"Between my mother or my sister, both of whom I owe a great deal. Between two lives where money can buy their lives, but in the end I couldn't save them all. Hang me, burn me, slaughter me, I don't care, now that they're gone. That's his statement. In the end, he claimed that by kidnapping Tio, he thought the Church would harvest her organ and give it to either her mother or her sister, as per the "guidance" of the Church, foolish... And yet the father and sister there simply feigned ignorance" [Nar].
"Truly a tragedy, and what I saw only adds to it, unfortunately I doubt it can be used against them" [Merlin]
"I was kidnapped for a reason, and yet the underlying cause was much, much worse..." [Tio]
"I would say cheer up, my dear student, but alas, this is Gastrium's reality these days. Still, I'm glad my cute blue-haired pupil is doing well" [Merlin].
"Thank you, teacher Merlin..." [Tio]
Fie licked Tio's face to cheer her up. Master Merlin (through Fie) gave her a word of encouragement. Master Merlin did indeed see organs being taken from the corpses of the dying patients. Fie tried to investigate further, but a witch from the Empire seems to have taken notice. According to Master Merlin, it's the same fledgling witch that came during The First Prince of Empire, Rufus. For what purpose is unknown, but unfortunately we can all guess, and that is
"To create that black creature with the goo" [Dana].
"If you ask me, it's pretty obvious what's going on here at Gastrium" [Randy].
"I'm sorry, but I didn't, how is it all connected?" [Adnan]
"Is there an even bigger picture that I haven't seen?" [Tio]
"It's a bit complicated for kids your age, plus there's some information we couldn't share with you" [Khamisah].
"Sorry about that..." [Diana]
"So you actually have an idea about it?" [Adnan]
"I do, but I'm afraid if you want me to talk, you'll have to convince Aunt Amleth, or Kara and Mara for that matter" [Diana].
"In other words, a top secret. How frustrating" [Tio].
The night is still young. Sister Khamisah has already finished her report. She makes five of them. One for Guild Master Akela, one for the Boaar Guild Master here, one for herself, one for Aunt Amleth, and one that she thinks will be given to the Bear Captain. The discussion came to an early end. Everyone here seems to be contributing something to the report, making Sister Khamisah's job much easier.
As far as I know, since the Empire failed to claim Gastrium as one of its new territories, it used its ally here, the Illumination, to do some dirty work. Those sinister guys who not only raise the price of the treatment, but according to Nar and Sas, spread multiple propaganda that makes the citizens want to join the Empire. The Empire troop, according to Randy, through the black color creature, attacking supplies that reach Gastrium, which in turn, further gauge the daily necessity price even higher. Even the holes in the barrier as to make their infiltration easier for their troops and their moles.
All this so that they can take over Gastrium, not through war, but through a more cunning method. As all this goes on behind the scenes, The Adventure Valdrid becomes a victim as he couldn't get enough money to save her family, and coupled with his bad luck during his encounter with The Jester Bone, makes his already stressed mind, finally snap, and thus, Tio gets kidnapped.
"So what should we do?" [Dana]
"What do you mean?" [Sas]
"Huh? Isn't it obvious, shouldn't we come up with a plan to help the citizen here?" [Dana]
"Right, they are in trouble, shouldn't we knights do something about it?" [Adnan]
"Just leaving them alone to suffer, even after all I went through, is..." [Tio]
"I understand your feelings, I really do, but for now... Nothing" [Nar]
"Are you serious?" [Diana]
"As much as it pains me, yes, I am" [Nar]
"But why?" [Dana, Diana]
Not only me and Dana, but also Tio and Adnan were confused. Of course we demanded an explanation.
"First, if Sas and I do something, will the people here really accept it?" [Nar].
"That is... Highly unlikely" [Adnan].
"Exactly, and worse, our helping hand is like putting a knife to their throat" [Sas].
"Besides, their royalty knew this, and yet they themselves didn't make any requests from our side" [Khamisah].
"Even through the Adventure Guild?" [Tio]
"Khamisah and I checked with the guild master earlier, but no. No request came to help them, and as such..." [Randy]
"If you help them without Queen Amleth or the royal request, you'll be in trouble" [Dana].
Back in Emas, it was Princess Siti who, realizing the seriousness of the threat posed by the False Hydra, asked for our help, and we were happy to oblige. But here, there's no such request. I'm not sure why, maybe they think they can handle it without the help of my family member, or maybe they don't know the whole picture yet. Still, I don't want to disappoint the Bear Captain, he's such a nice guy. It also frustrates me that there's nothing I can do, even though I know exactly what's going on.
"Comes now younglings, such is life. There are times when doing nothing is for the best" [Merlin]
"If you say so, Master Merlin..." [Diana]
"You should get some sleep and leave early in the morning. I'll tell Little Amleth about this" [Merlin]
"Thank you, we appreciate it" [Khamisah]
This is really frustrating, but if there's really nothing we can do about it... Let's just go to sleep