Finding Her

"Baaaaah!!! That was a very nice meal!"

In a tall magnificent looking bell tower overlooking the town, two cloaked men were looking towards the plaza. One of the men, a head taller than the other, happily massaged his tummy elated for the satisfying lunch they just took. Beaming with happiness as his freckled cheeks went round from his happy smile, the man continued.

"Sir Ragu's cooking is the best! Now master, I have all the energy to work again~~~"

"Then do not delay anymore and get to work."

The other man replied without any emotions. His crystal blue eyes sharply wandered to the view surrounding the tower. From the height of the bell tower, he silently looked towards the situation down town.

"Aye, aye master!" Although the other man had responded coldly, it didn't change his happy mood. Knowing his master very well, he was still fine even with the master's attitude.

As long as his master does not demand blood, he is safe. But if his master did ask for blood, he must start praying to the Creator to mobilize the Prasinos Guardians to protect his tiny life.

Getting into action right away, the freckled man sat cross legged at the stone floor of the tower. The cheerful face could no longer be seen, only a serious face trying to concentrate on what task he was about to do.

He closed his eyes and created several seals with his hands. Immediately, a faint magic array appeared in the area he was sitting on, with him at the center.

The freckled man opened his eyes, extreme focus can be seen on his youthful face. He needed the magic array to be as discreet as possible, so as to not alert any mages who can sense the array's mana fluctuations.

A few seconds later, three pigeons flew up to the tower and landed on the faint magic circle. Their eyes shining black, had an inquisitive expression towards the freckled man as they slightly tilted their heads as how a curious creature would do.

"Master, they are ready." The freckled man declared.

The other man had been silently observing throughout the process. He nodded with an aloof face and replied,

"Find every pregnant woman in town, project it here right away,"

"Yes master!" The freckled man acknowledged his master's command and mentally instructed the pigeons.

Soon the pigeons flew to their respective flocks and interacted among the other pigeons, behaving as if they were relaying instructions. Soon three flocks very naturally flew all over Silvertown.

Silently waiting for the results of the search, the freckled man who couldn't take prolonged silence, asked his master out of curiosity,

"Master, why didn't we engage our men to do this search? Wouldn't it be easier if we have them investigate all over Silvertown?"

"We aren't the only ones looking for her." The master said frigidly. His eyes continued to scan down on the town.

"Other forces are involved? Master why is that-" the freckled man's curiosity sparked and continued to ask.

"Olivier," the master's voice became more frigid.

"No more questions, focus on the search." He commanded.

Knowing that his master won't tell anymore, Olivier, the freckled man, shut up and focused on his search task. His task was to utilize his mana to acquire the sight from the pigeons he had contracted. Transferring a bit of his mana through the pigeons mind, he was able to control the pigeons and also gain control of their flock to widen the search.

He could have summoned the whole flock into the bell tower, however, it would cause the people nearby to wonder what was happening. Therefore also alerting possible opposing forces. Thus, he engaged only three pigeons as the main carrier of his mana, while the flock were the extensions.

Through the subtle interaction of the three carrier pigeons, his mana was discreetly transferred on the whole flock, hence successfully gaining control. To perform this task in an extremely covert way, one would know that you have to be at least a Class B summoner.

Now, Olivier and his master would just have to wait for any news from the three flock of pigeons. After waiting for around half an hour, the first flock of birds had sent back the news to Olivier.

"Master, there's some news.." Olivier declared in urgency. He took out a projection stone, performed several hand seals then congealed a teal-colored ball of mana. He then loaded it in the projection stone. Immediately, screens of images appear as if they were modern CCTV monitors. Seven women appeared on the screens, all of them were pregnant.

The master took a look at all the faces displayed on the screen, while he was doing this a white colored magic circle appeared on one of his crystal blue eyes as he uttered, "Distort.."

After looking for some time, he shook his head and said, "It wasn't them… None of them even used a disguise spell."

"Alright master, there are still two flocks. I'll continue the search." Olivier responded with determination.

"Uhn," The master acknowledged.

The duo waited for another half an hour. Soon, the two remaining flocks sent them some news. After inspecting the images with Distort spell, their search was filtered down to four women.

As they were looking for an Asani, it was a given that she would try to conceal her own appearance to make herself safe. They were not in the women's vicinity themselves, so they couldn't perform a spell that would unravel the appearance of the target. However, a spell can be performed in order to reveal truths from these remote images.

This is the Distort spell.

Distort spells were used on images, letters, manuscripts and even paintings. This spell was used by appraisers, scholars and investigators when presented with an artifact involving imagery. When a distort spell was used on an image, it will force the image to temporarily distort upon reacting to mana.

In principle, when an inanimate object was exposed to a small amount of mana, it will react the way the caster had intended. For instance, if a caster used a fire spell on a normal wood, it will burn, a water spell on a normal paper, it will get wet. Objects that do not contain mana will not have any resistance to the commands sent by the caster through their spells.

However, if the object contained mana, or was a material with mana receptors, it would manifest resistance to foreign mana. For instance, if a sword embedded with a defensive spell was attacked by a caster, it will try to resist the spell according to its defense capacity.

Distort spell works according to the same principle.

If the caster used this on an image that has no concealment magic, the image will be temporarily distorted. However, if the image had used some form of concealment, disguise or protection magic, it will try to resist, or maintain its image as if it wasn't affected by the spell at all.

A Distort spell casted by classes B and above can also be used to images recorded on projection stones, just like what the duo was doing at the moment.

"Master, these two women were located in the south and east part of Silvertown. The other two were located near our vicinity. One was in this plaza where we are located, the other in the shopping district on the west side of the tower." Olivier diligently informed.

His master took two pieces of paper, then he uttered a few incantations. As he was uttering the incantations, a trace of blue mana went out of his hands and started to inscribe some characters on the two pieces of paper. Then he took another two and inscribed another type of spell in it.

Handing it down to Olivier he instructed, "Take these spell papers, two storing reveal spells and another two for notification spells."

"Go and investigate the women located on the south and east, immediately inform me if they were cleared with the reveal spell."

"Should the reveal spell fail, you know what to do." After his master completed instructing, Olivier immediately gave a knight's salute and disappeared in a flash.

The master then proceeded to the other two locations, he first went to the west where the shopping district was located. Like a nimble ninja, he speedily hopped from roof to roof to immediately arrive in the location. After arriving at the location that matched exactly on the imagery, he saw the first of the two women he was investigating.

The woman was sitting in the customer's lounge appearing to be a woman of blonde hair, with a knight in tow. Immediately performing a reveal spell, with a cyan colored magic circle appearing in his eyes, the master then investigated the true appearance of the woman.

Her appearance was revealed and disappointment appeared on the master's crystal blue eyes.

The woman wasn't an Asani.

Not wasting any more time, the master proceeded towards the main plaza and scanned the surroundings. Matching the surroundings he then located the particular bench where a gray-eyed pregnant woman was sitting dejectedly. On her left shoulder, a tiny yellow parrot and on her side a brown… living teddy bear?

The two companions seemed to be cheering her up from her bad mood. He was immediately entertained by the sight.

But with a mission in mind, he immediately performed a Reveal spell. In the roof around the plaza, he could clearly see the trio, thus even performing a Reveal spell at a distance, he could still see the results.

However, the spell suddenly discontinued during the casting.

The Reveal spell failed.

Every caster would know the difference between a Reveal spell being successfully executed but lacked reaction due to the target not using any concealment spell at all and a failed Reveal spell. Should it fail, there could only be one meaning, the Reveal spell was weaker than the concealment spell used by the target.

The master raised one of his eyebrows, a trace of interest could be detected in his crystal blue eyes. Closing his eyes one again, he performed another optic spell, "Observe!"

As soon as he casted it three golden layers of magic circle appeared in his eyes. Then another detail appeared on his vision while looking at the target, - mana concentration. The mana surrounding the woman was revealed, there was a thin layer of mana veiling her body along with her two furry companions.

'They were all using veiling items?' he realized as he only used the Reveal spell earlier towards the woman and not her companions.

Observing further, he noticed something that left him astounded.

A magic circle rests on the woman's right shoulder.

'This mana... an S class concealment spell.. Farauld?!'

He thought with surprise in his eyes.

'How could Grand Master Farauld be connected to this woman?'

His interest reached its peak and he decided to verify his doubts by getting nearer to the trio. He descended to the plaza and stood at the opposite side.

Badump Badump!

Suddenly, he felt a heavy thump in his broad chest.

A Resonance!

He felt like a little life was calling unto him, his blood almost boiling from longing! He looked towards the woman. A hopeful expression appeared in his beautiful face.

He took a deep breath and walked nearer, sitting on another bench few meters away from the woman.

BADUMP!BADUMP!BADUMP!BADUMP!

The resonance grew louder and louder, it made the master feel agitated. By now, a trace of certainty can be clearly seen on his eyes. However, he still stopped himself.

'I must not draw a hasty conclusion right now..' he thought.

'I need to wait for a few minutes to perform another S class optic spell..'

An S class spell was considered the greatest since there were only historic figures that could do such. All the more, an optic spell that uses the mana receptors around the eyes.

After casting an S level optic spell one was to wait for a certain interval so as to not strain the eyes or else it would lead to permanent loss of sight.

He then decided to continue observing first. Intently observing the woman, while doing his best to control the resonance he could feel through his whole being he uttered,

'Oh woman.. Just who in the world are you?'