The trio along with Aquilia made their way to the market district that was located towards the center of Verreaux. It only took about ten minutes to reach even with the increase of people flooding into the city because of the break.

In the market they sold a variety of things whether that be from stores or the stalls located all over the street. Sagar wasn't sure what the girls were wanting to get as they just said that they wanted to go shopping so he let they lead him around, plus they were significantly more familiar with the place as they had lived in Verreaux for most of their lives. While they were leading Sagar carried Aquilia on his shoulders giving her a good view of the entire area.

As they were walking through the hordes of people in the area, Sagar asked, "So, where are we going first?", Aquilia raised her hand as if she was wanting to ask the same question.

Umbra was the one to respond to his question, "Well, how about we go to a tailor shop?"

Talia agreed with Umbra's suggestion and they both quickly started to walk towards the direction that Sagar assumed the tailor shop was in. Sagar was kind of scared that they would want to go to some clothing place first but he couldn't say it was out of his expectations. While there were plenty of things you could by around here, it wasn't something that would entice such excitement from these two.

While Sagar was following the two he accidentally bumped into someone, which normally would have happened quite often in this crowded area but Sagar was being careful about where he walked. He quickly apologized and went on his way, while the person he bumped into did the same. The person he bumped into made his way from the main area of the market into a random alley, where there was another figure waiting for him there.

"What have you come here to report?", the figure that was waiting in the alley asked the person who had just arrived.

"Boss, I located the one who took out the group we had hired a couple months back. The ones that were completely wiped out."

The Boss' face twitched a little hearing his subordinates report. Their organization hires multiple bandit groups to go out and bring people back to them for a price. For the most part these endeavors are successful but sometimes the groups that they hire either get killed by the imperial army or by some other factor. If say someone they hired got wiped out by the imperial army there wasn't really anything that the organization could do except to accept their losses. On the other hand if they were wiped out by some outside factor then they would send out people to deal with the one who got in the way of their business.

He and his subordinate were part of that squad sent out to investigate this sort of thing. Even though it took several months not only to get a report about the incident but also to travel over here as well, they had their methods to figure out what exactly wiped out said group. They were also quite lucky as well because usually any sort of energy that was used during the fight would be pretty nonexistent after a couple of months, but whatever energy was used lingered far after the fact. It was some form of elemental energy they had never seen before but regardless they managed to gather a little from the site and put it within a special crystal they had.

It was one that only the investigation squads would hold onto and they would use it to trace whoever the energy originated from or at least whoever had a similar form of energy. Normally they would have to narrow down some targets that have similar energy to the one within the crystal but they didn't need to do so this time around because of the unique nature of this energy.

They managed to track it down to a place called Mountain Village or more specifically to a house on the outskirts of the village. Unfortunately they didn't find anyone living there rather anyone living there had just moved out of said house. They did a little digging around the village and they were able to confirm that the people who were captured by the group they had hired had indeed been brought back to the village after they had been rescued, some even going back to their original village to rebuild.

One of the members was quite adept at using illusions to interrogate one of the remaining refugees in the village and they managed to get some information about the one who had wiped out the group. According to them the family that had lived in that home on the outskirts of the village had left a month prior to them getting there. The villager didn't know much else beyond that so they went back to their search.

It eventually lead them to not only the capital city of the Griffin Empire but also one of the most famous academies in the Empire, Skoll Academy. Seeing that target was in an unreachable place the squad decided to hold out in Verreaux until he had come back to the city. Knowing that the break for the students started yesterday he had the squad members walk around until they had found someone of a similar description to the person that they interrogated described.

Now since his subordinate had reported to him all he needed to was confirm with the crystal whether or not it was really the target they were after.

After spending a couple hours at the tailor shop the trio along with Aquilia who was on Sagar's shoulders walked out, but with several bags in hand. It was a lot less than Sagar expected but it was still a handful, luckily the girls weren't cruel enough to have Sagar carry everything. They continued to make their way around the the market buying a variety of things whether they be just for materialistic want or something they actually needed. For lunch they went to a restaurant that wasn't located too far from the district and continued on shopping for the rest of the afternoon.

When they were making their way back to the Drak residence each person was carrying a good amount of bags. Aquilia who spent most of her day on Sagar's shoulders was currently asleep and was somehow balancing herself well enough to not fall off. While the shopping wasn't as bad Sagar thought it would be it in itself was pretty exhausting considering that even before he went out with the girls he was tired from his morning training.

Arriving back at the residence Sagar and the girls put down the bags to allow the servants to take them back to the girl's rooms and then Sagar took the sleeping Aquilia off his shoulders and handed her to Talia while telling her, "Take her back to my mother for me please. I have to go out and do something real quick."

Talia agreed taking Aquilia into her arms and her along with Umbra went back inside the main manor. Sagar on the other hand started making his way to one of the main gates of the city. For a while now he had felt people following them while they were shopping and their intentions were obviously not good. He could tell their strength with all of them being of the Expert level and Sagar wasn't exactly prone to picking a fight within the city with them where a lot of uninvolved people could get injured.

While Sagar wasn't absolutely sure on whether or not these people would follow him but he decided to test it out. Feeling them moving along with him confirmed what he thought so he quickly he made his way outside the city it didn't take long for his pursuers to pick up the speed as well. Eventually when Sagar felt he was far enough from the city he stopped in an open area in the forest waiting for them to show up.

Sagar didn't bring his saber with him as he wasn't sure how much these people knew about him but regardless he was going to let them underestimate him to allow him to quickly take a few out. He also had his own form of backup but he wasn't going to pull them out just yet, he was going to do so if he started having a lot of trouble with them.

As Sagar was finalizing his plan six men in cloaks walked out of the forest directly confronting him. They didn't feel that they could launch a sneak attack anyway as Sagar had obviously noticed their presence and purposely lead them out here.