After quickly walking out of the palace, Elanev briskly walked towards the sparring round in which he had seen the strange man from his balcony.
When he reached it, as expected, there was no one there. What was suspicious was that even though the ground was the sort where footsteps would easily stay for hours due to the loose earth on top, there were no footsteps here as if they had been deliberately erased by the man who had passed through.
Although this might be a simple spell, it at least gave the information that that man had been a Mage.
Looking in the direction he had taken note of before, Elanev realized that the forest it led to seemed to be covered in a perpetual darkness because the trees were so thick that no sunlight could get through.
He had actually spotted this place before, but he hadn't suspected anything because this wasn't the only forest that had grown in this way.
Just as he was about to set off to follow that man into the forest, he stopped and thought about the possibility of facing off against a strong mage by himself.
Elanev knew his strengths and weaknesses. Even though he had the confidence of facing any Fighter even at a level above him, he knew that he would be no match for a skilled mage even if he used all his trump cards.
Thus, he paused and took out the trinket which he had just used to communicate with Daneel.
Sending a message with the information, he waited for a response while idly shadowboxing in order to not raise suspicion if anyone else came before Daneel replied.
…
Meanwhile, Daneel and Faxul had just teleported to the stadium where the match between Elanev and the Black Raven King had taken place.
The walk to the capital would take a few days, and even though this journey could be accomplished simply by teleporting directly, Daneel and Faxul had both chosen to take the long route to understand this Kingdom against which they might be moving soon.
After all, Daneel was a huge fan of the saying, "Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will always be victorious."
Besides, Faxul's interest to find out more about the place where he had been born was also quite clear.
When Daneel received the message from Elanev, the two had just reached a small town with a population less than 200 people.
Listening to Elanev explaining about the man and the missing footsteps, Daneel also felt that it would be dangerous for his most important asset, his elder brother, to go up against someone without knowing their strength.
In fact, he was reminded of the horror movies from Earth where protagonists would usually chase after suspicious things as if they weren't aware of the danger.
Having no intention of taking undue risks, Daneel ordered Elanev to keep a note of the destination of the man and wait for him to arrive before carrying out any further investigation.
After all, not everyone could deploy a disposable clone which could allow them to explore something without any personal danger.
After making sure that Elanev gave the response saying he got the message, Daneel and Faxul looked for an inn to stay in while studying the houses and the people around them.
The village seemed very primitive, and according to the information that Daneel had, the people of this village were primarily miners who spent most of their time at the mine which was over 100 km away.
Hence, for the most part, the villagers only comprised of the families of those people who went to work.
After asking for directions, the two reached an inn but paused seeing that there was a sign on the door which read "Closed for Renovation".
Having no idea what to do, the duo considered moving onto the next village even though it was already night and their stomachs were grumbling because the hadn't eaten in many hours.
Just as Daneel was about to say that they had no other choice, he felt a tugging at his pants which made him look down to see a small kid looking at him with a toothy smile.
"Mister, are you here for the inn?"
Seeing Daneel nod, the kid continued, saying, "Then follow me! Mama said we can't have the guests of our village leave just because the roof collapsed in the inn. She's already cooking dinner, and if we go now, she can add just enough meat for two more people! Come on!"
Not waiting for a response and walking away on his own, the kid turned around after a few seconds to find that the two men were still staring at him with bemused expressions on their faces.
Giggling a bit, he said, "What's wrong? I promise we won't bite! Now come on, or mama will be angry!"
Finally seeing them follow, he continued skipping along the path to a one-storied house which had the words, "Irma's Inn. All are welcome!" on the door.
After reaching the house, the kid opened the door and went inside after ensuring that the two men had indeed followed till here.
Seeing the sign, both of them looked at each other before smiling.
Daneel hadn't known what to think seeing the kid inviting them out of nowhere. Now, seeing the sign, he realized that this was a house that had probably been converted into an inn to serve weary travelers.
Opening the door, he took a deep breath of the broth which smelled wonderful before smiling wider and entering inside.
…
Since coming to this kingdom, Faxul had been immersed in a unique feeling which he had never felt before in his life.
It was the feeling of coming back to a home he had forgotten about for more than a decade.
Although he didn't have clear memories of his time in the Black Raven Kingdom, the experiences and feelings weren't things that could easily be forgotten.
It seemed that coming back had managed to trigger those sleeping memories, allowing him to feel for the first time that he was somewhere he belonged.
Even though Lanthanor was where he had grown up, found his closest friend, realized his passion for helping people, and found methods to grow strong faster, it was still a place that was foreign to him.
This was partly the reason why his long-standing character of hiding emotions and speaking as little as possible had persisted for so long even though there were a lot of influences which should have changed it.
It was only with the feeling he got when he interacted with the Black Raven that he began to remember what it meant to be himself instead of being constantly clouded by the desire for revenge.
Of course, the desire still existed, but the addition of other desires alongside it had allowed him to slowly recover and change.
The desire to help these people who had once been ruled by his father.
The desire to find out about the blood which flowed through his body, that was helping him to keep the entity at bay.
The desire to know the feeling of actually connecting with the Raven whose thoughts he seemed to understand with the very fiber of his being.
And the desire to help his friend who had done so much for him.
Entering the house, the first thing that both of them saw was a kind, middle-aged woman who smiled wide at them while still listening to the chatter of the kid who was beside her.
"Welcome! Please take a seat. Dinner will soon be ready, and I will show you the room you can sleep in after that. No one should ever think that the Black Raven Kingdom is unaccommodating! Go show them the bathroom so that they can fresh up."
The last sentence was said after she smacked the kid on his bottom which made him stop talking and grimace slightly before walking to Faxul and Daneel and leading them to a small room on the side where turning a faucet made cold water gather in the basin below.
Yet, after a few seconds, the water started to turn muddy which led the kid to quickly close the faucet and shout, "Mom! The pipe is clogged again!"
Still, seeing that there was enough water, he smiled at the two before leaving the bathroom and saying, "Didn't the mayor say that money would come to fix all the pipes from the government? What happened to that?"