of discovering the electrochemical cell, a device capable of either generating electrical energy from chemical reactions or facilitating chemical reactions through the introduction of electrical energy.

And while the electrochemical cell was a good idea, Vivian was driving the scientists towards electromagnetic induction but even her knowledge was lacking in this field. All she could contribute was what she could remember from Faraday's Law and Maxwell's Equations to inspire the scientists she was working with in regard to producing electromotive force.

Having this project as the main focus of the associated scientists was only the first step towards fulfilling what the Count requested of his daughter to achieve. It would take a long time and effort to achieve independence by creating a free and clean energy source from wind and water currents which are still a thing of science-fiction in this world.

The other important thing Vivian was working on was what she called Project Melody and she even prioritized it to the point where she started pushing for more resources to be diverted from developing the electrical current into that project.

Finally, she met with the chemists and technicians that were in the team of Professor Aensly Graham and discussed the creation of large-scale smoke filters for the smokestacks of the Moore factories. Many great ideas were presented and Vivian managed to handshake on the matter with Professor Aensly before the latter retreated into her lab and started to work on things.

So far, it has been going well. Vivian even managed to contact a chemist who worked with Professor Aensly and made a small side project to analyze and isolate certain types of inks from each other as Vivian showed him a piece of paper she tore from the ledger. She provided the chemist with a place to work inside her headquarters.

Later that day, Vivian joined Voros and Jane in the basement for more gun discussions to improve on the current designs and think of new ones. Vivian and Voros later had some time to discuss the slave ledger and she told him what she was doing with the ink, and he only said that he trusts her to do what is necessary.

By the next day, Voros had a surprise of his own to Vivian.

"Voros digs burrows! Very exciting! Haha!" He said with excitement as he was covered in dirt all over.

"Oh, please! Don't tell me you made more tunnels!" Vivian immediately freaked out as she approached Voros' burrow, "This may be bad for the integrity of the building."

"Bad? Impossible!" Voros didn't like Vivian's faithlessness in his handiwork.

"Really? You dig under my building and expect the foundations to be intact?"

"Yes… Duergar burrows… number one… steady tunnel… never collapse… world best!" Voros spoke with great pride and gave Vivian a double thumbs-up.

"Fine! Show me how far you dug."

"Here! Here!"

Voros went to the wall where he had his burrow dug in the earth and then…

Click

SCRAAAP

The last time Voros opened his burrow to Vivian, he had to remove the bricks one by one in order to let her in. This time, however, he just pushed a certain brick inside and the wall opened up like a door while making some horrible noise.

"Sorry… no grease!"

Vivian watched as the wall under her building opened up as if it was all fixed on a hinge like normal doors and she saw that the inside living space of Voros had been expanded magnificently. She entered what seemed to be a living room and had two rooms on the side before opening up to a large unlit corridor.

Voros picked up a lantern for Vivian and handed it to her then urged her to follow inside the tunnel he dug.

"You don't get claustrophobia living down here?"

"What's that?"

"Fear of small places."

"Small places good. Duergar safe in small places."

"I see."

The tunnel kept going and going until Voros stopped at a brick wall. The temperature started to rise in the middle of the tunnel but as it got close to the wall, more moisture was felt in the air.

Voros carefully removed one brick from the wall and told Vivian to come closer and see the other side.

"Yikes! The smell! You managed to find a sewer tunnel."

"Shit river! HAHAHA! Very funny!"

Voros started removing a few more bricks and Vivian aimed the lantern to find that there was indeed a large tunnel right where Voros' tunnel ended. Having access to such a thing can be advantageous but Vivian wasn't keen on moving through the sewers.

"Listen, I'll secure us a map for the sewer system to see if it can be of use later but I want you to seal it for now. Maybe make another door like the one you made but I don't want it to be discovered from the other side no matter what.

"Understood, chief!" Voros nodded with a double thumbs-up again.

"By the way, you haven't told me how you get rid of the debris and dirt you dig up." Vivian said with a frown.

In her mind, she was ready for one more of Voros' shenanigans but she couldn't have predicted what the Duergar had in store for her.

"Debris?" He asked with his head tilting to the side.

"Yes… the excess of earth and stone that you dig up." Vivian explained.

"Hmmm… no such thing." Voros said and walked back into his tunnel.

"Wait, what?" Vivian couldn't understand what was going on and followed him right away, "What do you mean there is no such a thing? The way I see it, you should have at least moved ten tons of earth to the surface in order to dig all that."

"No, no need!" Dismissively, Voros shook his head and stood against the wall of his tunnel before placing his hand over it.

"What are you doing?" Vivian asked.

"Watch."

After he replied, Voros closed his eyes, took in a deep breath, let it out, then cleared his voice and started humming.

The hums grew louder with every second and Voros started to alternate between throat humming and whispers before digging his sharp fingernails into the earth and digging through it.

The earth Voros was digging wasn't falling to the ground or creating excess as it should have. Instead, it moved with his hand and compressed to the sides.

"Wow! How are you doing that?"

Voros effortlessly accomplished the impossible, leaving Vivian in disbelief. She knew that even with her own hands, she could only dig a few handfuls of ordinary dirt. However, the walls of the tunnels Voros was creating were incredibly thick and dense, suggesting that the material was far from normal dirt. It resembled the hardest compressed earth imaginable.

Vivian was amazed by the technique's cleanliness and accuracy. The ability to create tunnels in such a way, leaving no debris, excess, or trace, was so incredible that it seemed almost like cheating.

"What technique is this?" Vivian asked.

Voros, who had already dug a few feet in the side tunnel in a matter of a few seconds, turned to Vivian and replied.

"Earth Singing." He said.

"Like… Magic?" She asked.

"No! Earth Singing! Not magic."

"It looks like magic to me."

"NO."

"Fine! Whatever you say." Vivian shrugged and looked around the tunnel, "If the walls of the tunnels didn't lose any of the previous mass it had before burrowing, I guess the building above won't be affected."

"Told you." Voros said.

Voros dug a long distance into the new tunnel, shaping it into a small chamber. Vivian observed in disbelief as he effortlessly molded and compressed the dirt into walls and pillars without removing any excess digging. This inexplicable ability to manipulate the earth defied logic and seemed nothing short of magical.

"That's a nice space." Vivian said as she walked inside the room, "The ventilation is bad but we can work it out if we know what is above us."

"Ventilation problem, yes." Voros nodded, acknowledging the shortcoming of burrowing this far without properly managing the air supply.

"Well, for now, let's make use of this place." Vivian said as she started taking out some items from her storage purse.

It was no more than the blackboard she once used at the conglomerate meeting, a few maps and charts, as well as a strongbox storing the Mithril coins she looted the other day.

"From now on, this will be the hideout of the Bloody Swan and the Devil Man." Vivian said proudly.

"Who and who?" Voros didn't seem to recognize the famous human folktale.

"It is what the people call us now. You and me, the two attackers who killed the Blackguard Overseer and around 15 Blackguards."

"Devil Man me?" Voros asked.

"Yes. And I am the Bloody Swan." Vivian nodded.

"Nice! Like name! No more Voros Animal, only Voros Devil Man." Voros was excited hearing the new nickname.

"We can't go out to tell people we are the Bloody Swan and the Devil Man, it will be our secret identities."

"Secret?"

"Yes."

"I like secrets. Makes people shocked when they know."

"Oh, man! No one must know."

"No one?"

"Not a soul."

Voros seemed conflicted as he seemed like the type that likes to gossip despite his 14-year-long vow of silence.

"Alright, since you are my partner in crime, let's review our operation together, shall we?

Our opponents are Prince Liam, Edmond Black, Valentine De Clare, Richard Marshall, Robert Moore, Ian Grayson, and Ronald Morgan, as well as Matilda Ambrose and an eighth person I am not aware of yet."

"Hm? Eighth?"

"Well, a ninth but I don't count Matilda as… Well, you get my meaning. She's just annoying."

Vivian wrote the names of these people around the board in various places and made a quick drawing for each and every one of them. Even though it was a piece of chalk on a blackboard, Vivian's drawing seems to be improving by leaps and bounds and…

« New Trait: [Novice Illustrator] »

"Sweet!"

Vivian was pleased to get a trait she never had before but that wasn't the time to focus on it. She was busy making her investigation board.

"So, Prince Liam is the head of his own royal faction which aims to make him king and succeed to the throne against a few political opponents like his youngest brother and his uncle. He is the Duke of Gleamshire, which is a title given to the heir apparent but history isn't mostly on the side of every heir apparent, they must gather a lot of political and financial power and perform great feats or else they will be controlled as puppets or replaced by more powerful candidates. The Prince has the biggest ego you can imagine, making him the biggest narcissist out there. Everyone else on this board is one of the Prince's cronies who will help him be king one day."

"Big ego… usually small penis!"

"Ugh! The second is Edmond Black, currently he acts as the Prince's aide but that role usually should go to either Ian Grayson or Robert Moore, my brother. Edmond Black has this sort of reputation for being very hardworking as he is always doing errands for the Prince but the way I see it, Edmond has more reach and does things on a deeper scale than what seems on the surface. During a murder accident that happened in the academy, I am sure that Edmond was covering for Richard Marshall for murdering senior Reginald. If my hunch is correct, this sleepy Edmond acts as the Prince's Fixer."

"Hardworking but sleepy? Smells fishy!"

"Ian Grayson isn't the heir of his house but it seems that he is taking over due to his brother's being infirm. Ian is a bastard just like the rest of the Graysons. They have been enemies with the Moores for a few hundred years now. His father is the King's Chancellor, making him heir to a very powerful diplomatic position. Ian's reputation is being charitable but I guess there is something ugly underlying his unusual ability to get money. As for his role in the Prince's faction, it seems that he comes after Edmond and works to secure funds for the Prince, he also operates as leader of the Blackguards which gives him both the ability to trade in slaves and manufacture weapons judging by the number of Dwarves they have in their craftsmen tent we've been through. In a sick twisted way, he funds the Prince's endeavors with the Blackguards' criminal activities and seems to be trying to smelt Mithril, which is a major offense on its own, this makes him the Prince's Mafia Boss."

"Dirty little slaver boy! CRUSH HIS HEAD!"

"Richard Marshall. If there is someone I want to crush his head as well, it is that bastard. He is a sociopath who killed his own best friend just because he had a disagreement with him… probably about me. Richard's father is the Commander of the Military and Leader of the Knights with Richard as the most powerful heir candidate to House Marshall. He's a fool with a short fuse despite all his calm and cool act. Unlike the others, Richard can mobilize a small group of elite knights without anyone raising any questions; he can say he's hanging out with some friends or doing training somewhere, all in all, nobody would dare question the son of a Master Knight. If I put a role for him in the Prince's faction, he is the Prince's Houndmaster."

"Friend killer! Worst of all!"

"My little half-baby-brother Robert isn't fully trusted by the Prince yet but Robert is showing undying loyalty to him in order to gain back support and push away elder brother James from the seat of heir to our house. Of course, the Prince has no other option than Robert if he wants to secure the financial support of House Moore since I am no longer his fiancée. While Ian Greyson is the Prince's financier for now, Robert was breastfed in financial science so I must admit he is skilled like the rest of the family members in this regard. And if he starts to act freely in the world of business, he will amass a large fortune really quickly. However, he always acts with kindness and shows charity, but if you ask me, he is rotten green from the inside and he can't stomach being belittled or anyone being better than him. But in the grand scheme of things, Robert is meant to be the Prince's Piggy Bank."

"Disloyal brother! Shame!"

"Valentine is the heir to House De Clare but unlike the large financial power House Moore can throw around, House De Clare's mission is to circulate money so while they are rich, they can't waste money outside their system of commerce. However, they can change the face of currency if they want to, House De Clare is mighty powerful when it comes to the big market. Valentine himself is a gentle soul albeit being a little bit of a glutton. He is a frenemy in most cases but I can't imagine life without him for some dumb reason. Still, his biggest shortcoming in my opinion is his desperate need to be loved by everyone and how he is trying to appeal to the Prince. What we heard from the Overseer's office the other day is that Edmond and Ian wanted Valentine to liquidate the Mithril coins they have. This makes Valentine the Prince's Money Launderer."

"Lost soul! Will lead himself to trouble!"

"Last but not least, Ronald Morgan, who I don't know where to fit. He isn't popular with Prince Liam's faction since he keeps to himself but he is a Sorcerer and a powerful one at that. He may seem shy but he is a disgusting whoremonger… don't ask me how I know that, he's just a disgusting leecher. While I can't specify his role, I think he is the one who tampered with my exams in the finals and made me go through a ton of subjects. For now, I can't pinpoint any role for Ronald in the Prince's faction but he's one crazy bastard."

"Whoremongers! Duergar cut peni…"

"ALRIGHT! That concludes the whole lot of them."

Vivian finished sorting off the most important points under each portrait she drew with the chalk. She then turned to Voros to conclude her briefing.

"Somewhere in the middle of all this fits a commoner girl who has them all around her finger, the Mithril coins with their unusual origin, the enslaved Duergar craftsmen and your missing wife, and a whole lot of darkness in between." Vivian said and turned to Voros, "We need information. Since you and I aren't good at gathering Intel, we need someone who can fill this darkness with more links and lines."

"Who?"

"Cheer up, buddy. You will get to shock someone with those secrets you want to spill after all." Vivian said and made a sly smile, "Care to dig one more tunnel across the street?"