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“I didn’t expect this city to be so big…”

Three hours had passed after her arrival at Meditorea. She had spent that time walking around the city, seeing how things were there, and if possible, gathering information pertaining to August. Now she was taking a break in the corner of a small cafe.

The city was large enough to fit within a square with three kilometer sides.
The buildings were packed densely together, and the streets crowded with people, making it a rather lively place.

August was said to be in the pleasure district of the city, which turned out to be less helpful than expected.
Meditorea had a particular layout, with around seventy percent being the pleasure district.

On top of that, nine out of ten from all food establishments focused on serving alcohol, being taverns, bars, or pubs, and only a handful were restaurants or cafes like the one Mira was in.
Then there were plenty of host and cabaret clubs, love hotels, playhouses, and so on.
Even brothels were not ashamed to advertise openly, while escorts, both female and male, stood alongside the main streets waiting for clients.

Stores also had a particular variety, not really selling groceries but more recreational stuff, from sweets to tobacco. Some even included various drugs that were not considered illegal.

In the very center of the city, as one would expect from such a place, was an enormous casino, larger and broader than any other building.
At first sight it looked more like a palace.

Overall, the impression left in Mira was that Meditorea was a city focused on pleasure with no restraint, lively but with no elegance.
For some, that place was like a dream made real, even if it could not escape the harsh price of maintaining such a place, a whirlpool of lust aimed at a certain group of adults.
That was the true identity of Meditorea.

(How should I start searching now?)

It was barely noon, but the state of the streets could be best described as filled with night-activity. She noted that from the cafe’s window, and wondered how she would manage to sniff out August there.

All Garroba had said was that August was holed up somewhere in Meditorea’s pleasure district, with no idea as to the exact location or particulars. Mira’s only choice was to search through the enormous city on her own.

No one had anticipated that the pleasure district would be this vast before her arrival, and Mira sipped on her Paradise au Lait as she pondered just how to go about wringing him out of his hideout.

(Just looking around…would be too reckless.)

It was possible to use her former player’s eyes and just Examine everyone she came about, but that would require her to get close enough to see their faces, and it was not even realistic in such a densely packed city.

(And I can’t forget that I’ll be better off not using Worthramble’s power here.)

Worthramble, the stillness spirit, had become a staple of Mira’s investigations, allowing her to easily slip into even the most secure of locations undetected. Sadly things were a bit harder this time.

As she looked around the pleasure district, she noticed security devices set up everywhere. On the top of buildings, around corners, in front of stores, and alongside streets.

She had registered more than a couple dozen in the less than three hours she spent there. Wondering what they were, she had asked a nearby store owner about them.
He explained that they were devices set up to prevent crime.

Most of the city belonged to the pleasure district, and for every respectable business, there were many less scrupulous ones, creating an environment that hardly could be called safe.

There was also that casino, likely the biggest of the entire continent. Some days, the flow of money was centered there instead of around the market.
As a result, many people were drawn to that wealth, wanting to get their hands on it through any means.

(I guess there’s always some overly generous person out there.)

Those devices had been installed and paid for out-of-pocket by some mysterious patron of the city, to protect the wealth of those living there, and to provide safety to those enjoying their time there.

They were also highly effective, being fine tuned to detect the effects of spells and Magic Wares, especially those that attempted to conceal them.
In other words, they detected magic disguises and hidden items, on top of tracking the activation of mana, like when spells are used.

Once a device was triggered, it took less than a minute for guards to show up.
According to the shop owner, they were so effective that since they were installed, such items had stopped showing up in the city, and there had been no street fights involving spells.

(I’d love to experiment with them, but I don’t want to deal with the police here. What should I do…)

The urge to test the devices against Worthramble’s power consumed Mira.
He had the ability to conceal one visually, audibly, as well as erasing mana and living signatures. Quite different from the methods used by usual low-lives.

But there was no guarantee that they detected everything, and it was important to know their limits.Maybe they could be fooled by the power of stillness, or maybe they would instantly detect it.

Hence her desire to experiment with them, except that it would cause a lot of problems if she was found out.
It would loudly announce that someone was trying to sneak around the city.

August was still a leader of Ira Muerte, and he also likely had access to all the reports from those devices.
There was even the possibility that he was the very person who had installed all of those devices, all in preparation for the day when someone came to search for him and Ira Muerte.

All that generous talk about protecting the city and those visiting could easily be a cover to their true functionality.
Considering the danger of that possibility, it was wiser to not mess with them.

(He might already know that we captured Garroba too. It’d be best if I avoid setting off any alarms.)