Inside the warehouse bunker, the first thing in the morning the tactician was looking through were books, journals, anything that could possibly help track down the madman that almost killed her knight. Deep down she felt a sense of urgency to finally put an end to him, yet, there was still too little to go on with as most of the scouts would come back with nothing regarding the whereabouts of the scientist.

“Shouldn’t you take a break, Princess?”

Olivia asked as she brought her a hot drink and placed it on the table in front of the mess of search materials. It was already a few hours past the afternoon, not that the tactician would’ve known from the lack of outside light.

“I will soon. I just need to at least have a clue that points me in the right direction.”

She took a deep breath and started to recall all the information she had collected about Jakob. From rumors to actual facts from people close to him, the man was enigmatic; not many knew about his dark hobbies and brutal ways to acquire knowledge.

Though there was something that bothered her. Despite everything that transpired, even a cunning man such as him needed money to be able to do the things that he did unnoticed. The price to buy someone’s silence was steep, if not buying, then threatening them into submission was also an option but in the end money was always in the process of acquiring those services.

“Wait a minute…” An epiphany suddenly struck her mind as she stood up, almost knocking the warm drink on the table which luckily Olivia was fast enough to catch before it spilled on the papers. “That’s it!”

“W-what? Do you have an idea?”

“There is a cave far to the south where bandits were using as a hideout, I vividly remember that inside was filled with treasures. He must have fled there.”

The captain placed the cup of warm drink back on the table and sat down seemingly despondent on the idea.

“With all due respect Princess, do you know how insane that sounds? Why would he go there of all the places? I don’t think he needs coins anymore.”

“There is a reason for it, don’t you think paying bandits to kill and steal anything they find in illegal merchants is a fine way to disguise income? Nobody would bother searching for them and even if they did, by the legal systems of the kingdom they would go to jail anyway.”

Olivia’s eyes widened a bit.

“You’re suggesting that he worked together with them?”

Leona nodded.

“There is also the matter of the bodies inside that place, it bothered me that they didn’t just toss them, after all the cave is near the pine forests which is home to wild beasts like bears and wolves.”

Olivia frowned in disgust.

“You’re not suggesting he used those people’s bodies for his experiments?”

“I see no other logical explanation.”

The captain gritted her teeth.

“Do you think he’ll be there?”

“Most likely. Unless he’s using the death angel to hunt in the woods, but that would easily be spotted by the scouts roaming near the capital.”

“We need to relay that information as fast as possible, your high elf companion said she would go as well didn’t she?”

“Yes but I don’t think she’ll be back until the evening.”

Olivia bit on her own thumb.

“Pods aren’t fast enough, we don’t have any scouts in the barracks… I could send in a request to general Vaan for help but then again it would take too much time…”

“I can only think of one way which would be asking Oliver to relay the information.”

“No, we are not depending on that man. He was Jakob’s accomplice all this time, how are we to trust him after all the atrocities he committed alongside that madman?”

“How else are we supposed to get the information out fast? We don’t know what Jakob is really capable of, the more time we take to find and kill him the more time he has to recover and counterattack.” Leona pinched her nose ridge and took a deep breath. “Let’s put aside his crime for the greater good, it won’t matter if he is guilty or not if everyone else perishes.”

Olivia sighed.

“I’ll see what I can do.” She organized the papers on top of the table and glanced at Leona. “Why don’t you take a break for now? I’ll go check with the other captains about Oliver’s situation and I’ll let you know when I come back.”

The tactician took a sip of the hot drink, which was lukewarm at that point leaving a strange taste in her mouth.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“I’ll take up your offer.” She was starting to feel a mild headache from going through countless booklets and journals. “I’ll head to the inn. Excuse me.” After bowing slightly she proceeded to exit the bunker out to the back of the warehouse. Seeing how there was nobody around she took a deep breath before speaking up. “There you have it, the odds couldn’t be stacked more against us and yet you deprive me of the only card I could play this late in the game.” Once she turned around towards the dead end, there was a spectral apparition of a cloaked old man, his body as well as his clothing was transparent and seemed like they were submerged in water as the frailed edges of the robe was floating around in the air. “Miyamoto.”

“Thou are ill prepared to wield blade energy young lady. If thou do so again there is a chance thou might never make it back.”

“What difference does it make if I don’t use it and we fail to kill him? Besides, I- you already used it once, why not again?”

“Young lady Leona, at that time thou might have not known, but thy body was becoming strained with excess mana. The lord of the void must have placed a curse within thou and it was eating away at thy soul.”

Her eyes glanced towards the ground in front of her.

“Even so, I can’t fail. Not this time when everyone has put their faith in me.” She closed her hands in tight fists. “If not blade energy then what can I do? It’s not like Jakob will open his mouth so I can shoot a fireball down his throat.”

“Thou haven’t played all cards in thy hand.”

She was about to retort, but once she looked up again he wasn’t there anymore. The words of the old lord felt like scalding water on her back as her mind flared up frantically thinking about what she could’ve possibly missed at that point.

“Is there still something I overlooked…?”

“Huh? What are you doing out here Leo?”

The familiar voice from behind was Athena’s, upon turning around Leona saw she held a long wooden stick to support her weight.

“I was just on my way back to the inn.”

“I see.”

“What about you? I thought you were supposed to be resting.”

“Hah, as if I could afford such luxury. The preparations for the manafication engine are still underway and I need to be present for the adjustments, that being said, is Lawrence inside?”

Leona shook her head.

“No, he left this morning. Said he had business to attend to with a certain friend of his.”

“Great. I just wasted my time coming here.”

“Want some help to walk back? I’m on my way there to grab a bite to eat.”

“I’ll take up your offer, I haven’t eaten yet either. Oh but don’t worry I can pay my share.”

With her own shoulder, Leona managed to help Athena as they slowly made their way to the inn. Inside, there were a few clients but no one she recognized, they looked at the two young ladies before returning to their meal or conversation.

“Welcome back lady Leona, I see you brought lady Athena back with you.”

They were greeted by the kind hulking Jano, who bowed upon seeing them enter the inn.

“That damn Lawrence wasn’t there, the nerve.” Athena left her oversized walking stick beside the entryway. “Jano, two lunch sets for us please.”

“Coming right up.”

He bowed once again and headed to the kitchen to prepare the meal himself. Leona helped the inventor sit down and as she took her seat on the opposite side of the table, Athena began the conversation with a question.

“Be straight with me, how are the chances of your party actually killing Jakob?”

“Not great. Aside from Lady Elizabeth’s blade energy there is little the rest of us can do. Unless I get a clear shot through his defenses, there is no way I can deal the killing blow with either magic or physical attacks. I haven’t accounted for Krieg’s strength but since he just recently recovered from being asleep for more than a month I don’t want to push the responsibility on him.”

“What about Phoebe? Couldn’t she have a trick up her sleeve to assassinate him?”

“If she had she wouldn’t have mentioned scouting is the least she could do. Our options as of now are few, the only thing I can do is to prepare until we find him.” Leona looked through the window as snow flakes began to fall once again signaling another incoming storm. “I just hope she isn’t pushing herself too hard…”

Far from the capital walls Phoebe made her way through the deep snow, traversing the plains in such condition would prove fatal to anyone unprepared or inexperienced, luckily to the high elf, years of tracking down targets through the most unlikely conditions made her quite skilled in trekking across all kinds of terrains.

“...”

Her deep blue eyes glanced upon the orange sky as she wondered if somewhere out there her mother was watching her.

In order to move faster she made a snowshoe out of malleable wood she borrowed from the warehouse and as a result she was barely sinking in the deep snow that covered the seemingly endless plains around the capital.

‘Now… if I was a madman, where would I hide?’ She snickered to herself. ‘As if I could come up with anything with so little information. This is like looking for a needle in a haystack.’

Her eyes once again glanced up. ‘I’ve come this far, yet it feels so out of reach…’

She tightened her cold red fingers into a fist. There was a certain insecurity in her mind, despite being an infamous assassin, infamy didn’t quite translate into skill as the only important target for her was still much out of her reach.

The high elf shook her head, she had to focus, despite lacking the means to kill her target, she was there to find him. But where to look? Where to start? It was truly a blind game of cat and mouse, though cat and elephant would be more appropriate for the foe she was facing.

‘High elf.’

“Gah!” She jumped from surprise as a male voice echoed in her mind and ended up falling face first into the snow. “Pfft! Dammit!”

‘It is me, Oliver, your liege requested me to tell you to head over to the southern cave where we first met, my father is probably there.’

Phoebe smacked the snow with both fists and begrudgingly stood up before thinking.

‘How can I even trust you’re not giving me false information?’

She swore she could hear him sigh even through telepathy.

‘Phoebe Hawkeye, you were assigned by Queen Eleonora in order to bring Krieg to the eastern kingdom. Does this prove anything to you?’

She clicked her tongue before thinking.

‘I suppose so. I’ll head there, contact me within three hours.’

‘I’ll relay that information to your liege.’

“She’s not my liege you brainless idiot.”

After patting away the snow on her body she adjusted her clothing before starting to walk again. She knew it was going to be a long night.