"Don't go back to the academy and stay here for a few days first. I'm going to check something. It's better if you don't come out of the room. If there's anything you want to buy, just ask the innkeeper to order it for you."
This was a series of Baston's command to Panto. He was afraid this boy would be implicated, so it was better to stay safe inside the room. Baston also wanted to stay in here but he needed to examine the remaining clue. For now, the little girl he met yesterday was the only one who might know
the whereabouts of captured people. Because he found nothing after he released
the puppets in the town, he could only get a clue from one person.
So, after getting a sumptuous breakfast, Baston was strolling around while Panto kept staying safely inside his room. If there was
something urgent, he could send a message by using the puppets to Panto. Anyway, the fat boy was walking with no direction until he found the little girl again in the middle of road. She kept offering her flowers, but no one bought from her. Baston moved closer while waving from far.
"Hello, little girl. We meet again…"
"Ah… You're young master from yesterday."
"I'm glad you still remember me. By the way, are you still selling those flowers of yours? Can I buy it again?"
"Of course…" the little girl was happy, "How many do you want to buy?"
"I want to buy 5. Here's the money…"
Baston handed the money and the little girl handed the flowers. After having a short chat, both of them parted their ways. He wanted to stalk her, but he couldn't do so directly. It would make everyone here felt
suspicious. Not to mention of the unknown surroundings, he didn't know whether the people here were the accomplice of criminal or not.
Because of this, Baston used one of his puppets to follow the little girl from far. He transformed it into a bird. Flying through the
sky, no one would find it strange if the bird quietly took a look at the girl. The fat boy also followed the bird from far because he had to make sure it wouldn't go out of the boundary of the old book and lost the connection in the end.
From morning to afternoon, Baston followed the little girl through roads and alleys. She still tried to sell the flowers to people around
happily while the fat boy was exhausted. All the day, his task was only walking and walking further until the girl stopped her action and finally went home. Baston even had to deploy his second puppet since the first one had already surpassed the time limit. If she took her time further until evening, then he was sure he would deploy last puppet for it.
Fortunately, the little girl went back to her home. Even though no one bought her flowers except him, she looked quite happy. Baston controlled the puppet to perch on the window. It was a humble house where her
family stayed. Through the bird's vision, he could see her father, mother, and big sister gathered around the table while they were conversing with each other.
"Sister! Sister! Look at this money! I finally can sell these flowers!" the little girl exclaimed.
"Really? I don't believe it. Perhaps, one or two neighbors just want to give you the pocket money, so they find an excuse by buying the flowers."
"No, it is not! Mother, sister wants to bully me again!"
"Hey, why you always go to mother whenever you lose the argument."
"Alright, everyone! Don't make a commotion here. Dinner will be served soon and I'm expecting everyone can take a seat well."
"Ha… ha… ha… You hear your mother, right? Let's eat it first. This matter should not be overly complicated. By the way, you can save your money on your piggybank."
"But father…"
The little girl complained because she thought no one believed her. Anyway, whether she still insisted it or not, her family didn't take her seriously. They took their dinner together as usual while Baston still
stared at them before he controlled the bird to look around the house. Even until now, there wasn't more clue about the quest. The little girl might know something, but he couldn't force her to tell the truth. In front of the public, everyone would think he was a criminal and soon, he must be persecuted
everywhere. He wondered if her family also knew about something regarding the
captive, but whether they knew or not, he was afraid they would be the same as people from the inn. The only one he could depend now was the little girl.
The day was getting darker, making Baston hesitated if he should deploy the third puppet or not. There should be nothing more regarding the little girl because she already went home and relaxed herself, wondering
what she should do about the money. Before the time limit came up, the puppet saw three men knocked the door of the house. The father soon opened and had a short
conversation with them before the whole family followed the men.
Baston frowned because this matter was very strange to him. Without any notice, the family just came with the men. In their faces, there was no nervous because it seemed it was just a usual practice for them. Only the little girl showed hesitation on her face, but since she was only a little kid, she could only follow what her parent said obediently. In this case, Baston could only make the bird followed them from far. Too bad he didn't know what they were talking about before since they only communicated by whispering.
While the bird was following them from the sky, Baston rushed ahead so the puppet didn't lose the connection with him. It was a while until he saw them all headed to the big mansion. The place should belong to the
town mayor. The bird perched carefully at the bushes nearby before it was summoned back. It had reached its limit of 6 hour. Luckily, he had found another clue regarding the quest.
When he got closer to the perimeter of the area, the mansion was heavily guarded by militia. There might be knights or wizards, but it should be inside if the security was already tight outside. It wasn't supposed
to be like this for the town mayor because even a noble didn't pack all the men in the surrounding of their house. The mansion was more like a palace of the king if being guarded like this.
While the guards were so many, the guests were the same too. The little girl before was just one of it while the rest were still coming to here. There were young and old people, varying from different ages and gender.
Baston didn't know what purpose of these people, but something was suspicious so he eventually had to deploy his third puppet to sneak into the house. This time, he transformed the puppet into a rat so it could easily find its own way through small hole.
By the time the puppet explored the attic, Baston quickly looked for another hole so he could peek into another room. The bedroom was empty which was the same as the kitchen, the veranda, the guestroom, and any other else until it stumbled into a big hall room. In this room, many people flocked
together, making it like a mass event for people in this town. Baston had difficulty to track where the little girl was since there was a lot of people, but he halted his action since the man deemed as the town mayor walked to the front of people.
"Welcome everyone to my house. As always, to commemorate our harvest in this month, I will hold a dinner event tonight. You can eat and drink whatever you want, but remember to drink our specially made juice for you. It's healthy and good for your body."
The town mayor then laughed and together with his wife, he tossed everyone and began to eat and drink. Baston thought the drink was a poison because the mayor suggested for to drink, so he looked at it where few people started to grab the glass and drank it. If it was really a poison, it should act in a few minutes but everything seemed fine even after Baston waited for an hour. At this time, people already finished the dinner and the rest were resting or having a chat with each other.
"Ah, such a good food!"
"True, it's really delicious."
"By the way, have you drunk the special juice that the town mayor mentioned?"
"Of course, I have already drunk it! It's great, right?"
"Great? But the taste is kind of bland."
"You don't need to think much about it. Perhaps, you drank too much of wine and that made your tongue tasted bland."
"Well, it seems so…"
During the conversation, Baston heard and scoffed at the person. The man actually didn't drink the juice, but he told his friend that the taste was great. Only his friend who drank it fully but he also ignored it, thinking that it might be true after he drank too much wine, the taste of the juice seemed bland. Baston knew the fact about who was drinking and who was not because the juices were only provided in small quantity. From hundreds of people in the hall, there was only 25 of it so Baston could remember who took the drink and who didn't.
Just like the little girl before, her family took it and gave the juice to her. From the whole people in the family, only she needed to
drink it while the others only stared at her. Even though the little girl said the taste wasn't good, her mother urged her to drink it while her father reprimanded her, thinking that she wasn't thankful of the town mayor. The sister then alleviated the situation before she persuaded her little sister to drink it. After that, everyone continued to eat happily like nothing happened before.
This matter was quite strange because the expression of people showed that most of them knew about it, but they decided to hide from the involved one. While Baston was still in the dark, he wondered if this case had connection regarding the quest. Until now, he didn't know clearly who were the people he needed to set free. The only clue he had at present pointed to the town mayor. This old man must know something because he held such an event. There was a possibility that the captured people resided in this big mansion.
While giving the last chance for his puppet to look for more clue, it accidentally encountered the wife of the town mayor. She was actually on the way to her bedroom before she found a rat stopped and looked at her. Baston was startled, thinking he would be busted but soon remembered the puppet
shared its vision to him as the rat. He should be safe since the woman might only scream, yet it didn't happen. The woman only crouched down while giving it a piece of dried meat from her small bag.
"You're hungry, right? Here, just eat this and go away. This is not a place for living creature."
"Living creature?"
Baston was confused but he had no time to explore more before he controlled the rat and brought the meat. Hiding in the bushes, he
made sure no one looked at him before he summoned the puppet back. When the
puppet went back, Baston was startled because the dried meat also came back
with it. It was quite interesting that the puppet had this hidden feature, but he would explore it at another time.
Right now, he needed to go back to the inn, contemplating what he found about this situation. There was still a mystery regarding the strange juice plus the what the woman mumbled about. He might need to go back tomorrow to look for more in detail. While he was going back, he threw the meat to the
road beside him which soon, a rat popped up and quickly took the newfound food to somewhere. Baston chuckled when he saw that, thinking it finally ended well.