Rosa trudged through the dark forest for another hour. The hot spring had refreshed her, but she was now getting tired again from weaving through thin gaps in trees and wading through tall grass. She even almost got stuck in a giant cobweb at one point, as well as finding more dead bodies in progressively worse states of decay. She was so focused on not stepping on the skull of some poor soul that she didn't notice when the forest ended and she had bumped right into a fence that seemed to be in a state of disrepair. As she did with the castle wall from earlier, she followed the fence until she reached what appeared to be the entrance, though unlike the castle, there were no guards to be found blocking her way in. Rosa stepped cautiously into the town, thoroughly expecting to be jumped and robbed like on the mountain, but it never happened. In fact, the whole town looked to be completely empty. This lifeless, eerie atmosphere put Rosa on edge, and she kept her wand in her paws and her guard up as she crept down the destroyed stone-paved roads, observing the wooden houses that appeared to have been burned in what she could only assume was a raid of some kind. A strong wind blew through the streets, which caused some of the doors and windows to rattle and made her tense up even further. After walking through the town for about half an hour, it began getting dark, and she had approached what appeared to be a cemetery. Deciding that no-one was here, and the most tense and suspenseful she'd ever felt in her life, Rosa backed out of the cemetery, not daring to set foot in there. However, just as she was about to turn around and leave the town, she was grabbed very suddenly and forcefully by the shoulders, and she heard the most terrifyingly vicious and bloodthirsty screech in her life right in her ears. Her muscles relaxed, but she was frozen with shock, and her knees buckled, almost making her collapse from the fear. Rosa remained like this for a few seconds until the feeling of something distinctly warm running down her leg brought her back to reality. Turning around and very shakily arming herself, she was not so pleased to find out that her attacker was Kris, who was laughing hysterically.
"You should've seen your face!" he cried, clapping his hands. "MAN, that was priceless!"
He continued to laugh and carry on while Rosa stood there feeling embarrassed with her reaction. Unintentionally, but fortunately for her, her wand glowed in her paws, and the contents of her bladder had disappeared from her legs and the ground around her. Kris eventually calmed down and started talking normally again.
"So, what brings you here?"
"Well, I'm on the hunt for, um, Grimm the sorcerer."
"Really, now? Why's that?"
Rosa saw no reason to lie to someone like Kris (though her judgement was rather loose), so she explained her whole journey up to that point, including her prior apprenticeship with Magia, and her dying wish. Kris surprisingly listened rather patiently and was rather engrossed in her story, but this was likely because he didn't know who Magia was. Once Rosa was finished, Kris spoke again.
"You know, I've seen Grimm before."
"W-What? Really?"
"Yeah. Walked right past me as I hid in a bush."
Kris snorted at his own joke as Rosa adopted a displeased expression.
"Anyway, I'm not fucking with someone that has magic like he does. You look like you could learn a thing or two from him, though."
"Are you insulting my magical ability?"
"What was your first clue? Well, if you really want to go find him, I drew a map to where I vaguely think his hideout might be."
Kris pulled a piece of paper out from inside his green cap and spread it out against the floor. Rosa knelt down to take a closer look at it.
"...is that the complete map?"
"What the heck?! How did I lose two pieces?"
Rosa suddenly remembered the scrap of paper he had left behind when he teleported away from the earlier cavern. She pulled it out of her tail and joined it with the piece Kris had. However, there was still one piece missing.
"Damn. The missing piece is the one with Grimm's actual hideout."
Rosa stared blankly at the paper. Kris's scribbles on the page barely looked legible, anyway.
"What's all this mean?"
Kris took the two scraps of paper and observed them up close.
"...I forgot."
Rosa slipped out of her kneeling position and slumped on the ground.
"Well, that was a waste of my time. The whole journey's been completely fruitless up to this point."
For a few seconds, Kris considered these words, especially in regards to Rosa's personality. She observed that as he thought, his finger lights blinked slowly, and in different patterns.
"You know what your problem might be?"
Rosa stood up from the ground, and Kris followed suit. She was planning on leaving soon, anyway.
"What's that?" she queried, eyeing him curiously.
"You're way too submissive, even from the little I've talked to you. You probably asked the townspeople as sweetly as possible, and they gave you nothing because they apparently hate witches or whatever."
"How else am I meant to ask them?"
"Use a little of that wand magic!" Kris pointed to the wand Rosa was clutching. "You think everyone's threatened by you, then make them feel threatened!"
"Wouldn't I just be proving their point?"
"Who cares about that? You want to fulfil your master's dying wish, right? Why should Pokemon stand in your way? You have the power."
As absurd as Kris was being, Rosa did have to admit she was getting a little bit sick of being treated poorly just because of her status. She was pretty much an outcast, and the concept of threatening people to do her bidding with magic was rather enticing. However, she was nowhere near confident enough to make this a reality. Besides, she realised that kind of thing was exactly why Magia came to be so despised.
"A-Are you sure I could do it?"
"Yeah, I bet you could. In fact, why not try right now?"
"NOW?!" Rosa gasped. "I haven't mentally prepared myself yet!"
"You know who you should try first? Princess Lotus."
"Um… who's that?"
"Princess of this kingdom. She lives in that town back there."
Kris gestured behind Rosa, and she turned and saw the town where she was locked up in the distance.
"Why would I go after the princess, specifically?"
"Well, she's the ruler. I'm sure she'd have a lot of knowledge about what goes on in her kingdom."
Rosa seriously considered this. Getting information out of a royal source seemed like it could work out. The only issue would be entering the castle itself, since she imagined it would be heavily guarded.
"...I'll do it."
Kris gave Rosa a quick but reassuring pat on the back. She flinched, but was initially surprised to find out he wasn't about to quickly go for her rear end or something. That is, until he did exactly that before pulling away and teleporting out of there chuckling. With Kris gone, Rosa was once again alone, again thinking of the consequences of infiltrating a castle.
