20 16. Apprentice Mage Io
They all returned to the city to find Sierokarte, and after a while they arrived at Sierokarte's shop and found her talking with a customer.
After waiting for Sierokarte to finish, they approached her.
"oh hello everyone! How's the job going?" Sierokarte welcomed them with a smile.
"Lemme put it this way: we've got zero clues, some weird girl is trailing us, and I can't figure out how to walk on the sand..." Rackam shook his head while answering Sierokarte.
After that, Rei gave Sierokarte a description of the girl he had met.
"Hm... So she's a mage..." Sierokarte tried to remember if she ever meet mage girl like in Rei description before or not.
"Is there anything you can do, Siero?" Lyria asked Sierokarte because she was curious about the girl.
"I'll do what I can," Sierokarte replied, patting her chest.
"Thanks. We're counting on you, Siero," Djeeta said to Sierokarte as they left the shop so she could continue with other customers.
They continued to search for clues about the archduke, but by the end of the day, they hadn't found anything at all.
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >
In the evening Rei told them that he wanted to go around and see the city.
He then parted ways with them and started walking around the city but before he could go far Lyria suddenly approached him and said she wanted to go with him.
At first, Rei wanted to refuse Lyria because he wanted to go back outside the city and look for Io, then find the Archduke before he used the primal crystal to activate the Colossus.
But Lyria kept insisting Rei to let her follow him while making a pleading face and eyes that looked like they were about to cry.
Seeing Lyria's face like that made him really want to let her join, but he didn't want Lyria to get hurt if she followed him.
Despite that, in the end Rei finally allowed Lyria to follow him, upon hearing that Lyria immediately looked cheerful and her eyes sparkled even though before she seemed like she was about to cry.
Seeing Lyria can change her facial expression so quickly, Rei could only shake his head and wonder who taught her to be like this.
"Achoooo!" Meanwhile, at the inn, Katalina and Rackam suddenly sneezed, and Djeeta and Vyrn asked if they were okay.
Finally, Rei and Lyria, who were next to each other, began to walk around the city. They couldn't see anything except for the smoke coming out of many buildings around them.
But even so, Lyria looked happy because this city was really different from Port Breeze and she was amazed by the many things that this city created.
After a while, Rei told Lyria that he was going back to the Sarwa Desert and looking for the girl he met before.
Lyria stared at Rei suspiciously and finally asked, "That girl isn't a Draph, right?"
Rei, upon hearing this, could only stare at Lyria blankly and then gave her more details about the girl he had met before.
After hearing more details about the girl, Lyria looked happy because maybe she could have a new friend, even though the girl seemed younger than her.
In the end, Lyria still wanted to go with Rei to the Sarwa Desert and look for the girl, and as before, after pleading with Rei, she was able to join him.
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >
(Sarwa Desert - Valtz Duchy)
Rei and Lyria were seen walking in the desert, looking around trying to find that girl.
Rei was holding his golden sword, or the Sword of Repudiation; he didn't want to be careless and let Lyria get hurt, so he was serious using his sword.
They continued to walk through the desert, and Rei killed many monsters attacking them because more monsters appeared as it got darker.
Rei tried to focus on listening; maybe he could hear Io fighting monsters, but all he heard was the sound of the sand blowing in the wind.
After a while, it started to get dark around them as night was approaching, and Lyria looked tired because they had been out since morning searching for clues about the Archduke.
Rei finally decided to return to the city with Lyria, but on the way, Lyria looked too exhausted to walk in the desert, so Rei carried her and continued on to the city.
"I don't know where my master is!"
Rei suddenly heard a voice from certain direction; Rei knew from the voice that it was Io and told Lyria to hold on tight.
Lyria heard this and hugged Rei's neck a bit tightly, and finally, Rei ran towards the voice.
Rei and Lyria finally arrived at the location and saw the girl with Sturm and Drang.
"Huh?" Rei was confused as to why Drang and Sturm were there.
Io, Drang, and Sturm were shocked by the sudden arrival of these people.
While Drang and Sturm were preparing to knock out the people who found them as they wanted to kidnap Io to force Djeeta and the others to reveal the Archduke's location.
They thought Djeeta and the others knew the Archduke's location because they had met someone who knew the Archduke, even though that person didn't know where the Archduke was.
But when they saw that it was Rei and Lyria who had come, both of them began to give up on their initial plans.
It would be impossible for them to fight against Rei, especially when he was with Lyria. If Lyria got hurt, they could both be easily killed by the swing of the sword he was carrying.
Meanwhile, Lyria, recognizing Drang and Sturm, started to greet them.
"Hey Drang, hey Sturm!" Lyria waved her hand at them while being carried on Rei's back.
As Io noticed their distraction, she attempted to disappear using magic once more, but suddenly Sturm moved behind her, grabbed both of her hands, and stopped her spell.
"Ughh! Let me go, what are you doing?" Io yelled, trying to break free from Sturm's grip.
Seeing this, Lyria became a bit worried about the girl and puzzled about the situation.
Rei wanted to help Io, but before he could make his move, Drang seeing Rei's intentions suddenly talk to him.
"Wait, we just want to ask her about the Archduke's location."
Drang then explained to Rei and Lyria that the Archduke had previously collaborated with the empire to research something with them, but suddenly disappeared, and they were now searching for him.
"Is it alright for you to tell us that?" Rei asked Drang.
Upon hearing this, Drang just laughed and said, "It's okay; this plan has failed anyway, and as friends, we should help each other."
Rei and Lyria just stared blankly at Drang because they were mercenaries from the empire, making them enemies at the moment.
Rei sighed and told Lyria he would put her down for a moment so he could talk to Io, who was still being held by Sturm.
Rei approached Io, glanced at Sturm, and nodded.
Sturm, seeing this, sighed and released Io, who immediately ran behind Rei. Compared to Drang and Sturm, she trusted Rei more, especially after he had helped her before.
She appeared to be hiding behind Rei, glaring at Sturm, afraid of being captured again.
Rei then introduced himself to Io.
"Hi, my name is Rei, and the girl with blue hair is Lyria. Can you tell us your name?"
"Io... My name is Io," Io replied softly, but Rei could hear her.
Lyria then approached Io, who was standing behind Rei.
"Wow, you're so cute, and your hair looks so beautiful," Lyria admired Io's hair with her twin-tailed style, noticing the blue and green ends that differed from her gray hair color.
[IMAGE]
Rei then continued his introduction.
"And the woman with red hair is Sturm, and the man with blue hair is Drang. They are both mercenaries hired by the mercenary."
Drang then approached them.
"Haha, as he said, I am Drang, and as we mentioned, we just want to know the Archduke's whereabouts, and we will leave from here."
"If you tell me, I will give you some candy I have." Drang took out a bunch of candies from his pocket.
Seeing this, Io was slightly annoyed because she hated being treated like a child, even though she was only 11 years old.
"Hah!? I don't want candy from you, and stop treating me like a child." Io pouted and turned to the side.
Seeing this, Lyria looked like she really wanted to hug Io because she looked so cute pouting like that.
"And I also don't know where my teacher is... I've been searching for him since he disappeared, but I haven't had any luck finding him at all." Io suddenly said, looking down and kicking the sand beneath her.
Seeing Io like that, Drang gave up on questioning her and eventually returned to Sturm, where they both appeared to be discussing something.
While Drang and Sturm were talking, Rei and Lyria informed Io about their mission.
They told her that they had been tasked by a friend of the Archduke to find him, but so far, they hadn't found anything.
Lyria then offered Io to join them in searching for the Archduke because the more people looking, the better.
At first, Io refused and wanted to search on her own, but as usual, Lyria insisted and said that they could help and it would be safer than being alone.
Suddenly, Sturm and Drang approached them.
They told Rei and Lyria that the empire has a secret island that they no longer use to researching something for the empire.
They revealed its location and suggested that they might find something there.
"So... why are you telling us this?" Rei asked them skeptically.
"Hahaha, I told you we should help each other as friends, and the island hasn't been used since the Archduke disappeared, so it's not a problem," Drang proudly answered Rei.
"Besides, we can't check the island because we don't have an airship to get there, but you have the Grandcypher, so you can easily go there."
"!!?" Rei suddenly took notice of his surroundings.
Seeing Rei like that puzzled Lyria, Drang, and Sturm because they couldn't sense what Rei was feeling.
"There's something approaching us, and there are a lot of them, so be prepared," Rei warned them.
Upon hearing this, Drang and Sturm immediately prepared their weapons, while Lyria moved behind Rei.
Io, seeing them act like that, was a bit confused, but suddenly many golems surrounded them.
Io was shocked because the golems appeared out of nowhere and began to prepare herself.
"So, what do we do now?" Drang asked, looking at them while observing the golems surrounding them.
"Of course, We take care of the golems that surrounding us" Rei answered Drang while preparing his weapon
Not long after, they all successfully defeated the golem. At the beginning, Sturm found it difficult because her sword couldn't penetrate the golem's armor, but Rei easily helped her by slashing the golem with his sword.
After defeating them all, Rei realized that Drang and Sturm had disappeared, leaving him confused about how they could have disappeared so quickly.
Meanwhile Io stood silently, observing the destroyed golems around them.
Lyria, seeing Io like that, approached her and asked about her condition.
"Io? What's wrong with you? Are you hurt?"
"No...I'm fine...It's just that when we were fighting the golem, I could feel the magic of my teacher from inside it," Io replied to Lyria as she continued to look at the golem.
"Your teacher? Could it be the archduke?" Lyria recalled that whenever Io mentioned the archduke, she always called him her teacher.
Io then explained to both of them that the archduke was her teacher who had taught her various types of magic and had inspired her to become a mage.
Hearing this, Lyria was surprised because she didn't expect them to find a student of that archduke.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Rei asked Io.
Io thought for a moment and then looked seriously at Rei and Lyria.
"Please let me join you and help me find my teacher," Io said to them, bowing and pleading because she wanted to find her teacher and ask why he was doing this.
Lyria immediately hugged Io and said they would be happy if she joined them.
Rei, seeing the two of them like that, could only smile and suggest they return to the city because it was getting dark.
They all agreed, and the three of them began to walk back to the city to inform Djeeta and the others of the information they had obtained from Drang.
