Despite his newly arranged hectic schedule, Soral made sure to leave plenty of time for spy hunting. After all, it was an activity that could be done while doing other things. Other things meaning his errands around The Oasis.

During the nights he had freed up, Soral had perfected all kinds of magic. This included a lot of the convenient magic he had wanted. He had even found a way to access some of the media from Nicholas’s home. It was hard, and took a lot of magic, so Soral focused on searching for things about heroes.

That was when he came to a shocking realization. In Nicholas’s home world, heroes disguised themselves with strange clothing and a fake name to protect their ordinary lives. That was why his current errand, and venue for his spy hunting, was the tailor’s. Soral intended to learn how to make his own clothing to streamline the process and avoid any awkward questions.

The tailor’s band was purple. So was Kristy’s, so Soral figured it had something to do with people who made things. He was apprehensive at first, but when he saw how quickly Soral improved, he invited him to join the others. And this was when Soral did some light probing with his little thought eavesdropping skill.

He wasn’t sure what to call it yet. Mind reading sounded bland, and there was no reading involved. Just listening. Telepathy was something more like what Flame and Ember had. It went both ways.

The tailor’s thoughts were mostly full of pride and money. Not a spy, but not someone Soral particularly wanted to know. Some of the others tried to impress Soral to maybe join his circle of friends. Soral wasn’t even aware he had a circle of friends.

Soral had noticed another odd thing when testing his eavesdropping. With his fame and popularity, he didn’t even have to guide them to think about their secrets. He couldn’t figure out why, but they often started thinking of them on their own.

This was the case for the individual who sat by Soral as he worked in the tailor’s workshop. Even before he activated the magic, Soral could tell he was nervous.

‘Is that really Soral? What do I do? Will he notice? I want to thank him, but I don’t know who might be watching. Will he really take down the doctor? I should definitely take his side.’

His thoughts were racing in a scrambled mess. Normally Soral would have passed on by now, but the mentions of Doc made him pause. He didn’t know why, but he was sure it was Doc that he was thinking of.

‘Why is he even in the tailor shop? Did he know a spy was hiding here? Is he going to turn me in?’

Spy confirmed, but a confused one with no loyalty. He would probably have to actually ask him something to get any more than that, though. Soral considered it, but decided not to bother. He didn’t seem like he would know anything useful. He focused instead on finishing his first project, a top hat. For some reason, he thought the design would look good in green, but this one wasn’t for him.

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After that, he dropped by the greenhouse. He found another nervous spy as he learned how to garden. This one thought about Doc’s mysterious partner who lent him terrifying servants to watch them and keep them in line. In other words, Doc had loyal spies hiding around here somewhere, and they were scary somehow.

His green thumb acquired, Soral left to pursue another concern of his. Architecture. Ruena’s home really was far too small, and he believed in Sibel’s words that things were more fun if done himself. He also didn’t have to worry as much about the money side of things if he did. Lucky, the lead architect in The Oasis used magic to construct things, and taught Soral his methods.

Magic was so incredibly convenient. He still had to learn some basics like stability, foundation, and design. Among the architects there was yet another spy. Soral was able to learn from this one that there were spies everywhere, but they had been controlled by collars that Doc created. When Soral destroyed Gero’s collars, he had destroyed Doc’s as well.

It was a bit concerning to learn about the sheer number of spies, but all of them were sure to change sides the moment Soral found the scary loyal spy. There had to be at least one around to keep everyone in line, but Soral didn’t know where to look.

As he was pondering where to begin his search, Rosalie approached him for another planning meeting. It was an unwelcome waste of time, until Soral realized that is exactly where the leader of the spies would be.

“We just uncovered some information you need to hear,” Rosalie pressed when she saw him hesitate.

“Fine,” Soral agreed. As he had been all day, he eavesdropped a little on her thoughts as they walked to the meeting room.

‘It’s over. Once Soral falls for this lie, he will play right into that vile man’s hands. I wish I could warn him, but I cannot go back to that place.’

Soral almost tripped as her thoughts full of desperation and disgust resonated louder in his mind than he was used to. Perhaps it was due to the fact she wanted to communicate with him but couldn’t? And he didn’t know where ‘that place’ was, but he felt the familiar darkness of nightmares from it.

He felt shocked and oddly betrayed that Rosalie could be the lead spy, but he continued listening. She knew more than the others. That didn’t mean she was the leader, just that she was close.

‘I suppose I should consider myself lucky. As long as that vile man keeps his pact, a nightmare like me is allowed to roam freely in reality. I should just follow orders as I have been and close my eyes to everything.’

“A nightmare?” Soral asked out loud, and immediately regretted it when Rosalie froze and slammed him against the wall of a nearby building. Her strength was the last thing he expected from a blue band, but the terror in her eyes made him focus on the issue.

Bluffing wouldn’t work here. Not with her overreaction. Instead, he just asked what he wanted to know. “Who did Doc make a pact with?”

‘How does he know?! What should I do? Will the nightmare king drag me back to his realm? I need to distract him somehow. Lie, let’s lie.’

“The Black Wolf,” she told him, “Did you really think that control freak is on Oasis’s side?”

As much as Soral didn’t like this Black Wolf guy, he was known for keeping his promises. That and he already knew she was lying.

“I can hear your thoughts,” he confessed, “So just give up. Maybe I can help you too. That way you don’t have to follow Doc or go back there.”

“That’s impossible,” Rosalie spat, “Oasis may think highly of you, but there is no hero before the nightmare king.”

“Maybe not, but I can make deals too,” Soral suggested.

Rosalie shuddered and shook her head. “No. The price he asks for is always nightmares. You don’t want to be responsible for the nightmares of others.”

Soral paused and thought to his every night’s torment. “What if I offer my own?”

“Are you insane?! Forget this idea. Just sacrifice me and save the rest as you should. That is the role of a hero.”

“I don’t like that,” Soral replied, “I’m the hero, so I get to decide what my own role is. Tell me how to meet this nightmare king.”

Rosalie could tell he wasn’t going to stop no matter what she said, and he could hear her thoughts anyway. “Fine, but let me play my role here first. Just keep in mind, everything i am about to say in the meeting is a lie.”

She released him from her hold and he let out a breath. His shoulders were a bit sore, and her fist had damaged the building. Soral fixed it with magic before anyone else could notice, though. He followed her to the meeting, curious what kind of lies Doc wanted to spread to the team built to take him down.