Shades of the New World

Chapter 279: Stalking for clues

Three days later, Evin was sitting inside one of the two taverns, the one which looked to be the more popular out of the two. The rest of his team was out in the forest, searching for the secret base using Dzuko's terrain radar ability.

"You heard about the fight in the southern part of the city?" One burly man was speaking to another, while chugging a cup of ale.

"What fight? Did some drunkards kill one another again?" the other asked, a grizzled-looking old man, who had an air of rot around him.

"Not that kinda fight, you fool old man. A fight between mages! Apparently, they destroyed a whole entire alleyway in the process too!" the burly man exclaimed, but the old man didn't seem very convinced.

"Ain't no fucking mages in this town. All coz our god-king Kal said our town wasn't good enough for mages to live in."

"I'm telling you it's real! You can literally walk there and see the mess they've made. Can a normal brawl between drunkards break an entire street? And there was also this fucking pile of, how do you call it, that shiny silver metal that mages like?"

"Sorbothium?"

"Yeah, that thing. A pile of it was left in the alleyway afterwards, though it suddenly disappeared into the air in only a second," the burly man said excitedly, "Can you imagine how much coin you could get if you got your hands on that thing?"

"Engi, I keep telling you to not believe random stories you hear on the streets. Though we live in a world full of mages, with the Empress' arrangements, those high and mighty mages don't really matter much to us normal people," the old man said with a sigh.

"But I'm telling you I'm right! If you want, we can go check out the place right now! Someone even said that he saw the combatants and it was a fight between a giant ice-breathing dragon and some kind of metal bending monster!"

Many different conversations took place in the tavern, and of course, a few of them discussed Evin's recent fight with the two mages. 

'Though, the scale of the fight seems to be getting bigger every minute But, I guess rumors had that effect.'

But aside from the boundless imaginations of the common people, Evin really wasn't able to discover anything important. He was also searching for any other suspicious people who could be mages of the other teams, but no one in particular seemed to be acting out of place.

[Maybe we should visit the other tavern?] Runa asked.

[I guess so. But is it really okay for you to be so casual after almost freezing to your core?] Evin asked.

[I'm fine, I'm fine. Super Mother even made me a bit stronger with her energy as well. If we meet that ice mage, her spells wouldn't even make me feel cold any more,] Runa answered, [And besides, you talk a lot about keeping us out of fights, but the moment something turns south like yesterday, you immediately called upon me and Enri yesterday.]

'Well, that's because I felt weird treating the World Sprites like children, but not you two. At the end of it all, you all aren't older than a year or so,' Evin thought but obviously he didn't wish to say that out loud.

[Well from this point on, I'll be sure to run away at the first sign of trouble,] he replied perfunctorily.

[I'd still prefer to sit here together with you,] Runa said with finality.

Evin nodded and the two moved towards the other tavern. Like he expected, this one was much more empty than the previous one, with only a few people drinking silently in their respective seats. The owners of the tavern seemed to be a spouse of about 40 or so, a slim male who worked the kitchen and a plump lady who looked over the two waitresses, who were probably the daughters of the two. 

There wasn't much talking going on inside, but Evin still approached each group of people, diligently scouting for anything that might be useful. As he expected, aside from the occasional talks about his fight, most of the conversations were limited to half-drunk men complaining about the difficulties of life.

[I guess there's not much to hear around this place Should I maybe sneak into the houses of the richer people to see whether they're speaking of something interesting?] Evin thought to Runa.

[Isn't that illegal?]

[It probably is, but not if we get caught,] Evin replied smilingly. 

'Hmm, I'm probably not the best person to raise children, huh?'

But right as Evin was about to leave, the tavern's door opened and Evin saw two men walk inside, both of whom were wearing a long hood, which covered their heads and bodies. The two looked a bit off, but with the way they greeted the tavern owner told Evin that these two were probably not from the elite teams of the foreign countries.

[Let's hear what those two have to say and then decide on leaving or not,] Evin said and moved over to the seat next to the newcomers, which happened to be one of the less illuminated spots inside the tavern.

"We'll have the usual," one of the men shouted to a plump lady, who was already bringing in two cups of ale.

"One cup of ale for one mister Khama, and another cup for one mister Khunuchi," the tavern owner said with a smile, putting down the cups in front of the men she'd just named, "I'll bring the next two cups with your food, but no more than that. I don't want to get murdered by your wives the first thing tomorrow morning."

'How convenient,' Evin thought after learning the two's names.

"Bless you, Heila. Say our thanks to your husband as well," the one named Khama said with a dry chuckle and raised the cup at the woman.

The two took a big gulp from their cups before getting more comfortable in their seats. Looking around, the two of them started to take off their heavy cloaks. Evin noticed that both of the men had a deformity on their heads which looked like a painted stump of some kind. Upon closer inspection, Evin saw that Khunuchi had a blue stump, while Khama had a silver one.

'Are those the remains of a horn?' Evin realized what the deformity was.