The photo remains on his table as he is about to conduct research on the family itself. He believes any minor information may come in handy if he ever encounter that lady once again. As of now, he had no idea who that lady is. Only a faint memory of her face allows Kyro to search up on who she is.
"I wonder what the net has to offer. Perhaps a basic search engine will work."
As he is about to land his fingers on to the keyboard, he realized that he didn't know what to type as he did not know anything about this royal family. He began to search for hints inside the photo, but none came up as the search result. Kyro wanted to ask the general, but the general had something going on outside of Base Zero. Kyro is frustrated, but then one of his co-worker actually came up to him.
"Yo, Kyro. You don't look cool. You aight??"
"Nahhh, bruhh. Ain't no way I cool."
An awkward situation is created from Kyro's accent.
"Sorry. But tell me why?"
"General, gave me this photo, but I couldn't get any answer from this."
"Hey, isn't that the Frederic Royal Family? How did you attain such photo, considering that it is such a rare item these days."
Kyro began to feel a gush of hope surrounding his spines and nerves.
"Frederic Royal Family? This photo is from general. How did you know this photo? And what you meant by rare?"
"You didn't know about it? It's all over the news, but recently they never made any appearances. That's why it is rare. And I don't suggest searching up on the net."
Kyro began typing the name into the search result but the result remained the same.
"Nothing???!!!! Impossible. Everything should be on the net."
"As you can see, there is no record on Fredric Royal Family. It is all erased due to privacy reasons."
"Base Zero Database! There might be something."
"I wouldn't bet on it if I were you. Although there contains restricted information, you could give it a try."
"For information, I am willing to do anything!"
Kyro thanked his co-worker and made his way to Base Zero worldwide database to try and search for the name. As he arrived at one of the computers, he began scrolling, but couldn't find the name Frederic. Not even one.
"What the hell happened?!!"
One of the staff in the room noticed Kyro's abnormal behavior and decided to check in on him.
"Are you okay, sir? It seems you are searching for something that couldn't be traced."
"No. The name is missing. Impossible. Is there any trace related to the Frederic Family?"
The staff asked Kyro to wait while she checks on the database history. She then presented a data to Kyro.
"As per this paper, the family name has been erased 5 months ago. All these while, they rarely made any appearances in the media. Not even the government database have their names in there. They are as of now, untraceable."
"There must be another way. But thanks for the info."
Kyro thanked the staff and made out of the room in a stressful way. He is stress because he had only one way left which is to come in contact with the person in the photo. He had no other way. So he made his way to the homeless shelter to contact with that person.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Arriving at the homeless shelter, he could see a lot of people inside including some volunteers. To not arise any suspicion, Kyro had to reprint and crop the photo to focus on that hidden lady. As he is walking through the doors, he is stopped by one of the volunteers who happen to be doing gardening.
"Hey, are you new here? The intake will be at the parking lot in case you want to."
"Oh hi, I am from APD. I wanted to know if there is anyone who could locate people inside here. Perhaps a manager?"
"Yes. Perhaps you could refer to Mr. Grey. He is at the parking lot. He might be able to find the person you are looking for."
"Thanks."
Kyro headed over to the parking lot and found three people sitting under the shade.
"Hi, is anyone here goes by the name of Mr. Grey?"
The man in a gray suit immediately stood up as he heard his name being called.
"Yes, I am. How may I assist you?"
"A gardener mentioned your name, saying that you remember how faces look like. I am from the APD and I need to find this lady. Perhaps you could show me to her."
Mr. Grey suddenly became concerned about it.
"Was she a fugitive? Sorry I didn't do any background checking."
"No. At least that is what we know she isn't."
"We couldn't give you to her as we value privacy. She instructed us to keep her identity unknown. Even to the police."
At this point, Kyro had no idea what needs to be done if she said so.
"Please, sir! It is urgent, we need her."
"I'm sorry, but we value privacy more than anything."
Coincidentally, the mentioned lady happened to walked by and recognized the man in red coat.
"Hey, I know you! You are the man I met at the coffee shop."
To everyone's surprise, the lady knew about Kyro and Kyro felt thankful in the inside that this happened.
"You know this man?"
"Yes. This is the man who recommends me this place. I want to thank you for guiding me here."
"You are welcome?"
Mr Grey mentions to her that Kyro is from the APD and required to interrogate the lady as she appears to be in the photo. All of the sudden, her cheery attitude suddenly became monotonous as she is presented the photo. Mr Grey then left the two be for them to chat.
"You know this photo right?"
"Where did you even get this?
"Someone within the APD. I need explanation. I can't trace anything from here.
The both of them decided to have a seat at a nearby gazebo to continue their discussion about the photo.
"I was there before everything is gone. Somehow you attained this photo. By right, all the records are gone across the net."
"And somehow, my general got it from somewhere. But I need to know about the Frederic Royal Family. They are expected to arrive tomorrow."
"To be truthful, this is why I am here. I received a mail from the princess. But I left it at home. And I am kind of skeptical about it."
"Mail? We get to that later. I need to know how are you linked to this family?"
"I was their trusted guardian. I worked for their family. Until someone got me into trouble and I got fired immediately. Only the princess trusted me and protested my departure. But to no avail. To make things better, I have to conceal my identity to protect her in secret. That photo was thirty minutes before they attacked. The royal family had an artifact in possession and the cult is about to steal it, but the family managed to escape safely. Since then I have been tracking the family to ensure their safety."
Kyro suddenly felt unease and wondered why the general wanted to give him this mission knowing how difficult it may be.
"Listen. Whatever the case is, it is best to leave this matter to us."
"You won't get it. You are not fighting something technological. You are not fighting a modern threat. You are dealing with something omnipotent and unable to comprehend."
"We fought a lot of threats, and this is something we can do."
"If the artifact is stolen, the world could end. They are targeting people like me. They need the artifact to destroy the balance of this world"
"Who are they?!!"
"The Sky Guardian Cult."
Kyro never heard that name before. He is trying to connect the dots on the link between the cult and Fredric Royal Family, unfortunately he couldn't as he could not find the conclusion within it.
"They will arrive tomorrow. Since you know much about it, it is best you tell me about this cult. But I need to know your name."
"The name is Claire."
Without much time wasted they began their interrogation session in the mess hall in the shelter itself.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kyro thanked Claire for all the information that he had attained. Knowing that the royal family will arrive tomorrow, the threat of the Sky Guardian Cult will be inevitable. Kyro wondered about the artifact and is curious about it. When asked about artifact, Claire remained silent as if knowing about it means the end of the world.
"I don't know anything about it, but I will not fail this time. The cult has the answer as to why are they going after the artifact."
Kyro mumbling to himself just to inspire himself a little. He then sets course back to the headquarters to resume his office job, but then something in his mind that he couldn't just ignore. The history of the photo is what kept his mind hazy. Asking about the general directly seems to be the only way, but that would seem very incompetent on Kyro's researching skills. Instead he had an idea. As he arrived at the headquarters, he went over to one of his colleague who had done extensive research on a lot of things.
"Hey, prof. I have a request."
"If it is something accessible then yes."
"I need research on this photo. Any data would do. But the most important data of all is the origin of this photo."
"It would be ready in 30 minutes. I will call you if there is anything wrong."
Kyro agreed to the time frame and waited outside of the lab. Coincidentally, there is a vending machine outside. He got a coffee and took a sip of it. Kyro suddenly had a memory crossing over in his mind that he could not forget after four years have passed. And that message still resonates inside his mind.
""No. I just need you to protect Azalea City, and not to repeat that mistake. But anyways, I am glad you are my partner. Just maybe, open up a bit, and befriend others.""
Right before the final battle is about to take place, Rilles told him that message hoping Kyro might open up a bit. Sadly, Kyro did not took that advice wholeheartedly.
"Rilles. You speak a lot. But you died, and now there is no more of that. And I never get to know you a lot. Who the hell are you actually? What the hell happened that day??"
As he is doing his internal monologue, the door to the lab opens with the professor stepping outside with the photo in his hand. The worst part is that, it is not even three minutes.
"Kyro. I tried my best. But this photo simply exist. In other words, there is no origin. It is like magically appearing it."
"What? It is paper. Glossy paper. Like any other photo."
"Well it looks like a gloss paper. But the contents of the paper don't even come to one percent of it. It just exist."
The first thing that came across Kyro's mind is the usage of artifacts
"Perhaps there might be an artifact involved."
"I thought so too. But after understanding it, the chance of it being an artifact is close to 0%. I can't believe it as well."
It is not an artifact, rather the image is crafted in an unknown method.
"The best option is to ask the person that gave you this photo. Perhaps they might have some idea. For safety, you might be dealing with something magical."
General it is then. Kyro knows he had tried his best and asking the general will be the last resort. Kyro knows there is no harm done in asking once you have tried other methods. He headed over to the general's room to have a discussion with the general.
"General. I need information on the origin of this photo."
"Have you tried researching about it before asking me?"
"I tried the research department and went over to the library(lied). Even went on to check the database on our system. Unfortunately there is no answer."
General Raz got up from his chair and stare at the window as usual before beginning his speech
"Since you done those. I can't help but to wonder also. It actually came in my mail. Along with that photo is a letter from the Frederic Royal Family, but I wish to not disclose it to anyone."
General Raz hands over the letter that came along with the photo.
"To whoever it concerns.
We the Frederic Royal Family will be arriving at your beloved city at around 10 am to explore your beautiful city. We believe that this photo will allow you to recognize who we are and send in your powerful agents to protect us at all cost.
Regards,
Princess Jane Fredric "
"Honestly, general. This letter is written badly."
"That's what I thought. But then it is not wrong to abide by it right."
As Kyro analyzed it even further, he suddenly remembered something. Kyro realized the same situation that he had heard.
""To be truthful, this is why I am here. I received a mail from the princess. But I left it at home. And I am kind of skeptical about it.""
"General. This is a trap. I know how to get information and I will inform the next morning. There might be something lurking and it is now targeting Azalea City. We will form a strategy the next morning at seven."
General Raz agrees to that and immediately went on to arrange any agents available for tomorrow's duty.