Chasing

When everything looked like Ryu and Nura's plan was going to work, and they would discover the actual base of the highvale, the short man they were following, the one carrying the money, stopped at an open park. So instead of going to deliver the money, he went to see another member of the highvale, this one, of medium height and with signs of aging in his hair, who was already waiting for him with his own group of bodyguards.

The two groups of bodyguards surrounded the entire park, leaving only the two men talking in the middle, while people passing by were diverted and prohibited from accessing the park. Ryu and Nura went further to the next corner to keep their distance at that such distance they obviously couldn't hear what the two men were talking.

However, thanks to Ryu's enhanced eyes, he could see their gestures, and they moved their hands a lot. Ryu was amazed at how much they moved their hands, and he was wondering if everybody did the same when talking and he never noticed it before or if it was just those two that gesticulated too much. But even so, Ryu couldn't understand the context of the conversation with just the gestures of hands.

But, Ryu saw that they exchanged something and had a vague impression that the two were reporting something to each other. So, after twenty minutes of conversation, the two shook hands in goodbye while the group of bodyguards broke the siege, preparing to leave.

"What do we do now? The man we were following could have delivered the ring with money to the other." asked Ryu, and expressed his concern, "If we follow the wrong one, we can end up following him to his own home and lose our chance."

"Shit. We will have to split." Nura said, frurstrated.

As Ryu and Nura moved to the park to resume the pursue, Nura decided, "I will follow the same man as before, and you take this new one. And remember, our safety comes first."

"The same applies to you. If you got even a bad feeling, turn back and flee. We meet at Grace's inn." Ryu said, patting Nura on the shoulder as if wishing him good luck in parting. So, Ryu parted left, following the second man, while Nura went right, following the short one.

Doing his best to remain undiscovered, Ryu followed his target keeping a safe distance of one street, using the people to keep his presence at the minimum. But the further he proceeded, the fewer people there were on the roads, which made his task much harder.

At some point, the houses' architecture changed, and the common packed houses made of red brick stones were left behind, giving space to large houses painted white with gardens and inscription formation to protect their perimeters.

That part of town was the inner city, one of the fewer places that Ryu had still not ventured yet, so his only knowledge of this part of town came from the time he flew with Nura above the city and from the map that Grace gave them. But the map was extremely vague on this part of the city.

Going to this yet unknown place gave Ryu a bad feeling, but he knew that something like this would happen eventually as pursuing someone to a place you already knew is fantasy. But for his first experience of stalking someone, he'd like to do it in a place with people so he could protect himself.

As the design of the houses in the center of the city had much more space, which allowed him to see much further, Ryu increased the gap with his target to two streets, a thing that made little difference to Ryu thanks to his special eyes.

But as the group went further inside the city, the large houses turned into mansions and the small gardens into large extensions of cut green grass with trees and flowers, leaving the horizon open to sight.

With the new increased danger, Ryu thought to stop his chase and return to the inn. Although he didn't know exactly where his target was actually going, the general direction was already clear enough, providing good information of someone from the inner city being connected to the highvale.

But when Ryu thought about returning, two of the five bodyguards encircling his target abandoned their position. At the crossing of a street, the bodyguard of the right took the path going to the right, and the one on the left went to the left path, resting his target with three bodyguards going straight at the previous path.

Ryu immediately understood that he was screwed, as there was no way that strange movement would occur naturally. Two streets back, Ryu took the first right to change his route and hastened his pace to avoid interception, for he knew that the two bodyguards would try to encircle him.

Despite the sensation of being discovered, Ryu did not dare to run because this would attract much more attention, particularly in that part of the town. Trying to dismiss the guards, Ryu turned right again on the next crossing and the left on the next one.

Though he was not running, his speed walking was decently fast, and he established the objective to reach the outer city the most quickly possible to start running. With his heart racing more than him, Ryu walked, and the way back somehow seemed far more distant than his mind told him.

Holding his breath with anxiety, Ryu was about to reach the outer city when he heard a voice behind him, "Hey, you. Stop there!". Although Ryu was not stupid, he played one and continued to walk as if the man behind him was yelling at someone else.

As Ryu walked ahead, he was about to reach the outer city, where, with luck, he would be able to blend in with a group of people walking and disappear from the crowd. At each step he made, the man kept yelling on his back, "I said to stop!", getting progressively angrier as Ryu ignored his command without even looking back.

On just one street to reach the outer city, the feeling of success was about to come on Ryu, but he heard on the crossing street on his left, "Stop there!" from another voice, the second bodyguard found him. With the same strategy as before, Ryu continued to walk as if those screams had nothing to do with him, then the first bodyguard yelled to the second, "Don't let go, grab him.".

Under this new command, Ryu could not continue with the same strategy, as the two bodyguards were about to run in and take him down. Thus, he threw away discretion, lowered his head, and shot forward with all the speed he could summon, planning to reach the crowd before the two guards could memorize his face.

As soon as Ryu started running, the two guards began running too, yelling at the top of their lungs for someone to stop the man running ahead. But with only one street left, Ryu was about to disappear before people could figure out what was going on.

At least, that was Ryu's plan because reality applied a trick on him.