Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent! - Chapter 401

Chapter 401: Young girl
Alex and Mira exchanged a tense glance before Alex turned back to the girl, narrowing his eyes slightly.

“Yes, we’re looking for him. What do you know?” he asked.

His voice was calm, to not scare the young girl, but there was still an urgency in it.

The girl bit her lip nervously, as if she could see the numerous invisible eyes all around her glaring holes into her at this very moment.

She glanced up and down the alley once more, as if expecting to see someone jump out at any moment.

She shifted her weight from one foot to another, clearly hesitant to say anything, but then took a deep breath and began to speak in a low voice.

“I saw him being taken away… just a few nights ago. It was late, and I couldn’t sleep, so I snuck out to see if there was any food left out the back of the bakery down the street. That’s when I saw them…”

Her voice quivered slightly, and she glanced over her shoulder again.

‘This poor girl’s terrified…’

Mira couldn’t help but feel her emotions loosen up a little when looking at this girl, barely 4 or 5 years younger than herself.

She reminded her so much of herself before she had been called by the Primordial Expanse unexpectedly and became an awakened.

It was hard for her to not sympathise with her.

“They were city guards, maybe…? Or people pretending to be guards. They had the same uniforms, but there was something… off about them. They marched straight up to Rothwind’s forge and started banging on the door.”

Alex’s frown deepened after hearing this.

There were multiple things in the statement the girl just said that didn’t add up to him, such as why the city guards would be marching up to Rothwind’s door so brazenly? Or why would they even bang on his door so violently if Rothwind always left it open anyway?

Mira urged the young girl on as Alex was deep in thought.

“And he opened it?”

The girl nodded quickly.

“Yes, he opened it after a few moments. But when he did… I could her him shouting, which was normal considering its Rothwind, but this time he sounded really angry. He kept saying things like ‘I told you I’m not interested!’ and ‘I won’t get involved!’ I thought he was going to attack them — his voice was so loud that it echoed all the way down the street. But he didn’t do anything.”

She hesitated, then looked up at Alex with wide, pleading eyes.

“I don’t know why he didn’t fight back. He could have thrown them out with one hand tied behind his back, right? I’ve heard stories about him dealing with unruly customers, but he just stood there. Like he was scared… of hurting them…”

Mira and Alex exchanged another glance.

Alex furrowed his brows in confusion.

“He didn’t want to fight?” Mira asked, a doubtful tinge to her tone.

She could tell this girl was an unawakened, so perhaps she misunderstood.

“That just doesn’t sound like Rothwind at all. He’s got a temper. Why would he let them just take him in?”

The girl shook her head, frustrated and concerned.

“I don’t know! I only saw what happened from where I was hiding. But they kept talking to him… like they were trying to convince him of something. And then, he just stopped shouting. He just… went quiet.”

Alex’s gaze sharpened.

“And then?”

“They took him away.”

The girl looked down at her hands as if she was ashamed.

“They put these strange cuffs on his wrists — they glowed blue, like they were made from some sort of magic. He looked back at the forge, but… he didn’t fight them even as they ransacked the place. He walked away quietly, his head held high. They led him down the main street under the cover of darkness, and… that’s it. I didn’t follow. I was too scared and it was none of my business!”

Mira and Alex looked at the young girl for a bit longer, waiting to see if she would cough up some more information she may have ‘accidentally’ left out in nervousness, but she remained silent.

She just stood there, her nerves tightening and her legs gradually starting to shake more and more the longer she waited for a response from the pair.

Seeing this, Mira was the first to speak up.

“And after they left, did anyone else come? Someone who cleaned up the area?”

‘Finally, she spoke!’

The girl probably thought.

“Yes!” She exclaimed, as if grateful that that god awful silence was now over.

“Right after they took him, this group of people in weird outfits showed up. They were wearing uniforms made from a material I’d never seen before, and these weird, black masks… They had to be part of some elite cleaning crew or something. Anyway, they scrubbed everything — the streets, the walls, I even watched them go inside his forge and start taking everything out!”

The girl took a deep breath to calm herself down, then continued.

“They worked all night, and by morning, everything looked like one of those fancy parts of town! If you ignore all the tiny shacks…”

Alex and Mira exchanged a look of dawning understanding as the girl’s words sunk in.

They could almost picture it in their minds — the quiet, sinister efficiency of it all, the way the place had been swept clean like an unwanted memory erased from the streets.

“Thank you.”

Mira said softly, genuinely sincere.

“You’ve done more than enough by telling us this much. We’ll take it from here.”

She reached into her pocket, pulling out a few gold coins from her spatial storage and flicked them towards the young girl for her willingness to cooperate with them, considering everyone else avoided them like the plague…

The girl’s eyes widened, staring at the coins then back up at Mira and Alex, her lips parting as if to say something, but no words came out.

The girl looked down at the coins again, then clenched them tightly in her hand, trembling slightly.

Mira offered her a small, reassuring smile, then turned on her heel, Alex following close behind.

But before they could leave the alley, the girl’s voice rang out, high pitched and desperate this time.

“W-wait!”