The Seeker | Volume 2

Other than the recent corruption incident, nothing out of the ordinary happened until Monday, when I had to attend the Silver Snake meeting and discuss the matters and accommodate certain requests. 

When I visited the historical society in the afternoon Arden and Cosette weren't there, and using my intuition I could deduce that they had already left for the meeting. I returned to my apartment and changed into my formal wear before heading back out the door. 

When I headed back to the Pan Marché de Bolivar complex and rapped on the door, no one answered. I remembered Cossette saying we can just let ourselves in. I headed inside the building and nonchalantly strode past the people working at their desks, then approaching the door at the end of the hallway and opening it. 

The lantern I held as I descended down the stairs provided me with ample light, and I was able to easily locate Mr. Dawne's office in the midst of the darkness. I suddenly saw something engraved inside of the stone wall, a logo.

"Pan Marché de Bolivar complex workshop." the logo said in italics. "So this was a workspace that was transformed from this base? Are the people working above even aware of such a matter, or do they allow this? Do they even know what the people here do?" I thought to myself as I approached Mr. Dwane's office.

As if he already knew of my arrival, he said come in in a low voice. I opened the door and walked in, and saw him dressed in a dark black robe with a white mask only showing his eyes, nose and mouth protruding through his wrinkled features. "I assume this is meeting attire?" I asked as the man handed me the robe and mask. 

He nodded without saying a word. He then left the room whilst taking the lantern from my hand and disappearing into the darkness. I managed to change quickly and began to follow him. When I arrived in the supposed meeting spot the dim overhead light emerged from above, casting it upon the other members of the gathering. 

"Me and my sister, even if we're temporarily suspended from advancing, are still looking for the necessary ingredients. Although, we are still blatantly unaware of how many we currently have." Arden said as he casted his gazes across the other members. Mr. Dwane cast his gaze over to me. 

"I assume our new member is unaware of the current situation, so who volunteers to accommodate him?"

The room fell silent. Mr. Dwane looked around and sighed in annoyance. "Well, the people who introduced you here are looking for the Order 7 ingredients for the Astral Routeway…" he suddenly waved his hands and an illusory green magic formed in the air. The air magic morphed and changed, eventually taking the shape of a piece of parchment paper, most likely made of an animal skin. 

"The fingernail of a Ravager beast, 2 drops of golden blood from a Demon Spider, and 3 grams of crushed Polimuour fatalist crystals." 

Cosette suddenly fell deep in thought, after a few moments she spoke up. "I'm aware of whereof the habitat where the Ravager beasts dwell, but the origins of the Demon Spider is something I'm unaware of…"

Cosette suddenly focused her attention on me. "Perhaps could you help me gather the Demon Spider blood? In return I'll try my hardest to gather information on the Cards of Replication and their possible location."

"Are you aware of the location of the crystals stated in the formula?" 

Cosette nodded as she gestured toward the small assortment of bags sitting on a table in the corner of the room. "We keep most of our ingredients inside the sack from which we could currently accumulate; that includes the crystals." 

I took in this information and sighed in relief, that's one less ingredient I have to scavenge for. But then I suddenly had a question. "But are you aware of where I could find the Demon Spider and its blood?"

"The Demon Spider is what the SNC labels a "protected species," so it wouldn't be one you'd find inside of a market, or even the dark market if you have access to it."

"The SNC?" 

Mr. Dwane nodded. "Yes, the Seraphis Nature Committee. It's become prominent information that the Demon Spider's overall size and stature is one that would scare a lot of people, but something tells me you could handle such a task." 

I nodded, taking in this information. Mr. Dwane suddenly stood up and approached a bulletin board posted in the left corner of the room. One of the photos posted showed a bulky and large arachnid-like creature. 

"This is the Demon Spider. Scientific name: Arachnicida borealis. It's about 3 feet long and dwells inside the forest with tall evergreen trees, or to make it simple, the forest outside the kingdom." 

He then unposted the picture from the board and handed it to me. I took the photo and folded it into my pocket. The image of the Demon Spider remained plastered in my mind, a testament to my long time studying and hyper fixating on spiders back in my own reality. 

"I wish you luck…" he said gently as he signaled me to leave the room.

…

When I reentered The Silencers headquarters I immediately saw Damien plastered on the sofa, sitting upside down with a mundane expression on his face. I could immediately deduce he was bored. 

He suddenly looked towards me and flipped back on the couch, meeting my gaze right-side-up. 

"You're back!" he exclaimed cheerfully. 

I smiled faintly as I ruffled his hair, before exchanging glances with Cattleya, who I'd now just noticed was sitting in an armchair reading a history book. "Damien is always well behaved, but I do find that he gets fussy when bored…" she said with a small amount of laughter.

I looked back to Damien and got an idea, perhaps I could take him with me in my pursuit of the Demon Spiders blood. Damien stood up, his pale white wings ruffling excitingly as if he knew what I was thinking.

"Well, I am heading out for a while, would you mind if I take Damien with me?" I asked Cattleya. She looked up at me and nodded. I noticed a tiny flicker of relief in her eyes…she was definitely glad Damien was leaving the place for a while.

"Well, I recommend you get a shirt on…" 

Damien nodded as he left the room, his steps more like bounces on the hard floor. When he returned he wore a casual collared dress shirt, one that looked like it could get dirty yet remain casual and appealing. 

"It's almost like you read my mind."

Damien ruffled his wings again as I walked towards the door and opened it, and headed out the door with Damien. "Did Oboro pay a toll when he first entered here?" I asked myself as I ruffled through my satchel, hoping to pick up some spare Lumin.

I let out a heavy sigh upon feeling no coins in my pocket. I now had 2 choices, sneak out illegally or go to the bank and take out a temporary loan which I'd have to pay back. I'm pretty sure no one else has any money they'd like to lend me, because when I previously read the newspaper talks of inflation due to the lack of materials coming from the Indun Empire as of recent days was impacting the economy here.

I turned towards the young boy, who was now holding my hand and rolled my eyes. "It appears I'm all out of money, so we'll have to take a detour to the bank so I can pick up a loan, is that ok?"

…

The previous incident of half-corruption was slowly ebbing at Aizawa, but it didn't stop him from going out today. He quickly gathered all of his things, his satchel, his Lumin and his casual wear before heading out of his apartment.

Since he didn't feel like eating canned food anymore, he figured he'd treat himself to something more formal. Since diners in Seraphis Kingdom were relatively cheap even in the midst of the rising inflation due to less and less imports, he figured it wouldn't be a financial burden. 

After some walking he arrived at a diner near the center of town, one that was quite full. Within the bar he spotted a lot of commotion happening. There were cage fights with different people betting on the victor between two rabid dogs, or casual talk in the left hand corner of the restaurant, a sharp contrast in the two environments. 

He didn't pay much mind to the match as he entered the diner and sat down. The diner was bleak and dull looking, a strange difference to the rest of the kingdom. His eyes suddenly darted to another figure in the corner of the bar, silently watching the dog match whilst sipping her drink. Aizawa immediately recognized her, it was Olive, the woman he'd met 4 days ago. 

Olive turned her head and caught sight of Aizawa before giving him a friendly wave and a signal to sit down beside her. Aizawa hesitantly stood up and approached the young woman before sitting in the booth next to her. 

After a few moments of silence she finally spoke up. "I assume you're doing good. I can't confirm that since when I saw you last time you looked like you haven't slept in days, and you still look like that now." Olive said with a hearty chuckle.

Aizawa also chuckled dryly at the woman's remark, but didn't pay it much mind. "Can I ask you something if you care?" Olive suddenly spoke up after another few moments of awkward silence. 

He turned back to the woman and nodded. "Yes." 

Olive's expression suddenly softened a little, and her blueish green eyes flickered with a tiny pang of sadness. "Last night my house was robbed, and I'm hoping you could help me track them down."

Aizawa raised an eyebrow. "What's stopping you from just visiting the police station?" Olive sighed again, leaning in a little closer to Aizawa, her shoulder brushing against his. 

"Unfortunately since they're still investigating some flesh anomaly they spotted inside of Isaiah Wall's jail cell, they were unable to help me…I guess robberies are very common here if they just swatted me away."

Aizawa's eyes flickered with a pang of sympathy upon seeing the woman's growing frustration, he suddenly sighed and said: "Well, if the damn police are willing to swat you away like that…I guess I could help you."

Olive suddenly looked up at the much taller man and sighed in relief. "Thank you, you're a damn lifesaver…"

Aizawa smiled faintly at the woman's surge of joy, but he didn't want to show too much emotion at this given moment whilst not knowing her all too well. "It's my pleasure. Now I suppose we'll head over to the crime scene?"

Olive nodded slowly. "I suppose, but I think we'll have to take public transport. Even if I did walk back to my house in the evening on Thursday my legs feel like they're gonna explode." 

Aizawa rolled his eyes as he said with a smile. "We can walk. Public transport prices have taken on a small increase, plus, relax…you can handle it."