"It's here." The rabbit-eared woman pointed to a door. She then knocked on it.
"Who is it?" A voice from inside asked.
"It's me. I brought customers." The rabbit-eared woman answered.
"Customers, huh. Let them in."
When Bloed and the others entered, they saw a beautiful wolf-eared lady seated behind a table.
Silver hair, silver eyes, and a sharp gaze. The woman examined the group carefully and sniffed the air twice with her nose.
Afterward, she narrowed her eyes before calling at the rabbit-eared woman and whispering something in her ear.
Bloed tried to hear their conversation, but it was in the beastmen's native tongue. Thus, he was unable to understand it.
After the rabbit-eared woman left. The wolf-eared lady spoke to the group.
"Customers, welcome. Please sit."
Bloed and the girls sat across her.
"I suppose you are here for information, right? What kind of information do you require?"
Bloed thought for a moment and opened his mouth.
"Two things. Firstly, I want detailed information about Academy City."
"Oh? Are the three of you on a journey towards that city? That is a nice place… Mmm, yes, we have it. However, Academy City is a bit far from here, so the price of this information will be very expensive."
Bloed nodded. "No problem. We have enough money."
"Is it so?" The wolf-eared lady smiled satisfied. "Okay. We can get that information ready for tomorrow. What is the other thing you want to ask about?"
Bloed fell silent for a moment. Then, he narrowed his eyes and spoke in a serious tone.
"I want information about the thing that happened yesterday in the slums."
Instantly, the wolf-eared lady narrowed her eyes.
"You are not the first to ask for that information."
"Can you give it to us?"
"… Mm. Let me think."
At that moment, the rabbit-eared woman returned and nodded towards the wolf-eared lady.
Seeing that, the wolf-eared lady smiled at the group.
"If you are interested in that information, please follow me."
Bloed frowned. He then looked at Regina and used his gaze to ask if anything was wrong, But Regina shook her head.
There was no malice nor killing intent in the wolf-eared lady's words. Everything was alright.
The wolf-eared lady stood up and opened a door behind her. She then entered the door while gesturing the group to follow.
Led by her, the group walked through a long corridor. Finally, they reached a door that the wolf-eared lady pushed open.
As soon as she entered there, she kneeled on a knee and spoke respectfully to the people inside.
"I have brought them here."
"Well done, Illina." A male voice replied gently.
Then, that male voice spoke to Bloed and the others.
"Nice to meet you, my friends. My name is Javelin, and I'm the person in charge of the Beastmen's Information Branch in Diadel City."
'A cat, huh.' Bloed knitted his brows while looking at the man in front of them. It was an elegant-dressed catkin with brown hair and eyes. He emitted an aura of elegance, and his eyes glowed sharply.
A panicky-looking girl was standing beside him. Bloed needed to look at her twice to recognize her race. A lizardkin.
After observing carefully the people in front of him, Bloed spoke. "I don't understand, why did you bring us here? Is this necessary just for a piece of information?"
The catkin smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry about this. In fact, this is not necessary. Normally, we would give you the information one or two days after we received the payment without going through this. However, today's circumstances are a bit special."
"Care to explain?"
"Mm… You can say that we need to ask you three a favor."
Bloed furrowed his brows. Something was definitively strange about this situation.
Bloed was ready to reject them, but the catkin, Javelin, spoke first.
"Please hear my proposal first before deciding if you want to reject us. If you help us, we will give you all the information you require free of charge, plus a juicy remuneration. Furthermore, we will add another very valuable reward if everything goes well."
"… Heh." Liu Ying snorted. "Something smells fishy. Why would you ask for help from people you just met? Are you sure you are not trying to scam us?"
Javelin nodded. "I understand your doubts, but there is a reason behind this. Let me explain the mission first. You need to help us to rescue a very important person that was kidnapped. That person must be rescued as soon as possible, and nothing can happen to him. As for their kidnappers, they belonged to the same group that was killed a few days ago."
"Mm?" Bloed raised an eyebrow while hiding a feeling of surprise. 'Could it be–'
"Mister Javelin, I don't understand." Bloed looked at Javelin fixedly and spoke in a sharp tone. "You look like someone strong, A-Rank if I'm not mistaken. And we are just three C-Rank practitioners. I don't understand how we can be of help."
"You are right." The catkin nodded without caring for Bloed's sharp glare. "In normal circumstances, we would never have asked for your help. The thing is, after that important person was kidnapped, we follow some clues and discovered a group of slavers related to that kidnapping event. These people were staying in a certain building. Our plan was to keep an eye on them and wait until they led us to the place where that important person was being kept, but–"
Javelin's eyes narrowed into slits.
"Yesterday, your group killed these people and severed almost all our clues leading towards him."
...
P4TRE0N: patr-eon.com/aidnovels