Apart from the large pit in the living room, there were no signs of destruction at all.
It seemed like someone had sat on a few of the beds; the sheets had slight creases, but the blankets were untouched.
Rhode asked and confirmed that the beds had not been made up.
This suggests that they must have disappeared shortly after checking in, and for the hotel staff, it was a silent disappearance.
Rhode handed over some large bills to the attendant: "I'll compensate for the losses. Please keep this room for us for one more day, and don't clean it."
"Alright, sir." The attendant accepted the money with a slight bow and closed the door as they left the room.
"Aside from this pit, I can't see any clues." Mira wiggled her fingers expectantly, "I'll check the luggage then."
She had visited Lucy's house a few times before and her favorite activity was rummaging through Lucy's underwear—often finding some styles that Erza found daring.
"..." Rhode didn't stop Mira, because if something could be gleaned from Lucy's clothing, Rhode might benefit from it.
"Hmm, let me take a look at this hole." Rhode tapped his nose, and the powerful scent of the Shadow Wolf immediately activated.
The scent of his companions in the air was already very faint, almost undetectable, and he needed to exclude his and Mira's scents, as well as that of the attendant who had just been there.
There seemed to be a faintly familiar but not so recognized scent... Who was it?
"Balrog?" After much thought, Rhode finally recalled the name, making the hole on the ground even more familiar.
What could have happened that required Balrog to lead them through a tunnel to escape?
Rhode sent a ghost floating down to check it out, only to find that the hole went straight down with no exit.
It was more like a 'pit' than a 'hole,' in every sense.
If it wasn't for an escape, then what was the purpose of digging this pit?
What on earth were these people thinking...
Mira returned after checking the luggage and asked, "How did it go?"
Rhode pointed at the pit: "So far only Balrog might have been here; this should be her doing. How about your side?"
"What a pity," Mira replied regretfully, "just ordinary luggage, no notes or SOS signals.
"We'll halt our investigation here for now. While it's still daylight, let's go meet those bandits."
Since Balrog had been here, the Star Spirits should know their direction. We'll figure out how to ask them later; for now, we need to deal with our commission.
Rhode really hoped they were careless enough to be kidnapped by the bandits using Sleep Magic or some such method.
Hopefully, they were also blindfolded with black bags by the bandits.
That way, he could promptly go beat up the bandits and, since he couldn't see their faces, treat the hostages as bandits and beat them up too.
Rhode drew a Hex Flying Gate Magic Array on Lucy's bedboard, then tidied up the mattress and bedding.
He left the smallest ghost to guard the room before picking up Mira and jumping out the window, heading toward Parson Flower Mountain.
The destination was over ten kilometers west of the town, requiring just a few minutes to fly there.
Parson Flower Mountain was the collective name for this hilly region; from afar, you could see over thirty hilltops of various sizes.
Fortunately, it was winter, and apart from evergreens like pines and cypresses, the rest of the vegetation was withered. From high in the air, Rhode quickly spotted the suspected bandit stronghold.
He landed on a hill opposite the structure, observing it closely.
It was a three-story fortress with a cylindrical shape, each floor had windows—though Rhode wasn't sure if they should be described as windows or gun ports since the openings were so small.
It felt like this stronghold was meant to defend against military assaults.
At the entrance, there was a muscular man who seemed even burlier than Elfman, bare-chested in the cold winter, pumping iron.
These bandits didn't seem to rely solely on tools.
Mira asked, "There's a man outside, he's not wearing armor; should we not go directly?"
Rhode replied, "We haven't seen how the new generation of mages fight, have we? I plan to have the wild monsters go test them first."
Mira asked, puzzled, "Didn't you encounter them once yesterday?"
"Yesterday... I hadn't even used my strength, and they had already fallen. Apart from a few Magic Shields, I saw nothing," Rhode said with a slightly smug expression.
Mira coaxed, "Yes, yes, you're the best, let's start then. I also want to see."
Rhode raised his hand, and dozens of wild monsters appeared in groups, quickly forming a line.
Two River Crabs led the way, followed by two groups from Twisted Jungle, a total of four Golems, and two groups from Summoner's Rift, a total of four Stone Beetles.
The third row comprised four groups of 12 Shadow Wolves, followed by 12 Beaked Birds and 5 ghosts floating in the air—there were 6 ghosts in total, but one was left at the hotel.
Two Magic Swamp Frogs stood in the last row with two red and two blue, deliberately separated from the front line.
At Rhode's command, the wild monsters proceeded in an orderly manner.
He then summoned three Void Nest Insects, telling them to squat in the mountain gully and slowly build troops. Whether or not they entered the battle depended on Rhode's mood.
"They can form a queue now?" Mira recalled that every time the wild monsters came out together before, it was chaotic, swarming at enemies.
Rhode said, "I've trained them a bit during my free time. The next time the Guild holds a Magical Parade, it'll look more impressive this way."
Mira's enchanting eyes sparkled, feeling it wasn't only for the Magical Parade.
She looked at the significantly changed Cyan Engraved Golem and Crimson Marked Tree Monster; both types of wild monsters seemed to have changed a lot like the River Crabs.
"Do you like purple more now?"
"No," Rhode looked at Mira, then suddenly said, "Purple... is fine too."
Mira blinked, then followed his gaze down. Her face flushed, and she punched Rhode's arm: "What are you thinking! I was asking about their changes!"
"Oh, them. A bigwig in the Rift bestowed new powers upon them, so they transformed. Now they're called Void Engraved Golem and Void Marked Tree Monster, but I still like calling them Xiaolan and Xiaohong,"
Rhode rubbed his arm, glanced at the nodding Mira, and mischievously added, "I meant it earlier."
And took another hit on the arm.
...
Across the mountain, in front of the Black Knight Bandit Group's fortress.
Aites trained his muscles as usual.
He ranked last among the eight of them, but was the strongest in terms of power.
Recently, they did a big job, so they lacked for neither money nor supplies. Except for occasionally going down the mountain to intimidate nearby towns, they lived leisurely.
It was afternoon now, and Foster, Sekend, Selude, and Frus were inside playing cards and gambling.
Fevers was taking a nap.
Silas and Sewense were applying face masks, claiming it was something for skincare.
Aites couldn't understand those two at all; they always wore face armor when going out, so what was the point of making their faces so white?
Of course, he saw the other activities as a waste of time as well; he thought it better to spend such free time training more.
He put down the barbell and flexed his arms, the firm muscles a testament to his discipline.
Just as he criticized his companions for wasting life and considered his next workout, Aites suddenly heard movement coming from down the mountain.
He walked a few steps forward and looked down to see two strange purple crabs charging up the mountain, kicking up a trail of dust.
The dry winter air made the dust fly, obstructing his view of what followed behind.
"Beast stampede?" Aites first thought of the uncommon occurrence.
But he wasn't worried at all; the mountain paths were riddled with traps set to prevent military siege. While using them on animals might be overkill, it seemed like there'd be meat for dinner today.