Chapter 222

Natalie was pleased to see that the Baron meant his words: he really did launch straight into the briefing, forgoing further pleasantries, which they’d been all but drowning in while Tristan escorted them to the manor.

“It’s a curious case,” Baron Crestwood said. “A standard situation by many metrics, but equally as aberrant in some. By my understanding, Tenet has informed you of the basics?”

“Only that there’s been a growing monster problem in the area,” Jordan said. “They’re pretty stingy about the details.”

Baron Edric paused, looking at Jordan, seeming nearly surprised that someone other than Liz had replied to him. Jordan’s face was for the most part neutral, but Natalie knew her well enough to see a hint of amusement in her barely raised eyebrow.

She’d probably interjected because of how focused he seemed on Liz. Not so much to defensively draw his attention away from Liz—who, despite seeming awkward by the unexpected introduction of social status dynamics, was clearly at ease with interacting with other members of the aristocracy in a formal way—but because Jordan found it funny to interrupt the status quo. And maybe she was the smallest bit annoyed at how they were being half-ignored.

The Baron’s attention settled on Jordan. “I see,” he said. “That is, indeed, the general sense of it.” Despite having defaulted to speaking to Liz, he wasn’t so rude as to brush Jordan off. Natalie was pretty sure Liz’s presence was just overwhelming to everyone who knew her surname, commanding the Baron’s attention, not some intentional snub on his part. “Goblin clan, if they didn’t specify,” the Baron said. “A mixture of levels ones to threes, and a large number of them.”

Natalie’s eyebrows raised. Even in that brief introduction, there were several things to take in.

First, goblins. Humanoid monsters. She’d always had mixed feelings on fighting those. The upside was that she was better trained against them: most humanoids had the same general attack patterns, whereas true monsters could be far more difficult to read and react to. The downside was that killing things shaped like people, and which seemed to have some primitive—very primitive—level of intelligence was intrinsically unsettling. Though she’d done it plenty of times down in the dungeon. Just, that discomfort wasn’t something she thought she would ever completely shake.

The next point of interest was that there was ‘a mixture of levels ones to threes’. Not just a couple of troublesome monsters, but many of them. That sounded more intense than Natalie would have expected for a level-two quest. Of course, it was probably mostly level ones, with only some level twos, and rare level threes, not an equal distribution. Nonetheless, even that suggested it wouldn’t be nearly as easy of a mission as Natalie had resigned herself to.

And they hadn’t even gotten to the ‘strange part.’

She straightened in her chair, suddenly much more interested in what the Baron had to say.

“Nothing you five can’t handle, I’m sure,” he continued, “but it’s not so much the threat they represent as how they’ve been behaving.”

“Oh?” Jordan prompted, happy to continue engaging the Baron’s attention. “How they’ve been behaving?” To her side, Liz also seemed mildly surprised that Jordan had taken over. The royal’s ramrod posture relaxed slightly, seeming happy not to have to take the lead.