Back in the city of Repton, in the three-tiered red-roofed restaurant, a staff worker dressed in cloth had decided to pay one of the VIP rooms on the second floor a visit.
"This rowdy bunch, they usually are making a new order every thirty minutes until around 2 in the morning!" the woman claimed, standing just outside the sliding doors.
"It's been well over an hour since they've ordered anything. I wonder if something happened. I better check up on them; they do tend to leave quite a bit of coin behind," she grinned on her face.
"Excuse me, but I was just wondering if you would like some extra snacks or beverages," the woman asked after giving a polite knock, but there was no answer at the door.
She knocked again, but still, there was no answer, and that's when she started to find the whole thing a little strange.
There was no loud noise coming from the other side, no slamming tables, or foul language being used as the group cursed each other.
"They couldn't have slipped out, right? I would have seen them exiting, and they've never left without paying the bill before."
The woman's name was Shirley, and in the VIP rooms, they had their own dedicated server. Shirley had been serving them for some time now, and recently she had been paying extra attention to them. That was why she found the whole thing odd. In the end, she had decided to slide the door open herself, and her eyes were met with a room filled with no life at all.
"They're gone, they're all gone!" Shirley almost screamed. The drinks weren't empty, and there were still snacks out on the table. There was also no sign of a forced exit of sorts, which made her wonder how they had even disappeared.
Quickly, she went to talk to the other workers, asking if they had seen any of the Crimson Crane, but not a single one of them had seen a thing.
"Is this going to come out of my pay?" Shirley started to nervously think, but before that, she thought that there was something else she needed to do.
Heading downstairs to the main dining area that was filled with a number of tables, she went to the corner of the room where there was a man sitting on a table on his own.
He only had one dish in front of him that looked to be untouched and one drink as well. When she arrived, she quickly knelt down and whispered into his ear.
"That certainly is odd," the man said. "I will contact the others and see if they know anything, but I've been keeping an eye on the exit; they can't have just disappeared."
Some time had passed since the Crimson Crane had been missing, and after a search had started across the city, the news had eventually reached a certain person's ears who went far and wide.
In the tallest tower in Repton, there was a man, in his extravagant silk clothing, sitting in his chair with his view of the city.
"So you're telling me the Crimson Crane just vanished like that!" Bubble commented.
"Yes, sir, we had been keeping an eye on them like you suggested, and they have been staying in the city and had gathered just recently, but now all of them are gone, and not a single person has seen them."
Bubble was thinking; it all seemed strange. Why did the Crimson Crane gather in Repton and do nothing? What Bubble was interested in was the new member, the Demon that had taken down the Behemoth Clan and the Dark Magus.
He wanted to know if the two were the same, and so many people wanted to know about the Dark Magus. So what better way than to keep an eye out on the people that knew him.
"There are reports that a young man with white hair had visited them just before, but it appears that they are missing as well."
It was quite clear that they had no information at all. In the middle of his thoughts, Bubble and his worker could hear a commotion going on outside.
The sound of loud grunting and destruction going on in his building. Just as Bubble stood up to try and find out what it was, his doors were burst open.
They had broken off their hinges and slammed into the side of the wall.
"Gentlemen, is there really a need for such an entrance," Bubble said, holding up his hands by his face, worried that he was going to be attacked at any moment.
Bubble, with his wealth, had hired some strong wanderers outside to protect him, and now looking at the doorway that led outside, they had all been defeated.
Now standing there instead were two men, dressed in thick clothing, one with a dignified beard covering his face, looking relatively old.
It was the same for the man next to him. They were dressed quite oddly with their boots and trousers, and both of them were even wearing a shirt.
The whole thing looked quite uncomfortable, and what was even more worrying for Bubble was he didn't even know who these people were.
Surely, someone strong enough to take out his hired guards he would know, yet they were unrecognizable.
"We have a request. We have been told that you are the one that knows the most information in this world, which is why we are here to ask about the Dark Magus!" the old man with ash-
gray hair asked.
"I can tell that rejection is not an answer by how crudely you dealt with my guards," Bubble said, still in a relatively calm manner.
"But if you wished, you should have simply just asked me. You see, I am not one to keep information. I gain my wealth by spreading it. What you know about the Dark Magus is what I know.
"Everything is in the reports I have given. I am afraid I might have disappointed you."
The one thing Bubble didn't want to happen was for these two to force their hand on him, to try and get information.
But what he was telling was the honest truth. "It seems we have made a mistake then," the gray-haired man said, looking at his partner.
As quickly as they had come in, they were quickly going to leave. Bubble found it surprising that they would believe him just like that.
"Could I ask you a question?" Bubble called out.
His worker by his side stared at him with his large eyes, thinking he must have been a madman. The people who had just killed all of their guards were leaving, so why call out to them?
"From your actions, if you are looking for the Dark Magus, do you plan to recruit him, or get rid of him?"
"If you knew the answer to that, then we would have to kill you," the man replied.
"Well, I must say then, you have a lot of competition. A lot of people are looking to do both; you aren't the only one, and you aren't the only ones that have requested information about the Dark Magus from me."
