CLA.S.S NEUTRAL: Stranger Is Coming

Village. Katta. Search of the Werewolf.

A young girl opened the door. She stared at us in surprise. Having seen the golden emblem, she immediately bowed.

"Please, come in, dear Rikts."

"Thanks for the invitation."

"To what do I owe the visit of such high-ranking guests?" the young lady asked. She had a long braid, brown eyes, a pretty face, and an excellent figure.

"Only he is high-ranking." I pointed to the gatekeeper. "I just accompany him. I'm a completely ordinary stranger."

Kurbakht blinked in approval, showing he'd understood my plan. As a rule, people had their own reasons not to be fond of any high-ranking officials, so I immediately made it clear that I didn't belong to them.

"I was picked up along the way, and I decided to stay for a while in Downhill. I met Rikt Kurbakht near your village. He asked me to help him, since he thought there could be a criminal in this house." I finally understood what 'rikt' meant and immediately deleted the question from the diary, continuing to lie to the girl. It was obvious for me that simple people lived in the village; city dwellers wouldn't believe me—not to mention the inhabitants of my world.

"Sorry to bother you. I might have confused the house. I'll take my leave," the gatekeeper bowed elegantly, confusing the girl, and then he left. So, now I needed to get information.

"Please don't worry. You'll be safe with me. Tell me your name, please."

"My name is Katta," the girl answered. "Tell me, what danger are you talking about?"

I was trying to find out who the werewolf was. What could I do? Well, I had an idea.

"Rikt Kurbakht told me that several villagers had disappeared from here. When we were approaching, we found a corpse on the road. That's why the gatekeeper decided to look around the village to find the killer and protect the residents from the danger."

"Why do you think that this killer is in my house?"

"I don't know it, so I can't say anything."

"I see," the girl sighed loudly; she was relieved. "But why did you decide to stay? You could suffer if the killer attacks you."

"I heard that among the monster's victims there were beautiful girls." I lied a little to intimidate the girl. "And you are very beautiful, so I wouldn't like to see your death. I would safely give my life in exchange for yours."

Reputation with Katta increases

Status: Sympathy

All girls were greedy for flattery, which helped me to communicate with them perfectly. Although I hadn't had any problems in communicating with them before one incident. However, I really would rush at the killer, since I wasn't afraid to die, because I was immortal. Ordinary NPCs were mortal, and I didn't want something bad to happen to this girl. I remembered Narylna. Losing a memory could be even worse than death.

"It's the truth, but you don't know everything," she whispered to me. "His victims were girls only, and there were ten of them. All of them died more than a week ago."

What? There wasn't one victim! Why did she say that the werewolf had only killed girls if we'd found a male body? I was dumbstruck for a while, and then I decided to ask.

"Rikt Kurbakht said it was a werewolf."

"No! He is wrong. He won't touch anyone!" she flared up. "You are looking for a murderer in the wrong place."

"Where should we look for him?"

"I don't know. But definitely not here," she exhaled loudly and calmed down a bit. "Could you leave me alone, please?"

"I apologize for daring to upset you and killing your mood." I tried to repeat Kurbakht's graceful bow, but mine was rather awkward. "I'm leaving right now. Just…" I turned around and looked intently into the girl's eyes, "…take care of yourself and be prudent. If you get into trouble, whistle this fox-call." I gave her a copy, which the chief had made at my request.

"Well, don't worry about me," she said, and I went outside, disappearing into the night.

You learned the skill 'Eloquence'.

Description: Attentive interlocutors can benefit greatly from communicating with people, and you are just one of them. You know how to impress people because you are very attentive and notice their reactions to your words. Thanks to this, you get moral satisfaction from your beautiful sayings.

Remember — the art of communication helps to open the doors that cannot be opened with ordinary keys.

Skill Class: unusual

Skill level: 4

Wow! I had immediately reached the fourth level! I'm a real chatterbox! But why had I only now obtained the skill? Were there any additional terms, except those written here?

Skill 'Deductive Method' increases, current level: 2

Yep, use your brain and pump up your intelligence! I have to solve the crime. The girl wasn't stupid, and she didn't rush to inform her werewolf-friend that he was being looked for. Kurbakht used a special device that would transmit a signal to his wolf amulet if Katta left her house.

We kept checking the rest of the houses, but the search wasn't productive. The girl stayed at home. Thus we went back to the tavern. There were a lot more footprints on the streets—the Observation seemed to have expanded the range of tracks that I could see.

Despite the late hour, we still met several people. They looked quite relaxed, carefree, and not worrying about their lives, though most of them were men.

"Watch out!" I heard a shout, but it was too late: I couldn't dodge because of my poor Dexterity. A charming girl with a mane of blonde hair crashed into me.

"Oh! Sorry!" she quickly bowed and ran away.

The girl had gray, beautiful, enchanting eyes. She was wearing an old dress and shabby shoes. I liked this beauty, so I decided to follow her and chat a bit, or maybe not a bit.

"You, strangers, often surprise me. You're supposed to be old and full of wisdom, but most of you behave like silly young people," the royal gatekeeper smiled. "It seems to me that the more you live, the harder it gets."

"We try not to think about it, and instead, we continue to consider ourselves to be forever young strangers, who travel between worlds in search of life, trying to escape from boredom and loneliness."

"Good words, but I would check your wallet if I were you," Kurbakht smiled wickedly.

Oh, well! Such a girl couldn't be a thief or… No, she couldn't. I remember her eyes. They were joyful, calm, and a little sad, but not greedy.

"I have nothing to steal," I lied a little, and I checked everything discreetly. I was right. My gold coins and the rest of my items remained in their place. "You are mistaken."

"Well, perhaps a life among lying cheaters has made me overly suspicious. It seems that it will never change. It's hard for me to believe in people," Kurbakht sighed.

"I understand." I patted the gatekeeper on the shoulder. "I understand you perfectly well."

"Although I believe you. Of course, I don't trust you. I do, however, believe you more than others," the royal gatekeeper said. Was that a compliment?

In the tavern, we went to our rooms. The guards continued to drink beer, but the royal gatekeeper seemed not to notice that.