Chapter 21

Picking Up The Trail

Moonstone City was one of the biggest cities in the entirety of the Western Continent. In the lore of the Five Realms game, the city got its name from an asteroid that was believed to be part of the moon that had landed there. Due to the numerous uses the ore taken from said asteroid, people began to gather around in hopes of making a fortune out of it, which eventually led to a large settlement being built in the crater that the asteroid left behind.

Nowadays, most of the original asteroid had been carved up with only a small amount of it remaining as a monument dedicated to the birth of the city. However, before it hit the planet, several chunks of it had broken off and landed into the area surrounding the city. This still drew in travelers, as even small quantities of moonstone were valuable.

While the city had started as a simple mining settlement, it had grown into a booming metropolis that held almost all possible forms of trade within it. This of course included illegal activities as well that you could find by just looking at the right back alley.

The crater that the city was built into was surrounded by a large metal wall so tall that only the mightiest of beasts could ever hope to climb it. Luckily, such creatures were far away from there, so the citizens could sleep at peace, not having to worry about wild monster attacks. There was only one entrance to the city, a large metal gate that had several city guards watching over it.

The guards most of the time didn’t really have to worry about anything, outside of the occasional beast that wandered to their location. Due to the harsh journey that travelers would have to face when going by land, most new arrivals came to the city via airships. There was always the rare adventurer or two that would somehow manage to survive the wastelands and arrive there, but such sights were rare.

Because it was such a rare occurrence, the guards posted at the gate were quite surprised when they saw a figure approaching them. One of the guards immediately grabbed binoculars and took a look at who this new arrival was. It was a lone woman that seemed to be carrying a small child in her arms.

Despite the fact that these two were most likely unfortunate wanderers, the guards still had a job to do. They would have to stop these people at the gate and give them a check up, just to make sure they weren’t dealing with anyone dangerous.

“Hold it right there, miss. Let us see the ID cards for both of you,” the leader of the group of guards said. “We need to make sure to identify any and all people that come into the city.”

“Here you go, officer,” the woman complied and gave her ID to the guard. He checked it out and saw that everything was alright.

“Good. Now I’ll just need to see your daughter’s ID,” the guard said, which caused the woman to strangely tense up. “Is something wrong?”

“Umm… This isn’t my daughter. I don’t have any kids,” the woman explained as she motioned to the child she was holding. “I found her during my travels. I think her family fell victim to bandits or something.”

“I see… That is terrible,” the guard said in a sympathetic tone. “So does she still have her ID with her or has that been lost?”

“Unfortunately, when I found her, she didn’t have it.”

The guard looked at the scared child and thought about it for a second. While he knew that he technically wasn’t allowed to let anyone in without the proper ID, what harm could a little girl cause?

“Alright, just make sure that she gets a new ID issued for herself by the proper authorities,” the guard said. “It should be alright for you to take her with you, as you’re essentially her guardian at the moment.”

“Thank you very much, sir!” the woman said as she bowed to the guard in gratitude.

“It’s alright. Also, little miss?” the guard said as he turned his attention to the child. He had a gentle smile on his face and gave her a piece of candy. “I know things have been rough for you, but you just have to keep going and I’m sure you’ll be alright. After all, you do seem to have a new mommy who will be looking out for you now.”

At the mention of being a mother, the woman tensed up again, but none of the guards noticed. The girl simply smiled and nodded at the guard in response to his encouragement.

With the ID check completed, the woman and little girl were allowed into the city. Once they had passed through the gate, the woman took the girl to a more secluded place, where she suddenly threw the child on the ground.

“Ow! What’s the big deal!?” the girl complained before her appearance changed to that of a young woman, revealing herself as Erin. “My plan worked, right!? So why are you dumping me like a bag of trash!?”

“Perfectly, my ass! Didn’t you hear what that guy said!? He called me your mom! Twice!” the woman explained, revealing herself to be Ryle. “I am not that old, okay!? No one should be able to get away with calling me that! This is a matter of pride, you know!?”

“Oh, take your pride and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine! Is it really that terrible a thing to be called!?” Erin asked angrily as she got up and dusted herself. “Besides, had it not been for my idea, the two of us would have been stopped at the front gate!”

“Yeah, but unlike you, I’ve still got a pretty clean record on my ID, so this only really helped you out, Ms. Wanted by the whole government,” Ryle argued. “Why couldn’t you just sneak in from some other place?”

“Because the gate was the easiest place to do so, if not the only place!” the redhead argued back. “Anyways, since you’ve been here before, do you know where that bastard Lune is most likely? The mayor back in Grand Ravine mentioned a military base.”

“I know the place. I’ve brought some bounties there when I’ve been here on business,” the blonde said. “Follow me. I’ll show you the way.”

As the two started to make their way to the military base, Erin took the chance to take in her surroundings. Moonstone City was for the most part similar as to how it had been back when she had just been playing the game. The buildings looked shabby, built from what seemed to be mostly junk metal with no real understanding of architecture, as it looked like upper floors were just hastily assembled on top of the ones underneath them. It honestly amazed the redhead how these buildings were able to stay intact and not collapse. There were also shaky looking metal bridges here and there, connecting buildings to each other over alleyways or across streets.

However, despite how bad the buildings looked, the city was quite lively. All around them were people walking around, going from place to place by either walking down the streets, using the bridges or navigating the alleys that were like a maze. There were also roads with vehicles driving on them, although the messy design of the city made the roads curve here and there. Bright neon signs could be seen everywhere as well, advertising the numerous businesses that could be found.

“Hey, would you mind and stop looking around so much?” Ryle suddenly asked, breaking Erin out of her thoughts. “You look like a total hick. It’s embarrassing.”

The redhead was about to say something in response but held it back. Getting into an argument with her companion wasn’t going to help either of them.

“So, how much longer until we reach this military base?” Erin decided to ask. “We’ve been going on for quite some time already.”

“Just a bit more. We will be there soon enough,” Ryle answered.

As the two continued walking, Erin noticed a wanted poster on the wall of one of the buildings they walked past. When looking around a bit more, she saw that the same poster had been posted on nearly any possible place it could be put on. The wanted poster itself was for someone called “The Midnight Thief” who had a very large bounty of 30 000 on him. From what little the redhead was able to gather while walking past the posters, the thief had apparently become quite notorious for robbing people directly related to the government and military. What was strange, though, was that there was no proper picture of the thief, as it only had a picture of someone wearing a mask and a hood that covered their face almost completely.

Erin felt that this was something she would need to look into later, so she decided to keep it in mind.

Suddenly, Ryle walked up to a nearby building and began to climb the ladder on its side. Erin, while confused, didn’t voice any complaints and simply followed behind her partner. The two of them were soon on top of the building, looking over the city below. Ryle motioned for Erin to walk up to her, which the redhead did. The blonde then pointed at the direction of a walled off area of the city, where the buildings were completely different from what they had seen so far. Unlike in the city, the buildings there were obviously well designed and built from proper materials, instead of being put together from whatever parts could be found.

It didn’t take long for Erin to notice the soldiers walking around the area. There were numerous troopers patrolling the wall, up in watchtowers or just walking around the yard. Different types of military vehicles could also be seen, ranging from cars to tanks and helicopters. Needless to say, this was the military complex they were told about.

“So that’s where our target is then,” Erin mumbled, looking over the place. “Any ideas as to how we can get in?”

“Sure! Let’s bust down the front door, go in and kill them all,” Ryle replied. “Does it even need to be more complicated than that?”

“...It’s amazing how you’ve managed to survive for so long,” the redhead said with a frustrated sigh. “Honestly, do you want us both to get killed before we can even get our hands on Lune? If we want to succeed, we’ll need an actual plan!”

“Well, that stuff isn’t my specialty!” the blonde argued. “While I occasionally know how to be a bit more “clever”, I mostly left such things to Zeke. He was always the smart one of us.”

“How was he able to give you advice when you were not even in the same town?” Erin asked. “Did you have some way to communicate with each other over long distances?”

“We sure did. Before I started going bounty hunting outside our hometown, he gave me some equipment that he had managed to salvage from junk that the guards had tossed out,” Ryle explained. “He got me a radio, so I could contact him for more information, along with these special binoculars that had a connection to his computer. Thanks to that, he could see what I was looking at through them and help me with making plans and such.”

“That’s… honestly amazing,” the redhead said, impressed by Zeke’s skills. “So do you still have those things on you?”

“No. They got destroyed along with my home, when Lune’s goons burned it to the ground,” the blonde answered in a saddened tone.

There was a moment of awkward silence, as the two ladies thought about everything that had been lost dues to Lune’s actions.

“...We can’t do this. Not yet at least,” Erin suddenly said, breaking the silence and surprising her partner. “If we are to get in there and take on Lune, we’ll need some better equipment and possibly even some additional help.”

“Hey, I get the equipment part, but how are we supposed to get anyone to join our side on this gig!?” Ryle asked. “I doubt we can put up an advertisement on the local freaking newspaper asking people to storm a military base in order to kill a general!”

“While that is true, we have to at least try to find someone,” the redhead said. “We have been lucky to survive with just the two of us so far, but that is very unlikely to work here. We are going to need at least some form of assistance if we are to stand a chance against whatever is awaiting for us in there.”

“Alright, you might have a point, but the issue of how to do this still stands,” the blonde argued. “Not only is it very unlikely for us to find people willing to join us, but we can’t exactly go around openly asking for help on this!”

“You would be surprised by how many people there are who don’t like those in charge. Rebels, those who want to get rid of Lune in order to further their own careers and those with simple grudges like us are plenty, especially for people like him. It’s only a matter of finding them,” Erin explained. “If nothing else, we can always try to hire mercenaries on our side.”

“Okay, you’ve got a point, I guess. But where are we going to start our search?” Ryle asked.

“I think I have an idea. Follow me,” the redhead replied before leading her partner down from the rooftop and back to the street. There she grabbed one of the wanted posters she had seen earlier and showed it to the blonde. “I believe this might be something worth looking into.”

“...You’re kidding me, right?”