It had been over a week in game, but there was still no sign of Takeshi. Maru and Haru spent the time trying to gather information. So far, it had seemed her presence had gone unnoticed. There also had been no more visions. Maru was sitting in a chair by the window when Haru came up beside her.
"What's the plan for today, miss? Searching for more intel?" he asked. Maru did not answer right away. Haru thought he heard her say she was bored. "Miss?"
"No. Let's change it up today. What do you say?" she said with a stretch of her arms.
"I'm here for whatever you decide to do. If you don't mind me asking, what exactly do you have in mind?" he asked. Maru turned towards him with a radiant smile.
"How do you feel about helping those in need?" she asked. Then she jumped to her feet and grabbed her bag that they had bought earlier in the week.
"Are we taking the apothecary owner's offer for a job, miss?" Haru asked as he helped her get around. Maru quickly shook her head.
"Oh Haru, you should know me better than that by now. Besides, that man feeds off the poor and starving while giving out favors left and right to the rich men hoping to gain favor. No, we only traded with him to gain currency because we had none. If we could have made it to Trinity, I would have sold it to his son at half the cost just to spite the old bastard. His son is twice the man he is and actually cares about the people. Nope, we're going to hunt and forage. Then, give them to those struggling from the wars." she answered. Maru could not quite place the feeling, but she felt responsible for the people.
"Won't that attract too much attention to us?" Haru asked, worried. Maru just shrugged. "Miss, why do you avoid the castle? I'm sure your father has a plan in place for your return?" he asked. She obviously could not tell him that she was from the real world and not this one. Or that she did not know what would happen to her in the real world if she died here. That himself and this whole world were just a bunch of codes. Maru stopped. Was her existence just a bunch of codes now, too? Wait, was she even really the real Maru? She quickly shook her head. Way too deep of thoughts for first thing in the morning!
"If my father had a plan in place, would I have had to leave in the first place??" she asked. Maru did not know a lot about Kyomi's back story due to the game creators keeping it in a shroud of mystery to keep gamers interested. But it was a safe assumption that the king or the princess herself were behind her disappearance in hopes of having time to formulate some kind of plan. However, Maru was not ready to leave her life in the hands of an npc. For her disappearance not only gave them time but everyone else time to prepare as well. She looked up to see Haru staring at her. Shoot, she must have missed something! "I'm sorry, I was lost in thought. Did you say something, Haru?" she asked. Haru still stared at her. Now, she realized that he was not moving at all. Another vision??? But nothing was happening. "Who's there?!" she called out. There was no one to be found as she searched the entire room.
"Miss?" asked Haru. She jumped at the sound of his voice. "I'm sorry, miss. I didn't mean to scare you!" he said a bit frantically. She shook her head. What was that? A glitch, or did the server go down for a split second?
"It's ok. Shall we get going then? Figure we'll forage and then hunt? That way, it should be a bit cooler by the time we have to field dress anything. And Haru, how many times do I have to ask you not to call me miss? we're supposed to be brother and sister? Would you call your sister that?" asked Maru. He gave a shrug.
"If she was of importance, I would assume so." he answered truthfully. Maru kind of giggled at his answer.
"You are definitely an only child, but a sweet one. No one would call their sister miss, especially a younger one." she added.
"Older, actually." spoke Haru softly. Maru's head turned towards him.
"I'm older than you???" she was a bit in shock. Looking at Haru, you would think the opposite. Maybe it was his facial hair? Most woodland elves would be clean shaved, but he had a beard. "How.. how much older?" Haru hesitated to answer. "Haru! Come on, I won't be mad or anything, not like we change our age or anything."
"About 250 years older, miss." he answered. Maru stared at him, wanting to ask, but knew it would sound foolish if she asked for her age. It was crazy to even think of living so long. Neither woodland nor dark elves were immortal, but the average life span was around 3000.
"There is no way. You're a general but younger than me?" Maru subtly tried to see if she could get him to at least say his age so she could add to that to figure out her own.
"I swear on the elders, I'm only 823 years old." he answered with a smile. Which would make her 1,073 years old. Maru had a hard enough time accepting that she would be turning thirty this year.
"Well, you look older, Haru. Must be the beard." she said with a smile. "Now come on, we really need to move, or by the time we're done foraging, it'll be too late to hunt." Maru performed the concealment spell, and the two made their way out of the inn. While they were heading out of the town, Maru could sense they were being followed. She gave a glance to Haru, who gave her a nod like he understood. The two split off from each other, with Haru heading to a food stall while Maru entered a blacksmith forge. They needed a bow anyway. She made idle chat with the blacksmith, asking whether he had a bow and arrows. The person who was following them had followed her in. A nice long bow was handed to her from the owner, along with some arrows. Holding the bow up, she pulled it back and then brought it back together. Then she picked up an arrow and nocked it in. She spun around quickly to have her arrow pointed at whoever the creep was that was following them. It was Takeshi! Quickly, Maru brought the bow down and brought it back together without releasing the arrow.
"We need to talk." Takeshi said in an emotionless tone. Maru could not contain herself as she hugged him. Tears welled up in her eyes. It felt like so long since he had left. Takeshi pushed her off and cleared his throat. He took the bow and arrow out of her hand and sat it down. Then, he dragged her out of the shop and into the nearby alley way. "I've been waiting for your newly found friend to leave your side. I teleported to you inside the inn. Thankfully, I used an invisability item, so he did not see me." he said quickly. Now, the brief pause from earlier made sense. It was Takeshi loading in. Why was she unaffected, though?
"How long has it been in real time since we spoke?" asked Maru.
"It's only been just under a day," He answered. It was safe to assume then that a full day was about two weeks in game time. "But look, I haven't been able to find you. Searched hospitals and had Alice check your house. She is now losing it, thinking you committed suicide somewhere because of her. I have even checked the morgue and nothing. You're nowhere to be found. So I will keep looking. But the problem right now is that someone has leaked information about Kyomi being in play. It's a really crappy screenshot. So, hopefully, it will just be discredited. But you need to be on guard." said Takeshi as he checked the end of the alley way. "By the way, who is your woodland friend?"
"Haru, he's... wait, are you worried about me, Takeshi??" asked Maru. He gave her a disgusted look.
"I'm only trying to help get back to the real world so you can own up to our bet. Which, by the way, if I find out that you're holed up on a dev account somewhere. I will be the one to demolish you in the game myself!" Takeshi answered. Maru gave him a dirty look.
"As if! I wouldn't do this to get out of a lousy bet! When have I ever gone back on my word when I've bet on a game?" she asked. Takeshi stared at her. She was right. Even when her losing meant a group of guys chucking eggs at her after school, she sat there and took with a smile.
"Fine, but I want something extra for helping you out... but I'm not saying it until we get you out. Do you agree?" he asked. Maru hesitated. "We don't have all day. Your friend is coming around the corner in a second."
"I agree." she answered. And with that, he was gone again. What more could he want from her?