"Have you found her?" I asked Micah the same question as every other morning before breakfast.

"No." He shook his head of golden hair. "Unfortuntely, I haven't heard any news about your bird's whereabouts."

Damn it.

I slumped against the large window of his office. Rain poured lightly outside, just enough to be unpleasant if caught unprepared but not enough to warrant an umbrella if walking a short distance outdoors. A faded rainbow appeared amid the gray clouds.

"It's been three days. What could have happened to Leona?" I wondered.

"If I hear anything, I'll let you know immediately," Micah assured me.

I had already thought to ask the System for any insight it might have had, but unfortunately, it had given me the usual response.

[ My knowledge about pre-game times and events that Players didn't undergo is limited. ]

I had an all-knowing System that could translate any language for me instantaneously. Yet, it couldn't find a single bird.

I moved my gaze from the window to look at Micah.

He was busy as always with stacks of paperwork and scrolls spread across his desk. I couldn't understand how he managed to get through everything so quickly. When I took over the Frey Merchant Guild in my original life, the most I could get through in a week was a tenth of the work Micah did each day.

So, where could she have gone if even Micah couldn't find Leona?

"We should get going to breakfast." Micah stood up from his desk and adjusted his white jacket. "It's not every day Father and Mother are in the capital simultaneously."

"Yes," I agreed.

As much as our parents loved one another and their children, they were often away taking care of business. It was a rare treat for them to be in the capital; even then, they were usually busy most of the day. However, they did their utmost to, at the very least, have breakfast with their family.

Micah opened the door to his office for me and followed me into the hallway. He had a slight smile as he appeared to think of something.

"What are you thinking of?" I asked.

"Oh, I was just remembering my seventeenth birthday," he replied.

I gazed at the tall hallway ceiling and its intricate white crown molding while reflecting on Micah's birthday.

I frowned.

One's seventeenth birthday was a milestone event in Adovoria and most other countries on the continent. And it was considered inauspicious to celebrate one's seventeenth birthday on any other day apart from the star-given day. However, on this particular day, Father and Mother both had urgent matters to take care of and had delegated the celebration to Kaiden. It was like that for all other birthdays, events, and mundane affairs. Our parents were too busy traveling and conducting business that raising Micah fell entirely onto Kaiden. And in my case, my upbringing was mainly done by Micah, as I didn't listen to anyone else.

"Father and Mother were unable to make it, like always. But because of the prank you pulled, they rushed back home," Micah recalled.

I chuckled.

It was my first prank that led to me becoming the prankster that I was.

To call it a mere 'prank' wasn't accurate, however. It was more of a grand scam. A con. An elaborate deception that played on the fears of our parents.

"I remember you telling me that you'd provide me with the best birthday and coming-into-adulthood gift. And even warning me ahead of time not to panic." Micah shook his head. "But I had no idea you'd do something like that."

"Well, when I asked what you wanted for your birthday, you said to have Mother and Father present," I replied.

I remembered the sad expression that Micah had when he said it. Micah had always been the perfect eldest child. He studied well, excelled in everything he could, and rarely showed anything other than contentment despite circumstances. However, at that moment, as he whispered his true wish, I realized that he was upset at our parents' constant absence, just like any ordinary person. Especially when it was for something as important as his coming-of-age celebration, which only came once.

'Ah, but I know how important their work is. And this is one of those things that just couldn't wait,' he had quickly followed up with a big smile and threw out some other gift idea.

However, my ten-year-old mind was made up. I was going to get him what he actually wanted for his seventeenth birthday.

It was the first prank I colluded with the local morgue keep, and I didn't let anyone in on my plot except for Micah.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Something I had noted as a child was that, despite Mother's constant absence and having missed many of my own life's celebrations, on three occasions when my life was in a perilous condition, she had rushed home with Father arriving shortly on her heels. And it was only on my account. Micah had far more experience with life-threatening situations. Still, they were rarely severe enough for her and Father to come home.

"I might have overdone it," I mused, thinking back on the havoc that ensued with my prank.

A bloodied bed, a freshly cut finger that matched my own, and a forged letter of my kidnapping by one of the most notable syndicates at the time in Adovoria were undoubtedly attention-grabbing. I asked Micah which of the syndicates he considered the most dangerous, and after a bit of thinking, he threw out a name: the Unseen Corps.

Interestingly, thinking back on it, it was surprising he didn't mention the Spiders. And after that prank, I never really heard of the Unseen Corps. They either disappeared or were absorbed by another group.

I was but a child when I pulled that prank. And honestly, the only reason it was successful was because of Micah's acting skills. He sold the idea to Kaiden and all the other Frey residents that I had been kidnapped and taken by this evil group. I think he was thoroughly entertained by being part of the prank, aside from what the stunt helped accomplish.

"Perhaps it was overdoing it." Micah shrugged. "But our parents did get better about spending more time at home. And it was certainly the best birthday gift I could have ever gotten. In fact, I'd say you gifted me two birthday gifts back then."

Micah flashed a bright smile at me and winked before entering the dining room.

While my method for getting our parents to come home for Micah's coming-of-age birthday celebration was highly questionable and repulsive in more ways than one, it got the job done.

That's how I got into the habit of pulling elaborate pranks for attention.

I frowned.

What had started as a means of getting out parents to remain home more often had escalated into my ruined and untrustworthy reputation. But that was the price I paid.

I followed in after Micah.

What mattered now was the present.

Our parents, Elda, Sarka, and Leonard, were already seated, with an array of foods spread across the table. Their utensils clanked against their plates. My eyes moved to the empty seat at the table where Jarvis usually sat.

And in the present that I'll create, my whole family will be alive and well, eating breakfast together.

***

The carriage rolled through the broken cobblestone street within East Genise. I felt myself bounce in my seat, thankful for the thick cushions given how long and rocky the drive was.

However, unlike the last time I went to see Freida Stran, the driver was more confident about where he was taking me. And Gerald gazed out the window out of the caution of a guard rather than confusion if we were in the right place.

Raindrops fell and rolled down the carriage window. To my relief, the weather remained gloomy but was no longer under the blanket of a storm as it was a few days back.

Given the weather, as it is, I should be able to inquire Freida Stran about Leona's whereabouts.

With three days of Leona having gone missing, I wasn't sure if she was even alive, but even if she had perished, I knew I would be able to bring her back with the next reset. I was planning to reset soon, anyhow. However, the idea that she might have been undergoing something painful or unpleasant in this current round still concerned me. And I didn't want to be in a position where her going missing was replicated in the next round just because I missed something in this one.

"We're here!" The driver called out.

Gerald jumped out of the carriage first and held the giant red umbrella I had him borrow from Remlend. It was perhaps overkill, given how light the rain was, but I didn't want to risk being soaking wet again in the unlikely event the weather abruptly changed.

I stepped out and looked out at the empty city street. Just like before, there wasn't a hint in sight that anyone actually lived in these parts.

"You'd have thought this place was abandoned," Gerald echoed my thoughts.

I smiled.

"That's not entirely wrong. It was abandoned. This whole place was cursed by a warlock a long time ago, and most people have been reluctant to return to live here," I recounted what Grandov once told me about this area.

"Is it still cursed?" Gerald asked. His eyes were wide, and I noticed him touching the old ring I had gifted him the last time we came here.

I'm surprised he wore it. Does he have the broken hairbrush tucked away somewhere too?

I shrugged.

"Who knows?" I beckoned him to walk me to Freida Stran's shop with its lopsided sign. "But the nice part is that few people dare to even come here."

It would have been problematic if Freida Stran's business grew. Or if someone with ill intentions to me found out she had been the one to source dangerous information.

However, I sensed she could take care of herself just fine. Otherwise, how else has she been able to live well into the future that I knew and remain hidden in the shadows from even those like Lady Agnese Hensley, whose syndicate had eyes and ears everywhere?

We entered the dark store, and I immediately pulled out a handkerchief to my nose. I didn't care to have yet another coughing fit because of all the thick incense and dust in the shop.

"Ah, Luca Frey. You're back," Freida Stran called out. "Well then, come hither. Let's get you sorted."

She waved her tan and sun-spotted hand over to follow her behind the hanging old green curtain at the back of the shop.

Perhaps it was because of her age or the type of work she conducted, but she was not one for pleasantries or anything she constituted as a waste of time.

I followed behind her frumpy frame, dressed in a yellow one-piece pantsuit embroidered in orange sunflowers. She always had an unusual sense of fashion and style.

As I sat down on one of the wooden chairs with peeling paint, I plopped a purple velvet bag with five phoenix stones on the table between us.

She gazed up at me with annoyance and pried open the pouch.

"Fine," she sighed. "The weather is going to be shitty the next couple of days anyhow. Two golden lamps it is."

I'm limited to two questions yet again.

"But before then, let's get the first two requests out of the way," Freida said.

She twisted in her seat and pulled out two large boxes that could each fit an elaborate hat. They were even patterned with flowers and images of bees. However, what lay inside was very different from what the outside suggested.

Freida Stran pushed the two boxes across the table to me and placed an opening rune key for each one, each in the shape of an old-school oil lamp.

"Everything you wish to know is inside, but I'll walk you through my findings," she said. "Now, which box do you wish to open first?"

"The one about the Fin and Spiders?" She tapped the box on my right, and then her hand slid to the second box. "Or the strain between the Frey Merchant Guild and the Selvine and Mentisun families?"

I did all I could from grinning. I was finally going to get some proper answers.

Natalia Ashford did a decent job at gathering information, but there was no one quite like Freida Stran. And I had all the money in the world to afford her services in this lifetime.