Chapter 13: CH. 13 | Searching For Thalia

"Are you serious? You’ll actually help me?" Sara asked.

Theo nodded, though he made sure to remind Sara to keep her end of the deal.

At the end of the day, the real reason Theo agreed to take on Sara’s request was the reward mission being offered.

"Of course. I’ll set aside one E-Rank mission for you if you manage to bring Thalia back," Sara said, "Give me a moment, let me go grab the file on their mission first."

Meanwhile, Theo finished off his food and paid for everything, including the beer Sara had been drinking.

Not long after, Sara came back, carrying a sheet of paper with the details of the E-Rank mission Denis’s party had taken.

Their mission was simple enough, guard a villager’s vegetable field during harvest from monster threats. Success would be confirmed by the field owner themselves.

It was an easy mission for Theo, and with Denis’s skill level, it should’ve been a breeze. It felt strange that they still hadn’t come back.

Still, something occurred to Theo as he read through the mission description.

"Isn’t guarding a field from monsters supposed to happen at night? I mean, monsters get aggressive and start roaming around after dark, right?"

"There’s a chance... they just haven’t come back yet because they haven’t finished the mission," Theo added.

"You don’t get it," Sara said, taking the paper back. "The harvest was done this evening, it should’ve only taken one or two hours. During harvest, monsters often try to attack and steal the villagers’ crops. Their job was to protect the harvest while it happened."

"Denis should’ve handled it without any problem. By tonight, they should’ve already been back. But there’s no sign of them returning at all," she added, glancing back at the line in front of the reception desk.

Theo listened closely, and yes, that scenario was entirely possible. He tried to piece together what Sara was telling him, though he suspected finding the two of them was going to be tough.

If they’d already finished the mission and still hadn’t returned to the guild, then there was a good chance they’d gone off somewhere else entirely.

That would make things a lot harder, tracking down someone who’d been taken off somewhere without a single clue to go on.

Theo genuinely had no idea whether he’d manage to save Thalia in time or not.

"If he really is a creep like you said, there’s a good chance they went somewhere isolated, maybe bushes, maybe the woods," Theo said.

"What about an inn?" Sara asked. Theo answered with a shake of his head.

"I don’t know, I doubt they went to an inn. Besides the village being close by, Thalia probably just met Denis recently, and taking her straight to an inn would obviously make her uncomfortable," Theo answered.

Theo let out a short breath. He had no idea what was going to happen, but he’d already told Sara he’d help.

Going back on that now would basically be admitting he was a coward.

"I’ll go out there and try to find them. But please don’t get your hopes up too high," Theo said, "If it comes down to saving her, that means going up against Denis, and he’s way stronger than I am."

"Just run back to the city if it comes to that, don’t try fighting Denis, you’ll lose," Sara advised.

The young man nodded. After hearing everything, he headed out to leave the guild. But his steps stopped right at the door when Sara came running up, carrying a black cloak.

"Wear this, it’s cold out there."

"Thanks."

Theo put on the black cloak and left the guild, walking down the main street toward the city’s west gate.

He was the only one walking against the flow of other adventurers, drawing whispers as he passed.

"Where’s he going? Outside the city?"

"He’s got a death wish!"

"Don’t talk nonsense. You don’t know who he is, he might be stronger than you."

He caught bits of their chatter as he passed. The cloak covered up all the gear he had on, so they couldn’t see any of it, which just left them making wild assumptions and guesses.

But Theo had absolutely no interest in responding to any of it.

His focus was on following the road out of the city until he reached Faxy Village, the location of Denis’s party’s E-Rank mission.

The farther Theo walked, the fewer people he saw moving along the village road.

It made the atmosphere feel eerily quiet and still, quiet enough that even the sounds of nature came through clearly.

His eyes swept left and right, and he noticed the water slimes he’d killed earlier that afternoon now giving off a faint purple glow, a simple sign that their strength had grown.

He left them behind and kept his focus on reaching Faxy Village.

From a distance, the wooden village gate came into view, marked with writing across the top. Theo finally arrived after a fifteen minute walk from Aluric City.

The village was completely dead quiet, with hardly anyone out and about that night.

House doors were locked tight, windows fully shut, though the lights inside the homes were still burning bright.

Could there be some kind of night monster roaming around, enough that they’ve all shut their doors and windows?

His steps stopped when Theo reached a two story wooden house, with a wide farming field right beside it.

Theo could see harvest tools still scattered across the empty field, left just as they were after the harvest.

Even so, Theo noticed something off about the whole scene.

Part of the wooden fence was broken, and sections of the field were a total mess, with a fair amount of vegetables and fruit lying scattered across the ground.

What actually happened here? This doesn’t look like the aftermath of a normal harvest at all.

Theo knocked on the door, several times, until he finally got a response from inside.

"Who is it?" a man asked.

"I’m from the Aluric City Guild. I heard someone came to help guard your harvest. I’m trying to track them down," Theo said.

"I want compensation!" the man snapped, catching Theo off guard.

"Compensation? Weren’t they here to help?" Theo asked.

"You didn’t see it? Half my field is wrecked, those damn rats caused me nothing but trouble!" the man complained further, "My son even got bitten and hurt!"

"Nobody from the guild ever showed up!"

Theo fell silent for a moment, now even more confused about what to do next. Denis and Thalia clearly hadn’t even shown up to the field to run the mission, that much was confirmed straight from the mission owner himself.

With him not having seen them at all, Theo’s job just got a lot harder, since he couldn’t ask this man anything about where the two of them might be.

But he wasn’t going to stop. He needed to ask everyone in every house, since even the smallest scrap of information could turn out useful.

He went door to door through the rest of the village, knocking and asking about the two of them. Everyone gave him the same answer, no idea, never seen them.

Right as he was about to give up hope, Theo reached the very last house near the village gate. He knocked again, and this time he got an immediate response.

"Did you see two people come through the village wearing armor and carrying a wand?"

"I didn’t see—"

"I saw them," someone cut in, a girl’s voice.

Theo jumped, immediately snapping his focus to her, "You know something? Where are they?"

"I saw them while I was playing on Yala Hill. They both went into the forest," the girl answered.

"The forest?"

"That’s Yala Forest, it’s close to the village, you’ll need to head north," a man said, apparently the girl’s father.

Yala Forest... right! That’s where I need to start searching. There has to be some trace of them left there.

After thanking them, Theo left the village and headed north, toward Yala Hill. There was a good chance the hill was near the forest, since the girl had seen them enter the woods close to that area.

Theo walked alone again through the quiet night. He drew his sword, bracing himself for whatever might come. From a distance, Yala Hill came clearly into view.

The hill looked exactly like the kind of place kids would play, not steep, not treacherous, nothing dangerous about it at all.

A large, shady oak tree stood at the top, surrounded by a wide stretch of open savanna.

If this is Yala Hill, then this has to be the forest they were talking about.

Theo thought about his Foresight skill. The ability only let him look ahead into the future, not the past. He had no way of knowing whether Denis had already gone back to the city or not.

He clearly hadn’t completed the guild mission, so he wouldn’t be heading to the guild. Maybe he’d already gone home instead, straight to his own house, there was no way of telling.

But knowing how much his status and reputation mattered within the guild, Denis probably wouldn’t risk acting that carelessly.

For some reason, Theo felt certain they were still somewhere inside that forest.

If they’re still in the forest, there’s a good chance they’ll come out through this exact spot.

All I need to do is look into the future and wait for them to show up, then follow their direction back into the forest.

Still, Theo knew using Foresight would burn away part of his lifespan, especially if he had to keep the observation running for a longer stretch.

The thought kept nagging at him, was it really worth burning his own lifespan just for an E-Rank mission?

Theo decided to burn a piece of his lifespan anyway, even if it only cost him a few hours. Whatever he was doing right now mattered, since a woman’s fate was on the line.

He steeled himself and stepped alone into Yala Forest, staying alert for whatever might happen.

Once he reached the depths of the forest, Theo stopped and climbed up a tree, taking cover among its thick branches.

Once everything was in place, Theo closed his eyes and began activating his Foresight ability.

[Foresight Skill Activated!]

It didn’t take long before he opened his eyes and looked ahead, the world shifting into gray, a simple sign that his Foresight ability had activated.

[Future Observation Duration: 00:00:00:05]

He still had no way to speed up the Future Observation Duration, so he just had to wait it out for however long it took. He could only hope Denis would show up without eating up too much of his observation time.

[Future Observation Duration: 00:00:10:12]

Ten minutes passed with no sign of Denis anywhere in the forest. Still, Theo refused to give up. Ten minutes wasn’t that much of his lifespan to burn through.

[Future Observation Duration: 00:01:28:09]

An hour passed, and Theo was nearly dozing off after such a long wait. But then he jolted awake at the sound of a human voice, one that sounded familiar, coming from that very spot.

He turned toward the sound, pushing aside some leaves on the branch to look toward its source.

It was Denis, walking out from behind the hill, his face glowing with satisfaction, his hands busy adjusting his armor as if he’d just put it back on.

There he is! He’s coming out of there... which means Thalia might still be in there right now!

I need to get moving before it’s too late!