The Duke And The Guild Master

Solder Burnell, boarded the horse coach that was standing in front of the adventurers guild. He was pretty much expecting this to happen.

Solder was currently the guild master of the adventurers guild at Geradin. He was an A rank adventurer. He had been an adventurer for eighteen years right from fifteen years of age. He had taken many risks and faced many obstacles. Now at the age of Forty five he was summoned by Lord Alkorn.

The recent appearance of the four tusked boars had created a lot of rumours among the adventurers. Obviously the word of these rumours had reached the Lord. He now had to go and clarify the details about the current situation.

The horse coach passed through the gates at the entrance to the Duke's estate. The surroundings were a field full of green grasses. Occasionally bushes consisting of different flowering plants lined the path. In the distance he could see the entrance of the walls that surrounded the Duke's mansion. With high walls and gaurdposts it was truly a very secure place.

He got down at the entrance to the Duke'smansion. Inside was just like another world. Vibrant flowers filled the entire garden with occasionally small conical trees. Also in front of the mansion was a decorated fountain.

The mansion was also beautiful. It was painted white with blue tiles on the roof. It was two storeyed mansion and was very wide. There were armed gaurds posted at regular intervals all around the mansion. At the main entrance was standing Bolgen Marsh one of the retainers of the Alkorn family.

" Welcome Mr. Burnell, I hope there were no inconveniences during your arrival here. " said Bolgen Marsh.

Bolgen Marsh belonged to a long line of knights belonging to the Marsh family. Based on skills he was on the same level as Solder Burnell. He was known to have taken on some formidable opponents in his years as a knight and emerged victorious. That was all that Solder Burnell knew about him.

" Well, the my journey here was quite pleasant, although I don't know what would happen inside there. " he said.

" Very well let's go in and see what the Lord has in store for you. " said Bolgen Marsh with a smile on his face as the both of them got inside the mansion.

They walked into a hall that had gaurds posted at regular intervals. At the end of the hallway was a room. Reaching the room Bolgen opened the door and gestured Mr. Burnell to get inside.

Inside was a spacious room with a window at just to the opposite of the door. There were a lot of shelves full of books in that room. In front of the window that was opposite to the door was a study table and an armchair. On the armchair sat the Lord of the land, Duke James Alkorn.

As soon as Mr. Burnell entered the room, the Duke stood up from his armchair and said

" Well, we have been waiting for you, Mr. Burnell. Please do have a seat. Let us have a discussion on the present situation. " He gestured towards a pair of sofas in front of his table.

They both took a seat and Mr. Burnell began the discussion.

" My Lord, all that you have heard are unconfirmed rumours. A four tusked boar did appear in the forests outside Parsin village, but it had been taken care of by adventurers. We did organise a search in the forests but couldn't find similar creatures. " he said.

" I know that nobility like us cannot get involved in matters of the guild which fall directly under the authority of the central minister of the guilds. But please understand that this kind of situation has never happened before. That's why I have summoned you. Four tusked boar is not a natural phenomena. Was it a beast that created by experiments by some secretive organization like the Witch Society. " the Duke asked.

" We haven't yet found out any involvement of the Witch Society. However it does seem to us as a beast created through experiments. So we should not jump to conclusions rather we will further investigate this matter. " replied the guild master.

" The Witch Society is under central authority so we can't investigate them directly. It has been a hundred years since the golden age of witchcraft. Gone are the days of the witches like Felin, Yonvell and Ingrid. I hope you manage to fund out the reason behind all this. " said Lord Alkorn.

" Also there was the report according to which a huge goblin horde was slaughtered in Seldis some six years ago. Look into that too. I don't know what is going to happen in this province. " he added. They ended conversation there.

Solder Burnell was pretty worried himself. He had looked into the Witch Society but could not dig much about them. All his agents had failed as well to find any connection between the organization and the wild boar. As for the incident at Seldis, he had himself gone to the scene, but no adventurer claimed to kill the goblins and no one had asked for a reward for killing the goblins.

Apart from all these, he also had to worry about different groups of smugglers and anarchists dwelling in that province.

Not far away from Geradin was located a town named Alamut. Located in an alley of that town was a two storeyed building that looked normal from outside. Inside there was a workshop for witches. Beside the workshop was a little room where the supervisor sat. A young witch stood in front of the room.

The young witch had learnt a little early that agents from the adventurers guild were gathering information about the Witch Society. She come to deliver the message to the supervisor named, Marie.

She entered the room and just opposite to the door was located a table beyond which the supervisor was sitting on a chair. She looked up at the young witch.

" Maam, it looks like people from the adventurers guild are digging up information about us. " the young witch said.

" I know about that, I heard it from my own informants. Is it true that any such beast created through experiments escaped. " asked the supervisor.

" Well none of the beasts kept underground have escaped from this building. So I can't say for sure. " said the young witch.

" All right, then there is no concern. Just tell the other members to be careful for the time being. " saying this the supervisor concentrated on her work. Things were getting interesting in this province as it seemed to her.