Rey's breathing felt heavy.

He had thought, for sure, that his theory would be corrector at least show some bearing in reality.

'None of these faces and names resemble her at all. If she wanted me to find her, she would have left something behind. Anything!'

Initially, Rey was chill about it. When he checked for the first time and didn't find her, he was sure he just missed something.

But, after twelve times now, going over the documents of every single Adventurer that had registered from the day of his coma till present, he found nothing.

'In checked all the detailseven the information of all the Quests they've taken. Yet nothing!'

Rey felt stuck.

More frustrating than his growing anxiety was the fact that he had to suppress it every time so he was forcibly calm about everything.

The cycle continued for far too long that it began to grow infuriating.

Unfortunately, when he stopped actively controlling that portion of his emotion, the System did it for himforcefully granting him full clarity

"Okay, so what if she didn't register as an Adventurer? She could still be in the city, right? There are people who challenge the Dungeons without being Adventurers, right?"

"Yeah, but that's illegal." Noah said while shaking his head. "Esme doesn't strike me as someone who would go down that route.

Not only would that be morally wrongsomething a 'Good' person like her wouldn't resort to unnecessarilybut it only made it harder to find her.

"If she wanted you to find her here, wouldn't she have registered?"

If there was no record of her, it most likely meant she didn't choose to stay in the Adventurers City.

"Does that mean the second option is what she?"

"I already told you that it's a dumb proposition. I'm sure there are other ways to explain her disappearance." Noah folded his arms and raised a brow, staring at Rey with curious eyes.

"You know her best. What could she have been up to?"

"Well, there are many explanations, in all honesty." Rey responded as he leaked out a misty sigh.

He had no idea where to begin.

Still, a dark thought kept creeping in his mindone that he had been avoiding since he thought about Esme after waking up.

"She could be in danger. Maybe even dead. There are many explanations as to why she isn't"

"Stop being so negative. She could also be exploring the world at the moment, or maybe looking for a cure for your coma. Just saying"

Rey's eyes widened as he stared at Noah.

'That's true! Esme doesn't know I'm awake yet!'

What if, the same way he desperately wanted to lift Alicia's curse, Esme was also trying her best somewhere to seek out a remedy for him?

'If that's the case, she could be anywhere!'

Perhaps he had to actively begin searching for her, starting from wherever the Dungeon's exit led to at the point of her departure from it.

'I remember Esme mentioning glitched Skills. Does that mean she knows more about Curses too? No that's a bit of a far-fetched assumption.'

If she knew about curses, she would have done something to help her friends and the other kids back in Scylla's lair.

'Or could it be because she knows about curses that she knew there wasn't hope for those ones? Well, the only way to really know is to find and ask her.' Rey settled in his thoughts as he looked blankly into the air.

"Unfortunately, that can't be done now. I have to fetch Trisha, and we have to make it to the parade that's starting soon."

"I see. I'll do my best to ask around for more informationnot just from this city, but the surrounding ones as well."

Rey gave Noah a tired smile and nodded. "Thanks, I'd really appreciate it if you did that."

"It's no problem. I also look forward to meeting her."

"Why, though?"

"Let's just say I'm interested."

Rey's face was still as stoic as ever, so Noah couldn't tell what he was thinking inside his head.

The only reason he decided to push this far was to see if his friend truly didn't have anything with Esme before he developed more of an interest in her and made his move.

Depending on Rey's response, he would act appropriately.

'You already have Alicia, so leave some ladies for the rest of us.' He wanted to shout out loud, but he maintained his composure.

'So what will it be, Re?"

"Well, I guess that's fine." His response was curt and detached, almost as if he didn't care at all.

"For real?"

"Yeah. I mean, if you want to shoot your shot that's fine."

Noah didn't know if Rey was truly cool with it, but he didn't dare prod any further.

'He's already made his position clear! Looks like I'll have to work hard to find her before he does.' His eyes gleamed as he rubbed his hands together.

'Even now, I can't get her out of my head.'

"In any case, I have to leave now." Rey opened a portal almost as soon as he said that.

"Once again, thanks for everything. I wasn't surprised you became the Guildmaster. As long as you have Britta and the others by your side, I'm sure you'll be fine."

"Pfft! Well, yeah. They do most of the work for me anyway."

"I figured."

The two boys laughed, almost reminiscent of old times.

It was obvious that there were a lot of questions they had to ask each other, but now wasn't the time. As such, they made the unspoken decision to postpone their talk to another time.

"How do you plan to locate Trisha? Should I ask someone to fetch her for you?"

"No need for that." Rey grinned, his eye glowing crimson. "I already know where she is."

He already placed Tracking Magic on her, so not only was he aware of her position in real-time, but he could also teleport there in an instant.

"Later."

~VWUSH!~

In a gust of spatial energy, Rey vanished completely.

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Thanks for reading!

I think I'm somewhat back with my mojo. If all goes well, three chapters a day will resume effective immediately.