It had been one entire day outside and Shyam did nothing but take a good sleep in the corner of the cell. The carriage driver cried, screamed, but seeing no rescue, he too slept beside Shyam — tears still falling but no sound came from his mouth.
Suddenly, a person walked down the jail cells, slow steps as of a woman. Her face couldn't be seen in that dark room. But her white dress glowed even with no lights, as if even nature respected her presence.
"Hey," she whispered. Her voice echoed in that sealed room, lingering through the entire space until it escaped from the open door the woman had unlocked.
Shyam opened his eyes slowly as he stared towards the woman who had just stepped into the cell.
"What do you want?" he said.
"Do you have any idea of how the stealing was done?" she asked, her voice low even still.
"I have no clue," said Shyam as he closed his eyes yet again.
Ever since he came here in Taralaya, only bad had happened to him — from the bandits' attack to him getting arrested for something he hadn't even done. For that, he didn't want to speak to anyone right now. But that woman did not give up. She insisted Shyam spit the truth, to say whatever he knew about.
"Please, I need the information to know who is behind this all!" Her voice a little louder now.
The carriage driver was just too sad to notice all the chaos happening while he cried in the corner.
"Are you with the police force?" he murmured, almost half asleep.
"No, but I will find out who is behind this all so that Taralaya's resources don't get stolen ever again!"
Seeing her so stubborn, Shyam gave up his intentions of breaking out of the jail and decided to help this woman. Why was it that women were so stubborn? He thought exactly that when she didn't give up even after Shyam told her nothing.
"Alright, I will tell you, but what I had said was the complete truth. I don't know anyone in this city, so I have no clue who could have done this," he said as he sat on the unaligned stone in the same corner.
After that, he told her everything that had happened during their journey to Taralaya. Nothing suspicious. The lotus fruits had gone missing after they had left it in the hands of the Mayor. That gave Shyam the conclusion that maybe T. Chandrapal might have done this. But Amisha — the woman — refused to believe so, as the Mayor could buy the same amount with only three months of salary.
After that, Amisha left the jail cells and went straight to the Mayor's office where the same old man sat while reading the reports — from what was going on to what had happened and the impacts of the actions. As a Mayor, his work revolved around documents and papers.
"Amisha, dear?" said Chandrapal, the Mayor, as he looked up — his eyes softer than they were with Shyam and the carriage driver. Even his voice wasn't so cold. His face had already explained that the woman was someone who mattered everything to him.
"Father, we need to discuss something, right now!" said Amisha as she slammed her hands on the table, her eyes sharp and only focused on the man who sat on the chair.
"Well, you seem awfully aggressive today. What's the matter, Amisha?" Chandrapal said, as Amisha rarely acted this way. Normally she wouldn't even be seen in her own house, let alone talk to him.
"You know what happened! All I ask is what happened to the lotus fruits?" she said, her gaze fixed at her father, Chandrapal.
"I too am wondering the same, here," said Chandrapal as he looked out the window.
"Do you have any suspects, Father?" asked Amisha as she finally calmed down a bit. At first, she had suspected her father Chandrapal could be the one doing it, given the information thus far.
But she knew her father would never lie to her. If anything, he would tell her everything if she asked for reasons. When Amisha's mother had died, Chandrapal had promised her that he would never do such things which could put both him and his daughter in danger. And stealing such a heavy amount of needed supply could land them in jail for years, if not months.
Amisha trusted her father would never break a promise made to his first most loved person.
"For now I don't, but I will do all I can in my power to find the culprit," he said.
As the Mayor, he had to do his absolute best to stay in good reputation with the citizens because one mistake — and if it's this big — could destroy his career. He didn't care about it much, but he did care about his daughter Amisha.
"But why are you interested to know who is behind it all? Shouldn't you be in the wild, finding monsters to kill?"
Chandrapal said, as he was just surprised to see his daughter take interest in politics, which she rarely did.
"I have my reasons," said Amisha as she blushed and looked away as if she was embarrassed to reveal her reason to investigate this matter.
"Whatever, just don't put yourself in danger, alright?" said Chandrapal, looking genuinely worried about Amisha.
"I'll be fine, Dad, believe me. Anyway, I'll be gone now, bye," she said and left the room.
"Bye," Chandrapal whispered and stood still in the same position for moments before continuing his work.
After leaving the Mayor's office, Amisha went to a strange-looking building. It had a witch hat-type structure on top of it, as if it was a witch's hut.
"Hello Mihika!" Amisha yelled as she stepped inside the witch hut type thing.
"Don't shout!" said a girl aged around 25–26 years, white short hair, silver eyes, and beautiful skin — though not more than Amisha. Her aqua hair and aqua eyes glowed under the sunlight that escaped through the window, but her casual clothing made her look normal.
"So, what's the princess here today for?" said Mihika; the woman.
"Can you peek into the record crystals of the delivery storage room?" Amisha asked as she picked up one of the apples laid in a basket.
"I can, but wouldn't it put me on the suspect list for the lotus stealing as well?" she said as she sat down on her fancy-looking chair — also white! She was a mage specialized in spying, funded by the Mayor himself. That's why Amisha came for help from her.
But the problem was that if she tried to look into the record crystals of the place where the deliveries unload, then there's a chance the police would suspect her as the culprit who tried to get into the recordings to delete the record — which she of course didn't want.
But what surprised Amisha was that Mihika knew why Amisha wanted those footages. Even though the villagers or even most of the officials except the police didn't know about the incident — then how did she know? That only means she was keeping an eye on the Mayor's family all along! But Amisha was on a bigger, more important mission right now: to find the culprit behind this act.
"You have my permission and that should be enough! Now do as I say!" she said, her tone serious and bold — as if she would punch someone without a reason and wouldn't even apologize for doing so. That's called extreme anger towards a person you can do absolutely nothing to!
Mihika understood her... but not her stupidity. She was the daughter of the Mayor. If Mihika could get away with her permission, that meant she could just directly check the crystals herself. Why come to her? Had she gotten too mad or something? She couldn't hold that question any longer and asked it without hesitation.
"Can't you just check the crystals yourself? With your authority I doubt anyone would stop you," Mihika said, looking directly at Amisha as if she was looking at a stupid idiot — and what else person.
Amisha felt it in her chest. The intense stare of sympathy. Trying her hardest to bear it, she made a small excuse saying,
"I was only seeing what if you have forgotten your skills. Well, if you so mind me caring for you, I'll be going now. Thank you." She said as she left.
Mihika did nothing but stare at her as she left the witch's hut — yeah, that's what we the author decided to call it at last, so just accept it readers!
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What's a Record Crystal? Good question! The Record Crystal is a kind of crystal used for recording anything — just like a camera in our world!
Though it does not offer much storage, one of these is equivalent to a 256GB storage card in our world!
(Though later in the story these would be upgraded... but for now, we will stick to the low-power ones.)
— a small secret Nooobie didn't tell you! It records in 32K resolution and 144FPS counted with our modern devices!
Who am I? Don't ask!
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Ch-18