Cygnus continued to browse through the book he was reading but the lights inside the room continued to flicker. Even the ones outside were experiencing some malfunctions which made the people frown.
Some of them even called for the stationed mages in the town to fix it but no matter how they used magic to stabilize the lights, those lights still continued to go off and on. With confusion, the mages tried to create new light using mana but even those were affected by the unexpected phenomenon.
Mr. C stared at the flickering lights and could only sigh. The master was really annoyed this time, luckily, they did not experience another earthquake. He walked to the window of Nina's room and looked outside. He was right, even the mana outside the inn was being affected.
Judging by the extent of mana disturbance because of the master's sour mood, if it caused another earthquake, the whole place would already have cracked buildings and streets. There might even be casualties which never happened during the earthquake at Moonvale.
"This is that man's fault, if he did not open that mouth of his, then nothing like this would have happened." Nina stood up from where she was resting after they entered the room and joined the butler. She was extremely annoyed at the Grand Mage who did not know his place.
"It is inevitable and the Grand Mage doesn't know about our master's circumstances but as someone who has already seen how our master is, he should not have talked. It's difficult even for me to calm the master in these kinds of situations." Mr. C did not remove his gaze from the outside as he spoke.
Ever since that day when he destroyed a whole town just because he was pissed, Mr. C tried his best to calm down the master whenever he became annoyed. If Cygnus did not calm down during that incident, then it was not only a town that would have been destroyed.
And with the help of that person, Cygnus significantly calmed down throughout the past years. Mr. C was actually happy that the master finally learned how to slow down but to his dismay, everything was only for a short while.
When that person disappeared without a trace, instead of going on a rampage, the master became unfeeling. His humanity, his ability to feel emotions towards someone, that was already hanging on a thin thread was pushed to its limit. Sometimes Mr. C could see a hint of it from the master but it was only a short glimpse. There was even a time that he doubted himself and thought that he was hallucinating.
The butler sincerely hoped that the master wouldn't return to what he was in the past and that hope was placed in Ezio. If they can let Ezio stay beside the master, then Mr. C has high hopes that the master won't seek destruction.
"Still, I hope that the master is alright." Nina put both of her hands on the windowsill and leaned forward a bit to let the breeze of the wind touch her skin and also to calm her heart.
After a while, the blinking lights finally stopped and stabilized which meant that Cygnus at least has calmed his anger down. They waited for the allotted time to finish before they met again at a room that Astrophos prepared for a short meeting they'll have before they leave to investigate.
Once everyone was seated, Astrophos started to relay to them the plan. They will be divided into three groups, one soldier and one magic user, then they'll go around the town to observe. For now, they'll work separately then meet up the next morning to report anything that they found strange or suspicious.
Nina and the other lady from the soldiers were a pair, Astrophos paired with the other one while Hwaquin was pared with Cygnus. After that, Astrophos pointed at the places where several people disappeared. He then grouped these places and each team will check each cluster to find any clues.
"But before that, we need to visit the mage outpost in this place to ask them of some preliminary information regarding the incident." Astrophos stood up and waved for them to follow.
From the inn to the magic outpost, it only took them a fifteen-minute walk towards the place. They could see mages who were in a hurry around the place. Astrophos led the way as they entered the building where a slightly chubby woman greeted them.
The woman immediately ushered them to the director's study where two other mages were already waiting. As the door closed to the study, the atmosphere instantly dropped to an awkward silence.
The mages did not give the soldiers a look and instead talked with Astrophos only. They were even very respectful because the man was a Grand Mage. They talked for a while before the Grand Mage stood up.
"Thank you for helping us even though this is not your job. We were willing to help you but were beaten to it by Major Ginehart's people and as you can see our place lacks manpower," the director spoke while shaking hands with Astrophos. The people inside the room knew that behind those words, there was a hidden meaning being directed at the soldiers who were with them.
Astrophos also notice this but he chose to stay as he was because he did not want to create a misunderstanding between them. "Ah yes, we will do our best to uncover the truth behind these kidnappings."
They left the mage outpost and with one more warning from Astrophos, before they departed to the assigned location where they'll investigate. Cygnus looked sideways, at Hwaquin who hadn't spoken a single word ever since they left.
"How long have you been a soldier, Sir Hwaquin?" he asked just to start a conversation with the man.
He thought that the other was not going to answer because he took a long time before he replied. "I have been a soldier for six years now."
"Oh, that's quite a long time already." Cygnus was nodding his head after hearing the other's reply. "So, do you usually go around and take missions like this?"
Hwaquin's forehead creased at Cygnus's question. "No, usually missions that are related to magic users will be handled by the mage outposts that were situated around the kingdom. But even though that should be the case, there were times that those mages wouldn't want to cooperate. So, the militia decided to intervene using their efforts."
"That's quite a difficult situation. Is that one of the reasons why the non-magic users don't get along with the mages?" Cygnus was trying to be curious when in fact he knew what was happening around the kingdom.
"Yes, but I think that this feud being displayed is incomparable to a real fight happening between the two groups," Hwaquin explained. He was still focused on the task ahead while listening to the man's questions.
They reached the first area where a woman disappeared and the only trace that she was there was the shoes that dropped on the ground. The place was still cordoned off to avoid anyone from entering.