Seeing her starting to enter this state again, Cyril didn't know what to do.
This whole trip was partially to help Myra regain her spirits, but now that was failing. "What a waste..."
"Stop worrying about this so much; let's focus on figuring out what we can do. We can't prevent the future by feeling bad about ourselves," said Cyril in a serious tone.
"Is there anything in your visions that can point us in the right direction?" Focusing on a particular task was good for your mental health, at least in Cyril's opinion.
Myra thought carefully for a few seconds before replying, "I guess we can start with Lapis. In the future, maybe even now, they work with the demons to bring down the Empire."
She tilted her head and continued, "Well, there are also spies from the Kingdom who will help the demons infiltrate the city. Or maybe we should deal with the second prince, who will try to usurp the throne, which ended up starting a civil war that brought down our strength significantly. There is also the trading company trying to take over power. And..."
"Hold on for a second." Cyril stopped her before she continued. He felt she was about to start a lengthy list.
"Let's focus on a single task for now," he said, while wearily massaging his eyebrows. "The Empire really has a lot of enemies..."
Myra nodded with a wry expression at his words, "There is a lot. I am not sure with whom to begin."
Cyril went silent for a short while before deciding, "Alright. Let's start with Lapis for now. At least we are familiar with them already."
"What can we even do at this point? The main force behind Lapis is quite strong; I am not sure we can defeat them right now..." Myra's voice lowered again. "Same with others..."
Was she always this pessimistic? Cyril felt like he got to know her for the first time again. "She is full of surprises, isn't she?"
"Then we focus on getting stronger for now; it's simple. At the same time, we can try destroying some of the smaller cells of Lapis. It can work as training too. After all, not everyone in that group is overwhelmingly strong, right?" Cyril thought it was a good idea.
Getting affected by his enthusiasm, Myra's face was becoming brighter as well. "I guess that's a plan. I even know some places of theirs that have some good stuff!"
"Don't forget about the Black Tulip; it would be nice to find more," Cyril reminded, with Rhamn urging him.
"Yeah, we can prevent them from reaching the wrong hands and make us stronger make us stronger at the same time. That's good." Finally her face was no longer as gloomy again.
At this moment, Morpho swooped in from the air, flapping her wings in warning in front of Cyril.
"Morpho says someone is approaching this place... They have weapons," Rhamn quickly translated.
Hearing this, Cyril immediately gestured for Myra to stop talking. She quickly understood.
From the direction Morpho was showing with her forelegs, sounds of two people moving could be heard. Soon Myra heard them as well.
The two hid themselves behind rocks for now and waited for what would come next.
Eventually one could hear them talking.
"Still can't believe we are stuck here. It's just so boring; at least Jeff got access to beer." A disgruntled male voice.
"I would say it's a good thing we are still alive. There is always a chance tomorrow will be better." Followed by another.
Their voices were familiar to Cyril; he had heard them somewhere before.
"I don't believe it... It's those two thugs again. We met them in the warehouse, then in that cafe during the rescue," reminded him Rhamn.
What kind of fate is this? Cyril quickly reined in his surprise and thought about what it could mean.
By the sound of it, the two thugs sat down in front of the crumbling wall and opened some bottles.
"So it was them who left all of the trash!" Rhamn chastised them.
They started talking about some unimportant gossip about their 'coworkers.'.
As they were positioned, Cyril and Myra were almost behind them, making it convenient to sneak up.
But there was no need to use any sort of tactics with this opponent.
Feeling his thoughts and being instigated by Rhamn, Morpho freely flew out and approached the thugs.
At this point, Morpho reached a rather big size for a butterfly.
She was the size of a grown human's palm; it was hard to ignore her.
"So Steven really... Wait, what the hell is this?" Said the first thug in irritation.
Just as he was about to swing a hand to get rid of the insect, his friend stopped him.
"Wait! Wasn't this the butterfly following that guy with blue eyes?" The second thug said with horror. "Morpho is pretty memorable."
With this reminder, the first thug got scared as well; both of them ignored Morpho and started looking around in a fluster.
"What are you two doing here?" Said Cyril as he came out from behind the rock.
The two thugs immediately froze in their tracks and started backing up little by little.
"Boss! You've told us to leave somewhere far away, so we've decided to come here. Nature is so beautiful!" Said the second thug with a forced smile.
Before they could make a run for it, Cyril quickly dashed close to them and made a leg sweep.
The two couldn't react to his speed and fell on the ground with a yelp.
"Don't try to lie." He stood in front of them with his hands crossed.
Myra cautiously came over with a confused expression. "Who are these?" Looks like she didn't remember them.
"Some bandits. They've worked for the Arken family before... Maybe even now," replied Cyril with a guess.
The thugs didn't get up from the ground.
"We don't know anything about the Arken family; we are doing work for someone with the nickname Viper. It's the same one from last time!" Yelped one of them.
They don't even know who they are working for? Despite meeting Leo directly? Cyril guessed from their behavior, "Not surprising. It's clear they don't have any brains."
"We tried to run away honestly, but they always managed to find us somehow." The other thug pleaded.
At this moment, Cyril suddenly raised his leg and hit the ground just near the heads of both of them.
The ground cracked from the impact, causing the two to scream in fear.
"Answer my question already." Cyril made his voice more intimidating.
In the meantime, Myra crouched in front of them, observing something.
"Hee- Don't hurt us! After our last failure, we've been transferred here to guard some hideout. I've seen them bring people in shackles there, but I don't know what happens inside; we are just some unimportant underlings!" The thug muttered in a single breath.
"They are kidnapping people?" Rhamn posed in a thinking gesture nearby.
Myra stood up again. "There is a low-level tracking spell on them." After this, she paused.
"There is a bandit hideout nearby? I never knew that," she said with some severity and turned towards Cyril.
"We should go there and investigate. It's too close to Shamrock." She was asking for help.
Cyril nodded in response, causing Myra to clench her fist in excitement.
He didn't mind helping her, and besides, if he were going to pass on such entertainment, he would never hear the end of it from Rhamn. "Thank you! You know me best!"
"Get up. Lead the way towards the base," Cyril said to the thugs.
The two people only looked at each other with tears in their eyes before obliging.
They walked side by side, while Myra and Cyril followed not too far behind.
After a bit of travelling, they saw a wooden wall marking the territory of the hideout.
There were watchtowers as well.
The two thugs paused for a bit before Cyril urged them forward, saying it doesn't matter.
Soon the lookout saw the people approaching.
But instead of a voice raising alarm, they've heard something else.
"Ron! Rex! Not as useless as we thought, eh? We were just lacking two people for our quota; good job on catching these two villagers." There seems to be a misunderstanding.
Ron and Rex in front had weapons, leading two young people, with one of them looking anxious.
Myra was concerned with this unknown camp being near her home village.
The two unlucky bandits didn't know what to do at the moment.
Why not use this... Since the situation allowed for it, Cyril decided to pretend for now. "This should be fun!"
"Act as if you've captured us," Cyril whispered to the two.
They've stiffened and robotically moved forward. "Ye-Yeah! Open up the gates, Fred!" Even the voice was trembling a bit.
Luckily the lookout didn't doubt them in any way. Maybe it wasn't too different from how they usually acted.
The wooden gates were slowly opened, and they all came in.
This hideout wasn't too grand. It looked like a regular old encampment with tents and some wooden shacks. There were a few ruffians here and there.
The only unusual part was a stone structure close to the middle. It was an entrance underground. Two bandits in lousy gear stood guard.
Rex and Ron with difficulty lead the way towards the stone entrance. Most of the bandits on the way ignored them; they looked used to this.
"Two young ones, huh? Poor bastards." The guards opened the way with no difficulty.
"Do we need to lead them further? We haven't been inside..." Rex asked while trembling.
"Will I do that then!? You won't get lost; just go in!" The guard spat in front of them.
They could only proceed with a forced smile.
Cyril and the company walked in the stone corridor in silence. They reached a sort of reception area soon.
"Ah, you are just in time! Good job." There was a man in a lab coat waiting there.
He excitedly approached the group and paused once he got close. "You didn't even bind them? ..." the man furrowed his brows.
Well, we'll find the rest of the way ourselves... Just as he was thinking this.
"How careless! Oh, whatever, I'll deal with that." The man smiled and cast a spell.
A shackle made of light suddenly appeared on the hands of Myra and Cyril, constricting them.
"A flimsy spell" Rhamn commented in disgust.
True to her words, Cyril felt he could snap these in two with his strength alone. Since there wasn't a problem, he abandoned his plan. A pity.
The two thugs wanted to leave with relief, but before they could walk a step, they were stopped. "Hold on. There is something we can use your help with; go in that corridor and take the first door on the right."
After saying this, he snapped his fingers and said with authority, "Follow me!" And started moving somewhere.
Cyril and Myra looked at each other before following after the man deeper inside the facility.