Aside from a single room used for storage, the rest were mostly small and empty. However, a few contained traces of recent habitation—coarse blankets left on the floor and a clutter of miscellaneous sundries. Then we reached the final room. It looked like a study. An inkwell sat on the desk alongside a haphazard pile of notes, but there was little else of interest.
"These scribbles might be our only clue," I said.
"Hmm. The handwriting is a bit difficult to decipher, but..." Lowell replied.
Since there were only a few documents, we divided them among ourselves to read.
"Is this... about the underground waterway in Garond?"
I found myself looking at what appeared to be a set of plans. They detailed instructions from a god to impose "trials" on the populace and mentioned targeting the royal capital of a neighboring kingdom. But the phrase I couldn't ignore was City of Death. It was the same name the cultist had used back in the Garond sewers. Just as I’d suspected, that man and Aingurna were connected.
"I'm no expert on handwriting, meow, but these characters look familiar. I'm pretty sure this is Godfee’s hand, meow."
Rache-san had spent plenty of time reviewing Godfee's old paperwork for reference in her role as Acting Guild Master. While she wasn't a specialist, she insisted the script on these notes was a near-perfect match for the former Guild Master's.
"This one mentions dungeonification," Lowell noted.
The document he held discussed methods for artificially inducing a dungeon state. It seemed they had focused on the research conducted by the Dungeon Research Society, specifically regarding the use of Pandora Gifts. Although the society had failed in its own experiments, the author of these notes claimed to have succeeded through independent study. One line read: The boxes alone lack sufficient malice; use them as a primer and amplify through God’s work.
"The 'comrades' mentioned here... they must be the ones who disappeared," Masso muttered.
The documents also detailed a strategy to trigger dungeon appearances across the Kingdom of Lievril as a distraction from their true goal: the underground waterway. Entrust the boxes to our comrades and sow the seeds of dungeons throughout the land. These "comrades" undoubtedly included the adventurers who had gone missing from the Gurna Warrior Group.
Other papers outlined various secondary schemes, all of them horrific "trials" designed to cause mass casualties. I hadn't heard news of any such disasters yet, so these were likely plans that hadn't been put into motion.
"We have to stop them! We absolutely have to!"
"Halfa-chan... You're right. I’m with you!" Rache added.
Perhaps because of her role as the Maiden of the Destiny God, Halfa was practically radiating righteous fury. I felt the same. If Halfa was determined to thwart these plans, I was going to do everything in my power to help her.
"But Tort, if I remember your story correctly, wasn't Godfee supposed to be dead, meow?"
"That’s what I thought, but the truth is..."
I finally shared what Val-san had told me back at the Dungeon Research Society with the rest of the group. It had been such a vague rumor at the time that I hadn't mentioned it until now.
"Is that so, meow? I was hoping to dump my Guild Master duties back on him once he turned up, but I guess that’s out of the question, meow..."
"He appears to be completely brainwashed," Lowell observed. "It would be ideal if the Song of Soothing could bring him back to his senses, but..."
I honestly didn't know. I couldn't recall what had happened to the man who looked like Godfee during the chaos of that battle, but if he had been in the vicinity, he should have heard the Song of Soothing. We’d needed it to survive the Evil Dragon's assault. If the song had broken the brainwashing, he likely would have reached out to the guild by now. The silence suggested he was either still under their control or simply hadn't been at Aingurna to begin with—assuming he had even survived.
"Regardless of Godfee’s status, we need to prepare," Lowell said. "As long as those special individuals continue to manifest in this dungeon, the cult will keep finding new recruits to brainwash."
"Indeed," Masso agreed. "Even if we keep this building under watch, there’s no guarantee they don't have other hideouts."
That was the problem. As long as Garnalava demanded trials, special individuals would keep appearing. Anyone who defeated them risked becoming the next cultist tasked with carrying out these dark plans.
"We can't handle this alone," Masso grunted. "We need the Gurna Council's help. At the very least, they need to issue a formal warning for people to stay away from the special individuals. Beyond that, we have to alert the neighboring kingdoms so they can be on guard against these cultists."
He was right. There was a limit to what our small party could achieve. If they launched multiple attacks simultaneously, we’d never be able to stop them all. And the issue wasn't just Aingurna. Sazantgurna was a nation built entirely within dungeons; if one city was compromised, the others likely were too. The Council, as the ruling body of the nation, was the only organization with the reach to handle this.
"If we’re going to talk to the Council, we’ll need to head back to the city, meow. Come to think of it, can we use that teleportation door to get back to the entrance, meow? Should we try it, meow?"
I perked up. I’d almost forgotten. If that door really could send us back to the entrance in the blink of an eye, it would be a total game-changer.