Elydes

Chapter 290 - Trails

“We’d like not to get disturbed again. I’m sure you understand.” The heavy-set man said with a grimace. His wife watched with reddened eyes from the doorway.

“Of course. We’ll do all we can to find your daughter—” Niel stepped back as the courtyard gate slammed in their face, the wooden frame rattling with the impact. His arm rose as if to protest before flopping back down. The couple had vanished into their house and locked the door with four sharp clanks.

“It’s okay.” Kai smoothed his disappointment into a stoic facade. Another team of adventurers had questioned the grieving parents and used up their goodwill before they arrived. “We’ve got all we could.”

“Hmm… That’s how it goes most of the times.” Niel turned to the mist-shrouded street, the shadows lining his face made him look older. “It’s almost noon. We should head back. Maybe Kea and Caeli had better luck.”

“Yeah, they must have.” Kai nodded, eager to get indoors. Shadow and Water mana permeating the air let the cold humidity seep into his bones despite his enchanted coat. He had been the one who insisted on questioning the family personally—as if he could find some crucial clue everyone else missed. The arrogance of that presumption seemed glaring now.

He accompanied me anyway.

There had been no trace left in every other abduction, and this case looked no different. He had scanned every grain of dirt from the crime scene with Mana Observer, and strained Mana Analys to inspect the streams of essence, all to find nothing. Not a suspicious speck of mana or a hair out of place.

Kai hurt to admit it, but when your best strategy was waiting on your enemy‘s misstep, the situation didn’t look good. There was no trail of breadcrumbs or obvious suspects despite what detective dramas taught him. Perhaps Herry had been their only shot to grasp the truth, and he had gone up in flames with the piles of documents at his house.