Chapter 419: Hidden Hostility Pt.1

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Chapter 419: Hidden Hostility Pt.1

After being brought to the healers, Lake passed on Nia to them before being asked to leave the room so they could work on her while protecting her modesty. If he had felt that the healers were untrustworthy, he would have probably denied their request for privacy, but he honestly didn't see them trying to kill Nia.

After waiting in a smaller room for a few minutes, Lake decided to use Mana Vision to look around but didn't really get to use his skill before the door opened, and the guard and Lucas walked in. "Master Lucas, I'm sorry to bother you, but I found one of your members and thought you might want to know."

The way Lake said this was weird, making them sound unfamiliar with one another, but he didn't want to give away too much before the guard left on the off chance taking Nia from Demon Worshipers would be a problem.

Lucas seemed to pick up on him pretending they didn't know each other because he responded similarly. "I thank you for the help. Were you able to get the name of the person you rescued?" Of course, Lake knew the name, but he had no way of saying this because Nia had been unconscious from the second he rescued her, so he said. "No, but the healers are working on her now, so I'm sure she'll be able to tell you herself soon enough."

"Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to ask if you'd like to see the Oracle guard you were here to meet earlier. I figured since you were already inside, meeting them would save you from needing to come back at a later date." Lake had expected this to happen when he decided to come in, but that didn't mean he had a response that didn't sound weird already ready.

"No, that's alright. I thought about it, and I'll come back the next time I'm in the city. I'm sure the guard's too busy to see me for something that can wait." After he finished speaking, Lake decided his excuse had actually sounded pretty good for something he came up with while saying it.

"Oh, Okay, I'll see you then." However, it didn't seem the guard had completely bought into it as they were giving him a confused look as they left the room. Deciding there was nothing that could be done about it since chasing after them to explain himself further would just make it worse, he just let them leave before turning to Lucas to say. "It's Nia."

Leaving the city, Lake headed for a mountain nearby to pass the time until Lucas was ready. Finding a nice rock, he sat down and took out his map to see if he had been right about other members of the Alchemist Guild being kidnapped and held inside the city. After setting Detector, Lake saw three hot spots filled with multiple dots appear on the map.

"These are probably the prisons they have in the city." In total, it looked like there were around seven prisoners that belonged to the Alchemist Guild, and just out of curiosity, Lake set it to look for people from the Temple of Light. Surprisingly, only a single dot appeared on the map with this new setting.

He didn't understand why this would be the case, but he was sure the prisoner had been a part of the group the Temple of Light sent to help the Metal Domain because there had been no other Temple members in the city at the time of the crisis that he knew of.

After some time passed, Lake realized The Insider wasn't about to make him go and save them, and he switched his focus back to the Alchemist Guild. He'd just saved someone Millie cared about, and he couldn't help but think this would reflect positively on the types of food she would be making for him.

"Speaking of food." Taking the bread out of his bag, Lake tore a small piece off and made a mini sandwich using some of the other ingredients he had. When he was done, he had two bites worth of food, which he made last for around 10 minutes by taking small bites.

When he finished his food, he went back to playing with his map to see if there were other things he could find out about what was going on in the city. He really didn't want to get involved, but he knew The Insider would eventually have him go back to the Temple of Light, where he would benefit greatly from having the information.

In the next hours, Lake found a few interesting things; for example, Demon Worshiper spies throughout the city, more undead than he could count, and a small group of people from the Temple of Light on the outskirts of the city.

The last one interested him the most because it meant that either some of the people they'd sent days ago survived or the Temple had sent another group hoping to have a small foothold here in the metal domain, in case it became important.

Either way, all these things showed the war was still on, just being fought more quietly for the time being. The next hour passed in silence as Lake got bored of playing with the map. "I should bring a book next time just on the off chance this happens again."

"Lake, I'm on my way out of the city now." Hearing Lucas' voice once again, he used the mark placed on Lucas to see where the man was so they could meet soon after Lucas left the boundary of the city.