“This is insane! People can’t just vanish out of thin air like that!”

  “I mean, they can…”

  “Don’t be a smartass with me! I don’t mean in general, I mean in this city, the sort of creatures that can do that shouldn’t be able to enter, and if they did, they shouldn’t be so stealthy about it, or… Be able to control themselves… I mean, what sort of monster breaks into a house, takes one person, and then just leaves after terrorising a random child?”

  “Well…”

  “A person is the answer! They probably just knock their victims unconscious and then take them elsewhere”

  “But what about the massacre that occurred before any of that?”

  A somewhat heated exchange was happening inside an office that was neither luxurious nor typical, as though someone had been given this nice office but had never bothered to actually care for it.

  No one was sitting behind the desk. Instead, a young man who looked to be in his early twenties was walking in circles around an even younger man, appearing to still be a teenager.

  “I have no clue about that. Who knows if it is even related to our current disappearance cases? Let’s not divide our attention here. There is a lunatic on the loose, and we need to catch him before he makes any more victims. So, do you have any leads or not?”

  “That’s what I was going to get to before you started rambling unprompted. You are way too tense lately, you need to calm down”

  The teenager raised his hand, which was holding a stack of parchments, speaking up again before the older man could say anything about the remark.

  “I am just an apprentice, and this isn’t my domain of expertise at all, but with a good dose of mana crystal and the core of one of those ‘gazer’ things, I was able to make these… I don't guarantee the accuracy. You should have hired a professional”

  The youth was quick to shake off any responsibility if things turned out inaccurate or straight-up false, but his interlocutor did not seem to care about that.

  “Most in that area of expertise specialise in seeing the future, not the past, and they are way too rare for me to find one within acceptable delays. Not to mention, I would have to sell an arm and a leg to pay them… Greedy bastards”

  He spread the parchments all over the desks and inspected each one inquisitively, his pale blue eyes revealing nothing as his scar-ridden hands and fingers brushed aside parchments to inspect those beneath.

  As the teen walked to his side, he couldn’t help but scowl as he saw the cracked fingernails of his fellow. Some of the scars looked especially gruesome. Some fingers, whilst perfectly functional, had lost their original shape due to the bones making them up having been broken and mended so many times.

  “You really should consider paying a visit to one of those greater healers. It can’t possibly be a good idea to leave yourself messed up like this…”

  “It costs too much money for me”

  “Some clerics would do it for free…”

  “Those clerics are in bigger cities, and going there costs money as well. Focus on what’s in front of you first, who knows? Maybe if I manage to figure out the culprit, I’ll get a promotion”

  “I doubt the lord would promote anyone he can’t control”

  “Listen to yourself! Can’t even grow a beard and already so jaded! The lord might not like me, but he’ll have to reward me in some way, and if he isn’t confident in keeping me around, then he’ll just send me away… Oh, this one is interesting”

  All of the parchments had detailed drawings depicted on their surfaces, being the mental projection of what the glances into the past had resulted in.

  “It seems pretty clear, maybe you do have some talent in that area, Jupo!”

  “That’s probably just because I used the core- But what do you think is clear about this one? It’s just a vaguely dark figure with small purple dots on its face!”

  “What’s important are those seemingly huge hands and feet, that’s not exactly common, do you know any type of beastfolk or demon that looks like this?”

  “Not really, no… But how does that help? I doubt our culprit walks around in broad daylight if they are so unusual-looking. We already increased night patrols as well, but it’s not like we have infinite manpower to watch every street corner all the time”

  The city was large, and even if guards rarely checked the poorer areas, there was still too much ground to cover, especially when the culprit had been active all over the place. There wasn’t really any area designated as a hotspot for the disappearances.

  “Aren’t you the one supposed to be the thinker with thoughtful spells and all? Isn’t spirit creation your forte? Just use all of the images with our culprit on it as a medium to create a spirit, and shouldn’t it be able to track that guy down?”

  Jupo looked at his fellow, supposedly meant to be his guide and teacher, with a tired expression.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Benait”

  “It isn’t so simple! These are just images. If they were coated with some sort of energy from the culprit, I could do something, but these are just plain old representations. Do you think there would be such a thing as rare species or plants if anyone could just draw some pictures and do what you just said?! Why are you, of all people, the one teaching me about magic?!”

  Benait rubbed his chin.

  “Is that so? That’s a shame, good thing I focus on just pouring mana into my sword, everything else seems utterly useless…”

  “By the gods… I hope you are joking, but I can’t tell with you. Surely you have a better idea?”

  Benait glanced to the side.

  “I mean, the culprit looks weird, but they are inside the city, right? So they must be hiding somewhere, as it is unlikely that they can just enter and exit the city repeatedly, so we should check places where they could be hiding!”

  “That’s… Not as stupid, I guess”

  Still, Jupo pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “This is still inefficient, the culprit could be hiding in a massive area, and they are not necessarily hiding in the same neighbourhoods that they are striking in, they could just be inside some run-down place on the edge of the city, for all we know”

  “I think they are hiding inside the bourgeois residential area, though”

  “And why is that?”

  “Just a gut feeling”

  Jupo looked at the office window. Suddenly, jumping through felt like an excellent idea.

  “You are a bit too feeble of flesh, and your bones are spongy, so you can sit this one out. I’ll just take a few guards with me”

  “Are you seriously going to check every uninhabited house? There must be hundreds of them!”

  “The sooner I get started, the sooner I’ll be done with it!”

  Jupo sighed as he looked down at the parchments, his gaze falling directly on one which depicted what seemed to be a close-up of the culprit’s face. It was hard to make out any features, but something about that image… Was definitely unnerving.

  ___

  I no longer have any regrets about picking the music box. This song has really grown on me.

  According to the amount of time the music has stopped before restarting, I have been digging for a week straight and still, I was loving the melody.

  Maybe it was because it was coming from me or something, but it even seemed like it was getting better as time went on. That or I am going a bit crazy, but that was impossible, no one was saner than me, only I saw everything clearly for what they were.

  Apart from my growing affection for my lovely music box, I had been digging relentlessly in the past week. At first, I had imagined that staying active for so long would eventually make me feel strange, as even if I couldn’t currently experience exhaustion of any kind. Surely my mind, as a human who formerly had to deal with that, would have eventually kicked in.

  None of that had happened. I was just digging and digging all day and night without experiencing any setbacks.

  And now, the tunnel had expanded greatly.

  In fact, I had dug more than I had originally expected. This place was a real maze now, filled with pits, tight passageways and sharp protruding rocks. Crawling in this dust-filled, claustrophobic place was strangely relaxing to me.

  So I was now spending most of my time crawling around and digging another tunnel that I was hoping would lead outside the city’s wall, but well… I ran into a bit of a snafu, namely, a massive cave from which a cacophony of awful sounds was constantly coming.

  I was no expert, but to me, it sounded like it was infested with creatures, hopefully just animals, because if these were beasts or monsters, it could potentially get problematic.

  But it seemed like I had punctured a hole at a high elevation compared to the cave’s ground, so nothing had made its way through here yet, but it still put a dent in my escape tunnel idea. Taking into account where my house was to begin with within the city, the only realistic way for me to do what I envisioned was to go straight through this cavern.

  I suppose I’ll just have to put this on hold for the moment and go back to harvesting some experience. Though instead of going for the wealthy, I’ll target the commoners instead.

  They had less secure homes, and they reproduced like rabbits so that they could make the kids work. I don’t mind that. It was a good use of spawnlings, but they just made too many of them, and that was just unacceptable.

  But their high numbers meant more experience for me, not to mention that no one cared about commoners. You could do anything you wanted with them.

  Even commoners didn’t care for other commoners.

  Night should be falling soon if I didn’t mess up my timings with the music box. Hopefully, after a week of inactivity, things will be calm up there. I sensed quite a lot of agitation through the stream of negative emotions for a little while, but it has settled back down now.

  To be sure, I pull my little trick to check if there are any nearby people. From the looks of it, apart from the neighbours, there doesn’t seem to be any unusual guard patrols… Oh, wait, I shouldn’t have spoken so soon.

  A group of four people is approaching. Four is an unusual number for guard patrols. They are always moving in pairs, normally, but I don’t even have the time to do some guesswork before they stop.

  According to the orientation… Yup, they are in front of my house, and as they arrive there, two of the four seemed to be growing more nervous, presumably spooked by the run-down residence, whilst another seems more annoyed for some reason, and the last one…

  Well, I sense enmity held toward me, but that’s it. This fellow does not seem afraid at all, unlike the other three, who, whilst not terrified, are at least a bit worried for their safety because of my activities.

  They don’t move for a few moments. I assume they are discussing something before actually moving in.

  Much like the kids from before, they try the front door and decide to just walk around the property.

  These guards are oddly respectful, not to just kick the door open, since when have they been making them with good manners?

  In any case, whether they are polite or not isn’t what matters right now. They are definitely looking for something and will eventually go to the basement.

  The holes in the wall are suspicious, but not a direct link to my experience harvests…

  I kinda want to take a bite out of them though…

  No, I should be careful. Yes, that is for the best. I’ll just slither back in there.

  That’s a good idea.