Meanwhile, inside the backroom of the Mercenary Guild.
“Please, you must accept this commission!” a man clad in light armor, with a small mustache on his face, bowed deeply to the tall, burly man before him.
“No matter if there’s any progress or not, we will pay accordingly. Please consider this seriously… it’s also for the safety of the common people.”
“Hm… understood. We will accept the commission, but we might not be able to uncover anything.”
Faced with the mustached man’s desperate plea, the tall man nodded slowly with some helplessness.
“Of course, this matter is quite tricky… it’s understandable if you can’t find anything, but if there are any leads, notify us or the City Guard immediately!”
Seeing the other party agree to take on the commission, the mustached man finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He was, in fact, the investigator assigned by the Crystal Capital for the current investigation into the Serial Disappearance Case.
At first, he thought it was just a simple illegal human trafficking issue, so he was somewhat lax…
But the reality was completely different.
People walking at night were disappearing without a trace, so silently that no one noticed. And the incidents kept increasing.
Gradually, everyone realized it was either supernatural beings or tribes causing trouble.
Unfortunately… although the general direction was confirmed, there was still no concrete clue.
This kind of thing had even spread into the Crystal Capital itself.
To prevent the situation from worsening, he had no choice but to send out the City Guard and his men at night to patrol, ensuring the safety of the largest city in Eastern County as much as possible.
It also ensured the basic safety of the nobles here.
But… he had no time to deal with the surrounding villages and towns.
If he dug deeper into these incidents, he might not be able to handle the consequences, and requesting more manpower would expose his incompetence…
But the harsh reality was… he couldn’t leave the Crystal Capital, and manpower was severely lacking.
There was no choice but to “outsource” this incident, which should have been handled by official forces, to the mercenaries.
Having them keep an eye on other areas.
At this moment, the Mercenary Guild happened to be housing a large, idle mercenary company.
The Hunter Blade Mercenary Group.
With over a hundred members, only a few people per squad were needed to spread out into the surrounding villages, ready to relay messages at any time… it gave him a great deal of peace of mind.
Stepping out of the Mercenary Guild, the mustached man instantly felt much lighter.
But unfortunately… the fundamental problem remained unsolved~
…
At a table in the hall, Ileya rested her face on one hand, legs crossed, her feet clad in dark red leather shoes swinging lazily in the air.
At this moment, she wasn’t thinking about the ruins map Professor Fuer had described, which left no room for speculation.
Her crimson eyes were instead fixed on the inside of her wrist.
There was a tattoo-like Key Mark.
Since being attacked by those gaseous ghosts last time, Ileya hadn’t ventured back into the Land of the Dead.
She didn’t know if rushing in again would bring more danger.
Although with her current strength, self-defense was no problem, the fact that she was stagnating every day without any progress made her restless even in sleep.
But to improve, she had to enter that space.
After much thought, Ileya shifted her gaze toward the side, where Miss Goddess Veil was peeling an orange.
“Veil~”
To untie the bell, one must find the bell-ringer. Although Veil probably knew nothing, Ileya still needed her theoretical insight as a stepping stone to analyze things step by step.
“Ah?” Miss Goddess Veil looked somewhat confused as she glanced at the noble lady waving at her.
She then peeled the orange while walking over to Ileya.
“What’s up?”
“Nothing much~ Just wanted to ask you some more about the Land of the Dead~”
As she spoke, Ileya casually snatched the orange that Veil had just peeled.
What a bad woman!!
Though bullied, Miss Goddess Veil gritted her teeth.
But staring at the arrogant lady eating her little orange, she dared not resist.
Even her subconscious didn’t find it strange.
It was as if… being bullied by this person had become a habit.
“You… want to know what?”
Upon hearing that Ileya had questions for her, Veil straightened her back immediately.
“What do you know about the gaseous ghosts in the Land of the Dead?”
Gaseous ghosts?
The girl was clearly confused for a few seconds upon hearing the term.
“Gaseous ghosts? What’s that?”
Ah… almost forgot, gaseous ghosts was a name Ileya had made up for those things. She herself didn’t know their real name.
“Basically… it’s something like…”
Ileya described the “gaseous ghosts,” explaining that when she touched them, she gained magic similar to an inheritance.
“Ah~ I get it, you must be talking about the Soul Pivot?” Veil said with realization.
But in her memory, the Soul Pivot wasn’t something that appeared as a soul form… it was more like an object.
Like a box or a coffin.
These contained the consciousness of the souls’ owners from when they were alive, whether ordinary creatures or undead.
Absorbing them granted the abilities contained within that consciousness.
Based on Veil’s information, Ileya gradually pieced things together.
The “gaseous ghosts” she encountered were actually the Soul Pivots used to inherit abilities, which were originally like magic books on a shelf.
Almost never actively attacking anyone.
But nothing was absolute. To use a phrase from Ileya’s previous life’s homeland, this “book” had come to life.
It had a simple consciousness and felt the endless pain of wandering in this vast region…
So when encountering a soul like Ileya’s, who could freely enter and exit, it became so agitated.
However… the thinking noble lady stroked her chin.
That kind of agitation—did it mean the spirits wanted her to take them away, or did they want her to absorb them to be freed?
“That kind of thing doesn’t need thinking about~” Veil said from beside her.
Her tone was like talking about what to have for lunch… no, if it were about that, Veil’s tone should be more excited.
“They definitely want to be freed~ For the Soul Pivot, their purpose of existence is to be absorbed.”
“Oh? No exceptions?” Ileya raised an eyebrow slightly.
“Definitely none~ Isn’t that common sense?”
This one… still hadn’t changed at all~
Just like when she judged Ileya without asking any reason… completely inflexible.
Perhaps this was also a drawback of Divinity?
Whether individual Difference or Right and Wrong, there was no buffer zone and no consideration.
What is right is right; what is wrong is wrong.
Maybe that was an answer drawn from some classic scripture in that holy realm of the Shen, spoken by the wisest of them all.
But to answer so without thinking… isn’t that a kind of arrogance?
Perhaps the Punishing Existence who allowed her to come to this world with herself… didn’t do so because she truly committed some great sin, though she was indeed very guilty.
But… maybe it was also to correct this very “arrogance” in her…
Who knows~
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