We returned once again to the underground prison where Demuad was being held. Our purpose was to have him use the Dream-Viewing Mirror. This time, Lowell wasn't the only one accompanying me; Halfa and the others had come along as well. It was only right that we all confirmed the twins' safety together.
I had made sure to properly grease the wheels with Guster beforehand. Or rather, since Guster would be in a difficult position if anything happened to a prisoner under his watch, he agreed to let us use the mirror on the condition that we paid a bail fee. It served as a form of insurance—if something happened to Demuad, he could claim the man had already been sold off as a debt slave and was no longer his responsibility.
"Sigh... What on earth are those girls thinking? I told them not to worry about me."
After I explained everything that had happened, those were the first words out of Demuad's mouth. Apparently, he hadn't even known the twins had filed a slave retention request to keep him from being sold. He looked genuinely shocked to hear they had even given up their room at the inn.
"You’re basically their father, aren't you?" Halfa countered, sensing his frustration. "It’s only natural they’d want to save you."
Demuad shook his head slowly. "A father figure, huh? Maybe... but they’re still better off away from me. Nothing but misfortune follows in my wake. Though I suppose it’s too late for that now. They’ve already been brainwashed by the Evil God..."
It seemed Demuad was deeply regretful about ever getting involved with the girls.
However, I couldn't help but wonder if they were actually brainwashed. If they were truly under the Evil God's control and receiving divine orders, I felt like they would have just ignored Demuad entirely. It seemed more likely that they were just pretending to be brainwashed—perhaps to prevent Demuad from distancing himself under the guise of the Evil God's voice.
There was also the possibility that Demuad was a key figure for the Evil God, and the twins had been ordered to prevent his descent into slavery... but I’d be able to figure that out once I hit him with a Clean spell.
"Well, fine. Regardless, I just need to hold this mirror and focus on visualizing them, right?"
"Please," I said.
Whatever the truth was, we needed to find the twins first. For that, we needed the Dream-Viewing Mirror to do its job.
Demuad took the mirror and closed his eyes, concentrating his will. In response, the mirror flared with a brief flash of light.
"It’s working! ...Wait, where is this?"
The mirror had successfully activated. It was a bit difficult to see through the iron bars of the cell, but we crowded around to look. Reflected in the glass were two girls with light-blue short hair, both wearing deeply anxious expressions.
Since the image was mostly focused on their faces, it was impossible to tell where they were. Furthermore, the mirror only provided visuals—without sound, it was hard to grasp the full context of their situation. While the image was enough for me to use the Item-finding Rod later, it was clearly frustrating for Demuad.
"Dammit, what’s happening to them?! Isn't there any way to see more?!"
Driven by the sight of the twins' distress, Demuad practically shouted at the mirror. Of course, the object didn't respond. It was a magic tool, not a sentient being; it couldn't simply provide more than its intended function. Or so I thought.
『Testing, one, two. Ruto, can you hear me? I’ve got a message from Rulaina. She says to open your Pandora Gift already. Man, she is seriously noisy.』
"Eh? Ren-kun? ...Wait, what?"
Ren-kun's voice had come out of nowhere.
It seemed that was his only business, because he didn't respond no matter how much I called out to him.
I still hadn't opened the Pandora Gift that the Luck God had interfered with. I’d been saving it for an emergency, but if a goddess was going out of her way to tell me to use it, now was probably the time.
I followed the divine instructions and opened the Pandora Gift. What appeared was... a bottle?
It looked like some kind of cream. When I used my appraisal skill, the name popped up: Magic Tool Enhancement Cream. Likely due to the Luck God’s interference, it had a suffix added to the end: (Special Edition).
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I began applying the cream to the Dream-Viewing Mirror. Once I had coated it sufficiently, the mirror emitted a brilliant, blinding flash.
The transformation was instantaneous. A beam of light shot out from the mirror, projecting a large image directly onto the wall of the underground prison like a high-end projector. And this time, there was sound.
『Kehehe... so, you two are finally headed for the slave blocks, eh? You don't have a guardian left to pay your debts now.』
『That’s a lie! This doesn't count!』
『Yeah! You cheated!』
『I don't know what you're talking about. Besides, there’s a certain gentleman who’s very interested in taking you off our hands. You'd better hope he treats you... kindly.』
The amount of information we were getting was incomparably higher than before. The setting looked like a casino. The twins were surrounded by several men, led by a lanky, suspicious-looking fellow. I didn't know the full story, but he was playing the part of a villain perfectly.
I wasn't the only one who thought so. Demuad was shaking with rage.
"Who do these bastards think they are?! Aura! Kira! I'm coming for you!"
He roared the words, but he was still locked in a cell... or he should have been. The moment his hand touched the surface of the mirror, Demuad vanished. A second later, his figure appeared right in the middle of the projection on the wall.
Wait, what just happened? Did Demuad just teleport into the vision?
I could only assume the enhancement had upgraded the mirror's function to allow travel to the projected location.
"Um... excuse me, but... isn't this technically a jailbreak?"
"Ah, ahaha..."
One of the guards piped up, snapping me out of my stunned silence. I had been trying so hard not to think about that. This definitely looked like we had just assisted a prisoner in escaping his cell. Thank goodness I paid that bail fee beforehand!