Nocturnio (25.1.9980 AS)
Although, it wasn’t that late in the afternoon yet, the only sources of light in the streets of Nocturnio were the streetlights. Usually the streets of the city would be flooded with people shopping, but not so today, the sudden change in the weather had caused most of the people to stay at home and so the only people on the streets was a lovely teenage couple. Or that’s how they looked like for outsiders.
Tristan was wearing a thick brown coat under its hood he was wearing a green woolen hat. Most of Tristan’s face was covered by a green woolen scarf only leaving his eyes free so he could see something.
Abigail who had claimed Tristan’s left arm for herself, was wearing the same brown coat, the female version of it of course, emphasizing her curves she was so proud of, after all they had just recently started growing.
Tristan didn’t mind Abigail’s actions; he even welcomed her actions since her warmth would also warm him up.
Both of them had been walking around through the streets of Nocturnio’s shopping district since the morning without saying a word to one another. The cold weather wouldn’t allow them wasting energy on useless things like speech.
If it wasn’t for their brown coats and the yellow insignia with the Guardian’s Academy logo on it, people would have asked them to stop walking around the streets and to hurry inside into the warmth. But knowing that they were young soldiers all people, especially the shopkeepers, could do was to feel respect for them.
“So CoLd… Soooo Cold.” Abigail broke the silence with a broke voice.
“Wanna have a coffee?” Tristan asked and pointed at the ‘Mitternacht’ around the corner. Today they had passed in front of that café more than ten times and each time they were in front of it, they would want to stop their patrol and go in for a warm coffee, but their sense of duty wouldn’t allow them to do so.
Now, none of them could hold much longer. They both had to admit defeat tot the cold.
“Yeah, please!” Abigail answered, speeding up to reach the ‘Mitternacht’ as fast as possible and so did Tristan.
***
“Isn’t this weather strange? The forecast for the week didn’t look that bad last Monday.” Abigail pointed out while still hugging the big bowl like cup of coffee she had ordered.
“Yeah, you don’t need to have to have my passive to know that this change isn’t natural.” Tristan answered with a serious voice. “The question here is why and how they are doing it. I mean a spell that can change the weather on that scale isn’t something someone can casually cast.” He added.
Abigail nodded in agreement. “I can’t even imagine how much mana it consumes to maintain such a spell for more than a day much less for a whole week, like the caster is doing it right now! I mean we had trouble to have a small spell that would warmed us out there for more than one hour!”
“Actually the reason why we had trouble running our spells was precisely because of the spell causing the cold!” Tristan answered worried. “We don’t know what the people casting such a spell are up to, but I’m sure it’s nothing good! If I had to pinpoint a reason I would say it’s to cover their illegal activities.”
“It’s still hard to imagine someone would do this just for the sake of hiding something from someone else.”
“Yeah, but I see no other reason.”
“It’s sad, isn’t it? Our first patrol in months that doesn’t have anything to do with looking for the ‘Clanless’ just consists of walking the streets in this cold to keep the public order!” Abigail’s voice sounded a little melancholic as she spoke those words.
“…” Tristan couldn’t deny her words. “But it’s precisely because of this unnatural weather that we have to keep our eyes open and look for the possible culprits! So maybe we’ll be able to do something against it. And wouldn’t it be awesome to left a conspiracy?”
“Yeah, yeah, but I still don’t like the idea of spending five more hours outside!” She pointed towards the windows of the café.
“Wasn’t it you who said “Any kind of work would be welcome as long as you don’t have to look for the ‘Clanless’ anymore?”” Tristan said with a teasing voice.
“Shut up.” Abigail said, turning a little red, trying to hind behind her cup of coffee.
Nocturnio (1.2.9980 AS)
One week had passed since their patrol through the shopping district of the city. Today Tristan and Abigail were once again teamed up to patrol through the streets of Nocturnio. Their get up didn’t change much from the last week since the strange weather phenomenon continued as if nothing.
“I hate this!” Abigail complained as they were walking through the streets. “I don’t mind the winter, but this is just too much!” She said and grabbed Tristan’s right arm to fight the low temperatures.
Tristan ignored her words and continued walking.
‘It doesn’t make sense at all; whoever is using this spell is spending too many resources on it! If they wanted to try a coup d’état, it would make sense, but why here in Nocturnio and not in Obscurati?’
‘I don’t know, but you are right, if they just wanted to cover up some preparations there would be many other easier ways of doing it.’ Schattenklinge replied to Tristan.
‘Doesn’t make sense at all, but my passive tells me soon we’ll know what they are up to and I know it will be something with a great impact on our lives.’ Tristan watchful eyes wandered over the other side of the street.
‘Well, there you have your answer, but the much bigger question is; why doesn’t the government react properly to this unnatural weather? I mean you don’t have to be smart to guess that this mess of weather was caused by a spell.’ Schattenklinge answered.
“Unless they are the ones behind it…” Tristan said out loud in shock, suddenly stopping causing Abigail to lose balance and to almost fall on the ground.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“What was that for?” Abigail asked in an annoyed tone.
“Nothing, I just thought I had the answer to a certain question, but it’s… nothing… yeah, it’s just nothing… that answer is way too silly to be true.”
“If you say, wanna go for a coffee again?” Abigail said and pointed at the ‘Mitternacht’ around the corner.
Tristan didn’t say anything, but just nodded.
They were in the city center, near the Portal Main Station, but the streets were empty except for the two of them and some people that were on their ways to their working place. All of them had something in common; they were all dressed in winter clothes.
“Hey, did you see that man there?” Tristan pointed at a man who was wearing a black while walking towards the portal station. It wasn’t the fact that he was wearing a suit that was alarming, but the fact that he wasn’t wearing a coat.
“Yeah, so what of it?” Abigail asked while scanning the man with her eyes. “I don’t see anything especial about him.”
“He isn’t wearing winter clothes!” Tristan screamed at Abigail, not being able to contain his joy.
“And maybe he just arrived to the city from another city.” Abigail answered a little annoyed by Tristan’s retorts. “If you don’t want a coffee, you just have to say so.”
*Sigh*
Tristan dragged Abigail as he moved towards the man making sure he wouldn’t realize them closing in fast. “Don’t you see, he’s comfortably walking from here towards the Portal Main Station, that means he’s leaving from somewhere around here while wearing normal clothing! So, why would he not feel this sickening cold?”
“Because he’s immune to it!” Abigail answered in a flash. “But what if he is using a spell till he reaches another City?”
“That’s a point, but he isn’t using any mana right now.” Tristan pointed out, while using his ability to sense mana he had learned from Ai.
“I see, so what does your sixth sense tell you?”
“…” Tristan didn’t answer right away since he felt a little hurt that Abigail wouldn’t trust his detective skills but would just blindly believe his passive. “Well, it tells me that man means trouble and it tells me to follow him.”
“Good then count me in.” She said taking the lead, and dragging Tristan with her.
They followed the man into Portal Main Station. Surprisingly the inside of the Main Station was way livelier than the streets outside, making it easy for them to hide in the crowd making it impossible for the man to notice them.
As Tristan had pointed out, everybody here was wearing winter clothing as they walked from Portal to portal.
The man walked past, most of the Portals that lead to the most popular locations and suddenly stopped in front of a portal leading to the farthest district in the south of Nocturnio. A destination so unpopular they would only open the Portal twice a day, once at 8 o’clock in the morning and once at 6 in the afternoon.
“Are you sure we want to follow him?” Abigail asked, since if they continued now they would surely get spotted by the man.
“It will be alright, you just have to play along.” Tristan said, and put his arms around Abigail’s waist.
“Hey… we’re… too you to do this, in public no less!” Abigail said turning all red.
“Shhh, he’s gonna notice if we don’t play this right.”
“Erm… Ok…” Abigail said still red like a tomato.
Tristan smiled as he took place on a chair a little further away from the man. He had used Illusions magic to hide his insignia that would give him away as a member of the Guradian Academy and made himself and Abigail look a little older than they were to the man.
Tristan made sure to keep Abigail’s body as close to his as possible, to create the impression of them being a teenage couple messing around in the Portal station.
The man’s eyes fell on them and uncomfortable wandered towards the ground, causing Tristan to smile victoriously.
A few minutes passed, till the operators of the portal arrived.
“We’ll be opening the portal now.” They said while looking towards their clock. “Are you ready?” The man asked into his Commu and waited a few seconds before finally casting the spell that would open the Portal.
A few seconds passed and the man passed through the portal after showing the other man his ticket. Tristan and Abigail waited a little bit, before doing the same.
After they arrived on the other side of the portal they suddenly felt a breath of cold air almost freezing them in an instant. Unlike the Portal Main Station the Portal Station they were now, was out in the open.
It took them a few seconds before Tristan could locate the man’s mana. As soon as he had him, though, Tristan and Abigail began to move.
“Shouldn’t we call Sabrina?” Abigail asked.
“Whatever you do, don’t call her, she’s just gonna try to stop us and tell us to return right away. But yeah, you are right, we should probably inform someone that we are up to something.” Tristan said and took out his Commu.
“Good afternoon Sir, this is Tristan… Yeah, me and my partner are doing fine, we are just calling to inform you that we might have found the cause of this weather phenomenon… Yes, Sir, we are now following the suspect… Yes, Sir, I think we can keep up with them, it wouldn’t be bad if you send reinforcements though…. Yes, Sir, if needed, we’ll fight the culprits by ourselves… Thank you for your support…” Tristan finished the call.
“Who did you call?” Abigail said, not liking the how smooth the call had gone.
“Principal Kuro, he said they’ll send reinforcements, but if they try to flee we should confront the enemy and buy time till they arrive.”
Abigail forcefully swallowed her saliva as they finally reached the place the guy had gone into. It was an old run down gym. Tristan and Abigail made sure not to get noticed by the wards as he used his gate ability to teleport them to the roof of the building.
From a small hole in the roof they could see the inside of the gym filled with about 50 men similarly dressed as the man they had followed. Five would always sit in a circle on the ground and another five would watch over them. There were five circles spread all over the gym.
“That’s good my brothers, if you keep up the good work, soon we’ll be able to start the second phase of our plan and punish those traitors!” A grey haired man entered the room followed by the man they had followed.
“See, I was right, those circles are the reason they the weather is playing crazy. The rituals they are doing cause the temperature to fall while blocking all other lower tier weather interference magic.” Tristan said while he kept looking at the scene under them.
“They are coming!” Another man entered the gym screaming. “They are coming, I one of our observers saw them talking to the operators of the Portal Main Station so they would open a Portal to our district.”
The face of the man who seemed to be their leader darkened. “Why we were so close! I guess it can’t be helped we’ll have to change locations, get ready to get out of here ASAP!
“Not with me!” Tristan suddenly appeared in front of the leader of the operation.
“Who are you?” The grey haired man shouted at Tristan.
“None of your business.” Tristan said accelerating towards the man and ramming his elbow into his stomach, sending him flying, causing him to lose consciousness.
“He is all by himself, he can’t possibly fight us all at once, so help me guys!” One of the men screamed and his companions responded with a loud war cry.
*Sigh*
Tristan dodged all their laughable attempts of hitting him with their fists. And one by one his fists, landed on the big, wild looking men abdomen causing them to lose consciousness.
Soon the men realized they had no chance of winning and tried to flee, he couldn’t possibly catch them all if they dispersed through all four entrances of the gym. But-
“I took myself the liberty to seal all the entrances that means you are stuck here with me.” Tristan explained calmly with a sadistic smile on his face. “Now who is next?”
“Please spare me! Ahhh-” Was all Abigail heard from the roof of the building. She had adverted her eyes from the things happening inside the gym, since she couldn’t see anymore how Tristan brutally beat the criminals that didn’t stand a chance against him.
Even if they used magic against Tristan, their actions were all in vain. The difference in their power levels was just too high for them to overcome.
After fifteen minutes, no one but Tristan was still standing in the room. Tristan could have defeated them way faster if he wanted, but for some of the men he took himself a little more time, to savor their despair a little longer.
“It’s not like I hate you or anything, but I don’t stand the cold weather, so don’t ever try to pull this again!” He said towards the motionless bodies all around him.
After a while Sabrina and the rest of their team finally arrived to the gym. The weather had already gone to normal and Abigail and Tristan were sitting on the roof of the gym enjoying the warm night.