With daylight breaking through the darkness of the night, a group of friends left their shared house with the same goal in mind: to find their missing friend.
"Why are we not going after Kaze again?" Mitsui asked just as they left the house in a somewhat sneaky manner, such as to not rouse the attention of the nearby building tenants.
"Mitsui, I think you know this better than everyone," Yuuji made an exasperated sigh. "How in the world are we going to storm into the palace and get him out? Only the two of us are able to get in and out without being suspected due to our relations with the King."
"What about Noel?" Mitsui pointed at the girl standing next to her. "She is fine too, isn't she?"
"Please, no," Noel shivered in fear instead, shaking her head. "It was a pain to get away from the palace where my dad would be at right now. If I were to return, no doubt he would call for me to join the other searching soldiers looking for Lunaria. I rather be with you guys instead of men in suit all the time."
"Ah… haha… then, I suppose we can't really do anything about it," Mitsui giggled nervously, knowing that her question was already answered for obvious reasons.
"Everyone has their roles?" Sera asked, looking back at everyone for confirmation. "If no one has any other questions, let's go over this one last time."
Being the most experienced in recon and search and rescue missions out of the rest, Sera was going to be the leader. In fact, Rena or Shoko could take the leader role since they had equivalent experiences like Sera but decided to pass it to her since Shoko was more of a solo type while Rena preferred to be led. Following that, they have split their groups into 3. It could have been 4 or more if they wanted to cover a bigger area, however taking into consideration the fact that they might encounter the enemy made them limit the group numbers.
Sera, Rena and Shoko were going to be leaders of the 3 groups. For Sera and Rena's group, both required a frontliner or a tank since they were archers. As such, Chris and Irene were going to be with Sera while Albert and Yuuji were going with Rena. Shoko was pretty much versatile, hence why she had Mitsui and Noel with her, Noel being a strong frontliner while Mitsui being the middle-to-long range combatant.
While the initial plan was to have Shoko run around solo, it was decided to be better to split into groups where each one had a capable leader. It was too dangerous for them to move around in too large a group, since it would have to be 4 person per group if Shoko was alone. The triangle formation, being something that was commonly referred to as a balanced group, was more optimum in this situation.
Since this was meant to be a searching mission, there was no need for fancy armour since it would simply attract unwanted attention from how obvious they looked along with the sound that was made when moving around in them. For people like Yuuji, Albert and Chris, who were all frontliners that wore body armour when fighting, they would be in trouble if not for something that Yuuji and Noel had stolen back from the palace.
Right now, the three of them were dressed in armour that the guards typically wore. It was quite the hassle to smuggle 3 sets of armour of from the palace without being found out, but made possible with Sera lending them a dimension pouch. The pouch itself was enchanted with spatial magic for a larger storage despite its smaller appearance, hence why they could make it in and out without trouble. Needless to say, it was something made by Lunaria for her friend.
"I'm still not really used to wearing these yet," Chris complained, looking down at the suit itself before wearing his helmet.
"Please. You have been saying that for the past hour," Irene rolled her eyes, giving the back of his armour a smack. "You even wore it earlier than Yuuji and Albert."
"I don't blame him, Irene," Albert sweatdropped, picking up his spear weapon and holding it in hand to act like a real guard. "It is a little tough to move around in something that you aren't familiar with."
"Really? You seem fine," Irene narrowed her eyes at him. "Oh well, I'm not one to judge."
"See you guys in a bit," Yuuji gave everyone a quick wave. "Stay safe."
Giving their own responses, the three groups set out to their assigned locations from the discussions earlier.
Since Tristania itself was so large, they would end up taking hours just to go all around the city itself. With that in mind, the group went at their own pace without wasting too much stamina of running around. They were walking but at a faster pace, if that was the way to put it.
Not only that, but soldiers were also starting to show up from time to time at a frequent rate. This meant that the soldiers who were dispatched from the palace a few hours before their individual search teams were starting to comb through the same areas as they were.
One good thing about having soldiers all over was that they actually had the authority to knock on doors of houses and issue a search warrant from the King himself. That way, if anything suspicious was found it would be easily noticeable as there was bound to be some form of commotion. As such, the groups had to not only avoid bringing attention to themselves from looking too suspicious, but also watch out for any commotion of sort or signs of discrepancy when soldiers knocked on house doors.
Half an hour quickly passed to no avail. It was something they expected, to say the least. As if searching around for such a short period of time would result in a finding compared to the soldiers who had been searching for hours before the sun was even up. It was only thanks to it being morning that the soldiers could disturb the tenants and owners of each building with their search order, along with some time to rest.
Even if it was not obvious, some of the guards also showed signs of exhaustion for searching hours on end. If it was not for the urgency of the order being that their target was someone of a royalty from the foreign nation, then they wouldn't be on such high alert. Whether they liked it or not, a duty was a duty.
"How is everything going?" Sera asked her other two friends using an item that looked like a shell on her necklace.
"We are fine over here," Rena's voice came from the other end.
"Mm, same here," Shoko mumbled. "Nothing yet. Just saw a guard puking after he was smacked in the face with a clump of shit-"
The thing that was used for their long-distance communication was a magical item devised by none other than the technological branch of Aravel. It really put into perspective how advanced Aravel actually was compared to nations like Yvel and Czech, for not even Czech was able to make something capable like the shell. By imbuing magic power into it, Sera was able to connect with the other users of similar shells. Though for it to work, she would have to link her magic power with the other shells before use first.
"I wonder why Aravel didn't make a tracking device for when things like this happens," Rena could be heard grumbling softly. "It would have made things so much easier."
"You know there is a limit to how good Aravel can get," Sera sighed. "It's not like anything has ever happened before that would prompt them to make a tracking device of all things."
It was as Sera had said. Aravel itself was a nation with many unique circumstances not known to people who themselves hadn't been there. One of the reasons for the invention of things like the dimension bag and the shell communicator was because there happened to be a need for items like these in Aravel, whereas crimes like kidnapping were as rare as a blue moon. As such, what was the use of a tracking device if the idea itself hadn't been taken into consideration?
Even so, one could argue that nations like Czech, where crime rate was high due to the extensive lands it had along with the number of population available, would be able to request of the invention for items like these. If that was the case, then why hadn't Czech already gotten their hands on the communicator, for example? It all related back to the weird relationship Aravel had with Czech.
It was certainly the interesting debate, but only people like Lunaria knew the exact reasons for questions like these.
"Now is not the time to talk about it, we should focus," Shoko broke the conversation. "Talk later."
Sera nodded at this, even though no one was around to see her. She slipped the necklace back into her clothes to prevent it from dangling out.
Currently, Sera was standing on the tip of a roof beam, making the view below clearer as she could navigate from roof to roof. It sort of reminded her of surveying from the treetops back in Yvel, her home nation, especially where she could make use of the eyesight. Down below, Chris and Irene were waiting for her instructions, with Chris standing like a normal guard walking down the street while Irene tagged along casually.
"Alright, time to move… hm?" Sera was about to signal them when she stopped herself. "What's that?"
Tilting her head back up to the sky, she realized that what she noticed wasn't a fluke. There was indeed the shadow of something very far above the clouds, so far up that the shadow being casted on a cloud from the rising sun was not anymore noticeable as a dot. It was only thanks to Sera's eyesight and intuition that led to her noticing it.
She widened her eyes in alert as soon as she found out it was a shadow. Taking her bow out from her back, she got ready to shoot at it before stopping herself. A second shadow, even further than the first and higher up could be seen barely hovering over there, this time a figure visible in the sky. It was through that that convinced Sera it was her own suspicions that nearly led to friendly fire, for she knew who it was after reconfirming it with her magical perception.
"Ah, I see," Sera smiled, getting to her feet. "So they are on the move too, huh? Then we have the advantage over us."
Several hundred meters into the sky from the ground, two figures were hovering over the city of Tristania itself. They were there for a specific purpose, something that could only be done from going up so high in the sky.
The dragonkin twins, also known as Lunaea and Luniel, were the ones spotted by Sera. Naturally, they were aware of this and took no heed of it.
"Sera noticed us~ I'm impressed," Luniel grinned, staring below her even though the clouds were obstructing her view of the city. "Maybe we should have improved our stealth a little more."
"L-Luniel, please help me," Lunaea stuttered. "This is hard to maintain on my own…"
"Ahh, sorry, I got distracted," Luniel giggled and went back to assist her sister.
Above the two was a magic circle several times larger than the one that Lunaria had conjured during the fight to produce Elemental Collision. The magic circle flickered for a bit before disappearing upon Luniel concentrating on it.
What that happened was Luniel simply making the magic circle itself 'invisible' to the eye. It was nothing more than simple light reflection to create the illusion that nothing was there, when in actuality the two were continuously pouring magic into the magic circle that easily covered a few buildings within a district of the city. When Lunaea complained of her sister not helping, she meant with both directing mana into the circle and making it invisible. Since Lunaea was the main caster, Luniel was only there for support, so her help was needed.
The magic circle, simply put, had the function of detecting a person of target based on their magic signature. Since everyone had a unique and different magical signature that cannot be replicated, Lunaea and Luniel used the magic circle to collect the magical signature from every person in the city and hopefully would be able to locate Lunaria based on the location of the output itself. Needless to say, it was very advanced magic and required a lot of experience and patience in order to use it on the entire city of Czech at once.
"Nothing yet?" Luniel asked with a sigh. "This is harder than expected."
"Mm… I suspect that Lunaria-nee must have been taken to a room where there are anti-magic barriers around it," Lunaea nodded. "If that is the case, then I can understand why we can't detect Lunaria-nee. What that makes me confused is how Lunaria-nee is unable to break out of the room… could she have been sedated or something?"
"You know how hard it is to poison us dragonkins, Lunaea," Luniel glanced at her twin. "The opponent must have known prior of ways to make Lunaria undetectable by us, since Lucentia-nee has exposed herself too."
Luniel called Lunaea without any formalities of referring to her as the older sibling, even if Lunaea was a few minutes older than Luniel as twins. It was because the two preferred to be treated as the same age instead of caring about minor details. Whereas for Lunaria, Lunatea and Lucentia, the difference in age was clear based on them being years apart.
Dragonkins wouldn't really care for their age, much like elves, since they lived a long life. Even if they were a decade apart as sisters, it didn't matter because it would be equivalent to being 1 year apart in human age. But again, the concept of age was different for each race because of factors like birth rate and culture.
"Mu… no good," Lunaea shook her head after a bit and cancelled the magic circle. "I think we have to switch tactics of searching."
"Hm, alright then," Luniel seemed convinced by her twin and stopped her magic as well. "Should we meet up with Lunatea-nee?"
"No, I think we should take the high road like with Sera," Lunaea stated. "While she and Rena are able to take the inconvenient way of the rooftops, we should use our wings to the advantage. I wouldn't want to hassle around the streets since we are very easily recognisable."
"Alright then. I wanted to propose illusion magic, but that is a good way too," Luniel grinned. "Let's go~"
Swooping back down to the ground, Lunaea and Luniel casted the same magic that was used to hide the magic circle over themselves in order to make them seem invisible while they soared over the city of Tristania.
Why Lunaea was able to discern that Sera and Rena were also searching for Lunaria without communicating was due to the magic circle. It was able to pick up their magical signature too, making their locations available to Lunaea. She also noticed the signatures of Lunaria's friends, moving around places in a coordinated manner. It was enough for her to guess what they were doing, since there would be no other reason for that.
One thing was for sure: everyone was looking for Lunaria in their own way.
"Lunatea-nee~ can you hear me? Our plan was a failure, we will switch to the usual method," Luniel communicated with Lunatea through telepathy. "The enemy has some kind of anti-magic barrier in place."
"Got it, we will proceed normally," Lunatea responded before turning around to face Kaze, who was unable to hear their telepathic conversation. "Kaze, Lunaea and Luniel will be searching with us from the skies."
"O-Oh, got it," Kaze nodded. "It is amazing how you all are able to use telepathy like its nothing…"
"That is thanks to Lunaria-nee too. She was the one who invented it accidentally and taught it to us," Lunatea giggled at his response. "Father and mother doesn't know about this though, so I hope you can keep it a secret from them."
Telepathy was another complex magic that was hard to learn, but easy to use once it was made possible. How Lunaria stumbled upon it was history at this point, for it was more important to know that if this technique was widespread, then it would be utter chaos. This was also why Lunaria limited it to just her siblings, for she felt it more suitable to teach it to them in the event they got in trouble or needed help. Why they kept it a secret from their own parents, was a story for another day.
Right now, Kaze was in the process of searching through the streets of Tristania with Lunatea and Lucentia under the guise of illusion magic. Much like the ones used on the second day of the Moon Festival, Kaze and the other two looked different in the eyes of any outsider. They would be under the image of three guys walking around the city together while dressed in common clothing.
Just like some of the guards, they had been searching for quite some time now, even to the point of having to buy a bit of food on the way as substitute for a quick breakfast. As worried as they might get about Lunaria, hunger would set in eventually and they needed to not have an empty stomach in the case that they would get involved in a fight. It was almost guaranteed a fight would break out, the only thing waiting for it was the tipping point.
That tipping point emerged in an unexpected way.
"Huh? You, over there!"
The trio turned their heads over to one of the guards who shouted at a person who knocked over a street vendor's stall. There seemed to be a small group of them, probably harassing the stall owner. It was rather bold of them to do so in broad daylight, if anything.
When the two guards walked over to them, they were suddenly greeted with a blast of magic that sent them flying backwards at the explosion. Cries of terror and screaming followed, the men revealing themselves to be part of the bandit gang from the night before, identifiable by the red veins that were coursing through their skin.
This action led to the attention of more nearby guards, who quickly ran over to face the bandits.
"Kaze, get back!" Lunatea shouted, her and Lucentia stepping up while getting ready to fight.
"You lot! Drop your weapons and surrender!" One of the guards who approached the bandits declared. "By the orders of the King, we have the right to-"
Before he could finish, the bandits let out cries of laughter and ran off into the streets. This led to an immediate chase by the guards, all rushing after the bandits. It was quite baffling why they chose to run away instead of fight, especially when they were obviously overflowing with power. From what the guards anticipate at the time, it was that the bandits themselves were not confident enough to take on all the guards present at once despite the boost in their power.
"Damn it!"
"Get back here!"
"Wind magic-"
With the guards tailing behind the bandits, Lunatea and group were left with the decision of chasing or exploring. Luckily, the decision needn't be made by them following the next thing that happened.
"Lunatea, we should-"
"Wait, something's wrong."
Kaze was about to give chase when Lunatea stopped him. Just like her sister, Lucentia also noticed an irregularity that Kaze wasn't aware of.
Soon after, another small group of bandits were seen stampeding down the street nearby with a group of guards chasing after them. Just like the previous group, they looked strong enough to hold their ground yet relented on trying to outrun the guards.
"What the heck?" Kaze looked at them, feeling a little baffled. "What is going on? Why are there two groups?"
"No, it's not just them," Lunatea gulped. "From Luniel's report, all over the city… bandit groups have sprouted like wild mushrooms after a rain."
"You mean that bandits and city guards are running around Tristania," Kaze felt bewildered. "Are you sure about that? That is too strange."
"Isn't it? The guards might not know this since they don't have a proper form of communication nor do they have the aerial view that we have," Lucentia agreed with Kaze. "If my guess is correct, then all this is a diversion."
"A diversion? Why would they do that?" Kaze asked. "Wouldn't being caught just lead to them being questioned?"
"Well, the most likely cause is probably due to the red veins," Lunatea shook her head. "They are under control, or they have a goal, or a task assigned to them, I don't know. What we do know is that this is definitely the work of the 'devils' that took Lunaria-nee."
"Of all things, a diversion," Lucentia sighed. "What do we do, Lunatea-nee? We can't chase after the bandits since there is no way they would lead us to their base."
"Quite right. Let's regroup with Lunaea and Luniel first to discuss our plan," Lunatea decided on the fact and moved.
After a few minutes of regrouping in an alley, they put up a barrier around them and got down to business.
"Yep. No doubt a distraction," Luniel nodded confidently. "This city is so huge, the guards don't know what's going on and they can continue to stall for time or whatever they are doing."
"How do they still have so many people after what happened last night?" Kaze grunted. "Here I thought it would be the end of it…"
"If anything, the devils probably made a deal with a huge bandit group in return for their numbers," Lunatea sighed. "It's simple, really. Anything is possible at this point, but they have gotten us in quite the pickle. By having distractions running around and preventing themselves from being caught, then it would put more delay on efforts of locating Lunaria-nee."
"Not to mention in large groups, stirring trouble all over the place," Lucentia's frown turned into a scowl. "How dirty. Are they doing this for the sake of gaining more time because they are escaping or simply for entertainment?"
"Now we can't rely on the city's guards for their strength in numbers, we don't have a reliable way of tracing them back to the source," Lunaea listed out their options. "We can't detect their magical signature from how their bodies are overflowing with abnormal strengthening. What do we do?"
"… Can't you just trace it from the source?" Kaze asked timidly. "If the person who provided all the bandits with this 'power up' of sort is the same person, then can't you detect where they are?"
"It's not as simple as that, Kaze," Luniel sighed. "We already tried that a few minutes ago. With the bandits, we can only feel their individual magical signatures, not the power up they were given."
"Would it help if you all flew up and try to find a pattern?" Kaze suggested. "Since there are so many groups, they must be scattered all over the place. Then if that is the case, the reason they are running around must be to distance the guards from where their actual hideout is nearby"
"… Oh, that might work," Lunatea's eyes lit up at his words. "What you are saying is that by running around in circles, the bandits are not distracting the guards from finding the actual place, but rather are trying to throw the guards off trail. That's it! If we analyse the pattern based on the aerial view of them running around, we can narrow down the places they have been to and not been to while running to determine the possible locations of where Lunaria-nee is being kept!"
"I'm all for that. It makes sense that by dispatching your allies to distract, it is normal to consider that they wouldn't approach their own base since they want to lead them as far as possible from it," Lunaea nodded, getting to her feet.
"Worth a shot. It is much easier than using magic to find Lunaria-nee," Luniel gave Kaze a high five. "Not bad, Kaze!"
"How are we going to go about it?" Kaze asked. "I can't fly."
"No need for that. Lucentia will be with you while the rest of us make notes of the patterns," Lunatea informed him. "We will contact you through Lucentia once we determined a few places for you guys to investigate."
Lunatea, Lunaea and Luniel flew to the skies once more, leaving Kaze with Lucentia.
"… Good job on thinking of that, Kaze," Lucentia gave him a small smile, breaking her ice-queen personality in front of him yet again.
"No, we don't actually know if that can work," Kaze shook his head. "It is too vague of a pattern to establish, since there is a chance that we might be completely wrong about it too. As the saying goes: the more dangerous the place, the safer it is. They could be running all over the base itself while we look at different places."
"That is unlikely, considering the size of the group itself. That logic only works if it is a smaller group of people gathering together," Lucentia began jogging down the streets with Kaze, both continuing their search. "However so, we shall see for ourselves, whether you are right or wrong."
"… She will be alright, right?" Kaze gulped, looking at Lucentia for confirmation. "Lunaria…"
"… I hope so," Lucentia muttered while facing forward. "Lunaria-nee is strong, let's believe in her."
The game of cat and mouse between two different parties restarted with newfound determination.