After asking some more questions about the disappearances, Auriel let out a breath and leaned back, rubbing his temples.
He was tired both mentally and physically. This tiredness with the worries in his mind was giving him an arduous time to focus on this matter.
He was worried that his arm was going out of his control and becoming something different as he wasn't feeling the string network in his arm. He wanted to confront Archpaladin Asher about this but he refrained himself. He knew that he wasn't going to get answers from the peculiar Archpaladin, so it would be meaningless and time-consuming.
"Anyway," Auriel lifted himself from the couch and took the cat into his arms again. Then he turned to the village head. "You don't have any church in this village, right?" Auriel inquired and after getting a slow nod from the village head, he spoke. "We need a place to stay and rest for a day, so I am thinking of using your house for the time being. As you can see, we are in terrible shape and if we begin our investigation immediately we might make a mistake and disappear like the paladin who came here."
The village head paled considerably as he shook his head. He definitely didn't want his last hopes to disappear like before. "No no no. I wouldn't dare to mind for you to use my house or rest for a day, respectable church members," he said and added somberly. "I was just going to suggest you take one of the empty houses left by the victims."
Auriel also thought about staying in one of the empty houses but decided to stay at the village head's house. The reason for this was pretty simple, he didn't want to clean the dust-filled empty house to use it just for a few days, and he also wanted something like a servant at his side who knows about the village best.
Also…he wanted to observe Mia for a while. Not because he decided to take the cute cat with himself but because he saw a light of wisdom in her eyes.
Auriel guessed that Mia might be an Awakened animal like Loki, and even the thought of this made him excited. Who wouldn't want a cute fur ball at their side?
With the cat in his arms, Auriel and the others followed the village head, passed the empty house with the company of cracking wood noises with every one of their steps, and halted in front of 3 side-by-side rooms.
"There is no need for 3 rooms, me and Elise will stay in the left room and Archpaladin Asher will stay in the right room," Auriel said and sent the village head away as if he wasn't the owner of the house.
Then he turned to Asher and gave the order. "Keep your senses open, Archpaladin Asher. I don't want any fellow men and women of faith to vanish without any trace while you are here. We are on the holy mission of our lord, don't forget this."
Archpaladin Asher gracefully bowed unlike his usual airhead attitude and entered his room. Auriel was his superior for this mission only, so he didn't have any reason to not listen to him. Even though he might have done something bad to him…
After Asher, Auriel also entered his room followed by Elise with staff in her hand.
The room was something Auriel had expected. It was small, dusty, old, and damp. It was made of cheap wood and it had only one small window that was on the verge of breaking apart.
Auriel's eyes went towards the 2 small, uncomfortable-looking beds and a frown of displeasure appeared on his face. He was more or less okay with sleeping almost anywhere because when they were on their journey here, they didn't sleep that much and overworked the horses, so he desperately needed to sleep. But stıll! He wanted a good sleep on a proper bed, did he ask too much?
"Sigh… Walk a few steps forward and you will find a bed. Take your sleep and prepare yourself. We have many things to speak." Auriel instructed Elise and squeezed her shoulder, not enough to break but enough to cause some pain.
Elise winced slightly and nodded obediently. Then she found her bed and curled on it, pulling the ancıent looking blanket over her neck.
"You can take out your blindfold, it will hinder your rest. I don't care what is under them, at least you have eyelids to close your eyes, right?" Auriel suggested with an indifferent tone.
Elise hesitated for a moment and eventually removed her blindfold. Then this time she pulled the blanket over her head.
Auriel smiled faintly as this was the first time she removed her blindfold in front of him and this meant that she was beginning to warm up to him gradually. Maybe because of her strange mental state right now or maybe because of Auriel's manipulatıon. Probably a mix of both.
Auriel already knew there wasn't any dangerous thing under her blindfold as he looked under it on the first day she was sleeping and after finding nothing dangerous, he let Elise wear the blindfold at ease. Or else he wouldn't even let her wear something that might hide weapons or demonic eyes, if there were any in this world.
'Maybe she can be someone I can trust with little things in the future.' Auriel hoped and sat on his bed, slowly caressing the cat.
Then, he pulled Loki, who was in the air, from his string. Auriel wanted to see Loki and Mia's reactiıon to each other and see if they could be on good terms. After all, one of them was a bird while the other one was a cat, they were something like predator and prey.
He opened the window carefully, trying to not break the fragile thing, and took Loki in his arms, showing him to Mia. But something unexpected happened.
Suddenly, Loki began to tremble and his pupils shook with terror, then finding that Auriel released his strings, he escaped from Auriel's arm and flew far away with horror evident from his shakıng wings.
'What the…'