Chapter 379 - Who can help?
A strange feeling had entered into Jack's stomach. For the first time in his life, he was responsible for something other than himself. Seeing that Rachel had disappeared caused a genuine panic in his heart. Something he wasn't ready for.
Of course, he had responsibilities being in the Redwings. But so far every task that he had done, although it would help the Redwings as a whole if he were to fail it would really only affect him.
"Guy's where was the last time you saw her!" Zinc said in an aggressive tone.
The two little boys started to tear up, as the emotions inside were welling up.
"You can't act like that, Zinc. They're only children." Claire replied as she knelt. "You guy's want to find Rachel to the right, then do you remember seeing anyone, or the last time you saw her."
One of the boys started to sniffle up his snot and at the same times rubbed his face to remove the tears. "Rachel was busy over in that corner, looking at something. When…when…Uncle Jack was fighting with that large man, a crowd suddenly surrounded the three of us, and then when the counter smashed all the people jumped back and bumped into the three of us, and that's when we lost Rachel."
'Was it then?' Claire thought. Perhaps when the crowd was panicked by the counter smashing, they had bumped into Rachel, causing her to fall or get her backpack taken off.
As she had these thoughts, she started to get even more worried than before. The backpack was clearly in the shop, so there was a high chance that her tail was seen. If that was the case, then maybe someone decided to snatch her up at that moment. But there were too many people in the show, and Claire wasn't able to keep an eye on them all. So she had no clue, or no leads to find out what had happened to her.
Jack, however, after hearing the story was already in action. He grabbed the back and started to sniff it with his nose. As he closed his eyes, he began to focus. He concentrated and allowed the Ki to move up into his nose and activate the cells in that area. Suddenly, it was as if he had a second type of vision.
The smells in the air were different from all different girls. The colour emitting from the back was brown, and he could ever so slightly, with his nose and mind, see a vision of brown leading somewhere.
"Follow me," Jack said. "And stay close."
Jack started to follow the brown colour out of the shop and away onto the streets. The kids were shortly behind him and were starting to fall slightly behind. Aware of this, Jack started to slow down. He had already lost one; he didn't need more problems on his plate.
As he slowed down the pace though, the smell was getting weaker and weaker as time went on. Eventually, though, the scent led to a particular building, it looked like some kind of barracks. There were multiple guards outside of the fairly large building, and it also looked like many things were coming in and out.
The building was actually a storage unit which served one purpose in particular. It was a place to store auction items, and one of these items included slaves. This was the reason for it being so heavily guarded and why Jack had mistaken it for barracks, or a training centre for soldiers.
Carriages were constantly coming into the place, and what looked like wealthy merchants were also coming out. Jack and the kids, along with the teenagers, were a distance away and remained on the street, rather than going up to the large building, keeping an eye on it.
Suddenly though, Jack noticed the chattering of teeth and a horrified look on the two teenagers eyes when Jack looked up to see what the children were looking at, he could see a group of people, all chained up and branded, making their way into the strange building.
"What is this place?" Jack asked.
"It's a storage house for the auction. This is where they keep all the items before they're sold off." Zinc replied.
JAck started to remember that Ray and Bob were heading off to this so-called auction house. At the time they were unaware of such sick doings of the place.
"And the Dem family allows this to happen?" Jack asked, shocked by the whole thing.
"What are you talking about," Claire replied. "The auction house is owned by the Dem family in the first place. Of course, they allow all this to happen."
The last bit of hope that Jack had, that perhaps his parents were good people, was starting to vanish, but he had more important matters on his hands right now.
When looking at the building, the scent he had latched onto was getting more vital for the first time. Jack lifted up the backpack to take another sniff, making sure he had the right scent. The brown line of order in his mind appeared more visible now.
The doors opened from the barracks, and out came a dark-cloaked hooded man. In his hand was a relatively large pouch, and there was a huge smile on his face. As Jack stared at the man, he started to grind his teeth backward and forwards. This man stunk of Rachel, it was clear he was the one who had brought her here.
Jack took a step forward, ready to pulverize the man to the ground, but Claire quickly grabbed his hand. "What are you doing? Can't you see where we are? There are tons of yellow knights around. Look, I know you're strong. But you have to understand these yellow knights are different compared to regular knights on the outside. They are far stronger." Claire explained.
"I think the best thing we can do is go back and inform Steven of the situation and see what he thinks is the best plan. I know Steven won't abandon her, and you should know that too."
It took nearly all of Jack's will power to step back and not move forward, but he knew Claire's words made sense. Eh had already had a taste of the yellow knights when he was trapped underneath the mansion, and there were many here who looked far more skilled.
If he was to fight, he felt like it was a fifty-fifty chance he could rescue Rachel out of there, but then what would be his next move.
Hating himself, he did the only thing he could. He stood up and headed back to the with the others.
When arriving at the cave, Steven could tell something was up immediately; not only could he not see Rachel, but the feeling and atmosphere of the children was just different. Jack went on to explain to his brother everything that had happened so far.
"Damn it!" Steven yelled while kicking part of the cave wall. He had kicked it so hard his foot had made an indent into the cave wall.
"Can we rescue her?" Claire asked.
Steven looked at the kids' eyes. It was the first time someone had been taken back who had already been rescued. He was prepared to fight back at some point, but now wasn't the right time. They didn't have enough fighting power. With Jack, Steven was confident that maybe they would be able to do something, but Jack wouldn't be enough. They needed something more.
Steven then rushed over to one of the chests that had a lock on it. He opened up the chest and pulled out all the silver coins he could find. In total, he had ten silvers and six bronze coins. It was his entire fortune he had gathered in this place over the years.
"It's too late to try to rescue her," Steven said, "they will have already taken her to the VIP section of the auction. The only thing we can do is buy her. The other problem is we also have no way to get into the VIP section."
However, looking at his hand, Steven knew this wouldn't be enough. Only if, by some miracle, none of the others chose to not bid on her would this work. Jack, looking at the coins, could see this too.
"She's going to be at the auction, you say? Well, maybe I know someone who can help." Jack replied.