He was just about to enter the same shop he always bought his stuff from when he felt someone bump into him from behind, throwing him off balance and causing him to fall head down on the cement floor below him. “What in Fiore?” Victor tried to push himself up, looking back and pausing once he saw the Rune Knights emblem. Rune Knights? Now what did they need him for?
The man that fell on top of him suddenly got up and just as suddenly burst into a stream of apologies. Victor had to pause and filter his words to even make sense of anything from it. He stopped, placed a hand over the man’s face to stop him from talking and pulled off his now broken earphone off, sighing as he saw the man turning paler than before.
“Who are you and do you need something from me?” Victor finally asked, slowly pronouncing each words carefully as to make the man calm down. But the Rune Knight looked frantic as he grabbed Vic by his arms. “You have to help!” he was almost crying now and Victor still had no idea what that was all about. “I’m Collin Simmers, I’m a Rune Knight,” he told him. Well, of course he was a Rune Knight, Victor could see that very clearly. He raised an eyebrow. “I need your help. The lord called me over today but I couldn’t find someone to patrol the area for me,” he told him. And, this was somehow Victor’s problem how? He wanted to ask but kept quiet, his eyes lingering on the rune knight symbol on the apologetic man.
“I saw your Blue Pegasus guild tattoo on the back of your neck. Will you please patrol the area for me? I’ll give you a temporary Rune Knight’s badge,” he told a very curious Victor. Did that mean that he got to do what his beloved sister always did? He wondered, his eyes shining brilliantly at the thought of it. “I’ll agree!” he made his choice. Collins was practically beaming when he gave Victor a temporary badge and walked off.
Juggling the little symbol of peace on his hand, Victor felt a sense of pride rush into him in the fact that he was now doing something similar to Eva, his sister. He walked around the whole town, quickly forgetting about new shoes as he turned each and every corner, playing cop for a day. It was a bit of fun and a bit of seriousness all mixed in. He kept a watch on suspicious characters on the streets and peeked around every turn and wind, almost imitating a feline on its hunt.
It was one such corner that he peeked around when he saw someone, a suspicious man in a beanie striking a conversation with someone that looked like…was that Reagan Hullston? The famous smuggler? Victor’s eyes went wide, his ears sharpened to catch whatever they were saying. Sadly, he didn’t have the hearing power of a cat and failed miserably, only catching some bits and pieces of words from here and there.
His eyes narrowed in on them, spotting something that he was hundred percent sure would be drugs being exchanged. “Damn it,” Victor muttered under his breath, taking a step forward as to get a better look but clumsily knocking something over in his haste. They both noticed him, and the guy with the beanie hat was the first to run, the bigger fish going at the other direction. He didn’t know in which direction to go in, but remembered that the man in beanie hat was slightly limping.
He immediately dashed in the direction of the beanie hat, forgetting Reagan for the time being. Just getting at least an informant, he guessed, would be a major step up in finding the ring leader eventually. He had to run at his top speed for half an hour before he could even grab the man’s collar. Sure, he was slightly limping but damn, the man was fast. He guessed that he had magical enchantments on him.
Victor managed to push him down and lock his hands from moving, though. Now he needed to somehow hand the man over to Collins. But before that Victor decided that he could interrogate him himself. With a bit of effort Victor managed to drag the guy back to Hargeon’s Rune Knight station, throwing him in there in front of other Rune Knights that just gave him a look. He showed them the badge as they immediately parted and he took the man to a secluded area before beginning the questioning section.
“That man was Reagan, wasn’t he?” Victor asked first, his head tilting up in a questioning aura. The man looked everywhere around but at him. “I don’t know what you are talking about,” he tried to play it off, only screaming in pain a moment later from the punch Victor threw at him. “You can either choose to be truthful or you can lie and we will have more fun,” Victor tried to intimidate him, letting his voice fall a few levels to show how much he meant it. The man looked visibly shaken but he still screwed his mouth shut. “I don’t know what you are talking about. Let me go! I did nothing wrong,” he thrashed around in his grasp, finally leaving Victor no other choice but to slam his knee up on the guy’s ribs. It was a bit rough but there was another thing that Eva and he shared in common. They were both very unforgiving towards criminals.
“Spill the beans,” he growled and the man finally broke down in front of her, sobbing and sliding down the floor. He answered all of Victor’s questions after that. He man talked animatedly about all that he knew of the notorious criminal named Reagan and Victor made quick notes, something that he guessed he should show Collins later. For an hour long, he talked with the beanie hat guy, getting as much information as possible about the recent incidents and possible future plans the drug smuggling lord may have.
Once it was over, Victor went out, taking a seat at the office to wait for Collins to come back from visiting the lord. He sat on a chair, legs crossed over one another. He waited, tapping a finger impatiently at the table where a cup of coffee now sat. He took a sip from it, looking around to catch a glimpse of what a Rune Knight’s office looked like. Did his sister go through such events all day? How exciting.
“Victor!” Collins finally came back and Victor stood up, greeting him courteously. Collins asked him to take a seat. He looked much better than how he did early that morning. Collins began, “I heard that you caught us a big lead. I’m so thankful that you patrolled the area for me. So how did it go?” he asked and Victor started explaining from the beginning, how he had gone around snooping around areas and how he ahd found the beanie hatted guy exchanging something that looked like drugs with Reagan, the notorious criminal that the Rune Knights were looking for. He also told her about all the leads he got from interrogating the guy. “I apologize. I had to get a little rough with him,” Victor said but didn’t look sorry at all and Collins caught on to it, a chuckle escaping his own lips.
“You remind me of someone,” he replied and Victor laughed a little louder, knowing full well whom he meant. They talked for a while longer until Collins finally rewarded him for the job well done that day. He told her that he could keep the temporary badge, saying that it won’t be effective but it will make a nice momento.
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