"Hey Raye, is it cool if we do some small commissions for our last day here? All this traveling has run down my wallet." I show Raye that I only have about 1,000 gold left from my previous commission.
'Yea sure, just be careful. We'd like to go with you but we have to go talk to Perun to see if there is any new information."
"I thought she said that she was taking over the investigation?"
"Yea, but you know how I am, always sticking my nose in things." She replied as she and Zenobia hugged me and walk off on their own. T-elos and I decide to go to Tantal's mercenary branch.
"Your sister is a very eccentric person," T-elos says in her usual tone. "Is she always like this?" Although I would usually say yes to a stranger or a friend of hers, I decided to be honest with T-elos.
"Honestly, not always. There are times when she gets serious or very out of it. Although recently, I've seen her angry for the first time in my life. To be honest I still don't know why she was angry in the first place. Maybe I'll ask her when we get back from doing these commissions. They'll be fun!"
"If you say so," T-elos responded as we finally walked towards the commission area.
*3rd Person POV*
"Sigh...come on Zenobia. We have to see if there is any information linked to Kai." Raye says in a serious tone in comparison to her usual self.
"I know we haven't told Nick the real reason why we're here but he deserves to know" Zenobia replies in a worried tone.
"I know, I think he deserves to know too, he really should be back in Leftheria with mom, but I'm afraid that he'll be hurt like my friends were. We already had a close call back in Mor Ardain, I don't want to lose him, Zenobia."
"I don't either. He's our brother after all. I really think we should tell him later though."
"Fine we'll tell him later today, but for now we find out what that mad scientist had in his lab. It's a shame we don't have Cadman and Herald with us today, however."
"Yea, they decided to talk to the King before leaving, probably diplomatic things," Zenobia responded.
"Yea it's best not to bother them," Raye says as they arrive at Tora Industries and talk with the imperial guards that were there. They told them that Perun was underground investigating the secret lab. "Great, thanks for the help." Raye and Zenobia tell their guards as they make their way to the elevator. They walk inside and make their way downstairs. "Good thing Riku let us keep the keycard because I didn't want to break the elevator."
"You know I would have done it in a heartbeat," Zenobia said with a chuckle.
"I know, which is why I asked Riku for the card. Remember what we were talking about on the train here?"
"You mean how we decided to do this for our friends?"
"Yea, that goal has never changed, but now this adventure has grown much larger than we could have ever imagined. It's kinda overwhelming." Raye says with a small chuckle.
"Yea but look at the positives we made new friends, and Nick's now a driver! Isn't that amazing?"
"Yea it is, honestly when he became a mercenary I thought it would be a good way for him to help out mom and build confidence in himself. Now that he's a Driver, I can't help but be happy and scared for him. Being a Driver automatically puts his life at more risk as a mercenary. However, I'm happy that he has a Blade like T-elos. She may seem stubborn, but I have a feeling that she cares for him as much as we do."
"You think so? I know she's strong, that's for sure, but will he be able to handle her in such a short period? We had years of being a duo and fighting experience under our belts, but it's not the same story for Nick."
"I believe in him, in both of them. It may take time, but they might become even stronger than us." Raye responds with a smile on her face.
"Huh?!?! Stronger than me? Maybe, but we won't know until we have a proper duel." Zenobia says enthusiastically. Raye chuckles as the elevator door opens.
"Let's save the duel until after this adventure is over."
"Of course! Although, you know I get excited when it comes to strong opponents." Zenobia replies as they walk out of the elevator and across the wide area to where the secret lab is located. Imperial guards covered the area around and inside the lab. Raye and Zenobia made their way to where Perun was talking to a guard while standing next to the computer where the doctor sent his mysterious information from.
"Hey Perun, did you find anything?"
"Ah Raye and Zenobia, I thought I told you all to take the day off."
"Yeah, but we were just curious about how the investigation was going. Did you find anything new?"
"Sadly, no. It seems as though the redacted information can't easily be retrieved. We have adenine decoding it now but it most likely won't result in anything any time soon. You all will most likely already be in Gormott. Sorry to have you all walk all the way here for nothing." Perun says as she details the other things the guards had discovered in the meantime.
"Ok well, thanks for all of your help!" Raye says in a cheery tone as she and Zenobia walk out of the underground area. "If we ever find the doctor we'll be sure to alert you!"
Once they get out of the elevator, they walk out of the building and into the central area of Tantal. "So what should we do next Zenobia? We essentially have no leads."
"Hmm well, the best thing to do right now is just focused on finding Mythra, which requires us going to Gormott. However, we have to wait until tonight, so we can just relax for now. Wanna see if there's any commission about fighting dangerous monsters?"
"Sure, just one though, because we still need time to pack our things to leave," Raye replies as they decide the rest of their day fighting monsters.
*Timeskip brought by Nick sorting through monster drops*
*Nick POV*
"Wow, we actually got a surprising amount of commissions done today! I never had this much gold before!" I say as we walk towards our hotel to get ready for the train. The sun was setting which was our indication that the train would be arriving soon. At least that's what Adenine told us.
"It makes sense since I was there to wipe out those monsters," T-elos replied.
"Hey, you couldn't do that by yourself! I was also there too!" I say to try and include my involvement in taking out all those bug-like monsters. Then again I have a massive fear of bugs so she did have to do a bit more of the killing.
"I suppose, although I've never seen you that scared before." Okay, maybe she had to do a lot of the killing for that commission. "Don't worry I won't tease you about it, although that would be more fun."
"Thanks, T-elos." I notice that T-elos is being less defensive around me now. I think she is learning to trust me more. I knew these commissions would also be a great way to strengthen our bond. "So did you enjoy today then?"
"I can say that today was certainly more interesting than most."
"Same here, although I feel like I could have done better if my fear didn't get in the way," I say while thinking back to how I froze when I saw those bugs. There was then a noticeable pause between us. I think I just made the situation awkward.
"You did fine Nick. You should think more highly of yourself." Oh is this her way of cheering me up, I can't say that it isn't working. I do feel a bit better, but I still feel that I need to work on my ability to face my fears when necessary.
"Thanks for those words T-elos, I have now found a new drive to be a better driver for you." I look over at T-elos and it looks like she wants to say something, but she can't. "Is everything okay?"
"Yes I'm fine, it's just-"
"Nick!" I recognize that voice anywhere. It was Zenobia as she rushed towards me in a giant bear hug.
"Hey sis, what's with the sudden sneak attack of affection?"
"Can't I hug my brother once in a while? Besides, I see that you've made quite a bit of gold from your commissions today. Check this out!" Zenobia put something in my hand that shocked me. It was a core chip.
"Woah this core chip looks a bit different than the ones I had given T-elos in Mor Ardain," I said while I held it between my fingers.
"That's because we got some from big, strong monsters during our commission today," Raye says as she walked toward us from behind Zenobia. "We had some extra so we decided to give one to you as an upgrade from the one you had before.
"Thank you two, this is amazing!" I pull the scythe from behind my back and put the chip into contact with the weapon. The chip disappeared and the weapon started to glow. Although it wasn't a typical glow, it was more mystical than anything. "Woah so should the weapon be stronger then?"
"Yep, that's how it goes. By the way Nick, we need to talk to you about something." Raye says as her tone slowly becomes more serious. Although this isn't the first time I've heard her in this tone it always makes me somewhat nervous when it happens.
"Y-yea, what's up?" I hope I'm not in trouble or something.
"You know how we're on this sort of quest to find Mythra, but we have another reason we've been exploring. We want to find Kai and make him pay for hurting our friends." Raye was always caring for her friends. Wait, I think I know who she is talking about.
"You mean when we came back from my first mission, those people we saw that were injured..."
"Yes they were some mercenaries that we've been friends with since I joined the guild, some of them were drivers, but they took so much damage defending their drivers that they were forced back into their core crystals. He took their core crystals as well so they can't even resonate with them again. It's brutal. We want to find him and bring him to justice, no matter what."
"Does that include killing him?" I ask in a nervous voice. I never heard her talk like this.
"If it comes to that..." Raye looks at Zenobia and they both nod. "Then yes, although we want it to be a last resort."
"Ok. That's a bit to take in. Give me a second." It's understandable why they would want to find him. It also coincides with us finding Mythra, it's essentially killing two tirkins with one stone.
"I know this may seem extreme, but if you want to go back home to Leftheria, then we understand. We can handle this on our own. Besides, mom probably misses you like crazy." Zenobia says calmly, which is also rare for her. Zenobia is always pent up with the will to fight.
"Well honestly if this was any other mission, I probably would have taken that offer. However, this seems more serious than anything I've experienced in my entire life. I want to help you. T-elos and I won't let you down!"
"Of course, I won't. I'll squash any maggots who dare to fight me!" Classic T-elos.
"Yea what she said except less aggressive. Don't worry, somebody has to watch over you two so you don't get into trouble." I've made my decision, I know mom is probably missing me, but this mission is too important. I'll probably write her a letter while we're on the train and let her know I'm ok. I also have to tell her about T-elos.
"Oh, we might just have the greatest brother ever," Zenobia says as she bears hugs me again. During all of that, I hear someone scurrying closer to us. Oh, I think I know who's on their way here.
"Friends better not forget about Riku!" Riku says as he swiftly appears with a backpack which I assumed was filled with inventions and tools. I'm honestly glad he decided to join us, Riku seems pretty cool to have around.
"Hey Riku, how's it going?" I ask him as he was panting from having run all the way here.
"Riku is perfectly fine thank you! Just decided to pack up the stuff in my workshop and head here!" Wait a minute.
"Riku were you living in your workshop this whole time?" I asked him.
"Of course! Apprentice make no money, and Riku have no family here. Riku then made the great decision to live in workshop!" Honestly not a bad idea.
"Oh hey, it's the little guy from last time," Raye says while crouching down to his level. "He was the one that ran out of the lab screaming for help about a crazy strong Artificial Blade out of control!"
"Oh, I should probably introduce everyone properly huh." I introduce Riku to the rest of our party.
"Oh so these two friends are your sisters and other two are from Mor Ardain."
"Pretty much, and you already know T-elos." I gesture to where T-elos was standing behind me.
"Of course! T-elos very unique Blade! Extremely hard to forget!"
"You got that right!" That voice sounds familiar. We all noticeably turn around to see Amara and KOS-MOS approaching us from the castle's direction. "What you thought you could just leave without us saying goodbye?"
"Fair enough, we'd also like to thank you for giving us such a humble time in Tantal," Cadman replied. I nodded my head in agreement. Besides the whole underground lab thing, our time in Tantal was very enlightening. I think the bond between T-elos and I has grown even closer as well.
"Hey hey, are you sure you can't come with us?" Zenobia says. "We could spar all the time!"
"Although I would love to, I have to stay and help the investigation from here. KOS-MOS is the only person who can retrieve the redacted data on that computer. As for me, I now have to deal with civil affairs, which is usually Perun's job, but she's the head of the investigation so someone has to do the job. Turns out that rumors of an out-of-control artificial Blade tend to stir up the citizens a lot, especially in a time where artificial Blades are more common." That's true. I didn't even think about that. That's royalty for you I suppose. "However, if you really need us, we'll drop everything to assist you right away."
"Got it, now we should probably check out of the inn before we miss our train!" The realization all hit us at once. We rush over to the inn to grab our things and check out. We barely made it to the train station in time.
"Whew we're actually a bit early, that's surprising!" I say as I take a seat at the station.
"Indeed. However, we did rush here after all." Herald replies as she floats in place. I guess she never really needs to sit down huh. Well, I guess that can be a perk some Blades can have I suppose.
"Perhaps it would be a good idea to get some rest on the train, for Gormott is quite a while away, so far that we would have to stop at the Argentum Commerce District station and take a ship the rest of the way. It'll take most of the day at best."Cadman exclaims. Ok so try not to stay up the whole trip. Got it.
"Cadman seem like team dad of sorts," Riku replies.
"Well, he tends to look after his comrades as if they were family so you're not entirely wrong Riku," Herald interjects. Cadman lets out a chuckle.
"Well, I can not fully disagree. But enough of that, the train seems to be pulling into the station." We all say our final goodbyes to Amara and KOS-MOS who followed us to the station. We also tell her to pass on our goodbyes to the King, Perun, and the blade sisters Praxis and Theory. Not long after the whistle of the train sounded, meaning the train was going to start moving soon. We all enter the train cabin and plot our course to Gormott.