Find Zakira.

"You did good," Niki says. She pats Jelly on the head.

"Don't encourage her too much. She did run off and then potentially do what she did to you, but to some random person in town," you say.

"She was probably taking **** for me!"

You look to Jelly. "When abouts did you head off back to town?" you ask.

"Um. Right as they started to fight," she replies.

"Great. So she didn't see anything other then that she was your opponent. So she has no idea what was done to you at all."

"Thanks for taking **** for me, Jelly," Niki says as she continues marching forwards.

Not far away, you reach a house that looks no different than any other. It's nestled between two taller homes, there are flowers growing in baskets on the windowsills, and the windows aren't boarded up or anything. It's certainly not what you'd expect a criminal hideout to look like. You can't see inside due to silken blinds hanging in front of the glass, but one of the windows is ajar.

"I went in here," Jelly points and explains.

"Can you go in again and unlock the door for us?" asks Niki.

She nods. Jelly sinks into a puddle of slime and crawls up the wall of the house, and then through the crack in the window.

You turn to the sound of footfalls moving slowly towards you from behind. "When I was but a child..." a voice begins to say. It's The Edge.

"What are you still doing here?" you ask. "We're a little busy right now."

He brings his hand up through his hair. "Did you know I'm the third son of a noble lineage? But my father--"

Click. The door swings open, and Jelly is smiling on the other side. Ignoring the man behind you, Niki walks immediately through the doorway, and you follow behind her. The room itself is cozy. It reminds you of Niki's home, but you imagine a lot of houses in this town look similar. You stop in surprise though at the sight of a panting naked woman laying on a pile of pillows across the room. Sexy dark skin, long hair, dancer's body--it's Zakira. Even her necklace is nowhere to be seen. She covers up frantically as she notices everyone's eyes on her unclothed figure. She seems a little out of it, as she didn't even notice Jelly's presence.

Jelly looks to you with a smile, and she licks her lips. "I tasted magic. But then she attacked me. She said Niki sent me, and said mean things about her."

"I knew she was yours!" Zakira curses.

"Yeah... our bad. We didn't send her though. She kinda just wandered off," you explain. "But you're the one that molested Niki in front of everybody."

"Tell me how to take this damn collar off!" Niki snarls.

Zakira laughs. "The only person who can do that is the keyholder, which isn't me. The one I serve holds the key."

While they converse, you peek around the house. It's mostly normal, and there is no second floor, but you decide to check the bedroom. Nothing under the bed. Nothing in the closet. You can hear Niki getting upset with Zakira in the other room, but you imagine they aren't getting anywhere. It's also been quite awhile since you left the arena. Time is of the essence.

Jelly steps into the room. She looks around, and then walks right to the pillow on the bed and lifts it up. She reaches her hand into the case and pulls out a small, burgundy-coloured, leather book She hands it to you, and you start to flip through it. The pages are filled with so many notes that it would take an hour to get through it, and you don't have that kind of time. For now, you stash it away into your pack.

"How did you know that was there?" you ask.

"I tasted the magic..." she replies. "I followed her and then tasted magic in here, but I can't eat magic, so I didn't care."

"The book is magic?" You look at it closely. "I could open it fine."

Niki enters the room and looks to you. "Find anything?" she asks.

"I think so. I'll try to read through it between fights," you reply.

This book is magical. I see. When I pull on it, nothing seems to rip. It must be unbreakable. That's just a guess, but the magic wasn't sealing it shut, so it couldn't be a lock. That's a bit of good luck. They used magic to protect it, but that's exactly how we found it.

"We don't have time to interrogate her right now, and I don't know how hard she'll be anyway. Damn it. We tied her up so she hopefully can't get away, but I feel like we're so close yet so far. This has to be a place those spies come and go, but there's nobody else here."

"Let's get back to the Golden Sword for now." You walk past Niki and look back into the main room.

The Edge is kneeling down beside her. "And then when I returned from defeating the goblins all by myself, they called me a hero. But I just couldn't accept the title. I'm too humble. And I don't deserve nice people. It's hard, pushing people away who care about you, especially my harem."

"Just kill me!" Zakira groans.

"Can we leave while he's distracted? I don't want him following us back," Niki whispers.

You nod. "Definitely. But what do we do about Jelly?"

The slime girl stands there with a curious expression. "I promise I'll stay in the pack this time."

Once again, you slide the pack off your back and hand it towards Niki. "All right. I trust you, Jelly. Get in and let's get moving."