Races: Online

When Doug jabbed a stick in the newcomer kid's chest, the boy couldn't help but sigh and rub his face. In everyone's eyes, he was nothing more but a grubby child with dark hair and green eyes.

A bit of an inspiration really.

However, his appearance soon changed, the dark and tousled hair of the boy started shifting to a red color and well, his eyes shifted into a more blue color. He stood up proudly and addressed the 'leader' of this so-called gang with a little sniff.

"Who am I? It's none of your concern, but I'm here to gather information in regards to those three fugitives… or perhaps kidnap one of you if necessary. So what do you say? Let's give up this charade and all of you give me what I want? I assure that nobody shall be harmed."

"Oi, it's a redhead!" One of the kids exclaimed and then suddenly whispered at one another. Presumably even they would be able to tell which family consisted of his vibrant crimson hair.

"Wait, did he say kidnap?" another one said as they focused on the important bits. 

Several of the kids suddenly made sounds of disgruntlement and anger. "He's going to kidnap one of us and use them as a hostage! Get him!"

Before Elliot Primrose knew it, almost the rest of the kids, except for Doug who was still holding a stick, had quickly pulled out different sets of weapons. Most of them held daggers or knives, but then there were others with slingshots and other more 'sophisticated' weaponry.

Elliot blinked for a moment at the suddenness and then ground his teeth. How fast could he cast a spell before one of these idiots actually managed to stab him? Even one accidental game of luck made it possible if even one of them had decent dodge skills.

"You know, pretty girl," Doug narrowed his eyes at Elliot.

"I'm a boy," Elliot flatly said.

Doug suddenly coughed and averted his gaze. "Tell us who you work for and we might let you go?"

"Seriously, Doug?!"

"Hailey's a better leader!"

"He probably works for the government!"

"Hah…" Elliot shook his head lightly.

… Maybe there was a reason why that stupid Professor told him to actually try and just lure one of them away. And yet it wasn't exactly Elliot's fault as to why he couldn't blend in, right? One couldn't hide their upbringing and everything these kids were saying was absolute nonsense to him.

Of course, Elliot would try to speak up against their needless violence. And yet it didn't take him that far. While Elliot may have successfully copied the contents of Sir Leon's letter earlier when he encountered Donovan with his dear sister…

This new infiltration mission happened to be a lot harder than it. 

.

.

.

Elsewhere in the city of Gloria, two Professors were en route to the walls of the city in order to wait for the visitors that were about to arrive around this time.

At least that was what Han told Owen yesterday.

And he trusted it.

A reasonably paranoid part of him hoped it wasn't a trap… but he was convinced that it was unlikely. 

He was more prone to believe that Han valued his friend's safety and wouldn't risk the chances of them getting hurt at all. In a way, that was a potential weakness to exploit and Owen did.

Han didn't seem like one of those people who particularly did well with lying, and even then there were truth stones for that.

...Should it turn out to be a trap and Han somehow bypassed truth stones, Owen could still count on more possible allies looking for him and Jeanne in a worst case scenario for this rematch.

So it was a surprise when he didn't even meet the three fugitives from outside Yegarian and found himself already getting harassed by Jeanne herself. Owen should really have expected that this was the reaction of his old friend once he mentioned one of the precautions that he made for them. 

"Wait. You sent one of our students alone on some mission even before they reached third year?!" Jeanne grabbed Owen's collar and glared at him. "How could you just do that? We're not supposed to endanger kids!"

"He volunteered to help me out… besides he reminded me of myself when I was younger?" Owen shrugged. "I'm sure that he'll prove to be an asset. Elliot Primrose is the only son of the Primrose family and has great magical talent. He'll be able to fulfill the task as long as he keeps his mouth shut and listens."

"...Do you actually remember what you were like?" the Cleric asked him with a doubtful look.

"Yes?" Owen averted his gaze. Memories when he was younger were always bittersweet, with more on the bitter… but he knew that he was a prodigy at least. Every member of his family contributed into making him into who he was today.

"You were insufferable as a teen!" Jeanne pointed out and shook her head. "And he's way younger than you were back then. That means he's probably way worse."

"I'm sure that he'll be fine," Owen said. "He's significantly higher level than people his age and he's got a good head on his shoulders. It's always a lesson in a way, even if he happens to find himself in a tricky spot."

The Cleric frowned at him and refused to be convinced by his words. Unlike those who could get swept by the man's charms, be that skill or experience, she remained vigilant and wary whenever he tried to convince her. 

Jeanne knew him well enough.

"Similar to you, he'd probably decide that he knows better than his teacher and do something else."

"And I said, that he'll face the consequence for his actions if that happens," Owen frowned. Elliot was only going to spy on children, what was the worst that could happen?

Jeanne snapped at him, the woman losing her patience more with him than anyone else. "That's not enough of a reason for you to suddenly treat him like your grandfather once did to you."

Owen clicked his tongue. "Then do you wish to retrieve him now, Jeanne—"

"Did I come at a bad time?" A man suddenly said aloud from a distance.

Owen Liddell glanced over his shoulder and saw a familiar Healer that he once encountered before. It wasn't a happy memory either. This was the so-called Treuse Arcois who took care of Jeanne while she was injured for some time.

The Healer was wearing long white robes and held on to a wooden staff that almost made him look like a Priest.

Owen scrunched up his nose at the sight. He threw a look at Jeanne and then whispered underneath his breath. "What the heck is he doing here, care to explain yourself?"

Jeanne smiled brightly and ignored Owen, instead, she approached the Healer and clasped his arm. "Thank you so much for coming here on a short notice, Trey. I'm more reassured of our safety now that you're here."

"Ah, it's no problem at all, Cleric." Treuse bowed his head. "Once you explained the situation, I was more than willing to take part in it."

Owen interrupted them. "Jeanne, I don't remember me saying that we needed to bring a friend for this task—"

"I made the call." Jeanne frowned at him and then looked away. "The Assassin we encountered had a poison he used in his blades that killed a good portion of the guardsmen on duty. Trey here was able to take out and create antidotes after some study."

"You asked a Healer and not an Alchemist to do that for you?" Owen raised a brow.

"Ah, Miss Jeanne didn't necessarily have to ask me about that," Treuse explained with a serious tone. "After everything that happened and when I realized that the city tried to make the incident appear less of a danger than it really was? It was only necessary that I created an antidote and stayed on the side precaution."

Jeanne rested a hand on her hip and gave Owen a look. "What about you Mister Prodigy? Did it cross your mind to do that?"

Owen averted his gaze and nodded. "It was in the plans, but obtaining samples was hard after all. Compared to Healer Arcois who has direct access after the incident."

"Or you were preoccupied with something else."

"Not necessarily, in one way, a lot of things are connected with each other." Owen Liddell told his old friend. "So in a way, perhaps Healer Arcois joining us has legitimate reasons."

In this scenario, it wasn't even an excuse at all.

Han and the rest of his friends' visit around the city which had taken to Treuse's clinic was something that he heard about. 

The incident made him investigate it further and it led to Elliot disguising himself as a beggar.

There were rumors in the city that a group of children in Copperhome suddenly grew in power thanks to a backer. Counter Leveling was a thing, but it meant that the children needed to be able to face the difficult circumstances of gang leaders and others while they were still weak. 

A backer suddenly appearing was strange.

It only took a little coin flipping to get the rumors of the people living in the area and even some of the captured gangsters suddenly dying and frothing at the mouth when Owen questioned them about it.

High level magic placed on gangsters to prevent them from speaking?

Unless there was another group he didn't know of that suddenly invaded Gloria or perhaps Lavelda started actually teaching orphaned and abandoned streets in the city out of boredom—highly unlikely due to her fascination with powerful bloodlines—it all led back to the group that he and Jeanne encountered.

And so they were here.