After wrapping up our meeting with Demuad, we left the underground prison behind. Even though he wasn't an Evil Cultist, the visit hadn't been a total waste. Or rather, it had given us a promising lead.
He insisted he wasn’t a follower of Garnalava, but since he could hear the god’s instructions, his information would be vital. If he could tell us exactly what he was being told to do, we’d have a trail to follow.
Of course, he wasn’t going to hand over that information for free. His price was the purification of the two girls traveling with him. I wasn't sure if they were actually brainwashed, but he’d asked me to at least try to help them.
Demuad had to be a real softie to worry about others while facing a future of debt-slavery himself.
Still, if he actually became a slave, it would be much harder to squeeze any info out of him. I’d already asked Guster to delay the start of his slavery sentence; in a pinch, we could just clear his debt for him.
If he’d anticipated that we would step in, he was a master strategist—but I doubted it. Even if we didn't pay the debt, we could always just buy him ourselves. Not that we wanted or needed slaves, though. It was way less of a headache to just make more Petit Golems.
Regardless, our next step was finding Aura and Kira. That, however, was proving to be a challenge. We knew which inn Demuad had been staying at, but when we arrived, they had already checked out.
"I was told he’d given them enough to cover at least a few days' worth of lodging, but..." Lowell mused.
"Maybe they're saving money to pay back his debt?" Spira guessed.
It sounded like a plausible theory. The two of them had filed a slave retention request for Demuad, so they were likely out there trying to scrape the money together somehow.
With the inn a dead end, we turned to the Item-finding Rod.
"Hmm... Looks like it’s no good," I muttered.
"Yeah. I guess it really doesn't work on people we haven't met before?" Halfa asked.
"Maybe so."
Looking at the Item-finding Rods pointing in every which way, Halfa and I reached a disappointing conclusion. To be honest, I’d never used the rod to find someone using only their name before. I hadn't realized it had such a limitation.
"If they're truly brainwashed, there's a chance they might be carrying a key..." Lowell suggested.
"Good point. Let me give that a shot."
Lowell’s logic was sound. Back in Aingurna, the special individuals who heard "The Voice" dropped teleportation door keys. Granted, the special individuals that appeared in large numbers later on didn't drop them, so it wasn't a guarantee.
『It's no good this time either,』 Shiroru noted.
"You're right..."
The result was the same. The Item-finding Rods didn’t point in a specific direction; they just lay there in a disorderly pile. Finding them with the rod was officially impossible.
"What now? Since they filed the retention request, there's a chance they'll show up at the prison eventually."
"At the guardhouse? I wonder," Lowell said skeptically. "It depends on the size of the debt, but is that really something children can just pay back? They aren't you, Tort."
Setting aside that last remark, Lowell’s doubt was reasonable. If the debt was small enough for them to pay, Demuad probably wouldn't have been thrown in a cell in the first place. Since they’d only just arrived in Orcus, they didn't have any local friends to turn to, either. How did they intend to make that kind of money?
"Maybe they're selling off something valuable?" Halfa wondered.
"Or... maybe they went to a casino?" Spira added.
The two girls looked at each other, weighing the options. Both seemed likely, and both seemed dangerous.
Public order in this world was terrible, and Orcus was no exception. It was glamorous on the main streets, but the city was full of vagrants who had lost everything to gambling. The atmosphere changed drastically the moment you stepped into a back alley. If two children with no way to defend themselves were wandering around with something expensive, they’d be targets for sure. Plus, crooked merchants were everywhere. Two young girls desperate for money would be seen as easy prey.
And the casinos were even worse. If they ended up somewhere conscientious like Rainanorn, it might be fine, but a more predatory establishment would strip them of everything and sell them into slavery in the blink of an eye.
Given they’d already checked out of their inn to save money, it was clear the girls were more proactive than I’d expected. I just hoped that drive didn't lead them into disaster. We needed to find them before the worst happened.
『It’s time for a Pandora Gift!』 Shiroru barked.
"I guess so," I replied with a wry smile. Shiroru was wagging her tail happily for some reason.
The Pandora Gift had essentially become my "all-purpose help item." Anyone who didn't know our circumstances would probably be appalled to hear me say that. I figured that even if I opened it normally, it would give me something useful for the situation... but I decided to send a quick prayer to Ren-kun anyway.
Ren-kun, I really need an item to help find those two girls. Please!
The moment I made the wish, my vision was bleached pure white. When the light faded, I was standing in a completely different place.
No, it wasn't just "different." It was that familiar sensation I got whenever I was called to Ren-kun’s house via an oracle. I was in the Divine Realm. However—
"Where... is this...?"
One thing was for certain: this was definitely not the house of Ren-kun that I knew.