Amelia blinked, the last thing she expected after coming across Hal’s injured form was to be asked to treat him to a meal. When she left home for ‘sightseeing’, she had long decided to visit Hal but did not expect such a scene. When she noticed Rad Payne running from the store after what was clearly an altercation, she expected to see the victor in the store but this made no sense. However mulling secret was one thing, Hal looked like he was in need of treatment so she reached into her spatial pouch and pulled out a bright green pill which she put in his mouth and he swallowed instantly

“Are you not worried I will poison you?” Amelia was surprised by his seemingly trusting behavior.

“You won’t poison me, you are too taken by me. Besides I might only have met you yesterday but I feel like I can trust” grimiore wondered how hal could spout so much bullshit with a smile, the instant the pill was out of the pouch. Hal had checked it with astral sense, and then asked it to double and triple check. But Of course Amelia did not fall for his obvious flattery.

Hal felt the pill energy spreading throughout his body and began to mend his broken ribs

‘This is good stuff’ Hal thought marveling at the effectiveness of the pill.

“I am guessing if I ask you what happened. you will not tell me” Amelia said helping Hal to his feet

“Of course I will tell you, you just need to treat me to a meal first, I have a few questions for you too”

…

Sterlite Restaurant. A place for the high end customers of salmon city. One of the many enterprises Owned by the Horst family. It was to this restaurant that Amelia took Hal.

While they took their seat in a private section, hal could not miss how respectful the staff acted towards Amelia. Hal knew next to nothing of the Horst family or any of the other Great families for that matter. He was however beginning to suspect that sterlite had something to do with the Horst family.

“So, can you tell me what happened now or will it possibly be too much to ask”

“No it’s fine…” And so hal told her everything that transpired at the store ( and a summary of his experiences with his family) except about his bloodline, blaming Rad’s flight on the presence of Master Swanson and the fear that he had taken things too far

“I never knew Rad Payne had a brother. I always believed him to be an only child. You must hate them”

‘Well, this is promising. Not only isn’t she disgusted by the fact that I am practically disowned, she actually pities me, I need allies. She’ll be perfect if I play my cards right’ Hal thought

“What did you want to ask me?” Amelia asked

“Rad mentioned something he needed a rune-apprentice for, the ‘Salmon hunt’, he called it” Hal tried to sound casual but he was actually very curious

Amelia smiled “Do you want to join the hunt?”

“I don’t even know what the hunt is”

“Oh. I thought you were only asking for my opinion. Don’t you know the ‘salmon legend’

Hal shook his head

“Okay. The legend goes back the founding of this city. When this city was first founded it’s citizens began to dispute on an appropriate name. The dispute evolved into conflict and the conflict into war, so basically, They were a bunch of idiots. At the time they were mostly mortals, the few who could reach the energy sensing realm were branded as elites. It took a while for them to notice that another party was involved in their dispute, This party eventually revealed themselves capable of overpowering all the other parties, they were all ready to lay down their weapons and respect the party’s wishes, at least until it was revealed that their opponent was a fish”

“A fish?”

“Yes a fish. A ghostly Salmon which was unaffected by their weapons or by the elites strength and abysmal cosmic energy harnessing. By being domineering, the Salmon got the city named after it, it also asked to be paid tributes for 50 years.

“Till today, no one has given up on defeating the Salmon and still organize hunts, but as it had proved to be both illusive and impossible to defeat, they settle for snatching a part of it’s wealth. It has become a sport and a test of bravery for the men in Salmon city.”

‘What do you think. is this salmon real?” Hal asked grimiore

Grimiore was silent for a while before it said ‘This salmon sounds like an astral beast to me’