Things went downhill from there.
More than a few things spiraled out of control, for example, Scheleth…
After talking to Cana and Syrus over the amulet, I went straight to his lab. But to my surprise, soone beat to it.
The Gabber's Runesmithing Hub, was dilapidated as is, but now… it looked like a demolished building.
Hurriedly, I pushed aside the debris and climbed down the stairs entering the lab downstairs.
"Fuck…!!", escaped from my mouth as I saw a bloodied Scheleth lying face down on the hard floor.
With a single step, I landed beside him and held him up, asking my shadow as I did, "Amy! Is he alive? Can he be saved?!"
Now, out of my shadow, without wasting a single second Amy placed a hand on Scheleth's body and closed her eyes for a mont, a mont that ignited a silver of hope within .
Unfortunately, it was quickly doused over by Amy's following words, "I'm sorry Young Master, but he is dead. Murdered a few hours ago."
"Fuck…", I cursed again, clenching my fists tightly.
I stayed like that for a while, with clenched fists and eyes closed.
Only after a few minutes, I placed his placed scaled head on the floor, as I turned to Amy, whose eyes were blazing with a clear blue fla, "Please tell y'know who is behind this, Amy."
Her eyes stopped shining, as she looked at with a serious expression, and nodded, "Yes, I do know, Young Master. It's that sa elf that you saw a few minutes ago, even if she tried to conceal herself, I can sense fragnts of her mana scattered across the lab."
My gaze sharpened as I asked her, "You an Fostoria?"
Nodding, Amy affird.
"Can you track her?"
Once again, Amy nodded.
"I see, then Amy, can you read his mories?", I said, pointing at Scheleth.
And don't get wrong here. I, too, wanted to punch that elf so hard that she never woke up, but that urge wasn't enough to take over my rational mind.
If I happened to be close to Scheleth then maybe, but I we weren't that close. I will avenge him, but that's it. Instead, I was wary enough, to consider another possibility.
But to my dismay, Amy lowered her head this ti, "I can't Young Master.", she said as if ashad, "If it was Zuri or Jinx, they would be able to but I can't…"
"It's okay, it's not your fault.", I said dismissively, while being inwardly surprised at Amy behavior.
"Actually… It's my fault, Young Master. It was Zuri who was supposed to watch over you, but I insisted to keep you company…", she said in a defeated voice, as if she had failed …
"I have failed you, Young Master…"
'Damn… I can't understand her. One mont she is a mischievous prankster, in another she's my mother's spy, sotis she acts like she is my mother, and now, she is acts like this...'
Urgh, I'm more upset about her behavior than I am about Scheleth's death.
I know I am an asshole, no need to remind .
"Well…", I walked towards her, as my shoes bloodied with Scheleth's blood leaved dark blue footprints on the floor, and patted her head.
"…It's not like I expect you to be omnipotent. I an, that would be too much even for a god, and you are not one. You are 'my' maid, and I am the one who will decide whether you have failed or not.", I said, while fluffing her ears, with the height of my Ray's persona, I could easily reach them.
"I see…", Amy mumbled, before she took a few steps back, leaving my hand alone kneading the air. Then as if she had composed herself, she looked up and teased with her mischievous expression on, "I see that you are still Young Master Rayne. After all, only a idiot would bring up God and omnipotence when consoling a girl~"
'Do you, a 100-year-old kitsune, even count as a girl?', I wanted to retort, but for safety reasons I kept it to myself and just sighed.
Then, turning around, I faced Scheleth's dead body and ordered, "Find all the clues available Amy, don't miss anything."
"As you wish, Young Master."
***
[The Eastern Expanse]
[Calkern City]
[Archmage Helden's Mansion]
The Calkern City was the nearest major city from the border of the Northern Realms, that was why a Archmage like himself, one of the seven shields of Duke Anias, was in charge of this city.
And yet, even an Archmage, when given to manage a city that was a bridgehead for all surrounding cities along the border, was swamped with work.
Running the city itself was major job in and itself, with him approving and overlooking heaps of paper work, but today, was a much busier day for Archmage Helden.
Thanks to so wandering 'heroes of justice' the underground organization controlling all the criminals, and whom he was monitoring from behind, was rendered dysfunctional, which resulted in criminals' erratic behavior that was hard to predict, hence counter.
As for who those wandering heroes were, no one had an idea. So said it was old man and a silver haired girl, so said it was scholar and his apprentice and so said it was a evil monster made of darkness.
Who was telling the truth?
Everyone was, at least that's what they believed, so after failing to track the aura's the Archmage had to give up.
Then, there was his youngest who was becoming bolder and bolder in disobeying him, thanks to his company, prince Anias.
And lastly, there was this terrorist attack that almost took place a week ago.
Helden couldn't make heads or tails out of what the terrorists' motives were, but at least he acted quick, and personally went to check out a site that was reported of being suspicious.
That was his nature, he personally took care of everything that he or his instincts deed important, though that only aided him in being slaved away.
So, in this busy schedule, when a call rang in his office just when he was about have breakfast, worked as a perfectly valid reason for him to get mad.
But instead of being mad, the Archmage saw who the caller was and smiled faintly, answering the call swiftly.
"Good morning, my disciple, had your breakfast early today?", he asked in a perfectly jovial tone, as if he had woken up refreshed, when in fact he hadn't slept for a week.
"No, Master Helden.", his disciple, the beautiful elf with a cool side replied.
"So, what is it? Don't tell you actually found it?", Helden joked as he looked at the screen. "Hahaha, sorry, I was joking."
But instead of denial or a sigh, like usual, he saw a glittering gleam in his disciple's eyes. Though it took him a second to process, with his eyes widening, Helden gulped before he finally asked, "Wait? Really? Fostoria, I am serious, the thing you went to find two years ago, did you really find it?"
"Yes, I did.", Fostoria nodded calmly.
"Th-That's great news!! So, the Tree of Light! The elves' deity really exists!", he said in wonder, as very few things managed to surprise him nowadays.
"Okay, Fostoria, send the sample of this power that you must have collected.", The Archmage cald down as he inford her. "The faction will then send soone strong enough to collect it whole."
"My apologies, master, but it's an ergency here, we can't afford to waste ti. I think the neutral faction has already sent soone get the very sa things as us, a C ranked magic user nad Ray Niger."
"What is the problem then, you can defeat most C ranks easily. Not to ntion, a C ranked would never be able to collect sothing that powerful by himself. Also, are you sure that he is from neutral faction?"
"Yes, master, I am sure. The mysterious water mage in the city is the neutral faction's associate, and he has been using them covertly. And yes, he is not the problem, the problem is that the imperial factioneer ruling over the city is backing him up, considering their loose alliance, him being associated to the neutral faction makes more sense."
"I see, that indeed makes sense… and Baron Marek the Mana Eater is said to be quite strong within his rank too… hm, understandable."
Then after a mont of pause, the Archmage continued, "Okay, I'll be there in two hours at most. Let's see if Mana Eater can stop you then."
Not expecting her master to be abrupt, Fostoria hurriedly interjected.
"Wait! Master, actually-", she said, showing him a compass like device with a bright golden glowing leaf within. "- I haven't located the main body of the tree. But this device can. Also, this leaf is sothing I can confidently say ca from the Tree of Light.", she added as she showed a zood in image of the leaf within the device.
"Hm…"
As Helden didn't say anything and kept listening, Fostoria requested, "So, master, you can just send one of your subordinates here?"
But, even after having a deep thought about how many days of sleep he would have to sacrifice, the Archmage's answer remained unchanged, "No. I'll be there in two hours. We'll track down that so-called Tree of Light with that device, if it exists. If it doesn't work, then I'm dragging you back here to Calkern, I have given you enough freedom in the past two years."
"But! -"
"No buts! And no excuses. Also, the bow you requested is ready, I'll bring it along. Gear up the rest in anti, Helden out."
"But I have a job right now!", Fostoria managed to say to thin air as she begrudgingly geared up, what she didn't expect was that she would be able to scout Ray during that very chore of a job.
***
[Gabber's Runesmithing Hub]
[A few minutes later]
[Rayne's POV]
"Young Master, I have gathered enough clues to know what happened."
"Okay? What happened? Was he successful in making that artefact?"
"That's what you are worried about the most, huh? Where are your morals, Young Master?"
Okay, I knew deep down that my morals were changing, but being called out like that still hurt. Not to ntion, her joking tone that didn't have a hint of reprimand not sounding absurd to also showed how 'used to' I got with this world's normal.
"Well, I'm sorry. So? He was successful, wasn't he?", I asked her for confirmation.
"Ohya? How did you know, Young Master?"
'Cause that's how it happens in novels.'
Of course, I couldn't say that to her so I chalked it up to gut-feeling, and before Amy could ask more questions I added, "But this is bad Amy. Other factions knowing about the Tree of Light, and especially Fostoria having that locating artefact, can cause a lot problems to our faction and ."
"I don't think the other factions were unaware of this Tree of Light, Young Master."
"What do you an?"
"You read this Fostoria's intelligence report, right, Young Master? Didn't you find the ti she spent on the Misty Root forest's requests was much more that what it would have required for those request?"
"Wait! Now that you ntion it…", I said, as I took out Fostoria's information from my bracelet and checked what Amy said, and indeed, "…there is sothing off."
"Maybe she already knew about the Tree of Light and was searching for it all along, or rather, her faction ordered her to do so?", Amy said as she pointed to a point on the information sheet, "After all, there is no information about her real ho or background, except for the fact that she ca from Carite, the city closest to border between Northern Realms and Easter Isles."
"That strangely makes too much sense.", I sighed defeatedly. "Then we ought to capture her quickly before she calls for reinforcents."
"I think she would have done that already. Cause it's already been three hours since Scheleth was murdered."
"Then…"
"Don't worry Young Master, I called for reinforcents too! As I told you, Zuri was supposed to watch over you, that's because she was assigned nearby, so I called her! She'll be here in a hour at most."
"Well done, Amy.", I gave her a thumps up before I said serious tone, "Then lets capture this wicked elf!"
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