"Just where the hell are they?!"

Sarah was fuming.

Her face was covered in a deep red while her hands busied with pushing papers on her desk, allowing her eyes to scan them in search of useful information.

'It's like there's smoke rising from her head,' Mera thought, gulping her saliva down as she struggled to find how she should approach her agitated friend.

"My princess…" One of Sarah's shadows took half of a step forward with an anxious look on his face.

The desire to help calm his master down was written all over his face… But just a single, vicious stare from the princess sufficed to make him freeze on the spot before giving up on his attempt.

'He's shivering,' Mera noted while clenching her jaws.

Yet, just as Mera gathered her courage and opened her mouth to attempt to calm her friend herself, Sarah shook her head before taking a deep breath and then slightly lowering her head in the direction of her shadows.

"I'm sorry, it's not your fault guys," Sarah spoke, ignoring all the social constructs that described how a royal blood princess was supposed to interact with mere slaves. "I was the one to underestimate how crafty they are so it's wrong to release my anger on you now."

Sarah shook her head again before closing her eyes and breathing slowly to dissipate all her anger. Then, once her face relaxed and the fury in her eyes disappeared, she opened her eyes again before looking down at her papers as she usually would.

'Well, she's right on the money with that,' Mera thought, feeling how the sense of unease that welled up at the bottom of her abdomen slowly started to thaw.

More than bothered by Sarah's fury, Mera was anxious over how she knew her friend was the one in the wrong.

There were no clues whatsoever that they could find in the branch of the Imperial Express. And the fact that they were currently staying in the branch master's private office proved that there was no information that the Imperial Express had its hands on that wouldn't find its way to the pile of Sarah's reports.

In other words, if there were no news about their target so far, it could only mean the champion they were pursuing never entered the premises, to begin with!

'And that leaves only that woman Sarah noticed as a potential clue… But as we both heard, Sarah's shadows lost her trail.'

The report of the two shadows that Sarah sent to track the woman that caught her attention couldn't be any weirder.

At first, they had an easy time tracking her, as if she paid no attention whatsoever to the possibility of someone tailing her. Instead, she simply walked around the city with the merchant she borrowed from the imperial express, seemingly without any purpose at all.

'We only learned that she got some package from the guy before…'

Before the entire tailing mission fell apart, when the woman suddenly dove into one of the many narrow alleys, leaving only her discarded cloak behind as she vanished.

'And while they managed to find out there were only clothes in that package…' Mera thought, resting her back against the wall of the office as she tried to crack this puzzle all on her own.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The shadows have lost the woman's trail… but kept a good watch over the imperial express clerk that helped her. As such, they were now aware that what he did after parting ways with that suspicious woman… was just business as usual that one would expect an imperial express clerk to focus on.

"Whatever she wanted to achieve, it had to happen before she rejoined the man," Mera muttered under her nose…

But Sarah or her shadows would have to intentionally deprive themselves of their hearing not to be able to pick up her fleeting voice.

"Hmm?" Sarah made a small, nasal noise as she raised her head and looked in the direction of her friend with curiosity.

"Ah," Mera jumped a little when she realized she actually spoke her guess out loud. "I mean…" she hesitated only for a second before gulping her saliva down and raising her eyes. "The clerk has already returned to his usual lodgings. And as we don't really have any warrant, it would heavily strain our cooperation with the company if we were to interrogate their workers with no real excuse."

The Imperial Express, despite its name, was not a branch of the Imperial government.

It was a company founded in the Imperial Capital with the mission of connecting all corners of the empire's commerce and logistics at the helm. And while they were more than willing to offer their full cooperation to an imperial princess…

She was still but a guest rather than a judge, jury, and executioner here, especially now that they were beyond the border of the empire.

And regardless of how much support the empire offered to its petty duchies, locals were quick to show just how much they valued the little autonomy they had.

'And what's a better way to showcase how free they are than refusing to help a princess that steps over the line?' Mera thought, gritting her teeth in mute frustration.

Tap, tap. Tap.

A silent, scratching-like noise reached Saintess' ears. Yet, by the time she managed to raise her eyes towards the doors, both Sarah and her shadows were already at their full focus, their hands on the handles of their weapons and their eyes locked on the doors.

Yet, when yet another of Sarah's shadows pushed the doors open and slowly made his way inside, the situation relaxed back to its former tension.

"I guess I do agree with that guess of yours," Sarah sighed while gesturing at the shadow to get closer. "The question is, what could a mere low-ranking clerk do for them outside of procuring fresh clothes?"

Sarah shook her head before turning her eyes away from the saintess and moving them towards the newly arrived shadow.

Just like all of his slave brothers, he was clad in a black, skin-tight suit with hundreds of small pockets fitted with either tool he liked to use or small bits of magic, reactive armor.

Despite how a single suit like that could reach the cost of several tens of imperials, Sarah still made it a point to fully equip all of her shadows with them.

And this very expenditure that left her private funds near exhaustion was one of the reasons why she was so desperate to help her friend find the man Mera was interested in.

Because while she was happy to help her friend a man she fancied, she was more than just happy to get her hands on the champion… or rather, the financial benefits that his presence could bring!

"My princess, we found out everything about the clerk and his actions that we could without directly interrogating him," the shadow reported while passing a small note onto the already huge pile of papers stacked on Sarah's desk.

"Anything you would like to highlight before I get to the report?" Sarah asked while raising her eyes to her shadow's veiled face.

"I've tailed him while he went around the commercial zone…" the shadow hesitated.

"And?" Sarah pressured, hoping to get the man's fresh reflection on what he found out rather than a crafted and censored answer.

"He went around buying stuff with little to no regard for money. But the things he was buying…" The shadow shook its head. "It didn't make even a single bit of sense."

Sarah kept her eyes on the shadow's face-veil for a second before sighing and grabbing the report from the top of the pile of papers and properly reading through it.

"I see what you meant," she then muttered as she threw the report to the pile on the other end of the table before leaning back in the branch master's chair and leisurely grabbing the next report.

"Fish, salt, and gems?" Sarah muttered as she took a moment to reset her mind before looking at the next, most likely unrelated report. "Just what's the point? Is he trying to make and sell salted fish while smuggling the gems in their bellies or something?" Sarah commented in a low voice before shaking her head and taking a look down at the next piece of paper in her hands.

The princess just managed to relax, yet, as soon as she started to read through the content of the report, her face turned still. And then, she heavily turned her head around before looking at Mera with a heavy expression.

"Mera…" Sarah called out in a voice as grim as it was exhausted. "You might want to take a look at this."