A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Her own daughter daily was dealing with such wealth that it made her heart stop every time she saw the coins move. Those kinds of transactions, those kinds of burdens were for people far more special than her – and yet they were happening so close.

She carefully opened up the door, feeling weaker than she ever had. She saw Beam and Nila there, in urgent discussion. She searched the determined looks on their faces for the strength that she needed to keep going on.

"A shadow doesn't give us enough to go on…" Nila said, sounding desperate.

"No, it's more than enough. We know at least that it wasn't a normal abduction – that there's something else going on here. According to David, she disappeared near instantly and I'm inclined to believe him. That means that we're dealing with something beyond the norm – either someone masterfully skilled at stealth, or someone who has some involvement with mana," Beam said.

"How do you know it has some involvement with mana?" Nila asked, sounding unconvinced.

"I don't. But something is causing those monsters in the forest. They need dark mana to feed off, something to support them. Master said that the mountains were far too pure a place for them to go on living under ordinary circumstances – so someone or something is creating these extraordinary circumstances," Beam replied.

"Mm… I really don't get how they're connected. How does this help us find Stephanie?" Nila asked.

"Something is slowly coming together. We need more information, even on something seemingly unrelated. There are far too many odd happenings lately – we need to put them all together and try to find out the cause behind them. In solving one of these problems, I have a feeling we'll solve all of them," Beam said.

"But… It's late already. We're going to have to wait for tomorrow, aren't we? How long will it take to solve all these problems? This is taking far too long. Why would anyone kidnap Stephanie in the first place? How can we stay relaxed when we don't know their aims?" Nila said.

Beam didn't have a good answer for that. He bit his lip as he considered it. "I don't know… We'll get as many people gathered as we can. I don't know when master will be back though, so I'm hesitant to include him in any plans… we're just going to have to move."

"So we're going to have to wait until the morning?" Nila asked, fighting to keep her voice from cracking.

Beam gave a stern nod, as he glanced at Mrs Felder as well. "No one should move alone when searching, even if it seems relatively safe. Things are crumbling at a faster rate than we thought possible." He finished that sentence with a mumble that neither woman heard. "I need to find some way to make use of the soldiers…"

Mrs Felder, weak as she was, could only nod in a daze, as she marvelled out how strong the two of them had become. Nila voiced her hesitant agreement to go along with Beam's plan. "I hate sitting still… and I'm sure I won't be able to sleep tonight – but I guess it'll be faster if I wait for dawn when we can mobilise everyone at once."

"Right," he said. "I'm heading back. I'm going to keep looking in the woods," Beam said.

Only after Beam had already dashed into the darkness did Nila realize what he'd meant. After ordering them to stay put, and presumably by extension rest as much as they could, he had charged straight back into the darkness, not following his own advice.

She sighed. "But who's going to look after you if something goes wrong?" She then shuddered at the thought. If something were to go wrong that would put even Beam in trouble now… Then such a threat would easily sweep through the entire village – such was the level Beam's strength had reached.

She gave a glance at the sky as she took her mother's hand to take her back inside. "Oh Claudia… Please watch over Stephanie. And please help to keep Beam from being too reckless…'

There was no voice to answer her prayers, but she hoped from the twinkling in the stars that they had been heard nonetheless.

…

…

"Hmph!?" Beam awoke with a start leaping to his feet in a fighting stance, ready to cut down whatever enemy there was in front of him.

But he was alone in a quiet forest, with nothing around him save for trees and the dismal light of dawn flickering through. The ground was coated in a hard frost, it clung to the bark of the rotting tree trunk in front of him, turning the mushrooms that had been growing from it into blackened shades of their former selves, as the cold slowly killed them off.

He let out a sigh, realizing that he'd spent the night asleep on the forest floor. It took him a while to even realize what part of the forest he was in. There were traces of blood near him and several goblin corpses. He recalled that he'd spent the night hunting – and this was all he could find.

Dominus had not returned back to camp, no matter how long into the night Beam had waited. He had returned back to camp continually to check, but there was still no sign of the old knight. Beam could only hope that meant Dominus' training was going well.

He prayed, that despite the calamity that was currently befalling the village, that at east his master could find what he was looking for – the entrance to the Sixth Boundary.

Looking down on himself, Beam had to stifle a smile. He hadn't looked any worse at any point in his life. In a single night without Dominus, he'd been reduced to the state of a vagrant. It was an amusing thought. But that smile quickly faded as he recalled the events of the previous day, and he let out a sigh.

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