Chapter 381 Lady Penelope

One thing was similar with all the women, and they all looked to be five feet or shorter and very pretty. They were all slim and had short curly hair that was dyed in all sorts of odd colors, but they also looked well-kept with how it was styled. I think they could best be described as colorful pixies that seemed to just fill the room with their presence.

"Hello? Anyone here?" I asked uncertainty, not sure if this was a good idea or not anymore. This place felt off like there was something not quite right about it at all.

A few moments later, one of the women walked out from what appeared to be a back room dressed in a very fancy-looking blue dress with her hair done up elegantly on top of her head. She looked me up and down for a moment before she gave me a bright smile and motioned for me to come inside without a word.

I hesitated for a moment, but then I walked in, and she shut the door behind me before she turned to face me once again. A sweet smell was in the air that I couldn't quite place, and it almost felt like the room was spinning. But I pushed those thoughts aside as she started talking and led me further into the building.

"Welcome to our humble home. I am Lady Penelope, one of the sisters of this Balishire family," she said with a curtsy that somehow managed to make her look both elegant and playful at the same time. "And you are?"

"Galio, Cat God, 13th Zodiac, slayer of monsters, and a slayer of... never mind. Tallia, your goddess, sent me to help clean things up here in Torrain, and I did in the surrounding towns, but now I am here to find Hilda, but low and behold, she has disappeared! I am here to see what you know of the incident," I explained, and Lady Penelope looked at me with an uneasy look.

"I think that is something that you should talk to Mother about. She is the one that is the head of the Balishire family, so she will be able to help you more with that, but you are really the one everyone is talking about?" Lady Penelope asked me with a now curious look, and I raised an eyebrow.

"Do I even want to know what they are saying?" I asked, and Lady Penelope tapped a finger to her chin.

"That you have a large and strange growth between your legs, it can shoot fluids across the room, and there was some other stuff about being an all-powerful magic user that can raise up entire cities?" Lady Penelope asked me, her look becoming more interesting as her own words went on.

"Just how many women have seen this thing?" I asked with a sigh, and Lady Penelope shrugged.

"Don't worry about it too much. They were all just very curious, is all," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand before she started leading me deeper into the building again. "But you really want to talk to Mother."

The room we entered next looked like an indoor garden, but instead of plants, there were more women here in all sorts of different clothes and colors; some even had their hair done up in very strange styles that would put even the most outlandish fashions back home to shame. A few were even wearing what appeared to be jewelry made of flowers, and they all stopped their conversations to look at me as I walked in.

"Everyone, this is Galio, the one that has been causing such a stir lately," Lady Penelope said in a loud voice that got everyone's attention before she started leading me through the room toward a door on the other side. "And he wants to talk to Mother about something."

The women parted before us as we walked through them towards the door, and I could feel their eyes on my back as we left the room. It was a bit unnerving, but thankfully it didn't last long as Lady Penelope led me into another room that was more like what I had expected from these people. The walls were lined with bookshelves filled with all sorts of different books, and there was a large table in the middle of the room that had a map spread out on it.

A woman that looked to be in her mid-forties was standing next to the table, and she turned to look at me as we entered the room. I could see why these women were so prestigious; this woman carried herself with an air of authority that demanded respect. She looked me up and down for a moment before she gestured for me to come closer.

"So you are Galio?" she asked, and I nodded before I explained how Hilda had disappeared suddenly after seeming to come and visit this building but never making it. "I see, and you think that we had something to do with it?"

"It would seem the most likely place to start," I said, and she nodded before she sat down in a chair near the map table.

"Well, I am afraid that we do not know anything about Hilda's disappearance. She came to us a few days ago asking about some things, but they were just to iron out some details about changes if she came into the ruling position. We told her that we would look into what Hilda had asked, but she never came back," Mother explained, and I frowned.

"What kind of changes were these that she was asking about?" I asked, and Mother shrugged.

"Just some things about how the city is run. She seemed to think that there were some inefficiencies in our system, but we told her that we would look into it," Mother said, and I frowned as I thought about what Connie had said about Hilda wanting to talk to them.

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