Stop Talking, Brain Thinking, Hush

"The man got the mansion up and running within a few months. Unless this Brookes guy is a Mage of the Element of Building, I highly doubt that a team could build to finish a mansion that huge in a few months' duration," I explained, feeling rather creeped out about the whole thing.

"No, it is possible to finish the main house of the mansion, but it's impossible to finish the whole manor within a few months. So, depending on what time of thing he has going on, I would say that Mr. Brookes probably asked everyone to work the main areas first. Then out to the rest of the area."

"My main concern isn't how'd he managed to find so many hands to help out with the construction. It's how that man got so many materials from the area when Briton didn't have many resources. The only way to get building bricks, stones or wood would be becoming a Mage to create them."

"Wait, doesn't Briton have a forest within their land? That should give enough materials to make the mansion," I asked, confused.

"Yes, but they would have needed to start chopping trees months or years beforehand to make the mansion within a few months. And so far, I've been keeping records on all of the Domain's natural resources, so if a team of people starts hacking off trees. I should know," answered Z.

"Off the radar, perhaps?" I suggested since the people could have done it in the cover of night.

"No way, since to make such a big mansion, they would need almost half of the forest to pull that off. And I'm sure people would have to notice them when chopping down trees. So it's not exactly a quiet activity, you know," elaborated Z, shaking his head.

"So that's about the two incidents that Bryan and Duchess Midord had brought to the table. Now it's time for my take on the situation. I think that both of these incidents are linked together. But not in a good way. Let me explain my reasons before any comments."

"First, throw your thoughts out about seeing charitable people as angels. Once you've got enough wealth, you can do anything in your wildest dreams from where I came from. That includes doing horrible deeds in the guise of humanitarian reasons."

"So you think that this Fabian has committed crimes since he started doing philanthropy?" asked Z.

I glared at him and placed a hand on his mouth.

"Stop talking, brain thinking, hush. Now, one thing I've forgotten to let you know was about a dialogue with a local about Mr. Brookes buying off the children from the streets. But, of course, a philanthropist wouldn't do such a thing since they care about human welfare, not objects to buy."

"Thus, the Duchess calling Fabian a philanthropist was incorrect. We can now think of him as a bloke with money that tries to help kids with this revelation done. My take on this is that Fabian has been taking the kids into slavery to work on the mansion's construction."

"It sounds like the most plausible thing to say, but it has its flaws. First, the locals may have fixed their problems about kids stealing from them, but a new issue arises. Every night, there have been sounds of wailing and screaming. And a case of the children never being seen again."

"Maybe the kids have been well-behaved and don't like coming out to play? A big house to play is better than going outside where people might stare at them for their flaws..." answered Mavislin.

Z and I looked at the Valkyrie before placing my other hand onto her mouth.

"Stop thinking, brain thinking, hush. I have a feeling that the children are being turned into something non-human. I don't know how or why, but I've got a hunch about it. The connections are too frightening to be denied. So that's my take, and I would be attending this mission with Bryan."

It took me a while to find out why the two weren't saying anything until I dropped both of my hands.

"If the Fabian that had invited you for dinner, Mavislin, is the same as that guy Elizabeth's mentioned, then we've got a good lead to interrogate him. Hopefully, Mr. Brookes doesn't back out on his dinner invitation when we arrive at the scene," explained Z, looking at the two of us.

A moment of silence blanketed the room before I've realized I'd neglected one more thing in my findings.

"There was a single image that stood out when I was looking through the archives about Briton. A guy professionally dressed in a suit and tie plus a top hat. He was dropping some pieces of what I presume to be currency into the palm of a shopkeeper."