"Ok, the warehouse and Lena's team secrecy is something, but it doesn't explain the weird orders you were mentioning."
"It is," Aaron said. "Because the weird orders involve not using some of the materials I know for a fact are there."
It was weird not to use materials, but if Martin was really pooling resources for Lena and the others, then it made sense, and it was exactly what Reidar told him.
"It would make sense if we talked about items and weapons, not crafting materials and wood," Aaron replied.
That was new. "In that case, then yes. Whatever Martin is doing is pretty weird."
Aaron nodded.
"The others haven't put it together. The only reason I have is that I'm close enough to see things vanish, and because I know what's not coming through the gate. Besides, ask yourself, why keep me out of the warehouse if there's nothing to hide?"
Reidar studied him for a long moment, trying to figure out if he could trust the words of this man, but he was inclined not to believe anyone from this damn town. Martin, Lena, Caleb, and certainly not Aaron, who popped up like a mushroom for no apparent reason.
The fact that it was Caleb himself pointing him to Reidar made things even more suspicious.
<Jeez… these guys are giving me a headache.>
These guys were trying to play with him, and while he could not understand why he was telling him this now, Reidar would for sure find out. At worst, he would find out Martin was a psycho, and the church was made of warmongering fanatics; at best, all those problems were just a misunderstanding.
"You may be right, but I don't get why you are telling me this." Reidar prodded. "What do you hope for me to do?"
Aaron met Reidar's stare. "I saw how you fight. If whatever's happening is as bad as I think, you could help me figure it out. Maybe even save the ones who still want saving. If I went public with this, they'd turn on Martin or me before we even knew what was really going on. You're the only one here strong enough to help. We barely made it through the apocalypse, and we're barely holding off the monsters. I don't want to fight people either."
<Too bad this is already happening, Aaron.>
Reidar leaned one shoulder against the wall. "Anyway, is there anyone else who feels the same about Martin?"
"Mara. She has had to heal far too many people of injuries that could be simply avoided if not for Martin."
Reidar let the silence hang between them for a moment, as he was thinking about everything Aaron had said to him.
"I'm not convinced," Reidar said at last. "What you've told me so far… it's suspicious, sure, but it's smoke without fire. The warehouse? Even I think it's strange no one's allowed in, but if you believe things are going to be stolen, the easiest way to stop that is to keep people out. You said yourself that theft has been a problem."
Although not using the inventory was weird. It could be explained with the fact that people needed to keep their inventories free for the stuff they found while hunting, and that would actually help them grow, but more than that it was a stretch.
Aaron's expression soured, as if Reidar had missed the point entirely.
"So," Reidar said, "Tell me why you think all of this isn't normal. Because right now it's mostly shadows, and I don't go chasing shadows without a damn good reason. Believe me; I would actually pay for all of this to be true. Martin stepped on my foot after 3 days I had come into this damn town, and he did it big by turning me into a target. But I'm not going to do anything without certainty."
Reidar really had had enough of all this drama. <If these guys want to kill each other, then be my fucking guest!>
Though the fact that he was targeted didn't sit well with him. He was just trying to complete the two quests, get his reward and get the fuck out of here, but it looked like people had all the intention of throwing him into bigger and bigger messes.
Aaron's gaze fell to the dusty concrete floor and sighed.
"Three days before you got here," he said, "a section of the outer wall went down. East barricade, near the gate. It's the part where we got attacked by the monsters when you came. I've been telling Martin to reinforce since we built it, and I warned him it wouldn't hold given how strong the monsters are. I showed him the stress points, marked the fails, and even gave him the exact measurements we needed for the reinforcing materials."
He glanced up at Reidar, and when he continued, his voice had an edge of bitterness.
"The monster attack on the day you came wasn't the sort that should've taken the wall. It wasn't even the monsters that brought it down. Not those you killed, at least. And when that section gave way, the monsters took advantage of it. Killed one of my crew. Crushed two more under debris. Tore a kid half to shreds before anyone got there. I knew everyone who died. I put their names on the rosters myself."
Reidar didn't speak. Aaron's fist curled against his thigh before he pushed on.
"The thing is… three days earlier, we had the materials to prevent that from happening. Monster chitin, dense stuff cut from a few high‑level kills Martin's pet team brought in. I went to the vendor to tackle the wall issue, and he was the one who told me monster materials could be used. I already suspected that, but I didn't have a way to work with them until I went to Morv'axil. The Vendor gave me some blueprints for reinforcement panels made from it. All I needed was to get those materials."
"Let me guess," Reidar said. "They were in the warehouse."
Aaron nodded once. "Brought straight there by Lena."
Now that Reidar thought about it, it looked like there had been a contradiction he hadn't noticed the first time. At first, Martin said Lena's team was trying to just get stronger by farming, but then he said they were also trying to get the settlement creator token.
<Isn't this curious? Martin later must have realized the slip-up, because he then changed his version, as if he were trying to cover his mistake.>
"I saw them unload it in secrecy," Aaron said. "I went to Martin the same day, told him exactly what I needed, and told him I knew the Vendor had the blueprint. And you know what he told me?"
"That they were stolen?"
His mouth twisted as he nodded. "Said the whole batch had gone missing." Aaron hesitated, his thoughts churning.