I followed Decius without another word. Not because I was able to glean any answers from him, but because I felt it was pointless to ask again. He was going to make the report in the throne room, so at most, I would only need to wait for another five to ten minutes. However, after less than a minute of quietly following him, my heart rate quickly started rising. For the first time in a long time, my heart was racing not due to physical exhaustion, but anxiety. Is this it? Have the Harbingers really located the people who killed Dennis? Where are they now? Are they being held captive by the Harbingers right now? Maybe they are being tortured for more information, or maybe that’s already occurred? I let out a weird mix of an exasperated sigh and a laugh. Serves them right…but it also feels somewhat hollow.

  I always felt like these people were some of my first real enemies. The kind that I could never accept just living free. Yet, they were also the only enemies I have that I’ve never met. No, from their perspective, I guess I wouldn’t be their enemy at all. To them, I don’t even exist. As these jumbled thoughts rolled around in my mind, though, I recalled that fateful day. That unnerving feeling when I first came across the wreckage in Reapers’ Pass, and then those final words Dennis spoke to me. And then, his lifeless body that we had to bury despite my desperate attempt to find him aid. My mind also briefly drifted over towards Jack Free and Destiny as well, since they happened so close together, but I quickly shook my head to reorganize myself. Where was I getting at again?

  “You are quiet today,” Decius spoke up, to my surprise. I hesitated before replying.

  “I don’t think I am usually talkative.” Decius laughed. Was what I said really that funny to him?

  “I suppose that might be true. I think I’m the one who usually talks.” I don’t disagree with that. “Still, though, surely you must want to say something?”

  “I already asked my question, and you didn’t answer.”

  “Oh, yes. Well, about that…hmmmm…technically, I really should not have gone to you at all.” I paused, but when I saw Decius continuing to walk without looking back, I ran over to him, this time matching his pace right next to him so that we could look at each other, during which I think I finally cared to notice that I was quite a bit taller than him. For a fraction of a second, I thought I saw a tinge of surprise before sensing his usual invisible smile. “Oh, well, isn’t this a welcome surprise? Are you starting to warm up to me?” I ignored his question.

  “What do you mean you shouldn’t have gone to me?”

  “Well, although the investigation was for your benefit, His Majesty was the one who commissioned it. Technically, the full report should be made to him first, and then you would be informed later.” I don’t know what I was expecting, but that answer…actually made a lot of sense. For people specialized in information gathering, this does not seem a deviation from standard protocol.

  “Then…should I just wait outside?” I asked. Decius laughed again.

  “Well, what’s the difference at this point? Better to just continue with what we’re doing.”

  “Are you not one to care much for professionalism?” Decius laughed harder this time. What is going on here? Decius has always felt like he wanted to come across as a very amicable person, but it often felt fake. But now? If I didn’t know any better, he seemed to genuinely be in an extremely good mood. Or at least, he was putting a lot more effort into acting like that was the case.

  “Professionalism, eh? Well, for a knight making a report to their nation’s king, yes, I suppose I am overstepping my bounds.” I didn’t think he would openly admit to that. “Yes, I wouldn’t normally ever do something like that…” I then heard something that almost sounded like a giggle. “Tell me, sir Braith, after having made such a mistake, what do you think I should do?” After a moment of silence, I felt like he was actually asking the question seriously.

  “Um, you really want my advice?”

  “I would love to hear it.”

  “Um…we could still pretend like you haven’t told me anything yet. Just go on ahead without me, and I will wait in my room to be called in later.”

  “Wouldn’t that annoy you, though? Having to wait like that? You’d even have to act surprised when I bring you in later, too.”

  “...Yeah, that would be annoying,” I answered bluntly.

  “Well, we can’t have that, then. How about a second option?”

  “Really?” Decius’ eyes seemed to look at me expectantly as he continued to walk at the same pace. “He- His Majesty doesn’t seem like…someone to care too much about following strict rules? I mean, maybe he normally is, but…I mean, if I say I want to be there when you first give the report…he’d probably let it slide, I think.” Decius kept looking at me, as if expecting me to say even more. When I didn’t, he seemed to tilt his head just a little bit. “You could apologize, too. I mean, I guess I could also apologize?” I don’t even know why I felt compelled to add more. Also, apologize? Why should I apologize? I’m the one who is suddenly being caught up in this inconvenience.

  “Oh, would you do that with me?”

  “I guess.” Despite my annoyance, I found myself almost reflexively acceding. Decius’ actions and mannerisms have often left me feeling a bit unnerved, but today, I felt especially overwhelmed. Decius then brought his hands together, as if clapping once.

  “Wonderful. Then, there shouldn’t be a problem, after all.” I know I saved the king’s life and this whole report is about him owing me a favour, but still, I feel like he is strangely putting in way too much trust in me. If I could, I wanted to probe more into this, but Decius continued talking. “In that case, since you’re doing me a favour, perhaps I should do one for you as well?”

  “A favour?” Is he serious? I still barely know anything about the Harbingers, but if one of their Captains is offering to do me a favour, that should be a pretty big deal.

  “Yes. One that would be an appropriate level of reciprocation?” What does that mean? I mean, I don’t think I would really be doing anything big for him, so does he mean a small favour? Also, this is just moving way too fast.

  “No, don’t do that.” Decius is just coming across way too positive towards me right now. He must be up to something. And even if he isn’t…well, that’s kind of scarier. “You don’t owe me anything. In fact, just forget about everything we were talking about earlier. We are just going to go in there together, and whatever happens happens.” Decius gave a delayed and exaggerated reaction of surprise. I knew it was fake because his eyes were smiling at me before he did it.

  “Oh, dear! You will really hang me out to dry like this, sir Braith! Please, sir Braith, I implore you to come to my aid!” Strangely, I like this over-the-top acting much better.

  “No, you’ll just have to reap what you sow,” I said, kind of fake glaring at him. Honestly, what’s the big deal? Yeah, this will probably be a bit outside of standard procedure, but this information was ultimately intended for me anyways.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Well, if that’s how you feel,” Decius said, looking at me with bright eyes. “I guess there’s no helping it then. I hope you’ll think of me if I end up as a fugitive.”

  “Yeah, sure,” I replied, playing along, and not really caring to engage any further. Soon afterwards, we arrived at the throne room. This was my last chance to turn back around, but Decius immediately opened the doors and motioned for me to follow him. Well, obviously, I can’t just go back now. Also, once I saw those doors opened, any thoughts of being patient completely disappeared. I walked in after him, and I saw the king seated on his throne. He was a bit far away, so even if he was surprised, he didn’t give any obvious enough indication for me to notice. Decius kept walking towards the king and I followed after him. When he was about fifteen steps away, he smoothly knelt down on one knee.

  “Your Majesty, your loyal subject has come to make his report.” I stood awkwardly behind him, not sure if I should be kneeling as well. King Henrik looked from Decius and then to me. Is this actually bad? As I started to think about that, he smiled at me.

  “I am impressed with your speed. Braith, you must be waiting with great anticipation, so let us hear it without any further delay.” I nodded at the king and Decius got back up.

  “During the past ten days, the Harbingers have investigated the records of any individual or group that has entered and exited Brennan with trading cargo in the past two months. In addition to that, we followed up with tracking down any individuals or groups claiming to be merchants who dealt with adventuring gear such as maps, compasses and camping equipment. From there, we secured a total of eleven maps that were sold in the past two months.” Decius then seemed to produce a map from beneath his cloak. He unfurled it, revealing it as the map I gave him earlier. “We compared the writing on those maps with the map that sir Braith provided to us. Based on our analysis, there was only a single map that contained similar writing. Based on all of the above, our findings strongly suggest that the group that sir Braith is looking for entered Brennan from the north a month ago and left from the south a week ago.”

  “Left?” I blurted out my question. Decius looked at me calmly.

  “Yes, unfortunately, it appears they had already left Brennan’s borders by the time a Harbinger reached the particular southern checkpoint that they exited from.” I stared ahead blankly as Decius continued his report. “The group was composed of ten individuals, traveling with three carriages in total. In addition to adventuring gear, they also sold various luxury goods. When we tried to identify their members based on the permits they received based on their Merchants’ Guild membership, we found that it belonged to a merchant by the name of Dennis Loharn.” Decius looked at me but I didn’t notice what kind of look he was giving me, as I was seething with anger. To think those bastards used Dennis’ guild membership to trade their stolen goods. “It appears Mr. Loharn’s death was yet to be reported to the Merchants’ Guild. In the interests of keeping this investigation confidential, we have chosen to not report it, either.” That last comment briefly shook me up. Wait, is this my fault? Could they have gotten this far if I had done something earlier? But, what could I have done? There were no guildhouses in the Outlands that I traveled through, and it’s not like I was in a position to make a report to the Merchants’ Guild in the Nature Clan. The earliest I could have done this was when I reached Brennan, but the first place to actually have a guildhouse was Ironshield. I smacked myself hard in the face at that realization. I was going to do that! I even asked for directions to it! But, on the way…

  “Braith!” the king’s shout cut through my train of thought. I looked at him as he stared back at me with a piercing gaze. When our eyes met for long enough, he turned to Decius with an even sharper gaze. “Sir Decius, exactly when did these people last receive a trading permit in Brennan?” Decius wasn’t the least bit perturbed by the king’s gaze, and continued with a light-hearted tone.

  “That would be fifteen days ago, Your Majesty.”

  “And what would have been the procedure to report a merchant’s death?”

  “Most commonly, outside of a representative of the guildhouse physically seeing the body, you can also produce a death certificate. Other than that, you would need to report the death and produce some sort of evidence and usually at least one valuable possession that belonged to the merchant, which is usually their membership token.”

  “Assuming you could produce any kind of evidence with the report, how long would it take for the death to actually be processed by the Merchants’ Guild.”

  “If it was done by the specific guildhouse where the merchant first received their membership, it could be done as quickly as a day or two. Otherwise, it could range anywhere from a week to more than two months, since the originating guildhouse would need to verify the report. Regardless, for every guildhouse to have that information at hand, it would take up to two months or more.” My distraught expression quickly turned to anger again. Decius smiled at me. Are you messing with me right now?!

  “I see. Moving on,” the king began, having already gotten the information I most needed to hear at the moment, “what else have you learned about them?”

  “There weren’t many reports of what these people looked like, which suggested that they were not dressed out of the ordinary. Out of what was notable and consistent, though, was that the one who took the lead in doing the trades wore a green hat.” That instantly triggered my memories of Dennis’ last words.

  “That's them! That’s definitely them!”

  “Ah, hold on, just one more thing, sir Braith.” Decius produced one more map from underneath his cloak and unfurled it for me. “This is the particular map with similar writing. Could you please verify the similarity?” I didn’t even need to look closely. It looked exactly the same. I glared at Decius again. After the way he was acting earlier, why was he doing this now? Decius smiled at me, seemingly bemused by how silently upset I was with him. Believe me, normally I wouldn’t hold myself back after being toyed like this, but the king was also in the room.

  “Yes, it’s the same writing.”

  “Well, since you agree, that concludes the report of our findings,” Decius said with a warm tone as he rolled up the maps and returned the first map back to me. I took the map back and begrudgingly thanked him. King Henrik thanked him as well and then looked at me with concern.

  “Unfortunately, we couldn’t track them down quickly enough, but I promise to help you in whatever way I can to make sure they are eventually captured,” the king said, attempting to reassure me.

  “Also, since they are masquerading as merchants, that greatly narrows down the next possible destinations,” Decius chimed in. I thought your report was done? “If they are confident enough to use their victim’s membership, they might even be bold enough to eventually make their way to Deimos. Or, even if they aren’t willing to do that, they clearly would still like to offload more of their goods.” Decius laughed. “Honestly, they might be a little trapped.”

  “What do you mean by that?” I asked.

  “Well, they can’t expect to make much profit in small villages, so they need to go to the largest towns or cities. If they come back up north to Brennan, then unbeknownst to them, they will be walking straight to their doom.” Yes, of course the Harbingers would catch them if they were to return. “Next, they could choose to go east instead. Deimos is the largest city in the Outlands and is a major trading hub, but that’s actually a huge risk, because that is where Mr. Loharn registered. Undoubtedly, even as a newer merchant, there would be a fair number of people who would know who he is.”

  “Okay, but what about going south to Holtzan or west to the Nature Clan? How is that bad for them?”

  “It is easy to leave Holtzan, but significantly more difficult to enter without notice. As for the Nature Clan…” Decius seemed to suppress a giggle, “...that is not even worth considering at the moment.”

  “What do you mean by that?” I asked again.

  “Sir Decius, I believe you said the findings of your report were concluded,” the king interjected, to my surprise. “Does this mean what you are saying now is just conjecture on your part?”

  “Well, I suppose you could say that.”

  “I do not find such things very helpful at the moment, then.” The king turned to me once more. “I assure you, Braith, we will help however we can, based on what we actually know. If necessary, we could even have a bounty issued for their capture with the Mercenaries’ Guild. For now, please do not worry and relax. Do whatever you can at the moment to put you at ease. Something like this need not be rushed.”

  “Thank you, Your Majesty.” I took this as my cue to leave so I gave a small bow and left. It probably was for the best for me to not engage any further with Decius, anyways. When I left the throne room, the guards outside closed the door behind me, but I took one last glance behind me and saw Decius looking right at me. The doors closed and I imagined Decius’ smiling eyes. I shook my head and walked away. Yeah, I really hope I don’t have to meet with him anymore.

  *******

  After the doors closed on them once more, King Henrik glared at Decius.

  “What exactly was the meaning of this?”

  “Whatever do you mean, Your Majesty?” Decius asked innocently.

  “I was informed that I would be receiving the report, but I suddenly see Braith following you here.”

  “I mean, did I say anything you wouldn’t have relayed to him anyways?”

  “That’s not the point. Why did you, a Harbinger Captain, do something so out of place? Also, the way you were acting with him…just what exactly is going on?”

  “Oh, you see, recently, I’ve been wanting to get a lot closer to sir Braith, so I tried to be friendlier with him.”

  “That’s not what it looked like to me.”

  “Well, that’s what I tried first, but he seemed to not really like that. So, I wondered if taking an opposite approach might work better. Well, I don’t think either really worked, but I did get to see some nice reactions out of him.”

  “And why exactly were you trying to do all of that?” Decius laughed. “Sir Decius, do not try my patience,” the king said in a sterner voice than Braith has ever heard from him.

  “Actually, there’s a bit more to our findings. This bit is just for you, though.”

  “You were only supposed to look into the people Braith was looking for. Why exactly did you think you had the luxury to do anything else, even if you thought it was on my behalf?” There were probably only a handful of people in the kingdom who could stand being in that room right now without fearing the threat of execution or some other heavy punishment. Sir Decius was only someone who didn’t fear the threat, and not someone who thought it to be an impossibility.

  “This is something for your eyes first, Your Majesty.” Decius took out some rolled up paper from underneath his cloak.

  “Another map?”

  “No, something much better.” Decius unfurled it before the king. At first, the king looked at it with mild confusion, but as he continued to read the words on the paper in front of him, Decius smiled when he saw the king unable to completely suppress his shocked reaction.