Chapter 12

Six gunshots echoed throughout the black night in quick succession, and six bodies fell to the ground thereafter. Poe had been tracking these guys for the past few days, painstakingly shadowing them until he discovered their camp.

Their camp was massive, too large, in fact for him to take on alone. So Poe had waited until his targets had left to harass another merchant caravan. It had been another day's wait until he could safely dispose of the six bandits. It was a testament to his skill that six shots were enough to drop all of them.

This was to be a covert job, so Poe could not use his favored tactic of explosives. The last thing Zwital needed was an army of bandits marching on them due to his own carelessness.

Poe crouched down next to one of the bodies and drew a combat knife, he hated this part of bandit hunting, but it had to be done to ensure the safety of Zwital. A few minutes later, the first head was securely tied in a cloth bag, blood haphazardly dripping from the soaked brown fabric.

One down, six to go.

The sun was rising by the time Poe reached the gates, bloody prizes slung over his shoulder. He made straight to the head merchant's house, not bothering to avert his hardened gaze from the cobblestone road beneath his feet.

Poe did not bother looking back as he exited the head merchant's house, he instead counted his money-some seventeen thousand cole total.

This type of job was becoming more and more common, something was going on-this was his third bandit hunt in two weeks. And that massive camp was something else that bothered him. Yeah, he was gonna need to call in a few favors to get rid of this threat.

This in mind, Poe stalked through the waking streets of Zwital, back to his home. He needed to get to bed anyways.

Eden, he was back in Eden. Gray had never thought he would be back so soon, yet here he was. The dragon-man casually strode through the streets of its capital city, Noir, ignoring the strange looks he got from the populace. He was headed to the temple, for he needed to pass on a letter from Belkhyde's apparently new king Max.

Gray didn't know what was going on back home, and frankly didn't care. Nothing would really change too much for him, and besides, Fee had probably stepped down to restore the patriarchal tradition. Belkhyde had always had a king, after all, and many viewed Fee as too young anyways. But enough of wondering about the politics back home-he had arrived at the Eden temple.

Kreuz was not the technical king of Eden, but he was its governor, and as such, the letter was addressed to him. Kreuz was a pretty cool guy after all, Gray surmised, he let him read the letter over his shoulder and all.

So, Fee had stepped down to marry Felt. Gray never would have guessed it, he'd always thought it'd be Viese or Noin that Felt would go for. After all, Felt seemed like the kind of guy to go for redheads.

And if Kreuz was shocked, he didn't show it. Gray had expected some reaction, Felt was like a son to him-or so he believed. If anything, the green-garbed man seemed mildly amused.

"...When Felt was younger, he did always say he was going to marry a princess after he traveled Belkhyde." Kreuz's response came after a few moments of careful consideration, the man's relief shining through at last.

Gray allowed himself a polite chuckle, unsure of how to respond. "Yep. That sounds like what Felt would say, 'cept for the princess part, that's new."

The governor perked up at this. "Would you perhaps like for me to tell you more about Felt's childhood? Over some vintage wine even, I never was the type to drink alone."

This was likely the man's way of gathering information, invite Gray for a drink to loosen him up. Gray, however, was a dragon man, meaning that it took an obscene amount of alcohol to get him sufficiently tipsy.

"Sure, why not?"

All Kruez had asked him was about Felt's fiancee. It seemed as if the blonde governor was more of a mother hen over Felt, than Max was of Fee.

Various questions had popped up: 'Is he doing well?' 'Is this woman taking care of him, treating him right, etc.' Gray knew it was probably rude, but he'd spaced out after the first barrage. Man, if only those paltry seven glasses of wine were enough to get him drunk. Ah, but hey, he'd just have to deal with it-this was a diplomatic meeting... technically?

An hour later, Kreuz's questions stopped coming, with Gray assuring him that everything would be fine, he knew Fee pretty well, and judging by her personality, she'd never rush into something like this unless she was completely sure of things. Probably. Gray kept that last bit to himself, no need to worry the governor of the continent that'd just appeared in the middle of the lake and all.

Whoops. Gray had spaced out again.

"... I mean, I'd have accepted an alliance on pretty much any terms, but I guess that Felt marrying this girl would cement it better than any piece of paper would." Kreuz patted his pocket for a moment, feeling for something. "Ah, I've left my lucky pen in the chapel, would you mind waiting here for a few moments while I retrieve it?"

This was another trick Gray had seen politicians use, it was to make him nervous and buy time for the man to try and find any leverage to attempt to get a more favorable deal. That, or the people of Eden were more superstitious due to their gods walking the streets alongside them. Wait, were the mana gods? Meh, too many questions not enough answers.

Noin stirred in her captivity, her eyes bound with something itchy. She could not see or feel anything aside from the cloth that was blinding her.

All she could hear was a low crackling. A fire?

But why would there be a fire? Was she being burned alive? If so, there was no pain, or heat. Oh, here comes the darkness again. The red haired warrior slumped against her restraints, whatever poison it was taking effect on her once more.

Learning alchemy all over again by yourself was hard. Felt had always been extremely gifted at the art, but as it turns out, doing it without mana is nigh on impossible. He'd been practicing it for weeks without any meaningful results.

All Felt could do so far was to make the small cauldron glow slightly before the ingredients burst into smoke. However, according to Palaxius's notes, the mana provided a stabilizing effect to their respective elements which lay dormant within. In theory, it was entirely possible for an alchemist to synthesize without a mana-albeit it was extremely difficult.

Cut off from Viese's mana and no longer able to perform field synthesis as a result, Felt had no other choice than to try. He couldn't very well go back to Eden any time soon, what with just bolting off in the middle of the night and all, if Kreuz didn't kill him, Lutanus would.

So,with no other option, Felt would attempt the impossible: to perform a successful synthesis without any mana. He already had his first item picked out: a cure jar.

End Here