Jito

While Jorgen was interrogating Jacobson, Elin was stepping onto the deck of a newly docked ship. The moment his feet landed, a rough voice like a solid wall of sound rushed toward him.

"Who? Which shameless guy dared to step onto Gubo Blapp's Firewheel privately? Is it a fish thief? For those who dare to disturb me enjoying the spoils of war for a moment, there is only - eh? Is that you, Elin?"

"Oh! Look at all those live fish jumping around! You're still so good, Gubo."

"It should be better, you silly boy. What are you doing here? Do you want to go to the cabin and have some freshly grilled fish fillets with strong liquor?"

"Oh, that would be great, Gubo. But I'm here for work today."

"Work? I almost forgot you had work to do... Has there been a big case that needs the wisdom of dwarves?" Gubo pulled the fishing net hard.

"Gamero's body was washed ashore."

Gubo's mouth was half open and froze. The fishing net was clenched tightly in his hands and stopped sliding.

"My God... Poor guy. How did he look? I mean...can you still recognize his big chin like a dustpan?"

"I'm afraid not."

"...Now it's over. How am I going to explain this to his old mother when I get back to Ironforge? By the way, you know Jito, don't you? Has he seen Gamero's corpse?"

"Actually, I came today to ask you about Jito. Now that Gamero is dead, I heard that the only person who can chat with Jito in sign language is you. But I still want to talk to you alone first. Just relax, just some simple questions."

"I need grilled fish fillets and wine to relax. Let's go to the cabin."

In the low cabin, Gubo turned the skewers of grilled fish fillets, and before the first piece of fish was grilled, he had already drunk three large glasses of wine. His fingers accidentally touched the burnt edge of the grill and pulled back with a hiss, and the fish fillets fell into the fire.

"Damn it...! Huh, huh." He blew on his fingers and kicked the charred fish fillets aside.

"You don't look so good."

"To be honest, I feel like the gains from a day and night at sea have been ruined. It's all because of you, you rascal... Forget it, we'll know about this sooner or later. Alas, I promised Gamero's old mom I'd take good care of him. You said you wanted to ask about Jito just now, didn't you?"

As soon as this chattEling dwarf was willing to return to the subject, Elin had to seize the opportunity immediately.

"Yes, let's talk about Jito, not about anything else. Jito was recruited into the archaeology team by Gamero, right? Then, did Gamero ever tell you how Jito made a living before this?"

"Needless to say, the orphanage raised him. Later, they lost money and some children died of illness, so the dean ran away with his whole family. As for the children left there, some died, some left, some were adopted, leaving only Jito alone. Although he looks so pitiful, the boy is not poor at all! The whole big house belongs to him!"

"What do you mean?"

"It is said that when he was little, someone sent money anonymously to Jito regularly so that he could live well in the orphanage. This is very common, because the so-called orphanage actually secretly supports many illegitimate children, and if their old fathers have a little conscience, they will send money anonymously. I don't know if Jito is an illegitimate child or not, but it's true that someone sent him money. The boy didn't know how to spend money at all, or rather, he didn't even know what money was. As long as he had two meals a day and an extra blanket in winter, he asked for nothing else, so that money accumulated slowly."

"Don't tell me he bought the whole orphanage with that money."

"That's exactly what happened. The whole piece of land was rented by the dean of the orphanage. Later, in a hurry to run away, to gather some travel money, he sold all the documents to Jito at a low price. And the silly boy really bought it! I say, such an empty, dilapidated and vermin-infested big house, who would take care of him if he lived in it alone? But he just has problems with his head. After the money was gone, if Gamero hadn't noticed him, the boy would still be eating only potatoes as big as his little fingers every day."

"That's really a strange story. You've done me a great favor, Gubo. Well done."

"Hey, you're not suspecting Jito of killing Gamero, are you? There's no possibility of that. The boy did like to work for Gamero, and he even saved his life before. I'm telling the truth. Gamero almost regarded him as his son and was going to take him to Silithus."

"Silithus? What to do there?"

"That's a great ancient battlefield. Who knows how many things worth studying are buried in those nests. Gamero had long lost interest in the Black Coast and announced that he was going to Silithus before and after the Fire Festival, taking his elite team. He specially named Jito. However, if they really went there, they probably wouldn't come back alive. I heard that the ancient bugs there have become active recently, attacking people in droves."

"Going there to dig archaeology tunnels is really crazy."

Elin casually responded while thinking repeatedly about "Gamero planned to take Jito to Silithus".

"What can you do? Gamero lived on this kind of spirit."

After speaking, Gubo took a big bite of the fish fillet, chewed loudly, and then pointed at Elin with the barbecue fork, meaning "do you want some too". After a long speech without pause, the disappointed look on his face had disappeared.

"Are you going to interrogate Jito? The boy can't speak and needs me and Gamero to sign to him. This was taught by Gamero, the special sign language of dwarves. Gamero had a mute sister, so he had to learn... Later, I learned better than Gamero in order to pursue that mute little sister. Do you need my help to question him? Do you need it?"

Elin pressed his temples with both hands. "Gubo, either we go up to the spacious deck, or you lower your voice, otherwise my eardrums will burst and I will fall down bleeding in front of you. You may become a murderer."

"Oh, I'm sorry. But I don't want to go up to the deck, these fish fillets are still..."

"Well, I understand. Just lower your voice a little. In communicating with Jito, we do need your help. In fact, I came mainly for this today. But I have some other questions to ask. Do you know Dores Stryfe?"

"The carpenter?"

"Yes. You probably don't know yet, but he was found hanged in his house the other day."

"My God. Although I didn't know him well, this is really awful. This port is not safe at all. Come to think of it, I was almost bitten by a basilisk lizard at sea yesterday afternoon when I was watching the wind direction..."

Elin gestured for Gubo to stop and return to the subject.

"Oh. You want to ask me about my opinion of Dores." Gubo seemed very disappointed that the story of the basilisk lizard was interrupted.

"The key is what you think of the relationship between Dores and Gamero."

"They were...not very close friends, I guess. They used to go fishing at sea together on my ship. But I don't like that guy much. He always looked gloomy and sinister, as if everyone owed him money, and he didn't like to talk. Now that I think about it, it's not surprising that such a person hanged himself."

"Why do you say that?"

"For no reason, just because he always looked unhappy. Although not young, it's possible that he committed suicide just because a girl rejected him. Don't you humans always do such silly things?"

"Gubo, I don't understand what you just said. Did you drink too much?"

"No, I really saw Dores being rejected by a human girl on the night of the Fire Festival."

"To be precise, when exactly on the night of the Fire Festival?"

"I can't remember exactly, but it was just after the maze fire seed game started and before the circus started performing."

"...Who was the girl?"

"I can't remember the name... Let me think, it was the big star of the circus...Got it, Senoni. That's right."

Elin recalled Jorgen's experience that night. The Sea Sunflower performance was about to begin, but Senoni was missing, and Dores was not in sight.

"Go on, what did you see them doing?"

"I didn't hear what they were saying, I just saw Dores with a gloomy expression as usual, and the girl took something like a necklace from her chest and showed it to him. They talked for a few sentences, and Dores seemed to be completely deflated. That's all."

Elin pressed his temples again. "Did you just see these? Didn't hear anything?"

"Yeah."

"Then why did you tell me that 'Dores was rejected by the girl'?"

"Because it looked like that was the case. Don't you humans always..."

"Okay," Elin stood up, "thank you very much, Gubo. Your information is very useful, which is rare. I have to go."

"What, don't you need me to help interrogate Jito? I was really looking forward to it."

"No hurry. There are more important things to deal with now -- yeah, I'll just have a bite of your grilled fish fillet -- it tastes great! Okay, I'm leaving, don't send me off at all."

Elin hurriedly stepped onto the deck and then jumped off the ship. After suffEling a blow to the ears, learning so much made him feel that it was worth it. Senoni's intervention was an accident, but he already had preliminary ideas about the relationship between Dores, Gamero and Jito.

The information Jorgen got from the stubborn old Jacobson must not be more than mine, Elin thought.