As they ran around through the crowded bazaar, taking all sorts of twists and turns, Adrian knew that this guy was no amateur, he was used to running like this, but something was off.

The thief was able to run faster than a normal person should be capable of, able to outrun a hunter trained person like Adrian, that's when the thief lept up to the roof of one of the buildings in one jump, it was clear.

‘He's using mana tools’ Adrian immediately realised the fact as he had grown up amongst hunters who frequently used mana gear in battle.

‘By the movement, its wind mana boots’ Adrian analysed by observing the thief as he started running towards the building's wall.

In a single movement Adrian drew his sword from the back and thrusted it into the wall, using the momentum to jump up the roof as he dragged his sword behind him. He continued chasing the culprit as they both made their way across the rooftops, being irritated by getting chased like this, the man turned backwards in a swift instance, while pointing his fingers towards Adrian.

As Adrian continued running towards the thief, he shot an extremely fast jet of water in Adrian’s direction. Surprised by the sudden action, Adrian leaned to the right barely avoiding the water, as it grazed through his shoulder, stopping Adrain in his tracks momentarily. 

Adrian noticed his shoulder stinging, as he saw that the water jet had actually left a shallow cut on his shoulder. ‘Pressurised water huh’ he thought as he smirked, ‘guess we have a rich thief in our hands.’

Adrian looked back up to see that the man had already started running, as he immediately picked up pace to chase after him, the thief started to shoot the pressurised jets at Adrian again, who this time, immediately cut through the jets with his sword, while avoiding the ones he couldn’t. “I was shot at with arrows growing up, you really think you are gonna do anything with a little water!!!” Adrian shouted to the thief while cutting through the constant barrage of attacks, just then a jet of water hit him right in the shin causing him to trip over.

“Why you little-” Adrian groaned as he got up, “That’s it!” he screamed as he lunged towards the man at full speed, immediately catching up to the thief as he swung the blunt broad of the sword at the man’s head, causing them both to fall due to imbalance.

Panting as he got up, Adrian put his sword back in his sheath as he stood by the thief who was knocked out by the blow to the head.

After tying the man with some rope he took from a nearby shopkeeper, Adrian headed towards the town's hunter guild while carrying the man on his back.

As Adrian neared the Guild hall, he saw Aero standing at the guild’s entrance with Martin and another bulkily dressed man who was wearing dark ebony robes with golden trimmings.

“Hey kid. Took you long enough!” Aero said with his usual unnerving smile.

“Well I retrieved the package successfully. And here’s your guy.” said Adrian as he threw the unconscious theif on the ground and handed the leather bag to Martin.

“You have my thanks Adrian Ainsworth. Meet our chief, and the master of the regional guild here, Matrodonus Demarte. The package belongs to him.”, Martin said, introducing the gold-robed man and passing the leather bag to him.

“It’s great to meet you Adrian. Allow me to just check and verify the contents.”, said Matrodonus. As he opened the leather bag, he expressed a look of concern and confusion on his face. “Is this a joke? The bag is empty. Where the hell are the documents?”

Adrian looked at the leather bag in disbelief. “But it’s the same leather bag he had in his hands when I first saw him being chased by your men.”

“OH-” Aero interrupted at this point, “are you perhaps talking about this?” he said, pulling out some documents from a bag he was holding.

“Oh thank god, yes. Those are the documents indeed. Thank you so much for your service Sir Aero.”

“Oh it’s fine, you don’t really need to thank me. I just bought them off from the vendor since they looked impo-uh kid are you alright?”Aero turned to face Adrian who was now looking down with blank eyes. After forcing a smile he reached his hand to his sword as he walked towards Aero,

“So you are saying,” Adrian said with gritted teeth, “ I ran around chasing this guy, worried that I might ruin some important business deal and cause a catastrophe, and you had these documents all along but didn’t even mention them?” as he rushed towards Aero with his sword raised for a swing. “You damned paladin!!”

Aero grinned at this while pointing his fingers towards Adrian like mini pistols, “Nah you won’t kid.” With that two bursts of wind shot out of his fingers and hit Adrian, knocking him back.

“See you at the inn kid.” Aero said as he turned and left for the inn, walking away without a care. “Also you would have heard me call out to you if you didn’t rush off like a madman, so be careful next time, that’s your first lesson.”

 Matrodonus and Martin were looking at the spectacle and couldn’t help but suppress their laughter at the ordeal as Adrian got back up, dusting off his clothes. 

“Irrespective of what has happened,”Matrodonus said, “All’s well that ends well. We still have you to thank for capturing the thief who would have otherwise made off with these crucial documents. I don’t know how to thank you for I don’t think I have much to offer to an apprentice of a paladin.”

  “However it rarely happens that paladins and merchants come in contact. So I’d appreciate it if you held onto my business call card. If you have anything that you’d like help with from a merchant’s side, I’d be glad to help in any way I could.” Matrodonus continued as he sincerely handed over a small metal card, engraved with complicated runes and filled with suppressed and concentrated mana.

Adrian had seen such cards being used by people who used to visit the guild. They were communication devices powered by mana and linked to a single person. By infusing the card with mana, anyone could contact the person whose mana signature has been engraved into the card. But they were really expensive because they used rare metals and required a high level of craftsmanship so only people with power and wealth to spare issued such cards.

“Thank you once more Adrian Ainsworth. May we meet again, if our fates are entwined.” And with these final words the merchant guild master went back into the guild as Adrian watched their backs disappear into the crowd.