The Mad WarDragon of Greed.

Chapter 7: The Evidence That Shouldn't Exist

Stravos sat at the Guild's front desk, examining the documents the supervisor had placed before him. The reports detailed the repeated thefts along the trade route outside Eldora, including the missing supplies, the failed investigation, and the information that had led the previous party astray.

He read through the pages without rushing, his golden eyes moving from one line to the next. At first glance, the reports seemed ordinary enough, but the more he examined them, the less he liked what he saw.

"Who provided the original information to the party?" he asked, lifting his gaze toward the supervisor.

The man, who had been standing beside the desk, folded his arms. "The request was issued through the Guild's normal channels. The party received the location of the thefts, the merchant's statement, and the details gathered by the initial investigators."

"That wasn't what I asked," Stravos replied calmly. "I want to know who gathered the information before it reached the Guild."

The supervisor's eyebrows rose slightly, but he pulled a chair closer and sat down. "The report lists two field agents. I'll have their records brought over."

"Good. I also want the original merchant statement, not a copy of the summary, and the names of everyone who handled the request before it was assigned."

The supervisor studied him for a moment, perhaps wondering why a newly registered member was asking questions that would normally occur to an experienced investigator. Stravos met his gaze without showing any discomfort, and after a brief pause, the man rose to retrieve the requested records.

While he waited, Stravos returned to the first report. The previous party had been sent to a location where they found evidence of a theft, but the evidence didn't match the information they had received. By the time they arrived, someone had already been there, and the missing supplies were nowhere to be found.

That alone wasn't enough to prove deliberate interference. Poor information, careless investigators, or a merchant trying to conceal his own losses could all produce a similar result.

However, there was one detail that bothered him.

The report stated that the party had discovered fresh wagon tracks near the abandoned cargo site, yet the accompanying description claimed the ground had been undisturbed since the previous evening. Stravos read the two statements again, his fingers resting on the edge of the parchment.

Someone had either lied about the condition of the site or failed to understand what they were looking at.

Neither possibility explained why the party had been given incorrect directions in the first place.

When the supervisor returned with a thin bundle of documents, Stravos immediately reached for the merchant's original statement. The paper carried the faint smell of ink and storage dust, and its edges had begun to soften from repeated handling. He flattened it against the desk and compared it with the Guild's summary.

"Who wrote this summary?" he asked.

The supervisor glanced at the page. "The clerk responsible for processing the request."

"Did the clerk copy the merchant's statement word for word?"

"No. Summaries are meant to remove unnecessary details and make the request easier to understand."

"Then someone decided which details were unnecessary."

Stravos turned the original statement toward him and tapped a paragraph near the bottom. The merchant had mentioned that the missing cargo was supposed to be transported in two separate wagons, but the Guild's summary referred to only one. The omission might have been an innocent mistake, yet it changed the entire picture of the shipment.

The supervisor leaned forward, his expression growing more serious as he read the passage. "I didn't notice that."

"Neither did the party," Stravos replied. "They were investigating a theft using information that didn't describe the shipment correctly. If the second wagon was involved, they might have been searching in the wrong place from the beginning."

"That still doesn't explain who changed the information."

"No, but it tells us where to start looking."

Stravos gathered the documents into a neat stack and pushed his chair back. He had no intention of spending the entire day arguing over paperwork when the answers might still be waiting at the actual crime scene.

Before leaving, however, he wanted to speak with the party that had failed the request. Their account was the only direct record of what had happened after the altered information reached the field, and he needed to hear it from them rather than rely on the Guild's interpretation.

The supervisor called for a clerk, instructing him to locate the party members and bring them to the examination room. Stravos followed him through the busy hall, passing adventurers who were collecting assignments, arguing over payments, and discussing their next expeditions.

The familiar noise of the Guild faded as they entered a smaller room at the back. A table occupied the center, with several chairs arranged around it, and a narrow window allowed the morning light to fall across the bare wooden surface.

Stravos took a seat and waited.

He didn't have to wait long.

The door opened, and three adventurers entered with the supervisor behind them. Their equipment showed signs of recent travel, and the man at the front had a fresh bandage wrapped around his left forearm. None of them looked particularly pleased to be there.

"These are the members of the party assigned to the failed request," the supervisor explained. "They've agreed to answer your questions."

The broad-shouldered man at the front looked Stravos over before pulling out a chair. "You're the one taking over our investigation?"

"Yes," Stravos answered.

The man's mouth tightened. "Then I hope you have better luck than we did."

"Luck isn't what I'm looking for," Stravos replied. "I want to know what happened."

The other two exchanged a brief glance. The woman standing beside the door crossed her arms, while the younger man behind her shifted his weight and avoided Stravos's eyes.

Stravos noticed both reactions but said nothing about them. Instead, he placed the original report on the table and opened it to the section describing the party's assignment.

"Tell me exactly what instructions you received before leaving Eldora," he said. "Start with the location, then explain what you found when you arrived."

The broad-shouldered man exhaled through his nose before beginning. His name was Daren, and he had led the party during the investigation. According to his account, they had been sent to inspect a stretch of road where several merchant shipments had disappeared over the previous weeks.

They had been told to search for abandoned wagons, damaged cargo, and signs of a struggle. Instead, they found an empty clearing with a few broken crates and wagon tracks leading toward the forest.

"We followed the tracks for nearly an hour," Daren explained, irritation creeping into his voice as he remembered the wasted effort. "They ended near a stream, where the ground was too wet to follow anything farther. We searched the surrounding area, but there was no sign of the missing supplies."

"What about the crates?" Stravos asked. "Were they damaged during the theft, or had they been broken before you arrived?"

Daren frowned. "We couldn't tell. Some had been split open, but there wasn't enough left to determine what they'd carried."

"And the tracks?"

"They were fresh enough to follow when we arrived, but whoever made them knew where they were going. We found no reason to believe the wagon had overturned or lost its cargo along the way."

Stravos glanced down at the report. "You said the information you received pointed to a different location."

"That's right," the woman answered before Daren could speak. "The instructions placed the main theft site farther north. We only found the clearing because we followed the wrong road and came across the tracks by accident."

"Who told you the location was farther north?"

"The Guild's request gave us the coordinates."

"Did you verify them before leaving?"

Daren's expression hardened. "We accepted an official request. We had no reason to assume the information was false."

"I didn't ask whether you had a reason to distrust it," Stravos replied evenly. "I asked whether you verified it."

The room fell quiet for a moment. Daren's jaw tightened, but the woman beside him answered before the disagreement could grow.

"No, we didn't. The request included the merchant's statement and the location provided by the Guild, so we went where we were told."

Stravos nodded and made a brief note. He wasn't interested in humiliating the party for a mistake that had already cost them their reputation, and their defensiveness suggested they had spent enough time being blamed for the failure.

"What happened after you found the clearing?" he asked.

"We returned to the road and searched the nearby settlements," Daren answered. "We questioned a few merchants and travelers, but nobody claimed to have seen anything. By the time we returned to the Guild, we had no useful evidence and no way to explain the missing cargo."

"Did you tell anyone outside the Guild where you were going before the investigation?"

Daren shook his head. "Not that I remember."

The younger man shifted again, rubbing his thumb against the side of his hand. Stravos noticed the movement and turned his attention toward him.

"You seem to remember something differently," he said.

The young adventurer stiffened. "I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to."

Daren turned toward his companion, his irritation sharpening. "What is he talking about?"

"Nothing," the young man replied quickly. "I just think we should be finished here."

Stravos leaned back in his chair, keeping his expression neutral. The young man's response had come too quickly, and his eyes had moved toward the door before he finished speaking. It wasn't proof of guilt, but it was enough to suggest that something had been left out of the account.

"Before we finish," Stravos said, "I want to know whether any of you noticed someone at the site before you arrived. A merchant, a traveler, another adventurer, anyone who seemed out of place."

The woman shook her head, but the younger man hesitated.

Daren caught the hesitation and stared at him. "What?"

"I saw someone near the road that morning," the young man admitted after a moment. "I thought he was a merchant waiting for a wagon, but he left before we reached the clearing."

"Why didn't you mention that earlier?" Daren demanded.

"Because I didn't think it mattered. He wasn't carrying anything, and I never saw his face clearly."

Stravos's fingers stopped moving against the table. "Which direction did he go?"

"Toward Eldora, I think. I can't be certain."

"Did he see you?"

The young man looked uncomfortable. "He might have. He was standing beside the road when we passed, and he watched us for a while."

Stravos exchanged a glance with the supervisor. The detail was small, but it changed the investigation. Someone might have been observing the party before they reached the clearing, and if that person knew their assignment, the failed investigation could have been planned in advance.

"Can you describe him?" Stravos asked.

"An ordinary-looking man. Dark clothes, a hood, and a walking stick. I didn't notice anything else."

It wasn't much to work with, but Stravos had learned long ago that people often overlooked the details that mattered most because they appeared unimportant at the time.

He closed the report and stood. "I'll need the exact route you followed, including every place where you stopped. Draw it for me if you can, and mark where you saw the man."

Daren looked at him with a mixture of suspicion and reluctant curiosity. "You think he was involved?"

"I think someone wanted your investigation to fail, and I intend to find out why."

The supervisor gathered the documents while the party members prepared to leave. Before they reached the door, Stravos stopped the younger man with a quiet question.

"If you remember anything else about that morning, report it directly to me. Don't discuss it with anyone who isn't involved in the investigation."

The young man nodded, though the uneasiness in his expression remained. Stravos watched him leave before turning back to the supervisor.

"I want to visit the clearing today," he said. "I'll need directions to the original site, not the location listed in the altered summary."

"I'll arrange for someone to provide them," the supervisor replied. "Be careful out there. If this was deliberate interference, whoever arranged it may not appreciate you looking into the matter."

Stravos collected the papers and tucked them away. "Then they should have done a better job hiding their tracks."

He left the room and crossed the Guild hall, already sorting through the possibilities. The missing cargo, the altered summary, and the stranger near the road might be connected, but he needed physical evidence before deciding how the pieces fit together.

Outside, the morning air carried the smell of damp earth and smoke from nearby shops. Stravos paused at the Guild entrance and glanced toward the road leading out of Eldora, where merchant wagons moved steadily toward the gates.

Someone had manipulated the information, and someone else might have been watching the party before the investigation even began. He couldn't yet tell whether the objective was to steal the supplies, conceal a particular shipment, or damage the reputation of the Guild.

Whatever the answer, he intended to find it.

Stravos adjusted the strap of his bag and started toward the trade route, unaware that the Guild's supervisor had returned to his office and found a sealed message waiting on his desk.

The message contained no explanation of the restricted alert attached to Stravos's name. It carried only a brief instruction from an authority the supervisor had never dealt with directly, ordering him to preserve every record related to the new member and report any unusual discoveries.

The supervisor read the instruction twice before folding it carefully. Then his gaze drifted toward the registration ledger, where Stravos's name remained written in fresh ink.

For the first time since the young man had entered Divers, the supervisor wondered whether admitting him had been a mistake.