Halkegenia Online v2.0 – Chapter 5 – Part 2
In the end, any problem could be broken down into a question and an answer, and in between the two was information, the points of data that led inexorably to a conclusion. It was the quality and quantity of information that mattered above all else. Information was life, more than power, more than wealth.
Or at least, that was what Argo liked to think. Maybe she'd spent too much time alone in dark rooms connecting dots that only she could see. Maybe she really was the one vindicated conspiracy theorist who had, by chance, been right. But she didn't have the luxury of uncertainty now.
Padding barefoot down the hallway of the Cheshire Inn in her night clothes, Argo the Rat, infamous information broker of Aincrad, and now a Faerie of the Cait Syth Race transported to the world of Halkegenia, scrubbed at her still damp hair and ears with a towel, tail hanging soddenly behind her and sending chills up her spine as it slowly air dried.
The soak had done her good, giving her some time to sort out her muddled thoughts. 'Guess Caits don't mind getting wet.' Argo thought as she reached her room. Though she'd seen plenty of other odd behavior among her fellow demi-felines, raising more than a few questions about what the transition had done to them.
At any other time, teasing apart the details of their altered physiology, and possibly even psychology, would have seemed like a productive way to spend the evening. But now she was occupied with much more dire matters, the reason they were in Freelia.
Argo stopped at the door to her room, she knocked once before inserting her key into the lock and turning it with a click. Another inn, another familiar room. Two beds, two chairs, a writing desk, a dresser, and small table. Oh, and one roommate.
"Bath's free now." Argo said.
Stretched out on the bed nearest the door, the Faerie Swordswoman Caramella sat up slowly, blinking owlishly.
"Guess I better take it while I can," she stretched.
A long day of flying, searching, questioning, and waiting on Abigail and her autopsy reports had left all of them exhausted. But it wasn't the work that was doing it, the lack of progress was what was taking the real toll.
Caramella stopped at the door long enough to look over her shoulder. "Hey, I'm meeting up with Kirito and the others down in the dining room, do you want me to bring anything back?"
Argo snorted, "Only if they've figured out how to brew a triple shot espresso." The Cait shook her head. "Don't bother, I already checked."
She took a seat at the writing desk and fished through her satchel for a notebook. Suisen poked her head out from one of the pockets, blinking curiously before flitting up to settle beside a table lamp.
Caramella rolled her eyes in a fashion that very patient mothers usually reserved for petulant children. "I was thinking food actually."
Argo let out an impatient breath before replying curtly. "Sorry, I don't have much appetite right now." Seeing the bodies earlier had left her with very little desire for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. She paused, glancing to Suisen who looked up expectantly. "Maybe bring back some bread," Suisen ringed her hands anxiously, "One of the honey rolls."
Hearing her guardian relent, the navigation pixie fluttered her wings in silent delight. The simple expression of contentment was almost enough to lift Argo's own spirits, almost.
"Got'cha." Caramella looked on uncertainly before shaking her head. "And don't beat yourself up about all of this, okay?"
"I don't know what you're talking about sa." Argo said without looking up. She wasn't being too hard on herself, she was just doing exactly what was needed.
"Uhuh." The swordswoman looked unconvinced. "I'll be back later." Caramella sighed, disappearing into the hall and locking the door behind her.
At last it was quiet, she was alone with just Suisen, her thoughts, and her notes. All the information they had collected was at her fingertips. Now, was it enough to learn anything new? Where to begin?
The pages of the notebook were filled with messy scrawl, all of it added over the last few days, notes about Novair, his habits and known acquaintances, and now information about Tobi and Liliana.
They'd worked through the whole day and early evening, meticulously searching Tobi's apartment and questioning everyone who had known the two latest victims in hopes of finding some common thread, anything that might let them anticipate the next target. But so far they had found nothing. Or maybe they had and simply didn't know it.
Three murders, three dead Faeries, three dead former players. The cause of death in all three cases had been a slash to the throat, delivered by something very sharp.
Extracting a bottle of ink and a quill pen from her bag, Argo turned to a blank page. She began to draw out bubbles, connecting them by lines to gradually built up a spider plot. She didn't even have to think about it, her hands worked on their own while she let her mind wonder.
Following death, all three bodies had been disfigured, the throats cut all the way back to the spine in a fashion that Abigail believed had been performed using a serrated or saw toothed implement.
'Killer's Mark?' She scribbled down.
Save for this brutal mark, none of the victims showed further signs of additional disfigurement except for defensive or incidental injuries and relatively few of those. The attacker had to have been incredibly quick and extremely good at a ambush kill. Nor did it appear that anything had been taken from their person.
'Motive.' A question mark was added by the line that connected the first two bubbles.
Two of the victims had known each other, but only by virtue of occupation. Nobody they had questioned had been able to confirm that there was anything happening between them. Novair hadn't had any direct contact with either Tobi or Liliana. Two of the victims were Sylphs, one was Cait Syth, but it wasn't clear if Tobi and Liliana were both intended victims or one had simply been in the way of killing the other.
She drew three smaller circles, each containing a victim's name and the logo of their respective factions.
They didn't know each other, none of them were the target of a grudge. The only common link was their involvement in the emerging Faerie Government.
She sketched a single logo, the nine branched Oak Tree and Spire that had been decided upon as the Official Seal of the Faerie Council, and circled it, connecting it to all three victims.
That had to be it. Or was it? 'Could that be a coincidence?' Argo wondered. She wanted to check her notes.
"Suisen." Argo asked, maybe a little to forcefully.
"Yes, Argo-san." The Pixie took up an attentive posture.
"By now, about how many people work directly for the Faerie Lords?" She'd kept count for the first few weeks, but eventually, her other responsibilities had left her with little time to take census data. Instead, she'd delegated Suisen to memorize the facts and figures. True intelligence had only made her little partner even more useful.
The Pixie's head bowed as if she was giving the question a great deal of thought. "Including personal staffs, city workers, the watch, and the defense force volunteers, there are approximately six thousand one hundred and twelve."
Argo leaned back in her chair, that was what she'd thought. Even excluding that one in ten Faeries were involved directly in some way with their fledgling government, the murders had all been perpetrated against high ranking personnel, the secretary of a Faerie Lord and two Captains of the Watch.
This was planned, not just the execution but the effect, there was a clear objective beyond the killing. Then was the blood and gore some sort of camouflage? Was someone trying to hide the murders by making them look like random killings? She'd almost be impressed if it wasn't so twisted.
Okay then, what else?
"Suisen, how many other people people are like the victims?"
The pixie tilted her head as she tried to parse the question. "I don't understand."
The Information Broker shook her head. It was easy to forget, Suisen might have gained true sentience and autonomy, with all of the intelligence that it implied, but she was still very childlike and sometimes didn't grasp context very well.
"I want to know how many people had equal or greater status to Novair, Tobi, and Liliana, anyone who is closely trusted by the Faerie Lords." Argo clarified.
"One moment." Suisen blinked as she parsed and processed the request. "There are seventy five people who match those criteria. The Ten Watch Captains, the members of the Tau Tona ruling council, the eight standing Faerie Lords and their personal assistents, Commander Eugene of the Self Defense Forces," Suisen continued to patiently list off names and occupations.
Seventy five people, and any one of them could be the next target. That was too many to guard all at once. The watch simply didn't have enough officers. And worryingly, if Liliana and Tobi were any indication, the killer was more than able to take on multiple opponents at once.
It was time to start eliminating potential Targets. The Faerie Lords were the first she took off the list, it didn't matter how good the attacker was, they wouldn't be getting through the Guard's of the Fae Lord's any time soon. Next were the head administrators of each of the City's, their lives were simply too public to be easily caught alone, more importantly, the killer hadn't targeted Alden even though the administrator was arguably even more important.
Argo tapped her quill against the paper impatiently. So far, the Killer had chosen his target from a relatively elite class of former players. Lilian and Tobi had both been fairly powerful, a Magic Knight and a Dragoon Respectively, and even Novair had been no pushover thanks to being on the leading edge of the Sylph efforts to prepare for the World Tree Raid . . .
Was that it? Tobi had been on it, had Liliana? She was willing to bet that the answer was yes. Novair hadn't been on the raid itself, but he had accompanied Lady Sakuya to Sylvain. Was that another link?
Argo was just beginning to fill in another bubble, surrounding it with question marks when a sound from her window caused her ears to pique. The sound probably wouldn't have bothered her before, but not now, as a Cait, she could hear everything, and her brain was able to dissect the slightest sensory input. It caused her to freeze.
It started as a scratching, barely audible even to her. The thing that made it stand out was how irregular it was, like something creeping, something prowling. Creaking turned to a groaning, like wood bearing too much weight. Still the noise was so faint that she could still hear Suisen's small voice.
" . . . The Black Swordsman Kirito, the White Flash Asuna, Argo the Rat . . ."
Argo let out a shout as she pounced for her dagger, resting atop her bed.
With a wrenching -snap- and a shout, something lithe and fast fell into view outside the half open window, battering it aside as it crashed into the room.
.
