In the end, Lindy's plea was rejected.
Rei was not entirely unsympathetic to Lindy's state, but whatever action they took, there simply was not enough evidence.
In the first place, even the idea that the Dolan Workshop used people as materials was nothing more than Rei's conjecture—something inferred from rumors he had heard from Ridon.
Rumors sometimes contained the truth, but there was also a fair chance they were complete nonsense.
Given that, he could not simply swallow a rumor at face value.
And the Dolan Workshop's involvement in the disappearance of the bandits was likewise mere conjecture.
Had their opponents been ordinary bandits, Rei could have simply attacked them for the time being, since defeating them would have caused no problems whatsoever.
"Then, I will head to my workshop and examine a Dolan Workshop golem. If they truly are using people as materials, the likely culprit would be the control system, I suppose? No, but..."
Rei nodded at Roger as he said this, and Lindy agreed with visible reluctance.
With that, their conversation came to an end, and each of them went their separate ways.
That said, judging by Lindy's demeanor, leaving her to her own devices seemed dangerous, so Rei decided to at least escort her back to her inn.
(Hmm, looking at her like this... setting aside the Blood Blade matter, maybe I shouldn't have told her about the Dolan Workshop being the client behind the assassination, or their possible involvement in the bandit disappearances?)
Rei knew that Golias was an important figure to Lindy.
That was precisely why he had reported what little he had learned, thinking it better to share whatever information he could.
Fortunately, he already knew Lindy's inn from the previous Blood Blade incident, so there was no risk of getting lost.
(Wait, could it be that I'm not directionally challenged anymore?)
Rei wondered about this, but naturally kept the thought to himself.
They arrived at the inn, but...
"I need to see Big Sis Lindy! Please, let me see her!"
Just before they entered, that voice reached them.
Perhaps bothered that her own name had come up, Lindy hurried inside.
Rei told Seto to wait out front and followed her in.
The reason was... the voice that had reached Rei's ears was one he felt he had heard somewhere before.
That said, it was less that he distinctly recognized it and more of a vague sense of familiarity.
However, the moment he stepped inside and saw the child at the counter, Rei immediately placed it.
(Ah, from the orphanage.)
Yes—it was the orphanage where Lindy had grown up, the same one Rei had visited before coming to Egginis.
Looking again at the child at the counter, he realized it was one of the children who had been attacked by wolves—the very incident that had led Rei to the orphanage in the first place.
No, to be precise, it was unmistakably the boy who had been leading the children.
"Camila! What on earth happened!?"
Lindy cried out the boy's name in shock.
Her surprise was only natural.
Although the city where the orphanage was located and Egginis were adjacent, the distance between them was not one a child could easily cover on foot.
When Lindy sent remittances and letters, or the everyday goods she had sent before, she had clearly relied on adventurers or carriages to deliver them.
Though in the case of the everyday goods, the sheer volume had meant she had needed to arrange a dedicated carriage.
Moreover, there were large numbers of bandits lurking around Egginis.
There was even suspicion that the Dolan Workshop was eliminating them by some means—whether killing them or capturing them alive, Rei could not say—and replenishing their ranks with new bandits.
For a child to have come alone through such a place could only be described as extraordinarily lucky.
"Big Sis Lindy!?"
Camila had been making a fuss at the front desk, demanding to see Lindy. He never imagined that the very person he was searching for would call out to him from behind.
Seeing Lindy's face, his expression went wide with shock—and in the next instant, crumpled.
"Big Sis Lindy... Big Sis Lindy!"
He threw himself at Lindy and burst into tears.
Lindy understood from Camila's state that something must have driven him all the way to Egginis. She wanted to ask what it was, but judging that her first priority was to stop his crying and calm him down, she simply kept stroking the head of the boy clinging to her and weeping.
"There, there. Calm down. What happened? Did you come all the way to Egginis by yourself?"
"Y-yeah. Because... because... hic, hic... uwaaaaaaah!"
Just when it seemed Lindy's gentle patting had calmed him down, Camila started wailing again—perhaps remembering why he had come.
Rei, who was not particularly close to the boy, was also surprised.
The Camila that Rei knew had a very strong-willed personality.
Even when his life had been in danger, he had been startled but had never cried and wailed like this.
Lindy, who knew Camila well, was equally shocked to see him in this state.
However, this was an inn.
Moreover, the kind of place where the description "cheap inn" fit perfectly.
If a child screamed and cried in front of the counter of such an establishment, it was only a matter of time before...
"Shut up!"
An inn guest, irritated by the crying, showing his face to yell was entirely foreseeable.
An adventurer with decent skills could afford a better inn.
Lindy had an excuse, given that she sent money to the orphanage, but Rei did not get the impression that the adventurer who had shouted was possessed of such noble character.
That said, Rei had learned well since coming to this world that judging a person's character by their face or atmosphere alone was a mistake. Still, it did not take a genius to guess that this particular adventurer was not the admirable sort.
Rei felt annoyed with the man, yet at the same time, he could understand the frustration.
This man had been the first to come complaining, but even if he hadn't, someone else surely would have.
The walls of a cheap inn were thin, and soundproofing was virtually nonexistent.
It was daytime, so most guests were presumably out working, but it would not have been strange for someone like this man to have the day off or to be sleeping in preparation for a night shift.
"Lindy, let's get out of here. If we stay, this will turn into a scene."
At Rei's words, Lindy, still patting Camila's head, nodded without hesitation.
"Here, drink this and calm down."
A dining hall a short distance from Lindy's inn.
Rei, Lindy, and Camila were now seated there.
It was right around lunchtime, so Rei had brought them to eat, his treat.
Fortunately, the restaurant owner was a generous sort; as long as they paid properly, he was happy to prepare food for Seto as well.
In fact, he was delighted, saying that having Seto around would be a conversation piece and draw in customers.
And so, while they waited for their ordered dishes to arrive, the table was set with simple fare that could be eaten right away—soup, bread, salad, and fruit.
Camila stared at the food in front of him in astonishment, but following Lindy's urging, he raised a spoonful of soup to his mouth. Apparently finding it delicious, he began gulping it down ravenously.
(Then again, looking at him, he must have been starving.)
It did not seem likely he had traveled from the orphanage's city to Egginis by carriage.
Carriage travel cost a fair amount, and Rei doubted the orphanage had that kind of money.
When he had visited, the orphanage had been in considerable financial straits.
Under those circumstances, even for just one child, whether they could have scraped together enough coin for a carriage ride was doubtful at best.
And even if they had the money, whether a carriage operator would agree to let a child ride alone was equally questionable.
Which meant Camila had most likely walked to Egginis by himself.
It was possible an adult had served as an escort, but from what Rei could see, Camila was alone.
On a child's feet, the trip from the orphanage's city to Egginis would have taken several days—possibly close to ten.
He certainly had not gone that long without any food or water, so he must have set out with at least some provisions. Even so, given the limited amount of luggage a child could carry, it was no wonder he was this famished.
(I remember reading somewhere that humans, food aside, will die in a few days without water... I wonder how he managed in that regard. Well, maybe he drank morning dew, and there are plants with drinkable sap, so perhaps he scraped by with things like that.)
Lost in such thoughts, Rei ate his soup and bread.
When the ordered dishes finally arrived, Camila's eyes went wide—likely because the plates lined up in front of Rei amounted to about five people's worth.
Rei paid no mind to the boy's astonished gaze and simply kept eating.
Seeing Rei's eating pace not slacken in the slightest, Camila grew even more stunned.
But for Rei, eating this much was just business as usual.
As they worked through the meal...
"Hic, hic."
For some reason, Camila started crying again.
He had stopped on the walk over. They had been about to ask him what happened when his stomach had let out a loud growl, prompting them to come to this restaurant instead... but for the life of him, Rei could not understand why Camila was crying now.
"It's just... I'm eating all this delicious food, and..."
Camila somehow managed to choke out the words.
I see, Rei thought, understanding dawning.
Rei had left a variety of food supplies at the orphanage, including meat.
But given the number of people there, eating their fill every day was likely not possible.
Let alone having multiple dishes spread across a table like this—that was simply unimaginable.
That must have been why Camila had broken down at the sight of the food before him—or so Rei assumed.
But the words that came out of Camila's mouth defied that expectation. No, to be precise, they pointed to something far grimmer.
"I just thought... I wish big sis Anne could eat food like this too."
"...Miss Anne? Wait, Camila. What do you mean? Why is Miss Anne's name coming up here?"
Anne was someone who had worked at the orphanage.
She was the person who had accepted Seto without so much as a flinch upon seeing him for the first time, leaving a deep impression on Rei.
And for Lindy, who had grown up at the orphanage, Anne—being not far from her in age—was someone she could easily have been close to.
"Hic... Big sis Anne... she was taken away. Something about a contract..."
"A contract?"
If the story had simply been that Anne was taken, it would have been natural enough to assume she had been captured by bandits.
There were, after all, large numbers of bandits around Egginis.
And among those bandits, precisely because the area was so crowded with their kind, there were bound to be those who saw the fierce competition and considered moving their operations elsewhere.
The nearest city to Egginis was, of course, the one with the orphanage.
That city was by no means as prosperous as Egginis.
Even so, the bandits might well have judged it worth targeting... or so Lindy thought. But with the word "contract" attached, the situation took on a different complexion entirely.
She had no idea how things had come to this, but one thing was certain: Anne had been taken away for some reason.
"There, there. Stop crying. Can you tell me properly what happened?"
Lindy was naturally worried about Anne's whereabouts, but she still judged that calming Camila down came first.
Perhaps reassured by Lindy's gentle tone, Camila gradually stopped crying.
And then, he finally opened his mouth to speak.
"I don't really understand, but there was a promise with a merchant. Anne broke it, so she's going to be sold as a slave... That's what they said the contract was."
At those words, Lindy's expression hardened.