Enigmas - Chapter 29

Hilia and Yoan wore confused looks on their faces, and Mino glanced towards Kai, gesturing for him to explain.

“Why am I always the one doing the explaining?” Kai scoffed.

“You know my explanations tend to baffle people even more.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Kai sighed, before waving at the two of them to gain their attention. “I’ll be precise and quick, just listen.”

“The princess went missing one day, without any cause or reason. She has two personal bodyguards, who are her closest friends who are currently missing too.” Kai explained and he pointed towards Yoan, beckoning him. “And give me those.”

“What?” Yoan furrowed his eyebrows.

“The package,” Kai stated and Yoan handed it over willingly. “Along with the object that you took from the boy.”

“How did you?!”

Kai grinned at a surprised Yoan and Hilia, nudging at Mino who held a smile on his face. “Mino knew what would happen, and what he was holding. He just wanted to see what the two of you would do.”

“But why?” Hilia asked, giving them dubious glances.

“It was just a simple test.” Mino simply said and the eerie smile on his face just made Yoan and Hilia stop from asking any further questions.

“Anyway, I digress,” Kai cleared his throat, taking the objects with him and placing them on the table, where the map was at. “We knew that they would target Mino sooner or later, but we didn’t expect them to use a little boy. Inside this syringe, it’s a narcotic.”

Hilia stiffened, staring at the syringe in disbelief and Yoan furrowed his eyebrows, appearing troubled.

“Narcotics? Are you telling me the entire kingdom is being controlled by narcotics?” Hilia inquired, her voice soft yet fierce.

“Not the entire kingdom, but…the state of our kingdom is in a critical state as it is. Moreover, with the princess missing, everything is just spiralling downwards.”

“Then, what about the package?” Yoan pointed towards it.

Kai held it in his hands, opening the tiny carton box by cutting it open with a knife. He always kept a knife on him inside a knife holster, which was hanging at the right side of his hip. He cut it open swiftly, swinging the knife around expertly and placing his knife back in the holster. The contents of the tiny carton box was just empty, and it left Yoan and Hilia stupefied.

Kai noted their bewildered expressions, snickering, “it was a just a ruse. The only people who knew about this was me and Mino, so don’t blame the mayor.”

“We hoped to get another clue from this,” Mino added, his smile faltering slightly. “Sadly, it didn’t work and it only reminded us how ruthless our enemies were. To the point of using an innocent child to deceive us.”

Yoan remained silent, seemingly contemplative. Meanwhile, Hilia folded her arms across her chest, dispirited. Yoan noted her glum look, starting to feel concern.

“Hilia?”

Hilia lifted her head up, snapping out of her daze.

“Are you alright?” Yoan asked and Hilia stared at him, before moving her eyes towards Kai and Mino.

“A priestess can see the life force of a person…and that young boy, his life force was black,” Hilia began to say, her voice wavering. “It just means they are being controlled by something–or someone. If they are controlling a young boy to harm someone that he has no recollection of, how many more innocent people are being used? Just like him?”

“We know that, but we are left with no choice other than subduing them. We can’t stop them.” Kai reasoned.

“What about stopping the drug flow?” Yoan suggested.

“No,” Mino shook his head, “we don’t have the power to do that.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“The spider or the mastermind in all these narcotics business, it’s someone of high position, one of the closest to the king.”

The two of them looked towards Kai, while Mino remained silent, a grim look on his face now as he was no longer smiling. It was obvious that their words suggested that the King was probably influenced by the drugs too.

“That’s why, we need to find our princess, not because she is our princess, but she is also our only chance at saving the kingdom.”

Hilia glanced at Mino and Kai, and she turned towards Yoan, who raised his eyebrows at her, before smirking at her. He nodded his head, his smirk expanding into a grin and she smiled right back.

“Alright, fine, where do we start? And what else do we need to know?”