Chapter 14: Missing the Dinner

"What does that have to do with being able to withstand invasions from big powers?" I asked, puzzled.

"It has a lot to do with it!" she continued. "Legend has it that the Raul royal family had a special kind of power in this tower that allowed them to control heavenly punishment and punish their enemies. Specifically, one or more beams of light would come down from the sky at extremely high speed and instantly strike the target meant for punishment. Their power could blast a huge crater in the ground! And for thousands of years, all the surrounding countries had been unable to figure out what these so-called beams of light actually were. They could only make one conclusion after countless observations - these beams were not magic as they had no aura of any element! They seemed to have flown in from outer space..."

"What exactly are these things? Could they really be some kind of heavenly punishment?" I was a bit stunned by this mystical tale! Could it be that some god in this world was playing tricks? But that didn't make sense either - why would a god obey the Raul royal family's commands?

"Of course it's not heavenly punishment! Parristol has already been conquered and occupied by the Astralrealm Kingdom for many years now, so that means the so-called heavenly punishment powers have already lost their effect. It probably doesn't have much to do with any gods," Nicola seemed to understand my thoughts and shook her head to prompt me.

"Or perhaps you still don't quite understand. If I tell you that the maidservants also mentioned an important detail - later in the craters blasted out, they would often dig up some iron shards and other melted remnants. What might you think of then?"

"Bombs? Grenades? Wait...if they flew down from the sky, then they must be...missiles?!" Drawing on my first impression, I quickly came up with an answer, then realized it was wrong and corrected myself.

"That's right, that's what I thought at the time too!" Nicola nodded and continued, "Remember the chip-like structures and other artifacts that looked like technology we found in the 'Eye of Galadra'? So I suspected that the monsters' technology might be related to this place! To prove this idea, after leaving the royal city, I flew straight to the Parristol site to investigate."

"What was the result?" I asked eagerly, hovering in midair.

"Unfortunately, I didn't find anything unusual there..." Nicola spread her hands helplessly.

"My main purpose was to examine the Chromos Tower, because according to some information I looked up later, the history of this building was quite ancient, dating back to before Parristol was founded, so at least a few thousand years old! And the way the royal family had occupied the tower as their palace over generations was also rather suspicious..."

"So you guessed it might be some kind of high-tech building?" I rolled my eyes at her - I could guess what she was thinking without her saying it.

Since the "Eye of Galadra" confiscated from Michelle was found to contain technological components mixed in, even though we had confirmed this wasn't Earth, Nicola still thought there might have been some prehistoric technological civilization or something like that in the past.

"But in reality, there was nothing particularly special about the style of this tower in this world. At best, it was just a slightly taller and thicker mage's tower. And now no one lives in the tower anymore, it's been cordoned off by the local government as a tourist attraction..." As expected, Nicola sounded a bit dejected as she said this.

"I made a wasted trip! I even stubbornly went inside Chromos Tower and took a full tour, spending a whole hundred silvers on the entrance ticket! Yet I discovered the interior had been completely renovated in a palace style, with no traces of high technology at all. It felt like I had been tricked!"

"That's what you get for impulsively running so far away!" I sighed, recalling how she had made me worry for nothing again today.

"Let's not talk about Parristol anymore. Let's go back! We've been starving all day, did you make any food?"

"No!" I retorted grumpily. Seeing her patting her belly pitifully, I suddenly softened a little and told the truth, "Today Cyra made a lot of money selling holy water downstairs, so everyone decided to have a celebration party at a restaurant. They've already gone ahead, but I spent a long time looking for you, so they've probably started eating already..."

"Selling holy water? You can make money off that stuff? And where did she get holy water from?" Nicola asked curiously.

"Of course, haven't you ever seen holy water before? She made it herself of course. So-called holy water was invented by the True Church people, it's just regular water mixed with some light element. It might not be easy for humans to make, but it's super simple for angels!" I briefly recounted what had happened outside the bookstore this afternoon. I suddenly felt I might be smarter than her in some ways! Even though my idea was stolen by Cyra, at least I had thought of it too!

"I don't go to places like the True Church, so of course I don't know anything about their holy water..." Nicola scratched her head, looking a little embarrassed. She would probably be even more shocked if she knew Cyra had earned a hundred thousand silas in just half a day.

...

"Sorry, we're closed for the day. Please come back during business hours tomorrow!"

However, when we arrived at the Autumn Pavilion Restaurant, we found that because we had spent so long looking for Nicola, the restaurant had already reached closing time and stopped operations.

"Ah crap...doesn't that mean we didn't get to eat anything?" I was completely dumbfounded, looking at the empty restaurant hall. The magic lamps used for lighting had already been extinguished, leaving only one staff member staying behind to tidy up and lock the doors.

"What about Cyra and the others?"

"They must have gone back long ago!"

Nicola had no choice but to drag me by the clothes back home.

Our current state could be described as starving. On the way, I was wondering whether to just go hungry tonight, or try to make some food at home to fill our bellies before sleeping.

But when we got back to the rented apartment and Nicola went upstairs to take out her key and open the door, I was suddenly reminded of an important issue I had neglected for a long time.

"Crap! I didn't give Cyra the door key, so she wouldn't have been able to get in right?"

"Who says she can't get in? Cyra has wings now, at worst she could have flown in through the second floor window." Nicola said indifferently and pushed the door open, only to be proven wrong immediately. The room was pitch black, and the bed was empty even after turning on the magic lamps, with no trace of Cyra.

"Where did she go so late..." I stood frozen in the doorway, at a loss over what to do. I suddenly felt a headache coming on - did both these girls have a habit of not coming home at night?

"What should we do now, go out and look for her again?" Seeing the situation, Nicola was also a bit confused and could only ask me for suggestions.

"But she's only been in this city for a day, with no fixed places to go. How would we find her?" To be honest, I was exhausted and hungry right now, suddenly missing the comfortable living environment in Edenmere.

But leaving Cyra alone also didn't feel right - she was usually so absent-minded, I was worried about her not coming home and causing some incident.

"Who did she go to the dinner with? Maybe we can ask them?" Sitting heavily on the bed, Nicola sighed, also seeming to feel the situation was tricky, and could only try to offer advice.

"Of course the people who participated in selling the holy water this afternoon. There were quite a few, since we also hired three temporary workers as helpers..."

Nicola suddenly interrupted me and asked aimlessly, "Male or female?"

"Both! The one recording stuff was female, and of course the other two maintaining order were male!"

I answered truthfully, then added, "As for the landlord downstairs, he probably went too. Though he wasn't hired, he likely had some cooperative relationship with Cyra..."

I suddenly lit up at this point.

"That's right! We can go ask the landlord. If Cyra couldn't get in, she might be staying at his place!"

"The landlord participated in the celebration too?" Hearing this, Nicola's expression immediately turned ugly as she said in annoyance, "Didn't I remind Cyra to be careful of her identity? How could she still get together with the landlord!"

"Huh? What's wrong with that?" I didn't really understand. Was she still bothered about their earlier argument? They seemed to have made up completely and forgotten about last night's unpleasantness.