The walk to the church wasn't too long. It was at the center, after all.
Sneaking past the guards required some thought, but the guards were only worried about the inside of their base. No one was watching the outer walls.
The climb was the hard part. Without the second snack had had been made to eat a few hours ago, Evans might have felt tired when he got to the top.
But now he was there. All he had to do was wait for dawn to come.
...
This was not an efficient use of his time.
'This whole night has been inefficient.'
He felt like he was wasting time. He'd had the idea of calling one of his soldiers to come and do the hunt in his place on multiple occasions. He only decided not to because this was still an important investigation, and he wanted it to be done properly.
Curiously, though, he did not feel as bitter as he usually did when forced to sit around. Maybe he was too tired to feel that way. Maybe he knew this was not actually a waste, and was the only way to get to the bottom of this.
But his feelings about the situation were not important. The situation itself was.
Jeanne was right, after all. Soldiers were not meant to understand the whole picture. They were not meant to focus on trivial feelings.
Soldiers were meant to do the job. How they felt about it was not-
The sun was rising.
Evans snapped out of his thoughts and, for the first time today, heard the silence around him.
The first birds began chirping way down in the streets. The metallic sun emblem under his fingers felt cool, but was quickly warming under his heat and the sun's rays. Those rays, weakened by the atmosphere, were of a pure, vibrant orange hue, they painted the sky in large strokes, coloring the clouds and nourishing the trees.
Evans knew that he was high enough to see the sunrise early. For a few seconds, that spectacle would only be for him to witness.
....But he didn't care about that.
Waking himself up, he began to look for the final hint. This one was very time-specific, and he did not want it let the opportunity slip by.
'The sun, the sun, the sun.... There.'
It was impossible to see before, but with the whole golden emblem illuminated by the gentle red light, a rolled up paper, wedged in between two rays, was visible.
Evans quickly took and read it.
It said :
"Why are you following me, you freak ?"
'...'
He stared at it, emotionless, for a few seconds.
'Seems it really is the last one.'
He had actually expected something like this. Of course, the exact wording was a bit of a curveball, but it was never going to lead anywhere.
Not just because of the previous hint featuring the word "last", but also because this new note was the last piece of the puzzle.
Evans sat down after pulling out every single paper he had from his pockets and laid them all on a somewhat flat part of the ground, of rather, the roof.
On their backs, strange, random-looking strokes assembled together and formed a simplistic map of the city. It was complete, but did not seem to indicate any spot in particular.
However, on the left side, the were were the numbers from one to eight, increasing from top to bottom, and at the top, the eight first letters of the the alphabet, from right to left.
It did not make a lot of sense at the moment, but hopefully the last one would clear things up.
Turning the paper, Evans looked at the back. It was letters again.
" F3. E5. G4. I am where victory is."
'Oh. It's a chess puzzle.'
And a basic on at that. Whoever made it must have been afraid Evans didn't know how to play.
But this position was easily recognisable. Of course, without pieces, it was a bit harder, but still nothing two years of chess experience couldn't bypass.
This was the setup for the quickest possible checkmate. On the next move, the black queen can move to H4 and win the game.
'That means that man is on H4.'
Supposing this spot did not just hide another hint, to another treasure hunt.
He honestly doubted such a thing was even possible at this point, as there could only be so many suitable hiding spots in a single city. However, he had been surprised enough tonight to let go of his preconceived notions.
'Reagardless, I'll go now. If it ends up taking too long, I'll pass it to Dark. She could probably figure the rest out.'
No matter how much caffeine was pumped into his veins, sleep was still needed.
After that, he still needed to find a solution to the mission problem... Hopefully, his team had come up with something. This was actually quite a complicated issue, and the situation had just become more desperate with Dow's strange refusal. Depending on his motives, the strange man could report them to the church at any time, providing them ample justification to openly bar the squad's way.
'I'll have to investigate the guy further... And come up with ways to neutralise him if he can't be reasoned with. I could start with his friends at the table...'
He shook his head.
'Stop. This is not the time, getting lost in thought is inefficient. Right now, I need to be rid of this game.'
Focusing back on the map before him, the captain deciphered without too much trouble where this map was leading him. After a few heavy jumps down, he was once again on the ground, and on the move.
Not even five minutes later, he had arrived.
The last location was a bar. A regular looking bar which conveniently opened at six in the morning. A handful of customers were already drinking inside.
There were no other buildings of note in the area. The map was only depicting a small part of the city, so the square "H4" did not cover much ground either.
It was either this bar or the fountain just in front. Evans had a feeling he was not meant to be meeting ducks.
Pushing the doors, he entered and immediately recognised someone.
Sitting down at the bar, he could finally speak to him.
"So it was you. What kind of expenses do you have to need three jobs ?"
The barman turned around and smiled with amusement. "Well one of them is more of a volunteering type thing. They pay me in so called 'holy light'. Let me tell you, it's not as edible as those sandwiches."
He was the waiter at the last bar, the one who brought the bottle and the one Evans almost bumped into.
He was also the sweeping priest who had fetched them their reward yesterday.
Evans almost never forgot a face, but this guy made himself so little and forgettable it nearly happen anyway.
He had black, disheveled hair and brown skin. His dark eyes looked at the world with a distinct irony, despite being obviously tired, and he was currently mixing a cocktail so skillfully you could not tell which hand was dominant. What was glaringly obvious, however, were the calluses in both hands, and the muscles under his shirt. He also wore two intricate earrings which Evans suspected to have a mystical effect.
His finished mixing the drink and slid it over the counter to his new customer. "We haven't properly met yet. Hi. It's not my real name, but you can call me Bob. Just Bob."
Evans looked down at the drink, not even touching it. "I do wish I too had to opportunity to hide my identity, but I have a feeling you know about me already."
"Sure do ! To be fair, it's not just that I've been stalking you. You stand out quite a bit, even if you weren't killing generals left and right."
Evans looked down at his modern uniform riddled with gadgets and pockets. At his belt, his plasma gun was visible, it looked like a simple burden to the untrained eye.
"Bob" took back the drink he just made and took a sip. "Wouldn't catch me so disguise-less. I put a lot of effort into mine."
"You keep implying that you're undercover, but in my book, doing so is counterproductive. Why have you contacted me ?"
"That's a good question ! You really should've lead with that. I'll answer with an unrelated statement : you need help."
He stopped talking, apparently waiting for a response. After a few seconds, he took another sip.
Evans simply stared at him, silently demanding an explanation.
Sighing, the bartender put down his glass and sighed. "Look, I understand you haven't slept, but you should really work on your conversational skills. They're not exactly doing it right now."
This man has already accomplished several difficult feats today, but almost getting captain Evans to snap, that, was probably the most impressive one.
"Listen. I know you need something from me. Otherwise you would not have approached me. I know you need it pretty desperately, otherwise you would not blow your cover which you "put a lot of effort in" so easily. And you know I have run out of patience and want to finally go home, so I suggest you cut to the chase if you want me to stay a second longer."
The man chuckled and stepped back, raising his hands in a harmless stance. "Wow. Alright. Message received. I'll dial it down next time."
Evans' eyebrow twitched.
'Next time ?'
"Bob" suddenly dropped his grin and leaned on the counter, finally getting serious.
"I do need something. I need the general's blood."
The captain was once again surprised. This was an unexpected motivation. He kept silent to draw out a better explanation.
The man continued: "You need to complete the mission, and I need the creature's blood. Our goals coincide on a lot of points. Therefore, we can help each other. I won't ask you why you need so much money, and won't tell you why I need the blood. Here's the deal : I use my leverage at the church to get them to accept giving you the mission, and you bring about three liters of blood back. Of course, if you don't uphold your part of the bargain, you can be sure I have the power to deny you your reward. How about it ?"
Grinning once more, he added : "Can you give me one reson to refuse ?"
Completely ignoring the question, Evans thought about it, completely immobile, eyes fixed on the countertop.
This was obviously a good deal. He had no use for some creature's blood, and it didn't cost him anything to collect it.
This also provided a miraculous solution to the only problem they were facing. Once the operation done, it would be smooth sailing from there....
After a long time, enough for one of the customers to get up, pay his tab, and leave, Evans finally moved again. He looked up at "Bob" and spoke in a flat tone : "This is indeed a good deal. If you can really get the church to give us that quest, then we will be sure to bring you three liters of the beast's blood."
The bartender had finished the drink, washed the glass and was now drying it with some cloth. He turned, surprised, and answered happily : "Perfect ! Now just don't tell anyone about me and the operation will go swimmingly !"
Evans got up and quickly turned to leave. "Of course. I will contact you at church when we get our due reward."
Putting the clean glass away, the man waved goodbye with a smile. "See you then !"
The captain kept walking without turning back and immediately went in the direction of his inn.
The air was fresh, and the sun, now fully white, illuminated a waking town.
Evans' lips curled ever so slightly upwards.
'That was refreshing.'
Almost every word the man had uttered had been a lie.