The moment after Alice processed what they were looking at, panic started to set in. There was blood on the floor. Something looked like it had entered the house and hurt the owner. There were signs of a struggle. Had a monster broken in? Had someone succumbed to a class-mana related madness that pushed them towards violence, then hurt someone? Or had something else happened?
Either way, it was bad news. Alice felt a grimace pull at her lips as she looked at Allira’s shadow. The shadow gave Alice a confused look, and Alice sighed. She really wished Allira’s shadows could talk, so that she could ask them a few questions. Right now, she had no idea what to do.
Another of Allira’s shadows slithered out from under Cecilia’s feet, and joined the shadow already inside. Then, the two shadows swarmed into the building again. Alice decided to wait. There was no guarantee that whatever had done this had left. If there was danger, it was best for Allira’s shadows to do the scouting. The shadow were perfect disposable scouts. However, if whatever had done this was lurking in the shadows, waiting for Alice and Cecilia to be unprotected...
The thought startled Alice out of her sluggish thoughts. Danger. Right here. Right now. Whatever had done this might still be nearby. Alice felt goosebumps form on her body as she realized that something might be watching her and Cecilia right now, with malicious intentions. She scrambled for the enchanted items she had laying around in her storage Perk, fumbled, and then finally pulled out a few enchanted bracelets and beads.
In the interest of saving time, Ethan hadn’t let Alice make much more of her own equipment recently. It might have been great for Alice’s leveling speed, but now that they were in the middle of a crisis, Ethan had decided that she needed to spend her time focused on the crisis instead of her equipment. Instead, right after they settled down in Demor’s mansion, he had bought out a few local [Enchanter]’s shops. He had handed her a pile of enchanted items, most of which could block different types of common magic related attacks. She now had a pair of bracelets that blocked electricity and heat, as well as her own, original necklace that could stop nearby objects. In addition, Ethan had handed her a huge pile of glass beads that would explode like grenades after being thrown.
Finally, Alice still had a few of her own bracelets left, complete with the self-propelling beads.
Wordlessly, Alice handed Cecilia an extra handful of beads and bracelets, just in case. Cecilia wordlessly took them and put them on, as the two nervously scanned their surroundings and tried to identify any nearby threats.
Seconds crawled by as if they were hours, while the two waited for Allira’s shadows to return. After what felt like half an hour, but must have been less than a minute, one of the two shadows returned, and shook its head at Alice. Then, it held up a hand at the two of them.
Alice... had no idea what the shadow was trying to communicate. The shadow kept shaking its head and holding a hand towards them, almost as if it were trying to push them away.
“Do you want us to wait?” asked Cecilia, after a few seconds of confusion.
The shadow shook its head, and then advanced towards them, still holding out a sign for them to ‘stop.’ After a few seconds, Alice backed away. The shadow nodded furiously, and then kept advancing.
“Do we need to back up?” asked Alice.
Alice finally thought she understood what the shadow meant. They needed to scoot back. Based on the fact that the shadow wasn’t furiously urging them to leave the area, it didn’t seem like they needed to flee immediately. Perhaps there was some sort of trap in the house? Or some kind of hazard? Or perhaps [Scholar] Metista was still inside of the building, and the shadows were about to try to rescue her. In that case, it might make sense that the two shadows wanted them out of the area?
The shadow nodded furiously, and the two started evacuating from the vicinity of the building. Instead, they moved to the street they had previously travelled en route to [Scholar] Metista’s house, and then waited.
It didn’t take long for help to arrive. After a few minutes, Allira appeared. Her usually gorgeous hair looked like it had been tossed around by a hurricane, and her clothes were also disheveled. It looked like she had just crawled out of bed after a nap and then sprinted all of the way here.
Cecilia was right. Attacking someone to steal their research notes... sounded exactly like something the Society of Starry Eyes would do. That didn’t meant they were definitely the culprit – but they were one of the suspects.
During her journey to Morendia, Alice had seen surprisingly little of the Society. That was probably because she was surrounded by Immortals the entire time, and the group never stayed long enough to get much news. Tracking two combat-oriented Immortals as they quickly moved forward would be an unbelievably stupid act. The Society was many things – but they weren’t stupid. Therefore, Alice hadn’t seen much of the Society, and had even started to subconsciously ignore their existence in favor of other, larger problems. Some part of her had hoped that the Society was simply wracked by its own System-collapse related problems, and would stop making trouble. But if the Society had abducted [Scholar] Metista, then Alice would have yet another major problem to deal with.
Allira scanned the area, before her frown deepened. “I don’t have definitive proof yet, but I also suspect the Society. I’ve heard that they are making rather unusual movements recently – not just in Illvaria, but across the entire Shil Confederacy, and even in other nations that they aren’t usually active in. I suspect part of this is the members of the Society falling victim to the same mana madness that plagues other people – after all, the Society members usually have classes that are related to unethical research. If they are driven to behave ‘like their Class,’ they would start to do stupid but daring things, even in countries they aren’t as obviously active in. However, the Society has also been targeting a lot of more well-renowned researchers in some unusual fields of study. It seems like they’re just as worried about figuring out the roots and meaning of this incident as... well, you,” said Allira, as she turned towards Alice.
Alice grimaced. If Allira also suspected the Society was behind this, there was a pretty good chance that she was correct. In fact, now that Alice thought about it...
Wasn’t she just thinking about how the mana depletion in Morendia was unnatural? That it was possibly artificial in nature, and that nothing she knew of could have created this unusual phenomenon?
What if it really was artificial in nature?
The Society was renowned for doing dubious and unethical experiments. What if, somewhere along the way, they managed to figure out the true nature of mana? Or at least a small part of it?
Alice still had no idea how they could have possibly used that to create the bizarre void of mana in the middle of Morendia... but if they were, it would neatly resolve several of Alice’s doubts. It would also explain why they might target someone like [Scholar] Metista. If someone was researching what they were doing, they might be moving to silence the other party. Of course, it was also entirely possible that the Society had no clue what was causing the mana void in Morendia either, as much as Alice suspected that the mana draining away was artificial in nature. Perhaps one of Morendia’s [Nobles], or the monarch, was trying to keep their country safe. Alice wasn’t sure.
But either way, Alice was realizing that the mana-void in Morendia might be far more important than she had given it credit for being. In the same way an unexploded bomb laying in her backyard would make her feel anxious, the strange decrease in Morendia’s mana was starting to make her feel anxious.
Regardless of whether the Society was responsible for the decrease in mana or not, [Scholar] Metista needed to be found and rescued. Alice wasn’t sure if she would be involved in that operation – after all, Ethan tended to keep her away from the fighting if he couldn’t control the situation. However, this wasn’t Illvaria, where Ethan could summon dozens of subordinates to guard her on a whim. Here, Ethan wasn’t a high-ranking military official whose father commanded the entire army. He was an ordinary guest of the state. Given that, he might ask Alice to come along so that he could keep an eye on her.
Allira sighed, and then grimaced as she looked at the mess in the house again. Maybe Ethan wouldn’t try to rescue Metista at all. After all, this was Morendia. Shouldn’t the country try to rescue one of their [Scholars] if she was kidnapped?
The international diplomacy and politics behind it all was something Alice didn’t understand well enough to make a clear prediction about. For now, she decided to wait for Ethan and Allira to make their own decisions.
“For now, a few of my shadow creatures will escort you back to the manor. I’ll do what investigation I can, and see what I can find.” Allira grimaced. “Assuming enough people are still sane to give me proper information. Since my Class is so reliant on talking to people, the madness is really starting to make it hard to gather intelligence... well, I’ll make do somehow. By tonight, I should have a better read on what’s going on. Don’t leave until then. Things might be dangerous.”
Alice and Cecilia nodded, and returned to the manor with a few of Allira’s shadows as guards. As she returned to her room, Alice felt her stomach tighten in anxiety. Allira and Cecilia could be wrong... but Allira was an Immortal. If she was willing to say something was ‘probably’ the work of the Society, she probably had more information to work off of than Alice was privy to. Metista had probably been kidnapped by the Society. Alice wasn’t sure what that meant, or how it would impact her yet... but she had a sneaking suspicion that no matter what happened, it wouldn’t be to her benefit.