"To be honest with you, I would be lying if I said I knew. But an old man like myself, stuck in the office doing paper works all day, couldn't even tell you a thing was the cause. All I knew was four years back we had an unimaginable thunderstorm that lasted for five days. Usually, when it rained, people would stop at our town, restock, and be on the move. But you could imagine the crowd that would come in after a five-day rain—it made our town packed with travelers, explorers, adventurers—nothing out of the ordinary, really. But after two weeks, they began to leave, and then it happened. My son went missing. At first, I couldn't be sure if he was missing or he just left, but leaving without saying goodbye was something he would never do."

"My son was very adventurous, you see. He would leave the town for months on end without telling anyone, but something about his disappearance felt different, and I never saw him again until now. Then came the second missing person: Granny Maera's grandson, immediately after my son's disappearance. The others started to follow closely. I had asked for the help of Manyblood, but due to so much red tape, we couldn't act fast. Many refused to go into the forest. I tried, but I'm not especially skilled. We had to lobby our way to get help as we increased taxes, and now we have that royal your children encountered on the case."

A royal—so that's probably the second high-profile person that man meant was involved.

Then, the Mayor did the unthinkable; he began to kneel, and his two officers looked surprised.

"Sir, you're the Mayor! You shouldn't!" one of the officers exclaimed.

"Let me beg," the Mayor said. "Please, Manomancer, whatever help you can offer this town, please do. We are in great need."

Father couldn't bear it. "Please, sir!" He helped the Mayor back up. "You're much older than me, you shouldn't."

Astraya and I looked at Father, our expressions confirming what he already knew. We must help them in any way possible and find the cause and root of the missing persons.

"I promise you, I, Vulgabread Fula, will find the root of this sadness brought upon this town."

I could see the Mayor tearing up as he clasped his hands in a praying gesture. "Thank you very much, Mr. Vulgabread." He stood up, as one of the two officers whispered into his ear.

The Mayor then addressed us in a louder voice. "Well now, I hope you have a pleasant stay at our town. Kindly, if you need any bit of information, Mr. Vulgabread, don't be shy to ask. I have to get going now; more paperwork to attend to."

He waved us goodbye as his officers followed beside him.

"Father, those men beside him, who are they?"

"Oh, those are local police, mostly just locals that chose to join to help enforce laws around town."

"Wait, just two?" I asked.

"Well, yeah, it is a small town, and especially when there aren't many people around, finding situations where two or three officers is enough isn't surprising."

Granny Maera also said her goodbyes. She told us if we ever needed a place to stay, we should come visit her; everyone in town knew where she lived.

We waved to her as she left. "So, Father, who was that man that told you to take your wagon away? The Mayor said they have no special parking spaces for wagons."

"Oh, that? He did take me to park my wagon, but don't worry too much about that person. I guess they were joking when they went into the distance. But why would a Mayor say they had no wagon parking space? Hmmm, strange." Father touched his chin. "I forgot why I was excited and looking for you two."

Morad suddenly piped up from his bowl. "Hello, guys! How long am I going to stay quiet? Oh, Brother, did you see the size of that snake Mana Beast? You guys were in trouble! How dare that Mayor call me a girl! That royal bastard really wanted to burn you guys! You should have let us fight, Brother, we would have shown him!" Morad kept talking, with a lot on his mind.

"Shhhh, Morad, one at a time," I said. "You need to lay low for now. We don't exactly know how the outside world is yet, so just stick to the plan."

"Ugh, fine. I'm going to sleep, tch." Morad truly seemed to go back to sleep.

Astraya's tummy rumbled, a loud signal that she was hungry. This made Father suddenly remember what he wanted to say. "Yes, I remember now! Food! I know where we can get food…"

"Say no more, Father, I'm so hungry I could eat a big fish!" Astraya exclaimed.

"Astraya, I'm gonna tell Mom!" I teased her.

"Oh, sorry, Astraga! Come on, he's asleep now, he didn't hear!" Morad was indeed fast asleep.

"Fine, I'll allow it. Pass on this but—no more fish for us! Ugh, fine, fine." She agreed.

Father announced, "Alright, let's gooo!"I turned, scanning the edges of the square for a last time, just feeling the instinctive urge to look. There he was. Between the houses, near the board, a figure in a cloak stood completely still. It was the same color and look as the man who had escorted Father to the wagon space.

I nudged Astraya as we walked behind Father. "Wait, isn't that the same guy looking at the notice board?"

She turned and looked in the direction, and I looked back as well.

"Huh? What are you talking about? There's nobody there. You're definitely hungry, Astraga."

She was right. The figure was gone. Hmmm, maybe I was seeing things

We found the place Father wanted us to eat faster than I expected; it was the Black Hearth Tavern.

It was a sprawling two-story structure, built from the same mixture of dark, load-bearing oak and cold, undressed fieldstone that defined Blackroot. Its sheer size was enough to accommodate a weary crowd of thirty or more.

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