34 Another Day, Another Investigation Team

Laying on her sofa, Astur is fiddling with the System to put together her new shop for the players. As a basic requirement, she's making it that a minimum of 20 intimacy points with her is required before being able to purchase anything. Beyond the random junk she picked out from her workshop, Astur is also planning to sell her Enhanced Basic EXP Potions. The currency for the items in her new shop isn't going to be in a standard currency but instead cost the players EXP. Astur doesn't expect too many people to use her shop right away, but later, once the players figure out that the first use of the Enhanced Basic EXP will also give at least enough EXP to level up their Main Class once, the small amounts of EXP needed to buy the potion wouldn't be comparable to the high EXP requirements needed to level up later on.

Just as Astur finishes uploading the catalogue for her shop onto the shop window interface, she notices a Terror Hawk pecking on a nearby window.

As Astur opens the window for the bird, it says, "Goddess, I'm here bearing a report. The 2nd Scouting Division has identified two organised groups of outsiders and what appears to be several unorganised groups. I've already shared this information with the Saint since she was passing beneath me. After giving the Saint a description of the two groups, she said that one is likely related to the nearby town, a large portion of them resemble the unorganised groups in appearance, but they are being led by several people in uniforms. The second also has a portion of its people bearing outer resemblance to the unorganised group, but they are much smaller in number compared to their leaders who are wearing white robes with various sparkling accessories, the saint identified them as the Church."

"You are a subordinate of Birdie if I recall, good job on the report. I've already known about one of these groups, the Town of Dawn and the Town of Hadrow are conducting their own joint investigation since they aren't aware of the one that was being conducted by the Kingdom. The unorganised groups are also with the realms of expectations, although I didn't think they would be this fast, it seems I may have underestimated the players. But I'm not sure what the goals of the Church are, my understanding of them is that they probably won't take kindly to our emerging presence. Send out a squad under Sir Bearington to deal with the Church, if they aren't here for any good reason then he has permission to fight them off. I'll go deal with the town group, and there should have been another person with Liz, a young woman called Blaze. I've taken her as my disciple, help her gather up those unorganised fellows and bring them to the central area."

"By your will, it shall be done," the bird said before taking flight to carry out Astur's orders.

Heaving a sigh, Astur closes the window and reluctantly leaves the house again as she thinks, "at least I picked the easiest group to deal with." The reason she chose to personally deal with one of the groups is that she knows that she can't keep the Holy Oulvgar State hidden for much longer. That being said, she is sure that she can at least keep the whole situation hidden for a little longer, but this requires her to convince the investigation teams to leave. Astur, through her eavesdropping, knows that Dawn's Post Office Manager, Harold, is the one leading the joint town investigation, so she thinks she can convince him to leave better than any of her other followers can. The various groups of players coming is something she can let Blaze deal with because of the quest she gave Blaze. But the Church, whose intentions are unknown to Astur, she doesn't want to deal with. For all she knows, the Church group might just attack her on sight, in Astur's mind, it's better to send a strong fighter to deal with them in hopes that they'd just leave.

Astur moves quickly towards where her house used to be since she can hear Harold thinking of checking around that area first, knowing it's where Astur registered her address as. It doesn't take long before she arrives since the path from the central area and where her house used to be has been beaten down by all the Oulvgar who walk to and from the shrine and the central area. When Astur was on her way, she had been checking Harold's thoughts every time he thought of her name to get a grasp on where the investigation team is. From what Astur can tell, they should have been following the river and should have just arrived at the forest.

Knowing she made it in time, Astur whistles into the air, and a few moments later, the giant Terror Hawk, Birdie, one of the Forest Guardians, lands by her side.

"I need you to gather a team and not let any of the outsiders approach this area for the time being," Astur says.

"As you wish, Lady Astur. I'll gather the 1st Scouting Division and have them begin patrolling this area," Birdie says.

"That's fine, but make sure it's quick. I don't need people from the town seeing the shrine yet."

With Astur's approval, Birdie takes off and begins setting up the patrols. Astur then walks down the river to meet up with Harold and his investigation team.

Meanwhile, Harold, the Police Chief Wolfhard, along with some local officers and the players they recruited have entered the forest. Under the command of Harold, they fan out into a line formation while making sure that everyone is still within sight. The original plan was to have the team split up into several small groups, but due to the unexpected arrival of the players, who both Harold and Wolfhard harbour varying degrees of suspicion towards, Harold changed the plans so everyone can be monitored.

"I know Miss Astur lives in these parts, so I should probably ask her about what's going on. But why can't I shake this bad feeling I've got…" Harold thinks as he leads the team forward. But suddenly Harold comes to a stop as he hears a voice he hasn't heard in a while.

"And just what is this bad feeling you've got, Mister Manager."

While initially startled by the sudden appearance and words from Astur, Harold has experienced his fair share of strange things in his life and quickly composes himself, "I take it that reading my mind is something you can do. Regardless, it's good you're here since I had wanted to speak with you."

"Hmm… something like that," Astur says.

Approaching from behind Harold, suspicious of someone appearing from the forest, Wolfhard asks, "Sir, do you know who this is? You said she read your mind, is she of the Mystic races?"

Although he doesn't take any physical action, Harold shakes his head in his mind, knowing that Wolfhard isn't as open-minded as he is, holding prejudice against the Mystic races, and even the Beastfolk to an extent.

"She's an acquaintance of mine. Since she lives nearby, I thought it would be good to see if she knows anything regarding the matter at hand," Harold says, ignoring Wolfhard's second question. But in his head, Harold has a suspicion that Astur is involved in the matters surrounding the forest.

"Perceptive, but that should be expected from someone who is probably one of the strongest people in the surrounding areas," Astur thinks.

As Harold and Wolfhard question Astur, some of the players get excited upon seeing her. These players are people who had been watching Blaze's stream and is aware of the lucrative rewards from completing her quests. The players out of the loop are confused at first by the excitement of the others, but as they hear about the potential rewards, they too get rather excited. On the flip side, the NPCs accompanying the players are incredibly confused as they can see the player's mouths moving but don't hear anything from them. This is because of a feature within the System that allows party members to have a private conversation, but it doesn't block out body movement like the mouth, only the sound of their voice. However, Astur is able to bypass this because the players are talking about her and are saying her name. While she is having a back and forth conversation between herself, Harold, and Wolfhard, she isn't actually paying attention to them and focusing more on what the players have to say and is satisfied that her little show with Blaze worked out the way she planned.

Tired of Astur avoiding his questions with vague answers, Wolfhard abandons the polite pretence he had been showing for an acquaintance of Harold and asks, "Just tell us what you know about what's happening in the forest."

"I am aware, but that doesn't mean I need to tell you anything about it. There was an investigation team here led by the Kingdom's military not too long ago, Taurion and Lester had been with them too, serving as advisors. If you really want to know about what's happening you should ask them. I suggest you take your leave since your Kingdom has already completed their investigation. The other residents of the forest don't take too kindly to invaders," Astur says, turning her eyes towards Harold.

Harold quickly picks up on Astur's underlying meaning and begins to weigh the pros and cons of recalling the investigation. He knows that recalling the investigation will make a few people upset, namely Wolfhard. But he also knows that if Astur is telling the truth about there being a previous investigation, then continue is a waste of resources. But beyond that, another factor for Harold is Astur herself. Based on how Astur had been avoiding the questions and how she wants everyone to leave, Harold is even more sure that Astur is closely tied to whatever is happening in the Sea of Trees.

"We're withdrawing. For all of the men and women who volunteered to assist, meet with me at the town centre, I'll give you all a reward for your time," Harold says as he turns to leave.

"But Sir!" Wolfhard calls out.

"We are withdrawing, Wolfhard. I don't mean to close the investigation entirely, only putting it on hold until after we can confirm the situation with Count Urvostrion and Viscount Dresuar. As of right now, continuing would be a waste of manpower and resources. With the recent influx of strangers to our town, wouldn't our Police be better off safeguarding the town right now?"

"... very well, Sir," Wolfard says as he follows behind Harold, but not before turning his head to glare at Astur.

With everyone gone, Astur turns back herself, thinking she could really use a nap right about now. Unfortunately, she knows that there are still a couple of matters that need to be dealt with, the various players that are trying to enter the forest and the group from the Church of Light.