First, I told those working for me to look out for Galer. Then, I tried finding any lead, but I could not find any. It was as if he never existed.
Which should be quite obvious, as Guramis’ information service did not get wind of him.
Then, I needed to find an other approach at this. A sneakier one.
And I knew exactly what to do.
After Atsi’s info dump
POV: Finn
... Well, that was something.
Now, if I understood what Atsi said:
- a noble got manipulated by another Noble, that is also the King of an other nation.
- this noble, Guramis, gave away mom to that manipulator, a double agent called Galer
- Galer has disappeared
- the only lead we have is that Galer is connected to the King of the Half-Ocean, unless she finds anything in which case she will come back to us.
Well.
Now we just have to wait.
“““““...”””””
We stared at each other, wondering what we could do except that.
And, I have to admit, wondering whether we’ll have to go to the Big Lake1Half-Ocean Country. I hoped not.
POV: 3rd person
The next day, after not seeing Atsi come back, the four adventurers decided to leave to see Atsi, and to go to the Half-Ocean Country if they couldn’t see her.
As they got to Atsi’s house, they were stopped by guards that told them Atsi didn’t want to be disturbed, unless it is of vital importance. So they decided to leave Yvon.2huh, just realized that name is probably inspired from Ywonne’s name (Disguised Toast’s, Sykkuno’s and Valkyrae’s ‘Among Us’ videos). I binge watch waaay too much.
As last time, they took a request to make sure the roads were safe, and after traveling with almost no problem (they encountered a small group of A-ranked monsters), they arrived in the city of Brig, in the Big Lake Country.
After waiting in line yet another time, they finally entered the city and dropped by the guild.
Then, they started to try to get an opened inn with free rooms, but they were stopped by a Noble that asked them to follow him.
‘‘‘‘I’m starting to see a pattern I’m not sure I like!’’’’ they all screamed in their minds as they complied.
After arriving at the Noble’s room, he asked the servants to leave them alone, then invited the four to sit down together with him. Then, he started speaking:
“Well, hello. First of all, you are Finn, Tris, Daler and Jiro right? The ones who know Atsi and Anemis?” (???)
“Yes.” (Jiro)
“Perfect. I am Aftri, and I have been created by Anthesis. Yes, him again.” he said smiling dryly as Tris sighed discreetly (or tried to). “I have been told by Atsi you have a kidnapping problem on your hands, right? Care to tell me more about it?”
“Well, when we came back from our travels to see Finn’s parents we learned that his mother was kidnapped, then it was revealed to be due to a noble but in reality he was manipulated by the King of this country.”
“Yeah, so that is what told me Atsi. Then, I think I have a solution for you. Let me check.” He started looking through for something in her bag, then turned back to the group triumphantly as he held a small golden compass.
“Here it is! Here, take this and add a bit of your mana. You know how to do it, right?”
“... No?” (Finn)
“Oh. Well, umm... Here, let me help you.” He took his hands, then Finn seemed to be a bit disoriented before nodding and pushing a strand of his mana into the golden compass.
“Wait, how can you use mana? Which system is it from?” Jiro wondered.
“Athena’s. Right?” Tris guessed.
“Correct.” Finn nodded. “So, what do I do now?”
“Now, you give it back to me so I can set it to point to your mother. Athena’s mana system is quite useful in this point of view, since traces of the genealogy can be found in it.”
He fiddled with the compass, sometimes even touching it like a smartwatch with touchscreen, then, finally, gave it back to Finn, and told them to be careful about where they go. She also told them she couldn’t save them if they were caught committing a crime as her relationship with the current King was quite bad.
Then, the four adventurers left Aftri’s room and went to get a room.
Before being immediately intercepted by royal guards that told them the King wanted to see them.
They followed the guards without questioning them, but they did sigh more than once in their minds.
When they arrived, they were led in a bare waiting room, then after a quarter of an hour they got to meet the King.
He started the questioning by asking them who they were, and followed by what they were doing with Aftri, how she knew them... Basically, he wanted to know everything about their relationship with Aftri.
It was quite clear to the four of them that this was only because the first time they came here, they were immediately stopped by one of his ‘rivals’.
Since Anthesis controlled not one, but two deities, along with a lot of Nobles, his orders took precedence over the King’s. And it didn’t hesitate to use this privilege to hide as much as possible from the King.
The King was quite infuriated by this, but as he didn’t have any concrete information, he couldn’t kill them. At least, not openly.
So he could only release them into the city.
Finally, as night started to fall, they could get a long-longed-for room to sleep in, with a real bed.
The next day, they started to use the compass, and they saw that it worked quite like a compass: it points toward one thing, no matter the orientation.
And so, they started to move around, trying to see where Finn’s mother could be.
And they managed to pinpoint a position.
The problem was, it was in the King’s mansion.
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