Chapter 104: Extracurricular Activities (3)

“Sorry for being late.”

“Let’s go quick! Kyahaha!”

Thanks to Ivan and Rachel arriving at just the right moment, I managed to escape the wrath of the two girls.

I hurriedly bought airship tickets and boarded.

Wooooong──

Not long after, the sound of the engine signaled departure, and the floor began to vibrate.

It was the reaction from the levitation stones below resonating to lift the airship.

The airship gradually soared into the sky. Before long, it pierced through the white clouds.

My hair fluttered in the strong wind.

Leaning against the railing, I gazed blankly at the sight of Icata slowly fading from view.

Come to think of it, this was the first time I’d left Icata since coming to this world.

Seeing Icata, now only faintly visible through the clouds, filled me with a strange sense of nostalgia.

I indulged in that sentiment for a while.

“Wow, I’m nervous.”

“Huh? Is this your first time on an airship, Yuria?”

“Yeah. You?”

“Me too! Hehe. This thing won’t crash, right?”

“Oh, come on, you guys! Can you keep it down? Hey! Stop posing over there and manage these kids!”

Karina’s irritated shout hit the back of my head.

‘Guess going quietly and comfortably is out of the question.’

I shook my head and turned around.

“Let’s keep it down, guys.”

Our destination was Roenberg.

The events that would unfold there were side stories, not covered in the main storyline.

All I knew were fragmented, limited pieces of information, like scattered puzzle pieces.

If I tried to piece things together now, here’s what I had.

First, I had two tasks to handle in Roenberg.

The first was to find the missing child, and the second was to uncover the clue that [Gaius’s Insight] was pointing to.

I didn’t know what the clue was.

‘It could be an object or a person.’

So, my plan was to focus on finding the missing child first.

By working with the Roenberg City Guard to locate the kid, I’d likely figure out what [Gaius’s Insight] was pointing to naturally.

The extracurricular activity week lasted a full week anyway.

Even after completing the mission, we didn’t have to return to the Academy right away.

I planned to stay in Roenberg and search carefully during the remaining time.

‘And give the kids some free time.’

The Roenberg Festival was just around the corner.

If I used that as an excuse to stay, they’d probably agree without complaint.

‘Perfect, right?’

Of course, finding the clue [Gaius’s Insight] pointed to as quickly as possible would be ideal and so, we arrived at the Roenberg airship platform.

“What’s that? Were you hiding somewhere the whole flight?”

“None of your business.”

Ignoring Karina’s nagging as soon as we disembarked, I opened the mission brief from the Student Affairs Office.

It listed the name of the man who requested help and the address where he was presumed to live.

* * *

The man who requested help from the Academy was named Bedrock.

In Roenberg, he was a fairly well-known hunter.

Ziiing!

I pressed the doorbell, but there was no response.

So, I knocked on the door.

Bang! Bang!

“Mr. Bedrock! Mr. Bedrock──!”

How long did I knock?

Finally, I heard movement inside, and a man appeared.

He looked like he hadn’t washed in days.

His eyes were unfocused, as if he’d just woken up, his beard was scruffy, and his lips were dry.

A strong smell of alcohol wafted from him.

“…Who are you?”

He struggled to focus his blurry gaze on us.

I answered with as much of a smile as I could muster.

“We’re from the Academy.”

“…Oh? Ohh! Come in!”

After tilting his head for a moment, his expression slowly brightened, and he flung the door wide open to welcome us.

The inside of the house was typical of a hunter’s home.

The walls were adorned with animal heads and bone decorations, and two Long Muskets hung on the wall.

But what caught our attention more than those were the numerous empty liquor bottles scattered across the dining table.

Seeing them, I scratched my head.

I understood he was devastated over his son’s disappearance, but I worried whether we could have a proper conversation in his state.

“Ha. Haha! Sorry about this.”

Bedrock hurriedly approached the table.

But he staggered dangerously and ended up collapsing forward.

Ivan, standing nearby, quickly supported him.

“Urgh…”

Bedrock started crying in that state and then he passed out.

“…Mr. Bedrock?”

I rushed over to him.

Then I was startled.

His body was unbelievably light.

Through his torn clothes, I could see scratches on his hands and forearms.

‘He’s been going out to look for his kid, coming back to drink, and repeating this cycle.’

No wonder his body was in such bad shape.

Fortunately, he had only passed out from exhaustion.

We cleaned up the house on his behalf.

Once the house was somewhat tidied, Bedrock came to, and I sat across from him, handing him a bowl of soup Yuria had made herself.

“Are you feeling okay?”

“Yes. Yes. Thank you. I’m much better. Thank you.”

Since he said he was fine, I got straight to the point.

“I heard your son went missing a week ago.”

“Oh… Yes.”

“Can you tell us exactly what happened?”

“Well.”

Bedrock recounted the situation step by step, fumbling through his memories.

The story was long, but to summarize briefly:

‘A week ago, my son went out to play and suddenly didn’t come back.’

Well, kids going missing wasn’t uncommon around here.

That’s just the way this world was.

Even with laws, order, and institutions enforcing them within the empire, it was still a pre-modern society.

Compared to Earth, it was like the 17th century, and the crime rate was naturally several times higher than in modern times.

Not to mention, this world had monsters called magical beasts.

If your neighbor suddenly disappeared, you’d just shrug it off—that’s the reality here.

‘But it’s strange that the city guard isn’t investigating properly.’

That was the crux of the issue.

This was why Bedrock had requested help from the Academy, and why we were here.

“Is your relationship with the city guard bad? Did you fight or something?”

Before heading to the guard station, I asked just in case.

Bedrock shook his head, saying that couldn’t be.

“I’m a hunter. By nature, I work closely with the city guard sometimes, so there’s no way our relationship would be bad. If anything, I’m closer to them than most.”

Hm.

Then why?

There had to be a reason.

“We’ll head to the guard station first.”

“Yes. Please.”

I nodded and said,“Let’s go.”

“Yes.”

“Yes, Senior.”

“Just Karina, come with me.”

Everyone looked at me with puzzled expressions.

Yuria’s face, in particular, hardened rapidly.

“…….”

No particular reason.

It’d look silly if we all went in a big group.

The reason for taking only Karina was to prepare for any potential trouble.

‘She’s a walking badge of authority.’

It wasn’t Karina herself I needed.

It was the ‘Zain’ name attached to her.

I didn’t know why the city guard was ignoring Bedrock’s report, but whatever the reason, they wouldn’t dare ignore the Zain name.

“We’ll be back.”

We left Bedrock’s house and headed straight for the Roenberg City Guard Station.

On the way, I spotted countless city guards patrolling in groups near the city center.

“What’s that? They’re out and about just fine.”

I nodded at Karina’s words.

Sure enough, the guards we passed were all armed and moving busily.

They looked completely focused on searching for something.

‘But that something isn’t Bedrock’s son.’

Even without Bedrock’s words, their tense and alert demeanor was definitely not that of people looking for a young boy.

It was closer to searching for an explosive or something.

‘Could there have been a Beast Pouch terror incident here too?’

It was possible.

While it didn’t happen in the original story, there was no guarantee that the future, already altered by my presence, hadn’t affected this place too. Better to keep that possibility open.

[Roenberg City Guard Station]

Arriving at the station, I walked in with Karina.

“What brings you here?”

“We’re from Icata.”

“Excuse me? Where?”

“Icata. Frey Academy.”

The staff at the counter looked at us with wide eyes.

“…Where?”

“Frey Academy. We’re here about Mr. Bedrock’s case.”

Only then did the staff member hurriedly stand up.

Karina didn’t even need to step in.

Just mentioning we were from the Academy was enough to skip all formalities, and we were immediately taken to meet the Guard Captain upstairs.

“Oh, Bedrock’s case? I know him well. I’m aware he came to us about his missing son not long ago. But we’ve been swamped with the festival, you see. Must’ve slipped through the cracks.”

The Guard Captain chuckled.

“I’ll make sure to tell my people. We’ll do our best to resolve it as soon as possible. You’re staying at Bedrock’s house, right?”

“For now.”

“Then I’ll send a team over today.”

“Thank you.”

We left the captain’s office.

What was that?

It went much smoother than I expected.

I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

“What’s that? That’s it?”

As soon as we stepped out the front door, Karina grumbled as if she’d been waiting.

“If it was this easy, why didn’t they do it sooner?”

“They’re busy preparing for the festival.”

“Does that make sense? Then why are they helping now?”

What other reason could there be?

“Because Academy cadets came in person to ask. They don’t gain anything by picking a fight with us.”

“Anyway, festival or not, it’s just an excuse, right? They could’ve handled it all along.”

Karina scoffed, incredulous.

She wasn’t wrong.

I had my doubts too.

Even with the festival, it didn’t make sense that they couldn’t spare manpower to find a missing kid.

‘The Roenberg City Guard isn’t some neighborhood watch or veterans’ club.’

And the atmosphere of the guards moving busily around the city kept nagging at me.

It felt off, somehow.

We returned to Bedrock’s house.

When we told him the Guard Captain had promised cooperation, Bedrock was overjoyed.

“Thank you so much!”

The city guard arrived exactly one hour later.

Twenty of them, in two squads.

I told Bedrock,

“We’ll search the places you mentioned.”

“I’ll come too…”

“No. Your son might come home, so stay here. And don’t drink.”

“…Alright.”

Bedrock’s son, Kimi, often played at an abandoned mine near Roenberg.

It wasn’t efficient to move as a large group.

Especially with Karina, who was sensitive to mana flows, I couldn’t use [Detection] freely.

So, I decided to split into groups of five and scour the area around the abandoned mine.

Rustle──

But it was strange.

I thought the search would take a day at most, two days tops.

Yet, even after three days, the search wasn’t over.

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