Beast Slayer Online: Initialization
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 97: A Feast Among Predators
The innkeeper acted as though he had seen nothing at all and quietly walked away.
Gaunter O’Dimm settled himself beside Lannor with practiced ease, wearing the warmth of an old friend returning after years apart.
The witcher, unfortunately for him, remained cold as stone.
“Judging by your clothes, I always assumed you were short on coin.”
Lannor delivered the insult in a flat, conversational tone. That only made it sharper.
But Gaunter O’Dimm, whether in mind or in nature, could hardly be called a normal man.
“These have been difficult days,” the bald merchant replied pleasantly, “but you are a valuable customer, Lannor. If a deal can be struck with you, then any price is worth paying.”
“I’m honored, Man of Glass.” Lannor glanced at the wine. “Let me confirm something first. This is free?”
After receiving a nod, he lifted the goblet in a small salute and drained it in one swallow.
He wiped his mouth and prepared to speak again.
Trying to escape now was pointless. If the thing sitting beside him did not wish it, then even turning into a skeleton would not let him leave. Better to follow the current and see where it led.
“When you left before, you made it sound like I’d run into trouble on the road to Vizima. Yet you waited until now to appear. Meaning whatever comes next is the real problem, the kind serious enough to make you want a contract.”
“And if I said yes,” Gaunter O’Dimm asked softly, “would you walk away?”
The creature wearing a human face smiled with quiet amusement. When Lannor answered with nothing more than a careless grin, the smile widened further.
“It is people like you that make existence bearable, Lannor. All those others, forever chasing the safest road and the cleverest choice, only to march calmly toward ruin in the end ... they bore me to death.”
He leaned back in his chair.
“For your courage alone, I’ll allow you one question.”
Lannor raised a brow.
“Outside a contract?”
“Outside a contract.”
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
The fire in the inn’s hearth crackled softly.
A being capable of twisting reality itself had, for the span of a single question, turned into a machine for answers.
Power. Wealth. Longevity. Secrets. Every human craving could have been distilled into a single sentence and fed into that smiling thing sitting across the table.
Half of Gaunter O’Dimm’s face hid in shadow. The shifting firelight made it impossible to tell whether the curve on his lips was a smile or the beginning of a snarl.
“At first, I thought about asking who stands behind this slave trade.” Lannor rested his chin on one hand and tilted his head slightly. “But I decided against it.”
“Oh?” O’Dimm sounded delighted. “Why?”
“Because I don’t know how to ask properly.”
Lannor’s voice stayed calm and measured.
“I don’t understand the structure of the organization, which means my question probably couldn’t target the right person.”
“This thing is a layered, tightly connected chain. If my wording leaves room for interpretation, you could easily give me the names of buyers, gang leaders, middlemen. In one sense they all count as people behind it. You’d only need to twist the answer a little to steer around the one person truly holding the whole structure together.”
His gaze remained fixed on the merchant.
“To ask a question that reaches the core, I’d first need enough information to identify the core. But if I already possessed information that important, why would I risk asking you at all?”
“Excellent reasoning.”
The self-proclaimed merchant applauded slowly.
“So you intend to waste the opportunity?”
“No.” Lannor’s amber cat eyes narrowed. “What I want to ask is this. What exactly are you?”
...
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