THE WAR CITY OF PARABELLUM
SEPTEMBER 13/10 N.U.E
11:07 PM
MICHAEL
So we had a plan, first we would trace the scent of Malik's hover board power cell, and find where it came from, or at the very least where he came in contact with it. After that we would check out the ice cream parlor. As for the perfume, it's obviously a very expensive one. Malik was killed in the early hours of the morning, and since then it has been almost fifteen hours. The fact that the scent could still linger this long, shows that it's not some cheap swill, but rather something really expensive.
There's hardly any poor person on Spero, but the amount of people wealthy enough to buy a perfume so strong that it would last fifteen hours or even much longer seeing as we don't know how long the person who has been wearing the perfume has had it on, could be narrowed down to a very few people. Plus it would not be too hard to find the brand of the perfume, and in turn it's retail outlets and the list of people who've bought the perfume within the recent memory, then we would have to narrow it down to which of the people had any sort of prolonged contact with Malik. PARABELLUM may not have a sophisticated surveillance system like Ethernalia Leonis, but it has a good enough system for us to work with and track someone.
"We're here Mike, but we would have to go down to the street....sorry."
I sighed in tandem with Max's apology. Going down to the street would mean my senses would be thrown in disarray, because the noise would be louder and the smells more intense. And even though I have really powerful senses, I'm not as good as Max in isolating and focusing them, not when I have to keep on moving.
We dropped down to the street and felt Max's hand on my back as he led me forwards. All of a sudden I stopped, shocked and then perplexed. Max noticed and also stopped, turning his head to look at me as he asked.
"Hey Mike was wrong? Are you okay?"
"Umm…..You wouldn't believe me if I tell you these, but Max I think I just saw a shadow walk past me. But it was only just for a moment, so I'm not sure if I actually saw anything, or my mind's actually playing tricks on me." I said to him, as I rubbed my hands on the white bandages around my eyes.
"Do you want to take the bandages off, maybe your eyes healed! If not I'm not sure how to explain you seeing shadows, you're sort of blind." He said to me.
"well thank you for stating the obvious, but I think it's nothing. Just my mind playing tricks on me, there's nothing there Max, just a black hole."
"Don't worry Mike, I'm sure your dad will figure out a way to get your eyes back, and my dad's helping him too, not to mention the rest of the dragon kings. You would be seeing just like the rest of us in no time, maybe even better." Max's attempt at cheering me up wasn't really working, but I appreciated the effort.
Since we were relying mainly on Max's nose, I let him lead the way until we came into a building. Judging from the hum of technology the sheer amount of feet pounding on the polished tiles, this was probably a tech workshop or an exhibit.
"Max where are we?" I asked him as I moved my head around, hoping to get some sort of feeling from our surroundings.
"it's a small Maltech workshop, and from the look of things it seems they're holding an exhibit on their new products. One of which is the very same hover board that was found at the crime scene of Malik's death, however the fact that he owns the means to purchase one of those hover boards is beyond ridiculous and very fishy." Max said to me as he led me towards....well towards somewhere I guess.
"And why is that Max?" I asked him.
"Because for one, only five of said hover boards were made, three have already been sol. But the crazy part is that even for me and you, buying those boards would put a serious dent on our personal funds, like a massive dent! Even our parent's wallet would shake a bit from the assault."
"Goddamn it Max, how much is the bloody board!" I asked Max in annoyance at his constant exaggeration of the board's price. We're freaking princes, we can buy the planet if we want to.
"It's 600."
"600 what? Just 600 or do you mean 600 thousand? That's not much money, well not to is anyway."
"Dude it's 600 million universal credits, plus it would cost another 50 million for a personal customization. They call it a beast soul board, meaning it's just like Soren used to be for your dad. A powerful beast with a soul that can also be used as a vehicle, an evolving vehicle. Damn it Malek out did himself on this one."
I felt as if all of the saliva in my mouth was drained away; six hundred million! What the heck! It's not as if we can't raise that money in an instant if we want to, after all Max and I are freaking royalty. However the basic gist of the thing is, we've been taught to respect money and how to spend it right from a young age, apart from Cassiel, Max and I were practically raised like commoners by our parents, and since my dad had been in a coma for thirteen whole years, Max's dad had to fill in the gap for a while. But that's when it hit me.
"Max you said that a beast soul can be or has already been inserted into the board. Remember you said that the board was ripped to shreds. Do you think it's possible that the board was ripped from within, like....."
"The beast or whatever it was, was trying to leave the board on its own, and Malik became collateral damage!" Max said as he completed what I was thinking about, I wouldn't have phrases it that way, but that's the basic gist of it.
"We have to buy both boards, and see if we can have access to their customer records. A lot of things don't add up, the first being that those boards are way to expensive for Malik to afford, he's just a famous commoner that's just gotten success in the lowest beast league division. He can't be that rich, which begs the question where he got the money from, or who paid it for him, and also what bloody beast soul he had put in the fucking board. Come on!" Max said to me as he pulled me along towards the board, then he went ahead and did this.
"Hey! The princes are here! And those two boards belong to us! Any complaints. You have one? Then take it up with our parents! Just so you know they're Dragon kings!"
I felt like the ground should just open up and swallow me at the moment. Max was really smart, but the bloody idiot is just to brash and is no different from a brute with the way he keeps charging forward with everything he does. Two simple boys can't just come out of nowhere and buy such expensive hover boards, it would raise to many eyebrows, but if two princes of Shearath waltz in and bought it, well it would be seen as normal. Except for the fact that I'm not usually seen in public, this would probably be the first time a lot of the people here would be seeing me, the twin brother of dragon princess Cassiel. The blind prince.
I suddenly felt very conscious of myself, but Max was already speaking with the person responsible for sale of the board, and he was grilling him real hard about Malik's purchase. I could hear the snaps of cameras and whispers and people pointed and spoke, I felt weird, being under this much scrutiny had me feeling weird, and even though Max knew crowds weren't really my thing, he couldn't stop his investigation and come save me from my insecurities. And that's when I heard it, the sound of a string.
"Wait! Who's strumming that guitar?" my sudden question caught a lot of people of guard and for a while everything was silent. And then I heard a voice, a female. From where I was standing she smelled like she hadn't even had a shower in days, her clothes were a little too old, and her breathing was bit labored which made me think she had a cold.
"It's mine...your highness!" She said to me as she walked closer picking her steps until she was three meters away from me. She was nervous, I heard a motion from her clothes, so I suspected she was bowing.
"Please get up. What's your name, and if you don't mind me asking, can I borrow the guitar for just a moment."
"My name's Monna your Highness, and I don't mind you borrowing my guitar, it's just that it's a little old, and I'm not sure you might want it." She said to me as she tentatively stretched the guitar towards me. I took it from her and realized she was right, the guitar was old, really old. It's made of wood, I can't tell which since the entire thing seems to be wrapped in duct tape, but it was still in a working condition. I struck a chord.
And in that moment the world seemed to make more sense than it has in a long while. I raised my head towards her direction and said.
"Monna I'm going to try and sing a song, you can put your money pouch on the ground if you like, I'm sure there would be lots of people who would donate. And please sing with me, I'm sure you would know the song, it's that really famous one about rainbows. Can you do that for me?" I asked her as began strumming the guitar, getting it in tune for the song. She nodded her head, but quickly a swerved giving that I couldn't see her.
🎸 🎸 See I'm standing on the rainbow bridge that's hidden in my soul 🎸 🎸
🎸 no mountain that I climb can ever hope to bring me down 🎸
🎸 🎸 See I'm standing on the rainbow bridge it's beautiful and bright 🎸 🎸
🎸 My journey's over I'll be home soon don't you worry now 🎸
🎸 🎸 oh oooo (if you believe it! Then you can see it!) oooo 🎸 🎸
🎸 So don't doubt cause there's nothing missing 🎸
The song stretched far even longer than I expected, it was beautiful, it was harmony, it was life. And she sang so beautifully that the world stood in awe a she sang. I've been told I knew how to sing, I'm not sure though, my voice just sounded normal to me. But when I sang with her, it was almost as if we've been singing together our whole lives, and when the song ended, the cheers were almost insane. And then someone walked up to the both of us, three people actually.
One of them a woman, and the other two men, however the moment I got just one sniff of the woman's perfume, Max was already behind me looking guarded. We found the owner of the perfume, and just the fact that she had on a perfume with the scent of blood and lime, it did not cover the fact that Malik's scent was allover her skin, seeped deep into her aura, and it was scent of blood, death and sex. Whoever she is, I think we just found our murderer, what were the odds.