Buried Past IV

Kies gave up his search after seeing how futile it was. The girl probably was probably home by now and it was pointless to continue running around the streets looking for her when she may not even be out here anymore. And even if she still was, the weather made finding her impossible. He could barely even see ahead of him. He will have to find her another day.

Kies disappointedly went back into the alleys and navigated his way back to the slums. As he got there, he found two demons who were just about to leave to search for him.

"Where were you?" Ammine demanded as she pulled him inside one of the houses and out of the rain.

"Yep, we were just about to go out and look for you. And in this weather nevertheless," Falte chimed in. "Actually, now that I mentioned it, the weather is pretty bad. That's probably why it took you so long to come back," he said, thinking about it. It was raining very heavily and it made sense for him to be so late when the weather was like this. It would've been more surprising if he somehow made it back early when taking into account how he had to escape that dragon and come back here while it was pouring.

"Yeah, I had trouble finding my way back," Kies told them, using what Falte said as his excuse. It wasn't completely wrong though. Not only was it night time, but it was also raining, making everything darker than it already was. Kies had a hard time seeing and got lost for a bit since he couldn't figure out where he was supposed to go. The surface was just as dark if not darker than the sewers they were in earlier.

It was a miracle that Kies figured out how to get back here. He didn't know how he even managed to do it in the first place. He had to rely on his instincts to guide his way back to here. "Anyway, what happened to you two? I thought the fireball killed you both," Kies asked. He tried finding them after he escaped from that man but they were nowhere to be found. What exactly happened after they were hit by the fireball?

"Well you see, the explosion sent us flying back down the tunnel where we came from," Falte explained. He made a sour face and said, "I injured my legs and Ammine had to help me. And before you ask about it, the reason why we didn't come back to you to help you is that we couldn't. That man was a dragon in disguise."

"A dragon? That person was a dragon?" As in the material that his pouch was made out of? If so, this was Kies' first time seeing one in person, and it also explained why he was so powerful. Dragons were mythical creatures capable of leveling entire empires and have done so many times in the past when the world took a wrong turn and headed for the worse. Kies didn't know why he knew that and where he got that information from but it was just sitting in the back of his brain.

"Yes, you heard me right. We ran into a darn dragon and he swept the floor with us. We're extremely fortunate to not have been killed by his initial attack... and also very lucky that he decided to spare us," Falte added after a small pause.

"Speaking of which, how did you get away from him?" Ammine asked, recalling how the dragon mentioned that he somehow managed to escape him. The dragon also didn't sound very happy when he told them so Kies probably did something to piss him off too.

"I... hid in a corner?" Kies embarrassingly told the two. It really wasn't anything special. He hid and waited for the man to walk by him and leave before going back into the tunnel where the camp had been.

"You hid in a corner?" Falte repeated. It didn't sound like he was believing what he was hearing. "You dodged him by hiding in a corner!? How!?" The dragon tracked them down with ease every time they tried to flee and yet all Kies did was hide in a corner and he managed to get away like that? It didn't make any sense!

"I don't know. He just walked past me. I guess it was too dark for him to find me."

"I'd be surprised if anyone could see clearly down there. But anyway, what I'm trying to ask is how he didn't sense you." Falte explained to Kies how the dragon found the both of them multiple times as they tried to get out of the sewers. Because of that, they were sure that the dragon was tracking them by their magic power or something. Since Kies also had magic power and it definitely wasn't insignificant, how did the dragon not find him when he was so close to him.

Kies told them that he didn't know. The two demons were astonished but didn't ask about it any further. Instead, Falte asked if he had gotten any information about the king. "Don't get me wrong. I'm not expecting you to have some information since we spent most of the day trying to get away from that dragon, but did you get something anyway?"

"I did," Kies answered.

"You did!? How? Actually, forget how, just tell me what you learned."

"I stumbled into thieves' territory when I got out of the sewers," Kies told Falte where and whom he got that information from anyway in case he would ask about it again after. "And they told me that the king is young and is also a natural-born leader," he finished. This actually came from the soldier but it didn't really make a difference. Information was information regardless of where it came from. Though maybe it would have to depend on who said it since certain people were more reliable than others.

"That's... not much," Falte said. Admittedly, it was still something, but knowing this wasn't going to help them that much. "Well, I didn't expect much anyway, but, good job finding something anyway," he complimented Kies. Unlike the two of them, Kies actually got something. "With this, we know that the new king is a threat for sure. He knows what he is doing. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a report to make."

Falte left the house and ran into the other one where Messa, Jasyeu, and their supplies were in to make a report back to Tornon regarding their findings. They needed to tell them that the new king was dangerous, and also that there is a dragon lurking in Silverfield as well.

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