"Who was the knight that killed Black Falcon?" Ian asked. The information was the key to completing his optional mission.
"No," Arys shook his head immediately. "I will not answer. I don't betray my companions."
"Your 'Ghosts of White Wall' are finished," Ian stated flatly. "Sir Wylis has a hundred men deployed here, waiting for your 'caravan'. Yesterday, Black Falcon's adopted son, Dorian, assembled the entire Black Falcon mercenary company, and they are already on the road to Taman Village."
Ian leaned in slightly. "You can't save any of them. But you still have a chance to save your family."
Arys was silent for a long moment before a name escaped his lips. "It was Sir Lyonel Shett."
"If you are willing to provide more detail, I will answer your own question in greater detail in return," Ian tempted him.
"He is from a branch of House Shett in Gulltown," Arys said, his voice low. "Like me, he squired for House Grafson since he was a boy. He joined this... enterprise... for the same reason we all did: a lust for wealth. He was the one who discovered Black Falcon threatening us with our secret, so Daeron gave him the task of killing the man."
Ding!
The system's chime echoed in Ian's mind.
"Excuse me," Ian said to Arys. He quickly stepped around a corner in the cellar, out of sight, and closed his eyes to check the system interface.
He saw then that his optional mission had been updated.
[Optional Mission 1: The Truth Behind Black Falcon's Death]
Mission Objective: Kill Sir Lyonel Shett.
Mission Reward: Dorian will swear allegiance to you.
Additional Reward: Unknown.
"Annie," Ian called out in his mind. "The mission objective, killing Lyonel Shett—does that require me to do it myself?"
"During mission evaluation," Annie's synthesized voice responded, "a kill can be completed by the player, the player's subordinates, individuals in an employment relationship, or collaborators."
"Even collaborators? So, if Wylis and his men kill this Lyonel Shett, it counts as my mission being completed?" Ian was slightly surprised. The impending ambush on the abandoned fishing village would be a chaotic melee; he wasn't certain he could kill a specific target himself, or even with his own men.
"That is correct. Allied players can also assist each other in completing missions," Annie affirmed.
"Alright, that's all. You can go," Ian dismissed the interface. He opened his eyes and quickly walked back to Sir Arys.
"Is that where you pissed?" Arys asked, looking at the dark corner Ian had emerged from with disgust.
Well, Ian thought, my actions did rather resemble a man in urgent need of relief.
"Yes," Ian replied coolly. "You'll be sleeping with the smell of my urine tonight."
Arys glared at him in silence.
"Let's continue our game," Ian said. "How did Black Falcon discover your secret?"
"The rules of the game, Sir," Arys shot back, his wits returning. He wasn't foolish enough to answer that. "It is my turn to ask a question."
"Ah, yes. I almost forgot. Ask away, Sir Arys. I'm listening."
"The same question as before. How did you figure out the 'Ghosts of White Wall' were connected to us? I have just told you a great deal. I expect your answer will not disappoint me."
"Your own answer was hardly candid," Ian countered. "But no matter. I can assure you that everything I am about to tell you is the truth, and in full detail."
"The process of uncovering the truth was a long one," Ian began, "because I obtained information from many different channels: Black Falcon's adopted son, Dorian; Sir Wylis, whom you just met; and various mercenaries."
And the original novel, Ian added silently. Of course, he couldn't say that aloud.
"My first contact with this affair was the death of Black Falcon himself. As it happened, I was staying at the Inn at the Crossroads at the time."
"That was less than a week ago!" Arys said sharply. "That's not even enough time for you to travel to Taman Village and back!"
Ian ignored his captive's surprise. "After inspecting the scene of Black Falcon's death, it was clear the murderer came with the sole purpose of killing him. His son, Dorian, told me at the time that Black Falcon already knew the identity of the mole."
"So, it was self-evident which group had a motive to silence him. The real question was, why did Black Falcon go to meet his opponent alone, with only ten men? I could only think of two possibilities."
"One: Black Falcon himself was the mole. The fact he acted alone, at night, and was silenced fits the profile so perfectly it's difficult not to suspect him."
"Two: Black Falcon discovered a secret so vital that it couldn't be told to anyone, and he was killed when he tried to use that secret to blackmail the guilty party."
"But that leads to a problem. The Ghosts of White Wall are supposedly a simple bandit group searching for Blackfyre treasure. What kind of secret could they possibly have that would be worth blackmailing them over?"
Arys watched Ian silently, his face a stone mask. He already regretted revealing that Black Falcon had been silenced after making a threat.
"This question was resolved after I spoke with Sir Wylis," Ian continued. "Because Sir Wylis told me he suspected the mole was on his side of the conflict—and the core members of his alliance are all prestigious knights of this generation."
"If Black Falcon discovered the identity of one of these knights as the mole and went to blackmail him, then the entire story makes sense. Black Falcon wore his best plate and mail, confident in his own skill, and went to a clandestine meeting. He never expected the other party had no intention of talking and simply killed him with a military crossbow from a distance."
"Just because the mole is a knight, you couldn't possibly suspect us, could you?" Arys muttered.
"Of course not. After reaching that conclusion, I only had a preliminary theory about the Ghosts' stronghold. There are twenty or thirty villages near White Wall. Some of them are the fiefs of members of the Wylis Knight's Alliance. If the Ghosts were using a mole's fief as a base of operations..."
Ian let the implication hang in the air.
"Then the problem of Sir Wylis being unable to find any trace of the enemy in the uncomplicated terrain around White Wall is solved."
"But in that case, if the Ghosts' base camp is located within a village, doesn't their only discovered camp suddenly seem particularly conspicuous?"
Arys swallowed hard.
"That's right," Ian said, pressing his advantage. "You deliberately left that camp not far from Taman Village to give Sir Wylis and his men the illusion that the Ghosts were living in the wild."
"And it is precisely because that camp was a decoy that you were able to evacuate it so 'orderly' in such a short period of time, without leaving a single valuable behind."
"What does the camp's proximity to Taman Village prove?" Arys retorted quietly. "It's entirely possible someone else intentionally left it there. After all, the patrol from Taman Village reported the traces to Sir Wylis as soon as they were discovered, did they not?"
"Which is why my plan, at that point, was to attempt an on-site investigation," Ian said smoothly. "Once you have a target of suspicion, clues are always easy to find."
By having Bronn conduct an on-site investigation, Ian corrected in his mind. I would never take such a risk myself.
---
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