Back to the basement under the Laughing Fairy Tavern—
"Cheers!" Multiple voices shouted as they raised their glasses of drinks and toasted together.
Heimfher was surrounded inside the central hall of the basement, everyone around him smiled and kept poking at him as if curious with his identity, when he was about to take a sip from the glass mug, a woman dressed quite similar to Murph, wearing long dark coat and white shirt underneath it, sat down beside him on the sofa.
"Heyo boy, i heard you made a contract with Ignis, mind telling me the story?" She said, her lips curved as her face gets closer to Heimfher.
"My name is Carlessa by the way, nice to meet you."
"U- uhh Huh?!.. Contract?.." Heimfher was taken a back by Carlessa's words as he didn't know that borrowing a God's magic was a contract.
When he wanted to ask further about it, Carlessa suddenly laughed infront of his face, as if mocking the face Heimfher was making after he heard her talks.
"Ahahaha!! Don't worry, you won't be sent into hell or anything, that's just what i call when someone became an awakened, borrowing a God's power means you gotta be sacrificing something in return right? That's the basic law of this world, and that sacrifice– Is your sanity." Carlessa said, her face temporarily became serious.
While everyone else was partying for him, Heimfher was instead met with a crisis that he never knew before, borrowing a God's magic means sacrificing his sanity? That sounded like a pretty terrible thing no matter how he sees it.
"Murph! You never told me about this?!" Heimfher asked as he turned his head to Murph that was talking to the other members.
Murph quickly reacted, he looked at Heimfher with a confused look before he replied.
"Huh?.. Ahh, you don't have to worry about that, your sanity will only be corrupted if you kept using magic even after your mana was empty, as long as you don't use your magic excessively, it won't be a trouble– After all, aren't you the one that has the most mana in your body compared to everyone else here?"
Murph's answer caused the corner of Heimfher's lips to twitch.
'Just because i have a lot of mana in my body doesn't mean i don't need to know about that!' He thought.
The party goes on for a little longer, except for Carlessa, there were also other members such as Bentley with the power of Detection, Harith with the power of String, and Lena with the power of Healing.
"Man im jealous with you Heimfher.." Harith said, he stood up infront of Heimfher with a soft expression, his black hair was tied up to the back like a pony tail while his bangs dangled all the way to his chin.
"You don't know how lucky you are to have survived after drinking that blight mana."
Heimfher was fluttered to hear Harith's compliments, he already knew about it after Murph had interrogated him, but deep down, he also knew that he was never supposed to be alive, he wasn't the original Heimfher, and his survival was merely an accident that was orchestrated by some bored gods.
'I'll either have to find a way to go back home, or force myself to survive.. Whichever option i chose, i will still have to work hard in order to get it.' Heimfher said to himself, his goal was clear, and he doesn't plan to give up mid way, because his perseverance won't let him do so.
As everyone in the central hall was preparing to end their congratulation party, a loud bang was heard and the door that was on their side got forcibly opened by a man wearing an uniform.
"EMERGENCY! THIS IS BAD!" The man said, his clothes, accessories, and even the glasses on his head was all messy, he seems to have ran all the way to this place for some time and his face looked panicked.
"Dan?.." Murph said, he recognized the man as one of his acquaintance in the Monetre Protection Bureau, though he was in a different division.
"What happened!?"
Murph then immediately approached Dan while he supported his body as he was about to collapse from fatigue.
"Murph.. Ah, thank you.. Huff huff.." Dan managed to catch his breath and sat on the sofa.
"Ah! This isn't the time to relax, Murph.. There's some work!!"
All of the member of division 0 instantly smiled right after they heard the word 'work', their face couldn't contain their eagerness as they began to stretch their body in all sort of poses, preparing to go catch some criminals.
"Work?! If there's work for us, then that means it involves magic right?" Bentley said excitedly.
"Finally, woohh! I've been waiting for something to happen, i guess prayers do works after all." Carlessa raised her body from the sofa and cracked her knuckles, her teeth grinds against each other while her brows were furrowed.
"So? What is it? Murder? Kidnapping? Forbidden Rituals?"
"Im not sure if we should be happy about it, but i guess im also starting to feel bored with this peace." Harith added, even though he tried to keep a blank face, he can't help but smile as he felt his heart raced.
"You guys never change huh." Duskiell sighed while placing both of his hands to the back of his head, he then glanced at Dan once more to hear the details about their work.
"Cough! Cough!" Dan had to drink some water first before he could talk.
Gulp!
"Ah.. Like i said, there's an emergency.. Or rather, an emergency investigation—
"Multiple cases of missing people was reported a while ago, not just two or three.. But more than FIFTY people have gone missing in one night, that's not normal no matter how you think about it—
"Every one of their family members or close friends all said the same thing, all of the missing persons was last seen around 2 to 3 days ago, and they have never been seen again—
"If it were only one or two, there's probably a possibility that those missing person had some sort of agenda or unavoidable things to do, and we also usually don't began our investigation unless they've been gone for more than 3 days without any clue.. But for fifty people to all gone missing spontaneously, its definitely not normal—
"There's most likely some supernatural magics being used here, or maybe the kidnappers aren't alone, and they worked as a group."
Dan coughed a bit more along with his explanation, and before he ended his speech, he drank some water again and took a deep breath.
Heimfher and the rest of the division 0 listened closely to Dan's words, a series of mass kidnapping that happened all in one night, its unbelievable, but in a world where magic, gods, the unexplainable happened everyday, its not strange that these kind of things could happen.
"Fifty you say?.. That's overkill! What the fuck are those kidnappers gonna do with 50 lives?!.. Sell them as slaves?!" Carlessa said, she found the case to be utterly ridiculous while still keeping a close watch incase if the worst scenario was true.
"That's true.. Even for a slave traders.. That much kidnapping in one night should be incredibly risky for them.." Bentley added, he placed his hand on his chin and was in deep thought.
"Unless." Harith said, he seems to have thought the same thing that everyone was thinking.
"What if they're using those people as sacrifice for a forbidden ritual?"
Heimfher's eyes widened and his jaw fell out of shock, he had expected this world to be somewhat brutal and held a lot of secrets, but hearing it with his own ears was still completely different than just reading or imagining them.
'Forbidden Rituals? like using dark magic maybe? Either way, this is a problem.. It's my first day as an awakened and i already have to deal with this!?' Heimfher said in his mind, he was scared, that's a normal reaction, but what sets him apart is that he was also excited to use his new power in a battle.
"They could be taking them hostage for money? Can they?" Lena said, that was her first word that Heimfher heard as she seems to be quite the shy girl.
Meanwhile, Murph and Duskiell was discussing all of the possibilities in their head, they imagined what someine with 50 hostages would do countless times, yet the only conclusive answer they could find was to use those hostage as away to obtain more strength and power.
"It must be one of those people that worshiped the abyssal gods." Duskiell said.
"Yeah, i also think so." Murph agreed without any objections, they nodded simultaneously and stared at Dan again.
"We'll deal with it."
Dan was relieved to hear that Murph would help, he then stood from the sofa and shook Murph's hand with respect and praised him.
"Thank you, Mr. Murph, i know i could rely on division 0 with these kind of things." He said.
Murph chuckled at Dan's praise, it was a little cringe for him, because he knew that Dan was his close friend for years, so to see him act like they were strangers somehow tickled him.
"Heh, get out now.. And report it to your higher ups, we'll take over."
"Roger that!" Dan shouted with a big smile, he then walked out of the central room and never to be seen again, atleast for quite some time.
After Dan had left, Murph and Duskiell turned their body towards the rest of the members, including Heimfher, they then ordered everyone to start working and make sure to waste no time.
"You heard that, Bentley, we need your magic. Grab your pendulum." Murph said with a serious tone.
"And everyone else, follow my lead, heh.. You too Heimfher, don't get left behind now." Duskiell added, blinking one of his eye to Heimfher as his mouth curved into a cheeky smile.
"You act as if you're a vice captain." Carlessa scoffed at Duskiell's bold personality.
And just like that, the division 0 soon left the room and wore their uniform to the outside world, except for Heimfher who still wore his casual outfit as his long coat and shirt uniform hasn't been made yet.