CH 500

「If what they told me is true, then it should be around here.」

Rei muttered while looking around a room.

Elena and Nakuto were nearby.

As for the rest, Vihera, Byune, and Essetus remained as guards for the unconscious men near the entrance, where the battle had taken place.

Even though Rei had learned the location of the hidden room from the man, Nakuto was chosen to come with him because a thief would probably be needed to open the entrance to the room while Elena was going to help if any of the captives were women.

That said, another reason for this grouping was because Vihera said she would wait at the entrance as there probably wasn’t going to be any more fighting.

「……Yeah, there’s no doubt about it. It’s as they said.」

When Nakuto examined the floor and removed some floor boards, a set of stairs was found.

「Heh, looks like this is it.」

Looking at the stairs, Rei muttered without much thought.

However, Elena, who was next to him, spoke with a wry smile on her face.

「They were threatened so much that they didn’t have the guts to lie in that situation.」

「That’s right. Their fear of Vihera was……well, in a way, it couldn’t be helped.」

After fighting Vihera, the Mad Beast, it wasn’t surprising that a fear of her would be engraved into their minds.

In such a situation, it was impossible for the man being interrogated by Vihera, who had a vicious smile on her face, to not give up.

It might have been a different situation if it were the men that Rei and Set had captured, but the ones who had fought Vihera and the others……or more precisely were trampled over by them, were just thugs from the slums who had been hired with money.

As a result, Rei and the others quickly learned of the prison’s location.

「Let’s go.」

Just in case, Nakuto, who was a thief, lead the way, followed by Rei and Elena.

As it was just stairs leading to a basement, it took them less than a minute to get to the bottom.

(It was probably because of this basement that the building was used as their hideout.)

As Nakuto looked around while thinking of that, a voice suddenly called out.

「Who……is it?」

「So there were people kidnapped after all? Wait a minute.」

Luckily, there were some magic items in the basement that could provide light, so Rei and the others used them to move towards the direction of the voice.

Before long, they found a woman in leather armour that was easy to move in.

She seemed terrified at the sight of Rei and Nakuto, but gave a sigh of relief when she saw Elena.

Her terror was from the fact that two men had appeared, but her relief came from the fact that Elena……or a woman, to be more precise, was with them.

Sensing her feelings as a fellow woman, Elena held Rei and Nakuto back from approaching closer and went forward on her own.

Luckily, there was only the woman in the prison right now. It was a narrow prison with space for five people to sit without moving.

The woman gave an appreciative glance over to Elena as she came over.

Elena had gallantly rushed to her rescue and was also the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. It didn’t take long for the gratitude in her eyes to turn to adoration.

「Are you okay?」

「Y-Yes!」

「All right, let’s open the door first……do you know where the key is?」

「……No. The men who kidnapped me have it.」

The woman looked down in shame at her inability to answer the question asked by her goddess of salvation.

However, Elena didn’t worry about it at all as she pulled out her sword whip from the sheath to the left of her waist and poured magic power into it as she swung it.

A high pitched metallic sound resounded into the surroundings and, the next moment, the dungeon door itself was sliced in two as the pieces fell to the ground.

「This should be fine. If possible, I’d like to ask you a few things, are you okay with that?」

「Yes! Of course! Um, if you don’t mind, could you tell me your name? My name is Sonrissa.」

To the woman who said that with moist eyes, Sonrissa, Elena gave a dignified smile as she replied.

「I’m Elena. Those two are Rei and Nakuto. ……Well, even if I want to ask about some things, this isn’t a good place. We’ll talk upstairs.」

「Yes, onee-sama!」

「……Onee-sama?」

Hearing those sudden words, Elena looked confused.

But Sonrissa smiled at her as she spoke.

「Um……is that no good?」

「No, well, I don’t mind, but……」

Even though she was confused, Elena told her that it wasn’t a problem.

Even when she was in Duke Kerebel’s knight order, some of the girls younger than her would call her same way, but Elena never thought she would be called that here in Exil, those were her honest feelings about it.

In any case, it was unpleasant to keep staying inside this musty basement, so everyone went back up to the room where the stairs had been.

「Wow……this is much better……」

Coming out from the basement, Sonrissa gave a sigh of relief.

The sun was already setting, but she smiled in relief as she saw the sunlight coming through the window.

「I’m sorry, but could you please tell us your story?」

「……Ah-! Excuse me, onee-sama. Um, what should I tell you about?」

Elena’s voice brought Sonrissa back to her sneses and she hurriedly straightened out her appearance.

「First, Sonrissa. When were you brought here?」

「Last night. Well, I had left my party members at the bar last night and was going home when I was attacked……」

Elena, Rei, and Nakuto all showed expressions of understanding when they heard the word ‘home’.

Most of the adventurers in Exil had come from other places, but there were a number of adventurers who were raised here.

After all, seeing adventurers challenge the dungeon from a young age, adventurers became the target of their admiration. ……Furthermore, in terms of making money, it was a way of making a lot of money quickly.

And, of course, adventurers who came from Exil had their own homes rather than staying in inns like adventurers from other places.

The female adventurer named Sonrissa was a typical example of those adventurers.

「Last night? So, did you see anyone else held captive here?」

「Eh? I’ve been alone since I was put there.」

Sonrissa immediately replied to Nakuto’s question.

He probably half expected that answer, but there was still a disappointed expression on Nakuto’s face as he continued with the questions.

「Then, if you have any clues about the identities of the men, please let us know.」

「Even if you ask me for clues……I heard from their discussions that they were under someone’s orders, but if it’s anything else……」

As Sonrissa frantically racked her head to see if there was anything else she could think of, she suddenly recalled something that had come up between the men’s discussions.

「That is, this might be a coincidence, but it seems that there were followers of the Church of Holy Light among the men.」

「The Church of Holy Light ……-!?」

At those words, Nakuto also recalled something.

Among the people who had attacke him and Essetus, there had been a person who was reprimanded after saying the word『Church……』.

(The prayer that the Church of Holy Light used was『May the Goddess of Holy Light bless you』. Thinking about it, does that mean the guy who attacked me was a follower of the Church of Holy Light……no, wait. The fact that he was stopped mid sentence means that the person who stopped him was also a member of the Church of Holy Light? Out of the nine people who attacked us, if it was just one, it might be considered a coincidence, but two followers of the Church of Holy Light?)

Nakuto thought about in his mind before reaching a conclusion.

「Is the Church of Holy Light involved in the attack and connected to the Marschel family as well?」

At those words, Sonrissa’s eyes went wide.

She had never thought the case of her kidnapping would become such a big matter.

Besides, the Church of Holy Light had a certain amount of influence in Exil. They lent their strength to adventurers, even though it was at a cost, and did various acts of service around the city.

Why would such people do something like this? Those were Sonrissa’s honest feelings.

However, for Rei, who had been skeptical about religion to begin with, like the Church of Holy Light……this was nothing more than a reason to convince him further.

「I see. Then, is there a good chance that the Church of Holy Light is also involved in the matter of the abnormal species? ……No, if you think about the matter with the Levisor family’s research lab, were they just puppets of the Church of Holy Light?」

At Rei’s words, Nakuto frowned slightly.

His thoughts were that it had become a tricky situation.

「Regardless, wouldn’t be better to get information from the guys that Rei caught? If the Church of Holy Light is really involved, and they are connected to the Marschel family, then many things could go wrong.」

「T-That’s right! Even though there was a conflict between the Silva and Levisor families not long ago, if another conflict between the Silva and Marschel families were to occur, and the Church of Holy Light is involved……it won’t be good. There might even be an intervention from the Mireana Kingdom.」

Elena lightly tapped Sonrissa’s shoulder to calm her down.

「This is only the case if Nakuto’s predictions are correct. More importantly, you were kidnapped and taken here, even if it was only for a night. Your family and party members must be worried, so let’s head back early. ……For now, the Silva family might contact you at some point, at that time, please listen to what they have to say.」

「U-Um……what is onee-sama going to do?」

「There are a lot of things I have to do. ……Rei.」

「Yeah.」

Understanding what Elena wanted to say with just that, he headed for the back door.

「Could you wait a moment before interrogating them? I want to bring Essetus and the others along.」

Rei wondered if Essetus could really participate in the interrogation, but decided that he wouldn’t agree to being left behind anyway, so he nodded in response to Nakuto’s question before leaving.

「Guru~」

Set greeted Rei and Elena with a cry as they reached the back door.

Looking over at the unconscious men while stroking Set’s head, none of them seemed to have regained consciousness and were lying on the ground like tuna, just like before.

「Now then, until Essetus and the others get here……let’s make sure they can’t escape.」

Muttering to himself, Rei took out some rope from the Misty Ring and tied the hands and feet of the men.

With each of their hands and feet tied up with rope, even if they tried to escape, they wouldn’t make it.

After slapping the cheek of the man closest to him several times, the man finally regained consciousness.

「Mm……what……-!?」

Within seconds of regaining consciousness, the man must have remembered what had happened before he was knocked out. He tried to get up immediately, but there was no way for him to move with Rei stepping on his chest.

「You’re……」

「Should I say good morning? Anyway, I’ve got some questions to ask you.」

Just as Rei said that, Vihera, Byune, Essetus, and Nakuto appeared from the back door.

Sonrissa wasn’t with them as she had already on her way back to her home.

Seeing the man that was being stepped on, Essetus’ eyes widened as he shouted out.

「That’s the one, this guy! The one called Ogoru who attacked us!」

「Looks like I hit the jackpot.」

「You guys doing this……kuh-.」

Ogoru tried to say something back, but the next moment, Rei increased the weight on his foot, stopping speaking.

「You can only speak to answer my questions. ……Well, I’ll start with this. Where is Tivia?」

「……I don’t know.」

「Huh? I thought you said you carried her somewhere when you were trying to escape.」

After hearing Rei’s words, Ogoru averted his gaze without speaking.

「The Marschel family.」

Ogoru’s mouth twitched at Rei’s words.

Everyone else watching didn’t notice, but Rei, who was stepping on him, felt his body stiffen for a moment.

「Looks like I’m right.」

He had already heard from Serekant, the informant, that these men had been in and out of the Marschel family’s residence. It was a question mostly to confirm, but either way, it was now clear where Tivia had been taken to.

「The next question. …….What is your relation with the Church of Holy Light?」

At that question, Ogoru spoke with a smile, as if he didn’t understand what Rei was asking.

「Hah? The Church of Holy Light? What does that have to do with me?」

Ogoru’s expression was calm when he replied. If someone who didn’t know anything about him had seen his response, they might have thought he really didn’t have anything to do with the Church of Holy Light.

However, Rei just smiled back.