AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

“It’s not so hot…”

Shadow one was prepared to face extreme heat in his first escorting mission to a city of the fire region. However, he felt disappointed after they crossed the border between the regions and the temperature only rose slightly. Instead of correcting him, Samia chose to let him realize the mistake by himself. They just entered the region in the location where the fire domain was the weakest, so how could it be too hot?

Actually, the plants and the soil already started to change, which meant they weren’t far from Twin Suns. According to the Ministry of Defense’s development plan, the entire first shadow unit would be trained in missions in the Kingdom’s cities by the end of the year. While the second and third units would train approach and spy inside the forest. Their goal was to establish a powerful intelligence department, which would operate both inside and outside of AK.

So, Samia would alternate to bring shadow one and two to her missions outside until they could do it on their own, while the remaining shadow would be responsible for training the other units in the forest. Although Keller still had some deals in Hurricane City, he avoided the wind region as much as possible, so they were going to the closest fire region’s city, Twin Suns.

Once they got close enough to see the city walls, the reason for its name became obvious. There was a red flaming circle above the city, which looked like another sun in the sky. In fact, the agent only escaped from mistaking it for the sun because, at this time, the two circles were both visible in the sky, like twins. The amusement and shock of the fantastic view were drastically reduced when they got close to the city. The second sun was actually built on top of a castle, probably some kind of fire spell.

Noticing the boy’s curiosity, the shadow decided to tell him everything she learned about the twin sun and the city.

“It’s a collective spell that keeps the fire ring burning at all times. That’s why Twin Suns is also known as the city of the nevernight. After sunset, the twin sun keeps the city illuminated. They say the City Lord can use the twin sun to shoot massive fireballs against enemies… The fire region is much more dangerous than the wind region. The frontier of the war against the Sandines is only three hundred kilometers south, and the fire Lords are known to fight amongst themselves, so it’s not strange to have strong defenses.”

Although he would have to learn how to get information on his own, Samia decided to share what she knew.

“As I said before, the fire Houses are used to being hostile to each other. That’s how they chose their Warden, through battles to decide who’s stronger. You need to be more careful here than in any of the wind region’s cities, the Mages and city Guards are more brutal and wouldn’t mind killing someone over a disagreement. But you don’t need to get nervous, just stay out of their way and everything is gonna be fine.”

Shadow one carefully considered her words as he realized the mission wouldn’t be as simple and exciting as he initially thought. With the city fully coming into their view, the heat was now much more noticeable.

Keller’s caravan had already moved to the Path to avoid raising suspicion with the gate’s Guards. The shadows continued to move through the bushes and trees until they didn’t have any cover. Samia took out some commoner’s garments and ask her subordinate to put them too while they waited for the caravan to pass.

They could have jumped over the wall, but Samia learned that staying concealed in a crowded environment was easier when blending into the scene. So, they choose to pass through the gate, like everyone else. Although she had used this tactic every time, not even Keller realized she was slipping in amongst them.

Samia nodded to the other shadow before smoothly moving to the back of a cart. The boy was a little nervous but he trusted her enough to keep them safe. The Guards got some incentive from Keller and started to check the carts for any illegal goods. When a Guard was nearing them, Samia just calmly pulled the other shadow to the opposite side of the cart. As expected, the carts started to move and they passed through the gate without problems.

Once they entered the city, the shadows left sideways behaving like normal commoners. They would have to check on Keller later, because for now, they had their own mission to complete. The Merchant would usually stay for a few days or at most a week, so their time was limited. For this kind of mission, the shadows wouldn’t use their concealment actively, but the passive effects would still influence others’ perceptions of them.

If this was Samia's first time in the city, they would surely keep the Arrays powered, but she was already used to walking through the city. Additionally, it was good training for their blending skills. Either way, the Arrays would passively work due to the environmental energy, which was very low, and give them some extra help.

Samia kept her voice low and tried to speak only when nobody was close enough to hear. She was giving the other shadow an overview of the city’s layout, the districts, the stores, places he should avoid and whatnot. Overall, the city was very similar to Wind Castle, the slums at the outer districts, stores here and there to serve different classes, and a lot of taverns.

However, there was a very distinct difference between the cities, the houses and stores were all built with stones. Probably to resist the fire spells often cast by fire Mages, either because of a fight or because they felt like it. Aside from the stony architecture and the twin sun flaming all day long above their heads, the city didn’t have any other landmarks. The fire Mages were usually more straightforward and prefer simpler designs.

They passed through some alleys until they finally got to an ordinary and poor-looking hut. Shadow one hesitated but could only follow his boss inside. The hut looked dirtier than anything he had seen, but he tried to copy her and ignore it. The shadow walked to a big stone and pressed her hand against it. The stone shined before visibly loosening up.

She carefully pulled the stone to the side, revealing a dark passage behind it. Samia didn’t hesitate to dive in, but fortunately, the passage was illuminated before shadow one had to follow. After the boy hesitantly moved inside, she closed the path and sealed the door again. They ended up having to spend a LQ earth crystal and a MQ energy crystal to keep the door sealed, but it was worth it.

Samia explained their purpose of having such a place and how difficult it was for her to build it alone while she scanned their surroundings and sent a message to AP. It took her three trips here to finish the hideout, but now they had a base inside the Kingdom, though it was still not very useful or big.

Later, they left the hideout after picking a pouch and a bag she brought from AP. They walked back to the slums and quietly entered a battered medium-sized hut. Inside, children from all ages laid around, some looked sick while others visibly starved. For the first on their mission, shadow one saw Samia hesitating. She pasted the entrance and walked straight into one of the rooms, where a handful of more healthy-looking children were.

When she walked in, the children’s eyes started to glow, but they didn’t cause a commotion, only one of them moved forward to greet her.

“Miss, you’re finally back… Eh… Sorry, I have some things to report to miss…”

Noticing the girl’s eyes staring at her bag, Samia passed her the bread loaves and waited her distribute them and eat one before requesting the report. The idea of using the children to gather information actually occurred to her in one of her first trips to the city. She was moving through the streets unnoticed when the orphan girl stopped her to beg for food.

Initially, Samia only pitied the girl and decided to buy her some bread. However, when the girl insisted on repaying the shadow by showing the city around, the special agent saw an opportunity. If they could use the homeless children to gather information, they would expand their intelligence while also helping them get out of this situation. Unfortunately, Lew didn’t allow her to implement this arrangement on a large scale because they could risk drawing attention.

So, Samia could only cooperate with the children slowly, asking them to add one child at a time and keep the utmost secrecy about it, not that anyone was listening to them. Accidently, she had discovered how to infiltrate the Kingdom without risking their forces. For the children, this was also an excellent deal. They could get food and some coppers in exchange for listening around and reporting to her.