Finding a Body (The Dark Herbalist Book #4) LitRPG series

by Michael Atamanov

  Kira stopped the recording and turned to me for an explanation:

  “Timothy, I am not following this. What happened there? Who were these other guests? And how could you have been there if you were with me the whole time? Did they let the bot replace you again?”

  I laughed happily and explained, not hiding my pride:

  “The Legion of Steel got tricked first before it was even midnight. To be more accurate, just their rapid-response force, which is always online and ready for combat. The issue is that the highest-level players of the Southern Continent were very dishonest, taking advantage of the trust of the naïve NPC Taisha to place an item in her inventory that would summon the Legion of Steel if she saw the Dark Sovereign at any point. And there was no way to throw the dangerous item away or get rid of it, so I had to set up a scenario that could trip the conditions.”

  Kira still didn’t understand, so I had to explain in greater detail:

  “Yes, I ordered that devious trap. It was made to look like a commonplace and absolutely safe location, but it was actually just illusions layered on illusions, all topped off with yet another illusion. At exactly midnight, Taisha met with another NPC who was disguised with illusion magic to look like the Dark Sovereign. The scroll triggered and the portal opened automatically, then the Legion of Steel squadron flooded out. Taisha was warned what would happen, so she had a few seconds to get away. From there it was all simple: while the players tried to take down the untouchable NPC, the air platform they were all standing on collapsed and the Legion of Steel forces tumbled into the ocean where all those hungry monsters awaited them. By the way, if I was the president of the corporation, I would look into who programmed that trap, because whoever it is must have something to do with my kidnapping.”

  “Wait, wait, wait! That is very important information!” Kira demanded I tell her more detail.

  I had nothing to hide, and I told her about my understandings with the fictitious Andrei Soloviev, who in reality was director of the In-Game Security Service. Then I said the people who kidnapped me were obsessed with the idea of capturing Taisha on a special server. Kira got up from her armchair, walked over to her charging cell phone and went into the neighboring room, closing the door tight behind her.

  Of course I could have come closer to the door to listen in on my girlfriend’s conversation with her former lover, but I didn’t. That would have been poor form, unworthy behavior. Instead I picked up the remote and pressed play.

  The reporter finished the story of the unsuccessful attack and said that the players were planning to get back their lost equipment as soon as possible. To do that they were going to hire experienced water mages and some players from undersea races, buy underwater breathing scrolls and prepare for the monster-filled ocean and an encounter with the Dark Sovereign, who they believed would also be there.

  Hrm, best of luck to them... The Dark Sovereign they had seen walking on water was actually my Demon of Avarice, the indestructible Storekeeper. Valerianna Quickfoot had placed an illusion on the demon to make it look like me and sent it out to meet Taisha at midnight. And it should have long since returned to my castle. The only explanation that came to mind to explain a possible delay was that there was too much valuable loot from the high-level Legion of Steel players. Only that could have made the Storekeeper hang back and witness the main attack. Knowing the Storekeeper’s impossibly greedy character, I had no doubt that he gathered up all the most valuable and rare objects on the sea floor to take back to my castle. The exceptionally greedy demon had just one portal scroll, so it must have been hard to decide what to take with him.

  Ugh, I hadn’t thought to provide my servant with enough magic scrolls! The demon would have been very reluctant to abandon the remaining valuables. And if I had made him a few scrolls, my servant had no fear of the ocean depths nor sea monsters, so he could have gone back and forth bringing valuables up from the sea floor until he had it all to the last algae-covered coin.

  Kira came back into the room and said she’d sent my information on to “the right people.” The luxuriant redhead, insanely beautiful and sexy in her semitransparent negligee, shot a glance at the paused image on the screen, then turned her gaze to me. There were little hellfires now dancing in my girlfriend’s eyes. The corners of her lips turned up into a slight smile. Kira clearly had an enticing and pleasant idea for the both of us... But we were interrupted.

  The front door flew open without warning and the head of Kira’s personal bodyguard who I now knew well walked or more like flew into the room. I didn’t know his name yet, because he had never introduced himself, while Kira had never called him by name in my presence. Barely glancing at me, the bodyguard turned to my girlfriend:

  “Kirena Tyle, we’ve noted suspicious activity on the external security perimeter. Some strange figures are observing the building from the windows of the neighboring skyscraper. We have spotted professional optics and comms, we have detected encoded messages being exchanged with unknown accomplices via radio. What’s more, a semi-military flying vehicle has been circling this part of the metropolis for twenty minutes with its lights off. We were unable to find its plates in the aircraft database. That may be a simple coincidence and, if things were entirely calm, I wouldn’t even have noticed. But these are hectic times, it couldn’t just be nothing. I have taken the decision to evacuate!”

  I was expecting Kira to object or argue, but nothing of the sort followed. In this moment of danger, the co-owner of the biggest corporation on the planet immediately became extremely concentrated and just asked her security chief where he suggested they go — to her well defended palace?

  “That’s out. Someone is keeping watch over the Land of Gloom, I have already seen pictures of the individuals apprehended on your property and the spy equipment they were carrying. What’s more, yesterday evening we spotted an individual on the roof of the neighboring building with a portable homing-rocket system. Unfortunately he saw our strike team and got away. But there’s no guarantee that he didn’t just move to some other position, or that he came alone.”

  “Then what are your suggestions? As far as I understand, the Castle is also out, right?” Kira asked, probably less curious than just confirming a guess. Meanwhile, she was hurriedly getting dressed, not ashamed at the men in the room. I also got dressed, having found my stuff balled up in the corner.

  “Of course the Castle is out. Ms. Tyle, the shelter on floor 333 has been insecure ever since you let that policeman scan the identification chip implanted in your palm. Everything the police know, our enemies also do because they have full access to the police database. And the radio-activated bomb in the Castle elevator shaft serves as clear confirmation of that, as do the quadcopters we’ve seen suspiciously flitting by floor-333. By the way...” the guardsman stopped short and turned to me for the first time, “Timothy it just slipped my mind. A week and a half ago, for safety purposes, I disabled all old keys to floor 333. I just kept waiting for you to come get a new one.”

  “What???” Kira started hissing like an enraged orange kitten. “So what does that mean? Timothy spent ten days without a roof over his head and you didn’t even tell me?!”

  “Ms. Kirena Tyle, you gave me an unambiguous order to stop tracking Timothy,” the security head tried to justify himself and reminded his employer about the promise to stop tracking my every step. “So I had no idea why your boyfriend didn’t come for new keys, or what was going on with him at all for that matter.”

  For a second it seemed that my enraged girlfriend would throw herself on her bodyguard with fists or, even worse, scratch his eyes out. I had to intervene right away. I stood between Kira and her employee and said I was hiding from the Grave Worms gang and that I had spent the night in my gaming cabin twice. I had even brought groceries there so I wouldn’t have to show my face in the breaks between gaming sessions. And then I got kidnapped, and couldn’t even think about the keys...

  Kira, now fully dressed, suddenly a
pproached me, grabbed me with both hands and looked me right in the eyes. My girlfriend clearly had something important she wanted to tell me. But first she gave me the old song and dance about her shame:

  “Timothy, I feel so guilty! I promised to give you a place to live. And you believed me, but I didn’t keep it. A Tyle’s word is just an empty sound, though! It has the power to found and merge corporations, purchase luxury yachts and tropical islands and make billions of other deals! So to compensate my guilt and not feel so uncomfortable, I’ll give you one wish! And I’ll do whatever you ask, as long as it’s in my power, or my name isn’t Kirena Tyle!”

  The guard leader couldn’t hold back and gave a quiet curse. Clearly he wasn’t expecting his charge to do something so foolish. But I reacted with surprising calm. And it wasn’t because I had already gotten such a generous gift from my redheaded girlfriend and wasted it on a promise to stop spying on me. This time was a totally different story. Now I had a fairly good idea of my smart and calculating girlfriend’s character, so I understood that it all happened for a good reason.

  Yes, Kira had just given me a fantastically expensive gift, and she had acted totally reasonably, not just on her emotions. But my girlfriend also knew me well and understood that I would not ask her for, let’s say, a billion credits or a palace on a tropical island. So what was Kira hoping to hear from me, what wish? I didn’t understand, so I told her that this time I would be more careful and think my wish over before I made it.

  “So where are we going?” Kira turned to the bodyguard and repeated her question. “And let me remind you that, at nine in the morning, I need to be at a meeting with the president of the corporation, so going to a different hemisphere is simply out of the question!”

  The security head had to think as well, so I decided to make a suggestion:

  “If I understand correctly, we just have to spend a few hours here in the metropolis, right? Well what if we do something your pursuers are not expecting? Now they are keeping watch over all known homes and shelters belonging to Kira while tracking her security’s fliers and vehicles. So let them track that! Have a convoy drive off with all safety precautions, then Kira and I use a normal guest telephone to call an average everyday taxi and, for example, head to a night club. Or just get on the underground and ride it to the final station on the seashore where we can meet the sunrise to the sounds of the surf.”

  Kira and her bodyguard’s faces stretched out in surprise, so I figured I had just said something very stupid. But unexpectedly Kira supported my basically nonsensical idea:

  “Well... that really would be unexpected! Everyone who’s known me for a long time must be aware that I never ride city taxis or the metro, and I especially never visit restaurants or nightclubs. So long as some average security camera doesn’t identify me on the way, I can just dissolve without a trace among the millions of normal people who live in the metropolis!”

  The security chief started stroking the bald spot on the back of his head in thought:

  “It isn’t hard to block the facial recognition system. I personally know people in the police who can and will do so on my first call no questions asked. We could even get the cameras turned off temporarily for ‘maintenance.’ That said... I don’t like this one bit...” he objected, shaking his head doubtfully. “It all sounds too haphazard, risky and ill-conceived. No. Definitely not. We can’t risk it. We’ll think up something else.”

  But Kira was stubborn and started insisting on my idea, refusing to even listen to other suggestions. It was obvious that the security chief was extremely surprised at her disobedience. This seemingly had never happened before. For some time the redheaded lady and her huge muscular hulk stared one another in the eye in strain and... the bodyguard relented!

  “Alright, Ms. Tyle. But I cannot leave you two without protection, so I’ll be coming with. I’ll just call the police administration first and have them turn off the cameras in that area and give our guys an order to distract as many observers as possible.”

  * * *

  IT WAS DESERTED in the metro. At the station, we didn’t see a single person and the only people in our train were an amorous couple at the other end of the car, dozing off, embracing and nodding in exhaustion. I gathered my courage and sat Kira on my lap, wrapping her in my jacket because she was shivering in her light dress. And I squeezed her close. I did all that with the excuse that her red hair had to be covered with my jacket hood so no one would get curious about the glamorous lady riding public transportation and recognize her as Kirena Tyle. In fact though, I found it pleasant to feel her body near mine and just hug.

  Kira’s huge guardsman took a seat in the middle of the car and quite plausibly pretended to sleep, at times even giving very natural sounding snores. At first I admired his acting ability and even got surprised. I mean, who was he putting on such a masterful show for? But then I realized he really was just drifting off. Kira was also having a hard time fighting off sleep, her eyes closed and her head resting on my shoulder.

  “This is just great!” she whispered right into my ear. “I almost forgot what it’s like to feel this much peace and tranquility. I only felt this safe in early childhood when my parents held me.”

  I didn’t flesh out the topic, which was painful both to me and Kira, because my parents died in a flying car crash. In fact, it was the same accident that took my sister Valeria’s legs. And I knew practically nothing about her parents. I had just heard that long ago they lost custody of her for some reason, so she had been raised by her grandmother Inessa Tyle since her earliest years. Instead of responding, I just kissed Kira. She started smiling and opened her eyes. She glanced at her sleeping bodyguard and made a suggestion in a conspiratorial tone:

  “Timothy, how about we run away? When else will we have the chance to just walk around the city at night and be free? I’m so sick of constantly being watched!”

  It was a very adventuresome and even risky suggestion. There had recently been an attempt on Kira’s life and she was being searched for by unknown assassins. But I could hear so much pleading in her voice it was almost a prayer. I just couldn’t say no. Just then the train stopped at yet another empty station, so we quietly slipped out of the open door. A minute later, we were standing at the exit, just happy to be breathing in the chilly night air.

  An unfamiliar neighborhood. Not the center, but also not the criminal slums on the outskirts. This was just a totally average street, like thousands of others in the metropolis. The office buildings were closed for the night, their windows all dark. I saw a many-story electric-car parking lot. Near it was a small park with well-groomed gravel paths. Street lamps turned on when we got near and went out behind us. It might seem strange and even stupid, but we didn’t need anything more. We walked through the darkened city embracing, and we felt good. We would talk about nothing, but more often kept silent and enjoyed the rare moment of absolute freedom and happiness.

  We met the sunrise at a viewpoint that looked out over the urban core of the metropolis with its unbelievably tall buildings and many-level highway tangles. Somewhere in that big mix of skyscrapers was the Boundless Realm building, but we couldn’t see it. We weren’t the only people there though. A few dozen intrepid photographers had their phone cameras at the ready, also awaiting the sunrise. And now the time had come and the tops of the tallest buildings started lighting up with orange sunlight. It was very pretty.

  That was exactly when I decided to confess that I loved Kira more than life itself and couldn’t keep going without her. I told her that I needed nothing more on this planet than my crazily beautiful ginger hothead, and asked Kira to be my wife. Listening with a happy smile, she suddenly went sullen and asked, now alarmed:

  “Timothy, who told you? Answer me! It’s important!”

  “What are you talking about?” I didn’t understand, but Kira wasn’t listening anymore.

  She wriggled out of my embrace and the beautiful redhead shouted angrily right in my
face:

  “I thought you liked me! But you... How could you?!”

  Kira wound up and slapped me in the face with all her might. After that, she sharply turned around and, drying her tears with her hands, ran to one of the flying taxis waiting next to the viewpoint. She gave a short command to the driver, jumped inside and slammed the door loudly. Thirty seconds later the taxi was out of view beyond a white cloud.

  And I was just standing there with my cheek on fire, no phone to contact anyone and not a single coin in my pocket. But all those problems meant nothing in comparison with the fact that I felt as low as a person can feel. For a moment I totally forgot about the social gulf that divided Kira and I, and coming back down to the real world after that alluring fairy-tale life was very painful.

  * * *

  A NEW BUSINESS SUIT straight from the tailor’s, a clean-cut visage, a nice haircut and expensive cologne. Nothing in my appearance spoke to the fact that, a mere six hours ago, I was abandoned in a random part of the city with no money or means of communication. An elderly lady helped me out, lending me her phone to make one call. Max Sochnier was a great help too because, thankfully, I remembered his phone number. After that I reached my apartment on floor-333 of the Castle, and all the rest was just a matter of time.