I am pretty sure I know where Eris is headed. She's going to the Sword Sanctum to improve herself. I can understand how she feels. I was the same way when I felt I was stagnating in my magic. That's why I originally wanted to earn tuition to attend the Magic Academy.
I'll just have to make sure she's in a better mood when she gets back so she doesn't stalk me and constantly try to beat me... Finding her parents should be a good start.
Naturally, everyone was worried about Eris once they got home and I showed them the letter. Paul and Laws both volunteered themselves to go search for her. Hope reigned Laws in on that idea.
"You can't do that Laws. Not after how you looked when you finally came back to us! If I let you wander off again you might vanish away entirely!"
"It's alright Laws. I can track her down", Paul offered. "She can't have gotten far."
"But where could she have gone? Her note hardly said anything", Zenith asked worriedly.
"She obviously went searching after her parents. Haven't you noticed how she's been acting ever since she heard they went off on their own?"
"That's crazy! Her parents hired a group of S-Ranked adventurer's to guide her back to the Asura Kingdom. There's no way a young girl like that can make it through the Red Dragon's Upper Jaw on her own! That place is flooded with monsters and bandits."
"..." Paul couldn't help but hesitate for a moment while he glanced to the side. He knew from watching her spar with Rudy during his short travels with the girl that she could take care of herself.
"Don't worry. I'll find her. Like I said, she can't have gotten too far."
"Let me go with you", I cut in. "I know her the best out of everyone. I can help guide you where to look."
"Good idea!", Paul approved. "Let's pack our things and get ready immediately."
"Paul, no! I just got my little Rudy back and the two of you keep wandering off on adventures the first chance you get! Rudy will stay here with me!"
"Mother... I can take care of myself."
"Oh no you don't. I'm not letting you talk your way out of this one. Your father is fully capable of handling this himself. He's led a search party half way around the world for goodness sake."
"Ugh..." That sigh earned me a glare from Zenith.
"Don't worry, I'll find her", Paul assured me for the third damn time.
'That's what I'm afraid of...', I thought. Eris isn't the type to listen to reason when she's got her mind set on something. If these two stubborn fools butt heads, someone is bound to get hurt.
That was that. Zenith absolutely refused to let me go with Paul to find Eris. While father was packing his things I walked over and whispered to him.
"Hey. I know where Eris is going. Meet me tonight at the house I bought and I'll help you."
"You know where she is going? Are you sure? Why didn't you just say so earlier?"
"Yes I'm sure. Just meet me tonight and I'll explain everything."
Later that night I snuck out of the house while everyone was asleep. I had teleportation scrolls and a permanent circle placed in my basement, but I can't very well whip one out and use it in the living room. The place was small and crowded and I didn't even have access to my own room.
After sneaking out, I made my way to the manor I purchased near the school. Sure enough, Paul was waiting for me inside.
"This better be important!", he scoffed at me. "I'm losing precious time tracking your friend down."
"Like I said, don't worry about Eris. She can take care of herself."
"Oh really? Sure she may be strong, but where is she going to get food and water? Do you really think she planned ahead and brought enough supplies for her journey?"
Damn. Now he's got me worried. I didn't think of that. Eris can be rather unreliable at things like that. Well, at the very least, with her strength she can always steal supplies if it comes to that...
"Well... you might have a point. That being said, she made this same journey once before and she came out of it stronger than ever."
"You mean in your past life? Before you traveled back in time?"
"Uhh... Yeah."
I couldn't maintain eye contact with Paul whenever he brought the subject up. It's not like I'm lying, but I couldn't help but feel awkward talking to him about it.
"I'll track her down in a couple days and make sure she's doing alright. In the meantime, there's something important you can help me with if you're willing."
"Oh? What's that?"
"I'm planning to track down Phillip and Hilda. In my timeline they both died in the strife zone after the displacement incident. I didn't hear anything about Lord Sauros. I take it he didn't arrive in Sharia with the rest of you?"
"No... He was executed for his failure to protect the region he was lord of..."
History repeats itself. I was truly hoping to save Sauros as well. I had a soft spot for the old man.
"That's too bad", I replied while I felt some tears welling up in my eyes. I'm not sure why I feel like I'm about to cry over his death. I was fond of him, but we were never that close. Maybe it's because I know how hard Eris will take the news.
"There's nothing we can do about that now", I said to reaffirm my resolve. "We need to focus on saving those who are still alive. Eris will be fine, I'm sure of it. For her sake, help me track down her parents."
"If that's what you think is best, I'm willing to help", Paul replied. "She's your friend after all."
Paul and I sat down as we discussed my plan. I showed him the lithograph stone and the matching device that I had created and explained how they worked. I'm going to create several more of these and link all of them to a singular main device which I will keep. Using these, I can send messages to several people over long distances all at once. Each of them will also be able to send messages to me, but my main stone will be the only one able to receive messages from the paired devices.
My plan is to use my teleportation to navigate to several cities and towns throughout the Asura Kingdom. I'm going to create an unranked search quest that anyone can take with the reward of ten Asura gold coins. The quest will be to find Phillip and Hilda Boreas Greyrat.
Information leading to their safe return will pay out one Asura gold coin, while returning them in person will pay out the full reward. I will also leave one of these paired lithograph stones at each guild office with instructions to the guild office to use these stones to contact me regarding the quest if needed.
I gave father teleportation scrolls to several different locations throughout Asura. I also provided him with five return scrolls that will take him back to the magic circle in my basement. After making sure he knew how to use them, I gave him the only paired lithograph stone I had completed so far. While he made the trek to the first guild office, I got to work on making some more paired devices.
Over the next week or so, I worked at the room I was provided for research at the Academy to make as many lithograph stones as I could. Each day I made one more new paired set to sell to the Magic Guild and then spent the rest of the day working on new receiving stones paired to my main one. I had about time to make four per day.
Father and I regularly met at my manor where I would give him all the lithograph stones I had. It took about two weeks of this until Paul reached every guild location within reasonable distance to the active teleportation circles I was aware of.
Now it was just a waiting game. Hopefully we would soon receive word about the whereabouts of Eris' parents. In the meantime I managed to drum up quite a good amount of money to pay for the operation. I made about fifty Asura gold coins selling my lithograph stones to the Magic Guild.
If that sounds like a lot of money, it's because it is. That's just how valuable instant communication over long distances is. It's an invaluable ability that every nation would want. My contact at the Magic Guild had no trouble at all selling the devices and we worked out a reasonable price for me to sell him the devices in bulk. The first two pairs of devices I sold him for ten Asura gold coins each, and then we agreed to a sum of thirty more gold coins in advance if I created ten more matching pairs and gave them to him once finished.
Now I have plenty of money to both pay the reward for finding Phillip and Hilda while having plenty left over to pay for the renovations for my manor.
Speaking of which, I just received a letter of confirmation. Balda of the Large Hallow had accepted my job request and was on his way here.