Magic Life in the Empire

"Before I decide anything, tell me what you need help with." At least Cyril was curious to hear what else has happened in this short time.

"Of course, I almost forgot," Cedric was still keeping the same bowing pose. "Back when Anna was kidnapped, it turns out they also stole some of her things from the dormitory."

They could reach the dormitory? "That's weird."

"It's fine if it was just the money; life is more important after all, but they happened to steal an important bracelet." He paused for a few seconds. "We want you to help us get it back..."

Afraid he would decline. Anna lowered her head even further. "Please! That was the last thing left to remind me of my mom. I need to get it back," she pleaded in a pitiful voice.

Cedric continued again. "They're probably holding it in one of the hideouts around the city. If we can get the help of your butterfly, we could find it in no time."

Cyril was silent for a time, mulling over their proposal.

Something about Anna's desperate plea did touch his heart, and, like Rhamn said, it could be fun. Morpho was also in support of the idea; she landed on Anna's head.

"Sure, I'll help you. Let's hope we can get it down by sundown." They still had lessons tomorrow after all.

Cedric almost jumped up from joy, scaring Morpho sitting nearby. "Thank you, Cyril! You are truly a good person!"

Anna similarly had joy in her eyes, she could already see the bracelet back in her possession

She pulled a piece of fabric from the pocket of her uniform. "This is the polishing cloth I used to clean it. Can your beautiful butterfly find the 'scent' with it?" Out of happiness, even her voice became louder.

"At least she has good taste." Hearing her call Morpho beautiful put a smile on Rhamn's face.

Still, he never told Cedric that Morpho uses a special ability to find things, but he somehow knew; otherwise, why would they suggest finding the bracelet, a piece of metal, by its 'scent'?

Cedric also realized it and made an apologetic expression. "Sorry if you were hiding it, but I have a bit of a special constitution; thanks to it, I noticed how your butterfly picked up the lingering mana from the scarf. Anna's bracelet also happened to be a magic item, so I figured it would work the same. I promise I won't tell anyone!... Anna won't either!"

It wasn't a big deal to Cyril, so he didn't linger on the question for long; instead, there was something else he was also curious about.

"You are telling me they stole the bracelet from your dorm, but how did they access it?" The doors to the dormitory can only be opened while in possession of a special key.

While there is a common trick of going after someone before the doors closed. There is dormitory staff right at the entrance, making sure only students pass through.

"Yeah, we guessed there might be an accomplice..." Cedric said in an awkward voice, "It couldn't have been Leo himself; it is a female dorm after all."

"Maybe he just paid someone to do it. It's still bad, but somehow better this way?" Anna didn't feel too good about potentially having someone else want to harm her in the same academy.

Cyril heard all he wanted to by this point. "You can deal with that later." There was no time to waste.

He finally grabbed the cleaning cloth and let Morpho land on it.

After a few seconds, she flew back up, ready to head in a particular direction. She managed to pick up the scent of the object.

"Thank goodness!" Anna breathed a sigh in relief.

If Morpho flew in a straight path all the way from the academy to where the bracelet is, who knows how long it would take, and Cyril didn't want to skip lessons because of this.

Can Morpho tell how far the bracelet is? So while walking in the direction of the academy gates, he asked Rhamn.

"Yes, she is quite smart... It's farther than the shopping district... She has pretty good spatial awareness." She pondered for a few more seconds before continuing with pride, "I got it."

She raised her point finger in the sky in the 'Eureka!' way. "Based on what Morpho told me, if we take route 5 on the manarail and exit at the Fisher station, we would be right in the vicinity of the lost item!"

Seeing Cyril focused on something, his other two human companions decided not to say anything to him, continuing to walk in silence.

How did you even manage to figure that out? He certainly didn't expect them to pinpoint where the lost item is.

"Don't underestimate us, Cyril. Morpho did most of the job here; she told me the direction of the bracelet and that she feels it is about 1.5 times the distance towards the shopping district." She looked like she was having fun.

"Next all I had to do was remember the map of the city, visualize where that place would be, and ta-da!" She moved her hands to the side with fanfare.

So you remembered precisely the map of the city? Cyril found it to be a bit unbelievable; it was quite complex.

"I'll have you know that I have photographic memory." It was the first time he was hearing of it.

"I admit it's only recently my memory was improved tremendously. I think that 'Dragon's Blood' might have had something to do with it." It was a reasonable assumption.

It seems that aside from receiving Morpho, it had additional effects on Rhamn. Only Cyril now never got anything out of it.

By the time he finished talking with her, the group had already reached the station.

Cyril's withdrawn and silent behavior during this time only served to make Anna feel more solemn.

The only one wearing a smile among the three was Cedric, who was being optimistic as usual. He didn't seem to mind the heavy atmosphere.

Having now a solid plan Cyril turned towards the others to guide the investigation in the correct direction.

"Let's take route 5 for now; it seems to be going in a suitable direction. We will stop when Morpho tells us to." Thankfully, they didn't have anything to say regarding his decisions.

Anna only gave a determined nod, trusting his competence.

Cedric even showed a thumbs up, ready to follow him.

So they paid for the ride and took their seats.

They were sitting three in a row, with Cedric being in the middle.

Now in an enclosed space and with some time to waste, they had nothing to do.

Anna was still a bit tense and didn't have much for a conversation, but Cedric wanted to talk.

"I think you should know why Leo is so obsessed with messing with me." The smile on his face even became less pronounced. "It's not going to be long, I promise."

"We are actually twins, sort of." He face turned bitter and the gaze distant.

Cyril wouldn't say Cedric looked like Leo.

"We had quite a good relationship back in the day; our family was even happy. Only later, as we grew older, our father become increasingly suspicious of Mother. Eventually he brought in a renowned healer at the time to do a paternity test." He sighed.

"And it turns out he wasn't wrong; despite us being born at the same time, my biological father was different. As you can imagine, this led to a lot of drama. I won't bore you with the details; the end result was that our father left, and I was sent to the orphanage at 5 years old."

Cyril wasn't sure what to say at this moment. While the story was somewhat touching, they weren't really friends, and he didn't care that much for why Leo hated him.

Cedric realized this as well; he awkwardly scratched his cheek and added, "I am just trying to explain why I don't want to harm Leo. While I was in the orphanage, I met plenty of good people who helped me through that time, like Anna. Leo, on the other hand, stayed with our grieving mother. I have heard a lot of bad rumors growing up about the Arken family; it must have been hard on them, so I hope to help one day. We are still family after all."

He finally finished his not-long story and turned back to look at the passing scenery, not really expecting a response.

 Only something about this story made Cyril want to speak his mind. "So what if you're connected by blood? After all this time, you've become different people—practically strangers. Don't let the memories of a time you can barely remember affect your present."

His voice was even lower than usual now, causing Anna on the other side to cower, trying to make herself unnoticeable

Cedric himself didn't say anything in response; he gave another bitter smile and returned to watching the scenery.

"Don't mind him; who cares what he does? Just follow what your heart tells you." Rhamn didn't really want to get into this conversation.

They spend the rest of the trip in an awkward silence.