Chapter 31
Lucas and Blake split up, each walking a separate path through the quiet forest.
They searched carefully for any sign, any clue that could tell them what had happened in this place months ago.
Most importantly, they needed to discover which direction the attackers had come from, the ones who had hurt Natalie.
The sun hung low in the sky, painting the tops of the trees with orange and pink light, when they finally finished their search.
They met again in a small, open grassland in the very heart of the woods.
Tall trees surrounded the clearing in every direction.
The long shadows of the trees stretched across the grass as the sun began to set.
Lucas stepped out from between the trees on one side, and a moment later, Blake emerged from the opposite tree line.
They walked toward each other in the soft evening light.
"What did you find?" Lucas asked, getting straight to the point.
Blake let out a slow, frustrated breath.
"Nothing useful. It has been too many months. The rain and wind have washed away almost all the tracks. I found only a few old marks that showed a fight definitely happened here. I also saw places where the ground was disturbed… places where bodies might have fallen. But the forest beasts have taken anything that was left. We have no dead bodies to examine, so we learn nothing about our enemy's strength or methods." His voice was heavy with disappointment.
"It does not matter for our main goal," Lucas said calmly.
A small, confident smile appeared on his face as he looked up at the darkening sky. "But I found something important. I confirmed the attackers did not come from the direction of the Capital. That is one less problem for us."
He continued, "Even after all this time, faint traces of Mana, remained. My spell allowed me to tell which traces belonged to which person. After that, I looked for the traces left on pieces of bone from the dead."
He saw Blake's curious look and explained further. "I used a special tracking spell. This spell needs a piece of a person, like bone, blood, or hair. If you have such a piece, the spell can point you toward the living person it came from, but only if they are within 200 kilometers."
Lucas pointed a finger toward the south. "In the battle here, someone lost an arm. The spell points to a town in the south called Ziroban Town. It is named after its founder, a man named Ori Ziroban. That is where our living clue is."
"Clever," Blake said, nodding slowly. "But why that town? Could the person not be in another town further away?"
"My spell has a limit," Lucas explained.
"It can only find the person if they are within 200 kilometers from where I cast it. That is a large area, but finding a piece of someone you have never met is the hardest part. We were lucky that old bone fragment was enough."
"Oh, I understand now. I know of others who use similar spell. So, this means more traveling for us," Blake said, his shoulders slumping.
He was not happy about this news.
Lucas chuckled softly. "I know, but it will not take us long to get there. At our speed, we should reach the town in about an hour."
The town was about 94 kilometers away, and for people who could run as fast as they could, that was a short trip.
Blake simply nodded in agreement.
Then, in the blink of an eye, Lucas was gone.
He moved at an incredible speed of 30 meters every second, kicking up a small breeze in the grass.
This was not even his fastest speed he could run at 45 meters per second if he needed to.
At that top speed, he could cover 162 kilometers in a single hour.
They ran so fast that they left only blurry after-images behind them.
Soon, the walls of Ziroban Town came into view.
The town was not very large, covering an area of about 20 kilometers in each direction.
However, after living in the enormous Hidden City of the Sky, which sprawled over 300 kilometers in every direction and housed over three million cultivators, and uncountable non cultivator.
Any normal town seemed very small in comparison.
That hidden city was so vast it felt endless.
Instead of entering through the main gate, Lucas and Blake slipped over the town walls quietly, avoiding notice.
Once inside, they separated again.
Lucas sent Blake to find the man with the missing arm while he, Lucas, went to look for information.
He needed to learn about any secret groups that might take missions against nobles.
This was a difficult task because places like the black market do not give straight answers easily.
Often, you have to fight just to get someone to talk to you.
Lucas considered starting with a fight, but he decided to be calm and careful first.
He did not know how powerful the people in this town's black market might be.
Meanwhile, Blake had found his target.
He stood silently on the roof of a building, looking down into a modest home.
Inside, a man was having dinner with his family.
The man's left arm was gone, replaced by a mechanical one made of metal, which he controlled using his own Mana.
He looked happily at his wife and young daughter as they all ate and talked together at the table.
'What a beautiful moon,' Blake thought to himself, glancing up at the night sky He pulled a dark mask over his face and then, without a sound, he disappeared from the roof.
Inside the house, the wife playfully scolded her husband. "Dear, don't be like that," she said.
The man just chuckled.
Their young daughter, who did not understand the playful flirting between her parents, asked innocently, "Do Mommy and Daddy want to fight?"
"Yes, dear," the man said, laughing.
"But it is a friendly kind of fight." His wife blushed deeply at his words.
Suddenly, a sharp, cold wind blew through the room.
The man's heart jumped in his chest.
A cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
He stood up so quickly his chair scraped the floor, his eyes wide as he stared toward the window.
His family was shocked, looking first at him and then in the same direction.
The man's face turned pale as chalk.
Sitting casually on the windowsill was a short figure a boy.
The boy held two polished daggers and was watching the family calmly, as if deciding what to do next.
"Dear, who is he?" the wife whispered, her voice trembling.
"Stay back! Both of you, stay behind me!" the man shouted, his voice full of fear.
He grew even paler when he saw the uniform the boy was wearing, and the four small stars stitched on the left side of the chest.
"I hope you will not resist," Blake said, his voice calm but firm.
He looked directly at the man. "I do not want to cause trouble if I do not have to. We only want some information from you. If you answer truthfully, everything will be fine."
"What… what do you want to know?" the man stammered.
"We want information about a girl from a Count's family. If you were not involved with that, then you have nothing to worry about, do you?" Blake answered, his tone almost kind.
The man tensed, thinking about trying to run or fight.
But he immediately heard Blake's quiet threat.
"Move again, and your family will die." The scary words came from the boy, leaving no room for doubt.
The man knew with his power, he was no match for this boy.
He desperately tried to think of a plan, but he saw no way out.
He would have to go with this boy and try to mix some lies with the truth when he answered questions.
He hoped that would be enough, unless they had a mind-reader with them.
"Okay… okay," the man finally said, defeated. "But please, can you promise my family will be safe?"
Blake did not answer the question directly.
He simply gestured for the man to follow him. "That depends on your answers," he said plainly.
Then, he disappeared from the windowsill.
The man, with one last look at his terrified wife and confused daughter, followed.
"Daddy will be back home soon, my dear daughter," the man said, forcing a smile for the little girl.
"Okay, Daddy," she replied, waving her small hand.
Then the man turned and walked out into the dark night, following the silent boy who already knew all his secrets.