On the way back to Prius Academy, Baston was thinking about the way to make the old book popped up the next quest. The incident at the auction venue already made a perfect result which in the end, rewarding him with
another puppet for third time. With the addition of one more puppet, his hands now were having 3 puppets to control as much as he wanted. It was quite good, yet he still thought by having more strength would be a better one. And that was why the fat boy wanted to get more excellent results so he could increase his level.
From the beginning until present, Baston had cleared 2 quests with excellent result. It gave him an increase of magic power together with new element to use. At the present, he had ice and flare on him. What he displayed to the world was only the ice element, so if everyone knew he had
another flare element, they would be surely crazy. He had premonition that the Versance family wanted to have a good deal with him. When he played unconscious at the venue, he could feel the beautiful woman named Claire always glanced at him.
It was just a hunch, but Baston chose to believe it. The Versance family might not directly confront him, but he knew it was just a matter of time until they met with him personally. The same would also happen
if he displayed his flare element. The people from Herbiens family surely wouldn't let go him and must quickly snatch it. With their personalities, the fat boy was sure they would disregard his opinion. In the end, only strength would become his capital to have a word to talk between these powerhouses.
While Baston was pondering about the next action, Panto halted their carriage. It seemed there was a block because an accident just
happened. The landslide completely cut off the road so everyone couldn't pass it. The merchant boy informed Baston about it after looking at the situation.
"It's not good. The road is completely blocked by mud and dirt. We need to look for other way. My suggestion is we need to go to nearby town or village. Staying at there for a night before passing another road that leads to the academy."
"Well, do as you see fit…" Baston nodded.
"Alright then."
At this time, even though Baston was hitchhiking Panto from the beginning until the end, the boy didn't get angry. Panto even admired Baston more than before, acting like his butler of doing some chores. Inside his mind, the fat boy was more than savior since he already saved him and his father. Because of this, there was only respect inside Panto's head. Added with Baston's nonchalant attitude regarding the request, it suited Panto's behavior because he thought all his recommendations were very good. If it was replaced by some nobles, they would surely voice their own opinions and in the end, it would just waste his time.
"This mud is obstructing everyone. Can we just use our magic to move it?"
"Of course, we can, but it will need a lot of people. It's just a few people around here and it must take a long time to move all of
this."
"It's not efficient unless there's a high wizard here. But I'm pretty sure there's no one around since they would be most likely busy in their own business."
On the way, Baston heard such conversation from the passerby. They also had the same direction as Baston, but because the road was blocked, they had to find other way or waited for the authorities to clear the road. The thing that interested him was the use of magic on the landslide. People with magic capability could clear the blocked road, but it would need an enormous effort. Since they had no element on their magic, the magic they could unleash would be limited. Making a lump of mud moved away was simple but the person would need to do it many times before he could clear the road. For sure, the said person would be fainted first before he could see such a result.
Baston could also use his flare magic, but it would give him a lot of trouble after that. It was better for people to know that he only had ice element on his magic. After turning around to another road, Baston reached
at a town. It might be another place to pass on the way, yet the old book suddenly gave a slight tremor. The fat boy knew it was a new quest so he hurriedly took a look.
"Set the people free…"
"What? What kind of quest is this? What it means by setting people free?" Baston was confused.
The quest must have a connection with the surrounding, so Baston tried to look around after the carriage stopped at a certain inn. One thing that came up in his mind was these people must be in captive so the quest
stated for him to set them free. With this concept, he strolled around while Panto registered them to stay at the inn for a night before they could continue the trip. Including in the fee, the inn also provided a service for keeping the carriage safe inside their property.
After Panto finished his business, he looked for Baston to inform him. The fat boy in other hand was wondering because in this peaceful town, there wasn't any single clue about what he should do to finish the quest.
While he was pondering about the quest, a little girl came up to him with a bouquet of flowers.
"Young Master, do you want to buy a flower? It's beautiful one and it doesn't cost much. With only 1 pound, you can get a bouquet of
flower."
"I'm sorry, little girl…" Baston wanted to refuse but he stopped after thinking, "Alright, I will buy one. Here's the money…"
"Thank you, young master…" the little girl handed the flower happily.
"You're welcome. By the way, I want to ask something. Is there any suspicious event ongoing here?"
"What do you mean about suspicious event? I don't understand."
"Well, for example… Is someone being held around here or some people is taken captive?"
"This…" the little girl frowned before shaking her head, "I don't know about it. I can't speak about it…"
The little girl quickly ran and disappeared from Baston's sight. He was startled, but luckily, he finally had a clue regarding the new quest. The little girl from before clearly knew something, but she didn't dare to tell him. Perhaps, she or her family would be threatened so in order to preserve her life, she decided to hide it. Baston decided to talk with other first to see whether they also knew about it or not.
Inside the inn, Baston tried to talk to the innkeeper and the workers around. Since the little girl knew something, the adults might know one or two rumors. The fat boy expected some answers, yet people around rebuked him one by one. They always said he was just hallucinating or there was no such thing around.
"Captive? As far as I stay in here for many years, there has never been such a thing," the innkeeper commented.
"I don't know about it. The town is quite peaceful so I doubt anything like that happened here," one of the workers said.
"It's a slander!" the janitor answered, "It's a bad rumor by the neighboring town. They envied us because of our prosperities. You must never believe it!"
Baston frowned when hearing such a reply from everyone, but he didn't show it on his face. He would never believe it because the old book had already stated the quest regarding this town. There must be something fishy around, but he couldn't prove it. Either people didn't know at all or they knew the truth but chose to hide it. This was what he could assume regarding his
circumstance. He needed more time to check so he deployed his puppets to search
around.
He made all the puppets turned into rat or bird to avoid oddities when people saw it. If he made them like a person, he was afraid something bad would happen. When he focused on his movement, Panto came up with the bowl of soup from the innkeeper. It was a medium one, but it wasn't fulfilling for
their stomachs.
"Baston, I'm afraid this soup is our only dinner for tonight. I already ask the innkeeper, but he said since we stayed in a sudden, there was no much food left so the inn could only serve this thing."
"It's so little…" Baston was dumbfounded, "They really don't have anymore?"
"Yes, I already asked about it," Panto nodded, "By the way, I also checked the surrounding restaurant, but either they were closed or had limited supplies, they couldn't sell their food regarding those problems."
"I see. Well, just take it for granted. Anyway, we won't get starving anyway."
"That's true…"
Panto smiled, but deep inside his heart, he felt he already failed to treat his savior well. If they were in his city or the academy, he was perfectly sure he could reserve the best treatment for Baston. Fortunately, the fat boy didn't take it to heart and just accepted it. Even though it was less than usual, it was enough for tonight. Panto vowed to let Baston ate freely tomorrow.
Different from the merchant boy, Baston scrutinized what was happening right now. When he let the puppets go away, one of it saw the food in here was actually still was much yet the innkeeper lied about it. As for the restaurants outside, he had a hunch that they also did the same thing. One thing for sure now was they seemed to be targeted by everyone in the town. He didn't know the exact cause but perhaps, it was related of his question regarding someone being kept here.
To make sure of it, he then went to the innkeeper at tomorrow morning. At first, he tried to strike a conversation regarding the dinner yesterday. He acted like a normal guest who complained about the food.
"Good morning. Is there any breakfast here? The dinner yesterday is so little that I always get hungry after eating the soup. I even
couldn't sleep peacefully since my stomach was always rumbling."
Before the innkeeper could say something, Baston added more, "By the way, I heard from my one of colleagues that someone was being captured here, but when I looked around yesterday, I think it was just an unknown rumor. My friend must be wrong after all these days, making people get the wrong idea of the town."
"Yes, you're right!" the innkeeper replied smilingly.
"I have to confirm this fact in front of him so that he won't spread false information again. Who knows that because of this bad rumor,
people will rarely go here and in the end, making the business plummets in the
surrounding."
"Ha… ha… ha… True… true… In this peaceful town, there's not even one criminal found especially a captured person. I'm pretty sure your friend has wrong news about us."
"Yeah, I know. It's such a nasty rumor. I believe the one who spread it is only jealous about your treatment."
"Well said…"
"Alright then, I'm going to look for breakfast outside…"
"Wait, sir!" the innkeeper proactively held him back, "Why you don't try our special breakfast? I believe you will be satisfied of our delicious food."
"Really? But I thought you run out of ingredients?"
"The batch of fresh ingredients have just come in this morning, so we finally can provide our good treatment to our guests."
"That's good… That's good…" Baston nodded happily, "I will call for my friend to join me if you don't mind."
"Of course, we don't mind it. Your friend is also our guest here, so he's eligible to get a good treatment from our inn."
After having a short conversation, Baston then went back first to the room where Panto was still waiting for him. Regarding this idea,
he ordered the merchant boy not to come out first so he could confirm something. Just by a big difference before, Baston finally knew what was going on.