The Moon Thief Chapter 26: Clue Pursuit!

Heinald and Ranton continued to exchange ideas for several minutes.

"Where do Ainsars spend their free ti?" Heinald turned to Ranton and asked.

"In libraries, shops and taverns." Ranton thought for a while.

"Taverns!" Heinald nodded.

Taverns are the adress of the babbling.

"But Ainsars are smart people, I don't think they'll drink a lot and just talk about important intelligence." Ranton shook his head.

"We don't know that, after all there are too many different people." Heinald shrugged. In fact, he thought Ranton was right, but it was obvious they would get nowhere just by waiting.

"Then I'll take you to the busiest taverns in the city tomorrow." Ranton sighed.

After Heinald bade farewell Ranton, he went to Master Albert.

"Master Albert!" Heinald greeted the old man front of him, slightly bowing his head.

"I haven't seen you around for a long ti, son. Where have you been?" Albert let go of the book in his hand and started looking at the young man in front of him.

"I had a few important things to do." Heinald waved his hand softly.

"Is there any news about Bloody Teeth?" Albert asked.

"No, sir." Heinald shook his head.

"They hide pretty well ...Anyway, we haven't brewed potions with you for a long ti, let's work a little." Albert gave a low laugh.

"I agree!" Heinald smiled and nodded. He had spent too much Arkana Stones, now he had to save so. Ever since Heinald ca to the Risingmoon Kingdom, he had been helping Master Albert brew a variety of potions.Thus, he was receiving important advices from him about Potion Brewing. Since he could easily observe him, he had important inferences about many materials used in potion making.

The most important one was inferences he gained about the Spirit Fla. He had learned just by observing what amount of Spirit Fla to use on hundreds of materials.

Heinald brewed the potion for long hours.

***

The next day, after the sun went down, he went to Ranton.

"Are you ready?" Ranton asked when he saw Heinald.

"Yes."

"Alright! Our first destination is a tavern called Riverwater."

Ranton and Heinald jumped on their horses and began traveling through the city, stopping when they arrived at a fairly large tavern.

"Here we will start here." Ranton nodded ahead.

When they got inside, they sat at a table, especially in the corner. So they could observe the surroundings well. While the two were chatting on various topics, they were also observing around. The hours passed quickly, but neither of them saw a suspicious thing, and there was no one around drinking enough to lose themselves.

"Well ... we predicted it would be like this anyway." Ranton shrugged.

"Yes, but it's better than doing nothing. And there are taverns we still have to check out, right?" Heinald finished the drink in front of him and stood up.

T

The two said goodbye to each other and began to ride their horses towards their ho. Heinald had been observing especially everybody around all night long. Thanks to his eyes, it was quite easy for him.

But he didn't notice anything.

The next evening, he t Ranton again and they ca to another tavern called Burning Paw. Likewise, they picked a corner table again and began to observe the people around carefully, but without being noticed. Unfortunately, they didn't find anything that night either.

Heinald and Ranton could not go to another tavern for the following week as they both had jobs to take care of.

Heinald spent the whole weekbrewing and working with potions. Formations were much easier for him than dealing with potions. He had an impeccable mory so he could not forget a single rune and could even rember them precisely. Therefore, it was much easier to deal with Magic Formations. Potion Making was more about talent than strong mory. He was certainly talented, but fields that required talent were much more difficult.

***

"Where are we going today?" Heinald looked at Ranton and asked.

"To the Oakdeep Tavern!" Ranton answered.

They imdiately started riding towards the Oakdeep Tavern.They reached the tavern after a quiet ride through the wide and well-kept streets of the city. As they did last ti, they chose a table in the corner and began to observe people around without being noticed. Heinald hadn't seen anything to suspect yet, but the few cats wandering around seed pretty interesting to him. Cats were fairly common, so there was nothing wierd. However, it was interesting for cats to roam in a tavern.

The hours passed quickly, and again they couldn't find anything suspicious.

"We'd better leave now. Tomorrow we'll go to another tavern." Ranton exhaled.

"Wait!" Heinald murmured. A scene he saw as he was about to stand up had stopped him.

"What happened?" Ranton asked in a low voice.

"I saw a small pill drop from the innkeeper's ring into the glass." Heinald was watching the innkeeper carefully.

"What are you talking about? How can you see sothing like that from this distance?" Ranton's eyebrows were slightly frowned.

"Trust , my eyes are good." Heinald couldn't bother answering Ranton at this ti, so he cut the conversation short.

As the innkeeper poured the drink into the glass, he threw a very tiny pill into the glass with a quick gesture.

Heinald began watching the innkeeper with full attention. He had picked up another glass in his hand and did the sa again, this ti for sure.

The innkeeper served the drinks to the two Ainsars sitting a few tables ahead.

"Heinald, are you sure?" Ranton asked quietly.

"I am sure!" Heinald nodded. He began to observe the two Ainsars who were drinking. A gray cat ca near their table and lay there.

"Hmm..." Heinald's eyes squinted.

As ti passed, the Ainsars he was watching began to laugh a lot and their pupils grew larger.

"I just discovered sothing very interesting, Ranton..." Heinald smiled slightly and stood up.

"Lets go!"

After leaving the tavern, they jumped on their horses and walked away from the tavern.

"Are you going to tell now?" Ranton asked.They were riding slowly.

"I noticed a change in the acts of the two Ainsars who were drinking. Besides, I guess those cats are sohow controlled." Heinald shook his head.

"What? How so?" Ranton's eyebrows rose.

"Probably the pill that the innkeeper threw into the drinks is so kind of dicine.That drug must be making Ainsars talk too much and without thinking.Thus, they can gather various intelligence, and even if the Ainsars reveal confidential information for a family or organization because they do not speak of their own free will, the Blood Agreent does not punish them.Those cats are around to listen to what is being spoken.They must be controlling those cats with so kind of spell, or I'm too paranoid." Heinald had a thoughtful expression.

"This ..." Ranton couldn't find anything to say.

"Let's visit this tavern a few more tis in the coming days." Heinald wanted more observations.

"Well, don't you think these Ainsars rember what they talked?" Ranton asked.

"I don't think so, they would have been caught already." Heinald shook his head.

"He couldn't have used that pill in our drinks, right?" Ranton had a distorted expression.

"Let's hope not so, my friend..." Heinald smiled slightly.

"Hey! Don't scare ..." Ranton made a moody expression.

"He's probably giving this dicine only to the people he gets in his eyes. It would be nonsense to give it to everyone." Heinald scratched his chin.

After the two said goodbye to each other, they returned ho.

Heinald visited the Oakdeep Tavern several tis over the next month and made continuous observations unnoticed.Unfortunately,he was unable to obtain any other useful information during his visits.Interestingly, they weren't interested in who he was either, or they were, but he didn't realize it. Perhaps soone was stalking him every ti and he didn't notice it.

Even if they targeted Heinald, they wouldn't have learned anything about him. He did not have any mbership anywhere.He had been part of the Rinemoth Family for a while, but was no longer considered an official mber. He made an agreent of interest with Marcus Rinemoth shor ti ago. So his head was at ease. In fact, if they made a move against him, he would probably be pleased with it because he could get a direct lead.

Apart from that, he made potions and studied Magic Formations.

Over ti, he had a full grasp of Spirit Imprisonnt Formation. However, this formation required much more energy than other formations. So, he spent half of the Arkana Stones he obtained from the potions he sold to buy just one Uthus Core. An Uthus Core was hundreds of tis more effective than Compressed Energy.

Heinald's next plan was to follow the innkeeper outside neutralize and seize. Although this innkeeper seems to be ssing sothing hidden,it might not have anything to do with Bloody Teeth. After all, there was not a single criminal organization.There were many criminal organizations lurking behind the shadows.

He would question him at first, if he wasn't a mber of Bloody Teeth, he would leave him.