Throne Of Steam

The idea of public transportation wasn"t too prevalent in the city, with the only example of it being the usage of the train to move from one end of the city to the other. As one would eventually figure, it just wasn"t worth to take the train, as the city was only so large; that is, there was also the train to the nearby port city, and this one was undoubtedly worth it. But this voyage in specific happened once a day, at the break of dawn, rushing the time to avoid the nighttime, when the world outside of the walls was dangerous and unpredictable.

Upon arriving at the vicinity, the trio didn"t alight from the carriage and requested the coachman to circle around the block. The experienced hunters used this opportunity to observe the surroundings and take note of anything unusual.

If they discovered anything, Garett wasn"t informed.

I don"t think there"s anything to see; if my hypothesis is correct, and the ones monitoring me are people related to the College of Irmwrynn, they should be smart enough to use more inconspicuous methods... Garett reasoned while also trying to recognize anything unusual in the streets only to be met with frustration.

"That"s enough." Said Dante, tapping at the carriage"s window, and hinting the coachman of his intention to disembark.

"Ayo~" The coachman"s nasal voice was heard, as he commanded the horses to stop at one side of the road.

"Okay, Garett," Dante began to explain the basic procedures of an investigation. He continued with utmost care as if he was bent on using the opportunity to teach his recruit how to proceed. "We circled the neighborhood a few times, taking note of anything that can be accounted for as abnormal, did you pick on something?"

"Huh... No, sir. Everything seemed pretty normal to me, and I"m very familiar with the vicinity. I live here, after all, sir." He replied, understanding that Dante was using the opportunity to train him.

"It is difficult to notice this kind of things at first, but let me show you," He then pointed at the building where Garett lived, the carriage had just stopped, but none of the veteran hunters seemed interested in moving. "There are a few potential buildings one can use to monitor the place where you live, can you point those out from here?"

A few buildings? Those should be the three buildings right at the other side of the street, but It seems too obvious though... Garett a.n.a.lyzed the area. Never he would have thought of a.n.a.lyzing so intently the place where he lived, as this was something that never crossed a normal people"s mind.

"The three buildings right across the street, right? It seems just obvious to use them, as they directly face my windows."

"Yes, that"s the most obvious approach," Dante nodded in agreement while he took the time to put his hat before opening the carriage"s door. "However, that is the approach taken when one"s objective is to observe. And the objective from those who invaded your place was a lot more direct; their only objective was to wait for you to leave before entering your place and search."

"And the best place to do this is the building you live." Alice chipped in, complementing the captain"s words.

That makes sense; if they occupied an apartment right next to mine, just waiting for me to leave before entering my place would be very easy... Garett concurred as he noticed an incongruency in the ransacker"s motives.

"Why yesterday, though? I left the place many times in the last few days, so why wait for yesterday?" He posed the question, not really expecting to elicit an answer from the duo.

"Something happened, something that made them lose patience or made then feel a sense of urgency," Dante responded while nodding at the recruit"s ac.u.men. "It could be that they realized you joined us, or maybe you did some other thing that provoked them."

Provoked them? Maybe... they noticed me using the powers to deal with those drunks! That is very probable, as it would make them feel restless once they realized I already completed the ritual... Garett remarked inwardly, his ideas bursting with information as he pieced them together.

"So you"re saying that they moved in to become my neighbors? But I don"t remember anyone moving in recently..." He added, his voice tinged with uncertainty.

"It would be surprising if you remembered, after all, they wouldn"t be so obvious about it. And there"s also the factor of your memory loss." Dante complemented, filling the gaps in Garett"s reasoning.[

That"s right! I can"t remember anything starting from the period after my acceptance in the College, and if they are behind the memory loss from the start, so it would be simple for them to use this period of time to infiltrate the building... Garett nodded, having an inkling of the methods employed by his observers.

"Should we start by asking if anyone moved to the building recently? The other neighbors would remember something like that..." Garett asked, a little unsure of how to proceed with the investigation.

"Not for now, the a.s.sailants wouldn"t stay here after last night"s fiasco. So we have time to scan your place for clues, and if we indeed find something that points to one of your neighbors, then we can expand our search." Dante proposed the most usual course of action as he paid the coachman and walked towards the building, eliciting the remaining duo to hurry after him.

...

Climbing the first set of stairs and finally arriving at the place, Garett noticed something out of place at first sight! The window he had broken to divert the ransacker"s attention was now fixed! Something like that would take weeks to repair, as none of those living here would care enough to repair it themselves, and the landlord wouldn"t do it himself.

"Captain... That was the window I broke last night... but... it is repaired now." Garett stammered while pointing at the now fixed window, as his mind couldn"t understand what was happening.

"Hmmm." The captain didn"t reply, only glancing at it once before turning to Garett"s door before asking. "It"s here, right? Open it first."

"Yes, sir..." Garett complied and stumbled forward to open the door, and as such he was the first to look at the insides of the place.

Everything is placed right where it was before! There are no signs of the ransacking at all, and it"s like it was all just a dream!... Garett pupils froze, his mind raced as he could only attribute this to a hallucination.

"T-That is not possible..." He mumbled as he entered the place, how could all traces of the things he remembered so clearly vanish in such a fashion!?

He looked at Dante, and the captain"s face was still calm with only a small frown accentuating his forehead; the situation seemed more complicated than he thought, and it was possible that if something had happened, then it was done by professionals at hiding their tracks.

"Alice, take the Lens out," Dante commanded in a heavy voice as he stepped forward, taking a look closely at the scene. "Give it to Garett, let him use it first, as promised."

"Okay, here it goes, Garett." She presented him the ornamented box, and with all care in the world, she slowly opened the lid, revealing a small, polished old artisan monocle with a small mechanism to change between two lenses during work. "Just wear it and use the second lens, then you"ll be able to see. Do not use it for too long, though, you can feel a bit dizzy"

Garett took the warning very seriously, as he wasn"t familiar with the adverse effects of such a weird artifact, what if he became blind from overusing the monocles, or started to hear the shades saying things?

Those were mostly fantasies crowding his mind though.

I better heed her warnings and use it as little as possible... He carefully picked the lens up from the box, his movements steady as if afraid of dropping it and damaging the artifact.

Wearing the lenses, he quickly tapped the tiny mechanism, eliciting a click from the object and finally allowing for the use of the artifact.

The world before his eyes changed, as he felt the colors vanish, only leaving white and black; to avoid the discomfort, he closed his other eye, only leaving the one with the monocle open.

He then looked to where he was standing the night before, and there he could see something akin to a shadow standing, its definition foggy, and it was impossible to define even if it was a man or a woman.

That"s good, this way they can"t notice that what I threw as a knife and not a rock, and it proves that I really broke the window, so they"ll be able to see that this should be the result of someone"s ability... Garett contemplated, his mind relaxing a little when he saw that he was not crazy, and everything had really happened.

Looking at the insides of the room, and he could see a mult.i.tude of shadows flashing to an fro, eliciting a blurry vision with shades everywhere. Garett had to close his eyes to keep himself from the impending dizziness caused by it.

"That"s normal. When there are too many shadows in one place, you can get giddy when using this object for the first time." Dante said at the side when noticing the recruit state.

And you tell me that only now? Couldn"t you have told me this before? Now I"m feeling my head spinning... Garett cursed inwardly, promising himself to be more careful with artifacts from now on, he wouldn"t be played by his seniors anymore!

"You can give it to me now, let me see around." Dante enunciated as he extended his hand to grab the lenses, his face stern without emotion, but it was clear that Alice was having fun at the recruit"s situation.

Putting the artifact on, Dante then proceeded to a.n.a.lyze every inch of the place, stopping briefly at the window Garett broke before walking throughout the whole place, the frown on his face deepening.

"The scene was reconstructed using some kind of weird ability that did not belong to the domain of the orthodox deities, and I can"t understand the principles behind it. The only thing I can be sure of is that the a.s.sailant entered was related to the scholars, as the patterns of search shows that he was very carefull with books and the like." Dante concluded as he started to follow a particular shadow that climbed the stairs to the top of the building. "It should be this one... it came from here, so we should be able to find something if we follow it to the top. Maybe we can find it"s dwelling, not that I hope they to stick around after what happened."