Chapter 66 – Disguised Pub

Levisia could feel all eyes on her when she and Pel entered the room. Everyone had stopped what they were doing and turned to glare at her, making her feel incredibly uncomfortable. Pel, sensing her discomfort, shielded her from their stares and snapped at them to stop. As Pel led Levisia deeper into the room, she could hear the people muttering amongst themselves. That only served to heighten her uneasiness.

With everything that happened at the festival, all she wanted to do was go back to the palace. Her whole life, she never thought anyone would recognize her in the street. And yet, it happened.

Pel came to a halt at a table, where a man was downing a pint of something strong smelling. Levisia wrinkled up her nose, taken aback from the stench. Pel, on the other hand, slammed his hands on the table, startling the man into spilling his drink.

“Hobb, I saw you stalking around the streets. Who were you following?”

Hobb hesitated, his Adam’s Apple bobbing his throat as he swallowed.

“I… I was actually snooping around when I saw a disturbance in the plaza square. I saw someone sprinting away, holding something close. I chased them for a while, but then…” He read the tense atmosphere and nervously scratched his cheek. “I lost him because of the crowds, and the confusing streets.”

Speechless, Pel closed his eyes and sighed deeply. But Levisia couldn’t help but feel something odd was taking place. Hobb was a stranger to her, someone she had never met. lt was unusual that a stranger in an unknown place tried to help her, and for what? Because he knew her face? Well, so did everyone else in this room, and none of them seemed the type to help her out.

Before Pel could say anything, another man appeared behind Hobb and clapped a hand between his shoulder blades.

“Hobb here, his sense of direction is a bit off. So he gets lost quite often.”

“Hector, sir. That’s…” Hobb stumbled over his words, and buried his red face in his palms. However, by not refuting, it was clear that Hector’s words were true.

As Pel, Hobb, and Hector talked about Hobb’s lack of direction, Levisia examined her surroundings in greater detail. She had been so distracted by the strange stares and Pel dragging her around that she didn’t actually know where she was.

“What is this place?” She asked, hoping it wasn’t a stupid question. The deafening silence that followed told her that yes, it was a stupid question.

Hector was the one who broke the silence by clearing his throat.

“This place handles all kinds of information. It’s no exaggeration to say that all the information in the capital goes through here.”

Levisia’s eyes went wide in shock. The pub had much more significance than expected. From the outside, it didn’t appear to be much. Levisia had no idea that it doubled as an information center.

“If that’s the case, does this make you part of a guild? One that deals with trading valuable information?”

“We aren’t bound by such a grandiose name like ‘guild’. As we often work alone, we only gather only when we need to. That’s why this we chose here, as it is an inconspicuous place to gather. However,” Hector ruffled Hobb’s hair, causing Hobb to squirm in his seat. “Not everyone can freely enter. Only after some level of verification can you enter here. Hobb here has only just been recently recruited. Although he’s bad at directions, he has the upper hand of being quick to judge a situation. Useful for handling information, you see.”

With her questions about the suspicious store now answered, all Levisia wanted to know was what Pel had to do with this place. And why such sensitive information was being freely handed to her. She had a suspicion as to why, but she hoped that it wasn’t the case.

Feeling sweat beginning to drip down her back, she slowly glanced around her. Everyone was obviously still wary about her. They would be since she’s an outsider, but that wasn’t all of it. It was because the mood changed after they recognized her face.

Levisia’s eyes switched between Pel, his back towards her, and Hector talking to Hobb. She studied Hector more intensely, the cut on his cheek catching her eye. There was only one other person she could recall who had such a distinctive cut.

In “Return of the King”, Captain Hectile was the man who was responsible for bringing the hero, Farid Roycal—Pel’s true identity—back to the Roycal Kingdom, a country that has a previous feud with the Kraiden Empire. Hectile had escaped from the palace with the young prince.

And the names… Hector and Hectile. They were too similar for it to be just a mere coincidence. But what did Hector want with this place? If he was close to the prince, then that would mean that the enemy had access to important information from within the empire’s capital—information that could lead to the fall of the empire. This place would eventually turn into a base where preparations to overthrow the Kraiden empire arise.