Roaming Aloof

"What! You don't have any clue about her whereabouts? Why did you brag about her then?" Aeneas was getting scolded by Vivian after he said that he had no idea of Nuae's whereabouts. "Look, honestly I only heard about her being here and besides, they say there are many pretty girls… argh... strange people around here." Hearing this she looked at him while narrowing her eyes. "What do you mean by strange?" Catherine who nearly stayed quiet all this time asked him in a serious tone. Her standing with her sharp look nearly looked dominating to Aeneas. "Umm, Theodore? Save me brother! They'll skin me alive. Help me and I'll share my berries…" Before he could complete his sentence both girls gave him a beating. "Damn, that felt good," Vivian said while dusting off her hands. "Finally his babbling stopped," Catherine commented as she tied him up with a rope along with sylph. "I was wrong, Instead of that one crazy dragon, I walked into these fierce beasts. Hey kid! You there…!" He cried out to Theodore who was sitting in the corner of the room while reading off the local map. "This doesn't make any sense." He complained while reading. "Yeah! Totally! Beating up and tying me for no reason does make no sense!" Aeneas replied with a pout. "No. Not that! What written here doesn't make any sense?" Hearing his words Aeneas turned white. "I am betrayed…." He sobbed in a low tone. "See, it says Noore's tavern on the map, but there's no mentioning of such place in the map we got from guild house," Theodore explained it to all. "All legal services are to go through guilds approval only those who would not want to be on anyone's radar would do such a thing." What Catherine said was right, only the services that involved illegal activities or fugitives would not go through guilds registration, ending up blank on Guild Map as well. But the guide map they brought was from another city and sure enough, it showed a place of such nature. "Wait that means…." Before Theodore could continue both girls shouted, "This must be it!" "Now that you've found a place, to begin with, let me go! Let me! Let me! Damn it, just let me free!" Aeneas was frantically crying out. "On one condition." It was as if he was being dominated by these two girls with a cold snare. "Keep your eyes off any girls or forget your berries," Cate said so as Sylph held his beloved bag of berries. "Anything but that! You are taking my life from one hand and asking me to live as well…. Look out! Look out! It's almost eating it….! Damn it… Okay fine, I'll stay low-key… Let the bag and me go." Aeneas was sweating heavily as Sylph almost took out a bunch of berries. They untied him, the moment he got free he jumped on the bag and literally hissed as he grabbed it from Sylph. Theodore was looking at this scene from the corner wondering 'He's an Ace right! Damn it! girls are scary.' "My Bag! My bag" As Aeneas kept bragging about his bag Theodore along with others walked out of the room. "Wait!" He then followed them afterward.

Finding this place was no joke as well. They couldn't ask anyone, as it was supposedly an illegal tavern and they didn't want to grab anyone's attention in such an unknown place as well. They were keeping a low profile by changing their outfits as per Theodore's suggestion, again to stay away from any suspicion. "Without a map, how are we going to look for this place? "Aeneas's complaint wasn't a fluke. It was really hard. They had been wandering for an hour now. "Let's get to back allies in this town, we might come across some thugs who would lead us to such places," Vivian suggested. "Not a bad idea, but what is the guarantee that they'll lead us to the tavern and not someplace aloof to loot us." Catherin's question was also serious. Who knew what kind of thugs they would come across, what if they noticed them and tried to loot them? "For starters, let's spread out. If we keep walking in the flock, we'll never find anything. You both girls go to the upper back allies while we stroll in the lower region. Most of the time the most dangerous regions are in such shady places so be careful." Theodore suggested the plan and directions based on the elevation. His suggestion wasn't that bad. "Okay, we'll head up north, you better be careful. If something happens Sylph will come let you know. And if you need anything let us know some-way too okay." Catherine suggested to which everyone nodded in agreement. After that, the girls went up in the northern direction as both Aeneas and Theodore went south. "So shall we go…" Theodore was about to say something when he saw Aeneas already at a corner of a building indicating him to follow him quietly. He immediately understood that he had found some clue. He went up close to him and asked, "Did you find something?" To his question, Aeneas replied with a smile, "Jackpot… Shh, don't move until I say so okay." To his reply, Theodore stayed where he was as Aeneas sneaked to the next corner while peeking. After a while he indicated Theodore to get to him, seeing that he also moved to his position in stealth. They started moving through the corners of the buildings as such. Theodore had no clue what he was chasing but Aeneas seemed confident and thus he kept following. After a while, they stopped at a certain corner. Theodore couldn't hold on any longer and hence he asked, "What are we tailing? Did you find the location by any chance? Is it next to this building?" To his question, Aeneas looked at him with a smile and said," Let's move in from another side of the building, the front entrance is heavily guarded." Now Theodore finally believed that they had arrived at the location. "Should we not inform them as well?" To his question, he put his palm on his mouth and said, "Shh! Not now, let's investigate a bit first before putting them in danger." Saying this they walked towards the side of the building from a block away. Finally, they arrived at the rear of the building. "What the hell are they doing? Wanna die?" Eleanor said to herself as she kept her distance from them. It was a tall building and had windows way up, and had a chimney at the top. Theodore couldn't understand the purpose of it but as Aeneas began to climb up, he had no choice.

After a hard climbing of a minute or so, they finally arrived at one of the windows and they broke in through there. As they entered Theodore was puzzled. "Hey! Aren't taverns some dirty places? How come this place so clean? And why does it smell so nice?" To his question, Aeneas looked at him again with a wide smile and replied in a low tone, "Because it's not a tavern." Hearing this Theodore was baffled, "What? Then what is this place?" He shouted back. "Hush! You wanna kill us both? Look around man! It's a bathhouse." Saying so he started walking towards the in-house gallery where they had landed. Theodore was standing there with a dead expression. It took him a while to process the information. That lag certainly cost him as a girl walked in through the door. Just as they saw each other, they screamed out loud. All the place went into chaos just a moment later. "Damn kid, could you have not settled for a moment?" Aeneas complained while running. "You bastard! Why the hell did you lead us in such a place then? They're gonna kill me because of you." Theodore replied as he was being chased by a hoard of women. After running for a while, they reached the door and suddenly Aeneas slipped on the soap and fell down. "Kid! Save me!" He asked for help as he fell down before the flock of angry girls. Looking at him Theodore replied in rush, "Pray for yourself, idiot! I'm off." He answered him looking back, just as he turned to look forward he bumped into a girl who was wearing a long hood over a royal gown. As they bumped in they both fell down on the ground. Aeneas war taking a beating back in the door and his cries could be heard. As Theodore opened his eyes and touched his forehead out of the pain he realized he fell on the girl. "I am sorry! Are you hurt anywhere?" He suddenly got a step back and asked her with concern. She didn't utter a word but stepped back a while as well with a red face. Just as he stretched his arms to help her get up, he saw an emblem on her dress. It was of Etherblade. "No way!" His expressions changed. "Are you The Theodore of Arboria?" she asked hesitantly. "Wait! How do you?" Before he could say something else he saw Sylph coming towards him. "What happened? He asked her as she looked a bit beaten as well. "We… Attack… Cate, Vivi…. Held… Big building… Hurry" Her speech hadn't improved much and she was panting, but these keywords did help him understand the situation. It was an urgent matter. He looked to Aeneas for help but turned away the moment he saw the girl he bumped into earlier searching for someone. "I can help!" The girl standing next to him replied. "Damn, got no other way I guess!" He replied as they started heading to the scene with sylph. "Should have kept an eye on girls than this useless Ace." Eleanor also fled while complaining to herself.