CHAPTER 429: Theories and a Plan

A bit later I met my friends in my room, where they waited for my report. While third-years had a slightly bigger room it was cramped with all of my undead joining us. I sat next to Helena on one bed while Skadi and Cassie took the other one.

"Did you learn anything?" Helena asked.

"Do we need to poison anyone?" Cassie asked.

"Why would we want to poison anyone?" I wondered.

"It comes with a family. Well, a noble family..." Cassie replied.

"I haven't found out who my parents are." I said and felt Helena's hand on my shoulder.

"We are going to find out." She said.

"Thanks." I replied and put my hand on top of hers.

"But you learned something, right?" Skadi asked.

I nodded and told them everything I had learned.

"Nanami seems oddly evasive." Helena noted.

"Maybe she is hiding something!" Cassie suggested.

"Maybe." I said. "But why? Do you think she is involved in my parents disappearance? Or related to me?"

"Not necessarily." Cassie said. "Maybe she has secret orders to abduct you!"

"I doubt that…" I replied.

"That would trigger a diplomatic incident." Helena pointed out.

"Maybe she suspects something? Or maybe she has been ordered not to tell you certain things?" Skadi suggested.

"Koyuki's existence will have political consequences in Kitara." Kaito said. "Perhaps Lady Nanami is simply being cautious to avoid getting dragged into this herself?"

"Maybe she is waiting for more orders on how to handle the situation? It's possible that she isn't allowed to make many decisions herself." Hatsumi said.

"Or she doesn't want to get Koyuki's hopes up? What if they don't figure out who her parents are? Even if she has some suspicion, wouldn't it be better to be vague until she knows more?" Rose said, then she looked at me. "Koyuki, would you rather have her take a guess at who your parents are, and risk getting disappointed, or wait until she knows something?"

A factual note: this copy came from www. without permission, and the author's chapter there supports their work.

I blinked, since I hadn't considered that. "I am not sure. Maybe waiting is better…"

"Ilestria!" Helena said.

"Ilestria?" I asked, while frowning. "I don't think they have any dark foxkin."

"No, I mean Ilestria might know something. Think about it, they have hunted you from the first moment you showed up. You were ambushed on your way to the academy after being spotted at that auction." Helena said.

"You think they were tracking Koyuki?" Skadi asked.

Helena shook her head. "It would make more sense if they were after the necromancy artefact. Or they tracked the person who attacked the auction. But they would have seen Koyuki and reported it. And somehow they managed to get a signal off and prepare an ambush rather quickly, which suggests they were worried before they knew about her potential. So the simple fact that she was a dark foxkin of a certain age might have been enough."

"They also knew her name and how she looked from the auction." Cassie added.

I scratched my head. "I just thought they hated necromancers and my late awakening, combined with me surviving the death cloud, made them nervous…"

"But what if they knew you existed? Maybe they attacked your parents and you escaped, or were rescued, somehow?" Skadi suggested.

"But why would my parents have been here in Nethena in the first place? And how would Ilestria have known about them?" I wondered.

"And who sealed your magic and erased your memories?" Hatsumi asked.

"Maybe a spy from Kitara was keeping an eye on Ilestria. Or two spies, who fell in love and had a child! They were tragically discovered and had to flee…" Skadi mused.

"Oh, maybe a spy from Kitara fell for a priestess from Ilestria! Forbidden love…" Cassie said.

I looked at Helena. "We need to confiscate their romance books."

"You can just borrow them, if you want to." Skadi offered.

I sighed.

"If it were a spy who had gone missing, Kitara would be more certain about Koyuki's origins." Kaito said. "It is doubtful that they lose a great number of spies, or even employ that many. They have to cross a treacherous sea to get here and a dark foxkin would have a hard time blending in."

"They could use a light foxkin as a spy, they have some." Hatsumi pointed out.

Kaito nodded. "You make an excellent point, they would employ light foxkin as spies."

"Dark foxkin stand out, even in Nethena. That's not great for a spy. And light foxkin are the illusionists." Helena added.

"I like the spy idea…" Cassie mumbled.

"Nevertheless, it is plausible that Ilestria knows something." Kaito stated.

"They have been hunting Koyuki from the beginning, true." Skadi said. "And they seem to throw a lot of resources at her. They sent a grand mage after her in her first year."

"Maybe the fake Eva was a bit much to send her after a student, when you think about it…" I mused.

"Yet she failed and provided a wonderful body for me." Hatsumi said, with a warm smile.

"So we go and grab an Ilestrian spy?" Garm's right head asked. "Where do we find one?" The left head wondered.

"What about this Renata, who has disappeared? Maybe we can search for her ourselves?" Skadi wondered.

"Well, we do have classes and we aren't sure about her allegiance. She could have worked for the thieves guild, the Brotherhood..." I said.

"We should dress Hatsumi as Koyuki again and try to provoke an ambush!" Cassie suggested.

"I think we would need more than that. Maybe we can have some public event?" Skadi asked.

"What about the beer garden? We could hold an event when Cassie's beer is being added to their menu." Rose suggested.

I frowned. "I don't want any damage to the beer garden…"

"It's a high risk event in any case but perhaps we shouldn't specifically try to draw them there." Hatsumi said.

"What if we had a school event outside the walls?" Kaito asked. "Something with no teacher, or a teacher who has to excuse herself rather openly…"

"Do you think the headmaster would help us with that?" I asked.

"If not him, then what about Nanami? Maybe we can talk her into helping. What if she announced she was giving you private lessons in the woods nearby…" Helena suggested.

"Can we trust her that much?" Cassie asked.

"I believe we can trust her dislike for Ilestria." Kaito stated.

"There is no guarantee that we are getting ambushed…" I stared at my friends. "Ok, so when we are getting ambushed there is no guarantee that they know anything. They might just follow orders."

"That is why we need a setting where they want to send a skilled operative. Perhaps someone powerful who also might know more." Katio said.

I pondered the idea. "It might be worth a try."

"Hey, if they don't know anything you still get a corpse!" Rose said.

I smiled.