Throughout our journey, we had not yet received any reliable information regarding Frankenstein.
Everyone we inquired with either expressed anger or admitted to being unfamiliar with him.
This prompted me to ask a question I should have considered much earlier: if he was such an esteemed mage, why had I not heard of him?
It took us the whole day to reach Lumera, and night had fallen by the time we arrived. Hermione's parents had no cause for concern, as we had Gallus with us to act as our guardian.
They were confident that, with him by our side, we were in safe hands.
We stayed at an inn overnight to plan our next move. Our journey from the Nedveded Region to this point had yielded few answers regarding the mysterious Frankenstein figure.
Those outside the capital city were largely unaware of him, and those who were familiar with him had little to offer. This piqued my interest significantly.
"Listen up, I hereby call this search party team meeting to order... clap everybody." I did just as I said.
Unsurprisingly, Hermoine clapped and she was quite jovial about it. She giggled with excitement.
It wasn't everytime she was given the luxury of leaving the manor, now that she could she'd enjoy it to the fullest.
It now made sense why she wanted to help us in this search to begin with. I should've known better.
Gallus clapped as well, but nonchalantly. I expected no more from him and being less voluble.
The claps came to a halt, now I could address them "Well team, we've used about six hours searching the capital city and an extra ten having to travel here... but at least we've made it to a new territory and we can resume our search."
It was a delight to find two beds in our room, I took a seat on the one facing the other bed, where Gallus stood next to Hermoine, who was comfortably seated.
Although the bed was not as comfortable as the ones at the academy, we had not anticipated staying here, and had been forced to spend the night due to the time wasted chasing false leads.
The room was dimly lit, with only one oil lamp turned on.
Gallus got some information while we asked around for our target at the capital city - Ionia. Someone was quite sure that the person I've been looking for lived in Lumera.
"So Hermoine, what exactly does this man look like, if we have a good description of him we could all split up tomorrow and search for him here.." before now I didn't bother asking, solely because we were expecting someone to show us Frankenstein.
Now, since we'd have to do that ourselves, it was imperative we knew what he looked like.
"I guess he looks like..." before she could divulge the information she felt a slight pain in her head.
She inadvertently held her forehead in her palms as a means to suppress the pain, "..I don't, remember." her voice appeared to be strained a bit.
I was not the only one who expressed surprise; Gallus also raised an eyebrow.
"You seemed certain of his appearance just moments ago..." He was clearly displeased that she was withholding information from us, his gaze fixed on her.
This was enough to demonstrate that he was indeed suspicious of her sudden change in behavior.
"I'm sure I have seen him before, if I did... I'd have told you guys." more concerned about her headache, I asked if she was really doing fine.
She didn't give a vocal response, instead she inclined her head up and down to indicate agreement.
Sharing a look, Gallus and I knew something was wrong.
At the moment, we had to exercise belief that Hermoine did in fact know nothing about his appearance, in order to avoid any unnecessary spectacle of mistrust.
.
.
.
Gallus and Hermoine graciously agreed to investigate the southern region of the city, while I was to take on the western area.
They departed before me, leaving me as the sole occupant of the room. As I stood admiring the scenery from the window, I also donned a shirt.
I could not help but be intrigued by the peculiarity of the situation: "Frankenstein Du Rachim... where are you hiding?" Clearly, this individual was determined to remain hidden, and I was determined to uncover the truth.
I had not anticipated such a challenge, yet I was prepared to go the extra mile to locate Frankenstein.
As I stood fourteen meters away, I observed a man on horseback, carrying a boy whose arms and legs were bound and a sack covering his head.
From the window, I heard a stern command to "Move!" with absolute clarity. This scene was quite unexpected to behold.
"A kidnapping? That's not good..." Kidnapping seemed like a lucrative industry in this area.
I had hoped to avoid such entanglements and remain out of sight, but it seems I have no choice. Though I possess a high magical capacity and potential for battle, I often lack the confidence to fight.
Even when I must confront an adversary, I can put on a facade of confidence. However, I must now face this situation head-on, and I had to do so with a formal and forceful tone.
I sighed over the lost opportunity to search for our target. But it couldn't be helped.
It would be callous of me to see something like that occur and still focus on searching for Frankenstein. As important as he was to my cause, it didn't reflect well on me if I turned a blind eye. I'd certainly never be able to forgive myself.
.
.
.
Some few minutes later, I was tailing them carefully. Thanks to [Mana Sense] I didn't need to worry much about keeping up with them, I could sense their mana well enough to know where they were.
It didn't matter what inch or corner of the city they were at.
I could overhear them discussing, from their voices and mana composition there were about three in number. Adding the kidnappee that would make them four in numerical value.
"You're sure no one followed you?"
"Yeah.." the next guy responded.
The two led me to an abandoned storage house located conveniently in the western parts of the city I had intended to explore for information, which was a fortunate coincidence.
Within the storage building, theyʼd laid the kidnapped boy against the building's filthy wall, first one of the three asked the child "Are you okay?" to which the boy lifelessly nods.
"Let the boss know that we're back.." said one of them to another, the addressee exited the main room of the storage building and then headed inside.
Between-time, I'd snuck my way into the storage building currently hiding behind the numerous wooden crates in the main room.
They had no external security measures which made it harder for them to ensure no one entered here.
I could conveniently creep and move stealthily without being detected since there was comically no one to do the detecting.
They fed the kidnappee at present. It was a known fact that kidnappers had to make sure their "asset" wasn't too badly damaged to ensure they could collect a favorable ransom or sell them at a desired price.
'How many of them are there..' I closed my eyes and utilized [Mana Sense] it left me isolated in a background of entire blackness while a radar-like wave flowed from my fixed point to an omnidirectional twenty meter radius.
I could catch about five or six more people within the building. Their power somewhat felt familiar but I was incapable of pointing that out accurately if it'd save my life.
Another concern was how I'd get that kid away from them. Jumping out and starting a fight may not be the best option, I preferred to overestimate both the power and tactics an opposition utilized.
It helped give me a better assurance that I wouldn't die in battle.
In addition, I wasn't angstful of the idea of facing off against all of them at once, but first I had to consider the life of the hostage they had. Common sense dictated that the kidnapper always had the advantage if they had the "asset."
If they held off against violence then I could calmly monitor the proceedings without having to interfere.
'Weird... their hideout looks like it's been abandoned for a while now, but I guess that's what most hideouts look like.'
I only wanted to adjust my leg, and it resulted in me hitting a set of chalice. It was a loud, ringing sound, like that made by free-hanging metal objects struck each other.
I knew this would immediately alert them so I bent even more to conceal myself. Just my luck.
"Who's that?!"
"He's behind the crater, reveal yourself?!"
The sounds of blade being unsheathed was confirmed by merely hearing without needing to see.
There was no need hiding any longer, it didn't matter how well I concealed myself accidents happen, especially one so unbelievably stupid.
"Alert the others! We have an intruder!" their swords were still pointed forward in aggression.
They would without delay eliminate whomever chose to come between them and their objective.
'Here goes nothing..' I braced myself, grasping confidence tightly.
"Hear me, you despicable villains! How dare you abduct innocent children from their families and subject them to your depraved desires? That is known as kidnapping, and you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves!"
I proclaimed that only after I had leapt onto the wooden crate and assumed a heroic stance.
To preserve my anonymity, I opted to don the inexpensive imitation clown mask that was among the crate's contents.
"What the hell is on your face?!" said one of the abductors, they could barely take me seriously with such a persona.
"Forget that, who the hell is he!?" the other aforementioned.
The grip on the hilts of their respective armaments was still quite tight, it signified an impending attempt at an attack.
"Who am I?! I am the great warrior man!" lying wasn't my strong suit and neither was making names on the spot.
If only I could rewind time and play things differently. But no one has that luxury.