Hearing that, Jack opened the door himself. Sherly and Canon were outside. They were originally waiting in the garden outside this mansion.
"Come in," Jack said.
They entered and saw Lance helping Hans up from the floor and making him sit on a chair by the side of the room.
"It's okay, let them hear it as well," Jack said after Sherly and Canon threw him a questioning glance.
"Very well," Sherly said. "We found something distinctive in the eyewitnesses' accounts regarding the suspected murderer who was seen fleeing the scene."
"Something distinctive?" Jack asked.
"First, are you familiar with Verremor's tribal tattoos?" Canon asked.
Jack shook his head.
"It's a symbol that marked you as a member of a tribe," it was Lance who answered. "Normally, only big tribes employ this tattoo. It is both a mark of pride as well as to identify which tribe an orc is from."
"Is it?" Jack thought back to the times when he had contact with orcs. Now that they mentioned it, he did remember seeing some sort of a small tattoo on some of them. He never truly paid attention to it.
"The tattoo is normally small but is placed somewhere where it should be visible and not covered by clothes. Like the back of one's palm, wrist, cheeks, forehead, or the likes," Canon explained.
"The eyewitnesses had mentioned a strange drawing on the suspect's body when we asked them to describe the suspect, we presume this is the tribal tattoo," Sherly said. "Seeing a tribal tattoo on an orc is nothing strange. It just meant they come from a respective tribe. However, we have been comparing the description of the tattoo between the suspect from the murder case two days ago and the one in this town."
"They match?" Jack asked.
"Eyewitnesses' accounts are sometimes unreliable, but from the way they describe it, we dare to assume they were describing the same tattoo," Canon answered.
"We have sent this finding to the other investigative teams earlier," Sherly continued. "They had questioned the eyewitnesses there with emphasis on tribal tattoos. From their description, we believe they are also the same tattoos as the one from our case."
"We can safely deduce that these murderers all come from the same tribe," Canon uttered.
"Good job!" Jack exclaimed. "Do you know which tribe the tattoo refers to?"
"We are not privy to all the tribal tattoos in Verremor," Canon answered and fished out a piece of paper. "But we made a rough drawing based on the description. If we show this to an expert of Verremor's tribal tattoos, we should get an answer."
Canon placed the paper on the cracked desk. It was damaged but was still standing. He glanced briefly at the cracks, wondering why someone kept a broken desk instead of replacing it with a new one.
Jack and Lance looked at the paper. Hans was still sitting on his chair. Lance's slap had sobered him up slightly, but it just brought all the grief back. He had been listening silently to the conversation.
"I have a friend who has a great knowledge about Verremor's culture, he should be able to identify this tattoo," Lance said.
"No need," Jack uttered. "I know which tribe this tattoo is from."
"You do?" Everyone was surprised by Jack's claim.
"I have seen this tattoo before. Your drawing is slightly off but I can still recognize it," Jack said. "This tattoo came from the Raretooth tribe."
Jack never truly paid attention, but he had clashed several times with Abasi and his tribe warriors. He saw this tattoo on them. Abasi's one was on the right side of his neck.
"There you have it! This is proof that orcs can't be trusted!" Hans jumped out of his chair. Now that they had confirmation, his anger was back.
"The Raretooth tribe doesn't represent Verremor," Jack said. "They have been expelled from Verrermor's council after the invasion war. They are no longer involved in any of Verremor's matters."
"It's true, Hans. I heard the news that they left the country some time ago," Lance told Hans.
"So what?! They are still orcs!" Hans stated defiantly.
"This evidence confirms one thing. We are under attack, but not by Verremor. Our attacker is Liguritudum," Jack announced.
"How so?" Lance asked.
"The leader of the Raretooth tribe, Abasi Raretooth, is now serving Liguritudum," Jack answered. "I did not doubt the tribe that has disappeared from Verremor has now settled in Liguritudum, but they must have sent this tribe back, or a part of it, to create this chaos in our border towns as well as undermining our relationship with Verremor."
"What should we do then?" Lance asked.
"Now that we know the culprit, it is easier. Have your soldiers check all the orcs still inside the town. If they have this symbol, apprehend them! Broadcast this to all our settlements as well, especially those close to the border. Any raretooth tribe they can find, capture them!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Lance said. Now that they had something to go on with, things didn't look so bleak anymore. Perhaps they could now stop future murders from happening.
"We will get justice for Neil," Lance said to Hans before he left. Hans sat back on his chair. Despite the breakthrough in the case, he didn't feel any thrill from it.
Jack, in the meantime, was sending messages to Four Winds informing him about this. He was silent for a considerable amount of time due to the correspondence. The two investigators that were still in the room became awkward about this whole silent situation.
"Uh… Your Majesty, what would you have us do now?" Canon asked.
"You two have been of great help, I will take over this case from here," Jack said to them. "I have contacts in Verremor. With this information about the Raretooth tribe, we might know where the raretooth murderers fled after they left the towns."
"Are you saying you know where the orc who has murdered my son is now at?" Hans stood back upon hearing that.
"I might. The Raretooth tribe is using a village in Verremor as a hideout. Verremor was now preparing a force to raid the village. I've been invited to come along," Jack said. "Do you want to join this raid?"
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