Vol. 3 Chapter 23: Operation: Sweet Roses (Part 3) (Patreon)

Evry walked out of the dreary alley and merged himself into the human crowd. He was still coping with Allie suddenly appearing after the long assumption that she would never be seen again. But to think she was still alive, although it seemed as though there was a price to that. She was in complete distress.

There was both fear and desperation in her eyes, which disturbed Evry a little. He had known her when she was still a young human running from monsters. Of course, he didn’t care about her at that time. Why should he? She was a random human accidentally stumbling on them on their way to this city.

However, Arnaut, their leader, felt otherwise. Evry couldn’t help but feel extremely irritated when their leader decided to bring her along. Still, Allie was not such a bad human. She was bold, charming, and sweet, and she often gave him snacks; they were quite delicious.

With that said, seeing how distressed she was, he had an annoying urge to help her. However, that didn’t mean he was going to slack on security. He heeded her warning.

He listened deeply to his surroundings, heightening his senses, listening to the steps the crowd of humans was making. They were random steps, but he was looking for the ones following his direction. With the same sound and same intervals. Not an easy thing to do at first, but as he kept moving forward, he should be able to notice it.

He also listened to the sounds in the buildings, for enemies could hide in any of them. But this was extremely hard, so he also used his eyes to look for anything suspicious. Their sharpness would help.

And then, a few seconds later, he stopped. He looked around. There was someone there. No, not just someone, but multiple. He subtly clicked his tongue, so Allie knew the humans would try to follow him.

The enemies were all on the ground, keeping their distance. Evry changed his direction and quicked his pace. The footsteps followed, keeping up with him. Amidst all this, he wondered why they didn’t attack there and then when he was with Allie.

He quickened his speed further, and they were still somewhere behind him. His gaze shifted towards a particular building, a small tavern. It was a place he knew and had always seen with all his time here in the city. He even came there a few times. Thus, he knew there was a way through there.

He abruptly entered the building, and the people within cautiously turned toward him. But Evry ignored them and went through the exit on the other side of the building. Of course this wouldn’t be enough to rid of the ones following him, so he jumped through the open window of another building nearby.

A child was there, surprised he intruded, but then again, he merely ignored him and walked through the corridor to come out to the other side. Afterward, he walked through a small alleyway, then blended with the crowd.

He quickly walked further away, and the footsteps following him slowly faded in the distance. He sighed slightly in relief, he lost them. But that was not certain, and so, he walked through a couple more buildings and walked around in random directions, but keeping his distance from the last location of his trackers.

He made sure there was no one else following him, and indeed, there was no one left. Now safe, he began making his way to their safe house. That said, he kept checking on the way, and he felt relieved that everything was safe and quiet.

It would be such a headache if they were hard to lose or if there were new ones he had to worry about.

He was halfway there, and he pondered on how he should go about telling everyone what happened. How would Arnaut go deal with this? If he does think of doing something, would the elves get in the way? The elves were the ones adamantly against bringing Allie. Their kind just carried that much dislike towards humans, they even did their best to avoid Allie because they didn’t want her to get all friendly with them.

Many times they proposed to dispose of her, but Arnaut would always go against it. Of course they have no choice but to follow him. But Allie couldn’t keep on doing this, she had to be used. Pressured by the rest of the team, Arnaut had no choice but to have Allie infiltrate the palace and assist their agent inside.

Even Evry had conflicting feelings about this, but it was all up to Arnaut.

Suddenly, he abruptly stopped, his eyes wide in confusion.

What?

He noticed something, smell something. It was faint but it was the same smell that was present since earlier when he lost the ones tailing him. He didn’t notice it until now because it was so faint that it blended with the other humans’ smell. However, the scent was following him.

But strange there were no footsteps, it was perfectly quiet.

Who could do that…?

He sweated a little, feeling nervous. He almost led that person to their hideout. If he never noticed, everything would have failed.

Shit. To think someone could evade me this long.

He peered around his surrounding, but he couldn’t notice anything suspicious. There was nothing but normal people. This made him uneasy. He had no idea where this person precisely was, the scent of other people clouded his nose.

He took a deep breath and promptly took a quick step forward, sprinting away from this place, and weaving through the crowd. This would call a lot of attention, but he had no other choice. All he could do was minimize the danger as much as possible.

Besides, if his enemy had to follow him while sprinting, they would give away their position.

Evry, jumped through windows and ran through doors, going in and out of multiple buildings. However, he couldn’t sense anyone running after him. He felt it was a bit of a waste, they should have chased after him, but it would seem they didn’t. Perhaps because he moved too fast.

A short while later, Evry stopped and paused, sniffing the air. That smell was nowhere to be found anymore. They have gone.

He sighed in relief. Truly a troubling kind.

He walked around some more, taking care not to get more attention. He then came across a small shop selling clothes, his eyes gazing at the bluish robe.

Just to be sure…

He approached the clerk and asked for the robe. After paying, he entered a small alley and changed his robe swiftly after making sure there was no one around and then discarded the last one. With that done, he made his way to their hideout. Of course he was extra careful on the way, but there was nothing to be on guard now.

He stood in front of a two-floored building, one that was open for rent by humans. He knocked with a certain rhythm on the door. With him doing it correctly, the door opened for him.

Evry entered and the door behind him closed. He turned to see a man lowering his hood, his ears were long and pointed.

“Evry, what’s the reason you’re back here at his hour?”

He could tell the reason, but elves were not exactly open people. Thus he decided it was best to only consult with Arnaut. He feared that if the elf was made aware of Allie at this moment, the next thing he knows she would already be dead.

“I’m here to talk to the boss. Urgent matter.”

“What could be urgent at this time?”

“I would like to speak with him privately. You’ll find out soon enough.”

“Hmm,” he stared at him with narrowed eyes. “Whatever, go.”

“So, in his room then?”

“Yes.”

Evry climbed up the stairs and went for Arnaut’s room. He knocked on the door.

“Arnaut, it’s me Evry. There is something important I need to tell you.”

A second later, a man with dog-like ears opened the door, his eyes looking at Evry inquisitively.

“What? Did something go wrong?”

Evry resisted the urge to smirk. After all that happened, it would seem Arnaut had been expecting an incident among his men eventually. What a negative way to see things.

“No. I don’t think it’s something that went wrong. In fact, I think you might feel a bit good after hearing it.”

“...”

Evry moved closer to his ear.

“Allie is alive.”

Arnaut’s eyes widened after involuntarily taking a deep breath.

“She’s… W-Where, where is she? Did you take her with you?”

“No, I was worried that it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to just suddenly take her. And, there seems to be something dangerous happening to her.”

“... Meaning?”

“The humans. They’re doing something to her…” he didn’t know what exactly. But something was definitely going on.

“Humans…” he looked down with stern eyes.

“She wishes to speak with you.”

“ — Take me to her.”