The Albatross Notes

Seated around the old tea table in the living room, there were Theodore and Kalman. For the living room to be so lively, it was a sight that Fiana had not yet gotten used to. Though usually, breakfast would take place at the kitchen table, on this day, it was moved to the living room instead.

The location change was due to Theodore and Kalman, their eyes not leaving the piles of notes that they were in the process of documenting. Even while eating, they remotely took their eyes off the notes.

Their behavior was not without reason, however, as the notes were a compilation of intel that Albatross had given them after being freed from the curse. Within the notes, information in regards to the many mages that Albatross had worked for and came in contact with was written.

The notes went on seemingly endlessly. Who had a grudge against who, who was having a feud against who, who was in favor of who, who wanted favor from who, which mage used what kind of magic, which mage was performing what kind of experiments or research, how many skeletons were in each mage's closets, and many, many more were written down. It was a compilation of what Albatross had known and heard about over the nine years she had been living in this city. Though technically, it was six years' worth of intel as she could hardly remember her first three years in this place.

And to prove that the information was given by Albatross, so as to incriminate her as a fellow conspirator from this point forward, it was all written in her own handwriting. Should she decide to ever turn them in, it would be made known that she was one of them. As mages have barely any trust in one another already, no one in this city would trust someone who was caught betraying their own.

Still, it was hardly simple for her to write all of this. Due to her mental conditioning, Albatross had a hard time unraveling the secrets that she was restricted from revealing, with each word written causing her a great deal of stress. It was not enough to kill her, fortunately, but she still needed medicinal aid to make it through the session. Not to mention that she had just gotten out of surgery and wasn't exactly at her peak.

"Kalman, look at this," Theodore suddenly spoke up as he handed Kalman a page of the notes he had in hand.

"Hmm... What's this?"

Receiving the page, Kalman began to read the intel written. According to the date written on the top of the page, this was rather recent information. Reading it, Kalman's eyes suddenly widen.

"Did you not know about this?" Theodore asked upon seeing the elder's reaction.

"No. No, I did not. For better or for worse, I've left the factories entirely under the supervision of the masters."

"This is a large amount of potions and medicines this mage was ordering... This doesn't seem normal."

Rubbing his chin, Kalman began to consider something.

"Fiana, I need you to go check on the factories. If they've received this order, then it should be recorded somewhere. But be discreet, you hear me, don't let them discover what you're looking into. Tell them that I just wanted a quick inspection to check on how things are going."

"Y-yes! Of course, I'll go right away!"

With that, Fiana quickly left the workshop grounds and headed in the direction of the factories. Seeing that she hardly had much to eat before leaving, Theodore couldn't help but worry about her, which was more concern than Kalman showed.

"What do you think is happening?" Theodore asked Kalman while he was still staring at the notes.

"These potions and medicines are for healing and strengthening. The battlemages would usually order them for their training, but this amount is too much. It's as if they're preparing for battle."

"It looks like Albatross was tasked with delivering quite a few of these and not all of them went to the battlemages. Looking at the names of the recipients, it seems like they're members of mage clans that are closely related to one another. I can't be certain, but this looks like someone is trying to stir some trouble. Big trouble."

"That sounds about right. We'll have to ask Albatross more about it once she gets here later."

Hearing Kalman referring to Albatross by her name despite calling her the 'courier girl' this whole time made Theodore raise an eyebrow. Perhaps this was because Albatross had shown her use, or maybe this was due to her having her curse removed and becoming a mage rather than a servant in Kalman's eyes.

Leaving the alarming discovery aside after a short discussion, the two went back to sorting through the notes.

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End of Chapter 84

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