Chapter 78

Shia suggested that the pieced together fragments were from a tool used to summon an evil god.

If that was true, it was a frightening thing.

“It is an idol of the god of the dark ones. They put curses inside to summon it.”

“Does that mean the god of the dark ones looks like this?”

“Of course, I have never seen this god myself. But yes, so it is said.”

Seventeen legs and seven arms. And bat wings.

As the head was broken off, we had no idea what its face looked like.

“Something like this exists? The horror!”

Milka said with a shudder.

Indeed, this Evil God was most frightening.

“You know a lot, Miss Shia.”

“It is one of the gods that the vampires worship.”

As a beastkin wolf, Shia’s tribe were vampire hunters.

And vampires were one of the best-known races of the dark ones.

And so Shia was well versed on their culture and faith.

“Shia. Is this what the idol looks like after it’s been used to summon? Or is it before? Can you tell?”

This was very important. If it was after, that meant we would have to find a way to defeat the Evil God.

That would be harder than preventing it from being summoned.

“I do not know that much.”

“I see.”

“I am so sorry that I could not be of use.”

Shia said apologetically.

“No. We didn’t even know what this was, much less what it was used for.”

“Yes, Miss Shia. Well done!”

“No-no, I didn’t do anything.”

Shia said shyly, but her tail was wagging wildly.

“Groof-groof!”

Grulf was also quite excited, and he was wagging his tail as he walked around Shia.

We cheered her up for a while before Milka said seriously,

“So, who spread these things in the sewer then?”

“Really. I have no idea.”

“Yes, indeed. I don’t see what advantage there could be in spreading these things in the sewers.”

“Are they able to attract demon rats and make them bigger?”

“I do not know that either.”

Shia said she did not know.

But thinking about it, it did make sense that the curses and evil power could attract the rats.

And it wasn’t impossible that it caused them to grow faster.

“I think I will inspect the sewers again tomorrow.”

“Yes. You might find something. And it would be trouble if the demon rats started repopulating the place.”

We had killed all the demon rats that we saw.

And Grulf had sniffed around to see that there weren’t others hiding.

But still, that didn’t mean we hadn’t missed any.

And rats only needed a few survivors to start breeding again.

“Well, we gathered the Evil God fragments, so I don’t think it’s likely they will increase so rapidly again.”

“But, it hasn’t been confirmed that the Evil God fragments affected the sudden increase of rats?”

“Luchila is right. But it would be hard to believe that it was completely unrelated.”

“That’s true, but I’m worried.”

Luchila said uneasily. He was worried that the people of the city might suffer.

As if to comfort Luchila, Gerberga waddled up to him.

Luchila then picked up Gerberga and petted him gently.

Then Serulis suddenly spoke as if remembering something.

“Miss Shia. By the way, how did the missing person request go?”

“Ah, that is right. I forgot to tell you because of this Evil God idol thing.”

“Does that mean you have some information?”

“Nothing like proof or anything. I think you should consider it something like a basis for speculation…”

Shia said in advance, then she began to explain.

“So I looked through all the recent missing person requests.”

“All of them, huh? That must have taken some time.”

The royal capital was huge. And so was the population.

There was usually always about 10 requests.

“I only read them. Still, these requests have been increasing recently, so it wasn’t easy.”

“There were at least thirty, right?”

“That much? That’s unusual.”

It had increased by three times. That could not be a coincidence.

“I mostly checked the requests that were released this month.”

“Yes, yes.”

“Among the thirty-three people that had gone missing, ten of them were apprentices and servants for nobles.”

“That’s a lot. Which houses?”

“There were three servants from Marquis Mastafon, which was the highest number.”

“And the others?”

“All scattered. There were two servants from Count Markle’s house and Viscount Fria’s house. The others were all alone.”

Milka listened to this and said,

“In other words, we should be suspicious of this Mastafon person!”

“Hmm. Not necessarily.”

“Sister Serulis. Why is that?”

“There is not a large difference between three and two.”

“…I suppose so.”

Milka now agreed with Serulis.

Shia nodded and then continued.

“The real problem starts here. The people who disappeared were servants to different houses… But the houses were all in the same district.”

“Ah ha…”

“Houses aside, I suppose we can assume that there is something in this district we should know about?”

“Which district is it?”

“…The thing is, it’s this district, Mister Locke. Around your mansion.”

Shia said grimly.