The Missing Person

You joined up with a caravan to go East and now you are in the front gate of Arinold,joining the caravan was a great idea. The guardsman didn’t bother to check on you,as they’re only interested in the cargo to make sure there’s no contraband. Eliza isn’t with you,she’s locked inside the domain in case someone recognize her. But to be honest,this is medieval world,there’s no photo nor the Internet,if you ask a random person what does the hero looks like,ten different people can give you ten different answers. Same thing apply to the high priestess,if you ask a normie who Ceris is,the most likely answer you’ll get is “Who the heck is Cerise?”. But still,just in case,not until you cross the lake and reach the empire,she’s not coming out of your domain.

The first thing you do after you arrived is to go to the local guild, accompanied by Serana, to gather intel and make some money. On the bulletin board,you noticed several missing person mission on it. Normally,these kinds of quest would be within the jurisdiction of the guardsman that’s why this is an unusual quest. You asked a random adventurer about the situation.

For the past few weeks,there has been several cases of young boys and girls,mostly from the church’s orphanage,kidnapped under broad daylight. Which itself is enough embarrassing for the guardsman,but here’s the strange part,no one has seen the kidnap,the only thing they saw is the last known location of them. The guardsman has no clues to what has happened to them,they find no trace of **** nor mana trace of magical combat,though they did find minor traces of mana for some kind of non-combat spell,it’s so thin that investigators can barely pull any useful evidences to find the missing people.

The church and victim’s parents are furious of the incapabilities of the guardsman,thus they got **** and asked for the adventurers to help. The city guards are pretty upset about this,but they can’t really do anything about it because they aren’t even making any progress.

You took the quest because why the hell not,you’re intrigued by the story,plus,the payment of the quests are really high. Well,today,you are the good guy. There are a total of 5 quest,4 of them have detailed descriptions of the child,but the last one published by the orphanage require the adventurer to go to the orphanage and get the description themselves.

You went to the local orphanage ran by the church. It’s not really a fancy orphanage because the church invest most of their money on war instead of charity. You can imagine it as a slightly better version of Oliver Twist’s orphanage,at least,the children won’t be called as ungrateful brat if they ask for more food. Despite this,you can still see children with smile playing around the entrance of the orphanage,it does spark some of your already gone memory of your childhood. It was the time before you started having dark fantasy about women,a time more simple,childhood. You can’t exactly recall the details but it does makes you feel warmth and human again.

Though for Serana,she’s mostly just looking at you in a horny way. You do feel kind of bad for turning her into a sex crazed erofu ,sure,she retains her personality but because of your means of breaking her mind,she now has dependent personality disorder,she view herself as your forever loyal pet. She is afraid of leaving you,her confidence is shattered so much that she’s afraid to express her ideas to you,so she just repressed her thoughts. She can’t make her own decision,that’s why she just follows you around if you don’t give her something to do. At this point,the least you can do is give her a happy life

Just explaining the word erofu (エロフ),it’s a play on the word erufu (エルフ) which means elf,but they replaced the word eru (エル) with ero (エロ),the word ero derived from the English word erotic,that’s why it’s written in katakana,a way of writing used on a word with foreign origin. So by replacing eru with ero,elf has now evolved to horny elf,I first saw this pun in the no game no life’s light novel. I am using it because I think it suits the context,ok,back to the story.

You step into the orphanage with Serana. You see about 5 nuns taking care of the children,reading stories,playing with them,preparing food. The most eldest nun put aside her works and walks to you.

“Good day,stranger,the father is currently not here,so if you need anything,please tell me.”

She spoke in a well-educated and polite manner.

“Sister,I’ve seen your request in the guild and I am here to assist in any way I can.”

Except that you are only here because it pays well and your curiosity begs you to check it out. Well,the truth always hurts,better keep it in there then spitting it out.

“Well,follow me to my room.”

The children are all looking at you and Serana. Well mostly at you because of the spell that makes Serana less perceivable. You followed the nun into her room and she gestured you to take a seat. She brought a tea pot she has already done cooking before you arrived and pour a cup of tea for you.

“I think you already know about the story,do you mind if I skip?”

The nun said politely

“I don’t mind.”

“Thee has been 16 missing children in this town,of which 12 of them are from our orphanage,here’s a copy of their appearance.”

She hands you 12 handwritten description of the children’s look

“Do you know where they have gone missing,sister?”

“They all happened when the children are passing through dark alleyway in this part of the city. If you want to investigate you can go to the alleyway next to the Bakery,poor little Ame took a shortcut after buying some bread for the orphanage yesterday….”

She was a little bit emotional about it.

“I hope the children are all ok,sister,I will bring them back as soon as possible.”

So,you stand up and walk to the door,you turned back and saw the nun crying,you decide not to interrupt and walk outside.