Three days later.
With the rhythmic rattling of carriage wheels rolling over the cobblestone road, Gray and Katy returned to Knox City, accompanied by a visibly grumpy Lobelia.
At the city gates, Timmy and the muscular men of the Rose Vessel had been waiting for a long time.
They escorted the pink-haired witch away as if they were welcoming a triumphant queen, even though she maintained a dark expression throughout the entire process.
“Waaa—we’re finally back!”
The girl stretched without a hint of ladylike grace, loosening up her muscles that had grown stiff from the long carriage ride.
“Let’s go, Mr. Gray! Let’s bring the souvenirs we bought in Lothric City to Sister Lily. She’ll definitely love them!”
Gray smiled and nodded.
Carrying a small paper bag that emitted a sweet fragrance, he followed the girl’s cheerful pace.
However, when the two arrived at the familiar counter, they didn’t see the usual receptionist—the woman who was always pushing up her black-rimmed glasses and loved to tease people with a mischief-filled smirk.
In her place sat a stranger who was clearly a bit flustered.
“Excuse me, is Lily here? We’re her friends, and we’ve brought her a gift.”
Gray raised the paper bag in his hand toward the unfamiliar clerk.
“Sister Lily?”
The new girl shook her head, a hint of worry flickering in her professional smile.
“She hasn’t come to work for two days.”
“Two days?”
The smile on Gray’s face froze instantly.
In his memory, although Lily appeared a bit flighty at times, she was fundamentally a workaholic with an extreme sense of responsibility.
Even if she had a fever or it was pouring rain, she would insist on coming to work every day.
It was impossible for her to be absent for two days without reason.
“Did something happen at home that forced her to return?”
Katy asked, keenly sensing the shift in the atmosphere.
“We thought so too, and we even went to her residence to look for her.”
The receptionist sighed and lowered her voice.
“Nobody was there. Besides, the room was a mess, like she left in a hurry… or like someone had rummaged through it.”
She worriedly pointed to an office desk nearby that was piled high with miscellaneous items.
“That’s what’s left of Sister Lily’s workstation. The guild hasn’t had time to clear it out yet. Since you’re her good friends, could you take a look and see if there are any clues?”
Gray and Katy exchanged a look.
Their instincts as an A-rank adventurer and a Calamity Pillar caused a sense of foreboding to rise in their hearts simultaneously.
The two quickly walked to the desk.
It was cluttered with documents.
In the most conspicuous spot lay several copies of the recent Knox Daily.
In one edition, a headline had been circled heavily with jarring red ink:
[Horror! Multiple Senior Alchemists Mysteriously Missing!]
Attached to the news report was a photo of one of the missing persons.
It was a middle-aged man with graying hair at his temples and thick glasses.
Dressed in research attire, he looked to be around forty or fifty years old.
Gray picked up the newspaper and studied it carefully, noticing that the man’s features bore a slight resemblance to Lily’s.
“Is he Sister Lily’s relative?”
Katy asked, leaning over and standing on her tiptoes to examine the paper.
Gray shook his head.
He wasn’t certain.
Even though he and Lily had known each other since they were teenagers, she had never mentioned her parents over the years.
He had once assumed she was an orphan like himself.
“Mysteriously missing… Do you think Sister Lily saw this news, felt that her long-lost relative was in trouble, and went to investigate this disappearance case?”
Katy rested her chin on her hand, mimicking a detective she had seen before.
Gray didn’t respond; he was focused intently on the photo of the missing person, lost in thought.
“Did you notice something, Mr. Gray?”
“Look here.”
Gray pointed to a partial emblem visible on the man’s sleeve—it was an eagle about to take flight, with half its body replaced by machinery and gears.
“That is the emblem of the Tactical Armament Department. They are responsible for the equipment development of the entire Noble Allied Army.”
Seeing that the girl didn’t seem to recognize the symbol, Gray added a brief explanation.
Although any citizen of the Noble Alliance should theoretically be familiar with the emblem that appeared on all standard-issue soldier gear, Gray was very good at finding excuses for Katy.
‘Miss Katy is a girl and doesn’t like violence or fighting, so it’s normal for her not to recognize symbols found on weapons and armor.’
As for who that girl was that had swung a half-ton iron coffin around with enough force to create a gale during the Hero’s strength test?
Well, it was best not to ask questions that didn’t favor Miss Katy.
“Responsible for equipment development…”
Katy frowned, dozens of possible plots from investigative dramas flashing through her mind.
‘Did a rival faction kidnap Lily to extort her father? Or did they kidnap her father to squeeze the location of some super-secret ultimate weapon out of Lily? Or maybe Lily herself is an experimental subject with a mysterious power sealed in her right eye or right hand…’
She was getting sidetracked.
Katy turned her gaze back to Gray, whose brow was tightly knit.
Given how much of a softie this guy was, he certainly wouldn’t stay out of this.
‘However, this is fine. This way, I can collect more intelligence on humans. For example, that “Army” and “Tactical Armament Department” he just mentioned—I know absolutely nothing about them. Probably very few demons in the entire Demon Realm know either, since everyone basically never leaves the Labyrinth. Once I complete my undercover mission and return to the Demon King’s side, I can rely on this information to get a nice reward and live a peak life of luxury every day!’
Unlike Katy, who was fantasizing about her bright future, Gray was staring intensely at the semi-mechanical eagle emblem on the man’s sleeve, his expression solemn.
The military was the violent institution that supported the entire Noble Alliance.
They controlled tens of thousands of legionnaires, and the standard weapons issued to them were equipped with a certain level of magic engineering thanks to the efforts of the Tactical Armament Department.
He remembered that after the Dawn Blade disbanded, the assassin in their party had joined the military’s special forces.
Ever since then, there had been no news of him, as if he had vanished from the face of the earth.
‘To think she would provoke such a dangerous existence, Lily…’
Gray felt a bit of a headache coming on.
Helping her was a given.
Lily was not only his friend but a benefactor who had looked after them many times with mission intelligence.
But the problem was Katy.
With this girl’s warmhearted nature, she would definitely clamor to help.
But he absolutely did not want to let this little white flower get involved in the murky waters of the military.
On one hand, the military members he had dealt with were either crude men who only had eyes for women and money, or lunatics who enjoyed crawling in and out of piles of corpses.
It was clearly inappropriate for Katy.
On the other hand, Katy was someone who had almost been promoted to Saint by the Temple.
The relationship between the military and the Temple had always been like fire and water.
If he brought her along, they would probably be kicked out before they even stepped through the door.
“Umm, Miss Katy.”
“I’m here, I’m here! When do we set out to investigate?”
As soon as Gray turned his head, he met Katy’s sparkling eyes that were filled with unconcealed excitement, making the words of dissuasion even harder to speak.
“Uh, this matter involves the military, so we need to plan carefully. You’ve also just been freed from your Saint training, Miss Katy. Why don’t you go back and rest first?”
“…”
The light in Katy’s eyes dimmed slightly, and Gray instantly felt a wave of guilt.
“Mr. Gray.”
The girl’s voice dropped low, carrying a hint of a tremble.
“I’m listening.”
“Are you… going to investigate with Sister Lobelia instead?”
The moment those words were spoken, Gray was completely thrown off balance.
He had prepared himself for his lie to be seen through by her, followed by a barrage of cute attacks, but he hadn’t expected her to mention Lobelia.
“So you really chose Sister Lobelia? Is it because I didn’t do something well enough and made you angry, Mr. Gray?”
Ignoring the gossiping gazes from the surrounding Heroes and staff members, the girl reached out with her fair little hand and gently tugged on his sleeve, her eyes brimming with tears.
“If I did something wrong, I can change. Please don’t leave me behind, okay?”
The scene was incredibly pitiful and heart-wrenching.
Those who heard it felt sad, and those who saw it felt like weeping.
Gray swallowed hard, sensing the gazes directed at him becoming increasingly hostile.
“To think he would betray such a cute girl. What a scumbag!”
“That poor little Priest… to be abandoned by the senior who was training her like that…”
“Wait, doesn’t that Warrior look a bit familiar? Is he a member of some rookie party?”
Seeing that he was about to be “doxxed” by the surrounding crowd, Gray quickly raised his hands in surrender and promised Katy he would take her along to investigate Lily’s disappearance.
As soon as he gave in, the crystalline tears in the girl’s blue eyes vanished without a trace, as if they had been a mere hallucination.
“Yay! Let’s go!”
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