Find Henry IV

Soon it was 9pm, but nothing had happened. Ten minutes later, the city remained calm. Thirty minutes later, no one had approached the three bases. An hour later, the streets were quiet. It was the type of tranquillity that lulled one's sense of danger, but Carolyn remained tense and kept her focus.

At the church in the slums district, the children were sleeping on rotation so that one group could care for the drugged children while the other group rested. This was part of the instructions Benedict gave before he left the church. It wasn't odd for Benedict to suddenly leave, even at night, so the children weren't surprised, but there was one that was especially relieved.

Once an hour had passed since the Priest's departure, Mike looked at the backs of the other children and slowly shifted himself towards a boarded window. He then took out a shard of glass and used it to reflect the moonlight shining through a gap in the boards. Once he reflected the light in a specific pattern twice, Mike retrieved the shard and calmly moved away from the window. He wasn't sure what would happen as a result of sending that signal, but for him, it was too late to back down now.

He had also been approached by a strange old man, but unlike the children suffering from withdrawal symptoms, he had encountered him multiple times. The first few times they only exchanged words, but soon Mike started doing work for him. His jobs were mainly to report when Carolyn, Lavender or any other adults came to the church. As a result of her friendship with Derrick, he didn't like Carolyn, and the only adult that made him wary was the Priest so he gladly sold this information for food and coins. He had thought it was an easy way to make money, but now he understood that it had been too good to be true.

He hoped that the old man he met was different from the one that drugged the children, but just in case he tried not to eat any more of the food he got from him. However, his willpower couldn't overcome the irrational craving he felt once noon came. Even knowing that he had to stop, he told himself that it was the last time and took another bite. On the bright side, he had a limited amount of this drugged food left, but thinking of what would happen to him once it ran out was enough for Mike to feel more fear than anyone else as he watched the groaning children.

He wanted to distance himself from the old man, but he had already gone too far to expect that he would be forgiven for his transgressions if the man decided to expose him. All he could do now was hope that the Priest defeated the old man without discovering the role he played.

Elsewhere, there was a group of cloaked figures in a house in the mixed district, watching a different house from across the street. Their physiques varied, but they shared a professional silence and resolve to complete their task. Suddenly, a knock on the wall next to the window disturbed this silence, but instead of looking at the one who made the sound, they focused on checking outside the window.

Walking down the street with a limp was a grey-haired man. They couldn't see his face, but he seemed promising, so a pair of them left the room to do a further investigation. The pair discreetly tried to approach the target so that they could look at his face, but out of nowhere they were attacked by men with tired yet zealous eyes. They had the same appearance as the addicts who usually worked for Henry, so once they appeared, the pair knew that they had been caught in a trap. While escaping, one of the two used a match to light a piece of broken wood and then threw it over the man suspected to be Henry. As the burning piece of wood went over his head, a scarred face that didn't resemble Henry's was briefly revealed.

Those watching from the house across the street noticed the spark passing over the suspected target and immediately prepared to leave. They had been ordered to stay on the lookout and to retreat once they confirmed evidence of a trap. As for capturing Henry, that was never part of the plan because Benedict didn't believe Henry would show up here to begin with.

Over at the site of another of Henry's suspected bases in the mixed district, there was another decoy and trap prepared, but Lavender, who should have been keeping watch here, wasn't present. This wasn't because she had betrayed the team or was being lazy. She had planned on being here once Henry appeared, but the scenario that she feared had occurred, forcing her to stay put at Wild Boar Inn.

"That scoundrel."

She had to keep her voice low to avoid waking anybody inside the inn, but that didn't affect the speed of her knife and kicks as she fended off drug addicts charging at the inn with various metal and wooden scraps to use as weapons. After blocking a metal pipe coming for her head, she kicked the man holding it in the holy jewels and then spun around to avoid a stone being thrown at her. Her knife found its way into the side of an addict trying to grab her from behind, but the wound only stopped him for a moment. He would bleed to death without treatment, but it seemed these men had late-stage addiction, so they no longer felt pain, and death was only one or two doses away regardless.

Lavender had the same concern as Carolyn, so she stayed near the inn just in case, and it was a good thing she had decided to do so. There were less than ten addicts, and they weren't very strong, but if they focused on vandalising the inn, then they could cause serious damage. Not to mention what they might do to the family running it. Lavender's heart burnt with fury, but she had to take care of the brutes in front of her before she could search for Henry and bury him six feet under.

Finally, at Carolyn's location, the helper that Benedict sent received notes from messenger birds informing them that the other two locations had been traps. This naturally made Carolyn concerned that this location would also be a trap, but her focus rose sharply to combat that worry. If this was a trap, then increasing her focus would allow her to leave unharmed, and if it wasn't, then she could strike at Henry without giving him a moment to escape.

As even her fear of causing excessive injury disappeared, Carolyn silently watched the suspected base and its surroundings like a hawk eyeing prey.

When a figure eventually appeared on the empty path leading to the small mansion, Carolyn reached for her bow and smoothly readied an arrow at the figure. She couldn't see their face from where she stood, but their physique and walking posture told her enough. She considered letting them get closer to the mansion, but she sensed something dangerous about the idea, so she gave up on taking that risk.

Once she released the arrow, it whistled through the air and landed right in front of the figure, startling them enough to make them stumble to the ground. Before their face was revealed, Carolyn detected another presence in an alley next to the street and fired another arrow as fast as she could before climbing out the window and using her knife to slow her fall to the roof of the mansion. Carolyn left the clock tower before Benedict's helper had a chance to stop her, but instead of looking for her, he checked the figure who had been walking to Henry's suspected base. The cloak covering their head had fallen, so he could confirm that it wasn't Henry, but since Carolyn had shot her second arrow at a different location, he guessed that Henry had been watching nearby. After sending his report, his role would be done for the night, but he wished her all the best.

Back at the church inside the slums, the children were in a panic. Long after Benedict had stepped out, a group of crazed old and middle-aged men appeared and started banging on the door. They could only see a portion of the group through a gap in a boarded window, but there seemed to be more people at the door than those inside the church. The door was barred from within with a thick piece of wood, but the force of the men seemed enough to break through the door itself. With barely half of the children able to move properly and Benedict missing, panic and fear spread rapidly.

"What do we do?"

"I gotta leave!"

"Leave where?! They blocked the only exit!"

"What about Bryan and the others?"

"Screw them! I only helped out because the Priest asked. I'm not risking my life because they were dumb enough to eat from strangers."

"Stop yapping and think of a way to escape!"

There was little order among them, but the conversation seemed to converge towards planning their escape. Derrick shared this sentiment, as his first priority was getting Lety to safety, but she shook her head.

"We can't survive like this."