Chapter 63: I Have Wine, Do You Have Stories?
Lynn raised an eyebrow. "I remember you saying this person was a close friend of hers?"
Marko shook his head. "No, actually it wasn't just close. It's just that, like the professor said, dating is forbidden on campus, so they could only pretend to be close friends."
Lynn had also experienced campus life. Although he hadn't dated himself, some of his classmates had.
He nodded in understanding.
"Then continue."
"Just some time ago, Gottfried came to me and said that Milva had dumped him."
"Hmm, tell me the specifics."
Marko paused, then continued.
"It's like this. Before, there was a teaching building at Oxenfurt Academy that needed repairs, so the school hired some workers from outside. One of them, I think his name was Vraleg or Vrasleg, I can't quite remember."
"This guy was very handsome and tall. His chest muscles were so developed... he was on a completely different level from us bookworms."
"When he was working, many female students liked to stare at him, and that included Milva."
"The professors also noticed this, so after a few days, they didn't let him come anymore."
"But immediately after that, Milva disappeared. It's hard to say it's a coincidence."
Lynn frowned.
Based on the information currently available, that muscular worker could be a scout sent in by a kidnapping gang.
But why choose Milva as the target?
"Anything else?"
Marko shook his head. "That's it."
Lynn thought for a moment and changed the question.
"Is Milva's family very wealthy?"
"Yes," a look of envy appeared on Marko's face. "I heard her father owns a lumberyard near Novigrad and also bought a house in the city. I wish my family was that rich."
As the pearl of the North, Novigrad's housing prices were even higher than those of Tristram, the capital of Temeria.
Owning a house of one's own in the city was indeed the dream and goal of countless working people.
"Do you know the specific location of the lumberyard and her house in Novigrad?"
"I don't know... no, sir, how could I ask such a question? However, Gottfried might know, after all, he's Milva's boyfriend."
"Alright, then you just need to answer one last question for me... where did those workers come from?"
...
Leaving Marko's rented house, Lynn spent half an hour finding the place where Milva rented her house.
He first looked at the surrounding environment.
The ground was paved with gravel roads, and the people coming and going were artisans engaged in handicrafts, dressed relatively decently, and looked physically and mentally well.
Redanian guards carrying halberds also passed by on the road.
Judging by the environment, the security in this place shouldn't be too bad.
Let alone kidnapping.
Even just fighting and causing a commotion would quickly bring the guards over.
Lynn walked around the house and soon made a new discovery.
He noticed some mud marks under one of the windows of the house.
Not just under the window.
There were also some mud stains on the window frame and the floor inside the house.
This indicated that someone with mud on their boots had climbed through the window to enter the house.
Milva was the one who rented this house and definitely had the key.
She wouldn't go through the trouble of climbing through the window if she had a door.
The only ones who would do this were likely the kidnappers.
Lynn looked around, confirming that no one was looking this way.
He was agile and quickly climbed through the open window.
His first impression of the environment inside the house was that it was very clean.
It was as if the owner had left calmly.
Lynn spent a few minutes carefully investigating the entire house.
"Hmm, no signs of fighting or struggle."
"This suggests that Milva left willingly with the other person."
"Maybe that very muscular worker came to find Milva and asked her to go out with him. Milva herself probably didn't expect that this outing would be the last time she returned."
"These are all the clues that can be found in the house."
"Next, I should go ask Milva's boyfriend and see what that guy named Gottfried knows."
...
When Lynn found Gottfried, he wasn't at his home or in the student dormitory.
But in a tavern.
Lynn approached him, looking at him like someone experiencing a midlife crisis, only able to numb himself with alcohol and live a muddled life.
He raised the corner of his mouth, forming a mocking smile: "Oxenfurt Academy's school rules are really strange. They don't allow students to date, but they allow drinking."
Gottfried originally wanted to get angry.
But the moment he turned his head, he saw the two sword hilts on Lynn's back.
He suppressed his anger again: "What's it to you, friend?"
Lynn didn't intend to teach the other person what someone his age should be doing.
That was his professor's duty, not his.
Therefore, he didn't beat around the bush and went straight to the point.
"It's none of my business, but I need to ask you a few questions, friend."
"Screw that, why should I answer?"
"Because it's about your girlfriend, or rather, your ex-girlfriend Milva."
As soon as he heard Milva's name, Gottfried jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
"Milva? I don't care what happens to that bitch. She dumped me, I'd be happy if the kidnappers tore her apart!"
"Hey, calm down, okay?"
"No! Besides, could you please leave? I don't know anything, and even if I did, I wouldn't say it."
Since Gottfried had this attitude, Lynn didn't hesitate to cast a master-level Axii sign on him.
"No, you will talk, and you will tell me everything you know."
Although there were many rules and restrictions in the witcher's code that bound later witchers, fortunately, there was no mandatory rule prohibiting witchers from using signs in front of Muggles.
Gottfried, who had just been excitedly spitting everywhere, suddenly froze.
It was as if he had been hit on the back of the head with a club.
The excited expression on his face instantly stiffened, and then slowly calmed down.
"Now, tell me the location of Milva's house and the lumberyard."
A few minutes later, having received a satisfactory answer, Lynn left Gottfried's house, and then Gottfried woke up.
"What just happened to me?"
No matter how hard he tried to recall, he couldn't remember what had just happened.
...
On the other side, Lynn, having left the tavern, went straight to the port of Oxenfurt.
According to Marko's account, the workers who had helped repair Oxenfurt Academy some time ago were hired from the port of Oxenfurt.
It didn't take Lynn much effort to find those workers who had worked for Oxenfurt Academy.
He didn't go empty-handed; he also brought a few bottles of wine.
Dealing with them was that simple.
After a few bottles of wine, the conversation started flowing.