Chapter 55   - Truth

With his heart thumping in his chest, Kai ran out of his house. He looked around and sprinted down the street calling her name. Kea was nowhere to be found. Panic rising, he continued running without a plan.

Think, think!

His thoughts moved a mile per second. He needed a plan, something to go off to. Each second he didn’t find her was one more second she might carry out whatever idiocy she had in mind.

Kai desperately scoured his memories 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 wasn’t? 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 didn’t know any of them. He might recognize their faces if they stood in front of him. 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 light and noise came from taverns and pubs. Little to no people out on the streets. Drunks looking for their way home and the occasional couple whispering words to each other.

Kai stopped running, his lungs screamed for air. This wasn’t working. He had hoped his Favor would help him out, but it was a flimsy plan. He had yet to figure out how the seventh attribute worked and its 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 weren’t familiar with their peculiarities. He needed to think but he didn’t 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.

At the same time, 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 Moui’s door.

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

The door swung open. A very irritated Moui looked around for the culprit of 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 asked how he did it.

The overbearing aura fell back 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. He stopped him from running through the house, holding 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 Kai’s mouth in an incoherent mess. He didn’t have time for this, but the hunter seemed unwilling 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 didn’t tell her about my fight with the red-tier beast, right?”

Moui smacked him behind the head. “I’m not an idiot, Kai. I would not tell her that no matter what, 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 unusual 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. 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 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, so she wouldn’t 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 didn’t 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 into some building?

“Focus, Kai,” Moui said. “It’s no use panicking. Where is your mother? Does she know what is happening?”

“No, I ran out to look for Kea as soon as I realized. I hoped to catch up to her.”

“Okay, I'll go warn them then. I’ll be faster alone. Maybe they know something you missed. You stay here and see if you remember anything else.”

“I’ll go look for her,” his heart still thumping in his chest, showing no hint it would slow down anytime soon. He couldn’t stay put.

Moui blocked his path. “Kai—”

“I have a high Favor stat, I might get lucky.”

“That’s not how it works, a few points can’t bend the events so easily.”

“I’ve got 13,” Kai said, before his mind could tell him it was a bad idea.

Moui gave him an incredulous stare. “How— it doesn’t matter right now. Not sure it will help, but fine, you can go. Stay on the streets. If something happens, scream, I’ll hear you. If you don’t find anything, come back here.”

“I promise,” Kai said, impatient. Moui finally let him pass. He heard the door close behind him, the hunter was gone in a blur.

I need something. Maybe if I had the tracking skill Telu spoke of…

Kai went through his status, all his skills seemed useless in the situation. Mana Sense could be used to find people in small places, but its range was too short to scout the town. Inspect could help find Kea’s traces, but the town was full of marks and footprints. He had never used it that way and it would take time to learn. Even if he tried to trace her from their house it would be a long shot.

In desperation, he summoned his skill Archive.

Skill Archive:

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)

His eyes sped through the list frantically. The only thing that might help him was Keen Ears. Kea’s voice had allowed him to find her more than once. If she wasn’t on the streets, that was the only skill that could help find her.

*Ding*

Do you wish to discard Gardening (lv12)? Be aware that this choice is irreversible.

Yes!

The sensation of wrongness hit immediately as a part of him was gone, leaving a hole behind. It was worse than he remembered. Kai staggered on his feet leaning against a building to not fall over. He felt lightheaded and about to puke. There was no time for this. He swallowed and hit the building with the side of his fist.

*Ding*

You have learned Keen Ears (lv1) – No sound or voice will escape your notice.

The noises around him became more distinct. It could be his imagination, at lv1 the skill was unlikely to make a difference, but it was all he had. He would take his chances and pray to the spirits to favor him.

Focusing on the sounds and taking the streets at random, Kai continued his search. Most houses were silent, people already sleeping. A few stalked on the streets speaking in light tones. The main source of noise remained the drinking people at a few pubs around town.

Wait—

It was a long shot, but he remembered seeing Kea and her friends at a tavern once. It took a moment to recall the name and the way.

It wasn’t too far. Two minutes later, he recognized the yellow mustard sign with - The Golden Palm. Loud speeches and laughs escaped from inside. He entered without hesitation. The smell of cheap beer and sweat washed over him, with a light undertone of vomit to close the picture. The place was packed with people, but the only person to spare him a glance was the barkeeper, who made a shooing gesture before turning back to serve his clients.

Activating Mana Sense, Kai scanned the place. He could cover the whole building. He got a headache due to all the people present, he gritted his teeth and continued. He was familiar with his sister’s mana signature. He couldn’t spot it anywhere in here.

Deactivating the skill and doing a second sweep with his mundane senses, moving amongst the rowdy crowd, bore no fruit. Kea wasn’t here.

Dammit! Please, spirits. Yatei, I swear I’ll bring you honor like no one did before if you help me now.

With no better plan, he went back to running through the streets, hoping to get lucky.

Please…

Kai reached into the worst parts of new town without even noticing. Desperation gripping his guts. He had a feeling that if he didn’t find her in time, something terrible would happen.

A new noise attracted his attention. Looking for the source, Kai spotted a dingy place. One of the many poorly maintained wooden boxes. There were no signs on the outside, but from the light and voices, it probably was another pub.

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

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 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 tables, serving mugs of cheap ale. With a glance, 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 Dora’s 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 wasn’t 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. Judging from his unfocused eyes and the idiotic smile on his face, he was drunk.

A glint of metal sparkled into his sister’s hand.

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

Kea was giving her back, 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 lasted just a moment, but he noticed the man’s 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 about 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.

“We’re going now.” He said, starting to drag her out.

“Let me go right now. You don’t know who he is.” Kea hissed at him. He had caught her unprepared, but now she was fighting back.

“I don’t 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 don’t you stay? We were just starting to have fun. Do you also lack a spine?”

Kai didn’t even glance in his direction, ignoring his words completely.

They were almost out when another sot stumbled in their way. “What pretty children, why don’t 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 red tide flooding his mind.

No, no. It’s 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. H—he confessed. Admitted it like it was nothing! Didn’t even try to deny it…” She slumped on the ground, her words now a whisper amidst the sobs. “He s—said he re—remembered the mutt children and 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.