480 Plan Great Success
I was led to a room. Chief Raie's office. I was offered to sit on the sofa.
"Are you the culprit behind our Griffon's issue? Here to make us indebted to you by taking it back?"
Chief Raie's eyes glinted sharply as if to probe me. I honestly told her that I had zero idea what she was on about.
"Aren't you misunderstanding something here? I simply took a liking to the tea and got curious about its production process, hence my visit here. I understand it's not the best time. But how does that tie to me being the culprit or anything?"
Raie kept staring at me for a while before sighing while apologizing.
"Haa~ I'm sorry about this. I've been getting irritated lately. You don't look like someone who would do that. Will you listen? The Griffon in question you see, it was purposely led to this place after it was wounded. Though it's still a conjecture right now."
(Uh, it suddenly sounds like a shady business? How will this develop... and why am I stuck with another ploy again?)
It was already a mistake to not consider the possibility back then. I thought it was nothing more than a natural disaster.
But opening the lid reveals a scheme someone is cooking. It's such a bother. And now that I've heard all about this, I can't just turn around and say 'bye bye'. In fact, things are developing too fast I don't even have time to react.
"Let me start from the beginning. I'd like to hear someone's opinion on this, and it'll help sort my thoughts. Can I count on you?"
(I don't wanna if I can help it! No, really!)
<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >
I didn't say that out loud of course. I've learned how to read the air, somewhat.
"Let's see, first, let's talk about Griffons' habitat. There's a mountain far north from here. That's where Griffons usually live. That mountain houses an abundance of wildlife to prey on, it's unthinkable for a lone magic beast there to come all the way here."
"And that led to the crisis this site is facing now?"
I couldn't help interjecting. I'm knee deep in this whole mess by the time Chief Raie brought me to her office.
It's a done deal. The time to get away is long gone. To begin with, I stuck my nose in.
I never even entertained the idea that the issue was never quite simple.
"Yes it does. That Griffon was wounded by someone and driven here. They even prepared a way to make it stay. You can easily tell from the excessive trail of blood leading to this place. Our investigation found it."
"Is there a chance it was just a coincidence. Like things just happened to fall into pieces. Maybe the griffon was engaged in a turf war and lost. That was when it got hurt. Maybe?"
I presented the possibility but she shot it down.
"I had that confirmed first thing first by braving danger. I went close enough to the griffon to see it with my own eyes. Alone by myself."
"Why'd you risk yourself like that? Couldn't you hire some mercenaries or something? Heck, you could have asked them to kill the thing outright."
"The entire area here up to the Griffon's spot is the Waking Grass's production site. Letting mercenaries trample all over this place is akin to destroying this site. Even the slightest change in environment can kill Waking Grass. It was never an option. I had to go alone. This place is pretty much my garden after all."
"And you saw something that made you certain of your conjecture. Which is?"
"The Griffon had obvious bladed weapon wounds on its body. Its hind legs were scorched badly as well. It must have been caught in the mountain at first. It's clear that the griffon was tortured during its captivity before it was released and driven away from its mountain. They kept the assault until it found its way here. Pinpointed inside the woods here at that. I even doubted my eyes at first. I mean there was clearly food left near where the griffon was. A body of a medium sized magic beast. We never have a sighting of magic beast around these parts."
"The cornered griffon went straight to the first food it found huh..."
"Yes, that must be it. And almost immediately after the Griffon chose to stay in those woods, a group of mercenaries came by. They told us they're here to get rid of the magic beast. But we refused their entry. Reason being what I told you. You see, you need a group of 30 experienced mercenaries to take down a griffon that big. And the group that came was exactly around that scale. By that point, it was obvious everything was set up. But we drove them away at the time. 'You guys have barged in a private property without permission. We won't pay you even if you kill the Griffon on your own. We will treat you as criminals if you insist. We will report this incident to the kingdom'. They relented and left afterward. They left swearing like small time thugs too. 'Don't you dare come crying back to us later!'"
"A band of mercenaries who knew the whole picture showed up out of nowhere? Then they insisted on killing the magic beast even though they were told not to? They only left after you threatened them about their payment and calling the authorities? It's so sickeningly obvious someone is pulling the strings..."
None of it seems natural. Everything is leading to a conclusion.
"So it's all a scheme to crush this production site, huh. Letting the mercenaries enter the site will kill the Waking Grass. Them fighting the griffon will make it worse. And even if those mercenaries never got in, the griffon's existence alone would gradually change this site's environment, killing the Waking Grass softly. The person behind everything never shows their face from beginning to end. Yup, it's quite a well formulated plan. Not something I should be impressed of though."
I couldn't help but admire the twofold scheme executed here.
This site was checkmated the moment they got the griffon touchdown.
I felt a bit angry at the mastermind.
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