"Ugh… it's only marginally better…"
Melinda scoffed, shuddering, and only then took out a perfumed handkerchief and put it to her face to block the unpleasant smell.
"Now, I'm looking for a person named John. He's supposed to be in charge of the local thugs but not one of the big bosses in control of this lovely city's criminal underworld."
Melinda furrowed her brows and asked in a casual voice, as if she didn't just completely wrecked the place.
"..."
After getting no answer form the incapacitated patrons, the disguised girl shook her head with annoyed expression and walked up to the closest person.
A red-haired halfling with teeth shattered from the pressure of the shockwave, blood dripping from his ears, holding onto a piece of broken clay tankard.
"Are you John? If not, can you point me to him?"
"..."
Melinda nodded at the halfling and asked, but her potential informant didn't seem to register a single word she said to him.
"..."
The disguised girl furrowed her brows and leaned down, taking a careful look at the halfling's wounded ears…
The blood had not even begun to coagulate, but for some reason, something slowly grew out and poked out of the inside.
…something that looked suspiciously similar to a bloodied fang…
"This place is swarming with you scummy trash, isn't it?"
Melinda instantly recognized the situation and frowned fiercely, reaching down to the halfling and grabbing his clothes.
"Demon followers are not welcomed in my presence."
"?!?! W-Wait…!'
The girls scoffed, glaring at the halfling who seemed to regain his hearing despite having fangs sticking out of his ears.
"Nah."
*WHAM* *SQUELCH*
But despite his plea, Melinda snorted in annoyance and flicked the hand she was holding him with, sending the fellow straight toward the ceiling. There, he turned into a fresh coat of gruesome crimson paint while the remaining building trembled from the impact.
"I was wondering what the hell that additional stench was, but it was the pus from demonic growths. You traitors to the Jewelboxia continent made this place a hub for demon worshipers! Mister John. If you are here, I sure hope you are not involved in that~!"
Melinda hummed, turning back to the center of the tavern and addressing everyone once again.
"D-demons…? Did you say… demon followers?! IN MY TAVERN?!"
A burly brown-haired man jumped out from behind the bar, burning with righteous fury.
"..."
"...?"
But when the girl didn't react the way he expected - instead of responding, she merely glanced at his torso - and he followed her gaze.
"..."
What he saw there was that his stomach ended up being exposed...
...as was the large piece of ceramics shard stabbed into it...
Which would be troublesome in its own right, but the problem was that growths eerily similar to human fingernails were growing out of the edges of the wound as if in an attempt to close it.
"Ah…!"
"Ah, indeed."
*SQUELCH*
The man gasped, and Melinda mocked him before flicking her index finger at him, turning the man into a splash of bloody matter against the opposite wall.
"You know what? I guess it would be best to erase all of you, just in case. That whole John can't be the only person with the answers I'm looking for."
She declared, raising her head once more, but this getting a bit more of a wind-up…
'W-WAIT! Wait! I'm John! I don't know what you want from me, Lady Inquisitor, but at least I swear that I have nothing to do with some blasted demons or their followers!"
But before Melinda commenced the one-hit slaughter, the rubble moved, and a wounded man bleeding profusely from the dozens of cuts on his face and hands - of which none had shown any signs of growing fingernails or fangs whatsoever - appeared with his hands above his head.
"Really now…?"
"...!?"
The disguised girl raised her brow and lowered her hand, now pointing at the self-proclaimed John, causing him to turn green from fear.
"W-wait…! Oh, sweet Perseverance…!"
John panicked and backed off, ending up tripping and falling on the pile of rubble.
"..."
And then Melinda sternly pointed her finger at the spot where he was covering until that point.
*SPLURT* *thump*
The next moment, a woman running away from the tavern got her back blown out...
...literally…
Her torso almost split apart along the line of her now nonexistent spine. It disintegrated together with her head, causing the rest of her body to stumble on its own legs and fall down, horrifying anyone who decided to come to take a look at what was going on with the Crooked Fang tavern.
"Finally, some progress~"
Melinda perked up and breathed out in relief, leaving the matter of other potential demon followers since her original target revealed himself oh so graciously.
—-----
In a moderately secure room in a hideout unwillingly passed on by the previous owner, a relatively new leader was pacing all around, cursing the wretched luck.
"Boss, if you have been dealing with demons or are involved in the cult of the Demonic god…"
"I'm not! Stop talking nonsense!"
One of the two other people in the room beside him, a burly thug with a shaved head who was working as the bodyguard, spoke up but was interrupted by the angry scoff from his black-haired boss.
"Then why is it that inquisitor is going around looking for you?!"
The bodyguard snapped back in agitation, demonstrating that he did not value his job above his own life.
"How the hell am I supposed to know?!"
The black-haired man stomped his foot and glared at his bodyguard.
"What we know of that inquisitor is that she is actively looking for the person in control over the red-light district while killing all demon followers she encounters along the way. That doesn't mean her target is Victor. It could very well be either Sern or Mathias."
The third person in the room finally joined the conversation, too, looking form over the pile of documents she was working on.
She was a scholarly-looking, light-brown-haired young woman with modest clothes that included long gloves and a fashionable blue scarf that coincidentally matched the color of her boss's eyes.