Chapter 26 Signs of Aspergillosis

As Rizi was deep in thought she suddenly heard the cellar door open.

She looked up to see all four women followed by Tommy exit the cellar before joining her at the bar. She was surprised and happy to see that both Jue and Tue were smiling happily.

"I think we all need a drink." Merno said as she stepped behind the bar and started pouring drinks.

"How did it go?" Rizi asked nervously.

"We succeeded in finding out who the noble behind Puniz is." Tommy replied as Merno placed a mug of ale in front of him. "Thanks." He replied to which Merno smiled back.

"Who was it?" Rizi asked curiously.

"Elurel Bhamon." Chelna replied in an angry tone.

Rizi's eyes widened in shock before saying to Chelna. "But that's."

"Yes." Chelna replied.

Merno and her daughters looked between Rizi and the cloaked women curiously, wondering why they were speaking in riddles.

Tommy on the other hand just drank his ale.

They focussed on their drinks for a few minutes before Jue asked. "What are we going to do about her?"

"It's not that simply Jue." Merno replied while sighing and said. "Elurel is royalty and the king's sister. It's one thing to torture and kill that bastard downstairs, completely another to kill a member of the royal family."

"Not to mention thinking of a way to actually pull it off." Tue added.

Jue clicked her tongue in annoyance.

"Actually eliminating her isn't that hard." Tommy suddenly said, getting everyone's attention.

"You have a way to get close enough to kill a royal princess?" Chelna asked in a slightly concerned tone.

Tommy chuckled before saying. "If I wanted to do it closely, yes, however in this case I think a long range elimination would suffice."

All the women looked at Tommy with surprise before Chelna asked.

"Elurel lives in a property belonging to the royal family a few minutes carriage ride away from the castle. Are you saying you could eliminate someone who lives in the very center of the city near the most heavily guarded place without needing to get close?"

Tommy took a swig of his ale before he calmly said. "If I have a decent line of sight I could eliminate the king without getting close."

There was silence for a moment as his words sunk in before Chelna said. "Prove it."

((Oh yeah, here we go.))

"Excuse me." Tommy said with a raised eyebrow.

"Prove you can pull off such a feat." Chelna repeated.

Tommy stared into her dark hood for so long it made Chelna uncomfortable. She didn't know why, but she got the feeling that Tommy knew who she really was.

"All right, but only because doing nothing will bring trouble to this inn." Tommy said as he reached into his pocket (Item Box) and pulled out his phone.

Merno, Jue and Tue looked curiously at the object wondering what it was. 

Tommy slid it over to Chelna before saying. "Indicate her residence along with the locations of the final two leaders."

Chelna nodded before she began to operate the map function like Tommy had shown her.

Jue and Tue watched with interest while Merno turned to Tommy and asked. "You plan to eliminate Elurel before she sends people here to find that dead bastard in my cellar?"

Tommy nodded before saying, "Yes, although that won't stop people coming here to investigate. Once a high ranking member of the royal family is killed I expect the whole city to go into lock-down as they search for the culprit. Because of this we need to take some precautions."

Merno nodded in agreement before she asked. "What do you have in mind?"

"First we need to get rid of the body in the cellar and remove all evidence of what transpired down there," Tommy replied. "That's one of the reasons I used waterboarding in the first place, since it doesn't cause the victim to bleed too much, if any." 

"Unfortunately I cut his ear off prior so his blood is now on the basement floor. Does the city have any way to match blood to its victim?"

Merno gave a confused look at his question before asking. "What do you mean? Blood is blood, it's the same for everybody right?"

(Good that means they don't have the ability to check dna here.)

((Honestly the scientific advancement this world is kind of skewed.))

"Not exactly but I will explain another time if you're interested," Tommy answered. "For now we need to come up with an excuse for the blood on the floor." 

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask one of you to purposely cut yourself so that we can claim you had an accident down there."

"That's doable," Merno stated. "Also leave the removal and disposal of the body to me, I know someone who can help with that."

"Are they trustworthy?" Tommy asked while raising an eyebrow. "Remember this will be an investigation into the death of a member of the royal family. I expect the king will authorize the guards to use any and all means to find the killer."

Merno smiled before saying. "Trust me, after what you did for my daughters I will help you anyway I can."

Tommy nodded in agreement before asking. "What reason did you give your patrons when you told them to leave earlier?"

"Signs of Aspergillosis." Merno replied.

Tommy and the others who until now had been focussing on the phone turned to look at Merno incredulously.

"Seriously mum?" Tue asked with a sigh.

"It was the first thing that came to mind," Merno replied with a shrug. "Also with this we can keep the inn closed for a few days."

"How come?" Tommy asked.

All the women looked incredulously at Tommy this time before Rizi realized something and said.

"Oh Tommy's not from around here so maybe he doesn't know about the plague that hit Brownhill in the past."

"That makes sense." Tue said as the others nodded in agreement.

"A few years back the city of Brownhill was hit by a plague." Rizi began to explain. "Luckily Brownhill is a great distance from any other major city in the nation so it didn't spread far."

"It took a while for us to figure out what was causing the plague and find a cure. But eventually a genius young woman discovered a cure using a combination of alchemy and magic."

"Even though the plague was stopped, the woman hypothesized that it could come again in a slightly different form and so the cure she had created may not work, she also named the illness Aspergillosis."

"Because of the young woman's warning, the emperor passed down the order that any individual suspected of having Aspergillosis needed to be isolated until it was confirmed if they had it or not. While any building showing signs of fungus that caused Aspergillosis must close until the fungus was removed."

"Because of this the inn is now closed for a few days." Merno said proudly.

Jue sighed before saying. "That's nothing to be proud of mum, you do realize this is going to cause a drop in the number of patrons right?"

Merno chuckled before putting her hands on her hips and throwing out her chest while saying. "Not when they start to miss my cooking."

As Merno began to laugh proudly while Jue and Tue sighed, Tommy took the opportunity to give Merno a proper look.

He hadn't had a chance before now with everything going on and he had to admit she was as beautiful as her daughters, just in a more mature way. If he didn't know she was their mother he would think she was their older sister with how similar they were in looks and body shape.

"Besides," Merno suddenly said as she looked accusingly at Jue. "if it wasn't for a certain daughter of mine always playing with men's hearts before letting them down, we wouldn't be in this mess."

Jue hung her head in shame before mumbling. "Sorry."

"I have warned you about that bad habit of yours in the past." Merno said while rubbing Jue's head. "Stop leading every slightly attractive man on and find one you want to be with."

"Hmm." Jue replied with a slight nod as her eyes flicked towards Tommy.

Merno saw this but didn't say anything and only smiled.

"Can we get back on track?" Rizi asked with a sigh.

"Right," Tommy began. "Since the inn will be closed for cleaning, people won't get suspicious about why it is closed at the time of Elurel's death. When the guards come to investigate and ask questions you will just have to explain why you're closed and claim that you have been cleaning the entire time."

"What do you mean you? Won't you be joining us?" Tue asked?

"Considering how my plan to eliminate Elurel is similar to what I recently did at the adventurer's guild, I will need to go into hiding for a while after." Tommy explained.

"Wait, that was you?" Merno asked with shock as Jue and Tue looked at Tommy in wonder.

(Why are those two looking at me in admiration and respect after learning that?)

((Kekeke, it seems those two are attracted to bad boys.))