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and discovering other peoples' weaknesses.
This was quite the predicament Mercury had found herself in. For once in her life she had decided to just take a personal day for herself. She had been very busy since joining Silver Wolf, actively picking up jobs and using them as excuses to research Earthland and its countries, as well as the people that lived there. Her work load had picked up more now that she had been promoted to the status of an Ace in the guild, which seemed to be some kind of privileged position that marked her as a more trusted member. She took it as a source of pride, the sign of a job well done so far. But today, she just wanted to relax and not worry about any of her duties. Lavanatir Port was as packed and bustling as she’d heard it would be. It was actually a very beautiful city. Mercury hadn’t grown up with large bodies of water around, so the sight of the endless sea was both beautiful and terrifying for her. She couldn’t help herself but to take a casual walk along its shores, the bright sun warm with the promise of coming spring, which Mercury was greatly looking forward to experiencing as seasons were also a bit of a novelty to her. Rolling her pant legs up to just below her knees, Mercury slipped out of her shoes and braved stepping into the cold waters. The waves lapped gently against her ankles, and she wiggled her toes a bit to feel the sand between them. In this manner she continued her lazy gait along the beach. While there weren’t a ton of other people using the place this time of year, she wasn’t the only one. A good handful of people were using the beach to jog or walk their pets. It was during this leisurely stroll that she first picked up on the fact that she was being followed. Her internal sensors had alerted her to a ping on her radars that seemed to be following a similar path at a similar pace as her. Not wanting to alert this potential stalker, she did not turn around or otherwise deviate from her course. Rather, she continued along the shoreline, enjoying the water, until she came to a pier that blocked her path. Finding a spicket that had been provided to the public for such uses, she used the fresh water to rinse the sand off of her feet and slipped back into her shoes before wandering into the shopping district nearby. This area was exceptionally more crowded with hundreds of citizens going about their daily tasks. It would have been easy to get lost in the crowd, but that wasn’t what Mercury wanted. Not yet, at least. Instead, she moved through the shops and stalls, stopping occasionally to browse. She even spent a few minutes at a bookstore, browsing through history and cultural sections and making a couple purchases that interested her. Each time Mercury made a stop, she monitored the position of the individual in question in relation to her own, to confirm if they stopped nearby to wait until she left. Sure enough, she was being followed. The question was: by whom? There were a few people it could be and a few theories came to mind, but why theorize when she could confirm? Continuing her walk, she kept an eye out for any place that would be ideal for her purposes. Mercury wanted a spot that would take her out of immediate line of sight to force her pursuer to come in after her, but in a place that still had enough people to discourage the person from being too aggressive. It didn’t take her long to find a building with a large tarp out front advertising the wedding services of a chocolate company that was actively accepting walk in guests to test some of their newer services. That seemed convenient enough. Mercury wandered through the front doors and found a spot inside where she could watch to see who might come in after her, curious to see if her mysterious friend would be brave enough to follow and risk showing their face... |