The credit for this chapter pretty much wholly goes to Arrow-1. Enjoy.

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'Awful quiet back there. Huh. You'd think they'd be interrogating me, or something. Whatever, this gives me a chance to analyze them…'

"So how did you get all your information about the blastia thief?" Karol chirped up, breaking the silence. Of course.

"The lower quarter started to flood, and I noticed the blastia core was gone, so I started looking for answers." Yuri answered simply. "I found Mordio snooping around in some noble's house, and I only just missed her then. Well, assuming my Mordio is this Mordio. The Mordio I found had a mustache…or at least a fake one."

'Fake mustache? Well, it looks like he doesn't think I'm a very high class of criminal, huh?'

"…but that Mordio, whomever it was, got away from me when some knights showed up." Yuri continued. "At least Repede and I got back the stuff that Mordio swindled from the people in the lower quarter. A little extra money from the nobles, too, but they're not gonna miss it."

'He's calling me a thief, and here he is admitting to stealing right in front of me! What a hypocrite…'

"Knights? Cool! What were they up to?" Karol inquired excitedly.

"Well…I couldn't tell you for sure. I didn't hang around for very long." Yuri explained. Sounded like a lie to me. "Maybe they were looking for Mordio too? After all, he did pinch a few noble pennies."

"I guess I can believe that. The Imperial Knights are quick to get up in arms when the nobles are involved." Karol noted somewhat disdainfully.

'Amen to that.'

So far I'd figured out three things: Yuri is an insufferable hypocrite, Estellise is over-polite and actually seems to have more control than the mighty leader does, and Karol is your typical prepubescent boy. Wonderful.

As a pro to this entire mess, I was finally getting people to go back to Shaikos. Granted, they weren't mages, but maybe I could find- or make- a chance to get close to Goliath? I was sure they'd make decent distractions, and what's more it'd be taking down two birds with one stone; I would complete my research, and my new fan club would disappear.

As happy as I was to finally have a little company, regardless of whether or not I intended to dispose of them, the thought of thieves in the ruins infuriated me to no end.

'How can people be so…so ignorant? Who gave them the right to just take blastia, like they're nothing more than…things to be abused? Those poor blastia…'

I resolved to make sure we got rid of every last one of the thieves before I did anything to solve my own problems. I rolled my shoulders back, popping my neck and trying to relax, then looked back to see what the others were doing. Yuri was walking along silently, watching my back, as might be expected. I'd never had someone watching me so closely before, and it was rapidly becoming irritating. Estellise was chirping and chattering with Karol like she was only half her age, going on and on about different types of monsters he'd claimed to have defeated.

'She sure is gullible…'

"Hey." Yuri beckoned, demanding my attention.

'Ugh. Rude too? What a jack ass…'

"Yeah?" I returned, nonchalant.

"How much further?" He inquired bluntly.

"Not much further." I answered, purposefully denying him an answer.

'Maybe if you'd just been a little more polite, hmm?'

An irritated sigh from Yuri, and then he was silent again, the only sounds emanating from his presence a constant jingling from the coins in his pocket and his sword clanking against something on his belt.

'I was kind of hoping you'd have a little more to say…Kind of hard to analyze a blank stone wall. …Pff, don't I know that.'

Shaikos was suddenly visible as a small speck on the horizon, standing grey and tired against the blue sky.

'Eh. I guess I'll tell him. Maybe he'll start talking again?'

"Hey." I called back to Yuri.

"Yeah?" He replied.

Rather than speak, I merely gestured toward where Shaikos stood on the horizon. Yuri didn't speak, but simply nodded his head, and went back to staring off into space, searching the sides of the road for nothing in particular.

'Damn it.'

Without any warning, a tree, or at least what seemed to be one just a moment ago, rustled into life and stumbled out onto the path.

"Yaaaaaaaaaa-ah!" Karol shrieked, diving behind Estellise.

"That…that's not very brave of you, Karol." She chided, frowning and evidently more than a little disappointed. With a sigh, she retrieved a somewhat wicked looking saber from her side.

'…huh?'

"Heh. Looks like a big one, Captain Karol, but this should be no problem for you." Yuri cheered, drawing his own weapon and casting the scabbard aside, much like he did before.

'…CAPTAIN Karol? He's the one leading these idiots?? …Does that mean they both believe his ridiculous stories?'

Estelle looked to Yuri, somewhat distressed. "Do we really have to kill all of the monsters we come across? It feels like it's almost wrong." She complained.

"Kill or be killed, Estelle. Come on Karol!" Yuri shouted, charging towards the enormous tree beast staring him down.

'Guess he's more like a noble then, hiding behind the knights. A little irony in that, huh capta- oh.'

Karol had picked up a broken sword, now a hammer of sorts, and followed in behind Yuri despite his ghost white expression. Estellise hung behind, chanting quietly to herself.

'So she's a spellcaster. But she doesn't have a spell book?'

I took out my own spell book as the thought occurred to me, opening to a page I'd earmarked for situations like this one, and began to chant a spell of my own.

"Oh flickering blaze, burn…fireb-uh!"

Yuri and Karol stood proudly over the corpse of the defeated beast, Yuri twirling his sword happily and Karol expressing his joy over the fact he was still in one piece.

"Thanks Cap! Couldn't have done it without ya." Yuri cheered, hopping down from the deceased body with a broad smile on his face.

"Y..yeah. S-s-sure…" Karol shivered, shaking his head at Yuri, unable to understand the way Yuri could just flip his kill switch on and off so easily.

"Oh! Well, that's nice!" Estellise beamed, probably happy she didn't have to draw blood.

I tucked my own book away quietly.

'More than a few perks to traveling around with these goons.'

"Come here, Yuri." Estelle ordered, though gently, walking towards him.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, really." Yuri groaned, rolling up his sleeves and exposing his arms.

Truth be told, there wasn't a scratch on Yuri or Karol, but Estellise still wasn't satisfied. A flash of light began to emanate from her gloved hands, and with a hiss, it disappeared.

"Thanks…" Yuri muttered sheepishly, flexing his muscles weakly. "Oh, but I think Karol took a bit of a beating back there! Check him all over, he got knocked around pretty good." Yuri exclaimed in an extraordinarily cheerful tone. His eyes lit up in an interesting way when he got excited like that.

'Huh. Wonder what he's up to.'

"Anyway we're probably good to go now, eh Mordio?" he said to me.

"I don't see why not. We're nearly there." I responded, pretending to be more interested in my spell book.

"S-aaaahhaha! Stop that! I'm ticklish!" Karol half giggled and half griped.

"Take off your shirt! That monster probably bruised you all over!" Estellise demanded in a manner not unlike that of a concerned nanny.

"Alright then, let's go." Yuri decided, and then started to walk, myself behind him, Estelle and Karol soon catching up. A few minutes passed...and then we were there.

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Author: Bet you guys were expecting a chapter on Shaikos, huh?