“Thank you! I appreciate it!” I looked up at the moonlight and breathed a breath of relief. Perhaps I made progress.

Afterward, Solina asked for a cleaning and a change of clothes. I cleaned her armor while I was at it. Her friends, Tina and Adam, were quite wary of me at first, but Solina’s friendliness towards me made them loosen up a bit. We rode back to the nearest town and she kindly included me in their small talk whenever the timing was okay. It was mostly a somber ride because they lost seven people from their party. I kept my mouth shut about it and just helped them out where I could.

Finally, we reached a good campsite and I constantly used Synthesis to help them set up. Unlike me, they needed sleep. The gate to the town would’ve been closed after dark anyway, so we had no choice but to camp out.

When we neared the edge of the forests the next day, they dismounted their undead warhorses and I dismissed them, but I kept riding on Dreadhoof. There was no point in hiding my trusty steed if I couldn’t hide myself. Well, I could, but not if I wanted to make friends. However, I wasn’t exactly planning on making friends with the town’s guard, so I cast Conceal and Camouflage on myself and dismissed Dreadhoof.

We entered town, and according to them, they needed to report misinformation to an entity called the Adventurer’s Association. They usually called it ADAS for short. They had branches all over the country, and shared a huge information network about monsters primarily, but also about demons. When Solina explained this, I had no idea what the difference was. Which one do I fall under?

ADAS members accepted quests from paying citizens or the government to hunt monsters, guard people or places, collect resources, or gather information. There were other types of quests, but those were the most common. I kept following Solina, Adam, and Tina, as I was advised to, and eventually a man called them up into the office upstairs. Another lady stood there with a strange feather, and when she placed it on the paper, it automatically wrote for her. She was taking their report of the quest.

According to Adam, the quest was originally for them to kill some hobgoblins, a stronger variant to goblins, so they went with a party of ten adventurers. The branch manager of this town’s ADAS could hardly believe their story about an encounter with orcs. After all, the trio looked spotless.

They had to put their hands on a magical orb, which I suspected acted like a lie-detector. Even as it showed him that the survivors spoke truth, he found it hard to trust their words. He interlaced his fingers and leaned forward. “You encountered an orc camp, with dozens of them. How are you three alive?”

Adam grew rather irritated. “You were once an adventurer too, weren’t you?! What do you think happens with prisoners?”

“I know that, lad! But…” He leaned back and fidgeted with his leg. “Why don’t any of you have a scratch on you then? What really happened? What don’t I know?”

Adam stamped his feet, breathed to calm himself, and then glanced at Solina. She rubbed her temples to destress herself. “Are you here, Deidre?”

“Yup,” I said.

“Then, you can come out.” She comforted Tina through it, because the ADAS branch manager kept eyeing her on suspicion of her silence.

I removed my stealth spells and immediately cast Pacify on both the branch manager and the lady recording the minutes. “I’m Deidre. I don’t exactly look like you guys, but I’m not an enemy. Pleased to meet you.” I approached and stuck my hand out for a handshake. “Oh…” I muttered to myself. That’s not what they do here. I took a page from Solina, put my hands together, and bowed a little.

The branch manager and his assistant were more stunned. The magical feather stopped and the assistant stared in awe, or perhaps fear. The man stood up, greeted me with the same gesture, quite mechanically, and offered me a seat.

Solina shifted around and patted the sofa, so I sat down. The branch manager undid the neck button on his shirt. “Forgive me. The last time I saw a lich, most of our raid was wiped out. Pardon me if, I find it difficult to speak with you.”

“It’s alright,” I said. “I think you’ll find me more like an ordinary person rather than a lich once you know me better. You said there were other liches? Can you tell me about that?”

He trembled again, so I cast Pacify on him. “Uh, thank you. But, before we discuss that, let’s finish our business with what happened in the forests. So, please, enlighten me.”

I hated being put in the spotlight, but it seemed like ADAS would withdraw certain resources and support if the report wasn’t believed. A sudden appearance of orcs deep in the forest, and what was crazier was that Adam, Tina, and Solina came back unharmed. If orcs are that dangerous, then I can’t blame him for not believing them. I hope I don’t mess anything up here.

“I found Solina running from an orc in the forest when I was travelling, so I helped her. We talked and she told me the orcs took prisoners. So, we went back to get them.” I held fast to the Scepter of the Lich God. “Would you like to use your truth orb on me?”