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My head was starting to feel a little better after adjusting to the high population density. Getting used to being around so many people was really stressing me out, but I wasn't going to let that hold me back from seeing Uncle and Indena again.

Marek had been to this city many times in the past, so he knew how to get around it really well. My map did autofill the layout of the city on its own, but Marek had street smarts and wanted to show us some interesting sights along the way to find our absent friends.

“Down that road is where city hall is.” Marek commented. “I've been there many times to discuss the state of things in Esma.”

“Urnan is connected to Erdareich, right?” Yamin asked. “Like, it's under the crown's territory I mean.”

“It is,” Marek confirmed. “It's been part of our country since the last of the crusaders came through and built a castle on mount Inai.”

He pointed to a big mountain off in the distance with a fortress sitting on top of it. It looked just like the castles in the movies. Super cool! I bet a dragon lived there!

“It’s good to know that Erdareich still cares about its territories,” Yamin commented.

“Well, Urnan is a very important city. Commercially and spiritually.”

I tugged on Marek's blue coat to get his attention.

“Where’s Erdareich?”

He explained that it was the country that he and Yamin came from just a bit south from here. I guess they had a queen and stuff running it.

That's so cool! I imagined it like a fantasy land with castles, knights and kings who sought greater glory by conquering neighboring countries, but Marek said that things are a bit more tame and modern these days. The monarchy wasn’t quite empirical as it once was.

“To tell you the truth, the crown has been losing a lot of power,” he said. “The aristocrats of the parliament have been finding ways to give more power to the people.”

“Or so they say,” Yamin chimed in.

“Exactly.” Marek gave a sluggish sigh. “They'd much rather create a government where they make it look like they care about the people’s interests, all the while holding the final say on everything their greedy hearts desire.”

So, the queen was losing power to a democracy, but it was actually secretly turning into an aristocracy. I know those terms because Uncle taught me them.

I didn’t really know what they were talking about though, since I haven't even been on the surface very long. So I kinda tuned them out after that.

Marek stopped and turned us to a building that smelled like really strong coffee. It was pungent at first, but it actually wasn’t too bad the longer I gave it a sniff.

“This café is really good,” Marek said. “Their coffee is the best I've ever had, and I'm Favian.”

le bon café? Must be super fancy!

“I’m sure mornings are rough on a politician,” Yamin snickered. “Coffee's gotta be your life blood.”

“On mornings when I it's hard to find a reason to get up, I'm happy to make a few cups.” Marek nodded.

I heard a grumble come from Yamin’s stomach. It reminded me that I hadn't eaten anything in a while either.

“Well, now I’m thinking about food.” Yamin nervously smiled. “Mind if we grab something real quick?”

The next thing we knew, we were all inside staring up at a menu of different items they served at this café.

There was so much to pick from. I was having a hard time deciding what to choose.

“One coffee, please,” Marek requested, pointing to a particular blend on the board.

“One coffee please.” I raised up a finger too, but I wasn’t sure which one he picked so I just pointed.

The guy behind the counter gave me a funny look.

“You're too little for coffee,” he argued. “It’ll stunt your growth.”

Was that true? I mean, maybe for a human it might, but what about an exceed?

Hmm…this was a question for Uncle when I got the chance.

“How about a hot chocolate instead?” Yamin suggested.

Oooh…that did sound a lot tastier right now.

The guy behind the counter seemed much more willing to make me one of those.

In addition to all the drinks, we got some food too.

Egg sandwiches for everyone!

As Marek was swiping his crystal ID card across a scanning device to pay for everything, Yamin looked a bit bothered by that.

“Marek, I told you before, you don’t have to pay for me.” She held up a coin purse.

“No no no” He waved a taunting finger at her. “I said before that I’ll pay for whatever is needed until you are back home safely.”

Speaking of Yamin’s home…they both mentioned before that it was attacked by a demon.

I know the endgame here was meeting up with daddy again for some reason, and Indena was the only one who knew where he was, but I didn’t feel too good about letting Yamin’s home fall to a demon.

“Yamin, are you worried about your home?” I asked as we all sat at one of the tables to eat.

“Oh…Yeah, I am,” she sighed, resting her head on her hand. “The worst part about it, I don’t know how bad things have gotten there. The news isn’t even talking about it. Trust me, I’ve checked.”

“Then I think we’ll need to go there and stop those demons ourselves,” I said. “Me and Uncle beat a demon before, and I think with his help we can do it again."

Yamin looked hopeful, but a little reserved, like she wasn’t sure how we’d pull this off.

“Back in the valley, I saw what stardust did to demons,” Yamin said. “I think if we all team up…I really think we can actually do this and save Verrenville”

“Before that, let’s find the other two,” Marek added. “They have to agree too, no?”

That’s right. We’d have to get Uncle and Indena on board. But I had a feeling they’d be willing to help regardless. After that, we can go hunt down daddy together.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“If I help you guys, would you be able to help me find my daddy?” I asked. “It’s really important.”

“I’ll make sure that you have the crown backing you up.” Marek commented with a wink.

“You’ve got me too,” Yamin nodded. “But I’ve been meaning to ask something, sweetheart. I know you haven’t seen your dad in a while, but what is going on with that?”

Before I could conjure up an answer, I realized I didn’t know either. Up to now, I just figured he wanted to see me again, but I think something a lot more important was happening in the world.

“Not sure, but if he needs my help, I have to find him soon.”

It might be related to all these demons popping up everywhere. And with this Eighth Star business the church was pushing on me. No doubt some big things were about to happen, and we needed daddy to find out why.

~☆☆☆~

When we finished our meal, we continued the quest to get back our friends.

We passed by this building that had a lot of children running in and out of it. It looked like they were having fun, so I peeked in through the window…

“Heaven's Arcade!”

Beyond a thin layer of glass was an arcade land full of pixels and electronic combat!

Dozens of cabinets, scattered across two…no…three floors held all sorts of exciting games of various different genres!

Parched from days without video games, I had no desire but to go in and join in on a promised land of virtual entertainment.

“Can we go inside?” I bounced up and down, pointing at the door. “Please please please?”

“Sorry, but we do need to get to your uncle soon,” Marek said.

“Awww…” I really wanted to go there. But maybe it would be more fun with Uncle anyways.

“It’s not going anywhere,” Yamin brushed my hair as she kneeled down. “So I promise we’ll be…” Her eyes suddenly went wide with shock. It scared the jeepers out of me.

It looked like she was staring at my hair. But what was wrong?”

“S…sweetheart…?” Yamin uttered with grave fear.

“What’s wrong?!” I leaned forward, worried something horrible was happening on my head.

“I…I don’t mean to alarm you, but…there’s a snake in your hair…”

What…? That’s what this was about?

Samael slithered down into my hand and coiled around my fingers.

“Yeah. This is Samael, my pet snake.” I lifted him close to her. “Say hi to Sammy!”

“Ppp…pet…snake?”

Samael’s face inched closer to her’s. His little nose booped her’s, like an iddy biddy kiss.

*Boop*

Then she fainted.

“Sacré bleu!” Marek uttered as he picked her up, fanning her forehead with a news paper next to a bench.

I guess Yamin was afraid of snakes…too bad, because Samael’s really nice and wouldn’t dare bite her.

~☆☆☆~

We were getting close to where Uncle was on the map. He was supposed to be right around a corner near a river, but I didn’t see him.

“Huh?” I uttered in shock. “Where’d he go?”

I forcefully updated the map, and suddenly his icon was gone…

No wait, it was right behind me!

“There you are, Young Mistress.” Uncle patted my head. “Making good use of your map, I see?”

“Uncle!” I turned and leapt at him for a hug! Oh it was so good to see him! “Uncle, Uncle! You’ll never believe the crazy stuff we’d gone through!”

I teared up a little. I was so happy to finally see a familiar face here.

“Sorry it took me so long,” Uncle warmly accepted my hug. “But the portal network had to be shut down to prevent any more anomalies.”

I shook my head. “No. Those two managed to portal jump after the network shut down.”

He had no idea how that happened and he was confused as to why Yamin had a Manona Crest. A decorative one, at that.

Uncle explained that, apparently, the portal networks were being hijacked and used by other entities. The reason for this was that it was impossible for us to control them all, since millions came in and out of existence at any given time. Wherever mana flowed through the planet, there was a potential portal network.

It’s like highways vs roads. We controlled the bigger mana highways, whereas the roads were a bit harder to police, since there were so many. Some of those roads might intersect with the highways, and then you’ll have complications. For the most part this was kept in check by our bees, but ever since the incident from last year, it seems that someone has found a way around that.

That no good hacker god from last year must be behind this! I had a feeling he was the reason the portals went haywire.

“For the time being, we won’t be using the portals to get around.”

“Okay.” I nodded. “But how are we going to get to daddy?”

He said that Indena’s Manona crest should be able to locate him. Although, we’d have to actually travel to him on foot. Or maybe a plane, if we had one.

Or heck. If I could learn to use my wings the right way, I could fly myself there.

At any rate, we still had to reach Indena.

“Uncle, we need to get to Indena, and quickly!” I said.

“Not to worry.” He pointed off to the river at a girl laying on a bench with a blanket over her. “She’s right there.”

Woah…he was right!

When my map refreshed, both of their icons appeared much closer than before. How odd.

You know what it was? I think when I was calibrating my systems, I messed up the refresh rate. It must have been really laggy at longer distances.

Uncle said it would be an easy fix, but it would take a few minutes for him to update my software. He also reminded me that I could upgrade the map if I needed to use my skill points.

Anyways, he said Indena was really tired from running away from the church guys. She was taking a nap on the bench to regain her strength.

“Um…Mr…Uncle?” Yamin didn’t know his name.

“Call me Mel,” he replied.

“Mel,” Yamin spoke quickly. “It’s good to meet you.” Yamin nervously shook his hand. “My name is Yamin.”

“Marek told me a bit about your circumstance,” he said. “I’m sorry to hear about your town.”

“Oh…well, yeah.” She frowned.

“Uncle, we have to help her home.” I clenched my fist and looked up at him. “Nobody else will, so we have to.”

He folded his arms and turned toward where Indena was sleeping. “You know, we do have to find your father. That’s our top priority.”

“Mmm…” I grumbled, thinking he was saying we couldn’t do anything about it.

“But, even when I learn where he is, we’ll need to figure out a way to get to him. it’ll take some time.”

“Huh?” I got a bit hopeful. “Does that mean we can help?” I asked.

“We’ll see how things develop,” he answered. “Let’s find out where he is first. Then we can deal with that.”

Sounded good to me. I nodded my head and did a power pose.

“We’ll stop all the demons and save Yamin's town!”

“Yay!” Yamin clapped her hands and cheered.

Uncle shook his head, but had a soft smile.

As happy a moment this was, a chilly wind brushed past us, causing Marek and Yamin to shiver.

The sky turned darker as overcast clouds covered up the whole thing completely. A few flakes of snow began gliding down, soon followed by a wave of white off in the distance.

One great chilly wind passed over us, and the river completely froze over.

I gasped, checking my internal clock…

We’d just had breakfast, but now it was already well into the evening.

A sickening feeling churned my stomach. Nothing but dread filled my heart.

I took Uncle’s hand, then shivered. Not because I was cold, but because I knew this situation all too well. It was the same anomaly that happened in the valley when…

No way…he’s back...

"The Reaper."

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