It’s the start of a new day.

I decided to go back to the kingdom with Rein to ask people if they know any clairvoyants around. Miguel and Amalia were busy managing the orphanage at the moment and they needed extra hands so we left Komraad and Fae to help out.

“We'll be going now, help here as much as you can Komraad, okay?” I glared at him to indicate that I was serious.

“But I wanna come with you and have fun!” He insisted.

“We're only going out to ask people around, there's nothing fun with it at all.”

“But... But...:”

Fae pulled Komraad away.

“Ms. Ina, big sis Rein, go ahead already. Please be careful out there.”

“Yeah, we will! We'll be going now. We'll be back in the afternoon,” I replied.

We left as soon as Fae and Komraad were gone.

As soon as we arrived in the kingdom, Rein started asking people around. All I did was ride her shoulder, I was afraid I'd freak people out like always so I just let her handle the talking.

Rein approached people with respect but most of them were rude because of their high status. Thankfully, some of them were actually kind enough to answer but none of them knows any clairvoyant. We were asking and walking around all day, we were about to give up when a drunk man approached us.

*Hic*

“I heard you were looking for a clairvoyant little kid.”

“Yes, we were. Do you know anyone, kind sir?” Rein replied.

“Yes yes, follow me.”

We started following him and he led us directly to an alley.

“Hey Rein, be careful, that guy's drunk. If he does something bad, don't hesitate to fight back,” I whispered to her.

“Yes, Ms. Ina, I will. For now, let's follow him, he's our only lead,” she whispered back.

We arrived in the alley. As soon as the drunk man stopped, Rein casted a spell.

“Start talking!” Rein demanded.

The guy panicked because he saw floating bubbles of water around Rein. His bottle of liquor shattered as he fell down on his knees due to fear.

“W-what's happening? What did I do? I thought we were gonna talk?”

“Huh?!? You’re drunk and you lead us to an alley! What do you expect us to do?!?” I shouted at him.

“A talking cat? Ha-Ha! The liquor is starting to kick in, I think I'm hallucinating.”

I jump towards him and started slapping him.

“You're not hallucinating! Now start talking!”

“T-the sun was too bright for me, it's giving me a headache so I thought maybe I could start explaining somewhere that isn't bright,” he answered truthfully.

“Oh, our bad. I guess we jumped to the wrong conclusion, tee-hee.”

Rein stopped her spell and the drunk man started calming down.

“So about our question, do you know any clairvoyants around?”

“I don't specifically know anyone but every time I walk near the palace and stare at it, it's like someone is staring back at me. like someone is watching me. It's creeping me out so I told my wife about it but she doesn't believe me.”

“The palace huh?”

“Thanks for the tip. Sorry, we totally misjudged you.”

The drunk man left the scene traumatized. He'll probably stop drinking for the rest of his life.

Rein and I went to the palace, it's in the middle of the kingdom. The moment we arrived there, we saw a lot of knights guarding the gate.

Rein tried talking to the knights and asked if they can let her in but apparently, only the nobles are allowed to enter. Instead of giving up, we decided to sneak in and see for ourselves if a clairvoyant really is residing inside the palace.

“To be honest, I don't know why we're sneaking in in the first place. I mean, we're not even sure if someone is going to entertain us inside. We got a tip from a drunk man for Pete's sake! We'll still try though, it's better than waiting for a miracle to happen.”

I flew over the wall. Thankfully, no one saw me doing it. Rein on the other hand had her own way of sneaking in. She created a bubble and used it to bounce on the other side of the wall.

We wandered around the palace, hoping we'll be able to find what were looking for. We asked around maids, butlers, and other workers but none of them were able to answer. It would've been great if we ask the king or the queen directly or maybe the prince or the princess but we didn't see any of them. It was getting late and we were getting nowhere so we decided to leave and resume tomorrow. We were about to leave when a knight spotted us.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Hey, aren't you the kid earlier? What are you doing inside? Didn't we tell you that you can't enter?”

As soon as the knight stopped talking, Rein and I Immediately run as fast as we can. The knight who spotted us chased us all the way to the wall.

*Huff* *Huff*

We were about to go over the wall when someone important appeared. It's another knight, but his status looks higher than the others just by looking at his armor alone.

“What is happening here?” He asked.

“Head knight, we have an intruder,” the knight who was chasing us answered.

“Oh, we're actually about to leave anyways so can you just let us go?” Rein asked in a non-serious tone.

“A little kid huh? What are you doing inside here? I'll decide what to do with you based on your answer,” the head knight said.

“I was just asking people around, nothing more, nothing less,” Rein answered.

“What would a little girl like you ask inside a palace?”

“Nothing important really so can I go now?”

“If you’re not gonna answer truthfully then I guess I just have to interrogate you.” The head knight approached us slowly and brought out his sword. It looks like it's imbued with magic.

“Rein, now!”

Before the head knight even showed up, I already whispered an escape plan to Rein. She was just buying time for us to cast a spell. The head knight was shocked when he saw Rein using magic.

Rein casted a bubble of water. Combined with my energy beam, we created a smokescreen. The knights were caught off-guard. After the smokescreen faded away, we were already able to cross over the wall and get out of the palace safely.

*Pant* *Pant*

“Phew, that was close,” Rein said after catching some breath.

“Yeah, the head knight looks crazy strong, thank God we didn't fight him,” I followed up.

Rein and I distanced ourselves from the palace. We sat on a bench near the market and rested for a while.

“Aah, I don't wanna go back empty-handed,” I said while sighing in disappointment.

“It's okay Ms. Ina, it's just the first day. We'll have more opportunities in the future,” Rein replied to cheer me up.

“You’re right Rein.”

I was staring into the distance, thinking of sneaking back into the palace without anyone noticing, especially the head knight. I just have a hunch that the answer I'm looking for is inside there cause the drunk man was right, it really felt like someone was watching us the whole time. In front of me was a wall and there was a poster sticking on it. It caught my attention because the picture that was in the poster looked familiar. I got off the bench to get a closer look and I was right, The person in the poster is the thief we encountered yesterday and she has a bounty on her head.

“H-hey Rein, come here. Take a look at this.”

“What is it, Ms. Ina?”

“Maybe we don’t have to go back empty-handed,” I said while showing her the poster.

“What do you say about catching a thief? There's a reward in here. The money can help a lot back in the orphanage,” I suggested.

“You're right Ms. Ina, let's do this! Though how are we gonna catch the thief without knowing where she is?”

“Let's ask around again. There's still time before it gets dark.”

We asked around for clues. Like always, most people ignored us, some answered but most of them were just rants from the people who encountered the thief. Thankfully, we stumbled upon an elderly woman who gave the answer that we were looking for. She said that every midnight, she keeps hearing footsteps on her roof. That clue was enough for me to assume that those footsteps were from the thief so with that tip, Rein and I went back to the orphanage to rest and plan our next move.

“Ms. Ina, Big sis, you're back,” Fae welcomed us with a warm smile.

“Hi Fae, we're back. Do you know where Komraad is? I have something important to tell him,” I immediately asked her.

“Yes, Ms. Ina, He's in our room resting. He was pretty tired because he helped Mr. Miguel the whole day,” she answered.

Rein stayed on the balcony with Fae and the other kids while I went to Komraad to tell him about our plan. I woke him up and told him about the reward and he immediately agreed. I told Amalia that we'd be going out in the night but I didn't tell her our purpose. Thankfully, she didn't ask any further and said that she trust us.

We rested, ate dinner, and soon after, prepared ourselves to go back to the kingdom before midnight. I wanted to leave Fae out of this because it's too dangerous and it's already late but she insisted on coming so the four of us went together and waited for the thief to appear.

We were in an alley hiding when we heard footsteps coming from the roofs of the houses so we followed them. We were expecting the thief to arrive but we didn't expect her to have companions and all of them were kids like her. They knocked off all the guards near a storage room in the market with their weapons and entered it to take everything inside.

I followed the thieves inside the warehouse while the others stayed in the alley to ambush them.

“Everyone, take everything you can and head back as soon as possible,” the thief we encountered back in the market ordered. She appears to be the leader of the group. To be expected from someone who has a bounty on her head.

“Hey, stealing is bad,” I shouted from afar. The thief recognized my voice immediately and told her companions to take their loot back to their base. She stayed behind to entertain me.

“looks like we meet again talking cat,” she said to me while all her companions get away from the back door. she didn't know Komraad and the others were waiting to ambush them.

“Yeah, we have unfinished business,” I replied.

The thief ran away from the opposite side, away from her friends to draw my attention. She wanted me to solely focus on her so the others can escape.

I chased her just like before. She was fast but only fast enough to keep a short distance from me. When I saw an opportunity, I immediately attacked the roof she was stepping on to make her lose her footing and it was a success but she was able to regain composure by using her sword to lift her back up.

“Damn, her sword is annoying,” I thought irritatedly.

“Not bad cat. So flying's not the only thing you can do huh? Sorry to burst your bubble though but this is it.”

She pointed her sword toward me and extended it. The rate of its extension was fast but I was able to dodge it. I thought she was trying to attack me but I was wrong. She actually used that attack to give herself a boost. It pushed her back all the way to the edge of the kingdom where the wall stands.

As soon as she arrived, she climbed the wall using the same trick she used before but this time I followed her all the way up.

“You pesky cat, stop following me!” She said irritatedly. We were in the air, even higher than the height of the walls, I was about to reach her when her sword suddenly retracted.

She descended on the other side of the wall and I followed her all the way down. I was curious about what was on this side and the moment we landed on the ground, I saw something horrible. The other side of the wall was the exact opposite of the kingdom. It was full of small, dirty houses and it was surrounded by poor people. Most of them were sick and dying.

“What is this? I don’t know that something like this exists outside the kingdom.” I was utterly clueless about what was really happening.

I was so shocked that I ended up losing sight of the thief.

“Oh God, where is she?” I asked myself and started looking for her. I flew above the sky to have a better view and thankfully, I immediately saw her. She was standing in the middle of the street. She appears to be looking for something.

All the people around the place gathered around her. Old folks, kids in ragged clothes, and adults who were all skins and bones. They were all extending their hands toward her, asking for food and water.

“W-where's everyone? They’re supposed to be here already,” she asked confusedly.

“They won't be coming. My friends have probably caught them by now,” I said while landing on the ground.

“W-what do you mean by that?” She asked worriedly.

“My friends and I planned on capturing you and surrendering you to the palace to claim your bounty. I thought we were doing the right thing because you were a thief, but we didn't know that the reason you were stealing was because of these,” I answered.

I was overcome with guilt and my mind got clouded.

“Was my decision wrong? I don't know but one thing's for sure, I wanna make things right.”

“Let's go back and retrieve your friends. I know where they are,” I suggested to her.

“How do you expect me to believe what you're saying?” She said with a distrustful look on her face.

“Hey listen, I'm the only lead you got. If you want your friends back then you have to trust me,” I proposed while extending my paw toward her to seal the deal.

After what I've said, I still can't persuade her to accept my proposal, but I'm not giving up.

“Look, I was wrong, I totally misjudged you. Let's make one thing clear though, what you've been doing is wrong. Stealing is something you shouldn't be doing especially cause you're kids but you're friends being captured just because they stole food and water doesn't sit right with me. Let's go back and take them back before it's too late,” I added. After saying that, there's no way she'll turn me down.

She hesitated at first but accepted my proposal afterward.

“Fine, I'll trust you this one time but promise me that after this, you'll never chase after me again.”

“On one condition, promise me you'll never steal again.”

“F-fine, let's just get this over with.”

“Sure, but before we go, let's exchange names first. I'm Ina.”

“I'm Astrid.”

We shook hands to indicate a truce and after that, we immediately went back inside the kingdom to retrieve her friends. I just hope Komraad haven’t handed them to the knights yet.