Chapter 30: Everyone's favourite pastime! Execution.
Urneld Kezego followed by Reima quickly make their way to his home and where his wife currently resides. They swiftly go through the large double doors and make their way up the stairs where they wait outside of his wife's brand new room, Urneld is slightly perturbed at how quickly she moved her personal effects from his room.
Reima observes through the door with Observation Haki and spots a male silhouette inside.
Urneld calls out to his Wife, "Sweety, Me and my new friend need to have a word with you."
The silhouette turns around and faces the door before starting to change and shift it's form.
Reima realises what this is and immediately kicks in the door, revealing the half shifted form of Ethe, Urnelds wife. Half of her face is an unfamiliar man with black hair and big bushy beard.
Eventually the Doppler complete it's shift into Ethe, the only thing that seems out of place is the male clothes still covering her form.
Urneld stands there mouth agape and eventually faints.
Reima casts covers the room with a powerful Yrden sign and calls for the guards, they quickly arrive and Reima gives them instructions to retrieve the Garrison Commander with some Dimeritium shackles.
He looks at the Doppler, "Where are the women you have impersonated?"
The Doppler gives a laugh that doesn't match it's form and speaks in a cacophony of voices, "Last I checked, still where I'd left them..."
Reima presses it. "Where specifically!"
The Doppler gives a grin too wide to fit it's distorted face, "Why... Where else do you dispose of corpses?"
Reima "So you killed them?"
Doppler "No, not at all... All of those women live through me, can't you see?" It says while taking off the male sized jerkin.
Reima "No, all I can see is an ugly monster."
The Doppler gives a howl at the insult and tries to lunge at Reima, but is stopped by the Yrden sign.
"My forms are perfect! DO NOT LIE! I change the very definition of perfection!.. I deserve the life those women had. And so I took it."
Reima "You could have done anything to become rich as a Doppler... Impersonated Queens and Princesses for those with the coin and the fetish. Instead you do this, impersonating wives of low nobles of Kaedwin.
After he says this Commander Indit comes striding in, spotting the unconscious Urneld and the trapped Doppler he nods. "This must be the perpetrator?"
Reima nods, "A Doppler, it killed the women and buried them in the graveyard before replacing them as if nothing had ever happened."
Doppler "It was a good life too! Getting fucked by their tiny pricks was worth the lavish life! You wouldn't understand... You're like us but side with those humans!"
Reima "There are more of you?" The Doppler quickly shuts up when it realises what it had let slip. Seems the Doppler community is larger than they'd thought.
Indit "I have no need to hear anymore." He looks at the Doppler, "You will be burned at dawn."
Reima "Wait..."
Indit looks to Reima challengingly, "You reject my punishment for this fiend?"
Reima shakes his head rapidly, "No, I just don't want the Eternal fire to get a grasp on the populace. Burning those who commit crimes or anyone non-human in particular will rapidly increase the rate that cult spreads."
Indit thinks it over and eventually accedes, "Very well." He looks at the Doppler who flinches at his glare. "You will be hanged and if that fails, beheaded at dawn." He looks at Reima one last time, "Those punishments are not gripped by a new cult I presume?"
Reima grins and nods.
The next day Reima is present in the large crowd looking at the scaffolding that was hastily constructed the night before. Standing atop it is a hooded executioner and Commander Indit Sazi.
Indit "Yesterday with the help of a Witcher we have apprehended the perpetrator that has been causing infertility and disappearances. The one in question does not have a name but is responsible for their actions all the same." He makes a gesture to the side where the guards are and two of them drag a resisting Doppler who now looks like a short fat man, with black hair and thick beard. He looks around at the crowd and spots Reima and shouts.
Doppler "You have damned me Witcher! Wherever you go no Doppler will assist you, I ensure it on my father's father's father! I declare you enemy of all under the name DOPPLER!"
Reima calls back up, "What are you? The spokesperson of Dopplers now, you have no such authority so sit their and die quietly!" The crowd cheers at the exchange and Indit looks amused.
Indit "It seems you've had your last words, pray to whatever gods your race worships." He looks to the executioner, "Start by hanging and then stick it's head on a pike on the bridge. Let all know of the fates of trouble makers in Ard Carraigh!"
The crowd cheers as the Doppler is strung up and dropped, it's neck giving a loud pop as it snaps from the weight of it's fat body.
After the execution Reima is taken to Indit's office where three familiar faces wait. Dagovi Gasreza, Branand Maeg and Urneld Kezego sit opposite Indit's desk.
Indit looks up from their discussion and calls, "The boy-no, Man of the hour as arrived."
Everyone present turns towards him with grateful expressions.
Indit "We were just discussing your reward for such a swift completion of your task, it had been troubling us for years and you manage to finish it in a day or two? Astounding." The others nods their heads at this.
Reima "It was nothing... I was lucky to add two and two together.. To be honest I only had a vague idea until I saw the Doppler impersonating Ethe..."
Branand "Nevertheless, you should be rewarded... Us three have decided to chip in to your reward for easing our grief even slightly, I'd hazard to guess more people would be willing to add more coin but I wish to show my appreciation." He tosses a heavy sack of 500 Ducat's.
The other two had similar explanations and also give 500 Ducat's each... Something tells Reima that it's not just about appreciation anymore, they seem to be trying to outdo each other.
The meeting eventually finishes with Indit rewarding 501 Ducat's, "I hired you, I'll pay you. I don't wish to be seen underpaying those doing a fine job." He smiles and gestures towards the door.
Reima leaves and spends the rest of the day training and in meditation.