♚Chapter 2: A Pledge for the Future
ROCK and Phoebe were taken by surprise when Nisha visited Floria Clothes Shop. Nisha didn’t seem to know this was their shop either. She absently looked around before holding out a piece of paper from the pile she was clutching.
“You’re…Rock, right? Can I trouble you to put this up?”
The paper was one of the missing person posters they had seen around town.
The poster clearly read:
Missing: Krister Gionet
28-year-old male
Slender, silver hair, charcoal-black eyes
The text was accompanied by a professionally drawn portrait of Krister that perfectly captured his features. Just having that drawn must have cost a small fortune, but Nisha didn’t stop there—she’d had dozens of the posters made.
The bottom of the page was signed “NiShA” with the sloppy handwriting of a child just learning how to write their name.
These posters had already been hung up all around the slums. Rock had spotted one on her way to the shop that very morning.
Rock lifted her eyes from Krister’s portrait to look at Nisha.
Her cheeks were sunken in, her eyes red and swollen from crying, and her lips paler than when Rock had met her a week ago at Justia’s. She was clearly haggard from worry caused by Krister’s disappearance, no doubt.
“Sure. I’ll put it up outside,” Rock agreed.
Nisha forced a miserable smile and asked, “Have you seen Krister yet?”
“Sadly, no.”
After being given the runaround all week, Rock had given up looking for him. But she could easily tell he was still missing from his customers knocking at her door to this day.
“I see… I hope nothing bad happened to him…” Nisha’s lips trembled and she cast down her eyes. “I don’t even know if he’s still in the capital. And everyone says they don’t know where he lives.”
Going two whole weeks without being seen was too long by all accounts. And it was almost a month since Nisha last saw him. Rumors were even starting to spread that he’d skipped town for some reason or another.
“You have no idea what he’s gotten himself into?” Phoebe asked her, unable to just watch.
Nisha feebly shook her head. “None whatsoever. I never thought he’d disappear from my life.”
Her heartrending whisper struck a chord with Rock.
She must be in so much pain to think that way. Especially when the cause of all her heartache is the man she loves…
“Did he mention anything about that big job of his?” Phoebe asked, digging deeper.
Nisha furrowed her brow as she tried to remember anything of use, only to droop her shoulders.
“I don’t think so. Krister rarely talks about work.” Tears formed in her eyes and she sniffled. “All he said was that he’s going to make big money off it.”
“‘Big money,’ huh? Just how big is that?”
“He said once everything was over, he’d take me back to my hometown.” Tears slipped down Nisha’s cheeks, the conversation pushing her over the edge. “He promised to go south with me to meet my family and get married.”
Phoebe shot Rock a look like his case was proven then and there.
There could be more than just that to explain his disappearance. Rock could only watch Nisha cry in silence.
After Nisha left the shop, Rock penned a letter to Ebel in the aristocrat district. She’d finally finished basting the court uniform he’d ordered, so she requested he come to her shop for a fitting.
She debated whether she should bring up Krister. She preferred not to put bad news into her letter to Ebel. But he was certain to see those posters on his way there.
So, after going back and forth with herself, she finally added: “Krister Gionet hasn’t shown up since that night. If you still remember where he lives, may I ask for your help in finding him?”