In the end, both of the search teams came back empty handed and without any lead on the location of this otherworlder, they shouldn't have been able to leave the area, so they had either found shelter away from their grasp or the mages and oracles had been wrong on the apparition of an otherworlder.
The group of Gloire wasn't willing to investigate without much proof, especially when their mission was to be kept a secret and the team of Heilig was preoccupied with the strange beings they had encountered, in the mind of the three elites send here, it was very likely the otherworlder had fallen victim to this thing, it had a strong presence, there was no way a newly arrived otherworlder could hope to even escape it.
The only strange thing was the lack of blood in that case but the simple fact that it was around was enough to be convincing.
___________
At the royal castle of Gloire, the young king had just received the full report from the team he had sent out, the fact that they hadn't found the otherworlder didn't come as an especially bad news, the king hadn't been betting on it anyways and sending the team had cost him nothing.
Something about their report surprised him still.
'Ithelisemou, what are the odds that two people bear that peculiar name?' he wondered, the fact that he learned the whereabouts of this man just a few days after learning his name from the patent of the guillotine was quite a coincidence and from what the team had told him, he wasn't just an inventor.
His intuition told him that he should really get acquainted with that man, even if the team had also told him that he was a nutjob, madness was a common symptom that came alongside genius after all, if anything, it was a good sign that his intuition wasn't wrong.
He currently awaited for his adviser to come back, he had sent him to search for more precise information on that Ithelisemou, he had been informed that he had actually served in the military as a medic meaning that there should be traces of him, the military before he had come to reign had been bad but not quite as bad as the ruler himself, so he trusted they had kept their records.
As his advisor came back, he seemed to have brought alongside himself the new first general, the most important military position by far, especially now that he had given the first general more freedom of action than before, he had appointed a young and promising person, a woman by the name of Jeanne who had immediately sided with the revolutionaries and been an important factor during the war against Mawlique, forcing them to sign a peace treaty by invading their royale palace, an incredible feat that had made Mawlique appear as a country of fools.
She wasn't very high ranked during that ordeal however, so he didn't know why his advisor, Castille, had brought her along.
"Your majesty" both of them said in unison, the advisor had a long and large grey beard that certainly help give him a wise appearance, he wasn't exceptionally old but with it, he appeared like a sage, meanwhile, the first general was booming with youthfulness, standing much taller than the advisor and dwarfing even the king with her one meter and ninety centimeters in height.
The young king, Pepin The Third or Pepin The Young as the people called him also beamed with youth, his blonde, golden hair almost made the golden crown on his head appear invisible, his blue eyes were sharp but still somewhat soft, he gestured them to stop with the formalities, there was no need to do it every single time.
Without needing to ask the question, Castille answered it.
"While I was getting the records concerning the man by the name of Ithelisemou, general Jeanne approached me and upon telling her why I was here, it came to light that she would be able to help us learning more about him" he told the king, almost bowing again but managing to stop himself from exercing the formality.
"Indeed, Ithelisemou right? Of Sht'ole?" said Jeanne, not exercing any formalitu without any issue.
The king started to think that he was perhaps part of her unit or that she had interacted with him during the war but the answer he received wasn't expected.
"I am from Sht'ole too, I have known him since I can remember! He's a close friend of mine" she uttered, once again, it was an extraordinary coincidence, that his first general had such a close connection with him.
What was next? Was he going to discover that he was actually in the same room as him?
He took a few glances around the room just to be sure but no one other than him and the other two were here.
"Could you tell me more about him?" asked the king, remaining composed despite his wild thoughts.
"Sure, he's a weirdo in just about every sense of the term but he's got a real good head on his shoulders, he's a bit obsessive with learning stuff, he also speak some gibberish sometimes and refuses to explain what it means when asked, he's quite the spellcaster but I rarely ever saw him cast any spells actually" recited the first general.
"I see... Do you think you could get him to meet me?" he asked her, he was the king and could technically get anyone to come here but he didn't want to have a bad reputation when he could play things nicely, it was always better to be on friendly terms with anyone.
"Of course, I am sure he would love to" she said, she knew that he wouldn't miss the chance to associate with someone like the king.
_______________________________
The man in question was currently riding his carriage into the nearby city of Sht'ole, however, he was dressed much differently than usual, he was in his roaming doctor outfit, a darkish grey long coat alongside a mask that completely covered his face, it ressembled the shape of an owl's face.
He was currently doing his monthly medical visit, as the only actual doctor around, he had many people to see, his prices were cheap, he said that it was because he was from around here and that he made a discount for the people of the city.
It wasn't the actual reason however, was it the truth, he wouldn't keep the same prices for travelers.
No one batted an eye at this obvious discrepancy he didn't even try to hide, his medical services were top notch and he could cure things most of his fellow doctors couldn't, he wasn't one to keep it all to himself and would eventually spread the knowledge but he had to wait before doing that.
After finishing a quick visit next to his carriage, in the street, night was showing its face and no one else other than thugs and other people with questionnable intents, as well as Ithelisemou.
None of these individuals approached him, in fact, they avoided him for reasons only them and him knew.
However, someone did approached, this man had been waiting for people to leave to approached the doctor, he was sweating bullets and certainly appeared as unwell.
"Eh bien, you don't seem so well sir, let me guess, a severe fever?" he spoke before the man could speak for himself, the sickly man nodded his head slowly, the headache caused by the fever making his head ring out in pain.
Ithelisemou approached the man suddenly and looked at him for a few moments, making a list of the possible ailments he could be suffering from.
"Do you have a room in an inn sir?" questionned the doctor, Ithelisemou, with his face hidden behind the mask, didn't appear quite as unhinged as usual and sounded reliable to the ears of the man.
he nodded again and after grabbing a large handbag, the doctor had him lead the way.
The trip there was uneventful as everyone out at night seemed unwilling to even be seen by the owl-faced medic.
Arriving inside the room, the door was closed, leaving only the two of them, the man still looked as ill as he had at first, he sat on his bed, his clothes drenched in sweat.
Ithelisemou proceeded to the usual maneuvers and questionned the man on his symptoms further, nothing changed since the start but after the man had first spoken, he felt like the tension had increased.
Suddenly, his fever wasn't what was pressing down on him the hardest, he looked at the doctor but found nothing weird about him.
"It would appear that you suffer from red fever" spoke the doctor, his back turned to his patient, searching through his bag.
"Red fever? What is that?" the man had never heard of such a thing.
"Comment dire? It's a blood ailment, I am the one who named it actually, it can happen when someone loses a high amount of blood, the fever takes some time to appear though, anyone who loses blood through a wound can technically be the victim of it but usually, it is only when a lot of it is lost" the doctor explained, his back still turned.
"Lots of blood? I wasn't wounded in any way!" the patient feigned ignorance.
"I suspect that some people are susceptible to something that is in the air, that when accumulated in the bloodstream, will cause the fever, it tends to happen in dusty places, places people don't usually visit and places where people don't get heavily wounded, that's why it is most common among low life vermins and other hoodlums, also those who lack a shelter or people, who for any reason, do not want to seek the aid of a medical professional or healer" the tone of Ithelisemou was unchanged but the sick man was growing more and more disturbed.
"The red fever is quite painful and affects cognitive functions, you must have seen me and intinctively sought for help against your better judgement, I would have assumed that you were just someone that lacked the money or that was just a petty hooligan but, I can't help but notice your small, subtle..." in a flash, the doctor spun around, swinging a medical tool that looked much closer to a machete than anything else at the man's throat, slashing it cleanly, sending a river of blood gushing in front of him and onto the floor, falling forward and landing right into the puddle he had just created.
"...Mawliquian accent" finished Ithelisemou as he watched the man bleeding out and drowning in his own blood.
"The red fever must have stayed dormant for a while, the flow is unending" he commented before kneeling down, making sure not to step in the blood, wiping the blood off the blade on the back of the man before putting it back in his bag, when he left the room, nothing was left in it, he locked the room with the key of the man, put it on the front desk and promptly left, whistling carefreely.