Arc 2 - Chapter 6: Stepping on Others (3/4)

Yurine's knowledge of geography gave Yu some ideas. If he could find ships to İlonya, Qrath or the Island of El, he could get close to capturing Camaeron.

"But that's only if Camaeron will use the sea to escape, as his father claims, and if he makes a connecting voyage, my plan will fail."

He had never needed luck more. With every second that passed, his fear for his own life grew.

"Fuck my head, where did I get into this?"

Everything had happened so fast that Yu couldn't do anything but go with the flow.

When he realized that his legs were shaking from the stress, he put his hands on his knees to stop them and stood up.

"Let's go to that place over there and see if there are any ships going to the countries you mentioned."

"You keep dragging a lady after you, you have no shame."

Neko grumbled and started to follow Yu one after the other. Yu, afraid of her getting lost, turned around every three steps and looked back.

"Why don't you walk beside me?"

"I'll walk wherever I want."

Yurine had no intention of speeding up and walking beside him, so Yu stayed in place and started walking again when they were on the same line.

"You're such a troublesome child."

The place they were looking at was a small place called the Coastal Inn, with a blue sign from the ship's helm. There were a few old men smoking tobacco at the entrance of the inn. Among the old men, a swarthy, middle-aged man with a machete stood out.

He had a dirty black beard, a few scars on his face and his long black hair tied back in a bun.

A pirate's scimitar hung around his waist, gripped tightly in his left hand. When he locked eyes with Yu, who he saw approaching the inn, Yu felt uneasy.

"Good evening," said one of the old men. He turned his head away to avoid blowing the smoke from his pipe in Yu's face.

"Good evening." Yu nodded to the others.

"Are you here for the room?"

"I wanted to ask a question." The men put down their tobacco and turned their attention to Yu. "İlonya, Qrath, El Island. Are there ships going there?"

He studied the men's faces carefully, one of them, who had lost interest after hearing the question, brought his pipe to his mouth and took another drag.

"You can't always find ships to Qrath and El, but tomorrow morning my ship will leave for İlonya."

"You are ship captains?"

"Well, most of us."

He thought captains would be younger and more charismatic, not old men.

"Are there any other ships going to İlonya?"

"I'm the only one around here who will go to İlonya. I'm carrying passengers, of course, but the freighters down below can also go that way."

With the answer he received, a new question appeared in his mind. If Camaeron Don was around, would he take this man's ship to escape? Or would he want to take a freighter, thinking it was safer?

The best way to know was to ask the man. He reached into his pocket to pull out a miniature portrait of Camaeron.

"Grandpa!"

The thin voice of a boy made the man Yu was talking to turn around and look through the open inn door.

"Come here! You said you were coming!"

"I'm coming." The man went to his grandson without looking back.

"Fuck your family... At least say let's talk inside before you leave bastard."

As he reached into his pocket and grasped the necklace, he thought it would be strange to leave it there and take his hand out again. He took out Camaeron Don's picture to ask the other captains who were staying here.

"I'm looking for this girl, she ran away from her father's house. We suspected she would escape to İlonya tomorrow morning, have you seen her around?"

"This?" One of the captains approached and looked at the picture with old green eyes. It was drawn by human hands, so it couldn't perfectly convey all the details of a face, but the outlines were clear.

Yu thought from the man's look that he would say yes.

"We haven't seen it." The dark-haired man, younger than the others, continued to hold his machete, his eyes shifting from the picture to Yu.

His voice was harsh. The hand holding his machete tightened and the veins on his hand bulged as he looked at Yu.

"So, did you see it?" Looking into the big man's black eyes, doubts began to creep into Yu's mind, then he asked the others again.

"No." A few of them gave the same negative answer, while one shook his head no.

"They must be under the influence of that bastard, something is going on here."

Excitement, fear and stress permeated his blood at the same time. Could that man be connected to Camaeron?

"I'd better talk to the other captain." He called out to Yurine as he passed between the old captains. "Be careful." He could feel danger approaching.

The men were silent as Yu entered. Just after Yu entered, the man with the machete came in behind him and went up the stairs inside the inn.

"Are you thinking the same thing?"

"That lower life form, dangerous."

"We were thinking the same thing, but not the totally same. That man is acting strangely."

They came up to the old captain, who was holding his grandson in his arms at a table with cookies on it.

When the man saw them, he bowed his head and apologized sheepishly. "Sorry, I had to leave when my grandson called me. We can continue the conversation here."

The little boy, about five years old, whom he said was his grandson, was eating a cookie, spilling crumbs all over his grandfather.

"I didn't say my name, my name is Lethi." The old captain held out his hand to Yu.

"Yu, nice to meet you." He shook Lethi's hand and looked around for an exit. "Is there another exit from this inn?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Our business is urgent, I need to know."

If Camaeron was here, escaping anywhere else while Yu watched the front door would be a failure that would make him punch the wall in frustration.

"No, there's only the front door."

"The back and side of the building are connected to the other buildings, if they go out the door they have to go through here, and if they go out the window..." He turned to Yurine. "Go to the entrance and see if anyone tries to escape through the window."

"Don't tell me what-"

"Yurine." He interrupted Yurine, he was not going to deal with complexes when his head was under threat.

When Yurine looked at Yu's face, hardened with seriousness, she couldn't resist, she moved towards the door and stood behind the old men still talking in front of it, peering into the windows of the building.

"Camaeron Don, do you recognize this girl?"

Lethi squinted at the picture, put a hand to his chin and shook his head slightly. "It's not easy to recognize people from a picture, but a few hours ago someone like her arrived. She was with the swarthy one, the one with the machete. She is going to İlonya on my ship tomorrow morning, but I don't know her name."

"Really?" Yu shouted in excitement, startling the grandson in the man's arms. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Is that girl upstairs right now? Is that brunette really with her?"

"Yes."

"Now calm down, there is nothing to be afraid of." Yu first calmed his excited self, then lowered his voice as he leaned towards the clueless captain. "We are adventurers, those two are really dangerous people. They belong to a criminal organization and are trying to flee the country. We are here to catch them."

"What?" Lethi's face paled before Yu had finished. "Criminal, organization? I don't understand."

"Who knows what trouble they were going to get you into... Okay, nothing to understand, now I'm going to ask you to cooperate for the safety of your grandson. Which room are they in?"

"Number four." Worried Lethi agreed to cooperate without question.

"Please come out and call me if the criminals try to escape through the window. We will intervene immediately if they try to harm you."

"Noi, be quiet, okay?" Lethi walked to the entrance of the inn, holding his grandson tightly in his arms. When the other men waiting at the door questioned him, he shook his head and told them to be quiet.

"Yurine."

As Yurine came up to him, Yu was once again proud of himself for having a good appearance.

He was aware that in most cases people looked at the outer beauty rather than the inner beauty. He could easily win the trust of females and other age groups, even though males of his own age sometimes envied him for having an awesomely incredibly super handsome face.

"Can you feel the presence of the people here?"

"I can sense mana, but I can't tell if they are human or not."

"But you can still feel that there are people up there, can't you? And if those people move, you can feel the movement of mana?"

"I can feel it."

If they tried to escape, Yurine would be able to detect it early because of the mana movement.

"And is the power of mages based on how much mana they have?"

"Yesn't."

"What do you mean with yesn't?"

They were climbing the stairs slowly. At each step he paused to talk and ask questions to make sure Yurine could take down an enemy.

"It's connected, but it's not. I can't explain it to you now, but I know there's no one with powerful magic nearby."

"Can you defeat that dark-haired man?"

"Ha! A lowly human would have a chance compared to my power?"

"Your confidence is reassuring."

Yu grabbed one of the magic stones to use just in case and went upstairs with Yurine. The moment Yu's head appeared on the stairs, the door number four in the corridor they had just left closed and locked.

"MR. YU!"