The hard candy moving around against Freida's teeth was the only sound while I finished taking in all of the paperwork.

"Philip Mentisun was an abusive husband and father," Freida summarized the last paper I had read.

"Hah," I scoffed.

That was putting it lightly. Philip Mentisun had married a wealthy young woman from the Barakian Empire. He was quick to sever her connections to her family and take control of her fortune. Then to make matters worse, the son she bore with him experienced mental difficulties. Freida uncovered that Philip treated the child more like an animal than a son. There were street dogs treated better than how Philip treated the boy.

"Your brother had his wife and son taken into his custody the night of the party and exposed Philip's misconduct and many other offenses he's committed that no self-respecting and prideful West Genisian noble would ever wish to be publicly associated with."

My eyes glanced down at the types of entertainment Philip engaged in at the establishments run by the Red Lanterns, revealed to Micah by his wife. Not that I needed to read the details. I knew what the Red Lanterns specialized in and, just by association, knew that anyone who patronized their establishments had some seriously twisted interests. However, being a patron and having the details come to the public light were two separate matters.

"And thus, he was shunned from political life after being exposed?" I never really paid attention to the politics of the Adovorian society, so this was all news to me.

Freida nodded. "Yes, and while his family had never been particularly close with him, with his ostracization, his family suffered a reputational blow as well."

I'd say.

I leaned back in my chair but quickly sat back to attention as the old wood creaked under my weight.

"With their reputation smeared and their pride hurt, the Mentisuns were more than a little upset about how your brother was going to become the new king consort while their own son was forced into exile," Freida concluded her report.

"Pride, huh." I shook my head.

I couldn't do anything about Selvine's dead child and Mentisun's exiled son. And personally, I didn't consider either's fate the responsibility of Micah or my family, as the two sons were grown-ass adults that chose to partake in illicit activities.

I suppose I can only take the two families off the chessboard if they're unwilling to back down.

I put the contents back into the box and locked it, slipping the miniature oil lamp into my pocket along with the first one.

"Now, what are the two new questions you have for me?" Freida was quick to move on. She pulled out another hard round candy and plopped it in her mouth. This one was yellow.

 

***

 

"Don't forget to grab two items!" Freida called out behind me as I stepped out of the cloaked room with the two boxes in my hands. I re-entered her messy shop.

I had numerous questions I still needed answers for. However, I settled for intel regarding the Genuiver Duchy's intricate politics to place Duncan back into succession as the duchy's heir on my next round and information on Leona and where she might have disappeared.

With three days having gone by since her disappearance, it was worrisome. To be fair, I was planning to regress soon. With my regression, her predicament would have been reset as well, but it somehow felt wrong not to do anything about her. Especially if something similar might occur in my next round, I needed to know what had happened to circumvent her disappearance.

I balanced the boxes in my left arm while I used my right hand to pick up a rusty letter knife and a silver ring with a cracked blue gemstone. The ring, in particular, caught my attention for some reason.

A blue screen suddenly appeared.

[ Item: Cursed Disappearing Ring

Description: Allows a single object or object type in your possession to disappear from the view of others.

Warning : The ring is broken and might also make other unintended things disappear from view. ]

I'll be damned.

I turned and gazed back toward Freida, hidden behind the old green curtain.

I thought it was a joke that Grandov made that the items she stored here were cursed. But to think that they actually were? I thought it was all mere junk.

I suddenly felt bad for Gerald, onto whom I had offloaded the broken hair brush and the other ring I had picked up.

What if they had some weird abilities as well? I should have the System check them too.

I gazed around the dark and dirty shop with its many towering piles of broken and rusted objects, wondering if they all had some sort of unusual attributes to them as well.

Speaking of which, where is Gerald?

He wasn't anywhere in the shop.

Did he go outside?

I didn't blame him. The smell of incense was overwhelming. I was glad I wasn't having a mad coughing fit again.

I walked toward the exit and pulled on the Cursed Disappearing Ring. I focused on making my needles invisible. I looked at one of the needles tucked in my right sleeve, but I could still see it just fine, and no notification came up.

"Hey, System," I whispered. "Is the ring working or not? Are the needles invisible?"

[ Hi Luca, yes, the ring's magic has made the intended needles disappear. Note that you still see everything that the ring had turned invisible. ]

I nodded my head in approval.

Since the System confirmed it, then I wasn't concerned.

I stepped out into the gloomy street. Luckily the rain wasn't coming down anymore, but the sky was dark enough to consider finding shelter soon. The air had an almost humid feel to it.

I gazed about the broken cobble street road and haphazardly stacked buildings, trying to understand where Gerald might have gone. I didn't see him anywhere on the empty street.

"Gerald!" I called out and walked to the center of the road. My voice echoed out into silence.

I frowned.

And where did the carriage and driver go?

I turned to walk back, but before I could do so, I felt a large hand press a handkerchief against my mouth.

"Peeka-boo," a high-pitched voice sounded behind me.

[ Warning. You have been poisoned. ]

[ Your health is dropping at 5 points per second. 295/300 HP remaining. ]

Damn it. What now?

My vision blurred, but the blue screen remained perfectly distinct.

[ Additional health penalty in place. You will lose consciousness in '3' seconds. ]

The last part changed to '2', then '1', and then it was all darkness.

 

***

 

[ Warning. You are still poisoned. ]

[ Your health is no longer dropping. You have 270/300 HP remaining. ]

My eyes flickered open to a blurry sight. My head felt heavy, and I felt my body sway with the motion of the large carriage I was in.

[ Additional health penalty in place. Your body will experience paralysis for the next hour or as long as you continue to be in contact with the poison. ]

[ Current Paralysis Intensity : 70% ]

[ Your Strength is decreased by 70% ]

My body felt like Round 6 all over again when the cat knocked over whatever concoction into the tub. I tested to see what I could move. My legs were completely unresponsive, and my arms felt heavy. However, I could still lift my head to some degree, and my fingers were reasonably mobile.

"Ah! You're awake!" the same high-pitched voice sounded.

I gazed up at the man sitting across from me.

Shit. I thought I recognized the voice.

Across me sat a man as wide as he was tall, with a sparse stubble of hair atop his round head. He wore a pair of large round glasses so thick, making his green eyes appear bug-like. His skin glistened, and it was impossible to tell his age because there was not a single wrinkle or blemish in sight, but from what I'd heard, he should have been well into his sixties by now.

Damn it. Just my luck.

In my original life, a couple of individuals in East Genise made a name for themselves in my line of work. Kleave and I had gained notoriety of our own, but there were two individuals that we both agreed that we'd rather bite our tongue and die before ending up on their work tables. One was The Alchemist. And the other was The Farmer.

The Alchemist was a madwoman that performed alterations on the body, turning what was once human into something else entirely. Even if you managed to leave her workstation alive, life was usually not worth living when you had a pine branch for a right arm or your tongue perpetually spewed out an odor of something decomposing.

And then there was The Farmer, who was arguably far worse. He didn't really cause any harm to one's body, but his method of extracting information could last for years. Clients went to him when they were in no rush and wished to obtain knowledge from someone throughout a lifetime.

"Oh, don't look so scared. I'm not going to kill you," The Farmer smiled.

That was the problem. Dying I can handle, but being preserved like a vegetable and living out for years unable to die is not something I can endure.

I moved my tongue and jaw around. I didn't have complete control, but perhaps I had enough strength to bite my tongue off if needed.

"Who sent you?" I asked. My words came out garbled.

The Farmer rolled his eyes.

"Tut. Tut. Tut. I don't reveal my clients."

I didn't expect a real reply, but it was still worth a try.

"Why did you kidnap me?" I asked. The more I spoke, the less confident I became that biting my tongue was feasible.

I felt saliva roll out of my mouth, and I couldn't even wipe it off.

The Farmer pulled out a white handkerchief, leaned over, and dabbed my mouth clean.

"Luca, unfortunately, the way this will work is that I will ask the questions, and you respond," he said. "And again, as I've said, I have no intention of killing you. I promise you on my mother's grave that I will not kill you."

That was precisely the problem. The Farmer never killed anyone. He had been in this profession longer than most, and rumor had it that he had people in his possession from four decades ago when he had just started in this line of work.

I moved my fingers and felt the tip of my right sleeve with my wrist. I couldn't bite my tongue off, but I did have another trick, quite literally, up my sleeve. The fortunate part was that the poison needles were still on me, undiscovered. They were hard to find, as it were, and with the Cursed Disappearing Ring they should have been invisible.

The tricky part was actually undoing the cap on the right needle and poking myself. I could barely feel my fingers, making the textures on each of the needles hard to distinguish. Nor could I move my hands enough to actually see what it was that I was pulling out.

I'll just have to do them all.

"I must say, I've heard some unusual rumors about you, but it's still quite unique to walk about without shoes," he chuckled, looking at my feet.

What is he talking about?

I looked down at my fully booted feet.

Ah.

I remembered the weird warning about the broken Cursed Disappearing Ring.

I'm lucky it's my boots and not my pants that disappeared on me.

The carriage rolled to a stop, and The Farmer peeked out one of the windows.

"Oh good, we're here," he said. "We'll be able to have a proper conversation soon."

My nails had managed to tug the caps off the needles, and now I just needed to push the poison in.

It's now or never.

I needed to reset as soon as possible to avoid being stuck as a vegetable for decades on end. Still, at the same time, if I died now, I'd never learn who it was that sent The Farmer of all people after me.

"Well, out we go!" The Farmer opened the carriage door and leaned over to pull me out.

Do I reset or risk it and try to learn more about what happened exactly?