🔳Sweet🔲 Dreams🔳

Scene three

"Still no sign of him?"

The guards behind him shook, heads hung facing the floor at their failure to find the missing shield hero. Disappointment was obvious upon the bow hero before them. "Keep searching, the Queen is doing her best to keep Siltvet at bay." They nodded, with a respectful bow they left Itsuki to his own thoughts, staring at the beautiful scenery the balcony offered.

'Breathe in Itsuki. Nothing could get worse than-'

Steps moved towards him in a stammering manner, he knew that, Ren had something to tell him. "The mages sensed a massive use of magic towards North from here," he pointed. But the only place that lead to were the forest that had no path nor routes. 'Another dead end then?' . "We should start there." His green eyes followed his sigh, "Ren, that leads to nowhere. Not even a town." Rebutting, Ren confirmed that was their destination, their only clue to finding wherever the hell Naofumi was. It had been a dead strict demand from the Queen that they were to find him as soon as possible. They didn't have time to wait around for clues that who knows will surface or not. His impatience boiled, black gloves clenched into fists as his brows knitted together, but he tried to maintain a calm toned voice.

"That's where we're going. We surveyed the Ghost Town and the only thing we found were his belongings. He's unarmed and unequipped for battle out there. He might even be dead-"

"Shhh shhhh shhh! Are you insane?! Don't say things like that! Shadows are hearing and watching out every move" He ushered in a vivid and clear instruction. True, the Queen's personal spies had their eyes on them but if anybody from Siltvet knew they might have to face other problems.

The world knew how the Four Cardinal Heroes had different -objectifying- opinions ever since they were summoned and had resulted in the worst conflicts. Sadly, the world didn't know of any of their progress of overcoming such problems. 'See the bad in good but never see the good in bad' or however they put it. The aim was to not bring up more trouble than what they're worth. Like how Itsuki always was, a low profile was better in this case to avoid any sorts of rumours.

Itsuki had imagined multiple accusations the demi-human's country probably had of them. There had been multiple witnesses when the abduction happened, anything was possible by now.

'Three Cardinal Heroes Allow the Death of The Saint Shield Hero'

Articles of that would be everywhere, the minute if said hero were confirmed dead. With their background, such story would make a hit and every demi-human in that country would believe every word. Thus, they'll be after their heads. Itsuki had no doubt of that!

With whatever paragraphs of miss-directed hate aimed towards them, it was better to think beyond this and focus on finding Naofumi... Before the Bow heroes nightmares came true.

"Gee I knew you hated criticism but-" he received a shocking dead eyed glare from his shorter friend. "Uh... but yeah... we really should get a move on before any of that happens." Itsuki had a hero complex, everybody with a conscious mind knew that. "Motoyasu is gathering the others, we'll journey off after the sun sets." Once he had made his point, he turned to make his leave and start preparing.

Before he reached the handle of the balcony's entrance, he paused when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Everything will eventually work out... right?" Ren detected the hint of worry in his voice, right now, it was hard to tell wether or not Itsuki was worried more about his own reputation or Naofumi. Whatever it was, it wasn't right to condemn him for his own sense of wariness. The dark haired hero turned to face his friend, a small reassuring smile on his light features. One hand over the other, "it's the four of us or none. We'll find him, Itsuki."