Chapter 13 “Confrontation”

“Okay!” Cyrielle’s voice came into my ear as soon as her feet stopped. “The place I was talking about is probably near here.”

“…Probably?” Reiyes’ voice came out to bear the same feeling I had. Disappointment. “Do you mean that you are not entirely sure about it?”

“I only have a lead, but no certain fact.” Hearing her rather carefree remark, I shook my head at that. It seemed that I’ve overestimated her.

“…You…” A loud sigh came from him. As usual, Reiyes’ heartbeats increased slightly, but it immediately returned to normal in a split second. It seemed that he was able to control his anger. Good for him. At least I’ve got one normal person in the group. “Nerva, do you sense anybody nearby?”

“No one.” I said to Reiyes. “Not a single soul is nearby.” That fact actually made me think.

If I’m not mistaken, this place is known as the Rundown Quarters. The name, as anyone expected, is a quarter filled with nothing but rubble and collapsed building. Of course, it was not like this in the first place. The place used to be one of the earliest residential area ever built in the town. The majority of the town’s population at that time lived in this very place. But due to a sudden fire outbreak, the place has been destroyed. And since building new ones instead of repairing the broken down building is much faster, safer, and cheaper, the place is abandoned almost immediately.

What baffled me is that there is absolutely not a single patrol in this place. I know that the militia is shorthanded at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that they can be careless like this. Although almost no one lives there, doesn’t mean that no one is there. It looks like I will have to talk with Eryell in the near future to put a couple or more men in here. But…

Maybe I won’t. If this is the place where the underground movement is based on, then the risk of them getting into full frontal conflict with the militia is almost inevitable. And that also will raised a question on how did I managed to find this place all of a sudden. A lot of trouble will appear from that, right? Hmm…I guess I will really put off the idea at the moment. At least until my task as a Watcher is done. Let’s just ask Reiyes to put this place under close watch.

“Reiyes, do you have some of your Shades nearby?”

“I have a couple of them.” A snapping sound then came from his direction. After that, I felt two presences getting near us. “New location. Scout around. Don’t approach anyone. Report to me as usual.” Although his voice was relatively quiet and barely audible, for me it was loud enough to tell that he had given order to his Shades. After that, the two presences thinned out and moved away from us. “I assume that is what you want me to do, Nerva.”

“Correct.” I let out a small satisfied smile.

“You know, the two of you seem to know each other quite closely.” Oh? Her heartbeats showed me a certain interesting emotion. Together with her tone, I could almost tell that it was exactly that very emotion. Envy. “Why couldn’t I be like that?”

“If you use your head better, you can do that easily.”

“Sheesh, you and your smart mouth of yours.” Ah, there they go again. Although the two refused to admit that they are close, I have to say that their usual bickering is the very sign of how close they are.

“Really now…” I shook my head while grinning. But then my stance changed. I also noticed that the two have also ceased their bickering and have oozed out an aura of alertness. “Reiyes, there are about…one…two…four…five people altogether.”

“I see…”

“What do you want to do now, Nerva?” A click sound came from the direction of Cyrielle. “Should we take them out?”

“…Why are you so eager to wreak havoc?” I shook my head at her rather vicious suggestion. “For now, let’s observe them.”

“…Alms for the blind…”

“Hmm?” A female voice entered my ears. “There’s someone here?”

Oh, so the two that came from this direction are two women? Sound of fluttering clothes was made each time they step. The two wore rather heavy and thick coat, I suppose. Well, it is rather cold at this time of year.

“…Alms for the blind…” I kept repeating the same sentence while walking around. My left hand kept tapping my walking cane onto the street from time to time while the right one was left open to the open. “…Alms for the blind…” As I walked pass them, I could sense their heartbeats turned rather fast, a sign of them being wary. But it was just for a few seconds as their heartbeats turned normal.

“…Strange…Well, not our concern anyway.”

“…You go on ahead.” One of the two ran toward me while the other just stood in silence. “Wait!”

“…Yes?” I turned around toward the direction of the voice while still waving my stick slightly.

“Here,” said the woman as she grabbed my right hand. A few objects were placed at my hand and as I moved my hand around I could felt the smooth surface on it. The cold feeling it gave on my skin told me that it was a coin, several of them. “I know that it is not enough, I’m sorry.”

“Oh, bless you! Bless you for your alms, kindhearted lady! Bless you!” I bowed several times at her while showing a rather exaggerated smile. “Bless you!”

“D-Don’t be, it is our honor to help someone in need.” She then released my hand and then walked away from me. I kept bowing my head at her direction while saying ‘bless you’ several times.

I then walked away from slowly while continuing my usual chant of ‘Alms for the blind’ along the way.

“As usual, you can’t turn your eyes against them, can you, Mena?”

“If not us, who else going to help them?” A ‘hmph’ came from the previous woman that gave me money. “Besides, we are doing this to prevent them from suffering more.”

“If you say so.” The other woman said that without sign of actually agreeing with her partner. “Let’s go. We don’t want to make the others wait.”

I slowed down my walking pace even further, waiting for them to walk away from me far enough. After confirming that they are far enough, I turned around and then walked the other way. Of course, I’m following them.

As I expected, they didn’t suspect a single thing. Although the first one felt suspicious, it seemed that the second one, the one called Mena, has fallen for the trick completely. I guess my appearance really do look like a beggar. As Eryell said, a neat beggar. But a beggar nonetheless.

After following them, which was a task quite easier than I expected, I stopped as the two had also stopped walking. They stood in front of a run-down building. The very building that Cyrielle had showed to Reiyes and I not long ago. I tapped my cane several times to make my ‘view’ much clearer and noticed that the three people from before had already entered the building. Besides the five in front of me, I noticed a pair of presences around me.

“Got any information from the three?” I asked while keeping my face directed to the building. Thankfully, the many ruin in the area made it a suitable location for hiding myself. Even if the chance of the five found me out is very slim, I will not act careless.

“Not much. At least, not much in term of usefulness.” Reiyes voice came to me as he stepped next to me while Cyrielle followed behind him.

“They didn’t say anything useful except some idle gossip.” Cyrielle let out a sigh at that. “Gossip like the guy named Adart have a crush on the girl name Mena and the story of how the other guy named Andres is going to have a wedding soon. Stuff like that.”

“…Impressive how talkative and carefree they are considering that this meeting of theirs is supposed to be a secret.” Reiyes then shook his head. Judging from his tone, he probably showed a rather disappointed frown. “But I guess we will have to get closer to learn something else.”

“Agreed. Then I leave it to your skill to maintain our presence.”

“Understood. Please don’t make sudden movement. Especially you.”

“Okaaaay~.”

“Sheesh. I really wish you could be more serious.”

“Everyone is present. I also hope that none of you are tailed, right?”

Hearing the woman’s voice, I couldn’t help but let out a snicker. All of them weren’t only tailed, but the three of us–I, Reiyes, and Cyrielle– have even stood near the mostly broken windows unnoticed by them. That was not because they were incompetent or anything, but it was simply because Reiyes’ skill to cloak the three of us from them is just too good. He really excelled at this skill, making him a very formidable spy and assassin.

To explain how powerful his skill is, I could reach onto one of them just from my position. That was how close we are to them. The magnificent part about his skill is that we can hear their voice but they couldn’t hear us at all. It was a specially designed ‘Sound Shield’ for spying. Sadly, this particular skill is special for him and almost no one could learn it. Or at least, they will need a very long time to be able to learn it and even a longer time to make it efficient.

Since his shield stopped sound from the inside getting out, I couldn’t ‘see’ really well. I couldn’t tap my cane since the sound will not reach any of them. I could only rely on their voice and the sound of their heartbeats to locate anything outside. Thankfully, due to the very close distance we are to them, I could hear them very well and that is more than enough for our current task for the night.

“Yes, we are safe, captain.” A gruff voice answered Mena. It seemed that she is the leader of this group. Or at least she holds some rank between them. “Due to the Royal Families arrival, the security in the whole town has been on high alert. But thankfully, the moment we took the road to this place we never saw a single guard patrolling.”

“It is understandable since this place is considered to be empty. No one in their right mind will get to here. Not even the homeless ones.” Unlike the previous one, this man have a rather smooth voice, almost female like but still have an edge of masculinity in it.

“No matter the circumstances, we can’t be careless. Stay alert wherever we can. Do you understand, Adart, Andres?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Two men’s voice answered her in unison. So that confirms it. She really is their leader.

“Good. Now let’s discuss the progress of our team. Gerio, you can go first.”

“Yes, Captain.” A different gruff voice replied. “We are having our supply delivered on schedule as we speak and not a single one is detected. Since the Royal Families is coming, we instead have a more believable reason to give at the guard check for our supply.”

“Understood. Andres?”

“Yes, Captain.” Hmm? It was the gruff voice in the start. So the one called Adart is the one that have the rather smooth voice. Interesting. After that last voice, I have already able to differentiate all of them. “Just like the supply, the weapons have been acquired just as expected. Although it has been getting a bit difficult to get more weapons due to the strict check on the gate, we have managed to smuggle a lot and can be considered to reach our initial requested number.”

“Good.” A satisfied voice came from their captain. “Evet, what about the recruitment progress?”

“At the moment, the rate has decreased from the last week.” Oh, the woman from the last time. Somehow her voice seemed to be a bit younger than their captain. “The reason for that is because of the heavy patrol from the militia. They have been watching places where many people gather and becoming much more cautious in the past couple of days.” Hmm, so I guess the plan for increasing the frequency of patrol is quite effective. Excellent. “Thankfully, we still managed to hide our existence from them. I have asked some of our men inside the militia for confirmation.” Ho, this is a very valuable piece of information. So it seems that they really have infiltrated our rank as expected. Very interesting indeed.

“That is inevitable. It is quite an unexpected turn of event to have the royal family visited this border town.”

“Captain, is there a possibility that they have realized our existence?” Hmm? “Just as you said, it is very unusual that the royal family would venture so far away from the capital.”

“I have the same opinion as Adart, Captain. To add to that, the one that came to visit is none other than Count Ferre Grese, the very man that held a very important position in Astiard’s military.”

“…While I can understand both Adart’s and Andres’ concern, at the moment I cannot give any concrete answer.” Hmm, this is getting more and more interesting. From her tone, I could determine that she was telling the truth. Or, at most, partial truth. “I would really like to know the real reason they are being here, but we can’t move carelessly. The last thing we need is to have our cover blown after all these months setting up our branch here.”

“Captain is right.” The one called Evet entered the conversation again. “The street is not only teeming with militia, but also the royal guard’s agent. We have seen many of them trying to get information.”

Does it mean that the royal family has no connection with the whatsoever? If not, then this task will be a bit easier. Or…no, it will not be much easier since we still have to look out for them. Even if they are not connected with the movement, there is still a possibility that have other reason for being here except for a simple experiment.

“I presumed they are unable to gain any, right?”

“Correct, Captain.” This time, it was Adart that gave a reply. “I have sent our men to deal with the informant. Some can be bought rather easily, while others…need to be silenced, permanently.” Oh, very surprising. The owner of that slightly feminine voice, Adart, is the one that is handing out assassination order, eh? Very interesting bunch of people. I guess one should never judge a person by their voice too.

“….I have to say that shedding blood in this town left a bad taste in my mouth,…but as long as it is the necessary move, we should do it.”

“I’m sorry, Captain. It is the only action we can take or they will sell our existence to the open.”

“I understand, Adart.” Her tone that was heavy previously had turned somewhat calmer. “It is not your fault. We are in this together.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

“Captain, is there any further instruction from the Elders?” Elders? Is that supposed to be their highest leaders?

“No. Because of that, our order still remains the same. Adart will control the scout and the information flow in the town. Gerio will organize the supply for our troop here and also the supply to the other branch while Andres will deal with the weaponry. Evet will keep recruiting men into our rank while also training the men. Is everyone clear?”

“Yes, Captain!”

“Unfortunately, we can’t meet too often due to the sudden turn of event. We will get by our network. Don’t contact each other if it is not an emergency. Adart, it seems that your work will be a bit harder than before.”

“It’s understandable, Captain.” A firm and proud answer came from him. “I will not let you down.”

“Good, I have my trust in you, Adart.” Judging from her voice, she sounded very close to him. This is very interesting. And if I’m not mistaken, he had a crush on her. Maybe I can use this. “Is there anything else that any of you need to report?”

“…There is, Captain.” The gruff voice that belonged to the one called Gerio reply with a rather uncertainty in his voice. “It’s about….the incident with the supply team that had been…decimated in the forest.”

“…Oh that one.” I could hear Cyrielle’s voice from near me followed by a loud sigh from Reiyes.

I guess that confirmed it. The one that Cyrielle wiped out is indeed their men. It also confirmed that the movement has connection with the smuggler that the militia eradicated not long ago. The thread started to connect one by one.

“The attack decimated all of them. Not a single one of them are alive. Fortunately, their body has been destroyed to ash, making identification from the militia absolutely impossible.” Hmm, that is indeed a correct statement. The militia had asked me to identify it since they were at lost at the sight of the place. “But what made me worried is that as if they were attacked by a pack of Lava Drakel from the south. Their body burnt to ashes, even the Arcane Puppets were destroyed to pieces.”

Lava Drakel, eh? I guess you can say that. But comparing the Lava Drakel iconic flame breath to the Igneous Hatchet’s power is somewhat wrong since the Igneous Hatchet’s power is much more powerful than that.

“…Has any other unit has any information regarding that?”

“Unfortunately, there is none, Captain.” Andres gave a reply. “Because of that very incident, our men have been especially alert and worried. Some talk of them getting out of town has also started to circulate.”

“Even with our men scattered around the town, we’ve been unable to get any lead to the culprit.” Adart added to Andres’ statement. “There is a possibility that they have already left the town. If that is true, then we fear that our operation have been found out. But since the militia hasn’t ordered something drastic, it seems that our cover is still secure.”

“I see. But from what you said, it seems that the militia has actually done something. Is that right, Adart?”

“Correct, Captain. Even before the militia had increased the security of the town, they have been asking around, searching for something.”

“And when did that start?”

“If I’m not mistaken, it was a day after one our supply group has been attacked.”

“…Adart, is that true?” Ah, it’s the one called Evet that was asking this time.

“It is. But that was only for a day or two. The next day they ceased entirely as if someone asked them to stop their investigation.” I wonder how they will react if they realized that the one ordering the militia to stop their investigation is a blind apothecary? I guess they will not believe it.

“What is it, Evet? Something in your mind?”

“I guess…you can say that, Captain.”

“Well, care to tell all of us?”

“…I was wondering…do you think the one that attacked us have any connection with the militia at all? Or maybe with the royal family?” No, she doesn’t. I can tell you that. I, on the other hand, am with the militia.

“What are you suggesting, Evet?”

“I’m suggesting that there is a possibility of another party in play here, Captain.”

For a few seconds, the five went silence. It seemed that the realization of that possibility shocked them slightly. I could totally understand them. At the moment, they are only considering the kingdom’s royal family their main concern. Well, that is what I guess from the name of their movement. But let’s go with that. And the next one they can consider as an opposing party is none other than the security in this town, the local militia. Dealing with those two forces, I imagine, has been more than they expected.

“…Once again, I couldn’t give you any concrete answer.” Mena let out a rather frustrated sigh. “All I can tell you is that we can only be more alert and cautious. No matter who they are, we can’t let them ruin our effort.”

“Yes, Captain!”

“Then we should get back or we risk running onto the patrol. Adart, come with me for a while, I need to confirm something else with you”

“Y-Yes, Captain.” Oh, interesting, interesting. The moment she mentioned that he will be with her, his voice broke apart. His heartbeats also turned slightly faster than before. Ah, so the gossip about him is true.

“Oh, then I’ll get back alone then, Captain.” A snickered followed Evet’s words. “I don’t want to disturb your…discussion.”

“E-Evet!” Oh, she also gave the same reaction as him. Stuttering and also a rise in heartbeats. Is the feeling mutual? “I’m j-just going to discuss about the scout!”

“Got it, Captain~!” A teasing tone came from Evet again. “You guys, let’s quickly move out.” A pair of soft laugh came from the other two men, followed by their footsteps leading onto the exit.

“Sheesh, you guys…” A tired sigh came from their captain as she also started to leave the building. “Adart, come on.”

“Y-Yes, Captain.” The sound of him following could be heard after his reply.

After a while, all of them left the building. The three of us still remained on our place. Seconds after that, I could feel a slight buzzing on the air. It was the sign of Reiyes putting down his skill.

“…Now what, Nerva?” Reiyes’ voice resounded. “Even after that, we still couldn’t tell their objective.”

“Hmm, you’re right.”

“There’s also no information about their so called trump card, right?” Hmm, Cyrielle is right. “Even if we don’t know their objective, as long as we know that and the connection with the Marked Soul, that is all we care, right?”

“Indeed that is right.” I tapped my cane, making sure that no one is around us. Thankfully, no one is. “But if we just spied on them, it might take a long time.”

“We can’t do that.” Reiyes added. “We need to do it quick since the Marked Soul is prophesized to be in danger soon.”

“Then I guess we should do it directly.” I let out a sigh right after that. The reason? I don’t really like the thought of doing this plan of mine.

I tapped my cane several times while waiting near an empty street. The ‘view’ came into my mind and I know that my target is getting nearer. Her footsteps were rather quiet, a sign of her trying to be as quiet as she could. And from what I could hear, she is alone. I guess she parted way with him. Thankfully, I let Cyrielle take care of him.

As the footsteps were nearer again, I came out my hiding place and acted out the plan.

“W-What?!” Her surprised voice resounded as he saw me. “Hang on there! Are you okay?” What made her startled and panicked was the fact that I appeared out of nowhere falling onto my knees. It made a rather loud thumping sound and I purposely let my cane slid out of my hand, tumbling out of my reach.

“O-O-Oh, s-s-someone there?”

“Hang on there!” Her footsteps came near and she tried to help me stand up. “Are you hurt?”

“My k-knees, but that’s f-fine. My cane! W-Where’s my cane?” I shouted out in panic while searching around me. “My c-cane? W-Where is it?”

“Cane?” Swishing sound came into my ear as she apparently looked around. “Oh, there it is?”

“W-Where?” I kept searching while asking that.

“I’ll get it.”

“Oh, blessed you! Blessed you!”

“I-It’s all right.” She then stood up and then walked to the direction of my cane. After a while, she came back and crouched down to my height. She grabbed my hand and then pulled it onto my cane. “Here you go.”

“Oh, thank you! Blessed you!” I shook her hand with gratitude. “Blessed you!”

“Please calm down. It’s all…E-Eh?” Her voice started to turned into a confused one.

“W-What’s the matter?”

“N-No, it’s nothing. But…but…” All of a sudden her body leaned forward. I then caught her body just in time before she hit the street. “..W-What happen…I…j-just…” Slowly, her voice turned quieter and quieter until not a single sound came from her. I checked her heartbeats and it showed that she is unconscious.

“Done already?”

“Done.” I answered the newly arrived voice while still holding onto the woman called Mena. “Is she done too?”

“She has. She is going to bring him there.” He approached me and then took her from my hand. I tapped my cane and ‘see’ him lifting her onto his arm. “I’ll bring her back to the place.”

“Good.” I then stood up. “I’ll follow you soon. I have something else to prepare.”

“Got it.” His footsteps turned quiet and quiet. In a matter of seconds, his presence disappeared completely and I was left alone. I will have to get back to my home and also prepare for it. I hope I have it stocked up. I might need it for my…discussion with them.

Author Note:

The 'discussion' will be rather...interesting..

Please give me comment and opinion for this story, or even critique so that I can improve my writing. Do tell me if you find something strange or wrong with the chapter. Thank you for reading!