Chapter 52: Clues

It was early morning, usually the streets were noisy already but now it was quiet and calm as most of the residents were still sleeping as the celebration went on way past midnight, almost until dawn.

 

“Mmmhm…” moaned Reignar, stretching with a relaxed face, walking out from the brothel he spent the night at “I love sleepy mornings like these.” smiled at the clear sky as he walked down the empty street, humming happily, dressed lightly, not bothering with the slightly chilly weather. “Hm?” noticed something in an alleyway as he was passing by, and it looked like a pair of fair, small legs, sticking out from behind some trash cans. “I know the homeless situation is not the best in this district, but father told me it has vastly improved in the past years…” sighed, then started to walk towards it “Hey!” shouted “You’ll catch a cold like this.” 

 

But when he got closer he realised something was off. The owner of the legs did not react in any way and when he got close his relaxed expression turned serious. 

 

“What happened to you…?” murmured, crouching down as a little girl, around the age of 8 was sitting there. Her skin was pale and slowly turning blue because of the cold and because she had only ragged clothes on, she was clearly someone living off of the streets. But the most disturbing thing was the completely blank look on her face. 

 

Her long, messy black hair was sticking to her body from the morning dew and her brown eyes were without light, just staring forward without any reaction, while drooling from her mouth. 

 

“Hey…” said softly, touching her cold body but no reaction came, but clearly she had a pulse and was breathing slowly “Did someone drugged you…?” murmured with a concerned face, checking her body but found nothing out of the ordinary. Finally he placed his fingers inside her mouth, releasing his powers but found nothing important. “You are not injured… I can’t feel any drugs either… what happened to you?” asked, furrowing his brows but no answer came. “Tsk… come, let’s take you home.” picked her up in the end, going towards the palace.

 

…

….

…..

 

“Did you find anything?” asked Sentios, biting into his toast, having breakfast as the others came back a few hours ago from their search. 

 

Most of them only shook their heads but one of them stepped out. 

 

“I may have found a clue. The royal family clearly masks their presence from the masses but there are always small rats scurrying around in a big city.”

 

“You went for the beggars?” rolled his eyes Yurik, sipping on a hot cup of tea “What are they good for besides taking up space?”

 

“What did you find?” continued Sentios, ignoring Yurik’s comment 

 

“At first, nothing much. The adults were useless, going on about the celebrations, but soon I came across some kids, they were more attentive to small details, also they are looking up most of the time and can spot details adults can’t.”

 

“Get onto the point.” groaned Yurik 

 

“One girl said “I saw a pretty lady with funny ears.” I probed her mind, she spoke the truth. She was last seen near the Vanguard’s General’s house, clearly a fox demon. 

 

“Oh? Xendar’s place? That complicates things. But it’s a logical outcome.”

 

“The father of that bitch?” snorted Yurik “We need to scout out the place anyway. It’s good if we can hit two birds with one stone. We can use our family ties to get in, my sister can’t ignore it.”

 

“I hope your clear mind keeps it’s cool then too and not just now.”

 

“Hmf.”

 

“Did you wipe her mind?” turned back to the reporting man 

 

“Yes. Her mind was weak, It probably broke after I invaded it.”

 

“Good.” nodded Yurik “We don’t need witnesses about us asking around. I hope the others you asked also got silenced.”

 

“Yes.” answered in unison every other in the room 

 

“Here.” placed a letter on the table Sentios “Deliver it to the household, we will go and visit them in the evening.”

 

…

….

…..

 

“Third Brother.” nodded Leinor as he and Ren arrived at the palace after being invited by Reignar which made both of them surprised.  

 

“Fourth.” smiled then seeing Ren his face became stiff and twitchy “Ren.”

 

“Yo~ You look good now, not trembling at all, seeing me~” giggled playfully 

 

“Please, spare me… Sorry… okay? I said it a few times already!”

 

“Ahahaha, no worries~ Soooo, why did you call us here?”

 

“Come.” said and his serious voice made them more interested as they followed him to his own side palace.

 

“Nice place.” whistled Ren as the garden was filled with exotic flowers, painting it in the color of the rainbow, while the small pagoda-like housing in the middle of it radiated warmth and peace.

 

“I always like a place to return to and just relax. Helps calm my mind too. I don’t keep anyone near, it keeps the aura of this place pure.” commented Reignar as they stepped inside and on the bed, facing the window, a small girl sat there, leaning against the headboard. She was cleaned up, dressed in a silk gown and her hair was held up in a bun with two jade needles as she just stared forward into emptiness, drooling into her lap. “I took care of her as much as I could…” sighed, sitting down on the bed, wiping her mouth “But as you can see, she is not responding to anything.”

 

“What happened to her?” asked Leinor, concerned, looking at his brother 

 

“It wasn’t me. I found her like this. I couldn’t find our father to ask, come and take a look at her, so I called you.”

 

“Where did you find her?” walked up Ren, checking out her, looking into the empty eyes but only saw a pair of black pupils almost as wide as her irises.

 

“In an alleyway. She was probably an orphan. I don’t know if she was drugged or if this is some kind of sickness.”

 

“Let me check.” sat down Leinor, holding her hand as she didn’t give out any reaction, not even when his powers slowly, carefully probed her “Damn…”

 

“What?” asked Ren and Reignar at the same time 

 

“Her energy channels are broken completely, it’s a mess. Her mind was scrambled up by a powerful force, clearly this is a work of a cultivator. She never practiced, her body couldn’t take it and her mind was the first to break down.”

 

“It wasn’t me.” said immediately Reignar as Ren looked at him again 

 

“It really wasn’t. There is no trace of our affinity inside her.” backed up his brother calmly

 

“You can check her if you still don’t believe me, she is a virgin.”

 

“...” looked both of them at him with a raised eyebrow 

 

“What.”

 

“...”

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“We can tell it if we check. What… oh… oooh, fuck. I mean, by our powers!” 

 

“Yeah, your powers…”

 

“Damn, anyway! Focus on the important thing! You say it’s done by a cultivator?”

 

“I’m sure. Someone who has some kind of special ability or skill, like hypnosis or something… I’m not really versed in that. He overpowered her mind or even read it. It's that forceful intrusion that made her this way.” 

 

“Do we have some kind of list of affinities that can do this?” asked Reignar

 

“Not really… hypothetically Uncle Boursat could do it with his blood powers.” replied Leinor, scratching his chin 

 

“I can also do it.” commented Ren “I may be able to reverse it. No guarantees.”

 

“You?” blinked Reignar, surprised 

 

“Yup. My affinity can influence a human body and I cut open enough bodies to know how they work.”

 

Her words immediately made Reignar shudder, further confirming his thoughts that he should avoid his fourth brother’s lover as much as possible. 

 

“Wouldn’t it kill her?”

 

“There is the possibility.” nodded Ren “The attacker was at the Harmony Realm and another interference may cause her body to just collapse under the pressure. That is why I said there is no guarantee.”

 

“You should do it.” sighed Reignar “Look at her. She is as good as dead like this.”

 

“I agree, Ren.”

 

“Mm. Let me try then.” said as she climbed up the bed, kneeling over her, holding the small girl’s head with both of her hands before transmitting her energies to her brain.

 

As they watched on, the girl started to convulse and foam at the mouth while her eyes rolled backwards, blood dripping out of her nose. 

 

“Come on kid… you can take it… Endure it, just a little more...” murmured Reignar as Ren focused on guiding his powers, establishing connection between her consciousness and her body, trying to overwrite the synapses in her brain while building new connections over the broken ones. 

 

The whole thing took only a minute before Ren let her go and the girl just fell over, blood still flowing from her nose. 

 

“Is she…?” gulped Reignar 

 

“She will live.” let out her breath, standing up from the bed “Still, I don’t know how she will be after she regains consciousness. We will see how damaged she is then. Maybe she will recover, maybe she won’t. Until then take care of her.”

 

“Me?” blinked Reignar 

 

“What? You are the one who picked her up. It's good training to take some responsibility at least once, not just disappear after the sun comes up.”

 

“Ugh…”

 

“Good luck. Tell us if she woke up.” patted his shoulder Leinor as they left, leaving there a stunned Reignar, who just sighed before helping the small girl into a comfortable pose and wiping up the blood.

 

“What do you think?” asked Leinor as they were leaving the palace

 

“No ideas yet. I’m not sure how the attacker did it or what kind of power he or she had. I’d need more, similar cases to search for patterns or recognizable clues and follow them back to the source. For now let’s go to Isha and Boursat, inform them to keep an eye out and search for others.”

 

“What if it’s them?”

 

“Them? But why would they do it?” asked Ren, with a raised eyebrow “It doesn’t make any sense, only…”

 

“Only if they are not really here because of us and it’s only a front, masking whatever they really want.”

 

“...” 

 

Furrowing her brows, holding her hands across her chest, she suddenly stopped in her tracks as Leinor looked at her patiently, also thinking what it should be.

 

“I’ll go back, speak with Niji and Emi, you go and talk with Boursat.”

 

“You think it’s them?”

 

“I don’t have any other reasonable thoughts. It’s either them or a revenge against your father and mine, for exiling your Uncle when they fought for the throne. Or this is really a coincidence and they are here to fuck things up, for the fun of it and to torture my mother and I. Either way, they may not leave this city at all. I’m starting to get pissed.”

 

“Got it. I’ll go speak with Boursat and Isha, then hurry back.”

 

“No need to hurry or panic. They wouldn’t do anything rash.” smiled, tiptoeing and giving him a smack on his lips “But do be careful~”

 

“You too. I bet that idiot is itching to get back at you.” laughed Leinor

 

“Let him try~” winked at him before they separated and while Leinor went to find Boursat, Ren walked home just to be there as a messenger brought the letter from Sentios, that they will come and visit that evening.

 

“I’ll tell the Lady and Lord.” nodded Hal as he took the letter, seeing off the messenger

 

“Guests?” came up Ren, as Hal gave the letter to her with a half smile “Yeah… I guessed so.”

 

“The Lady won’t be happy.”

 

“Neither Father. But this is good. I’ll take this to them. Uncle Hal, you should keep an extra eye out for them.”

 

“Do the Young Lady expect trouble?” asked with a wider smile 

 

“Probably.”

 

“Trouble it is. As you wish.” nodded before walking away 

 

“Ahaha~ This night I’ll make them regret coming to visit~” laughed to herself, going up the house, straight to her parents before finding Niji and Emi.

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