“Anyway, point is, right now they’re recruiting for the hunting party, so I figure that monkey-faced demon what you been looking for might be hiding in their ranks.” “I see,” Sandor said. “You’ve given me a lot to go on. Cheers.” He paid the informant another copper coin, then exited the tavern. Outside, night had fallen completely. It was mostly quiet around the backstreet tavern, but he could hear a commotion. “I want to get this information to Rudeus as fast as possible,” Sandor murmured, “but it’s late.” His words melted into the empty night. According to the plan, Rudeus was supposed to have come back to town that day with the two soldiers. He’d rendezvous with Sandor in the Second City of Irelil, then they’d go on together to the capital of Biheiril to conduct negotiations. The sun had long set, and Rudeus had not returned. If that were all, Sandor wouldn’t have worried. He’d have assumed that, Rudeus being who he was, he’d simply gotten carried away talking up the Superd Village to the soldiers. “First things first, let’s let the Dragon God know.” Sandor went back to his room to share his information. He had a contact tablet in his room. If he used it to get in touch with the others, they might know the source of the rumors and what was delaying Rudeus. Dear me. What modern conveniences. Or rather, I suppose that’s the power of the Dragon God. He turned his gaze to the contact tablet. “Eh?” The other day, when Rudeus had used it, the tablet had emitted a constant blue glow. Now it looked like an ordinary lump of rock and nothing more. “…Are you broken?” Sandor gave the tablet a casual rap with his fist, and the part he’d touched just crumbled away. “Whoa, now…” he said, as his inner voice immediately cried, I broke it! It had gone dim at some point before he got back, so he chose to believe that it had already been fragile. “This is a pickle, though…” he muttered. Sandor was confident in handling magical implements. In his life thus far, he was proud to say he’d handled more than your average number of them. He’d also broken more than your average number, and he was not confident in his ability to fix them. “Hmm.” If he couldn’t fix it, he couldn’t confirm his information. He Page 2 Goldenagato | mp4directs.com