CHAPTER 481: CHAPTER 481 - DISAPPEARING ACT (PART 3)

Upon hearing the confirmation, Caius felt like he couldn’t breathe. Right now, it was already almost 7 in the evening which means that the woman have been gone for more than 8 hours.

He was thinking of all the possibilities when he suddenly remembered a certain fact that made him pause. He looked at General Delphis again and asked, "She signed up as a volunteer, correct? Do you remember how many hours she needed to complete that academe requirement?"

General Delphis stared at General Astrantia with furrowed brows for a few seconds before he stood up and started rummaging through a pile of documents in his file cabinet. It took a few minutes before he found what he needed. He then started reading absentmindedly, "She left Hoffen City a couple of months ago and went from place to place. She visited all towns, villages and even settlement areas before she got here. She had two missions on this trip, they are, to heal a certain number of patients and work a certain number of hours as a volunteer. When she got here, she only needed about 126 hours before her volunteer mission ends."

Caius nodded his head in understanding and at the same time, he started counting manually. He murmured, "I remember she only needed to work about 6 hours per day for about 3 weeks. That is if she works for all 7 days of each week."

He then looked back at the other man and asked, "Do you happen to have the information on how many hours in total has she worked for the last 2 weeks? You have it somewhere, right?"

Hugo sighed at his childhood friend and started looking through the documents again. After a minute or so, he found what he is looking for. It looked like a time sheet of sorts but with very neat handwriting.

Before he could even read through it, a quick hand snatched it from his grasp. He looked up at Caius with widened eyes, his jaws dropping a bit in disbelief. What if the official document was torn up?!

Caius started scanning through the document quickly with his eyes and made mental computations again. After a few seconds, he cursed under his breathe. He realized that the woman always worked between 7 to 8 hours every single day. This means that she can leave the camp anytime once the number of work hours have been completed and most likely it is earlier than three weeks.

He started counting and gradually, his face paled as dread started to show on his face as well. As of today, if Luna left the camp at around 10 and stayed in the forest working up to this time, she would have completed the last batch of hours she needed for the academe. He slammed the paper on Hugo’s table and ran out of his tent.

He went back to his tent where his parents are still waiting with worried faces for him. He was murmuring to himself, trying to convince his mind that she would come back. If she foraged good stuff for the camp, she has to present it to the storage and medical facilities.

Just as he finally calmed down, his aides called to him from outside his tent saying, "Young master, there was a new package that arrived at the newly built trading post. You need to check it out quickly."

Caius clicked his tongue in frustration as he had other more important things to worry about like his hope for marriage escaping his grasp. He still went out of his tent, this time, his parents followed him as they were curious as to what this "trading post" is all about.

After walking for several minutes, making sure he keeps the pace of his parents, the arrived at an inconscpicuously simple-looking building. One of the boxes by the counter was glowing. He touched the box and it opened since the box was addressed to him, Hugo and Andreas. Any of them can receive the package.

Upon opening it, he found three familiar looking rings inside. It was familiar because he got one and only now did he realize that the other mini-team leaders also got theirs. He was too happy to receive a gift from his woman that he only realized now that it maybe special for him but just any ordinary item to Luna. If it was special, she wouldn’t have this many identical looking rings in her possession that she can give away freely.

He looked into the contents of each ring by wearing it on one of his fingers. The first ring was filled with firewood and other by-products of trees. The second ring was filled with food and medicinal stuff while the third ring had fresh meat, fish and even some rare bird eggs.

He felt happy at first that the camp’s resources have increased again but then he remembered to check the sender. Inside the box, there was a note. His hand started to shake as he reached for it.

The note was short and concise, just how the woman introduced herself as he heard, when she first introduced herself to General Delphis. The note simply said, "Final delivery of items. Thank you for letting me stay during my volunteer mission. Status of mission: Completed. - Envoy Luna"

Caius’ heart seemed to have dropped as his breathe hitched. He involuntary let go of the note he was holding as he balanced himself by holding on to the counter. Before he could get his senses back, a shout from one of his aides can be heard outside the trading post area.

He saw one of his aides running towards his direction. He seemed to be saying something, maybe even shouting but Caius just stared at the man blankly. As for Caius, everything have went silent. He was staring at the man’s lips but he could not hear or understand anything.

Noticing the unusual behavior of her son, Carolina approached Caius and held him by the shoulders. She shooked him a bit and said, "Caius, can you hear me? Try to breathe. Look at me."

Caius looked at his mother which calmed him down a bit. The sound in his surroundings returned gradually. He looked at his aide again and asked the guy to repeat what he was saying. The aide then said in a much softer voice, "The wagon suddenly disappeared as if its frame was blown by the wind."

Caius smiled helplessly and thought, "She took the real one and left an illusion in its place." He looked back at his mother with sad eyes then everything went black.