22 Missing

So it turns out that the kid had family issues...

It would've been a lie if Gray were to say he wasn't surprised. But he couldn't say that he didn't guess this either. After all, the kid had never brought up his family once in all these weeks they've known each other, seemingly careful to completely avoid the subject altogether.

He let out a short breath, and when he looked up, Emrys was staring right back at him, awake and alert.

He hesitated as he saw his cellphone in Gray's hand, then at his bag Gray held over his shoulder. He pushed himself away from the wall and mumbled, "C- can I have my phone back?"

Gray handed it back to him without a word, and Emrys took it back right when a new message popped up. He stiffened as he skimmed over the message and quickly shut off his phone, shoving it into his back pocket. Then he simply stood there; it was as if he wanted to say something, but there was something that was barely holding it all back.

Gray exhaled, earning himself just the slightest prick of impatience as he watched Emrys struggle away with his thoughts. So much had happened today, after all. There was the appearance of that white-haired woman that launched an attack at school...the reveal of Emrys' power in public...and now the kid has run away from home. He then remembered what Milo told him hours before, so he held open his door to erase any idea that he was still in a bad mood since he'd stormed away from the school campus at noon. "You coming, or...?" he motioned.

The boy was surprised, his dark eyes moving to search Gray's for something that wasn't there. "You...you're not gonna ask me anything?"

The corner of Gray's mouth quirked up slightly as he remembered himself asking Milo the same question just hours before...and, ironically, he replied with the same answer Milo gave him. "Of course not. Naturally, you'll speak up if you feel comfortable to. I won't pry...Just come in already."

He turned for the door and stepped inside, placing Emrys' bag on the counter before shutting the door close after the kid followed him in. "I'll go next door to ask Milo for the sleeping bags again so you-"

He paused as he felt a tug on his sleeve, and he glanced down to see Emrys' hand pulling lightly on the edge of his jacket, his head hung low so that all Gray could see was his messy black hair. At that moment, he looked just like a lonely kid...the same lonely child Gray was when he first appeared at the criminal's doorstep.

"...yes?"

"You're the only person I can talk to," Emrys said in a small, desolate voice. He seemed to shrink with each spoken word. "So...please, you will listen, right?"

_______________

Zylith stepped into the intersection, streets of middle-class homes spread out around her on all sides. She waved off her escorts from the organization's main branch in Cille and had them wait for her in the car.

Yesterday may have been a failed attempt and a mistake on her side to bring potential danger to students at school, but today was a new day, and she managed to do background checks on the potential candidates at the branch building. However, only one was successful.

The high schooler...Emrys.

He was the only one she could find much information on, strangely.

Still, it was better than nothing.

She straightened up the lapels of her white suit and continued forward down the street, her tall heels clicking sharply on the neat cement sidewalk.

The school was closed for today before it will open back up tomorrow after the repairman sent from the branch helped fix the damages, so all students should be home this early in the morning. She planned to meet Emrys at his home, in the presence of his parents.

From her experience and personal opinion, younger candidates were easier to accept or deny with their parents at their side for support and decision-making. With this, she'll successfully obtain one official candidate before troubling herself with the search for the other two...

The other man, the one who forced her off the campus...his appearance looked a bit similar to Emrys' at first glance. But from the reports, it is shown that the boy had no brother nor relatives who looked close.

The hydromage was also nowhere to be found, which was quite a problem. She was fifty percent sure and fifty percent not sure that this mage was the same person that she saw that day.

Though she was conflicted with these many possibilities in hand, Zylith kept her composure and made a mental note to prepare an in-person investigation.

Finally, she stopped on the front steps of her destination and looked up to see the expected two-story home with fancy vehicles sitting on the driveway next to the fresh lawn.

They were home...perfect.

She stepped up to press the doorbell, and as she waited for an answer, she removed her glasses and pulled out her business card from her back pocket.

A sudden racket from the inside of the house pulled her attention to the door, and she was taken by surprise as the door was violently swung open. "So that ungrateful bastard finally came home-!"

A woman just about Zylith's height paused mid-sentence, her anger quickly dissipating as she blinked at the white-haired woman in confusion. Judging from her jet-black curls, dark eyes, and light skin, it was quickly confirmed that she was Emrys' mother. However, that sudden outburst from before...it made Zylith frown.

Who was she just calling a bastard?

She ignored it for the time being held out her card. "Good morning, Antonia," Zlylith greeted, using her first name for her full attention. "My name is Zylith Mai. I am the General Instructor of Mage's Association from Lunis. Might I step inside and have a word with you?"

Antonia, Emrys' mother, stared at her in shock, as if she couldn't believe what she had just heard. "From- from the capital...," she stammered underneath her breath. She glanced behind her shoulder at her husband, who was lounging on a couch deep inside the home, completely oblivious of the situation.

"Ma'am?" Zylith said, an eyebrow raised.

Antonia quickly turned back around, snapping out of her daze, her eyes shining with much excitement as if she'd just hit the jackpot. "Ah, yes, of course!" she answered, taking the card from Zylith's hands. She glanced at the elegant print on the stiff material carefully. "Miss...Mai, right? Who are you looking for?"

"Actually, I would like to speak to your son, Emrys. He is home, yes?"

She stiffened at the sound of her son's name, and Zylith could see her jaw clench and veins bulge. Yet, the mother kept on a forced, polite smile. "My son...is...not home at the moment!" she chirped.

Ah, another trip wasted...

Somehow sensing her frustration, the mother suddenly reached out and grabbed onto Zylith's wrists to prevent her from leaving. She wasn't sure what the Mage Association was about, nor who Zylith was, but she wasn't going to let a big shot go so quickly. "A- are you sure you're not looking for someone else?" she implored, a hint of desperation in her voice. "Not my husband...or my daughter that has caught your attention...?"

Zylith furrowed her brows at her behavior. It made her uncomfortable, but she said no words as Antonia gained self-awareness and quickly withdrew her hands, laughing awkwardly.

With such a powerful being in front of her, Antonia still lacked the self-restraint to hide her true intentions. Nothing was to go unnoticed before Zylith's eyes.

This woman...gave off a different vibe than her son. There was definitely something wrong here.

"Antonia...ma'am," she began sternly. "I think you're mistaken. I do not believe you fully understand who we are and what we do. Since Emrys is not present, I have nothing to say. Please feel free to call me once your son returns. I'll take my leave now. Good day."

She turned on her heel and left, paying no attention even when she called after her to stay. Emrys was gone, there was no reason for her to waste her time with people, obvious that they were trying to gather her favor for power. Moreover, there was something else that required her attention at the moment.

The device around her wrist vibrated as she scouted the vicinity, and she stopped in her tracks to answer the call from her boss. "Speak," she said flatly.

"Hihihi!" Julius sang cheerfully. "How is my great General? Did you find anything good?"

"I found the high schooler's address, but he is not home. I don't know where he could be, but from what I see, his parents..." Zylith's voice trailed off, and she turned her head left, where she sensed a trace of a familiar power.

Her fingers tingled in response, the same icy chills from yesterday's unfriendly exchange with the boy reemerging. It was in the direction of the same house she left.

...could it be?

"Eh?" Julius called out, confused. "Zylith~! Zylith, are you there?"

But all he heard on his end of the line was the clicks of her heels as she hurried back, letting the chills in her hand lead her in the right direction.

"Hey, where are you going?" the chairman asked. "I wanna know! Let me in on the details! What did you find?" he wailed, continuing to complain about the lack of attention his subordinate was willing to give him.

With a snap of her fingers, a small but powerful gust of wind picked Zylith up into the air and above the rooftops, avoiding the sharp eyes of Antonia, who relentlessly stood at her doorstep with her hands clasped in hopes that Zylith would return soon.

"Disgusting...," Zylith muttered in disapproval.

"EH?! Me?! Disgusting?!" Julius cried from the other end of the line. "B- b- but why?! I didn't do anything!"

"Not you, shut up," Zylith ordered strictly. She scanned the ground far beneath her while the chairman sniffled dramatically over the call, and her eyes finally caught sight of the fading, jagged platform of ice protruding from the grass right on the side of the property.

There.

It was the evidence, remnants of the use of 'creative' power, a power that was used not to change nor damage. Naturally, this type of power will quickly dissolve away if it no longer serves a purpose in twenty-four hours.

The near-transparent state of the ice indicated its close end before it disappears for good, also telling Zylith of its use the afternoon the day before. At first, she was confused, but after seeing how the block was positioned under an open window, it all dawned on her.

'So that ungrateful bastard finally came home'...Antonia wasn't just talking about anybody, she was calling her own son a bastard.

"It seems...I've hit another dead end," she mumbled.

"Another one?" Julius repeated curiously.

Zylith waved her arm, letting a firm breeze blow away the faded remnants of power so that no one from the household would find it there if they hadn't yet. "Yes," Zylith responded, still suspended in the air. "From the looks of it, the boy has escaped from home the day before. I am also sure the family knows nothing of his power."

"Heh, then it looks like the family needs to know absolutely nothing," the chairman pondered. A few scritches and scratches of a pen was heard before he spoke again. "This leaves us a candidate minor without known, trusted guardians above eighteen and two unregistered ghosts...they're playing hard to get, aren't they?" he mused.

"Get to the point."

The chairman sighed. "Alright, fine. I'll arrange a tracker for you, we've been running out of them recently so it might take a while. Go find the boy. There's no need to come back to this house anymore. Poor Emrys, I wonder what made him run?"

"What about the other one...or two?"

"You'll find them once you find one or the other. I'll help you do some deeper digging."