Suran floundered out of bed, soaked in water from the waist up. On the ground, he coughed up water and rubbed his eyes to clear out the water. Taking a moment to collect himself after the shock, he looked around the room and found Natalya standing with a grin from ear to ear and hands on her hip, clutching a bucket in her right hand.

“The hell was that for?” Suran gasped out, shaking water out of his ears.

“Well, you weren’t waking up,” She replied with a sly smile.

“Did you even try anything else? Like shoving me or making noise?”

Somehow her grin grew larger at the response, “Would you believe me if I said I tried?”

Suran realized this was the exact same situation as yesterday. Was she testing him? He thought long and hard on how he should answer, and finally said “…Yes.”

“Wrong choice!” She gleefully exclaimed, tossing the bucket to the side. “So what’s the plan for today?”

While dipping wet on the ground, Suran silently wished Natalya had never come along, but he felt he couldn’t just leave her now; it was hard to imagine Natalya could take care of herself over a long period of time. “We eat breakfast then leave for Reginald’s,” Suran announced.

He got a spare set of clothes from his small sack and changed in the bathroom. After that, he and Natalya went down to grab food.

“Look who decided to wake up!” Jerin greeted the pair in an unusually upbeat demeanor.

“What do you mean?” Suran asked walking up the counter, thinking that it should be early in the morning.

“It’s already noon,” He replied with a chuckle. “Missed a lot while you were snoozing. Like breakfast.”

Suran’s eyes lit up. How was it already noon? Then he considered what happened yesterday; he was feeling great considering he nearly got trampled to death at the market. Sleeping in might have been his body’s way at coping with the damage. “What did I miss?: He asked, thinking breakfast could not have been Jerin’s biggest news.

Jerin chortled while shaking his head, “That little riot you created resulted in a big mess. I heard seven people died, about 32 were injured, and over 50 got arrested.”

Suran looked on in astonishment, afraid he might have made a big mistake.

“Not to mention all the damage done to buildings and shops…”

Suran did not want to hear anymore on the subject, so he thanked Jerin for his information and promptly went to the lounge to eat food. Since he woke up late, Natalya had to skip out on breakfast and go straight to lunch much to her dismay, but Suran was content in simply drinking tea and eating bread.

As usual, Natalya scarfed down her food while Suran casually sipped on his tea. Today, Natalya was eating a stew. A simple meal compared to yesterday’s. When it was all said and done, the pair headed out of the inn to begin a new day’s search for the missing girl.

When he left the inn, he found three men loitering across the street in long black coats. He let out a heavy sigh as the trio noticed him and began to menacingly approach him. It seemed his accidental riot did not go unnoticed to the powers that be.

"Natalya, stay back,” Suran instructed, stepping forward to separate her from the oncoming three, “If goes wrong, go back in the inn and get Jerin. He might help.” She nodded and stepped back in turn.

“Can I help you?” Suran placed himself in the middle of the triangle the trio coated men formed.

“Perhaps you can,” The one directly in front of Suran inched closer, standing nose to nose with him, staring him directly in Suran’s eyes. “You can tell me what are you doin’ round these parts.”

“You know, little bit of this, little bit of that. Looking for work,” Suran replied, retaining his calm demeanor and returning the man’s gaze.

“Then why don’t you look for work elsewhere, yeah?

“I think I’m fine just where I’m at.” Suran had no intention of backing down, especially when he already accepted the rescue job. Besides. Being visited like this must mean that he was on to something.

“Afraid we are going to have a problem then.” The trio began to close in on Suran while Natalya ducked into the inn without them noticing. It was still broad daylight and the streets were packed, making it difficult to start a fight. The hooligans knew this, and were making Suran back up with their advance. Normally, Suran would want to avoid any hostilities, but with their aggression, it did not look like they were going to back down, so he instead opted to go with their flow, and deal with them in the alley way now rather than them cause him trouble later.

The only exit was blocked by the three enforcers; a thick wall hanging between the buildings imposed itself on the shaded street. Suran hovered over the sword at his hip but would only use it as a last resort. Killing people in a city alley was not something he was keen on doing,

So, when the thugs approached with simply their fists, he was relieved. Unlike his flimsy swordplay, close quarter combat and fisticuffs was something he was well versed in.

Space was limited in the alley, so the thugs proceeded to funnel in. The first bandit came swinging in with a heavy right-handed punch. Suran undercut the punch with his arm, directing it up, ducked underneath the opening he created, and smashed his elbow into the neck of the thug, forcing him to stagger forward and past Suran.

The next ruffian reared up to jab, but Suran took the initiative, putting up his arms to by his head and crashing into the thug. He banged the man’s knee, slammed the man’s shoulder with his body, and stretched out his arm and clutched the thug’s face. With full control over the criminal’s body, Suran placed his right foot forward and behind the thug’s foot, then drove him back with his hand. The criminal lost his footing, tripping over Suran’s foot, and had his head plowed straight into the ground by Suran.

To Suran’s surprise, the head slam cracked and dented the ground. He didn’t think he used that much force. As he rose from the ground, his thoughts were cut short as he was grappled from behind, one of the thugs grabbing him from under his arms.

While the one on the ground seemed knocked out, the third member of the group came in fresh and began to wail on Suran. A flutter of punches came in, hitting his face and stomach. Each hit stung but did not leave lasting damage.

Suran was not in any serious pain from the punches, but he was not in a mood to play around. His head was not locked down, so he swung it back and head-butted the one holding him, staggering him and forcing him to loosen his grip. Then, shifting his weight by leaning forward, he hoisted the thug on his back. Pivoting one foot back, he lowered himself even further, reversing the grab and tossing him right into the last thug.

After taking a few steps back, Suran readied himself and waited for the ruffians to make their move. However, they were slow to get up, acting as if they were in intense pain. They collected their knocked out companion, took one good look at Suran who stood unfazed at the scuffle, and darted out of the alley.

Suran brushed the dirt of his clothes and walked out to the street. Considering it as past noon, it was not possible for him to pick out the thugs from the crowds of people on street. As he went back into the inn to collect Natalya, he was confused on how anti climatic that fight was.

Inside, he found Natalya chatting at the counter with Jerin.

“Natalya, let’s go,” he called out to the lounging girl.

She lazily turned around, “Done already?”

“What do you mean? I just got jumped and instead of getting help you chatted inside.” Suran responded annoyed.

“Eeeeeeh, I thought you would take care of it, and you did anyways!”

“Don’t assume anything. Let’s go before we lose any more day.”

Natalya left Jerin at the counter and joined Suran as they hit the streets to travel to Baron Reginald’s home. During the walk, Suran went over the events in his head, trying to tie everything together. So far, it was obvious the key to all of this was grain. Reginald was in debt because he had to borrow for his failing grain business. Then, when he started the riot the other day, the primary reason was the grain prices. While the bars not knowing anything might have been a coincidence, but getting roughed up by thugs first thing in the morning must mean that he one of his actions was on the right path.

Reginald’s home was in a relatively far place; it was located in one the wealthier districts, nestled deep in the city. The pair came up to the gate of the estate, and hastily entered the lawn. Suran was on edge since of the earlier scuffle, and did not want to be in the open any longer. Fortunately, while the estate was not massive, it was well made. Surrounding the perimeter was light gray stone walls covered in moss that gave ample privacy to the area. Accompanied with several trees along the edge, it would be difficult for anyone to see inside.

Passing the fountain on the path, Suran trotted over to the large wooden door and knocked heavily. After waiting for a moment, Keira answered the door with her black tail swishing behind her.

“Welcome, Mr. Ibrahim! What can I do for you?”

“We need to speak to the Baron.”

She took a step back to the side and bowed, “Right this way,” gesturing the path with her hand outstretched.

Suran and Natalya followed her inside where she led them through the house to the upper levels. It was not a large house; space was a valuable resource in the city, but it was homely and elegantly crafted with the room it had. Keira stopped the two outside of door and went inside.

The door swung open to reveal a study with Henry Reginald sitting in a red chair behind a wooden desk with Keira to his right.

“Please come in,” Henry asked, sitting uncomfortably in his chair.

Suran walked in first and seated himself in one of the two chairs in front of the Baron’s desk with Natalya following suit.

“Any progress?” The Baron asked while he leaned forward with concern all over his face.

“We have a lead…” Suran answered vaguely. The response did not elicit any joy for the Baron who probably expected something more than a lead. He continued, “If you want us to get any further, you have to tell us the full story.” It was a hunch that there was more to this story, but calling him out on it was a gamble. Suran felt if he normally asked for any other information, the Baron would be hesitant on sharing. By already establishing there is something more, Suran was aiming to eliminate any leeway for Henry to save face.

Sweat beaded on Henry’s forehead, “W-what do you mean?”

“I know there is more to this. I got assaulted this morning after asking around for Namnoc. There are so many indicators that I don’t have the full story: The kidnapping while going to the part, the grain market fluctuations, the large debt from the company no one knows about.”

“So that’s how it is…” he wiped the sweat off his forehead, “Very well. There was one thing I neglected to tell you: Namnoc lent out money to many of my fellow nobles who were unable to get funding, putting us all under their influence. They began to bleed us dry so may of us wanted to get out of this and our only option was to band together.”

“Is that why your daughter was going to a party?”

“Correct. After much consideration, I decided to marry her off to gain financial assets so we could get out of debt. I received an offer from Lord Shroom, but I rejected him in favor for the son of Lord Pease. No one should have known about the arrangement but…”

“So either someone has been watching you, there was a leak somewhere, or Lord Shroom sold you out.” Suran leaned back in his chair. None of the answers gave him much to work with.

“Again, correct.”

Out of the three possibilities he drafted, the only one he could follow-up on was Lord Shroom. Trying to find someone watching him would be like looking for a needle in a haystack and smoking out a spy would be even trickier. “Tell me where Lord Shroom is.”

“Do you have something in mind?”

“I’m going to stake out his home.” This was the only real thing he could do. There was no guarantee that there was anything to find, but if Lord Shroom did have connections to Nomnac, he had to discover them somehow.

“Very well. Keira will show you the way,” He responded with a nod in her direction.

Suran stood up from his chair, “No time to waste, let’s go.” Natalya also got and Keira left from behind the desk to show the way. As he was walking out, he turned to Natalya, “Natalya, it would be better if you stayed here; it would be difficult to run reconnaissance with you around.”

She pouted and puffed out her cheeks, “I see how it is! You don’t want me around!”

“While that is true, the main reason is that you would make it difficult for me to scope out the Lord.”

“You don’t allow any fun!” She stomped in place.

Suran went for the low blow, “One day when you become an adult you will understand.”

Jaw agape, Natalya went back to a chair and slouched in it, totally defeated.

“Right then. Keira, lead the way.”

Keira strolled out of the room and Suran followed.