Project GB is an official initiative by Re:Library.

The possibility of checking in, and then arranging for the escort to arrive a few hours later, would be ideal. That way she would have plenty of time to search for August. Somehow it had taken her a long time to even consider that.

Most places should offer the possibility to schedule that stuff.

“I can’t believe something so simple escaped me… It must be this place getting to my head…”

The red-light district was filled with a dazzling air of lust. All of that was clouding her judgment, or maybe she was getting impatient, or she just hoped to see an escort soon, either way she was becoming sloppy with her ideas.

She reprimanded herself for being so narrow sighted, and stood up, her mind made. She would choose the full-night plan, arrange for her escort to arrive late in the night, and use all the time until then to search for August.

Then once she apprehended August, her mission would be complete, and she would not have to worry about being in the room or not.

At the moment that was the ideal solution.

Now she only had to send Wooftson away as he could not enter the palace, and… She had to stop herself again. There was a chance that doing so would also trigger the security devices.

The method by which summons were sent away had also been one of her topics of research.

The underlying mechanisms were surprisingly simple. All summons were protected by a spell that would forcibly send them home if they were in serious danger, and when Mira chose to send them away, she was essentially manually triggering that system.

What worried Mira was the fact that it also meant *activating* a spell, which might be detected by the devices.

“In that case…”

Mira had to stop and consider her options once again. Sending Wooftson away there was not possible. She also could not bring him into the castle. As far as she could see, there were no places with enough privacy nearby either.

She could leave him sitting outside, but a Cu Sith sitting there for no discernable reason would also attract unwanted attention. Just a little investigation would also reveal that he was a summon.

As more people began to wonder why and by who he was summoned, word might spread to August, alerting him.

She could leave him pretending to be a plushie, but that could also cause a mess if someone randomly picked him up.

“I made it this far without raising suspicion, so let’s not ruin it by being hasty.”

After mulling it over, she decided on the best solution. She would go outside of the city and send him away there. With her plan decided, it was time to act and she headed out.

The fastest way out was through the main road, also called the road of dreams, lined with towering luxurious establishments, which led straight out of the red-light district. Partway through it, she passed by the front of the newly opened Miracle Heaven. And there…

‘Dear owner, I can hear a crying woman woof!’

Wooftson perked his sharp ears.

He was able to hear across large distances, and what he heard now made his eyes burn with a desire for justice, pointing to the direction of the cries he heard.

Mira could not forget that capturing August was her current crucial mission, and she could not afford to take detours.

And she was in the red-light district, it was common for quarrels to break out, or even more likely, it was all some sort of fetish play. There would never be an end to it if she stuck her head into every noise she heard.

“Hmm…I guess we can go take a look.”

But no man alive would ever ignore a crying woman. Mira also shared Wooftson’s sense of justice, and turned into the direction of those cries.

Wooftson’s directions led her to the rear side of Miracle Heaven, which started with taking a turn into a side street, and then into an alleyway.

“So just inside there…”

Mira looked into the alleyway, a decent distance away from the main street.

Unlike the road of dreams, this place looked more calm…or rather, more plain. The people were also different, instead of escorts everywhere, she saw regular workers of the establishments in plain clothes carrying heavy boxes.

Most of the grunt work happened in those alleyways, with people transporting supplies without disturbing the beautiful appearance of the main streets.

“I’ll just go here and then take a turn…”

She did her best to appear like she knew where she was going, as if she also worked for some establishment there, and peeked around the corner of another alleyway, completely out of view from the streets.

There she saw various benches, with women sitting on them taking a break.

That was the other use for those alleyways, for the main workers of the establishments to get some peace and rest.

Mira had no way of knowing it, but the establishments tended to be filled with strong scents to enhance the mood inside, which could become overwhelming for the workers, so they often went out to get a breath of fresh air.

Some also went out after they had completed a job, which was evident from their rosy cheeks and overall demeanor. Depending on one’s viewpoint, that only made them look even more alluring to men.

(I don’t know how safe these alleys are either…)

She looked around like she was in a whole new world, advancing through the alleyway until she finally reached the hind side of Miracle Heaven.

“*Sniff*…I…I know…but…*sniff*…I didn’t know…”

Just as Wooftson had said, there was a woman crying there, protesting about some agreement.

“But you already agreed to go…”

Another woman was also there, gently trying to reason with the crying woman. All Mira knew so far was that the crying woman had agreed to go somewhere, and now regretted that decision to the point of breaking into tears.

(Hmm…I need to know more to make a decision.)

Mira went there with the full intention of helping the crying woman, but now she realized she needed to know some more context first. Especially considering what the other woman had said.

Still, there had to be a good reason why the woman was crying so much. So Mira decided to continue listening in to their conversation to figure out what had happened.

Only, even in that alleyway there were workers passing by in both directions, and someone would get suspicious if she just stood there listening.

To avoid that, she went to sit on a nearby bench, pretending to be one of the women resting outside, and to complete her act, she took out a Lemon Ginger au Lait to sip while she listened.

But no matter how hard she tried, it was impossible for her to look the same way as the escorts. Her best efforts to blend in only made her look like some girl who knew no shame.

At least in her mind she believed she was doing a perfect job, and was quite proud of it.