When I left the bar and alleyway, the entrance behind me slowly disappeared. Although I did not notice it so I headed back to the my tent where I assumed everyone to be around.

  Matter of fact, I heard from one of the knights that they were all in one of the still intact rooms in the lord's mansion. After receiving some directions to the pce, I thanked the knight before heading on out to the room in question.

  As I arrived, I noticed that everyone had already arrived in advance. I guess I took the longest walk around the pce? I greeted everyone and we all chatted amongst each other.

  When it came to be my turn to discuss what I saw, I noticed that they showed expressions of confusion when I mentioned an alleyway on my way.

  Lily: Are you sure that you saw an alleyway there?

  I confirmed it with a firm nod and Lily showed an extremely troubled expression. She then pulled out her communicator which had an updated map of the area. She then motioned me to come over and look.

  Lily: This is around the area you mentioned.

  She circled the area with her finger.

  Lily: But, as you can see, the area is not only a busy shopping street, their is know alleyway their. Even when viewed from above, the area merely is shown as a cluster of buildings and there is no way a straight path can be found.

  Indeed. When I looked around the area I found the bar the roads around are all quite intricate and there was no room for a straight path. But I did go through a straight path like I said. In order to confirm things, I asked everyone to come with me to check out the pce together.

  They all agreed so we headed out as a group the five of us. It was when I neared the pce that I noticed that the symbol on the wall was now missing. Instead of an alleyway, I found that there was a flower shop in that spot. Confused, I searched around a little further and found that there was no longer any trace of the road I adventured on.

  Confused I shrugged at the others indicating my confusion. I then decided that we should head back to discuss the situation in depth.

  When we returned to the room, the others looked at me with confusion. I then started narrating my trip from my perspective.

  After I finished narrating my story, the others went and looked at each other.

  Mist: From what we learned at the base, when things like this happen on an adventure it is one of two things. Either they are crazy or they just had an adventure that belongs to them.

  Lily: The most important part should be the names of the establishment as well as the name of the person themself. Maybe we can try to find out if this pce has ever had an establishment by that name and whether the owner was also named Verona. The most important thing is that I don't believe that you would lie about this sort of thing so as long as their is a real basis for your story then we would have an avenue to explore.

  We all agreed with Lily. The others all believe in me as much as I believe in them. That I can know for certain. So even if something happened to only one of us, I knew that I would also believe in the others the same way. I mean, that is also why we were grouped into teams in the first pce. If we could not even believe in our teammates then there might be truly no one to trust.

  All of us then went out and began asking around if anyone knew of the pce. When we chatted with the knights, they all generally showed expressions of confusion. It wasn't until one of them pointed us towards the library that we found a direction to search in. After thanking him, we headed on over to where the library is located.

  Thankfully, the library was one of the locations that was hit the least hard. The main reason is that it was located on the outskirts of town. Because of its far location and it having almost no proximity to the more densely poputed areas let it be almost unharmed.

  Walking into the library, I could feel its age from the smell alone. The pce was looking quite old for wear. According to the knight that pointed us in this direction, the pce is not usually used because of the high cost of printing books. Due to the constant attacks from monsters, the general consensus of the town is that it would be a higher priority to create more defensive structures in case of an assault of the town.

  Thus the library slowly went out of favor as the importance of the pce was overshadowed by time. Soon, only a few people arrive here in a day. Sometimes there would be no visitors for a time.

  Now the current appearance of the library is only kept up by an elderly couple who not only keep up the library, but also are bust taking care of orphans in the towns orphanage.

  When we walked into the library, it was not manned by anyone. Seeing that no one was there, we headed on in after leaving a sheet of paper stating that we came in. When we walked further in, the scent of old books assaulted our senses as we almost felt we were sent back in time.

  After taking in the mood here, we quickly came to our senses and went to look at each bookshelf. In order to quickly scan the whole library, we all split up and started searching around from different bookshelves. When I looked at the shelf I was responsible for, I knew this endeavor would st a while.

  Thankfully, we have enough time to search here. Because we asked the knights of our intent to research, they should definitely know where to find us should we be needed to go and fight. Plus, their would likely be an announcement of sorts to inform us when are needed.

  So I started looking from the very top shelf in the library. Thankfully, each shelf was only two yers so each shelf did not take too mush time to gnce through. Unfortunately, most of the books I came across were mainly novels and stories so they did not help me much. Soon, I heard someone from a distance say they found something.

  After making note of the location I stopped at, I hurried over to see what was the fuss about. When I arrived, I found that I was the st one to appear and saw that Millie was holding an unusual book in her hands. The title of the book was 'The History of the town of the Golden Scarab'.

  Seeing a title like that got my hopes up. After a quick skim through the book, Lily gave a sigh and shook her head.

  Lily: The book is only a retelling of the fateful battle against the Golden Scarab beast that caused the curse on the Gold family. Not only that, but the history written was also exaggerated. The name of the book is good, but the contents are quite dissatisfying.

  We all sighed and we headed back to our shelves to continue searching. Now with that experience out of the way, we now knew to read the book if we found it so that we would not blunder like that again.

  Sure enough, an hour ter and we all id exhausted on the ground. Going through and checking all of these is really going to be a chore isn't it.

  Thankfully, we only had to roughly scan the titles of the books. Most of these books had obviously different titles that would not be reted to what we were looking for. Add that to the fact that their are only so many books in the library, we were bound to find what we were looking for before long.

  Unexpectedly, before we could find what we wanted, a sound of a door creaking was heard from the entrance of the library. We all went together to check it out and saw that it was an elderly man who opened the door.

  Judging from his expression, he was just as surprised as we were when he saw us appear.

  Old Man: I am Edward, the caretaker of this library. May I ask what you are doing here?

  Sean: We are here to look for a book on the past of this town.

  The old man seemed surprised at our answer. He then took us to one of the shelves we had checked out yet.

  Edward: Although I do not know for what reason you want to check out the history of this town, what I can tell you is that the answer you seek is either here or not at this library at all.

  After we thanked the old man, we went searching the shelf he had indicated. Sure enough, not long afterwards one of us had already found what we were searching for.

  Mist: Over here! I think this one is it.

  We all gathered around him and sure enough, the book he had taken out was a thick guidebook called the Guide to Gold Scarab. The thick book had introductions to almost all the stores in the town for the st few decades recorded upon it as well as a rough map of the locations present.

  All of us gathered together and were able to find what we were looking for after a few minutes.

  Kris: This is it. 'Bloody Temptation a bar run by a vampire named Verona who moved in from a little known vampire family in the Dark Race Alliance'. The important thing here is that the pce was closed and disappeared mysteriously twenty years ago.

  We all went to take a gnce at the passage mentioned by Kris. After looking it through and confirming it amongst each other, we now knew we had a head start on our investigation.

  Since the pce had indeed existed and the fact that it had disappeared twenty years ago, that means that if we narrow down our search we would definitely find out more about the pce.

  Although we knew from Sean that the pce existed, having a concrete time of disappearance means we can narrow the search to those at least in their forties. This age was decided because twenty years ago those in drinking age would at least be in their forties by now.

  So we went to check out the rest of the shelf. After scanning through them all, we found that the pce was not very popur and that the only known person to be a regur their is a tailor called Ty.

  We went to the old man to thank him for shortening our search and we headed out to see if we could find this tailor named Ty and if we can find out more about the bar.

  Afterwards, we headed out to the lord's mansion to see how the town was recovering. We headed on over to one of the bigger tents at the open area and found Farrell there taking a break. After he saw us, he smiled and asked what we wanted to know.

  Sean: Do you know where Marianne is?

  Farrell: Oh, she is over by the lord's mansion taking care of the lord personally.

  We looked at him confusedly. He then went to expin to us the details.

  Farrell: In order to stabilize the situation in the town, she revealed her identity as the Silver Saint of the Church. This led to her being called around to do the decision making since the lord was currently unable to. Now that the repair work is underway, she is now stabilizing the lord's situation. Since he used his family's secret bloodline technique, she has to be present herself to heal him since she is the only healer who can take care of his situation.

  Hearing this expnation solved our curiosity on the situation. We said goodbye to the old man and we headed on over to the lord's mansion. The knights present there all noticed and recognized us. Now that some time had passed, the knights have recovered and started talking about everything.

  Now if we were to talk with any of the knights we would receive fttery and a warm welcome which was leagues better than our initial treatment.

  Since we knew where to find Marianne, we all talked together and decided to head on over to her and ask if she needed us for anything. Although the situation with the disappearing bar is also important, we all together believe that since she asked to be one of us (even temporarily) we shouldn't hide what we are going to do. Especially since we have now confirmed that there is indeed something to investigate.

  We wandered on over to her location and found that there were a few knights around a certain area. Seeing this, I knew we found what we were looking for. When we wanted to take a closer look, we found that the knights had rather complicated expressions on their faces.

  As we walked closer we found the source of their distress.

  Johnathon: Are you sure you won't accept this? I insist.

  Marianne: I'm sorry Mr. Gold, I can't receive gifts like these from my clients. It is part of the Church's doctrines for teaching saints.

  Johnathon: Then take it as repayment for what you have done for us.

  He gave an awkward wink that did not return any of the results he expected. Showing a wry smile, Marianne continued to turn down his gifts and advancements. It was not until she saw us at the door way that she found an excuse to get away.

  Marianne: Oh! It seems I am needed elsewhere. So long!

  Johnathon: Oh, wait!

  Before she could hear his response, she had already grabbed Lily and Kris by the arms and quickly dragged us off into the distance. She seems surprisingly strong in moments like this huh.

  After a while, she dragged us far enough away from the situation and thanked us for bailing her out of that situation. She then began expining her struggles in situations like these.

  Marianne: This is why I wanted to stay with you all. When many noble children meet me, they always feel attracted to me and start making advances towards me. Normally I would have my entourage there to discourage them. Unfortunately, our group no longer has the knights to bail me out in situations like that. As a saint, it would be unbecoming if I outright denied folks like that. So I was stuck in that situation for far too long.

  Lily then gave her a pat on the back to cheer her up.

  Kris: Hey, at least you are getting attention from many men. While I can't get the attention of a certain blockhead.

  She turns her head towards me. I instinctively turn my head away not meeting her gaze. She gives a sigh.

  Although I know that Kris likes me, in team retions with a leader of a group could skew the judgements of a qualified leader. I heard so during our teaching and so Kris never goes too far in pursuing me because of that.

  We then turn to look at Marianne. After a moment of staring amongst ourselves, I finally bite the bullet and expin our investigation in today.

  After I finished retelling the events, Marianne showed some expressions of surprise.

  Marianne: You are saying, you met with an illusion that seemed to be based off of a real event? And that you think that it could help you learn more about the Dark Race Alliance?

  We purposefully did not tell her that the main interest in our investigation was whether the Dark Race Alliance would be trustworthy to join. Since she is a saint for the church, she is likely a staunch supporter of the church. Thus, our ideas would likely be revolting and a betrayal of trust in her eyes.

  Even so, we still have to carry on with the goal of helping the organization at all times.

  Marianne: Well, I think I have heard of a church expedition here twenty years ago. Although I did not participate myself, I think I can find out about it if I think long enough. I got it! Maybe you could ask Farrell about church expeditions here twenty years ago? I think he should have an idea of the subject.

  Hearing this idea, we found that there was no better choice so we decided to follow her suggestion and head back down to the tent Farrell was at.

  When we arrived there, we found that he was not in the main tent. After asking around, we found that he had left to help heal some other people when we headed on over to Marianne. Since he is a Bishop in the church, it is a given he could also heal.

  Because of this, we headed out and around to see if we could meet him healing some people soon.

  A few hours passed and the sun soon sank under the horizon. We still had not encountered him, so we decided to take a rest and sleep for the night. He would likely have returned when we woke up so we could ask him about it then.

  Thinking this, we all went and entered our tents to rest for the night.

  When the morning sun rose in the air, I heard the sounds of training as I was barely coming to awareness.

  I rose from my ying state and headed out of the tent. Outside the tent, I looked around and eventually found a bunch of the remaining knights that were all training together.

  Although there were only a few of them practicing compared to before, I could feel the overall atmosphere of their formation had changed. These knights had just gone through a trial of life and death and only now were experiencing the benefits of combat experience. Even if many of them had died, the strength of their formation had stayed the same and even could go further in their daily training.

  Even if that was interesting to look at, I turned around to find my teammates again. No matter how strong their formation will get, unless they all become Bck Iron the result between them and our team won't change. I mean, we had all trained to be strong in the same level of strength so it is a matter of course that our team would surpass the mass produced strength of these knights.

  I walked around and found Lily and Mist were both also up at this time. When I went over to them, they also found me and waved me over.

  Lily: Leader, you are awake.

  Mist: Hey boss.

  We all greeted each other and I went to help Lily who was preparing a quick breakfast for us. With my participation, the breakfast was quickly finished and portioned and so Mist and I sat waiting for Lily to call the town sleepyheads over.

  Kris: ...hey....

  Although Kris greeted me quite weakly, it was still more energetic then Millie who had already fallen asleep on the walk from her tent over here. Seeing this situation, Lily gave a sigh and signaled for us to eat first as she took care of Millie.

  It was at times like this that I was gd that the two caretakers for our team were of different genders. If Lily was also male, it would be quite awkward to be left to take care of a girl like Millie. Thankfully, since they are of the same gender it did not feel incongruous at all.

  We decided to dig in while Lily expertly lured Millie to the table by wafting the scent of the breakfast to her nose. Following the scent, she was lead to the table and was instinctively stuffing the breakfast in her mouth. Now Lily finally had the opportunity to have her breakfast.

  Soon enough our meal was finished and Mist and Kris went together to pick up and clean the dishes. This is how we usually divided our bor. Since Lily would usually cook herself and I would lead our team on adventures, it was always up to the other three to divide up the dishes to clean.

  Of course, it usually ended up that Mist would take career of dishes. It was a surprise that Kris took the initiative to help him out. Of course, Millie being knocked out in the morning was expected by us.

  When they finished cleaning up everything, Millie had finally woken up enough to be embarrassed with her behavior.

  Millie: Sorry for letting you all do everything again!

  All of us just waved our hands. This was already our usual order of actions so we did not mind her being so sleepy this morning.

  Now that we were done with breakfast, we had to talk with Marianne and go to Farrell to ask him of any information he has on the subject of the pce here twenty years ago.

  We went to that head tent and luckily found both Marianne and Farrell were present there at the same time.

  Since Farrell was here now we went to ask him first before he would be called somewhere else.

  Sean: Hey Farrell, we want to ask you about something.

  Farrell: Oh! It is you kids. Go ahead and ask. Unless it goes against the Church's benefit, I will help you with most things as a favor to William.

  I then asked him about what he knew of any church action in this town twenty years ago.

  Farrell: Oh, this is quite the ask. Although I was not present at that venture, I knew of it so I can answer some basic questions about it.

  Sean: Do you have any recollection of a vampire run establishment known as the Bloody Temptation?

  Farrell: Hmm, I am terribly sorry. I do not have any recollection of such a thing. Maybe if I was in that delegation at that time I might have known a little about that. What I do know is that the Church delegation had found a group of Dark Races in this town and that there was a battle between two strong men in the bronze level.

  Hearing this, the five of us and Marianne showed our curious expressions as we awaited for him to tell us of that situation.

  Farrell: The two sides was between the Bronze Padin Dilphor who faced a vampire elder who had snuck into the town. If I remember it correctly, that vampire was known as the Bronze Inducer. They were known as such because of their ability to induce the fighting intent of passerby to join his side and face an opponent with him. I remember the fight was quite fierce and that it only ended because the Bronze padin had mastered the ability to purify the states of others to another level. With his expertise in melee combat and purification, he completely countered the vampire and successfully hunted them down. Whether the establishment you mentioned had changed because of this event, who could say?

  After hearing all of this, I nodded and thanked him for his retelling of the situation. With a basic understanding of what happened at that time, I knew that we had more reason to head to that tailor for his perspective. Although Farrell's story did give us a basic rundown of what happened, there were still things that we needed crification of.

  The five of us then said our farewells and thanks and headed out towards the tailor shop. Thankfully, the shop had not changed owners or locations in these twenty years so we could rely on the map on that book we found in the library. We soon rushed over and found ourselves in front of the tailor whose store had a pretty damaged front.

  Surprisingly, the shop was near one of the bases that the cultists attacked from. So the pce was still quite devastated.

  When we arrived near the pce, we were noticed by the workers there. After a moment of chatter, one of them went and came up to us to inform us that the store was closed due to damages.

  Sean: We actually wanted to come to see if there was a tailor named Ty and ask him a few questions.

  The worker showed a surprised expression and told us to wait on the side while he went and asked for us. The worker then went inside as we stayed by the side looking as the workers went back to work.

  Soon, the worker came out and told us that we were invited in to the back of the store to chat. We nod and walk with him and head into the store.

  Although the outside of the store is quite damaged, the inside is quite clean looking. When asked, the worker replied that the interior was cleared out in order to facilitate ease of movement in the building when repairing.

  We eventually arrived at a rich mahogany door that the worker knocked on. After receiving an affirmation, he opened the door for us to enter and closed the door behind us after we all entered.

  Around the room was an overall homely vibe. On the walls were various cuts of fabric in various colorful patterns. In the back of the room was a rge oak like desk with a muscur figure at the desk. A standing namepte was upright facing us with the name Ty written on it.

  Ty: Good Morning kids. Now, did you come here to commission a specific type or size of clothes? Or perhaps something else?

  Sean: We wanted to learn about the history of this town from twenty years ago. I had heard that there was a vampire run establishment twenty years ago called the Bloody Temptation. We wanted to ask you about it as we had heard that you are one of the few people who know of the pce.

  Hearing this, the man was quite surprised. I guess it was not often he was asked about situations in the past. After a moment of reminiscence, he nodded and began telling us about the pce.

  Ty: Although I don't know how you know of that, I don't mind telling you kids about the bar. I guess you kids are at that inquisitive age after all. Let's see, at the start the bar was simply opened up at a quite remote location in the town here. The only ones who knew of it were those store owners nearby who knew of the pce. I was curious and young so I entered on an uneventful day. It was at that time I met the bartender, Ms. Verona. It's a pity what happened to the pce. From what I can recall, there was a delegation that sent a group from the church as usual.

  His expression the grew to horror as he was recalling.

  Ty: Suddenly there was a loud crashing noise and the town shook. When I left the storefront, I saw that there was a winged figure flying in the air with many strings that stretched out and attached to many people and dragged them into the air. Suddenly a fsh of light came from the resting pce of the delegation that dissipated the strings and many church knights were already below to catch the falling people. I then began running for my life so I do not know the rest of the story. I just know that the lord had announced that the attack was from a frenzied cultist who was jointly discovered by the church and the lord. There was also talk of how the guy was subdued, but there was never any proof of it happening so most of us remain skeptical.

  He then took the time to take a break. Having just recalled such a horrifying experience, he needed a moment to calm his nerves.

  During this time, I went to record what I heard so that we could eventually take it back and think about the story ter. Soon enough the guy calmed enough to continue the rest of the story.

  Ty: Because of the story, the lord decided to ban the entry and deport all the creatures under the Dark Race Alliance. Because of this, that dy Verona was forced to sell her newly purchased store. The strange thing is that we never heard of where she was going nor any other news about her. Even if she was here for a little time, she had already become a respected member of the community and we were saddened at the news. I apologize that I can't inform you of much more than that. I do not know much more than the average person of the rest. I heard that the alley the bar was at and the store around were all purchased and destroyed to fit a new rge storefront. I think that the store ruins are still there so if you ask you could probably get permission to head there through the back of that store.

  Hearing this, we thanked the guy and headed out the store. Although we did not get all that we wanted from that story, we at least got another clue forward. We went back to mull over the story he had said again.

  The story itself was fine, it was just that there was an itch in the back of may neck. Why was he so willing to tell us all of this? I feel like there is something suspicious going on but I can not put my finger on it. This worry was kept in the back of my mind as I headed with my team back to the tents by the lord's mansion.