"Mie is missing?!" Soleil exclaimed in urgency. She looked just about ready to explode out the door to look for her. But then, she turned to Matthias and asked, "Who's Mie?"

"She's the mage who always hangs out around Nail. Don't you remember?"

Soleil tilted her head, looking absolutely baffled. Her brows were knit tight with the effort she was exerting. It bothered Matthias horribly. If it had been a cartoon, then there would be steam coming out of her ears by that time. After a few seconds, she was still not done thinking.

"... She's the one who started the campfire when we had our barbecue. The one who could breathe fire and likes her steak rare."

"Oh, her!"

Why could she remember if the details are related to food?

Whatever. That wasn't important. Matthias waved his hand and called out to Nail. When the latter noticed him, he immediately went over with a crazed look on his face.

"Have you seen her today?"

Sure enough, that was his first question. And considering the events up until that time, Matthias had a rough idea of what was happening.

"Hold on. Did you tell her what happened?"

The guild was supposed to announce the summary of yesterday later that day. The only way for one of Nail’s party members to hear of what happened to the east, an area outside of their assigned target, was through him, who had heard it from Matthias.

Sure enough, Nail showed a rare look of hesitation on his face. But then, he took a deep breath and nodded.

"I… did. Kinda. But I didn't say all of them were dead in the end. I thought she might blame you guys…"

"Right…"

What was worse? Being blamed by someone for the death of their relative, or knowing that someone might be hurt because someone else tried to protect you? He would rather be hated than see someone get hurt… even though being hated was one of the worst thoughts to carry around.

Matthias thought of how to convey what he felt. Words were easy to misunderstand. The guy was distraught, after all. But some people just didn’t bother with that process.

“Why didn’t you? Just tell her the truth. Even if she blames us, we know it’s not our fault.”

Soleil really had a way with words. As far as Matthias was concerned, honesty wasn’t always the best choice. But judging from Nail’s worsening mood, he seemed to agree with her.

Before an awkward silence could take over, Matthias decided to change the topic.

"Where's the rest of you?"

"They went east to find her. I stayed behind to look for her within town. I’m kind of… useless in the forest."

"Figures." Matthias sunk into contemplation. It wasn't like he had to think about it in the first place. He was going to go out there to help search for her regardless. After all, there were still bandits about. Just because they’ve cleared their target areas doesn't completely rule out any wandering bands.

In fact, according to the guild last night, the vagabonds had started to become much more active after that morning. Since a lot of bandit camps have been eradicated by the adventurers late that day, everybody expected there to be a big migration of smaller groups from farther out coming to the area to fill in the void. Since time was of the essence to fill that power vacuum, there should be a lot of wandering looters out and about already.

Sure, that was worrying. If she was out in the woods all alone, then she was obviously in danger. But what he was immediately worried about was something else.

"Don't even think about it," he stated while staring daggers at Soleil. "You're under house arrest. Don't give us more problems."

"Ehhhh… but I'm worried! Also, I'm bored!"

Like a conditioned reflex, Matthias immediately ignored the latter part of her sentence. But he chastised her anyway. It was a habit he had developed after almost a month of having her in his company.

After just a few exchanges, they heard a laugh. Nail was shaking his head. A strained smile was on his face. Matthias wondered what was funny. Judging by the look on Soleil’s face, she didn’t know either.

He was only able to calm down somewhat after almost half a minute. By then, he looked to have at least relaxed by quite a bit.

“I don’t know why, but I feel better with you two around.” Then, his face strained once again. He squeezed out his following words with great difficulty. “What do you think? Is Mie… okay?”

It was a hard question. Matthias didn’t want to give him any false hopes. If Mie wasn’t at all okay, then that would only break his heart even more. However, sometimes hope was what people really needed. He knew that all too well. That was what he lacked in his previous life, after all.

But, again, some people really didn’t bother with all that contemplation nonsense.

“Huh? I wouldn’t know.”

Soleil’s careless words stunned both men into silence. Indifferent to the turmoil she might cause, Soleil blurted out, “You should ask her yourself. Are you an idiot?”

“Go out and find her,” was what she meant.

It didn’t take long for Nail to realize that. For the first time that day, he smiled brightly and thanked Soleil for her words. Matthias, on the other hand, was dumbstruck. He comprehended her words much more deeply than Nail did.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“What an enviable mindset,” he thought. She didn’t rely on others to pick herself up. But he was well aware that she was a team player. Weeks of experience fighting alongside her had taught him that. She knew how to depend on them for things that weren't possible for her instead of wasting her time. In a word, she was efficient. She would do anything to charge forward. It was a perfect fit for someone whose main role was to launch herself into the middle of a battle.

The peace that followed, however, didn’t last long.

“Nail!”

The door to the guild was flung open violently once again. It was Kilo. Similar to Nail, he looked winded as he came in. But unlike him, his expression as he did was a mix of both worry and delight.

“We found her,” he said between breaths.

Relief immediately spread across Nail's face. It even looked like he almost fainted.

“That… didn’t take long. Where is she?”

“A short distance from the edge of the forest. She’s… with the party that took over the noble kid’s.”

“Oh.”

If that was so, then undoubtedly they would have brought the bodies back with them.

Though she had been confirmed to be safe, Nail’s mood still plummeted again. He had a new set of problems. Matthias remembered Soleil’s remark from earlier. It was likely that Nail realized it as well. He should have just told her the truth. Though Nail did it to protect Matthias and Manna, with Soleil there pulling everybody forward, he had underestimated the collective group’s ability to cope.

“Thank you. I have to go now,” Nail bid with a strained smile.

“Alright. Good luck,” Matthias replied. That was probably all he could do at that point. Directly involving himself would just make things worse.

“Make sure to tell her the truth, a’ight?”

Nail stood up and walked towards Kilo. But the latter stopped him.

“Don’t bother. They’re coming back here.”

Matthias choked on his water.

“They're going to carry the bodies here?”

----------------------------------------

Out of consideration for Nail, Matthias decided to evacuate from the building early. Coincidentally, Soleil had to be locked up again by that time, and Manna had conveniently just woken up. Unlike Soleil, Matthias and Manna were allowed to go out as they pleased as long as they didn’t start any troubles with the town guard.

Before they went out, Soleil gave them a large parcel and asked for it to be delivered to someone who was waiting for them behind the bakery. Since she didn’t specify which, they took it to mean the one where they usually met during their few days off.

“What do you think this is?”

The parcel was very heavy, but it was warm to the touch for some reason. Soleil also specified that it should only be held in a certain way underneath it.

“It’s food. Duh,” Manna mocked him.

“How could you tell?”

“What else could it be? If it was something else, then you could hold it however you want,” she said while shrugging. “Also, it has the scent of meat.”

Matthias raised his eyebrow. How could she tell? He couldn’t smell anything. He even tried smelling the paper wrapping closely but still couldn’t pick up a scent.

“Dunno, man. Maybe you have a cold?”

He most definitely did not have a cold.

They soon arrived at the bakery, which wasn’t that far in the first place. There was only one alleyway beside it that would lead to a deeper area. Despite being early in the morning, the sun shone in such a way that covered the path before them in an eerie darkness.

"... Is this it?"

"No other place like it, is there? This should lead to the slums."

Matthias grumbled. He didn't expect that he would be led into the hidden neighborhood in town. His hand unconsciously moved to his expensive sword in fear of it being stolen.

What was Soleil's business there?

"Come on, let's go. Or are you afraid of the dark?"

Despite saying that, Manna waited behind him until he summoned enough conviction to take the first step.

As a large, highly-developed town with a dungeon, the previous town lord wanted to give his domain a clean and orderly appearance to attract people. During his reign, one of the things he did was to have merchants and business owners build around the large part of the city where beggars, criminals and other undesirables tended to gather. With the help of the local knights and adventurers, they were successful in herding the scattered ones into it as well. The task of preventing them from causing trouble was then delegated to the town guard, which was a terrible idea. Anyway, that particular area became unofficially designated as the town’s slums. There were only a few paths available to enter it, and all of them were located such that it would always be dark regardless of the time of day.

Except noon, probably.

As soon as the light of the sun disappeared from Matthias' surroundings, a very unpleasant smell assaulted his nose. It was the odor of rotting food, mold and excrements mixed together.

Garbage littered the unpaved path and there were even bloodstains in conspicuous locations. Occasionally, they would encounter beggars who would ask for some coin or a half-dead drunk lying on the side of the street. There were no good things to see there, and the farther they went, the seedier the place became.

Well, it was to be expected that the whorehouses would be located there…

"Where's the guy we're supposed to meet?" Matthias asked, clearly looking uncomfortable. He was completely out of his element, both as a noble and as a modern man who at the very least enjoyed an apartment room of his own.

"Dunno. But I doubt we've passed them."

Just as she mentioned that, they heard a commotion up ahead. Judging by the voices, the ones involved were only kids. They were having some sort of heated argument between each other. But from that distance, Matthias couldn't determine what they were talking about. He turned to Manna for help only to find her with a meaningful smile.

"I think we found him; them, rather."

They followed the voices down a corner and beheld an old, dilapidated church. Its once-white walls had been weathered by the elements badly, exposing the gray stones underneath. Almost every window was broken and replaced with either a plank of wood or rags. There were several crates stacked messily on one side of the lawn, and a pile of garbage was heaped on the other.

Five kids and one adult stood facing each other on the unkempt lawn. Matthias gaped. He immediately recognized the children; he had seen them back during the day when he “accidentally” flashed Soleil.

That was an awkward time.

What surprised him was that he also recognized the taller lady.

“Is that Jelyn?”

The former adventurer turned around when she heard her name. Her eyes widened when she saw Matthias… then she winced upon noticing Manna. “Mister Matthias? And… Miss Manna. Hello.” She bowed after greeting them. But to Matthias, it looked more like she was trying to avoid Manna’s gaze.

He responded by waving his hand.

The children, upon seeing strangers appear, had two different reactions. The three beastkin and the dwarven child all hid themselves behind Jelyn, fear prominent in their eyes. Meanwhile, the human boy ran forward and stretched his arms between them and the others like he was trying to protect them.

“I’m not some evil tax collector, you know?” Matthias cried out in his heart.

He wondered what they were doing there until the boy screamed something interesting.

“Teacher Soleil isn’t here! I told you crooks already!”