Five people met in a dark, rather generic room. It had cobblestone floors and barrels and crates all over the place, with an table in-between them all. These five were those who led the organization known as Cherry Road, each one donning clothes and a mask that made it impossible to identify them. Only their voices could be heard, although it was possible they were purposefully disguising them. None of them held a drop of trust or certainty, as the tension in the air was palpable.

"The Magician of the Silver Hour you say?" a serious man asked, as uptight as usual.

"Yes. I was able to get clear in time thankfully using a dopple, but it was clearly him" a woman said, some excitement in her voice. "He found us instantly, and obliterated any and all defenses we had there. He rescued everyone not yet moved, and he was quite pissed off. I had heard stories of his wrath, but to see it first hand".

"The old elf has many tales, but some of them sound ridiculous. Did you know some claim he is actually a spirit that is over a thousand years old?" an inquisitive man asked. "Still, it seems that he possesses a great power. Rumor has it he once froze an entire city for conducting illegal experiments on children".

"An entire city? Surely you jest!" An unsavory woman mentioned.

"He is capable of utilizing his Silver Hour magic upon a city, why not freeze it? One cannot underestimate that magician, you should already know that" a younger man said, stating things as if they were the most obvious facts of all.

The five of them were in a bind. They realized they had angered someone they should not have, but at the same time, if they did not find a way to hit back, others would view them as weak and would consume them. And they were still concerned about the threat of being overtaken by their rivals and enemies, so they could not rest on their laurels.

"We should poison one of their associates. I believe one of Riza's grandchildren works in the Adventurer's Guild as a receptionist, why not poison him?"

"You want to poison Ozlo? Do you not know he is known as the Dragon Caller? We would be neck deep in dragons for generations".

The unsavory woman backed off at the Inquisitive man's remarks, clearly understanding the threat. No one wanted to be dealing with hostile dragons for several decades. Kingdoms have been destroyed by such wrath.

"We could poison Amyris' apprentice".

"We got hit from targeting him once. Do you want to be frozen?"

The serious man pointed out the flaw of the young man's idea.

"How about we burn down his house then? If targeting people is no good, why not things?" the woman with slight excitement in her voice suggested.

The young man shook his head. "You think that place isn't enchanted up to the heavens itself? Its likely to set us on fire, even if we send our lackeys instead".

Yes, they were at a loss. They had to hit back, but hitting back was also suicidal. Not doing so meant destruction, yet so did doing so. That was the trap they were caught in. That was giving them no end of troubles.

"What of Red Raven?"

"He is already heading elsewhere, to deal with whatever force stopped us from obtaining our prizes in a different city on the other side of the ancient woods. It would take him a week at least to get to them".

"Tsk. That is far too long. If only we had sold off those brats before they arrived, we could have counted that as victory enough".

The group did not care who they hurt, so long as they could preserve their power and gain more of it. Not to mention the money.

"Why not make another deal with those that wanted to see them harmed in the first place?"

"True, we still have our contact. He was even sending an agent in disguise to the bidding, but it seems like they got captured. If we inflate certain details, wont he send his own people to go after them?"

"Certainly, he might feel arrogant enough to deal with it for us. He has been such a good customer, and I doubt he will expose himself too much, but better him then us".

"If even bigger news makes waves, then we will be fine".

"So we should stir up someone else to cause trouble, therefore enacting our revenge, and letting someone else take the fall for us? How lovely!"

It seemed they all agreed on a plan of action. The benefit of a criminal organization is that they did not need to make moves directly, or with any true connections. Those in the know would be able to infer instinctively they were behind this, and know that they were not to be trifled with. It could even fail, but still succeed in their books. This was why Cherry Road had been around for decades. They knew how to get things done while keeping the blame off themselves.

And thanks to their most serious of upper echelons, they knew how to poke and prod people.

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Twenty five year old Marzi Booker had a serious problem.

It wasn't that his desk was an effective mound of paperwork, not was it the fact that he was still single while his younger brother, Thaxius, bragged about his girlfriend to him constantly despite the fact he was four years younger than Marzi.

It wasn't even the fact that his usual breakfast place was out of chocolate croissants, his favorite, when he went there this morning.

Nor was it the fact his boss was an effective lazy and worthless individual whose specialty seemed to be pushing all the work onto others and then slacking off.

None of that was the serious problem that Mazri had.

If those were his only problems, then he would just be a slightly unfortunate person who just hadn't found the right person yet. Nothing wrong with that, especially that last part.

No, his big issue was the paperwork nightmare that recently came to light.

An anonymous letter had recently come to the attention of various administrators, which as a result had a huge amount of paperwork dumped on him to deal with. What this involved was various properties which had apparently been improperly filed by his coworker who worked at another location in the city, and now he had to verify and check all this out. Furthermore, due to the seriousness of the crimes, he would need to work with knights and the guards, who were very intimidating people.

Intimidating, and stubborn at that. In other words, a nightmare for him who was only a civil official, basically a civilian and a paper pusher.

What would he do then?

In the end, he knew what would likely happen. His bosses would force him to do this, then the guards and knights would force him to go along with their whims, then his boss would get angry at him for not representing them well, which means in the end he will get yelled at no matter what! He doesn't have the authority to stop them, nor go against them, not when there are clear criminal intent from these documents and from their offices! All he could do is hope that maybe, just maybe, they will be reasonable with their demands so the amount of yelling he has to endure is minor. That was quite honestly the only hope he had left, and that was about it.

And so, here he was, waiting for such important people to come stomping in and drag him off, as he desperately tried to complete the ever accumulating pile of paperwork. Normally it would be at least somewhat manageable, but there were all sorts of weird things lately since all those shooting stars raced through the sky. Now the Demon King is returning apparently, and it was already having an influence on the minds of those in the fringe of society. As a result, he was now deep in paperwork hell.

Suddenly, a knock came from his door. Could it be Tamlit with some coffee?

"Come in!"

He heard the door open, but couldn't see it over the literal stacks of papers in front of him. He was busy examining documents, and then signing off on them or sending them to where they needed to go. He had to make sure everything was done right, or they might end up back on his desk again.

"Tamlit, can you just put the coffee next to me? Thanks" he said, as he adjusted some things.

"Erm, we aren't the one who went for coffee. We are from the Guard Barracks and the Knight's Order".

That made him suddenly freeze and look up, to see four figures. Vice Captain Desris of the City Guard, as well as Captain Lessrid LeFont. Both women were well known for being highly accomplished city guard, as well as being tough on crime, especially Desris. They were also quite beloved throughout the city, but also known for their ferocity when they wanted to get things done.

As for the two knights, one was a young boy, while the other was also a woman. That said, the official quickly noticed the boy's armor was more decorated, indicating he was the higher rank. Furthermore, his emblem was that of Silver Wind. In other words, he was the Knight Commander of the Order of the Silver Wind, Riza Luminar.

"Guard Captain! Knight Commander! How wonderful to meet you both!"

He quickly stood up and bowed, as he was just a civilian official while the other was a noble and the Captain of the guard, and their vice-captains.

He had heard plenty of legends of Riza, the S-Ranked Adventurer and Knight Commander of the Order of the Silver Wind. Supposedly he is several decades old but has a youthful appearance, that he has been praised by three generations of kings, and been given a myriad of awards. That he held the line against the Empire in three wars, including the seemingly impossible defense of Izaria. That he summons swords from thin air somehow, and that he gained his unaging body by bathing in the blood of an ancient dragon he slayed. That he once crushed several boulders with just one hand, and he is able to rewrite spell formula of others on the fly.

Frankly speaking, the legends got even more outrageous the more they went on, but there was enough to know he was a great and powerful figure within the kingdom. And that he held a level of authority that could bypass his rank.

But his vice captain, who was also his vice commander, was just as famous. Andrea Valmont. Rumor had it she once protected an entire village from a group of rampaging ogres, slicing through them with both magic and sword. That she once single handedly saved a group of children from Orc clutches, and that she exposed an evil noble's plot to sell out various kingdom secrets and strategies to the Empire and the Union. And that she even destroyed the rampaging golem of Hylath, which protected a highly important mine for the kingdom from danger. She was considered to be kind, loyal, and extremely harsh against her enemies. Rumors has it that traitors who harm innocents of the kingdom are her most hated targets, and that her parents were murdered by one such traitor in the past.

There are even rumors she might become engaged to one of the princes in the future, that was the kind of merit and power she held.

These four figures, two famous in this town and two famous nationally, were now in front of him. Considering the timing, it could only mean one thing...

"...don't tell me, you four are the ones who I will be going around to all these properties with?"

"That's right! So let's get going already!" Riza said, clearly impatient but also seemingly having a bit of fun.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Sheesh...why me?

This was his thoughts as he ended up dragged out of his office and onto the streets, to deal with all this madness that lay before him.

And so began a very long day for Mazri.

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At the same time, Izziri Raycast was dealing with his own issues. He was a merchant, one who often made the trip between various frontier cities and the Capital. And yet, he had recently learned of something quite troubling. He was looking at his young apprentice, who had recently gone missing along with their horses. Normally one might think he stole the horses in some get rich quick scheme, but Izziri was not so foolish as to hire someone like that. The boy he had hired, whose name was Izilin, had apparently been kidnapped by a criminal organization known as Cherry Road, but was thankfully rescued just last night.

The issue was however, that this same group was also the one who stole their horses. Apparently, they even used them to move slaves out of the city.

"The indignity of it all...Izziri, are you okay at least? That has to be rough, being kidnapped and stripped by human traffickers twice in a row now...I wonder if its the same group?"

"Y-yeah, probably" Izziri said, looking away. The merchant figured the elven boy didn't want to talk about such tramatic events, but there was a truth he had not quite realized yet.

To think my lie would end up becoming true! I knew when I appeared in this otherworld as an elf naked in the forest, I would need a backstory, but to think this ended up actually happening!

Yes, Izziri was in fact one of the Starfallen. Starfallen tended to make easier targets since they had no family. In Izziri's case, he used to be a thirty five year old office worker who had just endured extra overtime, and ended up going to sleep in the office. When he woke up, he was naked, in the middle of the forest, inside of a crater, and also an elf. Needless to say, he has been in danger if not for the kind merchant's help. Thankfully he knew just enough about economics to lend some occasional advice and show promise, so he got taken on as an apprentice by the merchant.

"Still, better stay close to me and the others for a bit to be safe. You never know who might be around".

"Right".

They sent five guys to kidnap a child. These guys are no joke. Thankfully those four came to save us, although I shudder to think about what they might have done to all those people who were gone when we got back. I guess they didn't want to show children whatever they were doing. I am kinda glad about that to be honest.

While thinking of such things, he ended up thinking about something.

"Hey master, those horses...what breed were they?"

"Pure bred Royal Stallions from the stables of the royal capital, why?"

"Wouldn't those be rather rare around here then? Couldn't the guards maybe..."

"Track them to find the shipment and rescue those kids! Of course, excellent thinking Izziri!"

"Just wanted to help! I am sure they will give us our horses back, especially if we let them know about this!"

"Yes, not having to buy more horses is a nice boon! Alright, quickly! Lets head back to that guard station so they can let the people responsible know!"

"Right! They said they would be around this area I think, the ones in charge! Something about a property hunt!"

Hearing that, the merchant took off with a vengeful look in his eye, while his Starfallen apprentice tailed behind him.

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At the same time, a certain receptionist of the Mage's Guild was busy with his own work.

Yes, Vartra was hard at work, dealing with his own paperwork. He was the hardworking backbone of the Mage's Guild, which despite not seeing as much activity as the Adventurer's Guild lately from the war or the Rank Up Exam, had been doing its own work in the background. Making sure everyone's contributions and merits were recorded, researching the strangeness regarding how quick the Goblin Surge happened, as well as looking into possible magical causes regarding the large Sylvan that was spotted earlier.

The Mage's Guild had various practical merits for ranking up, but also a lot of research. As such, there were countless papers that had to be gone through, and as a receptionist, he had to memorize not only the filing system but anything that seemed like it might come up a lot. In that sense, they were quite well versed on all sorts of magical research, from Artificing to Zylists. Everything had to be checked and double checked after all.

And right now, he was looking into some recovered magical tools that were used for sealing magic and enforcing obedience. By all accounts, it was without a doubt a standard in the criminal underworld when it came to human trafficking. He had seen hundreds of these pass by his desk.

However, that didn't mean there was no merit to looking into them. Each maker had its own quirks and traits in their designs. Even if they were just using another's design, it could suggest the general region it came from. For example, from the Empire, they tended to be a bit more forceful and heavy handed. Some might even affect one's mind and force them to obey. There were far too many crimes using smuggled Empire collars then anyone would like to admit, but connections to the Empire were carefully monitored and looked into.

Other collars, such as those from the south, might drain one's mental abilities while enhancing their physical abilities. They were barbaric in their own right, as they would make one not only dumber and more docile, but also more dangerous. Their slave armies, something heavily looked down on not just by the various Kingdoms but even the Empire, was not something to underestimate.

However, these looked like the typical ones found within the kingdom. Officially, they were only to be used for criminal slaves. The kingdom did not have the luxury of being able to jail all its criminals, and therefore needed to put them to work. They would have them do taxing jobs, and these were criminals found guilty of murder, rape, crimes against children, and the like. Basically, trash scum. It was not a perfect system, and moralists would be right to point that out, but it was what best fit their current situation, resources, and times.

Still, there were clear laws. And that included that using any such collar on anyone who is under the age of fifteen is considered widely illegal, to the point that its a capital offense. Clearly that had acquired theirs illegally, likely bought on the black market or stolen, or acquired from some collapsed mine maybe. Either way, there would be a reckoning. Without a doubt, heads would roll to find so many children forced to wear them. Low ranking administrators could count their blessings that so many were captured alive, since it would mean they wouldn't get blamed at least. But without a doubt people would talk, as the threat of a headman's axe had a way of loosening tongues.

The fact that the collars were local though at least meant they would likely not need to worry about Empire interference. And yet, that made him wonder something.

"Lyrian, I am not sure Valiance is behind this".

"Why? He should have plenty of access to those collars, shouldn't he?"

"Yes. But he should also have plenty of access to the Empire's slave collars as well as the South's slave collars as well. They might be impulsive, but they know how to implicate others and keep themselves clean. The fact that the trail doesn't lead elsewhere makes me think its someone whose access is more limited".

"Really, are you sure?"

"Positive. Valiance may be an asshole, but we think he made his move by bribing that B-Rank adventurer. However, that guy has a lot of contacts. By all accounts, if one person bought him off this much..."

"...someone else could have too. Shit. So Valiance caused the harassment, but you don't think he was behind the abductions?"

"I don't. I think we are looking at two different masterminds here. Someone who may have even planned to use Valiance as a decoy for himself".

Vartra looked around, and then went closer to Lyrian and whispered something into his ear.

"The Mage's guild recently performed some tests on collars like this last month, and all were reported as destroyed due to various experiments. However, these experiments were part of the Guildmaster's personal research".

"Wait wait, are you saying this might be Sebas?"

"The collars being destroyed in experiments isn't odd, it happens a lot as we develop ways to help the illegally enslaved. The Mage's Guild leader also being involved with them isn't odd either, since they are marked as dangerous materials. However, lately investigations have turned up the possibility of illegal human experimentation".

"Shit. So it might be Sebas who made a move".

"Indeed. And he has secret labs all over the place. I think you might want to save those kids sooner rather then later. If I had to guess...some of our staff have traced moved resources and shipments westward. If you were to go off in a direction from the city, I would recommend checking that area. There are various ruins there that could be used to hide a secret lab".

"Interesting...very interesting. I will let the others know. Thanks, Vartra".

"Yeah. Too bad I can't go myself. Watching my dad go wild against whatever defenses the lab has would be...really cathartic considering what iv had to go through lately".

"I would bet. Good luck on your own work".

And with that, Lyrian went to tell everyone about the lead he uncovered.

----------------------------------------

At the same time, Mazri was leading around the delegation to various buildings. Right now there were looking into a huge, old stable building. It was meant as a stage coach stables, so there was a huge interior area, and since it was in the city, it was built with its entrances having a big set of doors, a small room, and then another big set of doors, so no one would hear the horses neighing or other noises that might be happening.

Mazri had taken them all over the place, but it was this building that seemed to attract their attention.

"Hmm. This is by the northwest gate, very isolated. You could fit wagons inside here, and it would be easy to load and unload humans, especially children, in here. The fact this building is designed to muffle sound makes it all the more likely. And we have fresh horse tracks, as well as horse poop and carriage tracks. They were here, possibly just a few hours ago even".

Vice Captain Desris of the City Guard, as well as Captain Lessrid LeFont looked especially interested in some of the work done on the building.

"It looks renovated. We might be able to identify the carpenter based on their handywork. We should have some experts grab some samples, we might be able to make some good arrests off of this".

"I agree Desris. We should investigate in full. What about you two, Riza Luminar and Andrea Valmont?"

"We know they are outside, as well as the likely gate they took. Mazri, can you tell me what carriage was used? You look at details like length and design all the time right?"

"Well, I mean...I do verify a lot of documents, but...I mean..."

"Come on, this is highly important to finding those missing kids!"

"If I had to guess, I would say...hmmm...given the spacing, and the thickness of the wheels, we are looking for a standard carriage...but based on this swaying, they have not done maintenance on it in some time. And it was dealing with quite a lot of weight, probably from the cargo they use as a cover story. If I had to guess, you are looking for an extra large standard carriage, designed for cargo rather then passengers, that has a wheel that will need some work in the next month or so".

"Alright. We have a description of the carriage, and we have the gate they used. Now we just need some leads..."

"Excuse me, I have some people who are here to see you all!" a guard shouted right at that time. They quickly came out, only to see the merchant they escorted one of the children back to earlier, as well as Lyrian Bell.

They took no delay, and quickly talked to them both. Afterwards, they found out exactly what they wanted to know. From the merchant, he described the horses in great detail, including their breed. The fact they were more common in the area around the royal capital and not the frontier would be a big help. And from Lyrian, he mentioned the likely direction they went in, as well as a general area there might be a lab where they were taken too.

They had a description of the horses. They had a gate. They had a carriage. They had a likely direction. With all of these facts, they quickly regrouped with the others. Amyris was there, as well as Saphiril, and also Kuroki and friends were there. Kuroki had a look in his eyes, a sort of fire that Riza didn't quite expect.

I guess everyone is capable of growing. I thought, given the situation with his father, he might have wanted to run away...but it looks like he doesn't want to run this time. or at least, not abandon others to such abuse.

Kuroki had indeed planned to run away from his father, but right now his instinct was something else. It looked like rather then flee, he wanted to fight. He wanted to take down whoever might be responsible, even if it put himself at risk.

Desris meanwhile talked to the gate guards, who then confirmed the details and reported that the exact carriage and those exact horses had left just moments ago, heading westward towards the forest, and that same forest had various old buildings and ruins in them. Not just elven, but human as well that was built later and then abandoned afterwards. The entire place was rather creepy.

Naturally, Riza had his own carriage summoned to help him. This carriage was pulled not by horses, but by something that appeared to be similar to Velociraptors.

"These Fangdrakes will help us reach them. They are twice as fast, and run three times as long, and are able to protect themselves if we are attacked by monsters. Everyone, get in and hold on. The rescue operations begins now".

And so, the group of adventurers began to set off.

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Meanwhile, in the city of Vastria.

Akano and Tamaki were busy dealing with some guild paperwork. They were officially registering for their own rank up exam, as their achievements and notifications regarding the Goblins had finally earned them enough.

At that point however, they felt some eyes on them. It had been rather unpleasant lately, however there was something strange today. There was significantly less eyes on them than normal, which sort of freaked Akano out a bit that he had gotten so used to it he could tell such things. He wondered if it would get any stranger or if that was it. He hoped that was it at least.

There was one figure he did recognize however. A young boy in a black cloak, whose face was always hidden from his view. Even when he used some magic, he couldn't see under that hood, it was just darkness. He was often watching them, and Akano had to wonder if he was something who was also a Starfallen. It was kind of weird he had not made contact yet, and any time they tried, he ended up disappearing around some corner.

Ultimately, they decided to give up on that for now. But as they were finished registering, Akano heard a rather unpleasant voice he had hoped to avoid. Torita Ogami.

The moment he heard that voice, he grabbed Tamaki's hand as they finished their business and went to the side, trying to avoid contact. Akano had warned him already of this one. Someone who would no doubt be hostile and try to dominate them. As a priest and tamer party, they were a bit all over the place in terms of combat balance, so they had to be especially careful with a dedicated vanguard who was both skilled and a hostile piece of shit.

Akano was sure they just managed to avoid them as he heard the boy get in the face of the receptionist, bragging and complaining simultaneously about how he completed a bunch of monster subjugation requests so it was time for him to rank up.

Oh gods, please no. If he ranks up at the same time as us, he will definitely notice me.

Unfortunately, the guild was a merit based organization, and E-Rank wasn't that high. It was fairly likely that he would end up being able to rank up that much even with his rude manners, or at least take the exam. Hopefully the examiners would help keep the peace, but Akano just knew this would not do well down the road.

Perhaps because he was so distracted by this however, both of them failed to notice a new set of eyes watching them...one with far more malice then any who had come before.