The pattern did not go unnoticed for long.
Properties changing hands in different parts of Eldor might have passed as coincidence once or twice, but not at this scale, and not with this kind of quiet consistency.
Estates near trade routes. Storage buildings along outer districts. Smaller houses positioned in between, like connective tissue that didn't serve an obvious purpose on its own.
The nobles saw it for what it was, they were not stupid at all.
Not expansion for comfort, but placement, and placement implied intent far larger than what this person displayed.
The town governor was the first to formalize the concern, though he didn't do it publicly. Questions were asked in private rooms, records reviewed without announcement, names cross-checked against existing merchants, guilds, and known investors.
No individual appeared often enough to form a pattern. No face returned twice in a way that could be pinned down. Transactions were clean, payments consistent, intermediaries different each time.
It wasn't just hidden, it was structured to remain that way, which made it worse for them.
"Find the point of contact, I want you to get to the bottom of this" one of the nobles had said, not bothering to hide the irritation beneath the words. "Everyone leaves a trace somewhere, even this pest."
So they widened the net. Servants watched unfamiliar movements. Clerks noted unusual purchases. A few more direct approaches were made—questions that sounded casual on the surface, but carried just enough pressure underneath to make it clear that the answers mattered.
Eventually, something surfaced after much investigation over the days. A man who had handled multiple transactions. Not all, but enough to suggest proximity. Paid well and kept quiet. The kind of person who would have stayed invisible if not for the fact that someone had started looking specifically for patterns like his.
They let him continue, for a while, just so they don't spook him
—
Daruis had expected it. Not the exact timing, not the exact individual, but the outcome itself.
Pressure always revealed the weakest point, and the people he hired were chosen for utility, not loyalty.
Loyalty could be bought. Fear, however, tended to override it.
So he didn't intervene, he observed.
From a distance that kept him outside the shape of the event entirely, positioned where he could see without being seen, where the movement of the street below played out like something already decided.
His lackey stood where he had been instructed.
On time, that much, at least, he had done correctly.
There was a tension in his posture that hadn't been there before. Subtle, but visible if you knew what to look for. His hands stayed too still. His eyes moved too often, checking the edges of the street, the spaces between people.
Waiting, not just for the meeting but for something else. Daruis didn't shift, he didn't need confirmation as a conclusion had already formed.
Still, he watched. A figure approached. Cloaked, measured steps, nothing about the movement that stood out from a distance. It matched what had been established before—anonymous, controlled, exactly the kind of presence the lackey would expect.
The man noticed him immediately.
Relief flickered across his face before he suppressed it, replacing it with something closer to composure.
He stepped forward just enough to close the distance, then made the gesture.
It was an odd one.
Something Daruis had introduced deliberately—a signal that meant nothing to anyone who hadn't been taught it, a small layer of verification.
The lackey performed it perfectly, too perfectly however, more like a display.
The cloaked figure didn't respond, or mirror it.
For a fraction of a second, confusion broke through the lackey's expression.
That was when the street changed. Two figures emerged from positions that had seemed empty moments before. Not rushing, not shouting—just moving with purpose that didn't need to announce itself.
The first strike landed before the cloaked man had fully turned.
The second followed immediately, ensuring there was no recovery, no chance for resistance. The body hit the ground with a weight that drew attention from the edges of the street, but not from the center of it.
People looked then looked away, they knew that they ought to keep to themselves or face consequences, It was handled too efficiently to be mistaken for anything other than what it was.
The lackey stepped back. Not in shock but in recognition.
His shoulders lowered slightly, tension bleeding out in a way that suggested relief rather than horror. He had expected something like this. Maybe not the exact method, but the outcome.
He had made his choice before the meeting even began. Daruis remained where he was, gaze steady, expression unchanged.
It had played out exactly as it needed to.
Not because he had orchestrated the attack—he hadn't needed to—but because he had understood the variables well enough to let them resolve on their own.
The lackey had been compromised the moment fear outweighed the value of what he was being paid.
The gesture had confirmed it. The setup had tested it and the result had removed it from doubt.
Below, the two figures didn't linger. They moved on as quickly as they had appeared, leaving the body where it fell. Someone would handle it. Someone always did.
The lackey stood there a moment longer, looking at the ground, then around, as if expecting something else to happen.
Nothing did, eventually, he turned and walked away. Alive, for now.
Daruis let his gaze follow him briefly, not with interest, but with quiet acknowledgment.
There was no anger in it. No sense of betrayal that needed to be addressed.
This was how things worked at this level.
People held until they didn't. The only mistake would have been relying on them beyond that point.
He shifted his weight slightly, stepping back from the vantage point, letting the scene fall out of view as easily as it had come into it.
The nobles of the town would continue their investigation.
They would adjust, refine, push harder now that they had tasted proximity, even if it had led them to the wrong target.
That was expected. Daruis didn't need them to stop. He just needed them to keep missing. And so far, they were doing exactly that.