In that moment, Benjamin’s heart gave a thump, an uneasy feeling curling inside it.
The other mages that were surrounding them, at that moment, also emerged out of the darkness. They all wore puzzled expressions, gathered together, looking at each other, the pirates who didn’t know what was going on just stood there trembling.
"When we left camp, wasn’t Augustine still with you guys? How can he go missing?" Benjamin asked as he took a deep breath, and tried to calm himself.
Andy corrected his breathing, opened his mouth and related to them everything that happened:
A while after you left, we were in the tent, suddenly we heard a weird sound outside. At the time, Augustine asked us to stay inside as he went outside to see what was happening. After waiting for a while, Augustine was still not back, we all felt it was weird, so the both of us left the tent..."
Hearing this, Benjamin frowned and immediately said, "then, you couldn’t find him?"
The two potion masters had fearful looks in their eyes as they nodded.
Seeing this, Benjamin could only take a deep breath, deep in thought.
What is happening? They have already escaped the kingdom and could have escaped from other people’s ears and eyes, in the end it’s still the same, strange things happening to them one after another, and they can’t even run away from it.
Why can’t they reach the border safely and without problems?
For one of the mages to go missing is no small thing. Even though previously Augustine was a hotel manager, but after leaving the kingdom, he was the same as the other mages, he knew very little about Icor. Moreover, Benjamin knew him. A very enthusiastic uncle, although he had a few special hobbies, he would not just leave without saying goodbye.
Without question, when most of the mages have left camp, and all three mages that stayed back and stood guard heard a weird noise, it’s definitely was not an accident or coincidence.
"What kind of noise was it?" so he asked.
"Umm...it sounded like a cat during springtime, but very short." Andy had a difficult time explaining it, "but it also sounded like a baby’s cry, very sharp, it was shocking to hear, and suddenly it just stopped. At the time, I thought I was mistaken..."
"No." Suddenly, Hannah who was standing beside said, interrupting Andy, she added, "that sound, compared to a cat’s meow, I thought it sounded more like a person’s laugh. Only... it was just a little weirder than usual."
A woman’s laugh?
In that moment, Benjamin felt as though he was listening to a countryside ghost story. Three people at the campsite at night, suddenly hearing a weird woman’s laughter, one person went out to check and didn’t come back...
Unfortunately, this isn’t a story, but something that really happened to them.
Because of Hannah’s reminder, Benjamin could quickly connect "woman’s laughter" with the "Dame" that the pirates described.
The only woman in the pirate camp disappeared mysteriously, and at the same time, the weird laughter from the mage’s camp, and then a mage mysteriously disappeared. If there is no connection between the two incidences, Benjamin would never believe it.
The key to the situation could be with the "Dame".
"That ‘Dame’ that disappeared, what is up with her?" he turned, and glared at the pirate lying on the ground, and coldly asked.
The pirates were dumbfounded at what they were seeing, but, they were so frightened that their legs had turned to jelly, and they did not keep anything back: "The Dame... she is our boss’ wife."
"Then where is your boss?" Benjamin immediately asked.
"Our boss... was just killed by you."
"..."
Benjamin suddenly felt like he wanted to vomit blood.
Calm down... Don’t worry.... There is no point in worrying…...
After taking a deep breath, he continued asking: "If he is dead then fine, you know anything about her, where is she from, how old is she, what does she look like, when did she marry your boss, what kind of person is she... just tell me whatever you know."
Hearing this, the rest of the pirates looked at each other, looked like they did not know where to start. But under the fierce eye of the mages, they could only give in, they took turns describing the missing "Dame".
"The Dame is really beautiful, but she is really smart, I would not even dare to look at her beyond a glance."
"The Dame’s voice is really sharp, when she laughs she shocks people. Every time I hear her laugh, I always get a headache."
"Boss was also really afraid of the Dame..."
Just like that, following the pirate's scattered descriptions, the mysterious image of the woman, slowly appeared in the mages’ mind.
Even though the pirates had a look of respect on their faces, but according to them, even from the start, the Dame was someone’s wife that their boss kidnapped from a merchant s.h.i.+p on the River Fett, and was forced to marry the pirate boss.
When she first got married to the boss the Dame was very gentle and spoke very little, but slowly, her stripes in her personality began to show. At first, when she scolded everybody in the group, but to save the face of the boss, no one dared say anything. But after that, even the boss was punched and kicked by her, and was henpecked by his wife. At the same time, the Dame herself started to show her skill in fighting, in the whole group there was no one who can beat her.
And so it became, the Dame slowly took control of the pirate’s leaders.h.i.+p, even their combat strategies, it was the Dame that planned it and led everything, and in the end, everything was successful. And so, from a practical point of view? The Dame became their boss and the original boss became the second in command.
Usually, once Benjamin finished listening to the story, he will complain that the pirate boss was really useless. But now, with his comrade missing, he didn’t even have the time of day to care about these minute details.
According to the pirates’ description, he was sure that Augustine and the "Dame" were definitely related somehow, there is a very high chance that she took Augustine away.
Even though it was suspicious, why couldn’t a mage win against a woman who was better at hand to hand combat, but then again, it already happened, there is no point agonizing about these things.
The most important thing is still to figure out a way to get Augustine back.
"After all these discussions, where is your Dame from? What is her name? Don’t you know all these things?" Benjamin asked hurriedly.
The pirates looked at each other, none of them saying a word.
"Does n.o.body know? If no one says anything, there is no point to you living anymore." Benjamin’s voice got lower, using a dangerous stare and glared at all of the pirates, exuding a cold murderous aura.
"No... Master Mage, I may not know what her name is, but I have...I have a letter that the Dame threw away before we left." Just then, one of the pirates hurriedly stood up, and took out a piece of paper from his pocket, pa.s.sing it to Benjamin with trembling hands, "we can’t read, so we don’t know what is written on it, maybe...you’ll find something useful on it."
"A letter that the Dame threw away, why would you pick it up?" before Benjamin could say anything else, another pirate with a hesitant look on his face replied softly.
"Nothing...just that...the letter smelled really nice, when I smell it, can...can do that thing."
"..."
No one could keep a straight face.
But after hearing this, Benjamin did not despise him. He took the crumpled paper, opened it, and read the letter with a serious face. However, he realized that this could not even be considered a letter, at most, it was just a draft, with only the introduction before it was thrown out.
The content looked like it could be written by the Dame to someone else.
"Dear Sidney, how are things in Regina? These past few days..." aside from all the scribbles and scratched out text, that was all Benjamin could get from the letter; just this short sentence.