Chapter 22: Renewed Hope
It would take another miracle to bring him back!
Lady Meng was right. He was running out of time. One week left before his leave ends, but he still had no clue as to where Dante was. No one had any idea about where he was after he left. His records in the database were outdated. Even when Felix trawled through the Internet, he came up empty-handed. No social media presence, nothing.
He went all out, Felix mused as he ran a hand through his hair. He picked up a stack of papers strewn on his desk; one part of the collection of all the places with no stationed sorcerer families or clans.
“He is definitely hiding in one of these places,” he thought aloud. “Why are there so many fucking places without a clan or family? Why are there so many Restricted zones in the first place?”
The low-grade fever he had been nursing over the past couple of days came back in full force. Out of the millions of cities and towns, thousands were left to their own devices as they simply did not have enough manpower. The Ancils stationed at the Beacons were far from capable of dealing with stronger phantoms. The easiest solution was to make the barrier protecting the Beacons stronger with each passing year and send capable sorcerers if things got out of hand.
Felix dug into his pockets, searching for his tin of mints, when his hand brushed against something silky. He pulled out the white pouch Lady Meng had handed to him before the meeting.
A loud thwack rang through the room as Felix smacked himself in the forehead. How could I forget?! He strode to the Ironkeep with long strides. Chakrit was there, polishing a katana while puffing away on a cigarette. “Chakrit, is there a way to track down a Regalia?” he asked.
The Weaponmaster stared at him blankly before bursting out in laughter, choking on smoke and saliva halfway through. “If I could just put GPS tags on the Regalia, the people here in the Ironkeep wouldn’t be here guarding it!” Chakrit jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. “There wouldn’t be a need for the Meridian Hall to keep them contained! Concentration of power, my ass. The unification of the Regalias isn’t going to rip a hole in our reality!”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“But I’m just looking for Ob–”
“Look, I’m not an idiot. I know who you are looking for,” Chakrit said. “Those things are Living Weapons, young man. Not lumps of metal! If their masters tell them to be undetectable, they can go stealth mode forever. They can even decide who to submit themselves to. If any of the three Regalia we got were like Obscure Scarlet, I doubt the Meridian Sanctum would be able to stop them from going to their new masters.”
Felix remembered the legend. The spell that bound Obscure Scarlet – the infamous ring that had been sitting untouched for several hundred years – broke with the presence of a new Aberrant. In its haste to greet its master, it blew up every wall that stood in its way, and the ring-turned-missile would not stop until it settled into the open palm of the recognised master.
But of course, as sacred as they were, they were symbolic at best. The best thing a sorcerer could ever have is a healthy mind and a healthy body. Felix let out a loud sigh and paced about the room.
“If you have nothing else to ask me, get your ass out of here! I’m busy preparing for the evaluation test!” Chakrit grumbled.
“Evaluation?”
“Some sorcerers were summoned today to get their ranks re-evaluated. Not like you would know.”
Chakrit tossed him a stained clipboard. Felix scanned the list for any sorcerer who could help him find Dante. One name stood out to him: Shiro Kusakabe, the disavowed son of the Kusakabe family. He was in the batch above Felix’s. They knew each other as they went on a couple of missions together. Shiro was rather unique, being the only part-time sorcerer in the Sanctum.
Chakrit started grumbling to himself as he polished the katana. “Is that for Shiro?” Felix asked. “Why does he need one?”
Chakrit threw his hands up, “How would I know? All he does is break them and fail the test! I wonder what’s going through his head. He knows that the Test Administrator can see through his tricks, right?”
“Shiro Kusakabe…” Felix muttered under his breath. Shiro was one of the few whom he had not asked about Dante. The last time they worked together was when they were students. Shiro was a Rank 8 sorcerer, barely qualifying for missions with the lowest difficulties.
“If I get my hands on him, I’ll squeeze out all the swords he broke,” Chakrit growled on the sidelines with clenched fists. The last time someone broke a weapon they loaned, the whole Sanctum heard him bitch about it the rest of the week.
Felix handed the list to Chakrit. Without saying thanks, he marched out of the Ironkeep with renewed hope.
Perhaps Shiro had an idea as to where Dante was.
After all, birds of a feather flock together.
