As Mark's information gathering with Zach is finished, he now remembered that the kids are still outside waiting for him, he didn't know that the information exchange will go for a longer time than expected, he hurriedly got up from his seat, but before he got out of the pub, the pub's door is suddenly swung open and a person came running in
"THE MAYOR'S DAUGHTER HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED!"
After the shocking announcement, the rowdy pub even became noisier with the sound of people talking about the incident. And Mark could also hear some people are planning to search for the kidnapped mayor's daughter.
'Damn why does it have to happen today' Mark thought to himself.
'I need to hurry up and get the kids back home, just in case there's something troublesome going on.'
Mark then got out of the pub and searched for the twins. He looked at the large intersection in the middle where many stalls were offering their goods to sell, but he didn't see the twins there.
'Where are those kids, don't tell me they got lost in this little village?' Mark thought of the possibilities about his sons getting lost in this little village only as large as half of a medium-sized town. Considering their mature behavior and their genius talent in magic the possibility of them getting lost is very small.
'What did they do this time?' Mark shook his head and said to himself, 'Well, they won't do anything rash and involve themselves in troublesome situations won't they?'
Just when he thought of that, a distant sound of something exploding was heard.
*BOOM*
Mark looked in the direction of where the sound was coming from and he could see there was a large amount of steam coming from a wooden house in the village somewhere.
'Why is there a steam explosion in a place like this?'
'Wait steam explosion…? Is it from the use of magic?'
Mark then remembered that one of his six years old sons had used that kind of magic before when they went hunting.
'Ah well, although there is a 90% chance that they are somewhat related to this incident, let's just check it out first, there is still a 10% chance that they don't have anything to do with this.'
Even though Mark wanted to just fly over directly to the steam source, right now he is in the middle of the village, and if he flies there, people will surely notice him. So he takes the long walk there to see what's actually happening.
What Mark sees when he arrives at the scene was a half-blown-up house with big holes here and there, indicating the place where the steam escaped. He looked for any people there, but he saw none.
After seeing that he could find nothing using his physical eyes, he channeled mana into his eyes and searched if there was any mana residue from the place. 'Although Aiden's attribute fusion won't leave any mana residue, this kind of spell must be something that Isaac had conjured.' Mark thought
When the mana infused his eyes, now he could finally see the residue of condensed fire and water attribute mana was around the house.
'It really looks like Isaac's spell isn't it, now I'm 95% sure they have something to do with this.'
Mark looked around at the half-destroyed building once more just in case he missed something, and when he got to the backside of the house, he suddenly stopped his movement and focused at a point somewhere at the back wall of the house. After looking very closely, he could see there's a faint residue of death attribute mana being used.
'Yup, 99% it's them.'
'But if this 1% turns out to be true and not this whole thing is not the twins doing, then things will be very problematic.'
Mark pondered about that fact and if the one who uses death mana wasn't his children then he may encounter a very dangerous person.
'I better find the kids quickly, whatever it is, I need to get them to safety first and ask them if they know anything about this whole incident.'
Despite being in a hurry, Mark didn't really have any means to quickly find his sons' whereabouts. 'Wish I had that spirit controlling ability that Isaac had, it really is handy especially in times like this.'
Mark tried to find any mana residue left, just in case, his sons leave a mana trace that he can follow, but even after searching for quite a while he didn't find it. 'If they moved slowly on foot there should be able to leave no mana attribute, but if they made this huge of a mess, they won't just leisurely walking out from this place, so that means that Isaac must have used wind magic to fly, it is impossible for him to keep up with Aiden's fusion.'
Then he looked at the sky above him and there were faint traces of wind attribute mana. He followed the trail with his eyes, but because the higher the altitude is the more abundant the wind attribute will be, the wind attribute mana trace that Isaac's spell left has pretty much blended with the surrounding wind attribute.
Mark clicked his tongue and said, 'Yeah sure of course this won't be easy.'
But before Mark was able to complain further, he saw something coming in his direction in the distance, he looked closely and with his enchanted senses, he could see that the thing moving in his direction was quite strange, it is as big as a 2 story building and...
'Wait what? That thing moved through houses and walls!'
Mark readied himself and used attributeless mana fusion to secretly enhance his body without any people noticing what he is doing. But luckily his preparation turns out to be unneeded. The huge thing that was coming in his direction was actually souls, animal souls! And when the souls came near him, they only looked at him and gestured at him to come and follow them.
'Well, that's my smart boy for coming up with this kind of thing.'
Mark then ran with the spirits leading the way.
---
"So Miss Eleora, do you have any idea why you were kidnapped?"
"I really don't know why, I don't think I have done anything bad recently, except disobeying my father's word to not go out.."
"Um miss, can I know who your father is?"
"He's the mayor! Although he hasn't been here for long, the people loved him and he is such a nice person!"
"If he is a nice person, then why are there people trying to kidnap you?"
"I don't know, but my father won't do anything bad!"
"Yes, I'm sorry miss, that's not what I mean."
"Can't you stop calling me miss? I'm only 10 years old this year and although you are wearing a mask, I can still hear your voice, and I'm sure it is a kid's voice!"
"Alright, alright, what should I call you then?"
"Eleora! Or El is also fine!"
"Alright El...eora, now what I need you to do is to keep calm and wait here for a while, okay?"
"Why? What do you want to do?"
"Do you really want to know?"
"Yes!"
"But It is a very secret thing that nobody must never know, if you really want to know, you have to promise me to not tell anyone about it okay?"
Hearing that it is a very huge secret makes Eleora's eyes sparkle, the idea of hearing a secret is very exciting for her.
"Of course! I will even make a pinky promise!" Eleora then raised her hand with her fingers cupped into a fist except for her pinky finger which is raised.
Faust then hesitated for a second before intertwining his pinky fingers with hers, then she said " I promise that I won't tell this to anyone, If I break the promise then I will swallow a thousand needles!"
'What secret Faust? You are not actually going to lie to a kid who just gave you a pinky promise right?'
'.....'
'Oh my god, and I thought that I was the demon here.'
'Shut up Gra'
After making the pinky promise, Faust then began to tell his made-up… cover story.
"We are actually a group of traveling mages who are searching for a secret treasure and when we are passing through this village we coincidentally saw you were kidnapped, so we decided to help you."
"And right now, we have to wait because our leader is currently on his way here and he will decide what we will do next. But don't worry we will surely get you back to your father!"
Hearing about how the kids in front of her are living an amazing life where they travel all the time and searching for some kind of secret treasure really excites her 8 years old heart. And seeing how strong the kids in front of her are, she is convinced about the story that they tell her.
"Umm, Faust!"
"Yes, Eleora?"
"Can I join you guys?"
"What?"