So far, I'm feeling good about this. I mean I didn't even think id start writing chapter 3 but here we are.
As Ryan and Emilia were walking to the capital, they got a lift from an old man in a carriage heading the same way saving them a lot of time. As they got off Emilia tried to offer him some sort of payment, but the old man declined and went on his way before Emilia could protest.
"Nice man, giving us a ride like that" Ryan said as he watched the old man drive off down a different road waving to him
"Yes he was I only wish he took some sort of payment, now I feel indebted to him" Emilia said as she watched the old man give them one last wave.
"Some people are just nice like that I guess." Ryan shrugged as Emilia turned to him.
"Thanks to him though we are almost at the capital" Emilia said as she pointed to some high walls that could be seen over the distant trees.
"Well let's get to it then, I'm actually kind of excited to the inside of it" Ryan said as he stared walking with Emilia taking her spot walking next to him
"When we get to the gates you will truly see how big it is. You can almost get lost inside too if your not carful" Emilia said.
"I've been in some pretty big cities before, so I don't think I'd get lost." Ryan said as the got closer to the main entrance to the capital.
As they got closer the traffic of other people and carriages started to flood the road leading up to the main entrance. The sight of the crowd of people to Ryan started to make him nervous.
"Damn if there's this many fucking people here how exactly am I going to know which one walks up with a knife and stabs her"
He glances over to her out of reflex just to make sure his imagination hasn't already happened. Emilia was fine of course so Ryan relaxed a bit and refocused on the main entrance which was already almost right in front of them.
As they got closer it seemed like the guards were really just letting everyone through.
"Do the guards not check people or their carriages when they come through the entrance?" Ryan asked as he looked over to Emilia.
"No, the capital does a lot of trade, and a lot of people live here too so they only search people they deem suspicious. Besides this is a very peaceful place for the most part." Emilia said as they were walking through the main entrance navigation their way around a group of people.
"Well, that's nice to hear" Ryan replied as the finally made it through the entrance.
He finally set his eyes on the inside of the capital and as they walked down the street the absolute vastness of the capital and the amount of carriages and people flooding the streets surprised him.
It also wasn't only "people" there were what seemed like dog or lizard people. More and more species of people flooded Ryan's vision. Cat, dog, bear and he even though he saw a lion walking around but he shook his head and when he looked again, they were gone.
"I expected a lot of people, but this is almost as if it was in the modern day" he said to himself as they walked down the street.
Emilia nodded "Yes people come here from all over the kingdom, so it is to be expected. Although I'm not so sure about this Modern Day place you mentioned." She said looking at him.
"Ahh forget it, it's not really important right now" he said dodging the bullet of having to explain that to her.
"Shit I can't let stuff like that slip out or people might think I'm weird or something" he thought.
They kept walking down the streets and came down an area that looked like a market. There were a lot of stalls on each side of the street. Ryan couldn't help himself an wanted to see what type of stuff these people were selling.
"Judging by how this shit been going so far it wouldn't surprise me if these people were selling magic potions or crystals that have the power of the sun in them" He thought as he walked up to the first stall.
Almost to his disappointment they were only selling food and fruit products. Each vendor standing out in front of their respected stalls trying to wave in customers. The one Ryan walked up to just had a man about Ryan's height in front of it.
When Ryan looked at him, he noticed the man was very muscular and also had some green hair poking out from beneath his hat. The man looked at him before he spoke to him.
"Hey kid if you're just going to stand there and not buy anything move, you're scaring away my other customers".
Ryan smirked before replying "Well I was thinking about buying your whole stock of apples but if you got a shitty attitude like that with potential customers I will just take my business elsewhere" .
After he got done the man got up and said "Hey come one now lets not be too hasty, maybe we can come to an agreement".
Ryan laughed "Nah man I'm just messing with you. I don't even have any money, but she does" he turned to point to Emilia only to notice she was nowhere in sight.
"Huh?" He said now fully turning around and looking up and down the street for her.
"Hey kid if you're going to play pranks on me I don't care if you have any money or not get outa here"
Ryan then turned back to the man "Wait your telling me you didn't see a girl with white hair and purple eyes walk past me?"
The apple man raised an eyebrow "No kid I didn't. Are you sure you're alright"
Ryan threw his hands up in disbelief "Great just great, not even ten minutes into the city and I already lose her" he then turned and began to walk off and found the nearest alley to rest in the shade for a minute.
"So" he said beginning to talk to himself "Worst thing that could happen is she gets murdered, and Lord Roswaal takes my head for it" he says trying not to imagine it "Well she can't be too far I was just next to her"
Ryan gets up and begins to walk toward the opposite end of the alleyway that exists into a main street. But as he began to walk to it out of the dark crevasse of the alleyway three figures appeared and began to walk towards Ryan.
All three men looked completely like nothing but trouble to Ryan and he didn't like their postures as they got closer. As they stopped almost out of arms reach of him, he began to raise his M4 until it dawned onto him.
"If I start shooting this shit in this alleyway, I might freak everyone the fuck out that's within a mile. Great what use is a gun if I can't use it"
Ryan was giving the idea of shooting a thought when the shortest of the three spoke up
"Well well well what do we have here boys? Our next payday?"
The middle man than started by saying "If you don't want to get hurt give us everything you got" he then started to walk towards Ryan and went to grab him.
Ryan quickly backstepped and swatted the man's hands away as if they were a pack of mosquitos. Ryan than placed his right hand on his sheath for the bayonet for his M4.
"Listen here fuck faces" he said as he unsheathed it and locked it into place on the front of his M4 essentially giving him a short spear.
"If you don't want to fucking die today gutted and quartered in this alleyway like the dipshits you are back the fuck off before I end you" Ryan said raising his voice in an authoritative and dead serious tone
Ryan could feel his heartbeat speeding up as if preparing for any action that was to come
The man in the middle began to reach for knives they all heard shouting coming from behind the three men
"Hey watch out and make way guys I'm coming through!" said a rather short girl with yellow hair and red eyes sprinting at the group of men almost moments away from killing each other
"Please don't tell me she's with you guys" Ryan said giving the girl a glare
As she got closer she slowed down realizing the situation that was about to go down
"Oh sorry looks like I interrupted something but I have places to be so if you could please watch out" she said talking to the group of men
Without even waiting for any of them to reply or even move for that matter Ryan witnessed something he had only seen in movies and on the internet.
The girl wall jumped across the alley building up height to jump onto the roof behind Ryan in an impressive show of aerobatics than Ryan guessed not even the most talented parkour artist could pull off.
"Sorry again and live strong!" She shouted as she reached the top of the roof and then contuined to run off away from them
"So, then I'm guessing she wasn't with you three then." Ryan said now turning his attention back to the thugs standing in front of him
"Last chance" the middle thug warned "give us what you got without a fight, and we won't have to hurt you"
Ryan laughed "You must think yourself some hot shit if you think I would give anything to you three walking shit stains"
The complete fearlessness and confidence on Ryan's face almost unnerved the man in the middle until the shortest of the three spoke up
"That's it you asked for it you runt" He said walking up to Ryan
Without thinking Ryan's left foot launched up and kicked the small man square in the face launching him back some distance
"You fucks want what he just got" Ryan asked as he quickly re stabilized his balance
The man on the right with no words just charged at Ryan with both arms out stretched as if he was going to grab him
As he got closer Ryan quickly swatted the mans rather big arms out the way with a hard swing from the butt of his M4 and in quick succession he launched the butt of his M4 into the mans face right on his nose
The man stumbled back and grabbed at his face as if that would make the pain go away tripping and falling as he did so.
"Please tell me you're the smart one of this group" Ryan said as he pointed his bayonet at the man ready for any attack he might give him with his knifes
The man after just witnessing Ryan take out both of his friends with little effort was becoming scared and was starting to re consider his actions.
Ryan seeing this on his face decided to push more fear into the man in hopes that he would just run away. A knife fight was the last thing Ryan wanted to be in even if he had the longer stick.
"Just think, you can either go home with these two idiots and share a drink over what just happened or.." Ryan trailed off while slightly lifting his M4 to emphasize the bayonet on the end of it "I can do to you what I did to them but only with this knife"
The man seemed ready to back away but for some reason the man decided to take his chances and began to approach Ryan while taking out his knifes.
Just as it seemed Ryan was going to end this man's life with a quick stab of his M4 another figure appeared at the end of the alleyway where the red eyed girl was.
"That's quite enough" She stated in a loud enough voice for both of the men to hear.
Wait Ryan recognized that voice. Is that?
"Emilia is that you?" Ryan asked as she fully stepped into the alleyway
"Ryan? What are you doing here?" she asked with a puzzled look on her face
"Well I was looking for you until these three decided they wanted to rob me" He said gesturing to the two men on the ground and the man in front of him holding a knife
"You didn't kill them did you?" She asked as she walked up looking at the two men already on the ground
"No but I was about to have to really hurt this guy" Ryan said point with the knife on his M4 at the guy holding two blades.
"Good well, allow me to assist" She said as she quickly raised the palm of her hand at the last man of the group of three.
Seeing it up close for the first time Ryan was amazing at how a ball of ice just appeared out of thin air at Emilia's hand.
"Wait wha?" the middle man began until a ball of ice slammed into his jaw knocking him out instantly
As his body hit the floor Emilia lowered her hand and then walked up to Ryan
"Where were you Ryan?" She said pointing a finger in his face
Ryan taken aback by the sudden anger and aggravation he was hearing in Emilia's voice. He took his bayonet off and put it back into its seethe before addressing Emilia.
"I'm sorry I just got swept up in the big city and next thing I know your nowhere to be found" Ryan said pleading his case
"Trust me" he continued "My stomach dropped when I didn't see you next to me anymore, but all is good right? We're reunited" he said hopefully getting himself out of a scolding
It didn't
"No all is not good" Emilia said as she continued to scold Ryan "My insignia was stolen from me Ryan and I need that to be the next ruler of this kingdom" she said visibly agitated by the whole situation
"Wait" Ryan said "The thief didn't happen to be a small girl with blond hair and red eyes did it?"
Emilia looked a little relived after hearing him say this
"I don't know about eye color but yes it was a girl with yellow hair did she come this way?"
Ryan pointed up to the wall she jumped up "Yeah she went all the way up there and then took off"
Emilia was now calmer after hearing this news but still upset that the girl had gotten away
"You didn't think to stop her?" Emilia said seemingly trying to take her stress and anger out on him
"Look Emilia" Ryan said
"Lady Emilia" she cut him off
"What?" he asked
"You lost the privilege of being casual with me once you let that girl get away"
Ryan raising an eyebrow
"Okay…" he started slowly "Lady Emilia" he said putting extra emphasis on lady
"I will get that insignia back for you if it's the last thing I do" he said more to calm her than actually thinking he could find that little girl again
"Let's starting by going in the direction I saw her ran and work our way from there" Ryan said trying to get himself out of more scolding
Emilia thought for a second until she spoke
"Okay then lead the way and don't get lost this time" She said gesturing to Ryan to lead the way
"As you command Lady Emilia" Ryan said with more sarcasm than seriousness
They walked up and down streets in the general area Ryan thought the girl might of ran off to searching for any trace of her. After a while Ryan started asking almost every other person he came by if they have seen the girl that ran off with Emilia's insignia.
With no luck and a few awkward encounters of grabbing people that looked similar to the girl Ryan was starting to give up hope
"Jesus fuck this is like looking for a needle in a haystack. That little shit could be anywhere by now." Ryan thought as they came to a more secluded spot to rest for a while.
"Emil-" Ryan started before he corrected himself "Lady Emilia" he said again stressing the lady part of her title as to show the ridiculousness of making him say it
"Is there no possible way of you to somehow track your insignia at all?"
"No there is not" she said with a look of slight embarrassment on her face
"Seems she calmed down some then" he thought
"Well then what about Puck is there anything he could do?"
And almost as if on que Puck emerged floating in between the two
"Nope sorry! You really should take more care of your thing Emilia!" Puck said teasing her
"And let up on Ryan some, can't you see he is really sorry for letting this happen?" Puck said gesturing his tiny paws at Ryan causing Emilia to look at him
When she looked at him she saw him sweating some from fast walking up and down every street and talking to every person he could. The stress of the situation was starting to weigh on him too.
"I-" she began before Ryan cut her off
"No, it was completely my fault really. I got carried away and now a thief is running around out there with something Emilia needs" Ryan said
"No Ryan it's my fault" Emilia began "I should have been more aware of my surroundings and stayed close to you even if you were just wondering around. Besides she was really quick I doubt even if you were there you could of stopped her" she said almost apologetically
After a moment passed, she spoke up again
"And…" she started
"And" Ryan said raising an eyebrow wondering what else there could be
"And you don't have to call me Lady anymore, just Emilia."
Ryan smiled
"Well, what if I liked calling you Lady? It does have a nice ring to it doesn't it?" Ryan said now teasing Emilia
"Lady Emilia" Ryan said while putting his hands in the sky and tracing big bold letter of her name with them
Puck giggled as Emilia spoke up again
"You've made your point Ryan I was acting childish, and I apologize for doing so"
"Well, you don't have to let's just look for this insignia" Ryan said as he began to walk down the steps
"Call me if you need me Emilia" Puck said before disappearing again
Emilia nodded as if Puck could still see her and then followed Ryan down the stairs.
"Now if I was a fucking thief running around of rooftops where would I be?" Ryan thought to himself as both him and Emilia walked down the street.
Emilia stopped and got Ryan's attention by pointing out to a small little girl out of the way of the main street standing next to the wall of a building.
"Hey Ryan, does it seem as if she is lost?" Emilia asked
As Ryan looked at the girl, he saw she had green hair and was pacing back and forth in panic as if looking for someone.
"Yeah, but what about your insignia though?" Ryan asked
"That's important" she began "but if she is lost, we have to do something. We can't just leave her there" Emilia said as if she was duty bound
As Ryan looked at the little girl again he saw the she was on the verge of tears.
"Fuck now why did she have to start crying." Ryan thought
Seeing the small girl in tears now started to make Ryan duty bound to help her too
"Yeah, we should help her. If she's lost we can look for her parents while looking for your insignia." Ryan said gesturing for Emilia to take the lead on this.
As Emilia approached the girl she looked up to Emilia with a face of relief for a second mistaking Emilia for someone else
"Sorry" Emilia said kneeling down to the kids level "I don't think I'm the person your looking for. You seem like you're in trouble what's the matter?" Emilia said in a comforting tone
The little girl only looked at Emilia
"Are your mom and dad not around?" Emilia asked the girl confirming her suspicions about her being lost
As soon as Emilia asked this the little girl starting crying even more and this startled Emilia
"Um, uh… please don't cry I was only trying to help" Emilia said now panicked by the girls reaction to her
Ryan seeing all of this go down knew he had the distract the girl from the whole situation instead of focusing on her being lost.
Ryan then got down next to the girl too and took of his helmet holding it in between her and Emilia
"Now" he said getting her attention focused on his helmet "this here is a magical hat!" Ryan said enthusiastically trying to sell the story to the little girl
He knocked on the helmet before continuing "Not only can it protect the person wearing it, it can also make you completely safe from anything bad that can happen to you." Ryan said not really knowing where he was going with this
"Watch!" He said as he set the helmet on Emilia who reluctantly allow him to do so "Now observe"
Ryan then stood up and preformed an drastically over exaggerated karate chop on the helmet only stopping last second to make it seem as if the helmet repelled his hand and jumping back to try and further sell the act
If it wasn't the story about the helmet then it had to be Ryan completely making a fool of himself because the girl started to giggle and slowly transition into a laugh
"Aww man almost stings" Ryan said shaking off his hand walking back up to the two
"Now for the low price of you keeping that smile on your face I will let you wear it until we get you safe little girl"
The little girl than eagerly nodded her head
"Right on" Ryan said taking the helmet off of Emilia and then went to place it on the girl's head
"Now it might be a little big but that only lets it protect you even more" He said tightening the straps on his helmet making it to where it wont slide off of the girl's head
When he got done, he took her hand and said "Let's go find your mommy huh?"
She nodded her now helmet covered head and then turned to face Emilia stretching out her hand for Emilia take a hold of
Emilia flustered slightly took the girl's hand and began to walk with them down the street
"Don't worry I think I can already sense your mom getting closer" Ryan said as he tried to keep the girl in high spirits
Not even walking halfway down the street the little girl bolted from the grip of the twos hand's and started shouting
"Mom, mom!" Running to a women in a purple dress and purple hair
"Well, that was a rather short quest don't you think?" Ryan said looking to Emilia
"Yeah, I'm glad that he could find her mom so quickly" She said agreeing with him
Before they left the little girl came back running to Ryan with his helmet in her hands
"I don't need this anymore mister" she said holding it up to him "and it's too itchy"
Ryan took his helmet back and laughed rubbing the girl's head
"I'm glad you think so too but I told you it would protect you until we found your parents"
The girl then ran back to her mom who bowed to both Emilia and Ryan before walking off with her child
Ryan fixed his helmet straps to where it would properly fit his head again.
Ryan and Emilia than began walking around again on the lookout for the yellowed hair thief
After walking around in what almost seemed like circles out of some sort of cruel luck, they ended up back to the street they originally got separated at.
"For such a big place I wouldn't think this would be possible" Ryan said as they started back down the street
Ryan then glanced over to see if Emilia was still walking next to him. She was of course and replied to him by saying
"Come to think of it you never asked the venders on this street about the thief, did you?"
Ryan scratched his chin until he realized that she was right
"No, I guess I didn't."
He worked his way down the street asking each one if they had seen the thief until he ended back up at the man with the apple stand
They both locked eyes until Ryan spoke up
"Behold apple man" he started the nickname clearly agitating the man
"Out of the kindness of my heart I brought you a new customer" Ryan said gesturing to Emilia
The man gave her a look over until looking back to Ryan
"Is she the paying customer you mentioned from before or is this another prank?"
Emilia then raised her hands speaking to both of them but more to Ryan
"I don't know what idea you have formed of me but I don't have any money either"
Ryan looked to her with a face of shock
"But…. How?" He said remembering the huge mansion that she was staying in
"So just another prank then huh kid?" The apple man said to Ryan
Ryan looked back to him "I uh.. yeah?" Ryan said back to the apple man
"Listen besides that we were hoping to ask you some questions" Ryan began before the man lost his temper with him
"If you aint buying anything then get out of here!" He said trying to shoo them away
Just then thought the little girl and the mother walked up to the stand with the little girl calling out to Ryan
"Mister!" she said happily
"Thanks for your help with my daughter" the mom said to him
Ryan looked at her and the mom with a face of surprise
"What brings you two here?" he asked
"Well, this is my husbands shop so we were just stopping by to see him" the mom said gesturing to the apple man
Ryan and the apple man looked at each other before Ryan asked
"You're a husband?"
The stare was interrupted though when the girl ran up and hugged her dad
He rubbed her hair happy to see his daughter and appreciating the hug before looking up to his wife
"So you know these broke losers?" he said in disbelief
She pointed to their daughter and said "She got lost and they helped her find me"
The man looked back at Ryan with the same face of disbelief while Ryan slightly chuckled at the strange turn of events
The little girl let go of her dad and then walked up to Emilia
She held out her hand to her and said "Here lady I want you to have this" showing her a small pendant of a flower
"Please accept it, she wanted to thank you in her own way" the mother said to Emilia
Emilia looked down at the girl and smiled to her and grabbed the pendant of the flower before putting it on the front of her shirt
"Thank you." Emilia said to the little girl and getting a smile from her in response
The interaction is interrupted when the apple man clears his throat
"Sorry about that, you helped my wife and daughter so I suppose I can help you two" he said smiling at them
"You can asked for anything" he finished
Both Ryan and Emilia were happy to hear that, so Ryan asked him about the thief
"Thief huh?" the apple man said scratching his head
"Yeah, small girl with yellow hair and red eyes and she's super agile too" Ryan said
The apple man sat down and started to think letting his daughter crawl and play over him
"The only person that rings a bell is a girl named Felt. She is pretty well known in the slums so I would give that place a look"
Ryan nodded "Thank you, finally some progress"
"No problem, after helping my daughter this is nothing" the apple man said
Both Emilia and Ryan then set off in the direction of the slums in hopes of finally finding the thief after all.
Well it finally seems were getting close to some actually action. Who knows how this next encounter will go down and who knows (besides me) how Ryan will react the events about to unfold. This will be the third day in a row with a chapter released and I don't really feel like stopping yet, so I'll try and pump out the next one tomorrow.