"Are you nuts?" Goos shushed him, "That’s Lady Van Graaf!"
"Sorry! I’m new here." Lee said, "Care to explain?"
The man looked at Lee in disbelief, but then seed to understand sothing, "Right, right! You guys ca with the last group six days ago ..."
Then he leaned closer, and whispered, "She went missing around a month ago and Lord Van Graaf has promised a huge reward for finding her."
"He’s the local ruler?" Lee guessed, trying to ignore the stench of alcohol that the man breathed right in his face.
"Mhm. An incredible elental lord." Goos said, "It’s quite a romantic story ... and a tragic one."
"How co?"
Lee was thrilled he could finally find out more about his companion. All it took was the occasional innocent question, and the man was ready to spill every bit of gossip he knew. With Lieve unconscious, Lee could figure out what kind of trouble he had gotten himself into and there was no reason to not make use of the situation.
"It took many years for our lord to find a wife. Many already began to think he wasn’t particularly interested in won, if you know what I an, but then, all of the sudden, he brought Lady Van Graaf ho from another world." Goos said, "She also turned out to be a talented spatial cultivator, and everyone celebrated the continuation of the tradition of the Van Graaf family."
"Tradition?" Lee asked.
"Yea. The heir would only take a spatial cultivator for a wife to increase the chances of their children igniting a spatial spark." The man said, "Usually the chances are slim, but Van Graaf family has followed this unwritten rule for centuries, maybe even millennia."
"Does it work like that?" Lee asked.
"It did up until now." Was the answer, "I don’t know what the trick is, but every generation has brought a successor who later beca a powerful spatial elental lord."
"Interesting!" Lee said, "Let get another round! Waiter! Ironbites here! ... so ... Lord Van Graaf brought ho a foreign wife. What happened then?"
Goos happily emptied a cup of ironbite the mont waited brought them over more drinks, and continued, "You can easily guess – there wasn’t a local woman who didn’t hate her guts! No matter if they were cultivators or not, with how handso and strong the lord is, all of them hoped to beco his wife. But he ... she wasn’t the most pret ... I an, there were more beautif ..."
"I get it." Lee said, "There were won who thought they were prettier than the new lady, right?"
"Yea, that’s what I ant!" Goos happily nodded, sighing in relief. He was about to say sothing improper, but his new acquaintance saved him, "So, while many said the couple were in love and all that shit, there were even more of those who hated her. Imagine how thrilled the haters were when she suddenly disappeared!"
"Maybe she went back ho to visit her parents or sothing?" Lee innocently asked.
"How? Without the lord knowing about it?" Goos said, "No, soone surely kil ... I an, soone kidna ..."
"So she disappeared." Lee helped out again.
"Yea. Disappeared." The man nodded, and emptied another cup. Turns out that telling this story was more stressful than he imagined, "Her bodyguard, an elental lord, was found dead, and she vanished without a trace. Poor girl ... she probably didn’t even saw it coming ..."
"Maybe she’s fine?" Lee asked.
"Buddy! A month has passed!" Goos said, "The lord has gone nuts looking for her! Imagine his despair – you’re the strongest man in the world and still can’t find your lost wife! Of course, there are those who think that he was the one who kil ... that he had her ..."
"You probably an that there are people who spread ill lies." Lee said, and Goos happily nodded.
He said, "Yea. But he’s a spatial elental lord, you know? He could’ve opened a rift and thrown her out just like that."
"Why?" Was the logical answer.
"Well, there’s this local damsel. Pretty as a doll. And talented." Goos said, "Everyone thought she’ll beco the next lady before the lord brought his knew wife ho."
"But why kill the bodyguard?" Lee pondered, "If soone’s strong enough to kill an elental lord, to deal with an elental master is a child’s play. On the other hand, assuming she ran off, how did she overpower soone vastly stronger than her?"
"Oh, buddy!" Goose said, "You would’ve loved to drink here half a month ago. Everyone was discussing the subject and coming up with the craziest theories."
"I’m free tonight!" Lee said with a wide grin, "Lay them on !"
***
Maybe it was the characteristic the locals had, but Goos could blab endlessly, just like Minnie. The more he drank, the braver he beca and before passing out on the table he managed to compile most of the theories circulating in Stonegate about the disappearance of Lady Van Graaf.
Ranging from her escaping or getting kidnapped, to lord disposing of his wife – everyone had a different story. So of them were so unrealistic, the only conclusion Lee could co to was that people shouldn’t live underground if they didn’t have a TV. With the amount of ironbite everyone drank, their imagination had developed way too far.
To Lee the whole situation didn’t make sense.
After finding a place to stay, he sat in a cross-legged position to cultivate. Unfortunately, no matter how he tried, his thoughts kept going back to the unconscious lady lying on the bed.
She was certain that her husband was behind her assassination attempt – one couldn’t call it any other way. Shackling a cultivator in Nullite shackles and throwing her in the middle of nowhere was nothing but a murder.
The problem was – assuming he really hated her so much, for an elental lord there were better ways to deal with soone.
More importantly, no one used Nullite shackles in this world! Regardless of the cultivation level, every criminal was killed and fed to varnhollows. It didn’t matter what cri they committed – no one ever took prisoners. That’s the reason why Lieve was certain that it was impossible to find a key to her shackles.
Lee had no clue why she thought her husband tried to kill her. Maybe she had done sothing that was punishable by death. Or maybe, like in Victoria’s case, she was discarded after the man discovered she couldn’t give birth to a healthy offspring.
But in that case the whole love story was a lie, and Lee found it unlikely. From the mont he t Lieve, it was clear that her unstable emotional state was genuine. More importantly, the more he spent ti with her, the more certain he beca that dying was not the part she was worried about.
And she was strong willed and decisive. Getting slapped on purpose until her own mother wouldn’t be able to recognize her was clear proof of that.
But why was she left alive? If the husband was the bad guy, why did he had to pretend to madly look for her? And why would he kill her bodyguard – an elental lord working for him? Elental lords weren’t mushrooms that grew en masse after rain. But then again, why was she afraid of him?
There were too many fishy things about the whole situation.
Ignoring the fact that almost every young single woman in Hollowreach would want her dead, no one actually knew what happened. And likely that included Lieve as well.
The more Lee thought about the situation, the more annoyed he grew. It was to the point that when she woke up, he was the one with the migraine.
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