~ Amber ~

A few minutes after Arund’s return, the pair of teenagers had moved out of the road and closer to a nearby residence, along with the guards and the unknown woman.

Amber observed the woman in question. She was somewhat young, probably between her late twenties and early thirties, and her demeanor was rather subdued, implying that she was dealing with some difficult thoughts. Amber immediately recognized the need to tread carefully with her, as she was likely emotionally volatile at the moment.

“When we were questioning people near the Central, this woman came forward and said that she had seen the attack happen,” Arund explained, “She believes she may know who the assailant was based on what she saw.”

Mint’s eyes lit up with hope.

“Really?” he asked, his voice incredibly desperate, “Did you see something?”

The woman appeared overwhelmed and began to back up. Her eyes were wide and Amber thought she could see tears being held back in her expression. Without thinking, she grabbed Mint’s shoulder and pulled him back.

“Amber, what…” Mint began to ask, but Arund beat him.

“What do you think you are doing?” the lead guard asked, his face hardening, “Do you realize who you are touching right now?”

“Sorry,” Amber quickly apologized, letting go of Mint, “It’s just that you’re scaring her.”

The men turned back to see the witness holding her hands to her chest and shaking slightly. Mint was the first to respond, immediately bowing.

“I apologize,” he offered.

The woman shook her head, visibly calming.

“It’s okay,” she stuttered, “It’s just this situation is very personal to me.”

“Personal?” Amber repeated, “Would you mind telling us what you mean?”

Still shaking a bit, the woman nodded and took a deep breath.

“I believe the man that attacked you may have been my husband,” she admitted.

Amber was shocked, both that this woman knew the thief and that she was willing to admit it.

“Why do you say that?” Amber further inquired.

The woman looked away, rubbing her hands together.

“He’s always been really kind, and because of that I never really thought anything of it,” she slowly replied, “But he’s never been very honest about his money.”

Amber nodded and beckoned her to continue.

“The truth is, he’s never told me what he does for a living, just that it’s enough to live off of. And that’s been true. Despite being as secretive as he is, he still brings in the money we need, never less. Sometimes he gives me more than I need, even. But I’ve always wondered what he does in order to get it. I’ve usually brushed off the concerns, a form of paranoia is what I always said. But when I saw the attack earlier, I thought I recognized him. I couldn’t be sure, of course, but everything he was wearing didn’t conceal his height and build, and his body looked exactly the same as my husband. I began to panic, and then these men found me and I couldn’t stay quiet.”

Was it possible? Amber certainly had her doubts, but this woman’s logic made a degree of sense. Usually, people didn’t hide their professions from their spouses. At the very least it was expected that the line of work would be mentioned if not the employer themselves, but in this case she had no idea what he did for money. A few things still didn’t make sense, though.

“You said that you don’t know if it’s him,” Amber confirmed, “Was there any hard evidence at your home? Like, have any suspicious items popped up? Anything that seemed illegally obtained?”

The witness shook her head.

“No, not one,” she admitted, “That doesn’t mean it isn’t him though.”

“Why not?” Mint interjected.

“Before we married, we each lived in different homes, of course,” she explained, “But even after we got married, he insisted we never sell his old home, despite his insistence that we move into mine. He said it was sentimental or something, even though the money would have really helped us.”

“That could easily be a place to run his ‘business’,” Amber mused, “Do you know where it is?”

The woman nodded.

“It’s near the inner edge of the Common District, one alley off the main road. It’s the only building in the area with a red door.”

“Very well,” Arund concluded, “All we need to do now is get approval from the king in order to raid it and see if we can find anything. And don’t worry, if your husband is innocent, it will be like we were never there.”

The woman gulped, and signaled her understanding.

“When do you think we can perform the raid?” Mint asked.

“Given your position, I believe tomorrow morning will be reasonable.”

“Tomorrow morning?” Mint repeated, “Most black-market sales happen at night! He’ll have probably sold it by then!”

“Be that as it may, there are official channels to go through. If this turns out to be a false alarm it’s on our heads unless we follow procedure. You know this, Your Highness.”

Mint clicked his tongue and looked away, visibly frustrated with this turn of events. Amber looked down; unsure she could do anything to make the situation any better. If what Arund was saying was correct, then there was really nothing they could do; they’d have to roll the dice on tomorrow morning.

“Arund, please take this brave young woman back home. I will personally escort Amber home,” Mint ordered.

“Your Highness, that would be unwise,” Arund protested, but Mint held his hand up.

“Please, just this once,” Mint demanded, “It’s only a short walk from here. I’ll be back at the palace before you know it.”

Arund hung his head, letting out a big sigh.

“Very well,” he conceded, “But this is the last time I’m indulging you for a long time.”

Mint nodded, and motioned to Amber to follow him. However, as she did, Amber noticed that his eyes were not filled with the defeat she was expecting. He seemed far too determined for someone who was risking his most prized possession, and it gave her the impression that he was about to do something important.

When the pair arrived at the door to Amber’s home, she turned to him, intent on finding out the truth.

“What’s going on, Mint?” she asked firmly.

His eyes widened momentarily before he schooled his features.

“What do you mean?” he responded.

Amber narrowed her eyes.

“Don’t play dumb, Mint,” she insisted, “You’re not going back to the castle, are you?”

Mint’s face fell, the defeat showing in his eyes.

“Tomorrow is too late,” he expressed, “I’m going to go finish this now.”

“Mint, you heard what Arund said. This could get you in big trouble if you’re wrong.”

“And if I’m right, and we miss it tomorrow, what then?” Mint asked, his face betraying his desperation, “You know how important this is to me. I’m not going to risk the opportunity to get it back on waiting until tomorrow.”

Amber’s face hardened.

“Mint, listen,” she demanded, “It’s not just the law that’s the problem. This is an adult man who makes his living off stealing things from people and selling them on the black-market, at least that’s what we think. Don’t you think he’d be able to take you in a fight? You’d be putting yourself at serious risk by going now. Don’t be rash!”

Mint sighed.

“I’ve made up my mind. Please don’t try to stop me.”

Amber’s fist balled and she squeezed her eyes shut. It was clear there was no convincing him not to go at this point, so that left her with one choice.

“Then I’m not letting you go alone.”

“Amber?” Mint replied, his eyes widening.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’ll go with you,” Amber offered through gritted teeth, “Two is better than one in a fight, and while I’m not a fighter yet, I’m active enough that I won’t be a liability.”

“You don’t need to…”

“Yes. I do. Because you won’t listen to me.”

After a dumbfounded moment, Mint sighed again, a sad grin appearing on his face.

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“Very well, I guess I’ll allow it. Welcome back aboard, Amber.”

Despite the seriousness of the moment, Amber couldn’t help but giggle slightly.

“Glad to be back,” she offered halfheartedly.

With that, Mint turned around, and Amber followed him back into the Common District.

The sun was beginning to sink below the horizon, and Clove City was beginning to darken. There were some lamps throughout the bigger streets, but most light was very dim and the result of candlelight seeping through windows.

Meanwhile, two teenagers could be seen in a side alley, looking at an auspiciously red door and whispering.

“Is this the place?” Amber asked.

“I don’t see any other red doors around here,” Mint replied, “I think that speaks to this guy’s personality, if nothing else.”

“That he has no taste in color?”

“Maybe he just has really bad vision, and the color helps him differentiate.”

“I doubt it. He lives with his wife, remember?”

After that the two started giggling, before Mint’s eyes widened.

“How do we get in?” he whispered.

Amber grabbed the doorknob and pulled. Expectedly, the door rattled and didn’t open.

“Door’s locked,” she whispered.

“I could tell.”

She next took a look at the tiny windows on either side of the door and tried to pull them up.

“Nope,” she confirmed, “And the curtains block us from being able to confirm if any stolen items are inside.”

Amber turned her gaze upward to see a window near the top of the building. She guessed it was where sunlight typically entered the bedroom, though there was no balcony attached to it in such a small alleyway. Getting an idea, she grabbed the bricks and attempted to climb.

“What are you doing?” Mint asked.

“This window up here,” Amber explained from the wall, “No way he locked this.”

Despite her confidence, she was having trouble actually doing the climbing. While several bricks jutted out near the lower level of the building, very few did once she got past the door, and the window was not easy to grab hold of.

“You doing okay?” Mint asked, concerned.

Amber assessed her situation. Above her there was only one more brick she could use as a handhold before the wall was nearly flat the rest of the way up. The question was whether it would be enough for her to reach the window, though it seemed grim.

“I don’t think this is going to work,” Amber stated.

“Okay, I guess I have no choice,” Mint replied, before moving back.

Amber immediately saw what he was going to do.

“Mint, wait!”

A sound of shattering glass could be heard, and in her surprise Amber lost her grip on the bricks and fell off the wall. Luckily, the fall wasn’t very far, so she was still able to land on her feet without too much injury, even if it did hurt for a minute.

Before she could think too much about her injury, she heard the door unlock and open. She saw Mint grinning in the doorway, and felt somewhat annoyed.

“Isn’t that supposed to be a last resort?” she asked dryly, to which Mint chuckled.

Amber shook her head and entered the building, and she immediately saw why Mint was so giddy.

“Holy crap,” she murmured at the sight from the doorway.

Even with the little light they had left, Amber was still able to see enough. Across the room, piles and piles of stuff were present, from floor to ceiling. Everything from furniture to boxes of small trinkets to piles of coins could be seen across the small room. The only places that were clean were a small path between the door and the staircase in the back.

“There’s no way this is all legal,” she muttered.

“Seems like I was right all along,” Mint smugly declared, “Now, let’s find my locket.”

Amber looked in the nearest box, seeing a large number of jewelry items unceremoniously tossed in. However, when she picked one up, she immediately started coughing.

“You all right?” Mint asked from across the room.

“Sorry, it’s just nothing in this box has probably been touched in years,” she gasped, trying to catch her breath, “Everything’s all dusty.”

“Same over here.”

Amber took a moment to slow her breathing, then thought about the situation.

This residence seemed like it hadn’t been used for anything in years, despite all of the valuables that had been stashed away. It was unfortunate that they hadn’t asked the woman from earlier how long the two of them had been married, as that could have been useful information for determining when these were acquired. However, it was also true that they hadn’t checked upstairs yet, and Amber had a gut feeling that was where the jackpot was.

“How much light do we have left?” Amber asked.

“Doesn’t really matter, does it?” Mint mused.

“If we can’t see, we can’t find what we’re looking for. You should know that.”

Mint turned to Amber and held his hand out. Above his palm, flames appeared, giving greater light to the surroundings.

“Right, you’re a royal,” Amber muttered to herself, “Fire magic.”

“Why don’t we go upstairs, then?” Mint asked, “We have all the time in the world, after all.”

“Yeah, until our thief gets back,” Amber objected, “We’re lucky he’s gone right now, but let’s not dawdle any longer than we need to, okay?”

Contrary to Mint entering the building, Amber took a lead in climbing the stairs. Despite the building seeming unused, the stairs were quite sturdy, and probably able to sustain the load of far more than a person’s body weight, or even two people’s. It gave Amber a feeling as to what was upstairs.

When she reached the top landing, Amber took another look around, with Mint’s light bleeding a little bit to allow visibility. While the second floor wasn’t quite as stuffed full as the first, it was far less dusty and still had plenty of items scattered around the edges. However, when she took a step to get a better view, she immediately lost her balance.

“Whoa!”

She hit the floor, realizing that while the floor itself had not caved in, she had actually stepped on a cylindrical object.

“Is this a chair leg?” she asked.

She picked up the offending object, which appeared to be made of wood. It was about half a meter long and about two centimeters in diameter, though she couldn’t tell what color it was. She looked around the room before she found a matching chair that was missing a leg off to the right.

After she got up, Amber noticed Mint had paused on the landing with the light floating above his hand.

“Seems like someone’s having trouble staying on their feet today,” Mint joked.

Amber shook her head and made her way toward the back of the room near where the front-facing window was, while Mint searched closer to the stairs. It didn’t take long for Amber to notice something important, though.

“The dust,” Amber realized, “Over here there’s less dust than everywhere else. Mint, could you search this pile?”

Before she could finish her sentence, Mint had already begun digging through the pile of stuff that Amber had pointed to. After only a minute of searching, he stood up with the biggest smile all day.

“This is it,” he breathed, his face glowing.

In his hand was a small golden locket, which was closed. An elegant flower pattern was engraved on its surface, and a small keyhole was near the bottom. Amber’s shoulders slumped with relief at this, and she began to relax.

“Let’s get out of here,” she told him, “We really don’t want to be here when he gets back.”

However, as she said that, she could hear quick footsteps coming up the stairs, and the two of them froze in place. Amber turned around to see a man looking at them, his anger clear to see.

“So, you two are the ones responsible for breaking my window?” he snarled.

“How did we not hear him open the door?” Mint whispered, though he wasn’t quiet enough.

“Not particularly good burglars, are you?” he snarked, “You left the door wide open.”

Mint gulped, and the man’s anger quickly gave way to a grin.

“Still, you’re using fire magic, aren’t you?” he commented, “I think you’ll make a good hostage then. Whoever your family is would probably pay a lot to have you back.”

“And what about me?” Amber demanded.

Despite her attempts to keep calm, her voice reflected the fear she was feeling, and she felt her body shaking. This was a mistake that they would pay dearly for.

“I’m not sure you’re worth much to me alive,” he dismissed, “Though you might fetch a good price in…certain markets.”

Amber shuddered, understanding exactly what he was implying. His smile widened as he approached the pair. Amber felt her fist clench, and in that moment realized that it wasn’t fully clenched in on itself.

The chair leg, she noticed, I never dropped it.

Gathering all her courage, she ran at the assailant and swung her right arm as hard as she could. The thief, taken by surprise at her outburst, failed to notice the large piece of wood headed straight for his head, and took a direct blow. Unable to withstand such a strong hit, he immediately collapsed to the floor unconscious.

Amber felt her heavy breathing begin to relax as she dropped the chair leg, the adrenaline quickly leaving her body. Mint immediately came up behind her and tapped her shoulder.

“Let’s go,” he beckoned, “We need to get out of here before he wakes up.”

Amber nodded, and the two booked it for the stairs. They both stormed down it and out the door, remembering to shut it behind them. Before they knew it, they had reached the main road.

“Well, I guess that’s it, then?” Amber asked, “You should probably go get Arund and have him handle this.”

“I guess,” Mint reluctantly agreed, “That’s not going to be a fun conversation, though.”

Amber smirked.

“Cheer up, Your Highness,” she teased, “You did the right thing, didn’t you?”

Mint’s shoulders slumped, and his posture broke down a bit.

“No, I think you were right. This was a mistake, one I nearly paid for dearly.”

However, he then smiled at her.

“But you were there to get me out of it, weren’t you?”

Amber coughed at his question.

“Well, yes, but I still think it wasn’t the right move.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he dismissed, “But seriously, thank you. You probably saved my life in there.”

The pair’s eyes met, and Amber’s smile grew to match his.

“I’m glad I could help. After all, prince or not, you’re my friend, right?”

Mint’s eyebrows rose.

“You mean you still want to be my friend? Even knowing my position and everything?”

“You think I would have stuck around this long if I didn’t?” Amber asked rhetorically, “I mean, maybe it’s not the most normal friendship in the world, and we probably won’t see each other that often, but I still want it. Is that so wrong?”

Mint’s smile returned.

“That’s very you, Amber,” he commented, “Don’t worry. Even if we don’t see each other again, I won’t forget you or what you’ve done for me today.”

Amber blushed slightly and looked down.

“Well, I think we’ll be seeing each other at least one more time,” she murmured.

Mint tilted his head in confusion before his eyes widened.

“You mean you’re entering the Consort Selection?”

Sheepish, Amber nodded.

“Yeah, both of us are.”

“That’s surprising,” Mint expressed, “After everything you’ve told me, you don’t strike me as the type to want to marry into royalty.”

“If I’m being honest, you’re right,” Amber admitted, “I have something I really want to do with my life, at least in the somewhat near future, and if I got selected it would make things a bit difficult. We’re mainly entering for Vulga’s sake. After all, the entrance compensation would really help her out, since she spends all her time taking care of us and not working herself.”

“That’s kind of you,” Mint complimented, “Mind if I ask about what you want to do, though?”

Amber looked up to see the sun had completely set.

“I don’t have long, but I guess I can explain a bit,” she conceded, “I mentioned my brother went missing before, right?”

“Yes, of course.”

“I don’t think he’s dead,” Amber confided, “Ruby doesn’t believe me, but I refuse to think he died when we lost him. I think he’s still out there somewhere, and I don’t know what he’s been through but after all he’s done for me, for us, I want to be the one who can save him.”

Mint looked away, pondering something.

“That’s noble of you, Amber, but what if you’re wrong? What if he did die back then, or he didn’t die then, but has more recently? What will you do?”

“I’ll keep looking until I find his body,” Amber admitted, “But until I see it, I want to believe that he’s okay. That he wants nothing more than to see us again.”

“Want to believe, huh?” Mint murmured, “Okay, that’s cool.”

Amber furrowed her eyebrows.

“What’s ‘cool’?”

“I won’t pick you,” Mint smiled, “To be honest, I’m not sure I’d want you for a wife anyways.”

Amber clicked her tongue.

“Thanks for that,” she retorted, but Mint waved her off.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” he laughed, “It’s just that, today aside, I’m not really the adventurous type, you know? If we ended up married, I feel like I’d be hindering that side of you, or you’d be dragging me all over Aurem just to satiate your hunger.”

“I’m not that adventurous,” Amber protested.

“You probably don’t realize it yourself,” Mint stated, “But at the very least you’re not as opposed to it as I am, right?”

Amber simply shrugged and conceded the point.

“Oh,” Mint continued, “But I hope you don’t mind if I keep you in mind as a safety pick, right? For all I know all the other girls are going to be unbearable and you’ll be the only decent person there.”

“Well, me and Ruby, at least,” Amber murmured.

For some reason, Mint broke eye contact at the mention of Ruby, but he continued nonetheless.

“Yeah. So would that be a problem?”

“I suppose if it’s only to hedge your bets, I can bail you out. That’s a fair compromise,” Amber agreed.

Mint nodded and stood for a moment, before turning to Amber and giving her a heartfelt expression.

“Thank you, Amber,” Mint expressed, “For everything. I’m glad I can call you my second friend.”

Amber gave her own genuine smile, before turning around and heading home. It was a long day, probably the longest that she had since the day that she left the orphanage, but today ended on a much better note.

For the first time in three years, she had made a new friend.