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I took Den along, and when we arrived at the inn Michelle and Cloud were staying at, the receptionist women greeted us as always. But what she told us was that they were still not back.

“Didn’t they say they’d be back in three days at the latest?”
“That’s what I heard too. Did they get involved in some trouble?”
“I think Michelle should be able to avoid most trouble, given her skill.”
“Is she really that skilled? Ah, right, right.”

She seemed to have remembered something and took a folded note from under the counter. Seeing that it wasn’t sealed, I felt it to be suspicious.

“What’s this?”
“Some smug-looking man brought this. He told me to hand it over to a silver-haired beauty. That should be you, right?”
“I think that’s most likely the case.”

I took the note and opened it to check what it said. It only had southern third warehouse written on it.

“Southern…third warehouse?”
“That place has bad public order so many suspicious fellows frequent it. It would be wiser for a cute girl like you not to approach it.”

The receptionist warned me when she heard my mutter. But I could deal with most of the danger. I was more concerned that I received this note while Michelle and Cloud weren’t back.

I gleaned at Den behind me and put up a false show.

“Yeah, I’ll be careful. Den?”
“Huh…Ah, yes. Understood, I will go and check the situation.”

I acted this way in front of the receptionist intentionally. Den didn’t know what was happening, but he quickly realized my intention and played along. This note was most likely related to Cain’s actions. If so, it wouldn’t be strange for someone to be monitoring us right now. I judged so and acted like this.

Of course, I didn’t have the slightest intention to return to the dormitory.

“That mister, over there? That somehow makes me worried in its own way.”
“Well, that’s what his appearance suggests, I suppose. But he is quite strong, you know?”
“Oh… Is he your sweetheart perhaps?”
“Please give me a break. This is important so I’ll repeat it, seriously, drop it.”

People often misunderstood it like this when they saw Den and me together, but I wished they would put it to rest. I had no plans to hook up with a guy.

We left the inn while I felt weary. Needless to say, our destination was the southern warehouse.

I first decided to change into an easy-to-move jersey in a nearby second-hand store. I wanted to avoid wearing a hard-to-move and conspicuous academy uniform in a place where there was no knowing what could happen.

Then we arrived at the southern warehouse district, we could see the warehouse in question from the direction of the back alley that couldn’t be seen from the main street.

From what we could see so far, a few men were going in and out of that warehouse. From what I could see, they were all clad in white clothes and wore masks, so it was highly likely that the place was the factory of the drug in question.

The reason was that I noticed yellowish powder on their uniforms. It was of the same color as the Fungus spores.

“I see, so this is the drug factory, huh?”
“It is most likely the case. Should we inspect it?”
“Of course. But you… probably can’t sneak inside.”
“My apologies, I have no scouting skills.”

He was originally an Ogre that couldn’t even do anything civil, so just the fact that he could serve as a butler made his existence astounding. It would be cruel to demand him to have scout skills on top of that.

I really want to ask just what kind of education did that god put him through.

Incidentally, when I asked Den about that, he muttered, “If I did not listen, his fist would…” and then went quiet, so it was a mystery to me.

“Got it. Then I’ll do the scouting alone.”
“Understood. Please be careful.”

Den understood that he couldn’t do covert operations. As well as the fact that we had to investigate things now that Michelle hadn’t come back. As such, he accepted me going on ahead without objections.

I immediately activated my Stealth Gift and erased my presence. Then I approached the warehouse while hiding in the shadows. The third warehouse was not a place normal merchants used, and appeared to be a tattered building. However, it was about the size of a two-story house, so it could accommodate quite a lot of people.

“Still, it has wooden walls despite being a warehouse. And isn’t it all tattered?”

The walls made with wooden planks looked quite corroded and had gaps here and there. I felt like it wasn’t very adequate for managing drugs. As I peeked inside from one of those gaps, I saw men in white moving about through the gloomy space filled with wooden boxes.

“So that drug isn’t made here, huh? Then where…hmm?”

Then I realized that the ceiling was quite low. I didn’t notice it due to the darkness, but there seemed to be a second floor. On a closer look, one corner of the warehouse had an atrium shape, and there was something like a crane with a hanging board on it. There were no stairs anywhere else, so they seemed to be moving between the floors using that crane.

“Hmm… so they are making the drug on the second floor?”

I hooked a thread on the downspout near the ceiling and pulled myself up. I thought the walls on the second floor would have holes too, but on a closer look, the gaps were plugged by something like clay, sealing everything hermetically.

“Tsk, I guess they wouldn’t be doing compounding in a place riddled with holes.”

Still, I could feel a human presence beyond the wall. Not just that, I could even hear voices beyond the wooden boards.

“Hey, you haven’t laid your hand on her yet?”
“Oh, Boss. No, that would be…”

It was a kind of lecherous voice. It was definitely Cain’s. What did he mean by laying hands? I wanted to see what was happening inside, so I decided to open a hole in the wall and look inside. I found a shaded place and opened the hole there so the light wouldn’t enter inside.

And when I looked in, I saw tied-up Michelle and Cloud there.