"12 years ago, a couple were claid to have died after falling from a cliff on the latter half of the journey. It is said that their bodies were never found. Is that true?" Ning asked.
"Cliff? That can't be right. We've had people die from falling rocks, getting crushed by carriages, or just disease. But there has not been a single carriage that has fallen off a cliff."
When the man said that, Ning began to realize what a weird way of dying that was. He looked toward Shara and asked, "Your parents died from their carriage falling down the mountain, right?"
Shara nodded. "That's what grandma told ," she said.
"Either your grandma rembered wrong, or she was given the wrong set of information," Ning said.
"Huh?" Shara looked confused. "What do you an?"
"That information we saw today. It said that your parents had died after falling from a cliff, but there was no ntion of carriages." Ning looked back toward the man. "Do you rember a man and a woman falling off a cliff on their own?"
Human instincts ant that around a cliff road, a person would stick to the wall. No one wanted to walk at the edge, so how could they have fallen down a cliff?
"What happened that year?" Ning asked. "Did sothing strange happen? Who reported their death, and why was it possibly a lie?"
The man thought for a mont, his eyes slowly widening as he clearly rembered sothing. "There… was a couple that died that year," he said. "I don't rember much about what they looked like, but… but…"
"But what?" Ning asked.
The man seed to think for a mont before looking around. He quickly moved. "Co with ."
Ning and Shara followed him to one of the carriages that was just sitting there in the sun and walked inside. The inside of the carriage was hot, the air suffocating almost. But not a single one of the 3 gave a damn at the mont.
"There was sothing that happened that year. I don't rember the people that clearly, but I do rember the situation," the man said.
Ning waited for the man to continue.
"If you are talking about who you are talking about, then the man had a power. He could control plants from what I rember. He helped us a lot at that ti."
Shara took in a deep breath, waiting for the man to continue.
"I do know there was a woman with her, but I can't rember anything about her. I'm sorry, I only rember the man."
"What was so morable about him, other than his power?" Ning asked.
"It was… the circumstances surrounding his death," the man said. "Or should I say… his murder."
Ning took in deep breath, and at the sa ti, Shara grabbed his hand tightly, waiting for the man to continue.
The man could see that they were troubled by the news and didn't hide it much longer. "We were told to lie about what happened back then, that is why the death record was falsified. Not a single person of the Caravan was allowed to tell the truth."
"Allowed?" Ning asked, frowning. "Who has the power to make you say what they want and hide what they want?"
"I cannot tell you," the man said. "I can only say that soone was there and he attacked your father and mother. Your father fought, but he couldn't win. Your mother… I don't rember how she died, only that she did."
"Who killed him?" Ning asked.
"I cannot tell you," the man said. "They had co for specifically him after hearing about his exploits in the cities he had been to before. They were on his tail and they arrived at our caravan at night."
"We thought of helping, but when we realized who we were up against, we couldn't," the man said. "We had to let them do what they did. They had authority."
"Was it soone from the duchy or the Empire?" Ning asked.
The man's eyes widened slightly, seemingly frozen in shock.
Ning nodded. "The Duchy would not have authority in the mountains of Lenes. They must have claid that he was a criminal, and if he was, you would have told them that he would be arrested in Lenes. So it was the Empire, which is why you are so scared."
The man said nothing, simply letting his lack of words speak for him.
"So soone found out about him, ca for him, and killed him," Ning said. "Got it. Thank you."
Ning opened the carriage and jumped out. Shara sat inside for a long ti before realizing that she had to get out as well.
The man looked back, not saying anything. He needed so ti to gather himself.
Just before walking away, Ning thought of sothing and put his head into the carriage. "I just want to confirm sothing. He did die, right? You saw him die."
The man slowly nodded. "And the corpse?" he asked.
"They made us toss it off the cliff on the way to this city," the man said.
"And the reason you never found their body was because…"
"We were not allowed to search for it. They gave us explicit conditions and even our nobleman was too scared to do anything."
"Thank you. Have a great day," Ning said as he walked away after finally having received a very concrete piece of information.
They walked away from the place, making their way back to the tavern. The whole way back, Shara remained quiet, seemingly lost in her own thoughts and sadness.
Ning let her be and looked at the panel that had co before him. He had received a quest early today that asked him to discover the truth about Shara's parent's death.
He had done so now and had received 15 points in total. He was becoming better at ignoring the quests and rewards during whatever he was doing.
He closed the panels once again and began thinking about what their next step was.
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