Roja, Leader of the Dissection Team, Subordinate Team, Unit 5, Guild [Radiant Fang]
The only information available is that they live in the slums.
When it comes to the slums, the authorities never bother keeping records of addresses. People in the slums are transient—living in one shack today, moving to a better one tomorrow if they find it.
One day, someone' s living with one person; a few days later, they' ve split up and moved in with someone else. Or they vanish mysteriously, and someone new takes their place.
Information from the slums is a chaotic mess, utterly unreliable.
For all we know, those two siblings might' ve been kidnapped and sold off, or beaten to death by someone already.
I thanked the clerk and headed back to the guild.
Without at least fifty people, no one should venture into the slums at night. It' s too risky—nighttime predators might ambush you.
Tonight, Lord Jaigia will undoubtedly be obsessed with the matter of the dagger.
A crippled kid and a weakling? I' ll take the team to grab them tomorrow morning. Plenty of time.
As expected, when I returned to the guild, the atmosphere was heavy.
A bloodlust and murderous intent so intense it enveloped the entire guild could only come from Lord Jaigia.
Even the [Rank D] members froze, struggling to breathe under the suffocating pressure.
Something must' ve happened with that dagger.
If Lord Jaigia' s rage is directed at the culprits, the dagger might be damaged but still intact.
But if he returns drenched in blood like this, it means the dagger is gone.
Lord Jaigia ordered the main team to head to that dungeon.
There' s no reason for him to send his elite team to a dead dungeon unless it' s to clean up any survivors—though I' d bet there are none—or to eliminate witnesses who happened to see something.
After issuing the order, Lord Jaigia hurriedly left the guild.
The only person who can stop him from killing indiscriminately is Lady Rachel.
But with the haste he showed, Lady Rachel' s probably going to come close to dying several times tonight.
Thinking back to the days before Lord Jaigia brought Lady Rachel into the guild…
Back then, cleanup jobs were overwhelming.
Dismembering corpses for easy disposal in the dungeon became my specialty, earning me a promotion to leader of the dissection team.
Before dawn the next day, I led about thirty members of the subordinate team— [Rank C] and [Rank D] —toward the slums in a horse-drawn carriage.
We left the carriage at the slum' s entrance with the driver to guard it.
Unlike the city, the slums have no magical lighting. I had a light mage illuminate the way.
The slums have their own rules, something I learned as a kid.
The slums are a breeding ground for the adaptable. The weak don' t survive.
If you enter alone and don' t look tough, the slum dwellers will swarm you in a "welcome" you' ll never walk away from alive.
But if you look strong or bring a large group, they' ll scatter and hide better than sewer rats.
Searching house by house in the crowded, sprawling slums is no easy task.
The simplest method is buying information with money. But I' ve seen it before, back when I was under the old team leader.
Let me tell you, it' s all fake. They' ll point you in the wrong direction, send you to someone else, who' ll pretend to know and sell you more "information."
They' ll string you along, scamming you until you' re fed up and leave.
But if you try to force information out of them, you' d better be as powerful and fearsome as Lord Jaigia.
Otherwise, expect retaliation someday.
Even coercion doesn' t guarantee accurate information—they' ll lie to the bitter end.
So, I ordered my team not to harm anyone unless provoked first.
Some beggars swarmed us like flies, asking for money, but my team brandished weapons to keep them at bay.
Letting them get too close risks pickpockets snatching valuables, so we maintained distance.
My target was the only water source in the slums: the sewage canal.
By the time water reaches the slums, it' s filled with garbage and human waste from the palace, noble districts, inner city, and outer city.
The water is thick, black, and reeks so badly it could make an unaccustomed person vomit and pass out on the spot.
So, we had our team' s mage cast a purification spell on clean cloths to cover our mouths and noses as we approached the canal.
My plan was to question kids, but not all of them can be trusted. They' re cunning, hardened by the need to survive.
The slums' favorite saying? "Fools deserve to be conned to death."
The kids I was looking for were the weak, defenseless ones who hide and scavenge scraps of garbage to survive.
When we reached the canal, I signaled for a light spell to be shot into the sky, then quickly scanned the area.
There were kids and old folks alike—some fled in panic, others froze in place, and some eyed our gear and weapons with greed.
Then I spotted my target: a filthy kid with matted hair obscuring their face. I couldn' t tell if they were a boy or girl, but they were so weak they could barely lift a broken wooden bucket without their arms trembling.
I led the team closer, within range to grab them if needed, then signaled everyone to stop.
If we scared the kid and they jumped into the canal to hide, no one would dare dive in to fish them out.
While the light still shone, I approached politely, knelt down, and asked what I needed in a friendly tone, flashing a fake sincere smile.
"Do you know where the Nehu family lives?"
"I know them well," the kid replied.
Their eyes showed surprise at the question but no fear. Though it was a girl, she didn' t seem like the Nehu we were after.
I pulled out three copper coins, holding them in my fist, pretending to fidget with them so she' d notice how many I had.
When I saw the glint of greed in her eyes, fixated on the coins, I knew I could get information. But to be sure…
"How many people are in that family?"
"Three," she said. "All girls."
"Can you describe what each of them looks like?"
"The oldest is a useless cripple who can only lie in bed. The middle one' s supposedly just a [Rank F] , so she' s as worthless as her sister."
"And the last one?"
"A weak kid who needs help escaping that useless family. That' s Elda Nehu—me."
"Stop joking."
"I' m really Elda! Please, take me away from that trash family!"
"Two copper coins."
"Ugh… You don' t believe me?"
"One copper coin."
"Fine! I' ll tell you the way."
She stuck out her hand, and I tossed her one copper coin.
"Go straight until you hit the city wall, then turn right. Walk about seventeen houses, and you' ll find a small shack made of rotten wood tied together with rope."
"Any other landmarks?"
She held out her hand again, so I tossed her another copper coin.
"There' s an old, unused drainage pipe behind the house."
Then she walked off with her bucket. I signaled two team members to tail her, just in case.
I led the rest of the team along the path she described.
If the information' s fake, we' ll torture and kill her later.
We' re racing against time before Lord Jaigia wakes.
Even if Lady Rachel took the brunt of his rage, the dagger still isn' t back.
So, anyone who fails a mission right now should brace for Lord Jaigia' s wrath.
Along the way, my team and I kept an eye out for girls, grabbing some to question.
We caught a few, but others were too quick, slipping away like rats.
For the slower ones, I ordered no one to chase alone—some kids are sent as bait to lure you into traps.
The weak ones we caught were interrogated, but their information was all over the place, pointing in random directions.
With nothing useful, we had to follow the girl' s directions.
It took us a while to reach the place.
At the house, I led the team straight to the door and kicked it down.
"Rojaaaa! Huff huff!"
Just then, the two I sent to tail the girl shouted for me, gasping for breath.
"Who the hell are you?!"
I turned back to the house. A filthy middle-aged man yelled at me, swinging a fist.
Either the girl lied, or this guy took over the house.
I kicked him, sending him crashing into the wall. The old wooden structure collapsed easily.
"Do you know the Nehu kids?"
Before he could answer, the two I sent shouted again.
"Roja! Stop!"
But their warning came too late.
From the drainage pipe out back, over thirty beggars rushed out.
Each wielded weapons like adventurers, a stark contrast to their beggar appearance.
Their grip on the weapons suggested they weren' t amateurs.
My team readied for a fight. This number was manageable, especially if the other half of our team, sent to search another house, joined us.
The real issue was: who did these guys belong to?
The two who caught up reported they couldn' t find the girl, but they overheard her shouting about "Ghost Rats."
I realized immediately—this was a hideout of the [Ghost Rat] child-snatching gang.
They kidnap kids to sell to rich buyers in other kingdoms. At first, they targeted slum kids. People complained, but the authorities didn' t care—missing or dead, it was all the same to them.
Emboldened, the gang started kidnapping kids from the outer city.
When too many missing children cases piled up, the nobles caught wind. They didn' t care at first.
But when kids started disappearing from the inner city, near their own districts, the nobles pressured the authorities to issue a sweep mission.
The gang uses the slums as a hideout, blending in as slum dwellers.
Even when caught, it' s only low-level grunts who kidnap or guard the holding houses. They don' t know other hideouts, the main base, or how the kids are smuggled out or sold.
So, the gang' s still untouchable.
Now, suddenly, every door in the area swung open. More beggar-like figures poured out, surrounding us, armed to the teeth.
Roughly over fifty of them. They seemed weaker than the ones from the drainage pipe, relying on numbers.
If I had to guess, they' re [Rank F] nobodies—cheap labor for any dirty job, hired for scraps.