Chapter 482: A Scary Place
"Wow there," a young male voice cried out as he caught the speeding red-head and spun her around elegantly, like they were in the middle of a folk dance.
As soon as the pair were both steady on their feat again, the young man asked with a light smile on his face, "Are you alright there, little girl?"
Eris, who was a bit flustered, looked up to see a handsome young man with a pointed hat and a lute on his back, smiling down at her.
For a moment, she was stunned and didn’t know what to say, but that didn’t last long as she hurriedly backed away and bowed, "Sorry! And thank you!"
"Hahaha, not a problem, not a problem," the young man brushed the whole incident off casually.
"Eris!" Sasha came running over, her sharp, accusatory tone causing the young girl’s neck to shrink, "What did I just tell you!? Goodness, when will you start behaving more like a proper lady? Haa..."
Sasha then turned to the young minstrel and lowered her head, "Thank you, sir, for helping this silly daughter of mine not make a fool of herself."
"Please, think nothing of it," the young man flashed a wide smile and offered a bow of his own, "It’s always a pleasure to help a pair of beautiful ladies."
The flattery came off smooth and clean, like he had done this a thousand times, which given his career as an entertainer was probably not far from the truth.
Regardless, neither Eris nor Sasha paid it much mind, with the latter chastising her daughter a bit more before formally introducing herself and offering the minstrel a meal as an apology.
"I would love to share your company for a bit longer, Lady Sasha, Young Lady Eris, but unfortunately I have an appointment to keep," the minstrel, who introduced himself as Mr. Blank, sighed with disappointment, musing aloud, "I simply stopped here along the way, drawn by the unique energy and atmosphere of this place."
Smiling proudly, Eris threw up her hands and nodded, "The Rising Phoenix Guild is the best! Everyone is welcome here, anytime!"
Smacking her daughter lightly, Sasha shook her head in exasperation, "Eris is exaggerating a bit, but it’s true that the guild welcomes all newcomers. If you ever need help with odd jobs, please feel free to stop by while you’re in town, Mr. Blank."
"I believe I will, Lady Sasha," the minstrel grinned lightly, "Well, until next time, fair ladies."
And with that, he turned on his heels and walked off, humming a faint tune as he went.
As this ’Mr. Blank’ walked off, though, Eris kept staring at his back, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly.
Noticing this unusual behaviour, Sasha lead down and asked, "Is something wrong, Eris?"
Wrinkling her brow, Eris thought about it for a while but couldn’t find the words to articulate what she had just felt.
Mr. Blank had been nothing but pleasant and polite to her, even saving her from face-planting onto the floor which would have been quite embarrassing, but for some reason, in the instant she had made contact with him, something had felt... off.
Whatever she had sensed had caused her to tense up, like she was somehow in danger, but it had passed as quickly as it came, so Eris didn’t pay it much mind, figuring it might have just been her worrying she was about to fall.
Shaking her head, Eris replied, "It’s nothing, Mom."
Sasha knew her daughter well enough to realize when she wasn’t being completely honest, but since she was alright and didn’t want to talk about it, she decided to let the matter drop.
In any case, there was much to be done today and very little time to do it all in, so even if she wanted to dwell on the subject, neither Sasha nor Eris could afford to.
.....
"What a scary place," Mr. Blank remarked to himself as he strolled along the streets of Misty City.
He had arrived here aboard a merchant ship early this morning and thought about immediately meeting up with his ’friends’, but after thinking about it for a bit, he decided to do some ’sight-seeing’ first.
It had been a couple years since he was last here, and while not much seemed to have changed on the surface, Mr. Blank could tell that the city was more vibrant than before, like it was full of life, energy, and excitement.
In the beginning, Mr. Blank thought it was simply because there was a big celebration going on, the kingdom’s youngest princess’ 16th birthday if the talk on the street was to be believed, but after strolling around for a while, he realized that couldn’t possibly be the whole story.
Misty City, or rather any city in the Rockwell Kingdom becoming more vibrant was bad for his organization’s plans, but in order to stop or reverse such a trend, he first needed to investigate the cause.
Asking around, it didn’t take him long to identify a possible source, Marquess Celestina Balfour’s new Disciples.
Each one of them seemed to be engaging in a lot of activities which were aimed at boosting the local economy and helping the poor.
Mr. Blank found the idea of arrogant noble children, better known for trampling on the masses rather than lifting them up, being the ones responsible for such positive change to be laughable, but everyone he talked to said basically the same thing, so he had no choice but to believe it, no matter how incredulous he was.
Since that was the case, the ’simplest’ solution would be to remove these 3 children from the picture; however, there was nothing simple about trying to assassinate the Disciples of the strongest woman in this kingdom.
Forced to find another way, Mr. Blank shifted his thinking. If he couldn’t get to the children, perhaps he could get to the causes they were championing.
That ultimately led him to the Rising Phoenix Guild, where he quickly realized that disrupting the pet-projects of the Marquess’ Disciples wasn’t going to be easy either.
Even before he crossed the gates of the guild, Mr. Blank felt a light breeze brush past him, one that sent a shiver shooting up his spine. He had always had a sharp sense for danger, a trait which had helped keep him alive in his dangerous line of work, so he immediately understood that there was someone, or something in this complex which was a serious threat to his life.
Still, he had learned from experience that the worst thing you could possibly do when a dangerous foe was secretly spying on you was panic.
Trusting in his acting skills, and the Spirit Tool concealing his true cultivation, Mr. Blank carried on like nothing had happened, lightly stepping into the guild as if he was simply a curious tourist.
This seemed to work, as whoever it was that swept him with their Soul Sense didn’t target him again; that being said, as soon as he entered the main hall, Mr. Blank was able to identify at least 2 Spirit Initiates.
The funny thing was, these Spirit Initiates were actually acting like common receptionists, smiling happily as they helped guide a bunch of children and young adults around or fill out forms of one kind or another.
If there are 2 Spirit Initiates here in the front lobby, I can only imagine how many are spread throughout the rest of the guild, Mr. Blank thought to himself as he proceeded to look around.
Ordinarily, it would only have taken him a few seconds to get a general idea of the guild’s activities and layout, but he didn’t dare use his own Soul Sense externally in this place, so he had to resort to a more in-person approach.
This was an inconvenience, but a minor one at best, so Mr. Blank didn’t feel too frustrated; however, with his senses limited, as he was rounding a certain corner, he was caught off-guard when a red head of hair came barreling towards him.
In that moment, his body reacted instinctually and released a faint amount of killing intent, as if he was under attack, but he managed to reign that impulse in rapidly when he realized that the one who collided with him was just a girl who had been running too fast.
As he spun the girl around, Mr. Blank breathed a silent sigh of relief that he had kept control over himself as at least a dozen Soul Senses had almost instantly locked onto him at that moment, including the extremely powerful one from before.
While putting on his usual carefree and flippant act, Mr. Blank was analysing what he was up against; 14 Spirit Initiates as well as a Mid-Rank Spirit Adept, all packed into this one small guild, all of them alerted the instant they felt even a hint of malicious intent.
Needless to say, any plans he had previously been contemplating were completely thrown out after that. If he wanted to take action against this particular eye-sore, he would need to do so subtly and from a distance as trying to attack head-on would be suicide, even for him.
Thinking so, Mr. Blank hopped aboard a carriage and made his way to the residence of the organization’s informant in Misty City, the cooperator they had spent so much time and money to recruit all those years ago.
They apparently had much to discuss.