Inside Martha’s (Aria’s Mom) office,

 

“Do you even realize how stupid your plan sounds?”. This is how Mom reacted when I asked her to take care of Carolina and her brother while I was away. And she was absolutely right.

 

“I know, Mom, but think about it. I need a solid lie to cover up my impulsive actions. Carolina is a good enchanter, and I need her on my team. She might not join if she catches my lie” I said.

 

“You don’t even understand the gravity of the situation, do you? This is no simple matter of losing a friend. We need a proper explanation for providing such information at such a crucial time, or else they might suspect that we purposefully withheld the information in order to gain their favor in desperate times. That could affect our relationship with Sein House as well as our reputation” Mom explained.

 

“Oh God! You can be so dumb sometimes. I am more surprised that even Letica failed to assess the situation. It seems I’ve been too soft on her lately” she continued.

 

Okay… maybe we are in a bit more trouble than we originally thought. But still, it’s not that big of a deal, is it? We don’t really benefit in any way by dragging down the Sein household. I’m sure they’ll understand.

 

“Just leave it to me, Mom. In the best case, I’ll be here before they arrive, and in the worst case, you just have to keep them engaged for a couple of days and wait for me to show up. I’ll handle the rest”

 

“Sigh… Do you even know the person you are looking for? You want to travel for more than half a day, search for some no-name kid, and somehow convince him to lie for you, a total stranger? Is this really the best plan you managed to come up with?” She asked in a slightly disappointed tone.

 

“You are worrying too much, Mom. Just trust your daughter to take care of her own mess” And besides, Lereo city is known for its volcanic hot springs. I’m sure we will have enough time to enjoy a nice and relaxing evening at the hot spring resort.

 

***

 

We traveled for half a day before finally reaching our destination. It was a beautiful city, but I was too tired to appreciate it. I asked Letty to book us a place and crashed on the bed after having dinner.

 

I was too tired to think before speaking, and before I realized it, I had invited Letty to take a bath together.

 

Oh God! It was so embarrassing! I can’t believe the words that came out of my mouth during our bath. I even confessed about padding my bra! Like, why? There was no need for me to talk or to give such vivid details. She must be weirded out by now.

 

Sensing that it’s better to keep my mouth shut until I’ve had enough rest, I ended our bath quickly after helping her clean her back.

 

After the bath, thanks to my tiredness, I didn’t face any problems falling asleep.

 

***

 

Thinking back on the previous night, I don’t know how to face Letty after my embarrassing display.

 

It will be better not to bring it up and busy myself with the work at hand.

 

In order to find the little boy, we need to search for his father, who works as a city guard. I can’t just ask them to line up for inspection, this is not my territory. The most efficient method will be to look for an easy guard, who’ll be willing to take bribes.

 

While I was formulating this plan, Letty showed up with a glass of milk. 

“Aria, yesterday-” she said.

 

Wanting to avoid any discussion, I cut her off, saying “Don’t talk about yesterday. Let’s focus on the task at hand. And thanks for the milk”.

 

Saying so, I chugged down the milk. Its taste was slightly unusual than normal, it must be a local product. Without giving Letty any chance to speak, I walked out of the door.

 

I explained the current plan to Letty and asked the guards to keep their distance. All the while, avoiding any conversation about yesterday.

 

We looked around a bit and soon found a likely target. He was guarding the back gate alone. To test the waters, we enacted our plan.

 

We pretended to be carefree kids on a date, giggling like silly girls. After a while, when passing through the guard’s field of vision, Letty playfully pulled my arm, resulting in me ‘accidentally’ dropping my purse and revealed a few gold coins.

 

The look on his face was enough to tell me that he’s the right man for the job.

 

“Hey, Mister. Are you interested in earning some easy money? We are searching for an individual. If you are able to help us identify him, I’ll reward you with 5 gold coins. How about it?” I said.

 

He eyed us,

“Nah, look for someone else. Don’t involve me in any shady business”

 

Letty took a step forward while stopping me and said,

“At least hear us out, then decide if you want to take the deal or not. We are looking for a city guard. A while ago, he saved us from some thugs and left before we could repay him. Won’t you be so kind to help us repay our benefactor. We tried asking your captain, but he refused, so we had to resort to such means”

 

“All you have to do is help us find our benefactor. He said that he was a single father, so he must be struggling to take care of his child all alone. We would like to help him in any way we can, so please guide us” she continued.

 

Letty’s acting skills have really improved. After such a performance, the guard is sure to let his guard down. Moreover, what harm could two seemingly defenseless girls do to a trained guard? I’m sure he’ll take the deal.

 

“If that is really the case, I know a couple of guards who are single and have a kid. There must be more that I don’t know of.  Are you sure that you want to spend 5 gold coins on an uncertainty?” he asked. Phew! The first hurdle is cleared.

 

“Yes, absolutely. Don’t worry, we are not short on money. We will wait for your shift to end. Thank you very much, Mister” I said, before heading in the direction of a nearby bench under a shade.

 

After his shift ended, he asked us to wait outside what seemed to be a canteen for all the guards. He brought back two guards with him. “Both of them are widowers, and have a child to take care of. Check if any of them is your so-called savior”.

 

I handed him the promised gold and thanked him for his help. After he left, I asked the two of them,

 

“Do any of you know about a boy who can predict the future?”  

 

But no one gave any particular reaction.

 

Sigh, so it’s a bust, huh. Well, I figured it wouldn’t be that easy.

 

“Nevermind,...” Letty took over and repeated the same story over again.

 

After looking at the previous guard happily taking the money and leaving, they were quick to jump on the boat and brought a few more widower guards.

 

I repeated the same plan. But this time, a man showed the reaction we were seeking. He stared at us with hostility and suspicion. This was enough to discern that he was the person we were looking for.

 

“Mister, we mean no harm to you or your family. Just hear us out. Let’s move to a quieter place first”. Dismissing the remaining guards who left in irritation, we made our way to a near-deserted cafe.

 

“Let me introduce myself. I am Aria Ernius, you might have heard my name already. And she is my assistant, Letica” I showed him my family emblem to prove my authenticity.

 

“You can call me Bron, I don’t have a family name. Let’s get to the point, how do you know about my son’s ability? I don’t care if you’re a noble or some genius inventor, I won’t let you use my child” He said defensively.

 

“Relax, Mr. Bron. We are here to offer you a pretty sweet deal. You can even say that it’s more beneficial to you than it is to us” I said.

 

“Alright, I’ll hear you out” he said.

 

“So what happened was…” I roughly explained to him about our situation. “So if you were to help us out this one time, I’ll make sure that you would be paid double the your current salary for the same amount of work, as well as help your kid secure a job when he gets older. And more importantly, we would never force him to make any predictions”

 

He was in deep thought, probably doubting my intentions.

 

“Why and how I knew about that as well as about your son is a secret. Rest assured, we are probably the only ones that know about this” I said.

 

“Look, Miss, I don’t know what you are expecting, but my son’s ability is not all that great. When he uses it, he can sometimes predict the outcome of certain events. Most of the time, his ability doesn’t even work. If I were to say, it works once every third or fourth attempt, but his mana quickly diminishes during that period. So I don’t think we are the right people to help you” he said.

 

“I know. I'm even aware that somebody skilled in mana sense can catch it quite quickly. I've already stated that I don't want to hire your son as a prophet. All I want is for both of you to play along with our story and help us fool the duke’s daughter. And I personally guarantee your safety during the whole process. Think about it,  if your kid chooses to reveal his ability for any reason in the future, many strong people will want him by their side.” I said while planting my hand atop the table in a domineering pose.

 

“If he is found out, people will do everything in their power to capture him or use him on their whims. But if you decide to join my side, not only will I offer you my protection, but I will also promise to never misuse his abilities. All the while, you’ll be earning more money than ever. All of this for a measly price of playing along with my act and relocating to the Swindfort city, which in itself is a vast improvement from living here. So what do you say, Mister Bron?”

 

I was confident that he’d agree. Only an idiot would reject these terms. After a brief moment, he said,

 

“Alright. But let me run this by my son first. Let’s head to my home, then we’ll decide whether to follow you or not”

 

Bingo! The best part of all, it didn’t even take us a whole day to find him. Hiding the grin on my face, I said,

“Alright, let’s go”

 

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