Arcadia's Ignoble Knight: Dark Elf Arc

Chapter 17

Several hours passed before any movement came from the steel ship. Caspian and Elincia remained sequestered in the alley right next to it. While his sorceress regained her lost mana, he kept a close eye on the ship and their surroundings.

The later it became, the less people there were outside, with many of the sailors leaving the various taverns and returning to their ships. Quiet settled over the night before too long.

It was during this silence that Caspian finally saw movement come from the ship. The boarding ramp was lowered and a group of people led by Chloe walked down. Caspian's eyes narrowed as he counted one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine... fourteen people in total. That was more than he had expected. He watched as they walked off the dock. He ducked behind a crate as they strolled past the alley where he and Elincia were resting.

"Ele, it looks like they are on the move."

He looked over at his sorceress, who sat with her legs spread out and her eyes closed. It looked like she was asleep, but the moment he spoke through their bond, her eyes snapped open and she glanced at him. Maybe it was just his imagination, but he could have sworn her eyes were glowing.

"Then we should go."

They stood up at the same time.

"How long can you keep the invisibility illusion up?"

"Not for long. Loki says that with our current connection, I only have enough mana to let him keep up the illusion for about an hour."

"Then let's follow them from a distance for now. We'll save the invisibility for when we really need it."

"Sounds good."

Now that they had come to a decision, Caspian and Elincia covered their heads with their hoods and wandered out of the alley. Chloe and her group was several dozen meters away. They were already in the process of walking out of the docks and into the city. The two of them walked slowly to where the group was leaving, waited for around a minute, and then exited the port through the same large gate as Chloe and her group.

They entered the city streets and followed the group from as far a distance as they could without being spotted. The biggest problem Caspian discovered when tailing this group was that no one else was on the streets with them. With just their two groups, all Chloe and her people would need to do was turn around, and then he and Elincia would be discovered.

To counter this, Caspian scooped Elincia into his arms and used Springen to leap onto the roofs, where he followed the group from above. Just as he suspected, none of them looked up. Who would? Very few people would expect to be followed by someone leaping from roof to roof. Of course, he still made sure to maintain his distance.

Caspian checked his reserves as they traveled the rooftops. He was surprised to discover that his pool of mana had barely dropped despite using Springen over 20 times already. His reserves should have been at least halved, but he could feel from how much mana was still coursing through him that he'd barely lost a third of his reserves.

What was going on?

Dispelling those thoughts when he noticed the group he was following traveling into an alley, Caspian dropped to the ground, then set Elincia back onto her feet. He stared into the alley where Chloe and her men had disappeared into.

"What do you think, Caspian?"

"Well, obviously we need to follow them."

"Right. But we'll have to be careful."

"That goes without saying."

They entered the alley and used Elincia's superior hearing to follow the group. Caspian would have followed them via the roofs, but that would have meant getting closer to Chloe and her people, which would have increased the risks of them being caught if they made too much noise. It was better to remain cautious during moments like this.