Chapter 55: Truth

Chapter 55 - Truth

With his heart thumping in his chest, Kai ran out of his house. He looked around and ran down the street calling her name. Kea was nowhere to be found.

Panic rising, he continued running without a plan. Each second he didnt find her was one more second she could do something stupid.

Think, think!

His thoughts moved a mile per second. He needed a plan, something to go off to. He needed to find her before she did whatever idiocy she had in mind.

Kai desperately scoured his mind for any scrap of information that might help him piece the puzzle together. Kea looked very upset during dinner. He thought it was about him, but what if it wasnt? What if something else happened between the time she left the beach to go with her friends and dinner?

That was the most likely explanation, but how did it help right now? If he could find one of her friends, he could maybe figure out what was going on, but he didnt know any of them. He might recognize their faces if they stood in front of him, but the chances of that happening were barely higher than finding his sister.

Four moons lit the muddy streets of Greenside. No one was in sight, the only activity and noise came from the taverns and pubs. Little to no people out on the streets, most of them drunks looking for their way home and the occasional couple whispering words to each other.

Kai stopped running, his lungs screamed for air. This wasnt working, he had hoped his Favor would help him out, but it was a flimsy plan. He still had not yet figured out how that worked and the limitations. The town was much bigger than the maze and looking for a person might also be different.

The rows of semi-identical houses around him were still hard to distinguish if you werent familiar with the little differences. He needed to think but he didnt have time. He should have asked Alana and Ele to help, in his panic he had run outside the house without thinking. He debated whether he should go back, maybe Kea had changed her mind and was waiting for him back home.

In the same moment that he thought it, he knew he was deluding himself. Kea was impulsive, the chances she thought things over and changed her mind were close to none.

Looking around to reorient himself, Kai started running again. There was someone, who might know something. He spent his mana freely to enhance his Running and move faster. Not a minute later he was knocking on Mouis door.

Open. Up. He said amidst labored breaths of air.

The door swung open. A very irritated Moui looked around for the culprit causing the commotion, the blade of an ax gleaming in his hand. His aura hit him like a truck, bearing down on him like a physical presence and making him falter. It seemed apart from suppressing it, the hunter had also learned to make it stronger. Any other time Kai would have congratulated him and interrogated him on how he achieved it.

The overbearing aura fell back a little after Moui recognized him. Kai. What the hell are you doing here at this hour?

He pushed past the hunter through the door. Have you seen, Kea? Is she here? His eyes swept the empty rooms in vain.

Moui recovered from the surprise, stopping him from running through the house and held him in place with an iron grip on his shoulder. She is not here. What is going on? His tone was severe yet calm.

Words flew out of Kais mouth in an incoherent mess. He didnt have time for this, but the hunter didnt seem willing to let him go. Starting again he explained the important points.

Kea is gone. She looked very upset and took a knife with her. Any idea what is going on or where she could be?

Moui took a moment to absorb the information, eventually, he shook his head. Our lessons are going fine. She sure has a temper, but she seemed eager to continue and improve her skills. Almost too eager.

A horrible thought struck Kai. You didnt tell her about my fight with the red-tier beast, right?

Moui smacked him behind the head. Im not an idiot, Kai. I would not tell her that no matter the situation, especially after I understood how she thinks.

Kai massaged his head. Was that necessary?

The worst thing you can do in these situations is to panic and start throwing accusations. So yes, I think you needed it. Moui said with no remorse. Last time I saw her this morning she was fine. We even discussed her future training. I would have noticed if something was off. Did you notice anything strange when you saw her later that could give us a clue of where she went?

Kai explained his thoughts and conclusions. If it was about the competition she one-sidedly decided to have with him, she would not have shied away from telling something to his face. They even had an almost-conversation on the beach this afternoon. Something must have happened later. At dinner she was moodier than usual, even if still within reason. Then she went out again and it was probably when things escalated further.

So, it might be something that happened with her friends, Moui said. What do you know about them?

Kai shrugged. Nothing much. He tried to think back to the few times he saw them. A few years older than her on average and they all seem to be from new town. At least I think so.

Nothing else?

Kai shook his head.

Think of anything you can remember.

I wanted her to get an apprenticeship with you exactly so she wouldnt spend all day with them getting into trouble around new town.

Well, if this has anything to do with them we can at least exclude old town from the search area.

Kai nodded, but that didnt make the search much easier. New town was still too vast and theirs was only an assumption. What if she went outside the town limits or just in some buildings?

Teaching (lv1)Writing (lv1)Dodge (lv1)Keen Eye (lv1) Pain Resistance (lv1)Keen Ears (lv1)Decoding (lv1) Sword (lv1)Spear (lv1)Staff (lv1)Knives (lv1)Persuasion (lv1)Apothecary (lv1)Empower (lv1)

He had thought The Golden Palm was as cheap as they came, he had been wrong. Even before stepping inside, he could already smell puke and piss overpowering the whiff of cheap beer.

The door was ajar. Kai pushed it open just enough to slip through, activating Sneak as a precaution. There was no need. To his surprise, the place was as packed as the other tavern. Maybe three dozen people squeezed into the small place. No one so much as spared a look at him. The noxious smells were worse inside. He would not normally touch this place with a three-meter-long pole.

Half-naked waitresses moved amidst the table serving mugs of cheap ale. With just a glace Kai could tell the beer had been watered down and something else had been added to change the consistency. He would gladly drink a hundred of Doras sludgy potions before his lips touched that.

About to activate Mana Sense to sweep the place, his eyes caught sight of a familiar figure in the corner of the pub. Relief flooded his system as he breathed for the first time in the last hour.

It wasnt too late. He was still in time to stop whatever was happening.

Only then he noticed Kea standing in front of a grimy middle-aged man with ragged clothes and oily hair. From how his eyes seemed unfocused and the idiotic smile on his face, he was drunk.

A glint of metal sparkled into his sisters hand.

Kai had no idea what was happening, he dashed forward, skipping between tables and the drunken man. He grabbed his sister's hand, the dagger cutting into his palm.

Kea was turned away from him, so the sleazy man was the first to react to his arrival, squinting at him. The other mutt has come too. His speech was slurred and vaguely amused. Kai could smell his fetid breath from the distance.

It was just a moment, but he noticed the mans eyes glancing at the knife, before moving back on them with a sneer.

What she began to say, turning towards him. Kai, what the hell are you doing here? Get out of my way!

Kai did not care what was happening. He could find that out later. The only thing that mattered was getting Kea out. He twisted the knife out of her hand and hid it in his pocket.

Were going now. He said, starting to drag her out.

Let me go right now. You dont know who he is. Kea hissed to him, he had caught her unprepared, but now she started fighting back.

I dont care. Kai was not holding back any of his strength. He tried to keep his thoughts away from making hypotheses, stabbing someone in a crowded bar was a bad idea whatever the case. The man had been drunk, but Kai suspected he knew about the knife.

The sleazy man laughed. Why dont you stay? We were just starting to have fun. Do you also lack a spine?

Kai didnt so much as glance in his direction, ignoring his words completely.

They were almost out when a man stumbled in their way. What pretty children why dont yo. Kai punched him in the groin and shoved him aside.

They were finally out. he kept pulling his sister till a street over to make sure.

What the hell have you been thinking? Were you going to stab a man in public? You have no idea how worried I was.

He is the one, Kea angrily said.

Who!?

A haunted look on her face. The man who killed our father.

An image of an enlarging crimson pool flashed in his mind. Long repressed memories fighting to reach the surface.

No. It makes no sense.

How do you know that? None of us saw his face.

A friend told me about some rumors, people overheard him talking with some other drunkards. That scum was boasting about it, Kai. Her voice broke down, tears started to stream down her face. He was boasting about how he killed our dad.

Cracks started to appear in the wall he had erected. The crimson pool enlarged in his mind.

No, no. Its not possible.

They might have been lying.

I thought so too. So I went looking for him and found him earlier. After I told him who I was. Hhe confessed. Admitted it like it was nothing! Didnt even try to deny it She slumped on the ground, her words now a whisper amidst the sobs. He ssaid he reremembered the mutt children and that he should have finished the job

The dam broke. A wave of blood, pain and anger. His father had been murdered for no reason. He had been powerless. No idea who the culprit was or why. And even if he knew he could hardly have done anything.

But that was then.