Chapter 9: Xavier

"I do hope the beverage it to your liking." When I strode into the bar, ashen armored, smelling of smoke and blood, I emptied the place. Had the vice guild leader, as known as the bartender, not chucked a shot glass at the guild leader, the entire place would have been emptied. Stunned, I had time to force the leader of the thief's guild to pour me a drink. Afterwards I told him to spill.

Unlike the numbskulls earlier that didn't really know who I was, this man most certainly did, and he most certainly was aware of what I was willing to do to recover the princess.

"A third-party contract was negotiated by an unknown party to arrange her kidnaping. Records state that it was for the acquisition of fourth princess Harmony-"

"Acquisition?" The glass shattered in my gloved fist. No one could hunt down my harmony like a dog or acquire her.

Except for me.

Her father said I could.

"It was my mistake Sir Xavier. Records state it was for a vacation trip for the princess, to an exotic local, for an unspecified amount of time." I let it be since there wasn't many nice ways to say that it was an arranged kidnaping.

"What was the general plan?" While officially the guild bore no responsibility, that didn't mean there wasn't ways to assign responsibility unofficially. General rule unofficial ways hurt more.

"This individual intended to sneak into castle, use a sleep essence to disable everyone. Once abducted, the intent was to leave the country as to not face charges for his actions."

"His, Action, His…Actions?" Some guy kidnaped the princess, and the intent was to escape. Who knows what villain would do to poor pitiful Harmony?

"One question, which way did they go?" It was hard to contain my anger. I managed to not inflect harm on thing for the time being.

"No idea." There was the sound of cracking wood, as the bar began to give way under my magic enhanced strength.

"If I were to guess they would take these paths out of the city and they would look to go to these places or might run in this direction." Maps, pictures and pamphlets of exotic locals, detailed schematics of buildings, a stuffed bear, purple were rapidly set on the bar top to dissuade the angry knight.

"Now that I know your guild was but an intermediary, I have no reason to do any…harm to you." Standing I flipped threw all the papers on the bar. Now that I had a course of action, I didn't need to give the thieves guild headquarters a red paint job.

"Good day guild master, oh the city watch is coming behind me, so you might want to clean this place up." I didn't look at his face as I walked away. I hope he didn't notice that I took the violet stuffed bear, it was the same color as harmony's hair.

With so much I needed to do I didn't have time to do anything. After a few moments of deliberation, I went to a bath house. This was after I contacted the castle management, to set up things for my trip.

It may have seemed an odd choice, but I had to think ahead to how I was going to sustain myself and this operation. Plus, I knew the owner and they wouldn't mind if I slept in their loft. To get everything ready I would need would be a few hours. I left all the dissemination work to the bean counters who liked that sort of thing, and I slept the afternoon away.

Midnight had come and I finally returned to my quarters. I decide to change amours for this trip, to go lighter and more flexible. I didn't equip any of it now. I grabbed a body from the night watch to help me move everything over. It was a surprise when her highness the queen showed up at the stable gate.

"Sir knight." In short order, her personal guard gently moved everyone in the area, to places unknown.

"Lady Xavier." She spoke softly. Bowing lightly to show respect, I looked up at the queen. Unlike myself who had spent time on the battlefield and could rest and sleep whenever, the queen had obviously not been.

"Your Highness." She came closer. Her clothes were formal, a large, exquisite dress. Her hair was perfect, makeup done ideally. It was all she could do for her daughter, be perfect, show no weakness. Her eyes showed the stress, strain, and the worry that she carried.

"Thank you." She said as she adjusted my cloak for me. It wasn't needed but I could tell she needed someone to mother.

"You're welcome." It was perhaps the wrong thing to tell a queen, but we had known each other for almost seven years. Since I was fourteen when I inadvertently rescued a young Harmony.

"Be safe, I know how strong you are, but it does not good if we lose both of you."

"As you wish." I wanted to say a lot of things, that the girl was special to me as well. That no matter what if I had to choose, I would die save her. Words of comfort and empathy, none of which I knew how to say.

"I will recover Lady Harmony." She fussed over my short pink hair, and told me take care of myself, before I mounted Trixie. We trotted out of the stables, since it was late, I didn't have to worry about others. Once out of the grounds and on the main roads, I spurred my horse into action, I had a lot of ground to catch up.

Fortissimo was the closest city to Bagatelle; it was the most likely first stop for any would be kidnapers. It was a long ride, as a full on trim and fit war horse, it had a naturally high walking and trotting speed. Even then, it took the better part of almost five hours to cover the thirty miles to Fortissimo.

The first signs of dawn could be seen, and it wouldn't be long before the sun rose. Berthing Trixie I left most of my gear at the stables. I chose to carry a single sword and my holstered pair of pistols. Weapons were common things to carry, since self-reliance was a large part of modern society. From this point on I would be acting in an official capacity, so I took the time to clad myself. Unlike the full plate set, which encased me in ashen steel, this set left out some of the pieces. A solid breastplate and greaves, short gloves and ankle boots made up the ashen part. I decided to forgo the helmet and any pauldrons, choosing a short sleeves cotton under lay that came just far enough to not irritate my movements. my pants a heavier undyed denim could be seen on my lower legs where I was unarmored.

The downside of this was that my pink features stood out far more. I belted on my sword and my bullet rack to my hips, the holster being bucked on the outside of my chest piece. I tucked a dagger sheath on my left forearm…just in case. Lastly, I tacked two small containers on back belt that held a few items I would need throughout the day.

"Where the nearest inn?" Asking the stable hand after I finished securing my belongings. Thanking him for his short directions I went in that general direction. Once I arrived on the street, I looked around before heading deeper into the city. Most of the buildings were wooden stone construction. Stone bases and first floors, with wood beams and roofing. There were simple glass windows, and some that even cantilevered overhead, forming makeshift awnings.

I caught a break, though luck was less involved and more me making some decent guesses on how a thief with a simi compliant women would end up if they were on the lam.

Actually, I was three streets off, but I was close enough that I found magic traces in the area, that belonged to a powerful wind user. I would recognize those traces anywhere.

The inn wasn't as bad as I had feared, this was the poorer side of things, but it was clean. A few thugs had been loitering in the area. It wasn't significant to start, but questions to the innkeeper and people who had been staying there for longer, identified a pair of two "suspicions individuals". With the innkeepers help, I could positively identify that the princess had in fact stayed here. The toughs eventually spoke up saying they had sent a messenger to Quarter town, and that they were going to capture the women on the missing posters.

In short, I had gained the current location and a warning that her highness was in trouble.

At length, three men, more like young adults had come into the in for lunch and overheard me question the other patrons. There was resistance to my questions, at first, however I found and was once again proven, if you hit them enough times, they will generally do what you want. I slammed the first guy into his table by his hair. When his friend went to help, I leveled my pistol with my other hand. There was a moment than when the three realized they were out of their depth.

They started telling me everything when I got tired of hitting them to the table and hit them with the table instead.

I had hoped to let my girl Trixie rest more than a few hours, but I didn't have a choice. In know time flat we were galloping towards quarter town as fast as we could. I couldn't run her all day, and after a few hours of pressing her hard I was forced to stop at a rest stop. I couldn't injure the horse; Harmony would never forgive me. I had to be patient. I knew that their plans wouldn't even happen for at lest another day, but I didn't want to take that chance.

All I could do is wait for the horse to rest, and hope that my lady was ok.