Chapter 258 - 024 – Intel Gathering 1

Lirian turned on his heel and went down the flight of stairs, leaving the innkeepers wife naked and on her knees.

All of this was just an experiment to Lirian, so he was actually grateful for the innkeeper's wife's actions, all data is good data.

From what Lirian had learned so far, his body had a type of charm effect on those around him, and after his tests he learned that which increased its effects as well as what reduced it.

From what Lirian had seen of the barmaid Triss, her initial intentions were to try and win Lirian's heart, and she intended to start by offering her body.

She seemed to hold the belief that since a barmaid managed to captivate Mr Cassy, she would give it her best to captivate a cultivator of her own.

She held a degree of desperation but not an overwhelming desperation to possess Lirian, which was why while she was forward, she didn't seem obsessed with throwing herself at Lirian.

Where's the innkeeper's wife, Layla, was extremely desperate, she probably wanted to break her vows to her husband for cheating on her for a long time, but she dared not act on such desires with someone from the village where it would ruin her life if word got out.

Lirian was a prime candidate, as a wondering traveller he'd spend some time here and then disappear with the secret forever, and he had the looks to woo any woman which made him more tempting.

'Desperation or hidden desire is one of the factors,' Lirian concluded as he also recalled the actions of the mayor's daughters, 'Or a better description is how desperate one is to fulfil their desires.'

When Lirian finished with his speculation he made his way down  to the dinning room, where well over a hundred people were busy chattering and making a loud din, as they consumed mug after mug of ale.

The more sober ones soon noticed Lirian and rejoiced at his presence, Lirian had to admit that the special treatment the commoners gave cultivators was something he could get used to.

But the ones that were the most enthusiastic about Lirian's arrival was not the adults, no it was the children who had accompanied their parents to the inn.

It was scary time's in Willcolly even the children who didn't understand what an orc invasion meant had noticed the change in their parents behaviour, especially now that their parents allowed them to leave the house after the sun went down.

Usually they'd be tucked away under their sheets by this hour, but over the past few days their parents stayed extra close to them and brought them out to the inn.

It was extra playing time for them, and they had all heard about how the new cultivator made one of their friends Lizzy fly the night before.

"Mr, Mr," Lirian heard the children cry out as soon as he found a seat.

"Can you make us fly, just like Lizzy," one the boys said eagerly as he wrapped his hands around Lirian's leg.

"She's been telling everyone about it, we want to fly to," a small girl said with a pout, evidently she was jealous of the girl called Lizzy.

Lirian sighed at the overly eager kids, this was the reason he left as soon as he made the girl Lizzy hover last night, he knew the other children would want a try, so he fled to his room.

It was also why he didn't want to come down tonight, he hoped that by tomorrow they would have forgotten what he had done, but he couldn't change the past.

"Ahem," Lirian cleared his throat lightly, making his irritation known to the adults, and soon several parents came running, saying a hundred apologies as they pried their children of Lirian's legs, and pulled them away.

But that wasn't the end to Lirian's annoyance because some of the children started to bawl and cry, throwing little temper tantrums about not getting their way.

"Huh, I'd forgotten about how annoying children can be," Lirian mumbled, but a look of melancholy washed his face, as he thought back to his only daughter that ever loved him.

Many of the parents started scolding their children and spanking their butts, to make them stop, but it had the opposite effect, causing many of them to leave before their children's incessant crying annoyed Lirian to much.

Lirian quickly took a seat on a creaking chair, and soon a mug of ale was placed on his table, it was one of the other barmaids this time, and Lirian could feel a look of desire in her eyes, but she was merely one of many, Lirian detected the gazes of many, man and woman alike.

As the system did checks it identified the intense gazes to belong to all those that Lirian made any physical contact with or that he revealed a little of his skin to.

Lirian was quickly pulled from his thoughts when the sounds of chairs screeching on the wooden floors echoed besides him and he found the mayor and his wife sitting across from him.

Lirian was actually happy to have them there, with the two of them speaking to him, it was likely that no one else would disturb him for a while.

"We meet again Good Sir," the mayors wife said, "My name is Ana forgive me for not introducing myself earlier, but it seemed that you had some pressing matter to discuss with my husband earlier," she said with an apologetic smile.

"The next time you come to visit you must allow me to prepare you some food, I'll make my famous shepherd's pie," she said eagerly.

The mayor chuckled lightly, "Please make arrangements to come soon, my wife's shepherd's pie is to die for, but she rarely ever makes it," he said patting his round belly, "And if you don't want to take my word for it you can ask anyone in the village," he said with a hearty laugh.

'Huh,' Lirian sighed inwardly, 'Even little village mayors aren't beyond shamelessness,' Lirian mused to himself, 'Well it is a basic requirement for anyone with influence,' Lirian thought.

"I guess that we'll have to make arrangements one of these days," Lirian said with a slight nod of his head, he wasn't completely against the idea, and he was missing the taste of a homecooked meal, the soup in the inn was just barely acceptable as human food for Lirian.

The mayor and his wife both smiled, at the response, baby steps were what it took for all things, try to rush and you'll end up running face first into a wall.

"Before we do that, there are some things that I'd like to pick your brains about," Lirian said now that he had a better idea of the place, it would make it much easier for him to ask questions without raising any odd suspicions.

The mayor and his wife nodded eagerly, the more time they got to spend speaking with Lirian, the better their chances were to leave a good impression, and it would also allow them to better know Lirian, who intrigued them a lot.

"I've been out training in the wilderness for a long time you see, and I've just recently come out of training, in truth the only new news that I've received so far is about this problem with the orcs, attacking the main road to Proge," Lirian explained his current circumstances.

"In truth I have an old friend in Proge who I was planning to visit," Lirian lied, "But the roads were eerily quite on my way, and the few merchants that I passed, were surrounded by guards, they refused to say anything to me so I decided to stop by the closest village in the hopes of getting some news," Lirian said in a saddened tone as if everything that was going on was pretty strange to him.

In truth the mayor and his wife were the perfect candidate's for Lirian to gather all the most accurate intel possible.

He already knew that the mayor was a shrewd man, and all shrewd man have a good set of brains in their head, as for the mayors wife, she was the one who raised those two little girls to be seductresses so she would most likely be well informed about any and all of the juicy gossip in the village and hopefully a little bit of gossip about the region.

Seeing the way those two girls acted, Lirian was certain that this woman raised her daughters to get the attention of any son the local lord had, or any other man who was bound to come into power, to do that she'd have to have to pay special attention to any gossip.

Between the two, Lirian didn't know who was better at what they did, but he had to hand it to them, they were a match made in heaven, and a rare find in a little village, such as this.