Felix followed the path up to the Mayor House. While he walked he looked around and noted that there weren't any rats around and this place was world apart from outside. It almost seemed like two different worlds or someone transported this house from somewhere else.
The bushes were trimmed into various shapes and the grass is neatly trimmed. Even the path he walked on was freaky as it seemed too clean and maintained. The more he walked, the amount of money used to keep this place looking so nice could clean up the town. It also began to raise questions on why the reward for this mission was so low.
100,000 jewels for tracking down the missing children.
If not due to the urgent mission, Felix felt this mission reward would probably be lower. Since he felt that keeping this pathway so clean would cost maybe triple the money. When he got closer to the fountain, he was pretty sure he saw some gems embedded around it.
Knock! Knock!
Politely knocking on the door, Felix waited and waited a long while before it slowly opened. On the other side of the door, an old butler stood straight as he stepped out. The door slowly closed without much sound as the old butler let out a sigh of relief.
"It's great you finally made it." The old butler said.
A look of confusion surfaced as Felix looked at the butler before him. Almost as if knowing what he wanted to ask, the butler began.
"I am actually the one that sent out the request to find the missing children." The butler replied sadly. "The Mayor of this place doesn't really care about the people and even if they came to raise the fuss about their missing children. He just ignores it."
Felix just nodded as could believe this. Just looking at this house gave this impression when compared to outside this fence.
"So after emptying my savings for the last ten years, I sent out the request." The old butler let out a sigh full of bitterness and sadness.
"Ten years?" Felix blinked in surprise.
Even those that don't work as mages many times more as rent in some spots could reach 70,000 or more a month. For this guy to only save up this much in ten years, how little is he being paid to work here.
The old butler just gave a bitter smile as if he long resigned to accepting this. Due to this treatment, Felix wonders how the villagers haven't dragged the mayor out and beat him to death.
"Can you tell me about the mission?" Felix asked.
When he finished the request, he would just report what was happening to the Guild Master. He will then just pass it off to higher ups and get this matter fixed. Clearly, the mayor has been paying others to look the other way.
"Around three weeks ago, ten children suddenly vanished one night. A few noted that they heard music, it sounded quite nice and wasn't too loud. So no one really minded, even if it was late at night. That is when they realized the next morning children were missing. Then a week later the music appeared once more and more children vanished." The old butler answered.
"Is it always Friday night when this music appears?" Felix asked.
"Yes."
"Did you guys hire a mage to drive away the rats?" Felix asked.
"I don't believe so." The old butler shook his head. "It is really expensive to hire mages and to hire them to drive away the rats we are basically used to. This is unlikely."
"To drive away the rats, it should only cost 20,000 or 30,000 jewels. Even going out of town to buy a few magic devices yourself that would drive them away would only cost 12,000 jewels." Felix replied.
The extra in this is naturally for the effort and work the mage would put in to drive away the rats. Otherwise, someone could simply go to a shop and buy a small and cheap magic device that could drive away the rats.
"It's that cheap? In the shop here, it cost nearly 80,000 for one." The old butler replied.
"Is that shop run by the mayor?" Felix snorted.
"How did you know?"
Felix really didn't know what to say so he decided to get back on topic. He began to ask a series of questions, most went unanswered. This old butler didn't know much, but clearly wanted to help find those missing children.
Once he finished up his questioning, he left this place and decided to begin chatting with some of the families whose children went missing. Hopefully they will have more information on what is going on.
--
Knock! Knock!
On the fifth family door, Felix knocked politely. He still didn't know anything as the first four packed up and moved away from this cursed place. They had already lost one child and they didn't want to lose the rest.
This is what he learned from their neighbors. He found it pretty strange for four families that suddenly had their children taken to do. This mixed with the sudden surge in money to move like this. Felix felt something fishy was going on behind the scene.
For a town that has steep taxes and such low wages it is not much better than working for free. These families that were even poor among the poor to suddenly have money to move somewhere else so quickly. A neighbor even mentioned that just a few weeks ago, one of the families even came to borrow money for the taxes. Yet, a few days ago, they had hired a few carriages that didn't look cheap alongside movers to help move.
"Don't bother knocking. The city guards came and took them all away this morning." A neighbor walking by said.
"Is that so? Do you know why they were taken?" Felix asked.
"Bribery." The woman snorted. "As if, this family didn't have much. The father worked three jobs, the mother two and their three children made crafts to sell. Even with all that, they were barely scrapping by."
"Can I ask you a few more questions?" Felix asked.
Since he gained a new lead, unlike before this family didn't move but instead was taken away by the city guards. He didn't know if it was a slip up on the other party or a coincidence. If it wasn't, then the other party had enough pull to have the city guard come to capture the family.
For what purpose, Felix's didn't know yet, but with so many children missing and families running. Something dark and sinister might be afoot in this mission.
After asking a few more questions to the woman, Felix ran into similar issues at the next few houses. Either the family moved or were taken away on various charges. The more he learned, the weirder things got.
All the families where the children vanished, either they moved or were taken away after making a fuss about their missing children. These families were all quite poor struggling hard to even put a meal on the table. Yet, besides making a small fuss for a few hours on Saturday morning, they don't bother afterwards.
At the same time, they all seem to suddenly get a surge of wealth. Almost as if someone gave them hush money, but thanks to them spending in such a high profile, the one paying made them disappear.
The only one in this town who Felix felt that could accomplish this is either the chief city guard who managed all the guards or the mayor. Both held the money and resources to silence them all without creating a big ruckus. This mixed with openly using the city guards to arrest so many families whose children suddenly went missing.
'I guess, I narrowed down my suspects for the time being. If it isn't either of them, then let's move towards wealthy merchants in this town.' Felix thought to himself.