Chapter 272: The Influence To One's Mind (Han + Timothy)

He could lie so easily… except truth stones and jewelry existed. Han scratched the back of his head, "Oh you know, from someone who had it pawned to them? Where else could I get something like this… certainly not from a corpse or anything that gruesome."

Lady Crowel recoiled for a moment, and he earned a threatening squawk from her crow. Her singular purple eye narrowed at him, and she stood up from the chair as well. All around them, the men that she had with her looked back at them.

If looks could kill, Han would already be long dead and yet he laughed, waving a hand. "I wasn't serious, definitely not me looting from rotten bodies." The more startled she was, the better it was.

She glared at him.

Could he tell… the truth?

The entire truth? What would Timothy do once he hears of this…? Should it matter to him this much? He wasn't supposed to interfere, and yet he was already here. There was a chance he could make this woman go on a goose chase, right? Waste their time and have her run along the entire Gloria City in an attempt to find the owner of the memento.

Earn the Crowel House ire.

All he did was monopolize and hide the truth from his Companion… Wait.

It didn't exactly have to be this way. He was willing to reconcile them together if it actually managed to help him. Before the Lady could say a word, he beat her to it and grinned. "I think my memory could be accessed if you could say… have anything that might jog my memory?" He could at least leech her for a bit and obtain something useful, right? 

Would the things he obtain here be enough to compare to a Companion? Maybe it was close to sending an NPC to a side-quest and allowing them to level before coming back to the protagonist…? It was something that brought its own questions. Anyhow, it was more likely that Timothy could come back and act exactly like his sister right now.

The Lady's smile twitched, "Do you have any position to make demands? I hope that you can remember that you are speaking to the representative of the Crowel House, such things will not be taken lightly."

"Yeah. I have the information you want, so it's a yes or no go." Han snatched the necklace and placed it back in his pocket… Inventory. Inventory was safer if the Lady made her people beat him down. He hoped it wouldn't come to that, at least the Academy would intervene if that were to occur.

He had the high ground here—!

Lady Andromeda petted her bird, calming down and smiling back at him. "You really think that the Crowel House would accede to any kind of demand for this information?"

"Yes. Unless you don't care about finding him." Somehow Sir Leon de Harrington did better than her in smiling. But that was irrelevant. He was focused on dealing with his own questions to banter with a Lady. Would Timothy leave without any question? Han didn't think so, but he didn't understand the man's grief. Would Timothy leave? It'd force Iola to vacate unless the man decided to bring her along. 

What were the chances of it?

Should he really care—yes, because the guy was his Companion and friend.

And he didn't know what was happening with Timothy learning spells and not showing them off. There was something wrong, and the arrival of the Lady from Crowel House brought her own troubles. Or he should give it up. 

The Lady frowned, "I will give you a hundred gold pieces for that necklace."

Han scratched the back of his head. "Just a hundred? Is that just how much worth looking for your brother is? This is information that only I would know." Actually, now they were talking! One month here was twenty gold, and he already knew that was expensive. If Han Jing could actually pull this off in his own world, well… he'd be a rich man! 

"Or I could have you sent to an interrogation room and have them extract information from your head—this is a considerate offer already, boy." Lady Crowel folded her hands together and leaned forward. She gave him a smile. "I have to admit that you fooling me for a couple of hours is a noteworthy thing, and the honesty you've shown is adequate. But it'd be best that you don't think too much of yourself and truly understand the position you can be in without my consideration."

"I'm inside of the Academy and I can ask for help. I doubt the Professors would allow something like this to happen to one of their Students," Han said with a calm look over his face… internally grimacing that he might have overstepped a little too much. But this was something that could have worked!

"Surely, perhaps that much is true." Her gaze flitted out to her bodyguards, but the smile remained on her face. "However, I am positive that there are other people not from here that you wouldn't want to be touched or disturbed. My position can easily unearth such information if you are willing to risk it, Han."

Han froze slightly and then rested a hand against his cheek, "I wasn't actually lying about being an orphan though." He could relax… couldn't he? Would this woman really send someone to Rockfall Village just for this? What were the chances of winning? He had an old Hero there too if things were actually to play out. "Not a lot of options to hurt someone when you count that."

And yet, maybe it was time he pulled some punches? The smile on her face made him uneasy enough along with the threats despite him thinking of them in a logical manner.

"You mentioned friends. Or are you cruel enough to not care?"

"What if that was all a lie too?" Han shrugged. "I pointed at a popular bunch of Students." This was easy enough to detect if she had something to confirm things with… but he really was just digging himself a hole, wasn't he? He retraced back his steps and chuckled. "Anyhow, I'm more than sure that the people here wouldn't take it too kindly. Can you actually offend another House, for example? What's your idea of attacking the Harrington House?"

Her smile didn't exactly falter. "Really?"

But she didn't say anything either.

He was the one who had the information and yet—

"A thousand gold pieces shouldn't be too troublesome for a Lady, Lady Crowl." Han said and scratched the back of his head. "Unless your House is actually quite poor, despite the surrounding showmanship." Another direction and aim into picking up something useful for this conversation.

"Someone else would have given this information freely already—you must understand what it means to be favored by a Noble, do you not?" She tilted her head at him. "Our influence even by name is extraordinary than the likes of peasants like you. Surely you'd benefit if you actually knew how to put your greed behind and see how better it is to earn favor than dislike."

Han blinked.

Influence.

Nobles.

He held a hand over his head and shut his eyes. Han chewed on his lip for a moment and tried to pour out mana from around his hand… and realized that there was something that seemed to weigh heavily around him. Influence. It was pressing towards him and yet he hadn't noticed it at first.

Han had already seen it happen before.

Sir Leon de Harrington making Ellynn break out from her Spell. The weird sensation he felt one time during one of his Classes where Sir Leon might have been looking pointedly at him for one time. Some were obvious like that. Commanded verbally and aloud, something invisible but sharp pointing at him to stop.

Lady Andromeda Crowel was using her aura to pressure him into giving up the memento all on his own, and he had been none the wiser—and it was still around him like a heavy cloak. It was always there, but it had been difficult to notice at first.

Even his own [ Mental Fortitude ] Skill had probably helped him resist for only so much. 

This was another type of attack that could remain undetected.

Especially if one didn't know what one was looking for.

.. .

"But ah, good sir… before you take your leave. What is the relation between that of the Crowel House and Han? It seems that you're both affiliated with His Majesty and the Crowel House."

"I used to work at the Crowel House before I became part of the King's private men—but I suggest you look at where those eyes ought to be, boy." Gesth grunted. "I can still have you get dragged if the news of the Harrington House collaborating with the Princess' escape were to be released. Keep your mouth shut."

Timothy Cook didn't want to say that he was impressed, but he was.

Sir Leon de Harrington lost composure and paled, but also waved a hand. "I don't think it'd be so easy to convince people of that. What will surely be heard is the incompetence of the crown to even keep their only heir—and it's not something His Majesty would like to be delivered to his enemies' ears if the two of us were to be honest, sir."

"...I think you should start looking for the Princess if you're serious." Timothy addressed the old man. "Don't waste any more time with him." He understood Iola wanted to be free, but would she really risk her safety?

"When things are settled, I will be back." the old man glanced at him. "Avoid Byron if you can—the reason for his hiring has already been pretty much accomplished. No rats to chase down a Princess that might be long gone."

Within minutes, Gesth Carter left him and the others alone.

"Who's Byron?" Donovan asked.

It didn't take too long for them to find out.