The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

More investigation was required, and Anna wasn't giving Isaac the answers he needed. It was time to wrap up this discussion and move on.

"Can you bring us to meet the sect's disciple?"

Anna hesitated for a moment, then spoke reluctantly,

"She said she didn't want to be disturbed..."

"I'll handle it if she gets annoyed."

"Alright then, I'll bring you to meet her."

She readily agreed once Isaac said he'd take the blame for disturbing the sect representative. In fact, she felt uncomfortable talking to the team so she was relieved when Isaac asked to leave.

Everybody got up from the table and left the village head's residence.

They only had to walk for 5 minutes before they stopped outside another large house. This residence was even bigger than the village head's house, demonstrating the preferential treatment cultivators got over commoners.

Anna knocked once on the door, but there was no answer. She didn't knock again and waited respectfully, so they stood there for a while. It wasn't long before Eva ran out of patience. She moved Anna out of the way and gave three hard knocks on the door.

Once more, there was no answer. She knocked again, louder this time.

Finally, after a few more seconds, somebody came to the door. It swung open to reveal a mid-twenties woman dressed in a baggy white robe and loose-fitting clothes. Long, flowing light-brown hair billowed out behind her in a mess, and her face was pointed. She had well-defined facial features and might've possessed quite an elegant visage, but that elegance was ruined by her untidy appearance and the long copper pipe sticking out of her mouth.

She took a deep breath and her closed her eyes for a moment. Then she opened them again and languidly moved a hand towards her lips. She took the pipe away, then turned her head upwards and blew a thick smoke ring. Then she turned her gaze towards the group at her doorstep.

"Fuck. Can't I get a moment of peace? If this isn't important, you might need to find a new village head."

The threat was issued lazily, and nobody knew if she really meant it. Hell, even the woman herself didn't know if she meant it or not. Isaac stared at her. His expression was calm as usual,

"Senior disciple, we are here to investigate a matter of some importance. It would be extremely helpful if you could answer some questions."

The woman didn't seem to be paying attention: she was gazing into the distance and taking another drag of her pipe. Isaac noticed this and added on,

"Whether you help us or turn us away, everything will be included in our mission report."

This caused the woman to look at him sideways – it was more of a glare than a look, really. She sighed, then took another short puff on the pipe,

"Fine, come in. But make it quick."

She turned on her heel and walked back into the house. The team followed her.

There weren't any hard wooden chairs when they entered her living room. Instead, they saw 2 long bench-like creations at the side of the room,

"They're called sofas – quite popular in the east, I hear. They're very comfortable. Go on, sit down."

The disciple seemed quite proud of these foreign objects. However, she was also impatient to get this over and done with. She ushered the team onto one of the sofas so they could ask all their questions and get lost.

While everyone was sitting on one sofa, she lay down on the other and continued smoking. Smoke began to fill the room as Isaac asked his first question,

"Do you know about the recent attacks on Kirk Village?"

Alice spoke in mild surprise,

"What? How recent?"

"It's understandable you didn't know. Anybody who left Kirk Village and headed this direction was killed, so news never reached Kukkula Village..."

Johan explained a bit, then he and Isaac asked a few questions. The questions were very similar to what they asked the village head, and so were the answers: nobody suspicious had been seen in the area, none of the herbs Johan listed had been discovered here, and there were no cultivators in the nearby area. All in all, it confirmed what they'd already heard.

However, Isaac heard something interesting when he asked about the Crystal of Pure Frost that was stolen last month,

"I'm responsible for this area, so I had to look into that." Alice certainly struck Isaac as the type who'd only do something if they had to, "Kirk Village said everything was a coincidence and their team had actually been killed as well." She brought the pipe to her lips and inhaled deeply, "I don't buy it though."

"What exactly did Kirk Village say?"

"I spoke to Leon. Apparently, he didn't get any response from his people for 2 days, so he sent a team over to investigate. They found the original group dead, so they went to check what had happened at the Kukkula Village camp.

"Suddenly, they saw people from Kukkula Village and panicked. 'If the Kukkula Village search team caught them in the camp surrounded by dead bodies, they'd be labelled as murderers' – that's now Leon phrased it. Basically, they ran away to their own camp. Then they picked up their dead comrades and carried them back to Kirk Village to get proper burials.

"I reckon there's too many coincidences in the story. Probably a lie to cover up their crime – Leon's pretty crafty, after all."

Isaac took a moment to mull it over, then he thanked Alice and said goodbye. She just waved her hand dismissively,

"You can show yourselves out."

She stayed sprawled on the sofa, while the others got up and left. When they exited the house, Jón was standing there and waiting for them. He said he was there to guide them to their residence.

On the way to the residence, Isaac asked a question,

"A team of people died last month. Do you know where they're buried?"

Jón thought the question was weird, but he answered it anyway. Isaac gave a slight nod and remembered the directions Jón gave him.

After that, the group stayed in silence until they reached the residence. It was big, but not as big as the village head's house. There were 4 bedrooms, a kitchen area and a well-decorated living room. The group were pleased with the accommodation.

After checking that they didn't have any more requests, Jón left.

The team didn't have much to do that evening. They discussed who might be behind the Sarcevic Wolf's attacks, then recapped what they'd learnt today. Later, Johan and Eva went out to investigate some more. Meanwhile, Isaac practiced using the Snowshoe Anima as well as some swordsmanship, and Abbie applied cream to her injuries and rested.

The remainder of the day passed without any significant events, and they all went to bed. At least, Johan, Isaac and Abbie did – it was Eva's turn to keep watch first. Just before he went to bed, Isaac had a word with her,

"I know my shift starts at 1 am, but please wake me up before midnight. There's something I need to do before I take over the watch."

Eva asked curtly,

"What's that?"

"It's pointless to tell you now. I want to see the results before I say anything for certain."

Eva nodded and didn't ask any more questions. She went to sit down at the table while everybody else went to sleep.

*************************

Sure enough, Eva woke Isaac at quarter to midnight. He quietly thanked her, then got dressed and left the house without waking anyone. You might wonder: where was Isaac headed at this time of night?

He was going to visit some graves. Isaac wanted to pay his respects to those who'd perished at the hands of Kirk Village–

Nah, not really. He was going to look at dead people.