I saw Red-Hairs standing near wall of the church.
Though he doesn't seem to notice since there were bushes and tree between us.
Woods covered back of the church with about 20 metres high wall parting both ends.
I made my way to Red-Hairs as he raised his head upon sensing the presence.
"Took you long enough. I was sick of waiting here." And those were the words he greeted me with.
Giving a quick glance at his waist, I returned few words of gratitude to him.
"For how long?"
"About 15 minutes now. Shouldn't you be early since you're the one to plan whole thing!"
He was carrying a sword with him.
๐๐ฆ๐ฉ, ๐ข๐ต ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฃ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐๐จ ๐จ๐ฌ๐ค๐ง๐.
"Nonsense. Even if you've been waiting here for hours or maybe days, I won't mind at all."
"HUAH?!" On my words, Red-Hairs was now irritated.
Truth to be told, I did arrive just a few minutes ahead of decided meeting.
"What? I am on time or early, just so you know. Isn't it up to you when to arrive considering punctuality, on time?"
"You!" Red-Hairs took a step forward but I stopped him by raising a hand.
"How about we do other day. We a job to do." I said as I scanned the surrounding.
"Tch... So, what is this so-called important job we have this late?" He asked, a bit displeased.
"You'll understand eventually..." I said as I touched wall of the church, examining.
"I just wanna break your head,"
"Sure, go-ahead that is, if you possibly can..." I replied to his growing impatience as I took step towards woods.
Indeed, his frustration was obvious considering the fact that I have kept him in suspense for a while now. But it was necessary...
"I believe this tree might be a better place." I said as I looked up at tree.
"For what? Heh, don't tell me you're making yourself home here. Hah, are going to make a tree house here... Great thing for a pygmy such as you!"
I ignored his cheap provocation. It was undeniable that Red-Hairs is on his edge to loose his cool. If I tried to mess with him or provoke him, this idiot will surely lash out end up ruining everything. So the best course of action may be to ignore.
Still, people does get frustrated when ignored so I must do something about it too.
"What I mean to say is this place is best for us to hide."
"I am not here to play games with you! Just tell me our motive to show up here already!" Red-Hairs was starting to loose his cool.
"How about you tell me what information you were able to get out from that Baldy." I said as I climbed up on the tree.
As if frustration build up until now vanished as Red-Hairs' face adopted a sourness.
He climbed up as he sat on a branch beside me. Cursing a whole different thing now.
"I was in the middle of torturing that bastard but... King intervened..."
๐๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ?
"Why?" I inquired.
"Apparently, that Baldy and I have some clashes before... The fact that bastard is close to many Kshatriyas' with high political influence helped him. His majesty even gave me an earful about how I must not use my power to fullfill my graduge..."
๐๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ, ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ...
"So, didn't manage to get any information out in the end, huh..." I said with a bit mocking tone.
To which Red-Hairs smirked.
"Hoh, you think so?"
"Huh?"
"It was unfortunate that I wasn't able to torture that bastard of my heart's content but... He did spill some beans." He said as he enjoyed my surprise.
"So, what is it? Tell me," I urged Red-Hairs.
"HAH! Like the hell I would! It is not something to be told to an outsider like you... It is the matter I must look into deeply and all in secret."
๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ด๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด, ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ.
"So you're not going to tell me is what you mean."
"Correct. I'll investigate this by myself. I can't take risk of leaking any sort of information, doesn't matter how big or small it is, by involving someone."
๐๐ข๐บ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐'๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ข๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ.
"Such a disgrace..." I sighed, showing my disappointment.
"Moreover... You haven't tell me why we are here! Say it or I'm leaving!"
"That, hmmm... He might be here anytime,"
"Huh...?"
I pointed at the location Red-Hairs was standing at the time I arrived, that is, Church's wall.
We both saw a person approaching thr wall. They had their whole body, face too, covered with black cloth so obviously we couldn't actually tell who they were.
"Heโ!?" Red-Hairs was about to act but I stopped him from doing so by holding his shoulder, as I put a finger on my lips, directing him to stay quiet.
"Shhh... Let's wait here for a bit and observe."
Red-Hairs tried to oppose for a split second but eventually got his head on right place.
"You know him?" Whispering, he asked.
"Not in particular, no."
To which Red-Hairs starred me for a moment before dropping another question.
"You knew, that someone is going to come?"
"Yep, more or less. To be honest, it was just a whim,"
"What?! You're making no sense."
"How about you maintain silence for sometime and try to annalise what is in front of us?"
Taking my advice, Red-Hairs observed.
"...Still, what could possibly lead a person to visit church this late in such shady manner?"
"You said it. Shady person surely do something shady. Real question is why the church?"
"That's what I said. But I can't take this any longer. It's better if I go there and make them blab about their motives." He said as he hit his fist on other palm.
The person ahead us scanned the area in careful manner as they looked at huge wall of church.
"It seems, they are thinking of climbing it."
"As if they could," Red-Hairs said, doubting.
"Any person who could possibly climb that wall couldn't be a normal. Do you really think they could climb the wall as such with no equipments or support."
He was right.
That person doesn't seem to have any ropes or equipment, or something. Neither I could spot anyone else here to aid them.
"Can you climb that wall, Red-Hairs?" I asked.
"I canโ And I am Neulon!"
"Shhh... We might get caught if you suddenly raise your voice like that."
"It's all your faultโ!?"
At that moment, the person in disguise turn to face in our direction as they said,
"I know that you're there for a while now... How about you show yourself? That'd be rather moralistic act on your part too..." They said. We were busted.
This person know words, now even I feel guilty, or rather disgraceful, for hiding myself.
๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ๐ด. ๐๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ญ ๐จ๐ถ๐ช๐ญ๐ต, ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ด๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ฆ๐ง๐ถ๐ญ, ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐บ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง.
"See, I told you stupid. Now he caught us," I shifted blame on Red-Hairs.
"W-What?! So what are we gonna do next?" He asked.
"Stay here. Show yourself when called." I ordered Red-Hairs as I jumped of the tree and revealed myself.
"W-Waitโ!" Red-Hairs tried to stop me but then put his hands on mouth stopping himself to make any further voice.
As I got down, I raised my hands showing non-hostility towards him.
"I am surprised that you spotted me." I said politely.
"...You!" Surprised, he starred just starred at me.
Not only he was just starring, he was observing me too. I can assume such from his focused gaze.
"We met again," I said as I approached him.
"I am the one who is surprised... I thought you were done for. How did you even manage to survive?" He asked.
"Heh, not that I couldn't. If anything else, it's thanks to you." I replied.
"Really, I didn't do much."
"That's what at least you think? In my eyes, you saved us all." I give him a slight bow as a display of gratefulness.
Indeed, he was the very young man who take care of Baldy and, the one who saved not only me, but Lucia and Reena too during demons' invade at temple.
๐๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ? ๐๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ, ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ...
With that, I finally manage to decrease distance between us as I stood in front of him.
He realising this, didn't flustered at all rather his gaze become more strong.
...๐๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ.
"So, all ask you this. Why are you here?" He interrogated.
"I could ask the same, couldn't I?"
"I see... Then you wouldn't answer like this, huh." Young lad closed his eyes, focusing.
Out of nowhere a bow appeared in his left hand as he raised at me.
"Hoh, you're full of surprises... But, what about an arrow? You're not going to launch thin air at me are you, or, you going to use that bow as a material to to hit me?" I make fun of him, but paid no mind to it.
"Don't worry about such thing," He said as he slowly pulled the string of bow.
As a tension started to build in string a arrow to appeared following path of string.
Now, arrow was aimed right for my head.
"So, you going to hit with that?" I asked.
"I don't have any grudge against you but if you forced me, then I may."
๐๐ช๐ด ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ช๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ๐ด...
Not to mention the fact that he was able to sense our presence even after hiding ourselves so skillfully. I even deployed a a barrier in 3 metre radius to prevent any sound considering that Red-Hairs was always noisy.
"Now tell me, why are you here?" I inquired.
"My answer is same as before, I could ask you the same thing."
"Youโ!" He was surprised by the fact that I still dared to return such words, given the situation. But I continued,
"I gave you the answer, couldn't you understand your very statement?"
At my words, young lad slightly lower his bow as he thought before tensing up again.
"You get it, right? As you have realised up until now, I am here. Doing my job. Is there anything wrong with it?"
"...No, not at all." He then lowered his weapon.
"I see, I should have understand this much after observing you... Not all are people are corrupt. There are always people like you out there how put their duties before themself." He said.
To which I silently sighed in relief.
๐๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ฑ. ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ถ๐ฏ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ญ๐บ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐จ๐ถ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ณ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ง๐ข๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ต.
"Forgive me for my rudeness." He lowered his head, apologizing.
"You don't have to do that, after all misunderstanding happens. Besides, we haven't introduced ourselves yet. I am the one who is known as Allan, pleasure." I extended my hand as he took it with a firm handshake.
"The name is Curna. Nice meeting you, Allan." Curna returned the politeness with a polite smile.
With that, most of my meaning for coming here was served. Now all that was left, was to investigate.
. . . . .