“Evangeline san, may I have a word with you?” was the sentence that began her day. Eva, like any other day that she didn’t have modelling work or wasn’t dozing off, had decided to drop by the Magic Council to complete her part of the work. She was the wind on most of these circumstances, coming and going like the mentioned, usually not grabbing anyone’s attention for her own good and peace of mind. However, that particular morning inside the great Magic Council chambers where she had just been picking at her paperwork, the tranquil voice had come, drawing her attention to the light blue headed Joachim Messer, a noble by birth and a proud Seated Knight of the faction much like her.

He came over to her with an expression of relief, as if he was half not expecting to find her there which could have been true for the most part considering her behavior pattern. “Hello, Messer,” she greeted, standing back up to bow politely at him which he promptly returned with a kind smile. “I had been looking all over for you. I didn’t think I would even find you,” he said, fishing for something in his pockets. “I need your help,” which she already guessed. She played along, nodding her head and feigning curiosity to look at what he was taking out.

It turned out to be a piece of paper with some weird drawing on it. Well, calling it weird would be going too fat since someone like Eva immediately understood what it was and for someone like him to carry something like it along with him was no mystery at all. “Why do you have a picture of your family crest with you, Messer?” she asked, eyes trained to the two entangled swans with long necks weaved through each other. It was a beautiful one, she admitted that much.

“I lost it and I need your help with finding it. I have a dungeon raid scheduled very soon and can’t look for it myself. If you could, it would help me a lot for you to find it. I’ll pay you, of course,” he said the last part almost sheepishly, probably because he knew that Eva made far more than him with her two jobs combined. She smiled, however, and took the picture from him, inspecting it once more before folding it and tucking it into her own jeans’ pocket. “I’ll look for it. Don’t worry. Hmm, I’ll drop it off with the guard if I do find it,” she told him and he immediately nodded, replying that he would leave the reward with the said guard as well.

And that was how she ended up from the comforts of her office to the heated busy streets of Era but she wasn’t complaining. Setting the sun aside, being outside was far better than staying inside the four walls of her office to complete all the paperwork that had piled up during her long absence.

500/1000

“You have never seen something like it before?” she asked the second person of the day, keeping the drawing up for the man to see. He scrutinized it in a display of meticulous care before turning to Eva with a helpless expression. “I’m sorry. I have never seen it before,” came the same answer she had heard not too long ago from another man. It was weird how these people couldn’t recognize the Messer family crest at all. They were a fairly well known noble house and one of the very few houses that still held the status unlike the Vanderbilts that had, in the long run, switched off its noble title to the title of a business tycoon.

“Thanks for the help,” she smiled faintly and moved along, walking further down the street. After what seemed like thirty minutes, Eva stopped to ask another person. This one seemed like a well educated man and he looked at the drawing once before opening his mouth in recognition. “You saw it?” Eva asked as soon as the expression registered within her brain. “Yes, I did. I think I saw it in the hands of what seemed like a shady man. He was definitely not the good kind,” he told her, informing her of the traveling merchant Gaud whom Eva already knew of. He told her of the possibility that the crest may have been handed over to the scheming merchant which she now agreed with after a bit of thought.

Thanking the man for his help, Eva immediately took the next turn leading to the market streets of Era. She had to walk around quite a bit before she found the man, what with him moving his store every now and then. “Oh, if it isn’t the solar sect wielder,” was his greeting. “Gaud, you might have something that doesn’t belong to you at all,” she told him, promptly drawing a confused frown on his expression. “What do you mean?” he asked after a bit of silence as Eva explained to him about the Messer family crest going missing and how he might have found it through someone selling it to him. She showed him the drawing just to know if they were in the same page and he visibly paled before grabbing something from under a small counter. He handed it over to Eva. “I didn’t know it was the Messer family’s crest. Damn that bastard, he had sold me illegal goods,” he gritted his teeth at which Eva resisted a roll of her eyes. As if the man hadn’t done his fair share of illegal activities, she snorted inwardly, took the crest and turned away, bidding farewell to the traveling merchant that seemed quite disappointed with his luck.

She immediately went back to the council, climbing up the long stairs that took her to the gates of the colossal building. The guard spotted her before she saw him, immediately running over to her before saluting dutifully. She waved a hand at him, placed the crest on his palm before taking the bad full of money for herself. Finally, she could get some rest.

1025/1000