"Claude, is that you?" Pegg asked.
The figure climbed up the dock with some difficulty. "It's me, Uncle Pegg."
"You didn't find Eyke's boat?
What happened to you? "Pegg asked.
Claude's gait was a little unsteady. "Don't mention it. I didn't see Eyke and Wero even after making a big round. I don't know where they went either.
I was unlucky when I came back and tripped. "
"Are you alright?"
Pegg saw some mud on Claude's body with the help of the light from the stick. It seemed that the fall was quite heavy.
"I'm fine, Uncle Pegg."
Claude walked to the carriage parked at the docks and unloaded his backpack onto it. He climbed into the driver's seat and drove Jemmy to the entrance of the docks.
"Uncle Pegg, thank you for waiting for me for so long. It's a pity I didn't find Eyke and Wero.
Tomorrow is Sunday and they might only return in the afternoon. Just tell them I came by then.
I'll go back and take a hot bath. I'm all muddy and dirty. I'll catch a rabbit at the wood in two days to go with your wine, "Claude said politely.
"It's fine. I'll tell Eyke and Wero.
Be careful on your way back. Don't drive the carriage too fast, "Pegg said as he opened the door to the dock.
After bidding farewell to Pegg, Claude drove the carriage back to the wood. The journey was rather smooth.
When he returned to the wood, he unloaded the carriage and drove the black horse, Jamie, back to the stable and refilled its trough with horse feed and water.
He greeted Siori, who had heard the commotion at the chicken farm on the mountain, and asked if there was anything going on at the chicken farm that night. Then, he carried his backpack and walked to the small wooden hut where he lived.
After returning to the hut, Claude lit an oil lamp and took out the magic materials from his backpack.
After that, he hung the crossbow that the bearded man used to ambush him on the wall. Then, he found a bottle of healing potion and applied it to the wounds on his body.
When he was done, he took out a similar dark robe from the wardrobe and put it on. He hung the shortsword on his waist and loaded his crossbow before tying it to his right arm.
In the end, he picked up two bottles of gran wine. He bought it to distill alcohol for his experiments in the herbalism lab. He bought a crate of twelve bottles in total and used seven of them already.
He put the two bottles of wine into his empty backpack and put it on. He blew out the oil lamp and quietly opened the door, leaving the wooden hut.
Using the shadows of the houses and trees as cover, he snuck out of the wood and headed down the hill.
I still have a lot of things to do tonight. I have to make the best use of my time. Looking at the silver moon that was half-obscured by the clouds, he sighed and continued on his way.
It only took forty minutes for the carriage to reach the Altronis' private pier.
On the other hand, it would take him more than two hours to get there on foot.
However, it was already close to midnight and there was no one on the streets. Claude didn't have to worry about running into people who knew him. He could travel quickly on the main road and avoid the night patrols.
It was around one in the morning when he arrived at the Altronis' private jetty. Claude didn't have any intention of going in. Instead, he took a turn and entered the lakeside through an alley beside the jetty. He descended to the sandy shore and retraced his steps along the embankment.
About ten minutes later, Claude arrived at the small forest where he was ambushed by the bearded man.
He picked up his crossbow and carefully approached the small forest, perking up his ears to listen to his surroundings.
After a while, he confirmed that there was nothing out of the ordinary around him and relaxed.
He passed through the small forest and came to the side of the lake bank. After checking his surroundings again and confirming that there was nothing out of the ordinary, he slowly climbed down the bank.
The bearded man's corpse was hidden at the bottom of the bank, covered by the blood-stained robe that Claude had taken off.
He folded his own robe and put it to the side.
Claude followed up with a Featherfall spell on the bearded man's corpse before grabbing the clothes on it.
The corpse was lifted up as lightly as a feather. Just like that, Claude carried the corpse and walked quickly in the shadows of the lake bank.
He had no choice. The bearded man's corpse definitely couldn't be found by the lakeside, not even in the small forest.
What he was most worried about was that the patrols would start looking for clues after the corpse was found. That way, the fact that he was looking for Eyke and Wero's fishing boat by the lake would reach their ears.
Even though it was possible that the patrols wouldn't treat him as a suspect due to his father, it was still a suspicious point. Claude didn't want anyone to look at him suspiciously.
He had to get rid of the corpse.
Even though he could report to the police that he had killed a robber in self-defense, he had to explain why he was in the small forest at night.
Moreover, once the news got out, Hurian would definitely know his identity. That was something Claude wanted to avoid the most.
Who knew if Hurian, the fat old man, had secretly instructed the bearded burly man to rob and ambush him. Even if it wasn't, it was highly possible that the fat old man's big mouth would leak his identity. If that happened, he would never have a day of peace in the future.
Claude didn't have the ability to destroy the corpse yet, but he could still shift the blame to someone else.
There were quite a few people who could make someone disappear without a trace in the slums and the public docks. Claude planned to get one of them to help him get rid of the corpse.
As for whether the other party was willing or not, Claude didn't care.
The Mermaid Tavern in the docks was an L-shaped three-storey building made of wood and stone. The longer one was the hotel's guest room, the shorter one was the tavern's first and second floors, and the third floor was the tavern's residence.
Even though Claude hadn't been to the tavern before, he had heard from Eriksson that the tavern owner, Aleksim, was an influential figure in the underworld of Whitestag. It was said that he had been the captain of a whaling ship when he was young and had also been a pirate at sea. He only returned to open the tavern after he lost a leg.
The tavern owner's building was built on the stone embankment beside the lake. Claude could walk along the embankment until he reached the bottom of the building.
Since he was walking on the sand beneath the embankment, it would be hard for anyone to notice him.
On the other hand, if anyone were to pass by the embankment, he would be able to hear their footsteps and hide in the dark without being noticed.
However, it would take around 20 minutes to reach Mermaid Tavern, not to mention that Claude was carrying the corpse of a 1.8-meter-tall man with him.
Although the Feather Fall spell was more useful and could make a corpse as light as a feather, the spell's duration was too short, only two minutes.
Claude had already cast seven Featherfall spells and had almost used up all his mana.
In the end, he had no choice but to carry the corpse on his back for quite a while before he reached the embankment below the tavern.
The long building of the Mermaid Tavern only had two entrances. One was inside the tavern. For example, newcomers could register at the tavern counter and pay a deposit. After getting the key to the room, they could go directly to the building next door through the tavern's entrance.
The other entrance was at the other end of the building, but it was guarded by a guard who was on duty 24 hours a day.
Claude walked around the tavern twice and carefully studied the layout of the building and the passageways.
It was around two or three in the morning and most of the people in the tavern had left. However, there were still two drunkards sleeping on one of the tables.
There was another waiter at the counter. He seemed to be on duty. He ignored the two drunkards who were sleeping on the table and immersed himself in his own work.
Claude didn't want to walk through the tavern. Even though there weren't many people around, the interior of the tavern was rather well lit. There were only four oil lamps in the lobby. Entering under such circumstances would make it easier for people to see their faces clearly.
He walked to the passageway at the back of the building. Even though there were oil lamps inside, the passageway was rather dark. Perhaps someone disguised as a drunkard would be able to sneak in easily.
After giving it some thought, Claude returned to the corpse and took off the bearded man's robe, pants and shoes. After checking them, he grabbed some mud from the ground and smeared it on the bloody robe.
Only when all the blood on the robe and pants was covered by the mud and the smell of blood could no longer be smelled did Claude put on the bearded man's robe and pants over his own clothes. He took out two bottles of gran wine from his backpack and poured it on himself. He also poured half of it on the robe he was wearing.
Claude then took out a black charcoal pencil from his backpack and smeared it on his face in the image of the bearded man's beard.
He didn't expect to be able to look like the bearded man. All he wanted was a resemblance to make others think he was the bearded man.
In the end, he opened the remaining bottle of gran wine and poured half of it on the ground. He climbed up the stone embankment and looked around to make sure there was no one around before he started acting like a drunkard. He held the bottle of gran wine and muttered something like 'another bottle for a toast' as he staggered towards the passageway at the back of the building.
There was a metal gate at the end of the passageway. Claude leaned against it and slammed it a couple of times, shouting in a muffled voice, "Open the door!"
A burly man walked out. "Who is it? Who are you?"
Claude raised the bottle of wine in front of him and pretended to drink as he mumbled, "Oh, oh, I need a key to open the door, right?"
He took out the bronze key with the number 219 from his pocket and handed it to the man. "Here, here's the key. Open the door."
The man looked at the number on the key and smiled. "Ah, so it's Mister Edmigo. Why did you come back so late? And you're so drunk.
Wait, I'll open the door for you. That's the key to your room. The one above isn't the key to this metal gate. "
Claude pretended to choke on the wine and lowered his head, coughing and covering his face with his hands.
With the hood over his robe, as long as the man didn't see his face, he wouldn't be able to tell that he was an imposter.
The man opened the gate and saw Claude coughing heavily. "Mister Edmigo, do you need me to send you upstairs?"
Claude lowered his head and replied with a hoarse voice, "I … I'm not drunk. Give me another bottle. Y-you drink too."
He shoved the bottle in his hand to the man, who looked down and saw that there was still half a bottle of gran wine left. He chuckled. "Go up yourself, Mister Edmigo."
He couldn't be bothered to send Claude upstairs, lest Edmigo sober up and take back his wine.
Seeing Claude stagger towards the stairs, he closed the gate and returned to the room. With that bottle of gran wine, his night shift would be much easier.
Claude intentionally stumbled his way up to the second floor. There were no longer any idlers in the long passageway.
Instead, he could hear the sounds of men and women moaning from the guest rooms on both sides of the passageway. The soundproofing of the guest rooms didn't seem to be very good.