Klad wondered through the densely populated streets of Alz, pondering on what to do next regarding his situation.
'I've got progress at least, what does he even mean that there's not a cure? Screw it, I'll find something out.'
Klad pushed his way through a crowd of people, suffocating a bit to breathe while trying to navigate in the sea of people. He usually avoided places with that amount of people, unless he was wanting to pickpocket people, yet he had no other choice this time.
Klad managed to escape from the crowd into bar that barely had any people in it, strangely enough taking into account that only a couple of steps from behind the door the streets were mostly packed with people.
In any case, Klad creased his blonde hair with his fingers as he walked to an empty seat in the bar and faced the bartender.
A sleek looking young man nonchalantly washed a glass mug while whistling. His good mood surprised Klad, taking into account the depressing state that the bar was currently on, with only a few drunkards sleeping on their tables and the dim light coming from the mundane torches in the walls.
The bartender had short blonde hair with a sparking tone that overshadowed Klad's brownish blonde hair.
"Heya Klad!" His seemingly bored mood was instantly lit up by the sight of Klad approaching the counter. "How have you been? You want to know something? Of course you do! Hear this this —"
Klad couldn't care less about what Teles was saying, but he had to get on his good side for what was about to happen, so he decided to just put up with it and wait.
"And that's how I discovered that if a magical device has a 'Do not ingest' label on it you are not supposed to eat it! How was I supposed to know what ingest mean?"
Only after thirty minutes of suffering did the speech finally end, Klad could swear that it had been more than that, but the magical powered clock in the wall was probably not lying after all.
"Oh yeah, what brings you here Klad?"
'It's finally my turn. I need to be as discrete as possible, if they know I was responsible for yesterday I am done for'
"Nothing much, just wondering around. How's the gang doing?"
His face turned visible sour, his blue eyes dulled a bit, and his voice tuned down.
"Bad. We… had a job. But we failed, and very badly at that. Jika and Mers are greatly injured, we lost Flanco too. We lost a few of the volunteers and a lot of them had to be magically treated."
"Really? What happened?"
Teles looked a bit uncomfortable by Klad's question, but he turned to his side and answered in a lower voice.
"I'm not supposed to tell, but I trust you Klad so I will tell you. We had intel that one of Mreks casinos was going to be lightly guarded, unfortunately not only did we got lied to but there even was a Follower"
Even though Klad didn't know that there was a Follower inside of the casino, his idea with the fake information was to create distress, to force a conflict that would allow him a chance to take the money. But now listening to Teles story he was starting to feel a bit guilty.
Even though he tried to justify himself by saying that it was for his sister's sake, they had gone to a slaughterhouse because of him.
But the damage was already done, the only thing he could do was make the most of it.
"A Follower? Damn it's a blessing you guys even managed to escape at all."
Teles got even more uncomfortable by Klad's remark.
"Right? They were very lucky."
'That's it? Not an hour speech about how brave they were in their escape? Something's fishy. But I can't insist more without looking even more suspicious.'
"Are you guys looking for more people? I know someone who is looking for a way of making money regardless of the price."
Teles opened his blue eyes wide open and stared at Klad.
"Are you insane?! Have you not heard what I just said?!"
"I heard that you were planning on stealing a lot of money. Granted it went wrong, but I'm sure it has also gone well. I want to be part of those."
He just stared at the mug he had been cleaning for the past hour and after some minutes of silence finally spoke.
"Are you sure Klad? This is not an easy job, there are more stable and safe jobs out there that you should definitely take besides this."
"I know, but I want the money. Besides… I've got nothing else to lose…"
"Don't say that Klad, you still have yourself, so don't get all self-deprecating with me. I'll ask the chief so wait here."
He went through a door in the back and came back after a couple of moments.
"She said she wants to meet you."