Chapter 26

Elizabeth for the first time Tibaut could recall seemed flustered and her cheeks briefly turned a rosy pink. She quickly sat on her bed (hiding the panty) and proceeded to read the letter. When she began to read the letter Tibaut decided he had done what he had set out to do and deserved a good night's rest. 

"Wait there," Elizabeth said while not taking her eyes off the paper.

While a bit annoying, Tibaut was too exhausted to resist her and leaned against her door frame as he resisted the urge to fall asleep.

As she was reading through it she made various "huh", "hmm" and "oh" sounds.

After a minute or so she was done.

"Tibaut." She first ensured the panty was comfortably out of sight and then walked over to him and gave him a light tap. He instantly jerked awake but as soon as moved from the door frame he lost his balance and fell on the ground.

Elizabeth gave him a blank stare. 

"Anyway, as I expected it seems like we have some work to do."

"We?"

"That's right. Apparently, Ezekiel decided that in addition to searching for their location, we should also mark any suspicious areas off, so if by some chance they were there we wouldn't have to go on some goose chase. Apparently, Mr.Bentley approved the idea. (though that's not too surprising)"

"I thought the only thing done here was farming?"

"It is but that doesn't mean there aren't any likely areas for them to hide. Apparently, the majority of guilds will sweep through them tomorrow, so prepare to get up early."

"Whatever, just throw me out of the bed when you need me." He mumbled as went to his room.

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As the crack of dawn approached Tibaut was briskly thrown out of his bed.

"Ow, what the-, oh." His anger quickly turned to annoyance when he saw Elizabeth standing above him.

"Get dres-, are you wearing the same shirt and pants from yesterday?."

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I do believe you have pajamas in your drawer."

"Yeah, I know."

Elizabeth had her hand against head and quickly decided this wasn't worth arguing about and asked him to go downstairs. When he went down he was greeted by Ezekiel. 

"Yo, kid."

"Oh, what's up." He responded pretty casually. He looked around the mansion and then walked to a window that showed the outside.

"Is it just you?" He asked while looking out the window.

"No, but every guild already got a letter stating where they're supposed to go," Elizabeth responded to him while making her way down.

"Huh, so why are you here?"

"Geez kid, you really know how to strike where it hurts. Do friends need any reason to show up at each other's place?" He said in a mocking tone while pretending he was shot by an arrow.

"But seriously I do have a reason for being here." After saying that he pulled a map out of his. He then pinned it to a nearby wall (To Elizabeth's dismay).

"How many x's do you see on this map, kid?" Asked Ezekiel while he pointed to the map.

While the map was crude, if anything, the lack of details made drawings or scribbles stand out more than they would on a regular map. It was quite easy to see there were 9 black x's and 2 red x's.

"Eleven x's, what about it?"

"And how many guilds are there?"

"Ten I think."

"Correct." He then began clapping his hands in a mocking fashion.

"That means we're one guild short if we wanted to cover all these places today. Which is why I've decided to split you two up."

Tibaut squinted his eyes slightly and asked "Why us exactly?"

"Well, the other guilds don't really have impressive individual strength, unlike you guys. Plus don't worry you'll be coming with me."

That answer left Tibaut with more questions. Ezekiel noticed the confusion on his face and decided to give a more thorough explanation.

"Alright, here's what's going down. You see those red x's? I don't really trust anyone other than Elizabeth or myself going to them. Plus the x we're going had a few little monsters crawling around last time anyone went to it so I'm just taking you as a little insurance."

"Is it alright for Elizabeth to go by herself?"

"If she's not able to run away from whatever would be there, I think we'd have a way bigger problem than the cult."

"I agree with you there," Tibaut said as he nodded his head. Elizabeth looked annoyed by this statement but decided to conserve her violence for when she might need it later.

"Alright, you get the idea," Ezekiel asked

"I guess, but are we actually gonna find anything?"

"Probably not but better safe than sorry."

After Ezekiel visited Vanessa's forge to collect his sword he came back and left the mansion with Elizabeth and Tibaut. After an hour or so of running, they soon had to part ways with Elizabeth to get to their destination.

After a few more hours of running at full speed (much to Tibaut's dismay), they eventually arrived at their destination. There wasn't a single sign of human presence here yet it was clearly made by human hands.

There appeared to be a hole in the middle of the wilderness that was a 3 by 3 metre square. On closer examination the hole appeared to have stairs leading down. It continued until light could no longer illuminate the stairs.

"What is this place?"

"Based on a few books I read about this parish, it seemed a few hundred years ago some conflict was going on and some of the local people were forced to go underground to hide."

"Seems like a pretty obvious spot someone would hide."

"Obviously they would have covered it and camouflaged it smart-ass."