"Thank you for the short cooperation, then.. May the blessing of the gods be with you."
Murph, Heimfher, and everybody else beside him lowered their head at the housewife lady, after failing the detection magic on wooden sword hilt, Heimfher and his colleagues doesn't have any more reason to stay at the lady house.
They bid their goodbyes to the lady, waving their hand as they walked further from the small house.
Heimfher glanced at the lady for a brief moment and saw her gloomy face before she went inside again, closing her front door and disappeared.
Step!
Step!
"Tch.. That's our third failure.." Duskiell said as he bit his lips in disappointment.
His short lament was then answered by Carlessa who had similar thoughts. She spoke to Murph which he quickly replied.
"Wouldn't it be better if we have those guys from the capital help us with this, Murph?.." She said.
"They're here only to help us with the Dead Deity Order, not all of Monetre's cases– Also, if we keep asking for help to the capital, our reputation would plummet.. And soon, people will think that we're just a joke—
"Don't worry, i doubt the culprits of these kidnapping will be an advanced or elite awakened.. At the very least, they would probably have eaten a couple hearts—
"Since Heimfher have killed two of them, we should assume that they have more subordinates.. If they had two people in a decoy hideout, then they will have double or triple the amount at their main hideout."
Carlessa smirked at Murph's words, a burning anticipation flashed in her eyes as she glanced at her sword.
"So you're saying they could be a dozens huh.. Okay, sounds good to me, let's fuck them up." She said before clenching her fist.
She might seem barbaric to others, however to her colleagues, it was just another day for them, despite her beautiful face, she was a battle junkie deep down.
Duskiell had the corner of his lips twitched seeing Carlessa being so thrilled that he needed to say something.
"Pfftt..."
"Huh? What's wrong with you?" Carlessa looked at Duskiell while raising one of her brows, which Duskiell soon replied with a chuckle.
"A- ah.. No, it's just, i imagined what it would be like if one day you had a boyfriend or a husband.. I feel like he would have to be a masochist—
"Pfftt..."
"HUH!?" Carlessa immediately had her cheeks turned red by Duskiell's statement, she then pulled his shirt collar and threatened to punch him.
"W- WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!??.. I- I- IM NOT THAT VIOLENT! RIGHT?!" She shouted before turning her head towards the others, including Heimfher.
It seems like she wanted everyone to say that she wasn't as violent as Duskiell thought, but unbeknownst to her, everyone had already anonymously agreed with Duskiell.
"W- Well..." Bentley scratched his cheek while hesitating to answer Carlessa's question.
Harith and Heimfher doesn't really care about the ordeal, and Lena was known to be shy and not talkative, so it was expected that she won't say anything.
In the end, Carlessa let go of her grasp on Duskiell's collar and went quiet.
"—S- Surely someone would want me right.. Im already 26– Wahh.. Isn't that almost 30– Wait That's still considered young isn't it?! I still have a lot of time right?.." Carlessa whispered to herself, her mouth stuttering with words as her colleagues watched in amusement.
The 5 officers walked through the busy streets filled with machinery and gear noises, as the sun sets in the horizon, the sky gleamed with orange hue and the bird flocks flew back to their nest.
Heimfher spend the entire afternoon wandering the east district, the 5 of them went to every house of the kidnapped victims that has yet to be rescued with the hope of finding an object that could be used for Bentley's detection magic, when they arrived at the last house that was listed to be in the east district, they were upset to find that the family that lives there also doesn't have anything that could be used to detect the hostages.
Time passed, and Heimfher eventually had to rest and rethink everything from the beginning.
.
.
At night 8:30PM—
"FUCK!"
Crash!
Duskiell kicked a nearby wooden boxes that was piled up on the side of the street as a way to release his anger.
The wooden boxes shattered into small pieces, and the noises startled all of the passerby near him, causing Duskiell to get stared at by the civilians around him.
"Calm down Duskiell." Murph suddenly said, he and the rest of division 0 was sitting on a bench.
Realizing his unwarranted anger, Duskiell then rubbed his face off using his hand before walking back to the bench and sat down beside Heimfher.
Thud!
"Do these people really doesn't have anything they cherish?!.. How come every one of the hostages were undetectable?!.." He abruptly said, sighing at the end of his sentence as he leaned on the bench behind.
"This is bad news isn't it.. We can't find them through detection magic.. At this rate, we'll have to look for the clues." Harith responded to Duskiell's rant, his eyes were focused to the starry night above while his mind wandered to an unknown place.
"Clues you say.." Carlessa added, she looked down to the brick road beneath her so that she could focus more on finding an idea in her mind.
"The only thing we have so far is that all of the hostages were all kidnapped within the same day.."
Just when Duskiell and Carlessa seems to be lost and ran out of hints that could help them with the case, Murph opened his mouth out of nowhere and gave a few of his insights.
"There's more.. I received this info from Dan who dealt with the rescued hostages that Heimfher and Duskiell found on the Southwest district, and he found that, none of them have come from the East district—
"It won't that suspicious if it weren't for the fact that they're a decoy set by the kidnappers to lure us to their fake hideout using Bentley's detection magic—
"If all of us were to go to that fake hideout, im sure those two kidnappers that Duskiell and Heimfher met would trap us in their illusion, and based on Duskiell's story, those illusionist were smart, they used the staircase as an illusion to make it endlessly spiraling downwards—
"That kind of illusion is hard to spot, even for me, you'd think its a normal staircase for a few minutes until you realized that there's no end to it– It's a good thing that there were only Heimfher and Duskiell, beccause im sure if we all went there and got trapped in their illusion, they won't hesitate to kill us on the spot—
"Their arrogance at the sight of Heimfher and Duskiell made them believe that they could kill those two easily even if they woke up—
"It'd be the opposite if all of us were there."
Murph momentarily ended his speech, he turned his head left and right to see everyone's reaction, then when he was about to continue, he instead got interrupted by Harith who asked a question.
"So? What are you trying to say? I don't quite get it.." He said.
As Murph opened his mouth, Heimfher replied to Harith as if he knew what Murph was trying to say, Murph was interrupted for the second time, he ended up closing his mouth again and listened to Heimfher.
"Those kidnappers purposefully want us to go to their southwest hideout so that we will waste our time there instead of searching for their real hideout—
"But because only the two of us came, their plan was slightly disturbed, and thanks to the arrogance of the two robed kidnappers that we met.. They're unable to kill all of us—
"And..."
Heimfher averted his gaze to Murph to see if he had anything to say, when Heimfher didn't get any answer from him, he continued with his explanation.
"It's my own opinion.. But i think, their real hideout is also in the East district.. Or eatleast between East, Southeast, or Northeast."
As soon as Heimfher stopped talking, everyone except Murph was startled by his deduction, they doubted Heimfher, and doesn't want to immediately believe his words, but then they also thought about it themselves, placing their shoes in the kidnappers legs, and what they found was the same conclusion.
"Hoohh.. I see, that makes sense.." Duskiell said, he placed his hand beneath his chin as he was thinking about the connection between Heimfher and Murph's story.
"They sent a few of their subordinates to kidnap victims outside of the east district to be a decoy, while the others who stayed in the East, kidnapped all of the main victims that will be used as a sacrifice—
"It might not really be efficient and they had to do extra work.. But it is clever, they also carefully picked their victims, they specifically targeted those who lived in poverty and alone without parents or friends so that they won't have any deep attachment to an object that can be used to reveal their location—
"Without the detection magic, we're forced to gather our own clues, and they're confident that, we won't find them in a week with just clues and hints that they left behind."
Duskiell finally understood what happened, he stopped his speech to ponder about the future, and while he was being quiet, Carlessa also shoved her own voice to the matter.
"Even if they're an awakened, they won't be able to move an unconcious person to another district without being seen, even if they try to be as secretive as possible, weaving through narrow alleyways and passage, at some point, a homeless, a worker, or a shopkeeper would spot them—
"They have an artifact that could make them invisible, but that robe Duskiell described this morning shouldn't have been able to make anyone other than the wearer invisible—
"Unless they're contracted with the God of Speed or the God of Power like me, they won't be able to move that fast in a short amount of time—
"It's exactly as Heimfher say, they're most likely hiding in the East district too.. The question is, where."