Grey gave Silva a look. "You better take this one, because if I answer, it’ll probably make everything worse."
Silva’s lip twitched, but in the end he slowly nodded and went on ahead.
Grey gave the armor another look, his eyes narrowing.
’I knew I recognized this from somewhere.’
Woven into the pattern of the armor was a sight Grey had seen just a few hours ago.
The white tattoos that had painted Joaquin’s bald head.
Grey turned away for the time being. He could have stolen the armor easily. He had an inventory that no one but he could access. But to what end?
Something told him that whatever Baron Giyoto was involved in here might very well lead him to the last pieces he needed to stop this Legendary Quest from snatching anything more from him.
’Speaking of which, there are only a couple hours left until the next curse.’
Grey shook his head. He was going to have to top up Prometheus before that. He didn’t know how anyone could survive this Quest if they didn’t have a way to dispel the status effects.
BANG.
’What the fuck.’
Grey looked up, frowning.
He knew that trouble was brewing, but he had seen it personally at the knighting ceremony. Even Holy Knights respected Silva because his presence represented Baron Giyoto. So he thought that if he let Silva go alone, things would be handled easily.
What was going on?
Grey rushed up the stairs and carefully closed it behind him just in case. He had PTSD from getting all of his things stolen.
’Never again.’
He had already transferred the Mechanical Lineage Tome into his inventory. He wasn’t about to risk losing it again.
’Of course it’s this asshole.’
Grey pushed the curtains of the backroom aside to find that Silva had been slid nearly back to him. Standing at the door were three Holy Knights, one of which was one Grey had promised a sword to the ass of.
Captain Terran.
Silva wiped his mouth of blood and Grey could swear he smelt something particularly bestial hang in the air for a moment before it disappeared.
The silver-haired man stood and bowed. "I apologize if my word choice was offensive. Sir Terran is free to do any checks he would like. There are no rule violations here, everything has been done above board.
"However, the copies of the contract are still with Baron Giyoto. If the Captain would like, I can escort—."
Silva was pushed out of the way and Terran stepped in front of Grey, reaching for his collar.
Grey took a timely step back, causing the man’s grip to miss.
"Remember what I said about those files? Don’t go around touching minors, I’ll scream bloody murder."
Captain Terran’s eyes bled with an inferno of fury. Before he could say anything, it was Silva who hurried to speak. But as he did so, Grey sensed something radiate out from the fox man that he didn’t quite understand.
"Sir Temolt, Sir Terran here just wants to ensure that everything is above board. He’s only doing his job. The Church has had an item go missing and it seems to be Globb’s tool belt. It is said that someone with a mask similar to your own was spotted at the scene by another Holy Knight before they were forced to escape."
Terran’s eyes were like lightning, watching Grey’s expression for even the slightest twitch. Unfortunately for him, when Grey heard the commotion, he had already guessed the reason before he even made it up here.
So, his response was a raised eyebrow.
"You’re telling me you lost my tool belt?"
Terran was so taken aback by the words he didn’t even know how to respond.
Grey stepped forward. He was at least a few inches taller than Terran, and the gap in their strength didn’t suffocate him nearly as much.
"I was planning on trading back for it when I became an official Holy Knight, but now you’re saying that it was stolen? And instead of going to find the person who did it, you came here to accuse me?"
Terran slowly recovered and then his expression twisted into a sneer.
His hand snapped forward, this time moving even faster than before. A bit of confusion layered Terran’s eyes when he was halfway there. He could swear that he could see Grey’s own eyes tracking his hand, but that should have been impossible.
And indeed it was, because he grasped Grey’s collar a moment later, lifting him up so high the latter’s head slammed against the short roof of the shop.
Without a word to Grey, Terran lifted up his shirt and frowned when he didn’t see a tool belt.
He tossed Grey to the side and over the counter, not so much as glancing over as he tumbled to the ground.
"Sack the place. Don’t leave even the floor boards unturned if you have to." Terran said coldly.
The two Holy Knights following with him obliged. They went through everything in the shop, even finding things that Grey had glossed over earlier.
If the shop had been dirty before, now it felt like a whole tornado had raged through, leaving everything upturned and devastated.
Grey watched everything coldly, not saying a word.
Terran hadn’t checked him very hard at all. It was like...
’They think spatial items can’t be stored in other spatial items...’
Maybe they were right. But clearly, his inventory was an exception to the rule.
Whether it was the tool belt or Joaquin’s ring, both were in his inventory right this moment and they were none the wiser.
Terran stepped out of the shop with a gloomy expression on his face. There was nothing to be found.
What Grey didn’t know just yet was that even his apartment had been ransacked before Terran even knew to come to check here. It was just that he hadn’t been back since the first night he slept in it.
Clearly, though, this wasn’t enough for Terran.
"Lead me to the Baron’s house." He commanded Silva coldly.
"Yes, of course. Right awa—."
Silva’s words were cut off as Terran lifted him up by his neck, strangling the rest of his words.
"Don’t think I didn’t notice the message you sent earlier. Know your place, mutt. If I sense anything off at the Baron’s home, the full weight of the church will descend on everyone involved."
Terran didn’t even wait for a response, his gaze turning to Grey while he held the dangling Silva up by his throat.
With a flip of his palm, a scroll appeared.
"You are hereby under investigation."
The scroll vanished into motes of light and drilled into Grey before he could even think about dodging.