Chapter 63: Cyrus's First Mission (Part 2)
Disclaimer:
A bit of a long one here from what I was initially planning. I was thinking that these Cyrus chapters would only be a two-parter but now I realise it will be a three-parter. I'm happy with that and it only means that I can flesh out these characters even more from what I had previously envisioned. I just wanted to let you guys know. With that said, I hope you enjoy!
As the evening sun dawned on the land, Talon Village became a busy hub of night life ready to brew. The locals were enjoying, socialising, and doing whatever the night ahead had in store for them. The shadows casted by the sun hitting each building allowed for the Magic Knights to move at ease.
Moving across the left of the village were the duo of Cyrus Sharandale and Aiden Sitrol. Both of them were wearing long, grey cloaks that covered them from head to toe whilst leaving enough room for their faces.
The two of them were walking together and trying not to bring attention to themselves. They walked from one shadow to another but were also moving out in the open and past the citizens of the village.
"This cloak… is it really necessary to wear it? Couldn't we have just taken our squad robes off and walked around in our clothes?" Cyrus asked, pulling on the new clothing item.
"We could do but our clothes would give us away almost instantly. You're a noble so your clothes wouldn't really fit in with the townspeople in this particular area, considering they're commoners", Aiden explained.
Cyrus and Aiden continued on their mission. The first thing to do was listen in on different conversations that were happening around the town and this involved going up to people to initiate them sometimes.
"Man, that was a tough day… I think I'll have a drink at the tavern",
"Ah, good idea! I'll catch up with you after I head home",
"Maybe I'll head to bed early…".
Plenty of people were talking but none of them were interesting or of use to the Magic Knights. Cyrus and Aiden walked up the town until they moved just past the eagle statue and stopped near a market stall.
"We aren't really getting anywhere, Aiden. Though, I guess we have only just started…", Cyrus sighed.
Aiden took a defeated pose as well for a few seconds before gaining a sudden boost of enthusiasm. "It's annoying that the mission has to be played out like this but… I'm willing to go the extra mile, especially because of our squad's situation". The Flame mage smiled but Cyrus saw that it wasn't as genuine as it could be.
Prompting the Alchemy mage, Cyrus responded. "Does it have something to do with… well, you know what happened", he fiddled with his fingers as he waited for an answer. Cyrus was clearly alluding to the former Captain of the Purple Orcas, Gueldre Poizot and his betrayal.
Aiden opened his mouth to reply when, suddenly, the both of them heard a loud shout from the side.
"Come get ya apples, everyone! There's a discount for almost 30… uh, no scratch that… 10%!" The man at the stall began to shout. "We have fresh fruit juice as well made out of handpicked grapes! But… if that doesn't suit ya tastebuds for now, I'll even sell ya some vegetables to help with dinner!"
His loud shouts were being practically ignored by everyone who walked past, not giving him the time of day, or rather 'evening'. Aiden raised his eyebrows as he saw the defeated look on the man's face and whispered to Cyrus. "Follow my lead".
The two walked over, the Flame mage on the left with the Alchemy mage on the right. "Hello there, Sir. We're travelling merchants and wanted to know the price of these fruits you're selling", Aiden said with a rather extravagant-sounding voice which was so different to his usual calm and collected self.
"U-Uh, that's right! We're quite hungry after a long day and you're the first person we saw with a stall like this". Cyrus added onto Aiden's plan of action.
The man was busy rummaging around beneath his stall so he wasn't able to see the two mages. However, he still replied and the sound of voice showed how grateful he was that someone came to him. "Ya know… you guys are the first people who came over today. I'm mighty happy!"
"Business isn't going too well?" Aiden asked, keeping the conversation going.
"No, it's been bad for people like us since we got those new residents. I know it's not something ya can help with but they've been poking around and causing trouble for us. Sometimes they steal our stock which sure is disheartening, I tell ya…!" The man paused before finishing his sentence. He finally got what he was looking for and popped his head out from down under, finally getting a good look at Cyrus and Aiden. Or at least, as well as he could.
Due to the duo's cloaks that also covered their faces, the man at the stall was already getting wary. Considering he just spoke about his troubles with some new faces, this only added to them. He squinted his eyes to properly look at the two cloaked mages. "I know I just spoke about some shady people but this sure is a wild coincidence! Why do ya have them hoods up? Put them down so I can talk to ya properly", he said with a questioning look.
The two stealthy mages exchanged looks for a second before nodding in agreement. They took their hoods off so their faces were completely exposed. As this happened, the shopkeeper smiled and reached across his stall.
He had a small face and his height wasn't all that tall either, considering he was a fully grown man. His hair was a fuzzy, light-brown colour and he had a beard with a scar going down his left cheek, making some of his facial hair patchy as hair wouldn't grow around the injury. He had soft, purple eyes that looked to have seen their fair share of hardships.
"Thank you. We've had a few shady people come in and out of this village so a lot of people's guards are up. Since ya listened and kept me at ease, here's something on the house". He handed them a brown bag with some fruit. "Oh, the name's Marvin, by the way", he smiled.
"Oh, we can't accept this without paying! Here…", Aiden stopped and rustled around in his pockets.
"My friend here is right, Sir. Here you go", Cyrus added. He was the first one out of the two to offer the man some money to which he looked in awe.
"You guys really are nice, aren't ya?" He said as he humbly accepted the coins. Then, he sighed as he dropped his shoulders. "I came here from Hage thinking I had a chance to do what I do best, ya know? All I knew to do since I was a kid was talk and keep people interested so I wanted to try my hand here with some work. The first few months were good but then those people started causing real trouble…".
"I'm sure things will be alright soon, Sir. Don't worry about it", Cyrus said as he gave a little thumbs up.
Marvin looked with a little bit of awe. "Wow, for the first time in ages I've been told to have hope and it was from a little kid as well, haha!" He started laughing before waving the two away.
Cyrus was about to say something again but Aiden interjected quickly by standing in front of the Aqua Deer so that he couldn't get his words out.
"Thank you, good Sir. We'll be off for now", Aiden bowed before turning and leaving.
Cyrus also bowed and the two went ahead towards one of the taverns in the village.
"Aiden, why did we leave all of a sudden? It seemed like he was starting to open up and get comfortable around us", Cyrus asked, looking perplexed.
"It's true we could have asked more with that man there but it was best to move. Tell me, if we stay in one place for too long and ask a lot of questions, what would he start thinking?" Aiden asked, turning his head to Cyrus as the both of them walked.
The Aqua Deer mage scratched his chin as he thought. "Hm, I guess he'd start to feel like we're interrogating him".
"Correct. Besides, we already got some good information out of him", Aiden replied as he smiled.
"The fact that there has been, in fact, some shady people around?" Cyrus pointed out.
"And the fact that this has been happening for a month or two. Also, if one person is wary about something this then it's a good chance that others around the village have also noticed it", the Flame mage added on.
Cyrus slammed the bottom of his right fist onto the palm of his left hand as he understood. "I see. So that means we can ask other people about it which will help us!"
Slowly, this duo made their way to the local tavern that was just ahead. They walked over to the stone steps that lead up to the door and read the name 'Dreavy Hinker' on a sign that was hanging just above it.
"The same pub as the town near Nean?" Cyrus noticed. "I've never been but I heard some people talk about it back when I first joined the Aqua Deer".
"It's quite a popular pub chain throughout the kingdom. There's a lot of them in the Common Realm and some have even begun to pop up in places like the Noble Realm", Aiden answered.
The tavern was quite busy at this time in the evening. As the two entered the building, the first thing they saw were the amount of waitresses holding what seemed to be 10 jars of beer at the same time, delivering them to different tables.
"Welcome to the Dreavy Hinker! Would you two like a table?" One waitress said with a large smile. She wore a puffy, pastel coloured dress with a white maid's apron over it. On her head, there was some kind of white mobcap that helped keep her hair in place.
"Yes, please", Aiden said with confidence.
This was important since Cyrus was displaying none of that at this very moment in time. One look at how the maid was dressed sent him into a slight panic.
"W-W-What is going on, Aiden? I've heard of pubs but what is this dress c-code?!" He said as he started to get red-faced.
Aiden turned his head back to see the Alchemical Wizard in this state. "Haha, calm down! A noble like you should be fine. Say, how about we sit down at a table and take it easy for a few minutes?"
During the time that Cyrus and Aiden were first going around the left-hand side of the village, the other duo were doing the exact same on the other side. They weren't coming up short either when it came to information gathering but they had a problem. Fragil's and Daimon's personalities did not work well together at all.
"Now scram, brat!"
Daimon had just shouted at a little girl and she went running as fast as she could. The Explosion mage didn't see anything wrong with what he did so he carried on walking, but Fragil was very angry.
"You can't just threaten a child for information, Daimon! What the hell is wrong with you?" She raised her voice as loud as she could in the circumstances the two were in, which wasn't actually all that loud regardless.
"Don't get so emotional, woman. Because of me, we found out that some of these rogues are staying in one of the buildings, just north of here", Daimon replied as he leaned his head back to rest on the palms of his raised hands.
On the right side of the village, the continuous clashing heads of Fragil and Daimon walked along.
"This… this idiot!" Fragil internally screamed. The dark-blue-haired mage wasn't acting as her normal and calm, yet shy, self because of this annoying person that she just so happened to be paired up with. "Daimon. What if that kid tells someone that there was someone who threatened her?" Fragil asked, calming down a bit to see if the Explosion mage would react to her like this.
To her surprise, he stopped walking ahead and turned around. "Don't worry. I scared her enough to make sure she doesn't".
Fragil, upon hearing her temporary partner say that, paused and addressed him one more time. "Threatening anyone, let alone a little kid, makes me sure that you're no Magic Knight", she said with a stern look.
Daimon gasped as he wasn't expecting to hear anything like that. It was true his methods were not synonymous with what a good Magic Knight would do, but to him it felt like he needed to do it to get the job done.
"You… take that back, please…", Daimon said as his voice broke and softened. It looked like the Aqua Deer had hit a soft spot for him.
All of a sudden, as the gap between Fragil and Daimon grew bigger, a lone voice sounded out from the side. The two Magic Knights stopped their argument and looked over, seeing a tall man leaning against the side of a cobblestone building.
"You two… what on earth are you arguing about?" The man asked, smoking a cigarette. His left leg was on the floor whilst his right one used the wall behind him as support.
"Shit, we might have been too loud considering we're trying to be stealthy here", Daimon cursed to himself. The Explosion mage looked over to Fragil and it seemed like she was going to ignore the man but seeing as the person in question looked a bit shady, Daimon acted differently.
"Hey, sorry about that", Daimon apologised. He waved his right hand to signal that he was sorry but he didn't stop talking there. "We were wondering where to go and, since we got lost, we were getting angry at each other".
The Aqua Deer's light-blue eyes widened with what Daimon was trying to do here.
"You can't…! That man already thinks we're quite suspicious considering we were arguing and with how we're dressed", Fragil internally pleaded. She kept moving her eyes around and made small gestures with her hands to move away from the man but the Purple Orca ignored them.
The man blew out the last of his cigarette smoke and threw it on the ground, stamping on it. After this, he rustled around his face for a second or two before walking over to the two with his hands in his light-brown trousers. His black boots hit the ground as he walked and the two Magic Knights wondered where this was going to go.
"An argument, ay?" The man asked with a rather gruff-sounding voice. "Where is it that you two wanna go anyway?"
Before Fragil or Daimon could answer, the man walking towards them paused as he got a good look at who he was talking to. The setting sun's light illuminated the faces of the two mages and then the man's orange-coloured eyes widened for a few seconds before calming down again.
Something similar happened with the Magic Knight duo, too. As the man got closer, they noticed that a significant thing about him was that he was wearing some sort of mask around the lower half of his face.
"He's trying to hide his face…", Fragil noticed as she tensed up a bit.
"Perhaps, he's…", Daimon noted. However, to prevent the man from waiting too long for an answer, Daimon responded. "We were… looking for a place to stay for the night. We came from quite far away and wanted to rest up to leave tomorrow".
Fragil sighed. "That's, like, the oldest excuse in the book".
However, much to Fragil's surprise, the man accepted the excuse and waved the two over.
"Oh, if that's what you're looking for then don't worry. I run a little guesthouse near the centre of the village". He started walking away from the two but ushered them to follow.
Not having any real reason to not listen, Fragil and Daimon followed the stranger all the way to a small building. It had dark-brown stone as the walls and there was only a few windows around. The roof was triangular but you could tell that it had barely stood the test of time as a lot of the stone and bricks had large cracks in them. The sign at the front read: "The Sleeping Beauty".
Fragil wore a deadpan expression as she read the name of the guesthouse. "How cringey".
The man went ahead and entered the building but before Fragil and Daimon could do the same, the latter grabbed Fragil by her arm to pull her back.
"H-Hey…!" Fragil began to shout but as she looked at Daimon's serious face, she realised there was some sort of viable reason as to why he stopped her.
With a whisper, he leaned in to the Aqua Deer. "This is most likely a trap. You got the same feeling as I did, right?"
"Of course, I did. So, what are you thinking?" Fragil asked. "If you ask me, we should go along with whatever is inside and then make our move".
Daimon paused for a bit before replying. "Hm, that's actually a smart idea. You know, considering how careful you try to be".
Fragil felt uncomfortable with how Daimon was trying to assess her personality like this. So, instead of continuing the conversation, she entered the building with Daimon following in behind.
Upon entering the ground floor of the building, the Magic Knights could tell this wasn't some honest guesthouse with what they saw. The floorboards were beginning to crumble with how old the wood had gotten and some parts of it even had holes in them where you could see the basement from. However, most of the floor was covered with a large, green rug that hid most of the damage. The walls had plenty of cracks in too but the full extent of them weren't visible since there were a few paintings and pictures covering large amount of it.
Fragil and Daimon followed the shady man towards a brown desk in the corner of the room where the stranger sat behind.
"I'm the owner of this building and currently have one room available", he explained. "Right now, all the other guests are out in the village so you can have an easy time settling in".
"Sure, we'll take it", Daimon agreed quickly as he handed the man the money for both him and Fragil. The Aqua Deer definitely wasn't as agreeable to the situation and it showed on her unsettled expression.
"Here are your keys. I'm just going to pop out for a few minutes so why don't you get up to your rooms?" The man said. He walked around the two before heading out of the building, shutting the door behind him.
A few seconds of silence passed and it was finally broken by Fragil. She turned her head to speak to Daimon and the first thing the Explosion mage saw was how much she was sweating.
"Tell me… h-how on earth did we end up in a situation where we have to sleep in the s-s-same room?!" She shouted. This time the volume of her voice was as loud as possible since no one could really hear her from the outside.
"Relax, Princess. I'm not so chuffed about it either. Besides, we're not here to sleep", Daimon explained.
Fragil twiddled her thumbs for a while but the red expression on her face slowly went away as the seconds went past. "Th-That's right! That guy – the receptionist – he was definitely not who he said he was".
"Exactly. Remember the kid I asked-",
"-threatened", Fragil butted in.
"… Yes, well, whatever. She told us that those rogues could be staying in a building that was north of where we were. The only building I can think of right now is this one so it tells me we're right where we need to be", Daimon explained.
"And since we're the only ones here…", Fragil began.
"… That means…", Daimon carried on.
"We search for anything we can!" The both of them said in unison and with two smiled. Slowly, as the silent atmosphere grew after they said that they realised just how agreeable they were with each other which made both Magic Knights face away from each other.
"Hm, anyway…", Fragil said after their little embarrassing moment. "Let's look around this floor first before moving".
"Good idea", Daimon replied.
Fragil went behind the desk and started opening the drawers and looking anywhere she could to find any useful information. Daimon kept watch by the door just in case anyone entered and to warn his partner. A few seconds later, and Fragil had found nothing of use.
"There are just papers that show that this is, in fact, being used as a guesthouse", Fragil sighed as she wiped the sweat from her forehead. She put the yellow-stained, ripped, and bent out of shape papers back in the drawer before closing it.
Daimon took another look out of the glass window in the middle of the wooden door before turning back to the lady in the snow hat.
"Here, let me try to look. If we don't find anything then we'll move", he said before walking to the desk. However, as he made a few steps in the direction he was headed, he heard a sound coming from beneath his feet.
Looking down and making a few more steps, he saw that the floorboards were creaking even more than they were before. "Hm, the floor is kind of weak here", Daimon said with an inquiring look.
"Well, yeah, there is a basement downstairs from what we can see. Also, considering the state this place is in, it makes sense… H-hang on…", Fragil stopped as she pointed her finger down to the floor where Daimon was currently standing.
The green rug was under the Explosion mage's feet and Fragil continued on her point. "Didn't that receptionist go around the entire rug when he left just a few minutes ago?"
Daimon's dark-blue eyes relaxed as he looked down before widening just a second later. Without hesitation, he moved the rug away, slamming it on the wall behind him and it revealed a trapdoor.
"The entrance to the basement. I'll bet you anything there's something down there". The Purple Orca bent his knees and opened the wooden hatch to see that there was a ladder leading down a floor. "C'mon".
Though, when Daimon started to move, Fragil hesitated a bit. "Hold up. What if this is a big misunderstanding?"
"What on earth are you on about?" Daimon snapped back all of a sudden. It seemed like he had started to warm up to the Aqua Deer with how he was cooperating and being calmer than what he was before with her, but now it seemed like that wasn't true.
"Look. This place might just seem a bit shady but it could just be because it's in the Common Realm. I know that's a bit presumptuous of me but it does make sense", Fragil answered.
Daimon stood up from his previous kneeling position. "Why are you getting cold feet? We need to find this information out whatever it takes".
"Whatever it takes?" Fragil repeated, confused. "I guess I understand but it seems a little unerhande-", she tried to explain but a sudden shout stopped her from finishing her sentence.
"I NEED to do this!" Daimon barked back. His anger was back again from the first time he met with the two Aqua Deers and it looked like this ran deeper than the simple matter of not liking the other party.
Fragil knew she wasn't going to get anywhere with this argument so she held her tongue. "Fine, you win. But… you're going to tell me sooner or later why this mission has you so riled up to the point where you, in your words, NEED to do this".
The dark-blue haired woman was the first to go down the trapdoor, albeit with some hesitation. Daimon followed after and closed the trapdoor above.
"If we go through with this… I'll tell you why this is so important for me", the Explosion mage said to himself.
Just below the run-down guesthouse sat a basement that looked completely different yet the exact same as the floor above. The overall feel of the place was that it was old, broken, and hadn't been tended to in a few years, however the amount of things and areas of interest to the pair of Magic Knights made it much more worthwhile.
"Wow. There was nothing upstairs but here… there's barrels upon barrels full of so much stuff", Fragil noted. She turned her head to the right and saw a stack of papers that looked relatively new considering they hadn't been stained yellow over time like the ones by the receptionist desk had been.
"I think we can finally find something of use", Daimon said as he finished climbing down the rusty ladder.
The Aqua Deer and the Purple Orca got started on the second part of their search. Whilst the ground floor lead to no results, there was a feeling that the basement would unearth some important information. However, this whole sequence of events was only based on a scared confession from a little girl that Daimon had threatened, as well as on a whim where they thought the owner of the building was shady.
Fragil scoured the endless amount of papers, whilst Daimon looked through the towering amount of barrels. Though, in no time at all, they had found exactly what they sought out to find.
"Evidence!" Daimon shouted, raising his voice once again.
"Calm down!" Fragil shushed the mage. She turned around with a handful of papers and smiled a bit. "I've found plans and maps of what the rogues have been planning".
"I've found magic items, masks, and weapons…", Daimon sighed. "This really isn't good". He lowered his gaze and his dark-blue eyes started to shake as he had just seen or realised that something terrible.
Fragil scrunched her face with a slight bit of confusion as she noticed this. She leaned back on the stack of barrels beside her, crossed her arms and spoke to Daimon whose mood had become a point of concern for her.
"Daimon, tell me what's going on. You're so eager on finding evidence and then when we get it you seem upset. You've been erratic since the start but then at times you calm down… What am I missing here?" The 20-year-old asked.
Daimon took a deep sigh and raised his head. He sat on the floor and crossed his legs, asking Fragil to join him.
"I guess I can explain my way of seeing things, Fragil", he said with a soft voice.
"He just called me by name for the first time!" Fragil raised her eyebrows in surprise. Getting even more interested now, she sat down next to him, waiting for him to continue.
However, just before Daimon could explain, a similar conversation was going on between Cyrus and Aiden back in the Dreavy Hinker. Though, leading up to that exact point, they had other things to discuss briefly.
Cyrus and Aiden had sat down around a round, wooden table with two drinks in front of them. The Alchemy mage had a fizzy, blue fruit drink due to his age, whereas Aiden had a simple water for himself.
The tavern was bubbling with life well into the evening. A lot of the older folk were quite drunk and dancing around, whereas some of the younger ones were having fun socialising amongst each other.
"Aiden, should we really be taking it easy? We still have a mission to do", Cyrus asked. He shook his drink around before gulping down some of it.
"We are. Remember how just walking around outside got us useful information? We can do the same here just by listening in to people and what they're saying", Aiden explained as he finished his water.
The two leaned back in their chairs and waited a few minutes. They were busy people-watching and listening into their conversations. The two heard the continued whispers of some bad people moving in and out of the village which backed up the story that Marvin had told them. Other than that, there wasn't much else to go by. Suddenly, Aiden started talking to Cyrus again but it was about something unrelated to the matter at hand.
"So… Cyrus, I never would've thought you'd go back to the Aqua Deer", the Flame mage said.
"I thought it was time. You know, after I helped Lucas with his injuries, I felt like I could do much more with my magic. It's good for research which I love to do, but I also want to be helping on the field". Cyrus put his satchel on the table and pointed at it. "All my experiences… I write down in my notebooks. So, being an active part of a squad would help me a lot more than being on my own".
Aiden nodded and smiled at that answer. "It's good that you came back".
"But how did you know I was part of the Aqua Deer? I don't think I've ever told you", Cyrus questioned.
"Remember the zombie attack on the Capital? I was helping out your house from the raging fire and in the rubble of everything outside, I saw a squad robe belonging to the Aqua Deer", Aiden explained. As he thought back to this event, a look of quick anger came across his face for a second before subsiding.
"So that's where my old robe went", Cyrus sighed. "Oh, by the way, how did your squad even get the order for this mission? I know you don't have a captain anymore due to everything that happened", he changed the topic swiftly.
"Ah, I can explain that", Aiden answered.
This is where the two pairs of conversations converged and both of the Purple Orcas gave their perspective of the events leading up to taking this mission.
FLASHBACK – BEFORE THE MISSION (AIDEN & DAIMON):
The darkened hallways of the Purple Orca base was telling of the situation that the squad were in. No light entered through the cracked, dusty windows of the building and no signs of life were around due to the betrayal of Gueldre Poizot, the former Captain of the Purple Orcas.
Even though the sun high above the Clover Kingdom was shining down, its rays failed to pierce their warmth through the thick barrier that the headquarters of the Purple Orca now had around them.
Despite this, two Magic Knights were still trying their best to deal with the fallout even though they weren't well-equipped at all.
"It's the same old thing every single day…", Daimon called out from the end of the hallway. He walked towards another figure with his hands resting behind his head.
"Tell me about it. It's a ghost town these days", Aiden replied as he waved to the approaching teammate.
The two met up and then started going towards the squad's mess hall. Both of them walked begrudgingly as deep in their minds and hearts that they weren't going to see anyone else in the room.
"Everyone has taken time off or simply left the squad because of Gueldre. The only ones remaining are us two and another but she's off on her own mission, trying the best she can", Aiden said as he walked with his hands in his pockets.
"I'm glad you removed the 'Captain' from that man's name. I despise the sight of him and… I can actually say that now without fear of getting into trouble", Daimon replied cheekily. "Even so… you'd think the Vice-Captain would return, especially at such a sensitive time like this but he's busy doing his business on the border", the Explosion mage shook his head.
"The Vice-Captain isn't any better either. You've seen the way he treats us", Aiden kicked the ground as they walked.
Eventually, the two squad mates reached the wooden door that separated them from mess hall. The door was already ajar but that was from the lack of upkeep from the rest of the squad since there were a lot of members that simply did not care anymore.
After a few minutes or so of collecting their food from the one dinner lady that remained, the two had started and finished eating. There was not much else to say and now they were wondering what they would do for the rest of the day.
Kicking his feet back and forth from the chair he was sat on, Daimon had enough. He let out a huge shout to help alleviate his tensions, anger, and also sadness.
"I can't believe this! I joined this squad because I wanted to help anyone I could. I promised to give my 100% for the captain and he promised he'd reciprocate the effort. The next thing I know is that he… he betrayed us all. Now, we have to live without a captain for the time being!"
"I can't deal with betrayal… I can't deal with having no hope… I'm a noble but I never wanted all the advantages that came with it since it wouldn't be through my own efforts. I slowly built a name for myself before I joined this squad, and also a few years after it… but now… was it all a waste?!"
The Explosion mage slammed both of his fists into the wooden, round table that he was sat at.
The silence in the room was staggering. The lack of people to see the outburst was one thing but Aiden not responding was another. The Flame mage understood his friend's feelings and didn't say anything to make him stop. He knew that Daimon was a great person at heart, well respected, and a good Magic Knight, but his emotions are what ruled him from time-to-time. Honestly, Aiden was feeling the exact same but he also found a slight silver lining to their current predicament.
"Everything that's happening… the one thing I'm slightly happy about is that bastard Richard Kira being gone as well", Aiden smiled for the first time since he entered this room.
Daimon, upon hearing that name, calmed himself down. He sat back down and crossed his right leg over to rest on his left knee. "I can't believe that guy either. He gets shown up by some nobody back at the entrance exam and then joins this squad and acted like he owned the goddamn place!"
"Royals like him think they have the high ground over everyone. I honestly can't wait for the day he's brought down a peg or two", the Flame mage slowly, and softly, slammed his right fist on the table.
"But… I guess we can't exactly say all that when our squad's reputation is down the drain", Daimon replied.
A few seconds of more silence, but this one was broken by a few laughs from the two Purple Orcas.
"I'm glad you're here though, Aiden", Daimon said with a thumbs up.
"Of course. I've got my own goals too, you know", Aiden put his own thumb up.
"Speaking of which –", Daimon said but was interrupted by a sudden white and grey glow coming from the side of his table.
All of a sudden, a Spatial Owl, carrying a letter, had flown through and dropped the paper into the middle of the table. Not even a second later, it disappeared back into the portal it had just come from.
Poker faces from both Magic Knights stretched across their faces. This was so sudden but upon realising what this meant, they jumped at the opportunity.
"No way… a mission from the Wizard King?" Daimon jumped up, all giddy from the prospect of restoring some credibility to the squad.
"And it's something big", Aiden added.
The two locked eyes as this seemed like a chance at redemption. Even though it seemed like a mountain to climb after Gueldre and his actions, they wanted to do anything they could to claw back even a crumb of respect that they once had.
FLASHBACK – END
"I see", Cyrus and Fragil responded, both from their respective areas.
Fragil leaned back and looked up at the weak ceiling above. Shaking her head, she chuckled at what she was about to say. "I said you weren't a real Magic Knight earlier… but, judging by what you just told me, you had every right to act out. I still don't like the fact you threatened that child though so when this is over –", she tried to say but Daimon had raised his right hand to finish off the sentence.
"-I'll apologise to her…", Daimon sighed.
"How about you apologise to us for breaking into our basement, you bastards?!" The pair's conversation was interrupted by a stranger's voice calling out from above the ceiling.
Both Fragil and Daimon stood up immediately and turned their heads towards the source of the voice.
"That's right! You barge into our business and stick your noses where they don't belong!" Another voice called out.
"I guess I'll stop the sop story for now…", he said quietly to himself under his breath. "There's two of them…", Daimon whispered to Fragil. He stuck out his arm in front of Fragil but the Aqua Deer wasn't having it.
"You think I can't handle a couple of rogues?" Fragil whispered back as she moved the Purple Orca's arm away.
As the two conversed, the two voices dropped down into the basement. Now, it was a two-on-two situation in such a closed space.
"You're…!" Daimon pointed as he realised who had come face-to-face with him.
"That's right", the gruff voice replied.
It was the owner of the guesthouse. The same one that had lead the two Magic Knights into the building and then left immediately afterwards. The man adjusted his black mask on the bottom-half of his face and got into a battle stance.
"You think you can handle a close-quarters fight with a guy like me?" He said with a sharp laugh and a stretch of his arms.
After this, the other person spoke up and adjusted her mask. Her green eyes shone through and were the only thing of notice since the rest of her body and face were behind the clothes she was wearing.
"I'll take on the little girl here, if you don't mind", she asked the man next to her.
"Be my guest", he responded.
Both sets of mages got ready to fight. Who would be the winner in this fight and who would be the one to carry out their goal? The fight was about to determine that answer right now.
Back at the Dreavy Hinker, Cyrus and Aiden were ready to leave since it didn't look like they were going to get any more information from the locals. People had become drunk and it wasn't the best place to be for Magic Knights who were on a mission.
As the two got up, an older man tumbled into the table that they were sat at, falling over, and laying face-first into the floor. His black cloak had came tangled around his brown boots and the entire mix-up ended up with him like this.
"Oh no, are you okay?" Cyrus reached out and helped the man up. He sat him down on the chair he had just gotten up from and also asked one of the waitresses for a glass of water for the drunk individual.
The man raised his head and it looked like he had tears in his eyes. Maybe it was from the fall or it was due to his drunken state, but the man was clearly not in a right state of mind.
"Sir, what can we do for you?" Aiden asked, kneeling down beside him. He put his right hand on the man's shoulder, trying to offer some comfort.
The man hickuped and his redish-pink, rosy cheeks came into full view to the Magic Knights. He then slowly put his head down onto the table and slammed his hand on the middle of his forehead.
"You can… try to bring my wife back to… life", he said with a huge frown to his face. His tears were now flowing and the wooden table became slightly darker around the area where his tears hit the surface.
Cyrus and Aiden couldn't exactly reply to that. There was no way they could grant a wish like that and this fact left the three in silence for a long, few seconds. Though, as the time dragged on, the man spoke again.
"I'm… kidding. I know you guys can't do that and I know I can't", he burped once more before lifting his head back up. After shaking his head and drinking the glass of water that the waitress had just put down on the table, he was able to talk a bit more coherently now.
"Sorry… about… that", he wiped his lips from the water. "My name is Evan and I'm a local here. I… shouldn't have bothered you with my story so I'll just…", he was about to stand up but Cyrus stopped him.
"Evan, Sir. Take your time with everything, and you weren't bothering us at all", he smiled. The Alchemy mage glanced over at Aiden and he nodded in agreement. Though, there was a slight bit of hesitation coming from the Flame mage.
"I know we can't exactly leave him, but… we're not getting anything from talking to this guy", Aiden thought to himself.
Evan scratched his greying hair and peered his right hand through his bushy beard that had seemed to have grown too long with how messy it was.
"Do you really want to listen to what I have to say?" Evan asked, his voice becoming less shaky and a bit more relaxed.
"Sure", Cyrus replied. "I know this isn't part of the mission but I can't exactly leave someone who clearly needs someone to talk to…".
Cyrus's mind went back to when Daisy came to his house in the Noble Realm and asked him to help Lucas and, even though he was hesitant at first, going through with it lead him to where he is now – attempting to improve himself.
"My wife… there's a lot to the story but the day before her death, we had an argument. It wasn't pretty but the content of our back and forth is something I don't even remember anymore. Anyway, she left and a day later… I found out she died", Evan said. He started to choke up but stopped himself from doing so.
"I'm so sorry. What was she like?" Cyrus asked, keeping his smile.
Aiden was looking around whilst Cyrus was busy with Evan. The Flame mage had walked up to one f the windows in the Dreavy Hinker and looked out.
"It's almost dark out. We've been here for a while and haven't really found anything too useful. All we know is the existence of some shady individuals… I wonder if Daimon and Fragil are having any better luck? There has to be some sort of leader here, too…", he thought to himself.
Back at the table, Evan was busy speaking with the Alchemical Wizard.
"She was… the best thing that ever happened to me", Evan described as sparks had seemingly came out of his eyes. "First, she was my best friend and she lived right next to me from when we were kids. Yes, we had arguments like any kids would, but we always managed to make up in the end…", he smiled. "Fast forward a few years, we were planning on having kids and… well… the day we spoke about it was good. Things were moving along well but then she had to leave. I don't remember what I said to her, but it hurt her... we argued and then the next thing you know…", he sighed.
"This is depressing", Aiden thought to himself. There was a part of this story where it tugged on his heartstrings but before he let it fully affect him, he left the tavern to stand outside it. "No. I can't think of…", he shook his head before his soft, brown eyes saw something across the town.
The Aqua Deer copied Evan's sigh as he somehow felt the same saddening emotion that the man was feeling. He raised his head and asked; "did you ever talk to the Magic Knights about it?"
However, hearing the two words 'Magic Knights' gave Evan an angered expression for a few seconds. His pink-coloured eyes lit up but only for a few seconds before he calmed down again. Ignoring what Cyrus had just suggested, he said something else.
"Look, kid. I'm beyond happy that you listened to what a stupid man like me was telling you so I want to give you some advice", Evan said to which Cyrus nodded. "I missed my chance to apologise to my wife for the final time and I'm gonna regret it for the rest of my life. If you have any regrets… tell me you'll sort them out…", he said with his head raised high.
Though, before Cyrus could even answer, Aiden walked back in and interrupted the conversation.
"Cyrus, we really have to get moving", he said. The Purple Orca was giving continuous head movements to signal that they had to move out immediately. "I think Daimon's in trouble".
"Huh? So that means Fragil is too!" Cyrus stood up, ready to leave the tavern.
Evan also got up but, instead of thanking the two Magic Knights or even leaving them be, he raised his voice at them.
"Where do you Magic Knights think you're going?" He shouted; his voice now completely stable as if he had never even been drunk. He wiped the drying tears around his angered eyes and turned around.
"What the…?" Both Cyrus and Aiden said before a burst of pink light surrounded the two as well as Evan.
In a few short seconds, both the Aqua Deer and Purple Orca members were outside and they felt the weight and feel of a thread-like item around their arms leave them. They looked around and a thin piece of pink string had retracted and went back towards…
"Evan?" Cyrus said, confused.
"What the hell is going on?" Aiden said, raising his voice.
The sun had completely set and darkness persisted all around Talon Village. The only sources of light that were available were the lights from the inside of buildings as well as a few lanterns and candles plastered about the town. Other than that, the only thing each of the three people could see were each other.
Cyrus and Aiden were standing together and opposite them, right next to the statue of the eagle, was Evan, the older man that had just been speaking with the Aqua Deer. The shadows that had been previously casted on the ground were now everywhere.
The strings had gone back to him as if he was controlling them and his pink, three-leafed grimoire floated right next to the man.
Suddenly, as if the surprises weren't going to stop, a small explosion came from the right-hand side of the village. The Magic Knights followed the scene with their eyes and saw the duo of Daimon and Fragil fall down from the sky as if they had been thrown into the air.
Daimon landed but used his Explosion Magic to create pressure against the ground to break his fall, whilst Fragil summoned some snow to land onto, leaving her unharmed.
"What the hell, Daimon?! I told you to control your explosions and you just destroy the guesthouse completely?!" Fragil shouted.
"What was I meant to do?! That guy and girl we were facing were no joke!" Daimon retorted, squaring up to the Snow mage.
"You better be happy that I at least grabbed the evidence from that basement!" She shouted again. The mage lifted her right arm and out came a large snowball from the distance, coming closer to them. Soon after, the snow disappeared and out came the barrels and papers that the two mages had found together.
"Um", Cyrus said which changed both Fragil's and Daimon's focus.
"Oh, hi", both of them said as they raised their hand.
The additions to the middle of the village didn't just end with Fragil and Daimon, though. Two more people appeared right next to Evan and it was the people that the two had been fighting just a few seconds ago. They stood right next to the guy with the pink grimoire and those two had their own spellbooks beside them, floating.
There were two people with masks facing opposite Fragil and Daimon, whilst the only one without one was opposite Cyrus and Aiden. It looked like the numbers advantage was with the Magic Knights but this didn't mean that they could be off their guard at all.
"Evan, what is going on?!" Cyrus shouted.
The grey-haired man dropped his shoulders and spoke with a calm smile. His black cloak swayed in the wind as well as the many hairs in his messy beard.
"We're the rogue Magic Knights you've been searching for. Let's see what you do now".
NOTES:
Part 2 of Cyrus's first mission is here! Part 3 will be out soon and will conclude this particular adventure. I hope you guys enjoy it.
Cyrus, as I'm writing, is slowly becoming an integral part of the plot. First, I have his connections with Daisy, then we see his personality when it comes to helping people and finding things out, and now we're building on him as a Magic Knight .
Daimon is a relatively new character so it'll take time for him, and Aiden is sort of in the same boat with his minimal appearances. I can't wait to do more with them.
What did you think of this chapter?
