For one reason or another, the Lord’s estate is in shambles and the cure is missing.

Ricken would have no reason to steal his own research like this, so who is the one behind this?

Cheshyr 「 Who could have done this? 」

Laura 「 Are there any copies of your notes, Ricken? 」

Ricken 「 None. I can reproduce the cure to an extent, but it took months to synthesize one. 」

Lina 「 Some of the townsfolk don’t have that long left. Especially the weaker ones like children and elderly. And Ricken is also sick. 」

Alice 「 Hey, where’s the old shorty? 」

Cheshyr 「 Who would bother to steal a cure? It wasn’t even proven effective yet. 」

The big sister ignores her little sister.

Laura 「 A new cure could bring in profits if sold to a wealthy patient. Maybe with the right connections. 」

Alice 「 Where’s the funny looking man? 」

Lina 「 Perhaps someone is capable of engineering this outbreak. 」

The Earth sisters ignore the little girl.

Alice 「 What was his name? Gassy? 」

Envie 「 Ms. Alice? Are you looking for someone? 」

At that everyone turns to look at the little girl.

Alice 「 The man with the hair all over his face. 」

Becca 「 Gosler? Now that you mention it, we haven’t run into him yet. 」

Let’s pull up the menu’s map. I mark Gosler same as Ricken.

Huh. I don’t see Gosler’s dot anywhere on the estate. He’s missing, same as the cure. Strange.

I heal the butler and wake him up with a splash of water magic.

I calmly ask him what happened here although I already have some suspicions. He explains that some unknown assailants snuck in after disabling the guards. They took the cure by force and knocked out everyone else.

When I explained that the lord was also missing, the butler’s face became aghast. Using my telepathic psychic abilities, I read his mind.

Apparently, the butler has an inkling on who the assailants are. Lord Gosler has had some esteemed guests that hid their faces when they met him in closed chambers.

Becca 「 Say Ricken, has the lord had any other guests recently besides us? 」

Ricken looks startled and hesitant. Just one more push.

Becca 「 Lives are at stake. Anything you can think of could help us. 」

Ricken 「 ... It’s that Exile Guild. The Abyss Star. Gotta be. 」

I turn to Cheshyr and Envie who recites from her Almanac skill’s encyclopedic memory. Apparently those who used to be Keepers that break the rules and take part in illegal activities become black listed. Those exiles formed several underground guilds called Exile Guilds that operate outside of Keeper influence.

Exile Guilds take on jobs that Keepers usually stray from like assassinations, burglary, and subterfuge, anything for the right price. The Abyss Star is a relatively small Exile Guild that tend to extort the locals of their own supplies.

Ricken 「 They approached me weeks ago and told me of the outbreak of White Death in Frosthill. They offered to sponsor my research in return for exclusivity rights to sell the cure. I refused and made a deal with Gosler to do research and make a cure available to all. I haven’t seen them since, but they may have visited Lord Gosler in secret. 」

Becca 「 And you think those guys are the ones who stole the cure? It seems fishy that they approached you first about making a cure. How did they know the cure was ready. 」

Laura 「 I can imagine that they’ll charge a small fortune for handing the cure to the sick. 」

Ricken 「 I fear it’s worse than that. Those rats that helped spread it, and the Spring being the source, I’ll bet it was all the Abyss Star’s doing. I’ve had a hunch, and seeing the spring… 」

Cheshyr 「 Does that mean this outbreak was originally their doing? They have a method of spreading the disease and charging for the cure. 」

Envie 「 It is an effective means to make money. 」

Lina 「 But They’re risking people’s lives to do it. 」

Laura 「 I imagine that they might just ignore the patients who can’t pay. That or they cure them and force a huge debt on the patient’s family. 」

Alice 「 That’s horrible! 」

What’s worse is that they contacted Gosler but he didn’t mention anything about that. I can already start to see what’s going on.