Chapter 67: Message


    [Back at the Rime-Frost]


    Girls from remote viges have gone missing? The mayor repeated. A mayor had a lot of responsibilities. Things like missing vige girls were usually dealt with by the lower ranked administrators. The missing reports began with two missing girls from a nearby vige. Since it was just the disappearance ofmon girls, the case wasnt a high priority. Had it been noble girls, then the matter would have been more urgent.


    ss divisions were normal and order of importance would always be nobles overmoners, thus the disappearance of a fewmoners wasnt considered that important. However, in this case the numbers were too high to be ignored.


    The mayor had noticed the number of missing girls increasing in recent years. To date, over two hundred girls had gone missing. That many in such a short period of time was worrisome. Even if the missing was just a small vige Auntie, if the issue spread far enough, as mayor of the closest town, he would surely be reprimanded.


    He had ambitions. He wanted to transfer to arger city, but in order to do so he needed to gather enough political achievements.


    He knew the Younger Prince and Princess would be visiting Rime-Frost in a couple of days. The timing was horrible; to have such a troubling case be active while members of the royal family were in town was problematic.


    Where did you say some of the bodies were discovered? The mayor stood up from his chair as he spoke.


    They hadnt found the murderer, but the fact that they knew the whereabouts of the bodies was good. It showed progress. They couldnt justifiably say he was cking off.


    It was the first time the vige chief had been in such a grand ce, standing in front of such an important official. His legs were shaky and he was very nervous. In the mountain forest near our vige. Theyre in a cave, all of them dead. Without the aid of the adventurers, we would never have found them.


    The chief became sorrowful as he remembered.


    The mayor became morose as he listened. What did they mean? Were they suggesting the citys officials werent good enough to find the girls? Although the mayor was unhappy with the vige chief, he maintained a kindly expression on his face.


    So, it turns out you had adventurerse to help. I was not aware of that. As the mayor, Ill have to properly thank them for helping the very busy people of Rime-Frost.


    The mayor was aware of his image so he spoke in a way to suggest it was only because the officials under him were extremely busy that they had not solved the case themselves. To be able to tread up the mountain and deal with the ferocious pr bears, these adventurers had to be very powerful. It wouldnt be a bad idea to make connections with strong adventurers.


    The two adventurers have left our vige, but they epted our mission so they should return.


    Is that so. The mayor nodded his head. That meant he would have more time to consider. You made an appointment to see me because.. . The mayor realized he hadnt asked why the vige chief wanted to see him.


    The old vige chief immediately made his request. This humble one came to see your Honor to ask for a necromancer. The adventurer said the deceased girls souls were suffering, trapped in the cave. This humble one came to ask for this assistance.


    This surprised the mayor. A necromancer? He nodded his head and said, I see. Return first. A necromancer will arrive there in about two days time.


    The overjoyed chief bowed, kowtowing to the mayor many times.


    The mayor dropped his mask of benevolence after the chief left. He called out to an assistant. Come. Make sure there arent any suspicious people around tomorrow. The celebrations must go off without any problems.


    Yes. The assistant immediately replied.


    Jier and Feng Wu got up early the next morning. The spirit flew around excitedly around Feng Wu. She was very lively.


    At this time, one of the dispatchers Jier sent out returned. The boy was around fourteen or fifteen and clearly poor with tattered clothing that barely hung onto his emaciated frame. He had been sent to one of the closer viges, which was why he was able toe back so quickly.


    Adventurers, I have news. The vige I went said they were several girls missing. They were too poor to hire an adventurer so they had to rely on city authorities in Rime-Frost to resolve the case. Its been over a year but the culprit hasnt been found and the authorities havent given them any updates on the case at all.


    The teen shared what he learned. He was very lucky yesterday. Jier picked him to gather information the vige. If he returned with information, he would pay twenty silver coins. Twenty silver coins! Ordinary people only earned two silver coins a month, so twenty silvers was ten months worth of work! It was a big deal.


    He agreed to the job right way because of the high pay. It was enough to pay his family expenses for the rest of the year.


    Good. Jier gave the teen twenty silver coins. Do the same thing at another vige. Make sure the information is urate and Ill pay another twenty silver coins for it. Dont even consider deceiving me. You wont like the consequences. Jier didnt care about the money but he didnt want the boy to think him a foolish spendthrift who was easy to deceive. He wanted it to be clear he wanted good information.


    The teen gripped the edge of his shirt and resolutely nodded his head before running out toplete his task.


    After he left, two others came in to report their findings. Other girls in the nearby viges were also missing. The earliest disappearance was from the year beforest. It was a small vige of about seven hundred; it wasnt far from Rime-Frost at all.


    Having heard all this Jier felt the reward for the mission was too low. The perpetuator harmed so many people! The reward amount wasnt proportionate to the work involved at all!


    If it was possible to drop the mission he would have done so and took taken Feng Wu with him back to school. But they couldnt abort the mission. Once they epted it they were responsible forpleting it. Even though he knew this he couldnt shake how unfair it was. The work wasnt worth the payout.


    Originally he thought it was a simple task; he never expected it to involve so many lives. He was in a lousy mood all day thinking about the crappy pay.


    Later that night three well-dressed people, with invitations in their hands, sat in a nice carriage on their way to a fancy birthday party.