Eliza Beck was a rare and elusive individual. A Desert Noble Thief, she was the one Griever who wasn’t part of our circle of childhood friends. Even among a party of unshakable hunters who lived at their own pace, she was the freest spirit of us all. After meeting her in a certain treasure vault, we invited her to join our party, offering to do whatever we could to support her in exchange. From that day onward, Eliza became an active member of Grieving Souls.
By the time she joined us, I had already mostly stopped going on expeditions, so I had only seen her in action a handful of times. However, I had heard tales from my friends, and, apparently, things were going better than expected. Ideally, I’d rather ask Eliza personally than rely on hearsay. Being the person who invited her to our party meant I had certain responsibilities. I intended to frequently sit down and talk with her, but that didn’t pan out. And it wasn’t because I didn’t try.
“I dunno why, I just never see Eliza anywhere...” I said, just as a bit of small talk.
The two of us got along fairly well on account of our arrangement in which she would give me the Relics she found on her explorations. Despite this, we had shockingly few direct encounters. She would regularly drop off her Relics along with a note in my room, so she was supposedly coming into my quarters, but I guess luck just wasn’t on our side.
Rolling around on the sofa, Liz looked at me wide-eyed. “Ellie’s always saying you’re the one who’s never around.”
“Huh? Really?”
“Yeah. Come to think of it, whenever I come here with Ellie, you’re always somewhere else.”
That’s ridiculous. I’m always in the clan master’s room.
It seemed luck wasn’t just not on our side, it was against us.
“But it seems like Ellie wants to see you.” Liz sounded exasperated. “She’s, y’know, awfully fickly and walks like she’s half awake.”
This caught me off guard. She wanted to see me? Me? That girl who was always so vacant and spacey did? I was sort of happy to hear that.
Unable to sit still, I stood up from my desk, filled with a rare sense of passion.
“Then today, I’ll try and be the one to find her... Will you show me the way?”
It’s not like I had anything better to be doing, and with Liz around, the occasional walk around the city didn’t sound so bad.
Liz blinked with confusion. Perhaps my suggestion caught her off guard. “Well, it just so happens I know where she is. But are you sure? You never go out of your way to see the rest of us...”
I’m totally sure. I want to see what that placid girl looks like when she’s surprised.
The reason I never went to see the rest of the party was that they always came to me first. Liz, for instance, would stop by once every few days or so when she was in the imperial capital. Of course I didn’t go out of my way to find her.
As I got up, I placated the pouting Liz. Then off we went in search of Eliza.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Cae’s gone again,” Eliza muttered.
This was her first visit to the clan master’s office in some time. Krai Andrey was a rare and elusive individual. He seldom showed himself in public, and nobody knew what he did when he was in seclusion. Yet whenever a major incident occurred, he just about always had something to do with it, and he was always showing up in places he had no reason to be.
For some reason, Eliza rarely got the chance to see him. Even now, she could tell he had been in his office not too long ago, but now he was nowhere to be seen. It was true that as a Noble Spirit, she had a different sense of time than humans did, but not just anyone could elude a Thief skilled in detection and tracking. Not to mention the fact that Krai didn’t seem to be eluding her intentionally. At this point, it was hard to tell who the true Vagabond was.
Rubbing her hand against the ground, she suddenly looked up. Normally, she would tell herself she’d see him some other time and depart. She didn’t have an urgent need to see him or anything like that. But she could tell he had been in this room no more than an hour ago. She might still be able to catch him.
With an uncommon sense of motivation, she stood up and began her pursuit.
Following the faintest of traces, Eliza traversed the grand city. On his own, Cae was indistinct, but it seemed Liz was accompanying him today. Following them wasn’t hard at all. She slipped through the bustling main street, slinked past a spot where knights were gathered due to some sort of trouble, walked past the inn she had been staying at until yesterday, and entered a trendy-looking streetside knitting shop that was clearly popular among women. After walking around one of those labyrinthine interiors unique to shops in the imperial capital, Eliza checked with an employee.
“Oh, the man you’re referring to just left. He was accompanied by a pretty young woman with pink hair. It seemed he was in some sort of trouble and left through that door.”
“I see.”
So there were multiple exits. This was why Eliza wasn’t fond of cities.
Frustrated, she started walking again. She navigated a crowd, shaking off the curious gazes that a Noble Spirit attracted. She kept an eye on a small group of knights as she pressed on before entering a small street too narrow for carriages. Cae was really on the move today, though she had no idea where he was going. Since he normally stayed in one place, you could say she was unlucky, but as a Thief, she was trained for situations just like this.
She swiftly moved down the street. Initially, the road was in good repair, but it wasn’t long before she started seeing cracks. The surroundings became similarly gloomy, the other pedestrians increasingly shady. The looks she was attracting were no longer curious, but covetous. She didn’t know what had happened, but she found a number of large men on their backs.
Her eyes went wide. “Cae. Did he go to the roof?”
She was certain she was reading the trail correctly. He hadn’t walked any further down this road. Eliza leaped atop a decrepit building that looked like it could fall apart any second. For hunters traversing treacherous lands, being able to jump this high wasn’t just common, it was a necessary skill.
Making sure not to break through any roofs, she ran for a few minutes before finally catching up.
“Oh? Hey there, Ellie. What brings you here?”
It was Liz, holding up some goon by their collar. Eliza looked around. She didn’t know what had happened here, but she didn’t see the man she was trying to find.
“Where’s Cae?”
“Ah, yeah. Siddy entered the shop, found out I was trying to use our outing as a date, and grabbed him. Besides, there’s no way he would go running across rooftops.”
He changed companions partway? Liz’s presence was much stronger than Cae’s, so Eliza hadn’t noticed. Now she would have to return to the knitting shop and check for his trail once more.
“If you’re looking for Krai Baby, try following the mayhem. As usual, lots of people wanted a piece of him today.”
Eliza didn’t say anything, only letting out a sigh. She slowly walked down the route she had come so she could restart her pursuit.
Krai Andrey was a rare and elusive individual. The day Eliza saw him would not be this day.