Satou's here. In recent games, urgent quests that suddenly appear as time-limited quest with their tedious work has given me a bit of stress. Yet an urgent quest in real life feels like a mere bothersome work that's been pushed into me, I wonder why is that?
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It's been three days since I eliminated the fiend drug users. Besso and the explorer who were in possession of the fiend drug have been captured by the guild, but there is no surprise attack since that incident.
The next day, by the guildmaster's request, we went to Rudaman's hideout and the cultivation fields, but those places had already been vacated and only uninhabited field remained. I'm the one who have made it uninhabited so there's no mistake. The guild staff onee-san who was going with us only collected the Ruin Weed and Decay Stem as evidences, and then we went back to the labyrinth city.
"Then, the field you found had been emptied huh?"
"Yes, since foodstuff and daily necessities were also gone, they might have moved to another place."
"We also searched for something like hidden rooms, but there was no one remaining just like chevalier-sama's said. They weren't moved by the lost thieves mastermind since there were unharvested ruin weed and decay stem that remained, maybe they might have ran away by themselves?"
The guild staff onee-san who had gone together with us in the investigation is reporting the result in the guildmaster room.
"We also tried searching the neighboring passages with magic, but we couldn't find anyone."
"That so, thank you for your hard works."
"Should we dispatch explorers again to search for the abducted people?"
"Think of the place, the place. The only ones that can search in such a deep area like that are the Red Iron bunch. Even if they were running away on their own, they would have ended up eaten by monsters before they could reach the surface."
It seems the guildmaster has decided to give up on rescuing, or rather searching for those people.
"They might have been unexpectedly saved by some explorers and returned to the surface."
"That would be nice."
"I also think that the possibility is low, but I wish that they have safely returned to the surface and gone back to their peaceful life."
"I pray that there isn't anyone with compounding and alchemy skills."
While vaguely sweeping off my words, the guildmaster said so.
"Is there something bad about it?"
"Yeah, it's bad. Someone who has the Alchemy skill must be involved in the creation of the fiend drug, even the one who has the Compounding skill should be able to prepare for the making of fiend drug. These guys will most certainly be forced into becoming slaves and made to be in non-disclosure condition to prevent them from divulging the method to make the fiend drug, after that they will probably be confined in the kingdom research facility their whole life."
"Are the other people who are involved in the cultivation alright?"
"Yeah, putting aside the Ruin Weed, Decay Stems can be found in the labyrinth relatively easy so there should be no problem."
Fumu, that means I can release people besides the ones with Compounding or Alchemy skills before long.
Then, the guild staff-san reservedly interjected.
"Umm....May I?"
"What? Say it?"
"People normally don't think of breaking through the labyrinth where monsters are crawling, away from their safety zone, I think such an idea comes up because guildmaster and chevalier-sama are strong. Even if there are some people who come up with the idea, the majority won't move unless there's a reason like having limited food. In actuality, they have crops from the cultivated field."
"In other words, there must be secret hideouts nearby where they can move safely to huh?"
"Yes, there might be hidden passages that couldn't be detected by the young lady retainer of Chevalier-sama."
"Then I guess I'll torture Rudaman until he spits it out."
Looks like the guildmaster is going to torture Rudaman after this, but since it doesn't seem like she'll kill him, let's not mind it.
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I acquire the consent of the women sheltered in the mansion of ivy to stay there by saying that it's because "They will be killed by the mastermind behind the lost thieves if they get out right now". Strangely enough, there were only a handful of people who persistently wanted to go back to the city, most didn't seem eager. I tell them to be patient for 10 days. I'll do something in the meantime.
At the present time, these women are unlikely to be eliminated by the mastermind.
According to the guildmaster's story, I can probably release the people who don't have compounding or alchemy skills. Since the fact that this is the mansion of ivy have been known to them I can't release those people right now. It should work out somehow if I bring them to populated places nearby the royal or the duchy capital, or maybe some villages in Muno barondom and then give them a new name and ID.
I should search some places that can accept them.