36 Kidnapped!

A large city filled was filled with life starting early in the morning. It was not a super powerful city, however, it was filled with merchants and businessmen in their busy market. From far away a person could hear the shouts of bargaining and advertising. A quiet, unassuming carriage rolled up to the gates of the city near midday. Once it reached the gate, the guards had the people inside get out for security purposes. The door of the carriage slowly opened to reveal a dainty foot stepping out. Following the foot, a beautiful girl appeared. She wore a simple light purple dress, but the common clothes could not hide her eye-catching features. Gleaming platinum silver hair flowed down while the front hair was pulled back in a simple braid to reveal her cute face. Her purple eyes were like gems that glowed with intelligence. Behind her, an average middle-aged man that could not be picked out from a crowd walked out of the carriage. The stark contrast in looks was odd in the eyes of onlookers and made the duo even more memorable.

The girl's looks were one thing, but her expression was anything but inviting. Many were tempted to pinch her rosy cheeks, however, the girl's neutral icy expression pushed them away. The way she carried herself made it seem like she was some important noble's daughter, so they decided it was best not to offend her.

"Hey, Grey, would it kill you to lighten up? You're scaring away everyone. There is no way we're going to get any information from the people at this rate." The middle aged man whispered down.

Yes, these two were Greyson and Lyle! The little girl was Greyson in disguise and the middle-aged man was Lyle. Lyle had bought a Disguise pill from the Academy before leaving in order to avoid standing out. He had assumed that two kids wondering around would look peculiar, but if he was an adult then no one would notice anything out of place.

"Hmph, why don't you dress like a girl and act all bubbly and cute then?" Greyson ignored his words and continued with his grumpy expression. Contrary to the unwillingness in his voice, though, his face lightened up into a normal smile that looked much more welcoming. The two soon made their way to a tavern hoping to hear some gossip from the locals. Once they swung open the door, all the eyes followed Greyson in astonishment before finally turning away and going back to their conversations. Ignoring the stares, Greyson and Lyle sat down at one of the tables before an older woman came over to ask for their order.

"Well, I'll be, you're a looker now aren't ya?" She whistled looking over at Greyson. Although he was feeling annoyed by her supposed compliment, he still politely smiled and thanked her.

"You two father and daughter? Whereabouts you from?" Her cheery personality soon came out as she continued talking with them. It seems they were not wrong to think that the tavern would be the gossip mill in the city.

"Yes. We are from Cromer Village and are just traveling performers." This time Lyle answered.

"Cromer, huh. Well now, so you don't live too far out do ya. We get a lot of villagers around here. But, sir, all do respect, ye might wanna just pack up and leave before its too late. This city ain't no good right now for girls looking like your daughter."

Pretending to be surprised and not understand, Lyle furrowed his brow while asking, "what do you mean by that? Has there been some issue lately?"

"Ya don't know? Well I guess you haven't been listening to the stories running around lately. There's some sorta crazy running around and snatching pretty young girls and killing 'em. He breaks all their bones and cuts them up before leaving a trail of their organs so someone can find them 2 days later in the morning. I shudder just thinking bout it. I saw the trail myself for the second girl."

Greyson pretended to be wide-eyed with fear, "h-h-how many girls has he killed?"

"Four! An' that's why you and your father should run away before night hits. You look just like his type." The woman looked at the young girl with pity showing in her eyes, as if Greyson had already been targeted.

"I appreciate your concern, but my daughter has an important performance tomorrow, so we'll be staying until the day after tomorrow." Lyle responded firmly.

"Hmm, well, if ya insist. I can at least give ya a place to stay. This tavern of mine has some rooms and the top floor, did ya want to stay in one of them?" Lyle nodded and handed the money for the food and room to the woman. After she had left, he turned to Greyson.

"Well, look at you. You got the terrified little girl act down really well." He said smirking. Greyson refused to answer and just rolled his eyes.

"Listening to the woman speak, though, reminds me of home. Everyone in Academy City speaks properly, so it's been awhile since I've heard someone with a more local way of speaking. Brings me back to the times I went to the market in Willow Town." Greyson started reminiscing.

"Yeah, you're right. I used to talk like that to, but my mom would yell at me to correct me so that I wouldn't be looked down on at school. Ironic as it was because she would lecture me while speaking that same way." Lyle smiled thinking back to those moments. Suddenly the atmosphere at the table was sullen as they both felt homesick. Young as they were, it was impossible not to miss home after two years.

The food came back out while Lyle and Greyson stretched their ears out to listen to any gossip about the murders. However, no good clues came about as no one knew anything about the man's potential identity. They were just repeating the same facts everyone knew and telling each other to watch their daughters closely. After their meal, they decided to just rest for the day and hopefully the mini concert that Greyson would put on would attract enough attention for him to become a target.

"Hm?" Just as he was walking up the stairs to the room, he felt a burning gaze closing in on him. A chill ran down his neck as he turned back. He saw a rather plain looking young woman with a long scar down her left cheek. However, the girl had a warm smile on her face as she curtsied in greeting. She looked like a worker and rather similar to the tavern woman so he assumed she must be the other woman's daughter. Feeling like he must have been too sensitive due to the stories today, he just nodded and smiled back before turning away.

Sleep did not come as quickly as Greyson was on high alert at all moments in case he was attacked tonight, but it was a quiet and peaceful night with nothing out of the ordinary. He suddenly felt an irrational disappointment wave through him. Was he not attractive enough? Realizing the weird direction of his thoughts, he shook his head and finally fell asleep.

...

The next morning, he quickly awoke to the sound of haggling and the shouting of deals for the day. Definitely a major trading city. Irritated from his lack of sleep and early awakening, he was more grumpy with Lucius and Lyle than usual.

"Do I have to perform? This is stupid, he is obviously not coming for me!" He grumbled for the thousandth time.

"Will you just stop complaining, do you want to help me catch this guy or not? You're the one who agreed!" Finally annoyed with the complaining and questioning, Lyle snapped at Greyson. Feeling stabbed by his conscience, Greyson knew he had been a real pain this entire trip. He had agreed, but he was making life difficult for Lyle this entire time.

"Sorry, Lyle, I'm just cranky is all. I should really get over it. I always just get upset when I'm seen as a girl or feminine, but I know that it shouldn't really matter." Greyson sighed.

"People are just complimenting you so you should just take it like that. Your pretty looks now are only a precursor to your good looks later." Lyle comforted.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's just get this performance over with." Greyson, Lyle, and Lucius all walked over to the city square where there were tons of street performers. They set up a little area for Greyson to sit and play for everyone. Sitting down comfortably, Greyson summoned his magic tool.

"Mesmer, come forth." Holding out his hand, a beautiful silver flute appeared in his hands. Every magic tool was named and could be called forth by its owner. After a while, Greyson had decided on Mesmer from the word "mesmerize" as his flute music could cause people to lose themselves in hallucinations.

Gracefully pulling the flute to his lips, a song quickly arose from the flute. Unclear to the naked eye, a green aura arose from Greyson's body as his eyes flickered to a deep emerald green. Carlyle's song of homecoming was echoing throughout the square. It was called "Wendy." Which was Carlyle's late mother's name. He wrote this song after being severely depressed after her passing. Although Greyson couldn't completely relate, whenever he played this song he thought of Sister Lily and how much he missed home every now and then. Somber but nostalgia-inducing notes rang true. Everyone in the square who were busy and chaotic, suddenly calmed down and were entranced by the music. They all pictured their homes and their family, tears welling up in their eyes. It was a rather long song of 7 minutes, but no one felt it was too much. In fact, when the song was over and they broke out of their fantasy, they felt it a shame that the song was not longer. Thundering applause burst out in the square as everyone was asking for an encore. Looking at the young girl playing, the audience was enthralled not just by her beautiful music but her beautiful looks and movements as well. Such a feast for the eyes and ears.

Hearing their requests, Greyson relented and decided to play one more song. "Earthly Mountains" which was about Carlyle's personal ups and downs and how he continued climbing towards his goals. It was a relatable song for almost every commoner. The people were welled with a sense of depression then led into joyful celebration from the song. Scenes of their life played out in front of their eyes as they were once again lost in the music. The notes of the flute were clear and charming. When the song ended, everyone cried in joy as if they had accomplished their goals today. Everyone felt the performance today would be forever stuck in their memory. Wanting to ask the girl for her identity, they all turned to the spot where she ha been sitting only to realize in their distraction she had already left. Stomping their feet and patting their chest with frustration for missing the elusive flute player, the crowd soon dispersed and went on with their earlier activities.

"Hey, Grey, you were awesome. Even I couldn't help but be affected by your music. That spell Siren's Music could be really dangerous in a battle, though. You could totally catch your enemy unaware." Lyle was amazed yet also frightened by the potency of the wind spell. Greyson grinned in satisfaction with his new flute as this had been the first time he had use it to play for an audience. As he had hoped, the effect was fantastic.

"Not bad, not bad. Although it only effected me for like a second, it's still really useful for those who are close to the same level as you." Lucius's voice echoed in his head. Lucius was now at the advanced level stage three. He was advancing almost as fast as Greyson as his talent was also extremely high. The spell wouldn't have much of an effect on him, but Greyson was already satisfied with the scale of effect from what Lyle had said.

As was always the case with people, the earlier performance became the talk of the city. Every gossiper in the city was searching for his identity and quickly got the answer from the good old tavern lady who knew who everyone was talking about the minute they spoke of the girl's appearance. Who else would have such stunning looks and rare eyes. People gathered at the tavern and travelers decided to check out of their places and try to get a room near Greyson and Lyle's. Greyson had become somewhat famous in this short period and even he was shocked by the strong response.

He felt confident that this time he had definitely caught the attention of that murderer. Keeping his wits about him, he spent the rest of the day pretending to shop around and greeting the market carts and stores. Making sure to smile nicely at all the owners and customers, he was putting out a full effort to catch the murderer onto his tail.

"Ugh, I think my face is paralyzed. I've never smiled this much in my 7 years of living." Sighing while flopping onto his bed in the tavern, Greyson massaged his cheeks.

"Hahaha true, I didn't expect that you had it in you. Being so bright and pleasant like other children." Lucius remarked sarcastically. Grunting in response, Greyson decided to just ignore his annoying feline friend. Tonight he would have to keep his wits about him. His instinct was telling him that something would happen later.

Turning off his light, Greyson slowly laid down and pretended to sleep. Just when his wariness was waning, his door was quietly pushed open. Alerted by the noise, Greyson continued to feign sleeping. A couple seconds later a strange scent tickled his nose. Without alerting the intruder, he activated his wind magic to keep the smell away from his nose. It was most likely some kind of knock out drug to keep the girls quiet as he kidnapped them. His body was slowly lifted up and his hands and feet were tied. What confused Greyson was that the hands which touched his to tie them up felt soft and unlike a normal commoner's hands. Maybe it was a noble with a strange hobby? He allowed his body to be placed in a sack and carried out.

He could feel his body traveling lightly from the assailant's wind magic, but he could tell that their mana level was lower than his. Probably novice level stage 3 or 4, so he should be able to handle it. Although he was in a dangerous situation, he had the temptation to laugh. Where in the world would you find another crazy kid who was ardently wishing to be kidnapped by a psychopath murderer?

The movement slowed and Greyson could smell the forest surrounding them. He guessed that the murderer was taking him to some remote area away from people which was to be expected. A door creaked open and his body was roughly thrown to the ground. His body was dragged out of the sack and re-tied onto a table. Hearing the footsteps walking further away from his body, Greyson finally attempted to open his eyes and take a peek at this person.

Cracking open his right eye, he looked over to see the body. He almost gasped in surprise, but he held himself back. It was that person!