“...Where am I?”

Martial Blue Sister woke up, in the middle of a teahouse. It was quiet, next to empty, with only one or two servers wiping the tables. The atmosphere was very still, maybe it’s because it was early in the morning. Even the sky turn from a sleepy black to a yawning blue.

Was it all a dream? Had she actually been in Moon Tavern and imagined it all?

“Good, you’re finally awake.” Martial Red Sister would greet from across the table with a casual tone.

She is eating on a light morning meal of rice porridge and deep fried donut sticks. She didn’t want to ruin her diet, but she needed energy for what will happen later. “Eat something. Or you won’t have strength when we travel.”

“...How long was I asleep? When did I fall asleep?” Martial Blue Sister.

“The moment you found Lady Peony’s corpse crammed in the trunk, you just...passed out.”

Memories flooded back into Martial Blue Sister. Everything that happened from Moon Tavern, Mutiny Hill, the inn, the storm, all the way to seeing the body of a familiar face half buried in the pile of salt.

Crammed with several other corpses of strangers.

Once her mind reached that checkpoint, Martial Blue Sister covered her face to try and block it out. The emotional stress behind it all was too much, she nearly burst out crying on the spot.

It was only now, did she realize she was sitting in a random teahouse in the middle of a town she’s never seen before. Everyone looked quiet, not a single one spent the rising morning chattering. Instead they all started to wear black cloth bands around their arm, remove any cheery and colourful lanterns to replace them with white and black buntings.

Almost everyone in the street were burning things. Tin basins placed outside their front steps of shops and houses, tossing paper slips into the open flame. Money offering for the dead.

It looked like everyone was ready for the Ghost Festival, where spirits of the dead and their ancestors wander the mortal realm for a week as a form of vacation and visiting living kin.

But it wasn’t that season yet, it was way too soon.

“Lady Peony is really—”

Martial Red Sister bit on her deep fried donut stick with a light crunch noise. She didn’t bother to answer. Rather, she wasn’t in the mood to confirm the reality. “The matter is settled with the Silver Clan. There is nothing more needed from us. We’ll be returning to Moon Tavern...I already sent a message to Martial Kim to summarize what happened.”

Martial Blue Sister finally felt the weight of the reality crush the bones on her small shoulders. “Wh-where are we!? How did we end up here?”

Martial Red Sister just sighed. “After you passed out, Silver Clan soldiers arrived. I sent them a messenger pigeon the moment we first found Lady Peony so the timing was impeccable. Alas, they confirmed the dead girl in the salt trunk was indeed Lady Peony...and there was nothing more we could do. They arrested all of us in Mutiny Inn and brought us here, a town serving the Silver Clan high up on the mountains of Silver Vein Valley.”

The lady in the kimono wanted to just eat and forget, but the events forced her to put her bowl of plain rice porridge down and secretly grit her teeth. “Chieftess Silver heard our story, as to how we stumbled onto Lady Peony and...what happened at Mutiny Inn. She pardoned us and allowed us to leave. I didn’t have dinner last night nor a proper breakfast, so I dragged your sorry lump of a body to this teahouse to get some food and rations before the long walk back to the Capital.”

“Long walk back—H-how can we just leave? After what just happened to Lady Peony last night!?”

“She’s dead.” Martial Red Sister would mumble under her breath. “Unless you’re an Immortal Class healer who can wake up the dead with a flick on her forehead, there is nothing more we can do for her. Our job here is done, complete. The sooner we return to Moon Tavern, the faster I can forget about this bitter tragedy.”

Martial Blue Sister didn’t want to argue. No matter whether she was right or wrong, she always afraid of being judged for saying something blatantly wrong or naive. She experienced the feeling too much.

However, something inside of her just can’t sleep it off. So she forced herself to voice the things that were bugging her.

“H-how did Lady Peony disappear from a closed room!?” she asked, trying to keep her voice steady. “Wh-what about those ghost prints that came towards us? Wh-what is the connection between them that had Lady Peony ended up inside of a sealed box owned by North Cloud Shipping Company!? Even if it’s some advanced form of inter-object teleportation spell, th-there has to be a logical explanation behind all this!”

“Blue.” Martial Red Sister wanted to get angry, but given the circumstances and what happened she was mentally exhausted to shout. “We may be investigators, but we aren’t exactly like Imperial Detectives. There’s only so much Moon Tavern can do. Besides, we found Lady Peony. There’s no request to look into her death for us. So that is that.”

“Please, Martial Red Sister. We have to do something, to avenge Lady Peony!”

“No need. Chieftess Silver has taken over the situation. As the victim is her beloved sister, it is only right she handles the matter. Even if she is not an official Magistrate of this region, she has enough authority to make her own judgment.”

Martial Blue Sister was about to say something, but her thoughts interrupted her. She decided to voice them out instead. “Wh-what happened to the others?”

“Hmm? Oh. North Cloud Shipping Company, Mutiny Inn staff, even the travellers at the inn, are being detained by Silver Clan. No doubt to trial them.”

“W-what happens after their trial?”

“Execute whoever they think is the killer, or killersss?” Martial Red Sister shrugged, “The hell do I know how the rich folk think? Let’s just finish up breakfast and--GET YOUR LITTLE ASS BACK HERE YOU BLUE BRAT!”

There was something wrong. Martial Blue Sister thought as much. She couldn’t figure it out exactly, but she felt compelled to go back to the Silver Clan estate and find out.

As she had difficulty expressing her true feelings, she decided to use action instead. The girl would leap out of the teahouse and free fall from the three story balcony. She used her [Azure Dragon’s Flowing Water] to summon water from around her to help catch her.

From the wet rooftops, the clay pots used to douse flames in an emergency, vats for drinking and cooking, to even the puddle in the street, she gathered enough to create this large platform of water under her feet.

This skill set was called <<Aqua Mirage>> which involved using water to form solid and complex constructs at will.

Martial Blue Sister created a giant flying sword of the water she collected in the town and fired a tight jet of liquid to propel her across the rooftops at high speed.

The whole town sat on top of a tall mountain, nestled closely together across the slops and plateaus of the formation. It was formed in front of a large cave, an old silver ore mine by the looks of it. Several rock elevations up was the Silver Clan estate.

A castle. A series of castle like towers sat on the highest point of the mountain top, protected by a series of high walls that could fend off a complex siege. Perhaps, with all the money and wealth Silver Clan has accumulated over their long family history, they felt obliged to build such a grand fortification to scare off their rivals and enemies.

Martial Blue Sister winged it, for several reasons. One, she was essentially flying on a large sword of water within their airspace. So it was obvious the many soldiers protecting the estate would start to fire their arrows at her. Even if they lacked the same unison and precision of trained Imperial Archers, they still had enough bite and sting to make others re-think their life choices.

The flying sword of water would pull off spinning loops, complex barrel rolls, or shave off some water to transform them into counter measures to block any attacks that would harm Martial Blue Sister’s body. In doing so the sword of water would decrease in size, volume, and speed.

Ignoring the defenders she would land on top of a rooftop. She hadn’t arrived yet, where everyone from Mutiny Hill were being held.

In fact she just realized something. Has she been here before?

Since last night upon finding Lady Peony in the salt trunk to the teahouse, she had been unconscious. Even as a trained warrior, she may have been too exhausted for even her subconscious mind to recall which way led to where.

So she was standing in a tower in the middle of a maze. As much as she could cheat and find a trail from her vantage point, there’s too many covered hallways, spaces, and pathways that make it difficult if the prisoners were held inside or in a covered courtyard.

To make it easier for herself, she manipulated her <<Aqua Mirage>> and scattered the water she controlled. A series of tiny water orbs spread throughout the Silver Clan estate, looking at all angles within blind spots.

A dotted web of telescopes.

Martial Blue Sister checked the bigger ones in front of her fact which transmitted moving images in real time. Servants trying to fix broken windows and pillars, house maids gossiping in secret within dark corners, to even Silver Clan patrols running around to find a certain blue headed intruder.

She swiped her hand across the main water screens, to figure out which one she is looking for. The girl made an ‘ah’ noise when she quickly swiped one water screen back.

The prisoners. Everyone from Mutiny Inn. They were all tied up. Based on the image in the water bubble screen, it looked like they were inside some large space somewhere inside of the Silver Estate Manor.

“There she is!” A Silver Clan soldier cried out when they spotted their intruder on the rooftops. Several more came to their call and armed their shortbows. “Shoot the flying demon!”

“What!? N-no! I-I’m not the bad guy! Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot—GWAK!”

Martial Blue Sister ducked and ended up stumbling off the high rooftop. She quickly used <<Aqua Mirage>> to gather up the water to cushion her fall before darting off like a flying carpet to avoid the arrows of the Silver Clan archers.

She had to hurry! If she misses this chance, the truth behind Lady Peony’s death will be lost forever!!