Outside of the Adventurer's Guild, Syla walked onto the street and kept her head high, she saw multiple guards in armor patrolling the area, but paid no mind to it, only feeling a little curious with what's causing the increase in patrolling guards.
'Did something happened?..' Syla said to herself.
"Let's get some food before i continue–" Syla was about to approach a food vendor on the side of the street when she suddenly felt her ears tingling.
'Someone is following me?.. The same person from earlier?' Syla thought.
As it turns out, she was actually aware of the gaze in the Adventurer's Guild, but at that time she passed it as a normal adventurer who looked at her body with lustful eyes, it had happened multiple times before, but now that she noticed the gaze weren't coming off even after leaving, Syla knew that this wasn't just an ordinary person.
"Can i get one of these?" Syla said to the food vendor infront of her, she pointed a the delicious roasted meat that was pierced with a wooden stick.
"Of course!" The vendor replied cheerfully as he gave Syla the newly roasted meat for her.
After paying a copper coin to the vendor, Syla quickly left and fasten up her walking speed, she could sense that the mysterious person that was following her was still behind, however she can't exactly tell who it was because of the crowds.
'Tch, i guess they won't give up.' Syla uttered in her mind.
As she walked into a crossroads, Syla turned sharply towards he right direction and when her body was obstructed by the walls of the house beside her, she instantly ran as far as possible while making sure that her footsteps were quiet, atleast to the point that it was barely heard amongst the other footsteps noise around.
"Hm!? I can use that." Syla said as her eyes glanced at something in the distance
A few seconds into her running, Syla saw an alleyway that could be used as a temporary hiding spot, without hesitation she then entered the narrow alleyway and goes deeper into the unknown side of the town. She ran between the walls of buildings while covered from the sunlight, the alleyway was dark and dirty, various trash and even human feces can be seen scattered around the tiny road, once Syla thought that she had gone far enough to not be noticed, she abruptly stopped and looked back to where she came from.
"...They should be gone now." She whispered quietly. "What the hell, i guess this was bound to happen sooner or later, i should get used to it or i have to hide my face everytime."
Step..
Step...
'Someone's coming!.. The direction is– From the deeper side of the alleyway!?' Syla was startled with the sound of footsteps coming closer to her, although she could tell that the sound came from a hundred meters away, it was still loud enough to be heard by her ears due to the alleyway's structure that makes any sound echo throughout the entire thing.
'A homeless? Or some shady people?' Syla thought, she was hesitant to come out of the alleyway since there could still be a chance that her pursuer would still be in the area.
But after thinking it thoroughly, Syla ultimately decided to leave the alleyway, it would be better to meet with the pursuer in the public rather than meeting with an unknown person in this shady and secluded place.
Syla then turned her body towards the way where she came from earlier, and was about to jog out of the alleyway, however before she could even move, she heard a strange noise coming from behind her.
"Huh? A girl?" A man voice was heard, he seemed to have noticed Syla in the distance.
Although the most optimal move in this situation was to immediately run away, Syla instead felt curious with the person that just called her, she spared a glance at the man behind her and saw that he was around the age of 20's, with his face being filled with scars from various weapons, a straight line of scar from a sword, a circle scar that seemed to have come from a blunt weapon, and 3 stripes of scar that looked to be a claw mark.
'Yeah that is not a good person.' Syla thought.
Now that her curiousity has been answered, the answer to her question was clear, the man behind her was obviously not someone that could be trusted, in the end, Syla ran away out of the alleyway, leaving the man alone as he looked at her in confusion.
It would take her a few seconds to get to the end of the alleyway, Syla thought that it would be enough time and didn't think much about any possibility that something would happen, when she finally saw the light that was coming from the main street, she felt a little relieved.
But that relief was soon crushed by a heavy shock when Syla's ears and tail suddenly perked up as if they just sensed a great danger around her.
"KEUGH!" Syla realized that she was about to be attacked and looked up into the sky, that's when she saw a ball of fire coming straight at her.
BOOM!
The fireball exploded right above her, destroying the houses around and sending panics all across the district, all the people that was on the street was stunned by the explosion, most of hem covered their ears almost instantly, and when they realized that something had gone wrong, they all ran away in every directions.
"WHAT HAPPENED THERE!?" A patrolling guard that happened be nearby saw the disaster and had his jaw dropped.
"SHIT!" The guard ran towards the location as fast as he could, with a few more trailing behind him as they arrived at the dark alleyway entrance just 15 seconds later
"A fireball explosion?" One of the guard said when he saw the aftermath of the explosion.
"Shit.. I think we're too late.. Look at this." The guard that initially arrived in the area first suddenly crouched before grabbing a piece of torn clothes, there was multiple of them scattered across the pile of debris.
"It's the kidnapper.." The guard said.
"What!?" The other people around him couldn't exactly heard what he just said.
"QUICK! REPORT THIS TO THE MAYOR! WE MIGHT STILL HAVE A CHANCE! THE KIDNAPPER HASN'T LEFT DIREWELL YET! AND THEY'RE IN THE WEST DISTRICT!" The guard screamed, using every oxygen in his lungs to gave the other an order.
"Y- YES!"
After two guards had left the scene, the guard that picked up the torn clothes then looked around the area, there was no sign of anyone nearby, no footprints, no trail, nothing.
"If it's a fireball explosion, that means the kidnapper or the ones that they're trying to kidnap is a mage.. Either which one it is, its clear that this kidnapper is strong.." He said as he gritted his teeth.
.
.
At the City Hall, 11:00AM—
"What!? There's an explosion in the west district!?" Marrick repeated the news that he just heard, infront of him stood a guard that seems to be the one that told him the news about the explosion.
"Yes Chief, the other guards said that this was most likely done by the slave kidnapper, if that's true, that means they haven't left Direwell yet—
"Tell every guard in this building to spread out and tell all of the guards in the town to gather at the west district except the gate guards!" Marrick sternly said, he tucked his shirt up and stood from his chair.
As he walked out of the City Hall building, he used a fancy carriage with doors to go to the west district, he saw the chaos that was unfolding right before his eyes, people running away, adventurers that was confused, and kids that was scared. All of the daunting sight made his skin go cold, Marrick also noticed that many adventurers are thrilled by the situation, they seemed to be excited to face with whoever caused the explosion.
'This is good!' Marrick thought, he then opened the carriage door and asked every adventurers that he came across for help.
"ALL OF YOU THAT CAN FIGHT! YOU SHOULD'VE READ THE ANNOUNCEMENT BY NOW! IT IS NOT FAKE, THERE'S A CRIMINAL THAT'S HIDING IN THIS TOWN AND HAS BEEN KIDNAPPING PEOPLE EVER SINCE! IF YOU CAN CAPTURE THIS CRIMINAL, I PROMISE YOU A REWARD THAT HAS NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE! HELP THE GUARDS! AND FIND THEIR HIDDEN BASE!"
With Marrick's shout and announcement, all of he adventurers in the west district soon heard the news as it was being spread around like a wildfire, before long, everyone in Direwell had realized that there was a bounty that's been placed for a criminal. Enticed by the 'rewards that has never been done before' many adventurers began their search, helping the guards as they protected the normal people from this situation.
As the sun was reaching its highest point, the entirety of Direwell was in chaos, everyone gradually checked every houses in the west district, slowly but surely coming closer towards the location of the kidnapper's hidden base.