Finding a base

Thinking about Nura's sudden remark, Ryu looked at the tavern sign, but despite his effort to see something strange, he just saw a regular sign just like all the others tens that they have passed.

"Are you talking about the many taverns in this town? I was thinking about this too." Ryu said when he gave up trying to notice what Nura was talking about and tried to make a random guess.

"No. I mean, this is something weird. You are right on this point, but I am talking about another thing, look at this building, the street, this tavern sign, isn't there anything that attracts your attention?" Nura asked.

Using all his concentration, Ryu looked closely at the place around him, even concentrating on the small details using his improved vision, noticing minor damage and imperfections in the houses.

"I realized what you mean. All the bricks in these buildings have tool marks and imperfect cuts, which is odd for a town that lives off mining. By no means did an experienced mason participate in the process of extracting these stones. Do you think the bandits took over the mines?" Ryu said, remembering the time he worked on the breaking rocks on the quarry.

After declaring his analysis, Ryu was deeply amazed that Nura had noticed all these details just by looking at the walls while he had to use all of his skills and experience he acquired working in the village.

"What kind of nonsense are you saying? Look at this sign here. We have been through it before, which means we're lost. In other words, we are walking in circles." Said Nura, not believing the amount of nonsense his friend could say, so he wouldn't have to admit he didn't see anything wrong.

"What? Are you sure about it? How did we get lost in a city of this size?" asked Ryu.

"I don't know, okay. I am embarrassed with it too, to get lost this way is truly ridiculous. Damm." Said Nura nervously.

"What was that? Have you taken Luise's tic of saying okay when you are angry?" Ryu asked teasingly.

"Are you going to make fun even in a situation like that, mister womanizer?" Nura retorted.

"I will stop. But what are we going to do now? It's getting late, and besides, we can't ask for direction, or people will know that we just entered the city." Ryu said.

"If we say that we got lost in this city, people will think that we are morons. We will have no other way than to find an inn around here." Nura decided.

And that was when the Earth Transitions sect's geometric pattern became a disadvantage, as the guys spent the last few months walking only on straight streets with perfectly square blocks, they lost track of how to walk in a city where the streets made lots of curves while the blocks had exotic shapes.

Thus, they roamed randomly around the place, searching for an inn to spend at least one night, and with some luck, find more about the general geography of the town. However, the more they walked, the more they became discouraged, as they didn't find any inns, even after walking for almost half an hour, and what's worse, they passed by familiar places a few times.

Eventually, the sun touched the horizon, preparing to go for its night rest, with the last spectacle of orange light crossing the clouds in the sky. While on the ground, Ryu and Nura, still lost, saw in the street three people walking side by side wearing gray clothes similar to the ones Steve and Lia wore.

To confirm their worries, on the left arm, a red armband. These three people turned a corner just a few meters away and came walking, heading straight for Ryu and Nura, and they walked side by side in the middle of the street. When this group passed, occupying half the street, the passerby had to change direction to open space while the trio continued their paths as they were the ruler of the street.

At each step coming closer, both Ryu and Nura become more anxious. In response, their heart rate increased proportionately with the shortening distance, their breathing turned heavy, and their mouths dry.

Previously, they fought two on two matches and prevailed effortlessly, completely dominating their opponents, but for that, they counted with some tricks, luck, and acting. It only took two strikes to take down each foe, but that doesn't mean you can belittle the gang, judging its members as weak.

"Relax and keep walking forward." Nura whispered. In a situation like this, turning around and running away, or even hiding, can be tempting, but this act can attract attention, so walking with confidence as if you have nothing to worry about can work much better.

When Nura and Ryu reached five steps from the three bandits, they compressed at the side of the road to let the passage free, just like all the others do. From this distance, they could hear what the gang members talk, and to help Ryu and Nura relax, they didn't seem to be too committed to their jobs.

"Why do we have to search for two people in the city? We don't even know if Steve and Lia died." The guy on the left said.

"I bet those two won a good prize and fled far out of town. They should be a hundred miles away now." The one at the right said.

"Shut up, both of you. Boss said that we need to search, and this is what we will do, or do you want to go there and explain your point of view for him?" The one in the middle said.

"No." the two guys said, almost immediately. At this point, Ryu and Nura passed by the trio and reached their backs, where they only managed to hear one more sentence, "But I still think that we are wasting time." the one at left said.

As Ryu and Nura passed by the trio safely, Nura pulled Ryu by the shoulder, turning to the street where the three came. Surprisingly, they found themselves in a dead-end, an alley going for 30 meters, and only a few buildings.

But surprisingly, one of the buildings carried a sign over a large wooden door, indicating that the place was an inn. The whole building had a lame frame, the wood on the door and the windows looked old and rotten, the roof was damaged, and the sign itself was crooked, suspended by only one nail.

"How did you knew that there was an inn here?" Ryu asked, not hiding his disgust by the state of the inn.

"I didn't. I just wanted to see where those guys came from, but this works anyway, I guess..." Nura said, also dissatisfied with the inn.

"Are we going to use this place? I mean, they were looking for us, and we're going straight to the place they just left?" asked Ryu.

"Isn't that fantastic? They would not search for us here again, at least not today." explained Nura.

"By the way, I got an idea hearing those guys. What if we enter saying that we got robed? We can tell then that Steve and Lia flew." Ryu said.