an unfortunate change in genre

Part 5

"...the more I look, the more unbelievable it becomes."        

Cale didn't have a lot at his disposal. Three days after his baby brother went missing and none of the count's men had been able to find any hint of the missing child. The only bits of information Cale was provided with were Roksu's various cryptic statements, an assassin, and a few nagging suspicions.

If Roksu was indeed the person who had encouraged Deruth to bring his son's on this trip then it only made sense that there was some relation to his disappearance.

Cale was provided with one more piece of information in the form of the Marquis Stan running his own hunt for something that was missing.

...Roksu was a walking menace. Cale groaned, running his hands through his disheveled hair as he tried to take in all the puzzle pieces provided.

Cale was well aware of the corruption of Marquis Stan, it was one of the many items on his to-do list that he hadn't figured out what to do about.

He knew that Marquis Stan was linked to the berserk dragon as well, although he wasn't privy to all the information that. Only that it was the final nail in the coffin that enabled the Crown Prince to snuff out his political power.

And then there were the letters found in Roksu's room.

There weren't a lot of them. Nothing remained that was incriminating enough to really link Roksu to anything. Cale glared at the fireplace that was probably responsible for helping the menace to hide his tracks.

Ron was due to return within an hour. He'd been investigating anyone and everyone who had been hired with mysterious lump sums of money. Focusing on anyone who might assist with a kidnapping and branching out from there.

The mercenary guild had reported a rather strange transaction.

Cale rubbed his temples to fight the coming headache.

"What can a four year old do indeed..."

He knew now that Roksu had to be some kind of regresser as well. There was no plausible way that a literal four year old could manage to create this mess.

The underworld of Puzzle City was being turned onto its head. The Imperial Guard would even be arriving soon to help the investigation.

It seems that someone took advantage of the chaos to help uncover some of the crimes the Marquis was indulging in. Was it Roksu? Someone else?

Either way, it had become a matter that the imperial family could no longer ignore.

Cale was going to seriously wring his brother's neck when all this was over.

At the very least, Cale was a bit more confident that Roksu was alive. A bastard capable of this level of meticulous planning was certainly a bastard who could survive.

'Why the hell does that idiot try and do everything on his own?' Cale scowled. He hated how those words could be used against him as well.

"Young Master Cale." Ron returned in perfect stealth. If Cale hadn't been used to the absolute silence of his arrival, he would have jumped out of his skin. "I found the arrogant little punk that kidnapped the young master."

Cale turned quickly, eyes wide. He hadn't expected there to even be a kidnapper, but this was good–they could find...

Cale's optimism dwindled at the simmering anger on Ron's face. He wouldn't be looking like that if the clue had led to Roksu. In fact, Ron would have returned with the child already if that were the case.