Chapter 53: Cat in the Bag
With the four of us strolling through the city, which was slowly but surely filling up with people going to work or just leisuring at the hands of the sun, Faust informed us about more details of the plan. He held a thin stack of paper, each with either a drawn image of a cat or description of pets' characteristics. The ones with actual depictions had slightly higher reward per request, but the highest one paradoxically belonged to a simple list of characteristics of a cat.
"Although we took this request, we are certainly not under pressure. Finding a cat in a big city like this is a challenge, after all." explained Faust with a smile and shoved the most profitable missing poster into Nila's hands, "Now then, you said that you know magic that trails animals and people, right? Would it be possible to use these posters as a reference?"
Nila stared down at the poster that was no more than a written note with pleas. She then made her suitcase levitate and took out her notes for more "complicated" magic. While doing so, both Faust and Riaz slowly circled around the suitcase with expressions full of admiration. After referencing her notes, Nila closed the book and summoned the staff into her main hand, trampling the poster a little. It quickly hopped into her offhand and as Nila's emerald eyes were directed at the paper, a light from the staff indicated the beginning of a spell. She whispered, showing a light grimace, "Canes Negoti."
The stars from her staff sparked thrice, however, no visual change occurred, only a contemplative sigh escaped her mouth. Did it fail? Judging by her dissatisfied expression, failure indeed happened, but before I could ask directly about it, Riaz with a quiet admiration, "This is one complicated spell, not only it includes the entire constellation of a hunting dog, but also takes up the breath of stars from other two constellations."
Both me and Fuast raised our brows at his comment, I was seemingly wrong, since Riaz saw off something invisible to my eye just fine. The same went with Nila, who trailed the road with her own glare and shook her head before saying, "Loyalty of Sirius and resilience of Procyon are needed to enhance the detection range, while Wezen should be completely excluded to not overcomplicate the path."
"Oh, so you also forced an exception! Then it's no wonder we have not met anyone with such a spell before, right, Faust?" smiled Riaz to his friend, to which Faust crossed his arms and said in full confidence, "That's right, pal."
Neither of us believed in the sincerity of his words, but I did not have a chance to question them. Nila said, "You are quite knowledgeable about the breath of cosmos for a priest." Then, her eyes shifted to me, and Nila tilted her head while leaning her hand against the hip, "What did you learn here, Dusk?"
I huffed at her question and gave an apparent answer, "Nothing, everything went over my head."
She only shook her head with a sigh, meanwhile Faust patted my shoulder in understanding. I frowned at this gesture and stepped away from him, not noticing how Nila passed me.
"I suppose such complications are too early to study for you, but you also do not see the trail that formed, right?"
I followed Nila's finger, which was pointing at something invisible. Riaz rubbed his chin, awaiting my words, while looking at the spot Nila was showing. No matter how much I squinted, nothing seemed to materialise from thin air, thus I gave up and shook my head, confirming her speculation.
"I see, then it is even earlier than I expected. I guess, we have no choice but to lead these two, Riaz." she shrugged nonchalantly and moved forward, following the invisible path. Even though the superiority in her tone was unpleasant and almost made me reconsider my being here, I still tried to catch up to her, however, Riaz's confused expression halted me.
The priest extended his hand and said to Nila, "Where are you going?"
The elven woman turned around and froze in place for a few seconds, then she swiftly returned to our group and stood between me and Faust. Her eyes shifted at the ground, as she said, "Actually, nevermind, lead the way, Riaz."
The realisation of her dumb blunder struck me, and I rubbed my forehead with the chuckle coming from Faust along with awkward words of encouragement from Riaz that stated, "Strength in one area does not necessarily mean mastery in every area, right?"
We strolled along the path that led to the outskirts of the city, a perfect place for feline business, where the abundance of rats and shabby houses with cracks within wooden facades created perfect living conditions for stray animals. As we were walking, Faust was trying his best to get us talking. At first, it was small talk about us and our reasons for coming here. Naturally, we could not just reveal our imprisonment and battle against the harvester, even Nila conserved these facts. Over time, the talk shifted to more trivial topics, such as weather and predictions of how much pets we would find in a day.
At one point, Faust raised his hands to stretch and made a deep exhale, taking in the scent of burning oil, mud and manure that was lying here and there, on spots where horses were stationed. Then, he said, "Wohr sure is a great place. It's so peaceful here."
I scoffed at his comment, but did not say anything. It was hardly safe here, considering all the trash of society that I noticed while staying here for only 2 days now. The city was surely more presentable than Wiskoschia, but still far from an actual uncanny peace that I witnessed back in Wülgenville. The voice of agreement with me rang from where I did not expect, it was Riaz who slightly turned his head to us, in order to join the discussion, "I do not necessarily like it here."
"Is that so?" tilted her head Nila, "I quite enjoy it here too, not only is the city less chaotic than Wiskoschia, but… it also does not neglect the concept of money."
"It's all about money, huh?" I murmured, but was not heard, as Riaz answered Nila's reason for being fond of this city, "You sure can earn and spend money here, but there is literally nothing interesting to buy!"
"Does Nila like money?" asked Faust in half whisper while leaning towards me. I replied quietly, "Seems like it, but who does not?"
Faust cackled at my words, then accelerated to slam Riaz's shoulder with his heavy palm, "You only care about exotics! Enjoy simplicity!"
"But there are not any products from even the Schöltum region! How can you neighbour a whole other region and get nothing from trade? Its entire system is literally built on trade!"
Nila's ears twitched, indicating the resonance of Riaz's outcry with Nila's mind. She crossed her hands in defence and mumbled, taking the attention of the two bickering friends, "The one at blame is the penniless system of the Schöltum region, they gain more profit from trade with regions and cities further away from them. After all, their own produce is stable, and they are in no dare need of similar products. Moreover, they are able to earn goods of better quality from trade with other regions, as Wohr or any other city close by as an intermediary would disrupt this flow of fair trade."
Riaz rubbed his chin and nodded in thoughtful silence, meanwhile, Faust and I were a bit overwhelmed by her explanation, but respect for her knowledge was glowing in our eyes. How could this girl be so clumsy, yet so knowledgeable about such unexpected things?
Soon after this discussion, we abruptly stopped, or rather Riaz halted us by looking at the abandoned house near the city walls. It was a two-story building with wooden structure, but stone walls. One of the few all around the outskirts. This one, however, was remarkable due to the large gates, that took up half of the house. It was seemingly used as a stall of some sort, although I was not sure why it was this large. Nila had been silently glaring at it for a while now, and now I understood why.
Riaz turned to us and announced with a relaxed smile, "The cat must be there."
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