"Kiliffia?" Tia saw tears rolling down Kiliffia's cheek and quickly ran over to her, giving her a hug.
"It's fine. It's just my stupid father leaving behind useless information..." Kiliffia was not sad by the fact that she found out that her father was not blood related to her but by the fact that her father left to put himself in danger. To her, she would never change the life that she had. Her life was good, and her father raised her with lots of love. They relied on each other through thick and thin. She was able to become the person she was today because of the life she lived. If her life changed even in the slightest, she might never have met her goddess or have found a goal in life as she has now.
Kiliffia forced a smile and as she wiped her tears. "Let's go. We need to go meet up with Dev."
"Are you sure you are okay?" Tia asked once more just to be sure.
"Mmm… I am fine. We got a mission to do." Kiliffia did not know how long their mission would take, but she knew one thing for sure, and that was that she would not let anything stop her from completing the mission. She may even get lucky and come across her father along the way.
Tai gazed at Kiliffia but did not press the matter anymore when she saw the determined look in Kiliffia's eyes return. The two left the shop the way they arrived and walked back out onto the busy street. "The Delfia restaurant is not far from here. We are supposed to meet Dev in a private room on the third floor. Let's go."
The two hurried along and within an hour arrived at the restaurant. They walked into the restaurant and were greeted by one of the female staff members. "May I help you?"
"Yes, were are meeting a friend here. Names Finely." Kiliffia answered. She did her best to act as normal as possible, even though on the inside, she was very nervous.
The female staff member opened the book on the podium by the door and scanned through it. "Yes. They just arrived. This way, please."
Kiliffia and Tia followed behind the female staff member and were led to the third floor. The third floor was small and only held four rooms, but it was also the most secure. Before they could even step foot into the hall from the staircase, a guard had to go to the room and check to make sure that Dev was expecting them. Only then did they get led to the room.
"You're late." Dev said as the two walked into the room and the door closed behind them. She wore a black robe that obscured her features. When she took off her hood, she was met with a cute young looking face. Dev had a set of black furred cat ears on her head with short black hair. With such a cute looking face, the stern look in Dev's eyes did not match her at all.
"We were told not until sundown?" Kiliffia questioned Dev. This was what she was told on the way here.
"Just because you have a set time, you are not going to the meeting place right away? Instead, you two wandered back home. What if people found out who you are? You could have jeopardized the whole mission and even endangered your loved ones." Dev yelled. Her eyes cold. "You are not in the academy where you can mess around. This mission was issued by the king himself, and if you screw around, you can endanger more than just yourselves."
"You followed us?" Tia asked.
Dev didn't hide this fact as she nodded her head. "From the moment you stepped foot off that carriage, you have been followed by me. But do not feel discouraged. There was no way for you to be able to tell I was behind you. Well, unless your stats are high enough. Anyway….
"I will be helping you cross the border. I have already set up the place we will be crossing under. Once we cross, I will go back into hiding while you two head for Trefil, a small border town. You will spend the night there and then roam the town. How you gather information will be up to you. But to give you a bit of advice, I would say talking to rich looking drunkards is your best bet. Although, I will be watching over you. It would be best if you do not need me to come out. All your actions will be watched and monitored by me." Dev explained.
Kiliffia felt like something else was going on besides just this investigation. "Why does this sound like a test?"
"Because it is. The king wanted to test the two of you during this time to see how you handle the situation. Do you think with me here, he would need to have two inexperienced girls handle a situation so important at this alone? No, I am here to make sure we get the information we need." Dev did not hide anything, which made the two girls' faces sour.
The girls' morale seemed to immediately drop when they realized they were not very important after all. Seeing this, Dev straightforwardly said: "You have no reason to be sad. You may just have better luck grabbing information as well. You have to remember we have millions upon millions of lives in the Rural Kingdom who will only be safe if we are able to gather information. If we miss any information at all, we will end up sacrificing too many lives if they attacked from this front yet again. So just because I am here and this is a test, that doesn't mean you can slack in the slightest. You may just uncover information that could save the Rural Kingdom."
Kiliffia shook her head when she heard this as she said: "No I am not sad because of this but relieved. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders knowing you will be there as well. Rural is my homeland and the place I love. It has many memories for me and I do not wish to see it fall. I will work my hardest no matter what to make sure Rural can see the light of day tomorrow, and all the days after."
"I am glad you think that way. We will order some food first then head out."