Opening the doors was another guard, who quickly made way for a middle aged man with long grey hair and a neatly trimmed goatee of the same colour.
He had black eyes and dark skin while his lips were surprisingly pink-ish. He was donned in simple cloth pants and a shirt, prioritizing comfort.
Walking behind him was a young girl of Khaos' age. She had black shoulder length hair and fair skin, while her blue eyes shone with curiosity.
The man was in the eighth stage while the young girl was in the sixth. Even though Khaos himself was in the seventh stage, he could still easily read the man's power, for a particular reason.
"Welcome, Academic Cultivators of the Black Academy". The man said with wide open arms. "My name is Morn, i am the Mayor of Galor city, and this by my side is my only daughter, Milly", he said.
"Greetings". Milly said with a small curtsy.
Zara and Khaos stood up. "Hello, Mayor Morn". Zara said, as she suppressed a laugh, "My name is Zara, and this is Khaos", she introduced, and Khaos just nodded with a smile. He also nodded that Milly, the Mayor's daughter, who had not taken her eyes off him ever since she entered the room.
Oh please don't tell me it's another one', Khaos thought. 'What do they see in me anyway?'
"Please sit, sit". The mayor said as he sat on the biggest chair with her daughter sitting to the adjacent one.
"Thank you", Zara sat down, then she took Khaos' hand into her own and placed their joined hands on the table.
Seeing this, Khaos was confused while Milly's gaze travelled down Khaos' arm, to the joined hands, then up Zara's arm to her eyes, which were speaking volumes.
Since Zara seemed to be busy chasing girls away from him, Khaos began the conversation;
"Mayor Morn", he also suppressed a chuckle. "We are here to investigate the disappearances of the young Cultivators from your city".
"Ah yes, i thought that to be the case". Morn nodded. "I mean no disrespect but i expected people at least in the Law realm".
"Morn, we are not here to fight but to investigate. Our power has nothing to do with this situation". Zara said, finally taking her death stare away from Milly.
"No disrespect but...".
"Mayor do not say those words, they piss me off, especially when you use them just before you say something disrespectful". Khaos said suddenly.
Morn was visibly irritated since as Mayor, no one had the right to talk back to him. However, the two cultivators in front of him were Academics, his equals, so they did not fear him and he could nothing to them.
After taking a deep breath Morn said; "The Shield has been investigating this matter for the past 2 months with no luck. That is why i say we need people stronger than what we currently have".
Zara narrowed her eyes, "Morn, do you know who has been taking these cultivators?" she asked.
"Of course not". Mayor Morn answered.
"Then how would you know that we need stronger cultivators to investigate the matter?. Do you know the power of the enemy?" Khaos asked.
Morn sighed and lowered his head, "I apologise. Four days ago i heard the news that my bastard son was taken, and i have not been myself since", he said, and Milly's eyes opened wide.
"Father, is this true?" she asked.
"Yes daughter, you have, or had a half brother. I never acknowledged him as my own because i feared the family would then give him my seat, and take it away from you and your husband in the future". Morn said.
"Does mother know?" Milly asked.
"Excuse me, but can we please get back to important matters. Your son is just another victim we need to find or get justice for. Let us not make this thing about him, there are 200 others". Khaos said.
"Of course". Morn said, "On that note, the number has gone up, as of this morning we have 231 missing people".
"Do you have a list of names of the victims?" Zara asked.
"Yes we do". Morn stood up and took a paper from a nearby desk, "Although the list is not up to date, it only contains the names of 210 victims".
Khaos accepted the paper and read it over with Zara. "Did you not find it odd that all victims are between the fourth and seventh stage?" Khaos asked.
"Yes we did, however we never could think of any reason for that to be so". Morn answered before whispering to Milly. "Go get some wine for our guests".
The two investigators continued examining the paper as Milly left. "Mm it does not seem there is a specific age, the youngest was only fifty while the oldest was 848, just two years away from running out of stage 7 lifespan" Khaos mumbled.
"Do you have a map of the city, showing the residences of the victims?, maybe there will be a pattern". Zara said to Morn.
"We did not think of doing that". Morn said with an embarrassed chuckle.
Zara rolled her eyes. "Well do it!" she said and Morn quickly nodded as he signaled for the guard who stood by the door.
After whispering something in the guard's ear, the guard left just as Milly returned with a jug and two golden chalices. She then poured the red liquid into the chalices before offering the drink to her guests.
"Thank you". Zara and Khaos echoed as they tasted the wine before nodding in appreciation. It was sweet to the tongue but burned the throat.
"Mayor Morn, did you happen to speak with your bastard son in the last few weeks?" Zara asked.
"Yes i did, just four days before the day he was reported missing". Morn answered with a nod.
"Did he seem different in any way? Like behaving in an unusual manner?" Khaos asked before taking a sip.
"Not anything that i noticed. I have to admit that i was not very familiar with Mider. I would visit only once a year or so". Morn said.
"Then we will have to visit your mistress and ask her". Zara shrugged.