On the way from the facility, Cyril noticed the many bodies littering the floors.
They were bandits, and they all had a single wound on the neck; whoever did it was skillful.
I wonder what happened to Rex and Ron."Who cares? I don't see their bodies here at least."
Maybe we'll meet again in the future."If they keep being bandits at the time, we should kill the slippery thugs then."
Cyril was carrying Myra with ease, which couldn't be said about Jack.
He was using his back to transport Viper, and his face was covered with sweat already.
Soon the two of them finally got outside. The first thing Jack did was throw the heavy body down on the grass.
"Let's stop here. Surely it is fine, right?" Jack was taking a deep breath while sitting on the ground.
"Sure," Cyril gently dropped Myra down on the ground and sat not too far away.
After stabilizing his breathing, Jack peeked at Cyril, who was calmly sitting with his eyes closed.
"Aren't you going to ask who I really am?" He said with a bit of fanfare.
"Are you going to tell me?" Cyril asked in return.
"He he, no! But I feel there is an opportunity here. If some day you want to use the services of... let's say, less popular sides of society come to the Coriander Street to the Hidden Merit bar." He said with a slight smile.
"So you are a thief?" said Cyril, unsurprised.
"I prefer the term 'property reassigner,' but you get the gist of it. Though sometimes I take grimmer jobs," Jack shrugged his shoulders. "Like today."
At some point in their conversation, Myra finally started waking up.
While holding her head, she wearily got up from the ground.
In a groggy state, she looked around and noticed Cyril. "Teacher...?"
"Wake up," Cyril replied with a straight face.
After a second delay, Myra quickly got up from the ground in alarm. "What happened!?"
Cyril took some time to slowly explain the situation.
...
Myra sat back down and listened with a tense expression that soon turned weird.
"She left just like that?" Myra said in disbelief.
"Yes. That woman is a bit weird, isn't she?" Said Jack, sitting nearby. He acted as though he was part of the group.
"So what are you going to do with this guy? Time is precious; come on," Jack pointed at Viper, who was still knocked out. "Do I wake him up?"
Myra gave an eager nod and moved closer.
Jack pulled out a vial of some kind and let a droplet fall into Viper's mouth.
With a severe cough, the man woke up. He still couldn't move his hands very well.
It looked like Jack poisoned the man while he had the time.
The moment Viper woke up, he angrily started at the sky with an unwilling expression. "I should've never taken this job. What a bitch!"
"Then it should be easy for you to tell us who hired you and why," Myra said with her hands crossed.
Only at this moment did Viper turn to look at the people present.
One by one he looked over them before he dropped his head back on the ground in defeat.
"Unfortunately, I don't know. I was approached by a cloaked figure one night at the bar. The voice was twisted by magic. They knew a lot about me, and they had a lot of money." His face became more obsessive.
"All I had to do was manage this little shithole in the wilderness." He continued with gritted teeth.
"Then this bitch suddenly showed up. Telling me she is here to rate my progress." His eyes were full of hatred.
"The day she first appeared I didn't even know who she was! I tried to fight her, but she beat me up senseless, and only then she explained! And now this shit!" He turned to look at Myra in the eyes.
"I think there are more facilities like this. A few must be in the city as well. That bitch told me she went there frequently."
"I don't know who might be responsible, but it must be someone filthy rich." Viper clearly wasn't planning on hiding anything now.
"There! Hope you mess up their day at least a little bit" Viper said this and closed his eyes in resignation.
Myra went silent, thinking about something.
"Are we done here?" Asked Jack with enthusiasm.
"I have no questions" Said Cyril. He wasn't curious about anything this guy had to offer.
"Right then!" said Jack. "And what about you? Do you want to have revenge against him now? You were a bit upset back there." He looked at Myra.
"...No. The true culprit isn't him anyways," Myra said with some difficulty.
Jack shrugged at her words "If you say so. Then allow me..."
Suddenly he crouched down and slit the throat of Viper in one smooth movement.
"You b- bastard! But I-I didn't..." Viper managed to say this much before life left his eyes.
"Ha ha. He still hoped to get out of this alive, what a funny guy" Jack said in amusement and got up.
"He messed with some people he shouldn't have not too long ago" Jack explained after seeing the piercing gazes of Myra and Cyril.
"I am not related to the kidnappers! Truly! Like I've said I'll even help you for the right price, just come find me" He said with his arms raised high and started slowly backing away.
"Well, see you!" Going under the shade of a tree, he suddenly melted into nothingness.
"Who do you think could be responsible?" Cyril asked after a second.
"The first one that comes to mind is the Arken family of course" Myra replied.
They did meet the two thugs here.
"But it's hard for me to believe they would do something so risky. This never happened in my visions..." Myra thought some more.
"It could also be Rennock Trading Company. They have the means to do it."
"They were the ones to try taking over power in the Empire, but they also never did anything like this in the future I saw..." Her voice sounded tired.
"I am sure we can figure it out in time." Cyril reassured her.
He didn't wish to stay on the topic of the future for too long, lest Myra become gloomy again.
"At least we got the plants you were looking for. These are them, right?" To switch the topic, Cyril picked up the box from the ground and opened it.
The attempt was successful. Myra's face became brighter the moment she looked at them. "Yes! It's what I was looking for. Luck is still with me."
"How do we use it?" Cyril asked,. He was curious what effect it will have on him.
"We'll need to make it into a pill. I know a place where we can do that." Myra said with a satisfied nod. "There is plenty here; it will be enough for Rose and Edmund too."
Her face kept up its brightness for a while before a hint of sadness appeared again.
She sighed and turned to look at the entrance underground. "Will you help me carry the bodies? I am sure their relatives would want to bury them..."
"Alright," Cyril didn't think about refusing at this time.
He couldn't really imagine how she felt when finding familiar faces in this place. Must be horrible.
Together they carried whatever bodies Myra recognized to the surface and laid them down.
For the ones she didn't recognize or couldn't, they dug a collective grave.
Myra stood silently praying to the goddess of the earth for them.
Cyril wasn't the most pious person, but he still joined her at the side.
With this finished, they went back to the village to get the news to other people.
...
This matter took up the whole day. By the time they were done, it was already nighttime.
Myra was lying on the ground outside watching the stars above. Cyril sat nearby.
During the whole ordeal there were a lot of crying faces, and Myra was feeling gloomy again.
Cyril wanted to say something at this moment, but before he could, Myra interrupted him.
"I am fine already." She raised her body.
"This is the kind of thing I am supposed to prevent. I should be stronger," she said as if convincing herself.
Then she looked at Cyril with hope visible in her eyes. "You'll help me, right?"
Her words didn't sound particularly special, but Cyril got the feeling something had changed within Myra.
"I already said so; yes, I will; don't worry," Cyril replied with confidence.
"Thank you." To his word, Myra sweetly smiled and lay back down.
Cyril got a weird feeling coming from her at this moment, but he wasn't quite sure what that was.
After a bit more time stargazing, they went back.
Tomorrow they decided to head back to the city at noon.
Myra denied Polly's proposal to stay for a few more days.
In the morning Myra acted just as normal.
She joked around with Polly and visited some of her friends from childhood.
At least in Cyril's eyes, she was back to normal.
With the new box in hand, they took the carriage towards the train.