Futile Investigation

After Haalfrin and his new partner are alone to discuss their plans, Haalfrin crosses his arms and explains everything he knows; he explains how he met bandits in the woods with illegal goods only made across the borders, as well as captured villagers ready to be shipped off across the border, where slavery is legal.

Hanalee nods after hearing his story, and she puts down her notebook. "Sir Haalfrin," she begins, "I'll be needing you to help visit all the homes one by one. I'll be needing detailed information on the relative wealth of each household, how many of their family members have disappeared and when, and I'll need to find out how many of them have been sold illegal substances."

Momentarily, Haalfrin feels a little miffed in his heart.

Haalfrin spent a lot of his career thinking it was a virtue to follow orders and keep the machine running. However, after being burned by nobles left and right, given terrible orders, and taken advantage of by exploitative bosses, Haalfrin understandably feels stubborn about being ordered around to his face by a person he just barely met.

Fortunately, Haalfrin reigns in his momentary instinct to fight back. 'Her orders are pretty reasonable, after all,' Haalfrin consoles himself. 'If she actually knows what she's doing, I don't mind helping out.'

And so, Haalfrin sets out with a notebook in hand to collect the data his partner wants. Given his stellar reputation with the common folk, everyone is more than happy to open their doors for him and tell him what he needs to know.

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Hanalee, on the other hand, goes to bed that night sleeping in Randel's horse shed, since she didn't bring enough money with her to convince the lady of the house to give up another room.

Surrounded by the smell of urine and unwashed animals, Hanalee spends the whole night lying awake, feeling overwhelmed and uncomfortable.

The young lady grew up her entire life as a noblewoman – albeit, a low ranking one. She's used to having a lot of assistants. "I didn't know what to expect," she murmurs, as she wipes her hand that accidentally flopped onto horse poop. "I just didn't expect this! Bleh!"

'Several days into this investigation,' she complains in her heart, 'and I feel like I've had to essentially do all the work myself… well, Haalfrin's here, and he helps when I complain loud enough, but I get the feeling that he really dislikes me….'

'And it doesn't help that I've never been a criminal investigator before. I'm good at sorting through papers and crunching numbers, not talking to people, and being glared at by peasants!'

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Within a few days, Haalfrin finishes collecting the numbers. Hanalee flips through the data and spends several hours trying to come up with a solution. Meanwhile, Haalfrin goes back to swinging his sword while he waits for her to solve something.

Feeling impatient and tired, Hanalee slams her notebook shut and stands up from the stool she was working on. "That's it! I have a few places that're worth checking out. You're coming with me, Sir Haalfrin!"

Haalfrin shrugs, "Sure. You're not a mage, so you'll be needing protection."

Shortly afterward, they arrive at a normal-looking shop near the border. Hanalee walks up to the shopkeeper – an unassuming, midsized old man, and she clears her throat. "Me and my partner here are official investigators, and we'll be needing to search your property for suspicious goods.

The old man laughs derisively and barks out, "Hah! Do you have a permit? On whose authority?"

Hanalee pulls out a token and says, "I'm from the house Benrith, and my partner here is a 2nd gate mage.

Getting angry now, the shopkeeper waves his hand and says, "Go! Away with you! I have no obligation to open my doors to rude people like you! This is the Baron's land!"

Haalfrin raises his eyebrows at this. This old shopkeeper could only have the audacity to refuse a low-ranking noble and a mage if he has significant backing. This means he's VERY likely a criminal - one part of a large organization, at that.

So, instead of trying to convince the man any longer, Haalfrin draws his sword and points it at the man. "I have the right to execute you right now if you don't step aside!"

Hanalee glares at Haalfrin and curses out, "You! We can't just threaten the locals!"

Haalfrin completely ignores his frustrated comrade, and he swings his sword down threateningly. "You gonna move?"

The old man starts sweating, and he furiously nods his head. "Yes, yes!" he stutters out, "I'll just go out back and let my workers know."

Before the man can duck out of there, Haalfrin lunges forward and grabs him by the scruff of the neck, and commands in a monotone voice, "Oh, no you don't."

Hanalee grips Haalfrin's sleeve and growls out, "Don't be so violent! That's not a good way of doing things!"

Haalfrin simply shrugs at this as he slings the shopkeeper over his shoulder. "Let's just check out the back. No inspection is worth anything unless it's a surprise."

After intimidating the 2 workers in the back into standing passively aside, Haalfrin and Hanalee start going through the goods being stored.

Surprising no one, they find crates and crates full of illegal drugs and smuggled Essence stones. Essence stones are basically batteries full of mana, and they have heavy importation tariffs coming into Alasta.

Essence Crystals are essential in almost every advanced enchantment – especially the kind that can build cities and move armies. With them being so important, all transactions with them are heavily documented…

… So moving Essence Crystals without proper documentation has VERY heavy consequences – usually including execution and the impoverishment of your family. In some cases, you can even be accused of treason, as Essence Crystals are important war materials.

Having nobles secretly stockpile war materials IS a national threat, after all.

Knowing all this, of course, Hanalee feels a little apprehensive, seeing tons of Essence Crystals smuggled like this. Thinking of how to handle these hot goods makes her feel even worse.

And so, Hanalee and Haalfrin use their far-speak medallions to reach out to Tallus again. Shortly after that, Tallus says that he'll be sending someone to pick up the illegal goods…

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Haalfrin and Hanalee stay in this shop with the tied-up shopkeeper on one side and a hoard of Essence Crystals on the other, for fear of this treasure trove being taken away.

Unfortunately, Baron Borin catches wind of the situation, and he rides hard down to the shop personally with a platoon of his men behind him.

Borin gets off his horse and he strides forward confidently. "Sir Haalfrin… I'm here to collect my goods."

"So you're confessing then?" Haalfrin raises his eyebrows.

"Confessing to what?" the baron shrugs. "Those Essence Crystals are perfectly legal. You, on the other hand, can be accused of potential theft." He turns to his men and motions with his fingers. "Take my goods back to my estate."

He turns back to Haalfrin and says, "On account of your relationship with the archmage, I'll consider letting you off this once."

…More accurately, Borin knows he can't possibly take Haalfrin in by force if man resists. Why else would he sue for peace?

Haalfrin and the baron stare at each other for a moment. Hanalee and the guards both anxiously stand on the side, wondering what's going to happen.

Just when Haalfrin is about to argue back, Borin pulls out a receipt and says, "You see this? This is the receipt of transaction."

Hanalee takes the receipt, and she frowns. She mutters in Haalfrin's ear, "This paper is fraudulent."

Haalfrin hisses back, "So… we beat up the baron, then take him to court."

Before Haalfrin can do something drastic, Hanalee pulls him back and growls back, "No! We're in the baron's territory now! Angering the ruling noble here is a terrible idea!"

Haalfrin shakes his head angrily and raises his voice a little, "You mean give up? Girl, I'm strong enough to just bully the baron into giving up the stolen goods!"

This time, the baron and his men hear Haalfrin, and the baron goes white with fear. 'This man appears to be more unhinged than I thought…,' Borin thinks. 'To say something like that out loud...'

Fortunately, everyone present hears Hanalee raise her voice back and say, "No! I'm the one in charge of this investigation! I'm the one with experience tracking down criminals, and I'm the one who brought us here! Stop acting like an animal and do as you're told!"

To the baron's relief, Haalfrin gives one last glare at them all, then backs down.

Haalfrin throws his hands up in frustration and grumbles in his heart, 'Fine then! Why do I even care that much anyway? Why put so much thought into this when this isn't even my problem? I only started this because I was bored!'

'... Well, being thanked by the villagers is nice too, but that's beside the point.'

Indeed, what's worse than fighting over who's in charge when you never really cared about being in charge in the first place?

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After Hanalee gives Prince Tallus the terrible news of how they lost the evidence, she's reprimanded heavily by the prince, then told to get more results soon.

… After that, Haalfrin notices that Hanalee seems a lot angrier nowadays, and she seems desperate to find more hideouts and more caches of illegal goods.

To be fair, Hanalee has proven pretty effective at finding criminal hideouts or stash locations. Haalfrin himself is quite impressed that Hanalee manages to find all these places just by looking at a bunch of papers.

'This is no time to be prideful,' Haalfrin thinks, 'the girl's good at her job, even if she might be too soft-hearted to handle more… practical situations. Still. She's trying and she's good for something… and most of all… she's less than a quarter my age. As the elder here, I should be more generous towards the younger generation.'

Really though, despite being one of the most intelligent people he knows, Hanalee has accomplished nothing since coming here, as all the criminals are sent off to jail, only to be released by their local baron, and all the illegal goods are taken away before any outside authority can collect them.

Other than the futility of their efforts, the few fights they get into are another attack on Haalfrin's mood. After several scuffles, Haalfrin is slowly convinced that the criminals don't have any real fighters to give him a run for his money. Mages ARE rare, after all.

…Hence, the mage grows more and more disinterested in the whole endeavor. If he can't do anything useful, then what's the point in continuing?

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Meanwhile, the 5 criminal masterminds in question are convening in their dark alley again.

The middle-aged man speaks up first again. "This Haalfrin is really getting obnoxious. I've had to relocate our stores a dozen times in the last month, and my people are getting sick of it."

The blonde-haired boss shakes his head, "Put up with it a little longer. There's no point in changing what we're doing if we're not suffering any losses."

"All thanks to our good friend, Baron Borin," the smallest of the bunch cackles mirthfully.

The old crone puffs out a breath of smoke and croaks out, "Is there really a point to paying any more attention to this mage? He's running around making a joke of himself."

The boss nods his head. "Agreed. Don't bring up Haalfrin's name again in our meetings unless it's important…. Now, let's move on to our next order of business…"