The orphans were kidnapped and taken outside of the city. That's what Thomas told me before I kicked him into the portal. Hopefully, the kidnappers he mentioned are actually Celestine's spies.

But what is their relations with Celestine? Did they grow up together? I don't think they are people whom Celestine just know after she joined the cult. If so, they can't be fully trusted.

That's why Albert and Hector made up a plan to figure that out.

I will take all the orphans and those spies to a place Albert prepared, and Albert will take care of finding out if they can be trusted or not with his lie detection skill. He will be with Mustache and other powerful agents so, once they are found to be lying and unable to be trusted, they will be killed.

Though I need to make sure that none of them have the explosives in their mouth first. How do I convince them that I'm with Veronica?

For now, finding the orphans comes first. They are taken outside the city, so I need some clues.

And so, when night fall, I sneaked to where the orphanage is. As expected, it was being watched by members of the cult. But at least it's good that the orphanage wasn't burnt. I forgot what Veronica's elements are, but I think this is the work of her wind element, and no fire element. That mean the clues are still there.

After my air element has reached intermediate level, the range and size of my magic has increased. So, I put all the members of the cult and some innocent passerby to sleep with my sleeping gas.

Sorry, innocent passerby, but this is urgent. And it's dark after all. You need to get some sleep.

After everyone watching the orphanage fell asleep, I summoned Shelia.

"Roy, where is this? Are we fighting someone?"

Her first thought is that we're fighting someone already. Well, it might not be wrong.

"Probably we will get our fight later. For now, I want you to memorize the smell of people from this orphanage. Find the clothes, or blanket, and memorize those smell. We're searching for the orphans from this orphanage to rescue them." I ordered Shelia.

"Just sniffing? That's easy."

Shelia then proceed to look for any remains in this orphanage. Whether anything that should have the children's scent in this remains.

In this one year, Shelia has grown much stronger. Although she hasn't reached the level of Grandpa Werewolf, her improvement is much greater than the Werewolves who went on training in Monsters World.

She hasn't grown a tail in her Werewolf form yet, but she told me that whenever she transformed, she felt something from her back. I think she will grow a tail soon since she told me that the feeling is similar to the tail she had when she's in her wolf form. There's something that she can move, but that thing isn't there yet.

"Roy! I found a mixed scent of multiple people going that way!" Shelia pointed to the north. Just like Thomas said.

"Alright. We'll move on air while evading people's eyes. We'll land once we're outside the city. After that, you'll take the lead." I said to Shelia.

Then we jumped to the sky, and run toward the north. It's already dark, and the streets are empty other than the red-light district. But they are busy looking at other people instead of the sky, so we are safe until we leave the city.

"They're going this way!"

I followed Shelia's lead to further north.

Back when I enter the city, I asked the inn owner if he has a map of the villages nearby. Since the inn is often used by hunters, he has one. I'm not confident in my memory, so I had some Blobbies copied the map exactly as it is, and didn't make them transform back to their slime form. They stay as a map, rolled inside my pocket.

I pulled the map out and look at where we're going.

The map is all dark because the Blobbies can't change their color, but I had them layered on some important landmark and villages, so I know by the thickness of the map.

"Yup, if we continue like this, we will reach a village. Hopefully, we can find the orphans there." I said as I put the map into my pocket again.

"Hmm… Roy, I think I smell something burning ahead. Maybe they are fighting." Shelia said.

"Let's speed up! It will be bad if even the cult managed to capture just one kid!"

If there's a battle, that mean not everyone is targeting the orphans. Some are protecting them, and that's how it became a fight. I don't think the orphans are old enough to have their magic manifested, so it must be Celestine's spies protecting the orphans. As for the villagers, I hope they are okay.

I'm still unable to see the village even with my Divine Vision, but soon after, I see something is burning.

"Shelia, wear a mask to not let anyone discover you!"

I throw a wolf mask made of Blobbies to Shelia who grabbed them and put it on her face, and I also have them surround my body and transformed into Ninja! It has been a long time since I became Ninja.

Ninja is already considered as criminal in the capital, so what if more people treat me as criminal somewhere else? And in case the village is destroyed, the villagers can either blame the cult or Ninja. And people might end up thinking that Ninja is a cult member. Then the real cult member will try to find out if Ninja is one of them or not.

In any case, we need to hurry. The fire is getting bigger. Everyone in the village must be panicked.

At least the orphans must survive!

And then we can use the orphans to force Celestine to join us! This makes me feel like the bad guy.

And then while making sure the orphans are safe, we can be relieved since Celestine will join our cause! This one is better.

We finally reached the village. Most of the villagers are leaving the village and watch as their village is being destroyed. I can see some of them died. I hope the orphans are not among the dead bodies.

Hmm… there's no dead children. Good.

"Hey! What happen here?" I asked the villagers.

They are suspicious of me since I'm covering my face, but some of them only care about their house, so they told me what happened.

"Two groups of people are fighting! One group brought children here, and the others are targeting those children! And they're destroying my house!" Someone said.

"What about the children?"

"They are still in the village!" Someone else replied.

I can see that the two groups are fighting, with one group is trying to protect a certain house. That building is not on fire, and I can see through that house that there are a lot of children crying.

"I can smell the scent from the orphanage in that building! Let's go!" Shelia said.

I can make all the fire disappear just by making all the flammable gas disappear. Although I want to cover myself in this fire, the children are in danger. I have to be quick.

"Wolf! We're fighting the one attacking that building and the people protecting it!" I gave an order to Shelia, in which she nodded.

I have told Shelia before to not use real name when we're in disguise. So, she's called Wolf, and I'm Ninja. But this is the first time we use our disguise for a mission together.

I only put out the fire near my surrounding, and I killed one cult member right away as soon as I saw him. Everyone was shocked to see someone coming.

There are about three people protecting the house, and nine people left attacking it. One of them has died by my hand.

"There's no time for introduction! The orphans have to be safe!" I shouted, signaling that I'm the allies of the orphans.

I put out some fire that has reached the house, and shot some cult members with Victogun.

Meanwhile, Shelia is attacking the cult members one by one. The fight is done in less than two minutes.

The three cult members who protected the house are safe, and all the children still alive, although some of them have breathe in too much smoke. But with my improved air magic, I can change the properties of the smoke inside their lungs. Air element is perfect for doctors.

"Is this all of the orphans?" I asked one of them.

"Yes. Are you…"

"I'm Veronica's friend. If you want me to help you, throw those explosives in your mouth. Although I heard about you from Veronica, I still don't trust you since you're also members of the cult."

The three of them put their fingers inside their mouth and threw the HGB away. I shot the HGB and they exploded. I don't want anyone near that thing.

After checking that the three of them don't have explosives any more, I asked Veronica's whereabouts.

"So, where's Veronica?"

"Lady Celestine has found out about the orphanage destruction, so Lady Veronica said that she will hide somewhere in the forest to the west of Jion. But I think Lady Celestine is already on her track. Please help those two!"

"That's my plan. For now, all of you, go to sleep!"

I used sleeping gas to make everyone fall asleep. I still don't trust them enough to show them my portals.

Then I contacted Sonia to tell Albert that I'm bringing the orphans. He will take care of them.

Now… it seems like Celestine is already on her way to Veronica. That mean no more seducing her.

…I'm not unhappy, okay!