The sudden newcomer startled both of them.
But unlike the tiefling child's instinctive flinch, the woman with the flower basket went deathly pale—a guilty panic—and tried to bolt.
Except the hand gripping her wrist was absurdly strong.
"Who are you? Let go of me!"
She spun around. Behind her stood a man taller than she was.
Handsome, but expressionless.
A crushing pressure poured off him.
To her, it felt like countless black tentacles were writhing out of his body, reaching to seize her.
"Y-you… you!"
With his other hand, Gauss tossed the bread in the woman's hand to Serandur.
Serandur caught it and brought it to his nose, sniffing lightly.
"Captain. It's laced with a sedative."
Gauss flicked his eyes toward the tiefling child—who was trembling too—then back to the woman, who was babbling incoherently.
"What's your purpose?"
He asked the question flatly.
Of course, the woman had no intention of willingly explaining herself.
But when Gauss's words reached her ears, they carried an overwhelming, strange magic.
It was like a silver-tongued con artist was whispering right beside her, coaxing her gently. The terrifying man in front of her gradually looked kind—almost like a friend.
In a daze, she spilled everything cleanly.
"This is my job."
"Someone paid me to look for homeless tiefling orphans in alleys, drug them with food like this, then take them to a designated place."
The tiefling boy's pupils shrank sharply when he heard her calmly describe the plan.
"Who paid you?" Gauss pressed.
"I don't know. He wore a black robe—I couldn't see his face."
"Then where were you supposed to deliver the drugged kids?"
"To… to…"
"AAAH!!!"
The woman—who'd been answering smoothly—suddenly crashed like her mind had blue-screened. A moment later, she clutched her head and started rolling on the ground, screaming in pain.
Behind Gauss came the clatter of boots.
Tap-tap-tap—
Soldiers with spears jogged into the alley from outside.
They eyed Gauss's group warily. The patrol captain stepped forward.
"What are you doing in this alley?"
Gauss blinked.
The tiefling child scrambled to his feet, shaking as he tried to stand in front of Gauss and defend him.
"This big brother is a good person…"
The kid babbled out an explanation. Whether it helped, or whether the soldiers noticed the adventurer badges on Gauss's group, no one knew.
Either way, the soldiers soon lowered their spears and hauled the wailing woman up.
"We'll take this trafficker back for interrogation."
"Sir, if convenient, please come with us and give a statement."
"Not convenient. I'm taking this kid to eat."
Gauss shook his head, answering evenly.
The patrol captain fell silent. The alley turned into a wordless standoff.
"Of course—if you don't have time, then forget it."
"Withdraw!"
The soldiers pulled out quickly.
The quiet alley returned to silence.
"They came fast," Serandur said, looking back toward where the patrol vanished.
"And they took her away too. What a coincidence."
The group understood each other without words.
This wasn't a busy main street.
Sure, it was possible a patrol just happened to pass by, heard the screaming, and came to check—but the odds were low.
"Forget it. Let's eat first."
Gauss helped the tiefling boy up.
The kid was so hungry he was about to faint.
"Eat something first. Fill your stomach."
Gauss pulled out a handful of pastries and candies from his storage pouch and placed them in the boy's hands.
"Thank you, big brother."
The boy swallowed hard, tore open a wrapper, and stuffed a crystal-clear candy into his mouth.
When the sweet syrup melted across his tongue, pure happiness spread over his face.
"Next time, don't accept food from strangers in a secluded place."
Gauss reminded him gently.
"Mm-hmm!"
The boy nodded furiously like a pecking chick.
After what had just happened, Gauss had become someone he could trust completely.
"Let's go eat."
…
After lunch,
the boy parted ways with Gauss's group outside the restaurant, carrying a few packed meal boxes.
He planned to share them with the other kids in his neighborhood.
Gauss watched his small back disappear.
The party fell into silence.
They could save one boy.
But the city was enormous—somewhere they couldn't see, a second case, a third case, might be happening right now.
This wasn't something one adventurer, or even one team, could handle.
This city was sick.
"There are too many tiefling orphans."
Many human couples, after giving birth to a tiefling child, abandoned the baby out of fear—fear of rumors, fear of judgment—even if the child was their own flesh and blood.
The lucky ones were taken in by institutions or tiefling mutual-aid groups.
The unlucky ones died the day they were abandoned.
And those discarded, uneducated tiefling orphans—under pressure from survival and public hatred—often drifted into theft and crime, which only worsened the situation.
Gauss's group returned to the inn.
They handed the housing listings to York and warned him not to go anywhere secluded for the time being—the city's situation wasn't stable.
That afternoon, Alia came back to the inn, beaming.
Her smile eased the heaviness in Gauss's chest from the morning's events.
"Found a good place?" Gauss asked. "You're grinning like that."
"Mm-hmm! A really nice natural cave—there's a waterfall and spring nearby, and the scenery is beautiful. I'm heading out tonight."
Alia could barely wait to break through.
Gauss was genuinely happy for her.
"Mark the location on the map for me, okay?"
"Sure."
Alia took a pen and marked the route in detail— which gate to leave, which road, where to turn off, where the forest path began.
She'd paid close attention to the route on purpose.
"Take Hephaestus with you too."
Gauss returned the creature-bag holding Hephaestus.
"Huh?" Alia tilted her head. "Why would I take him? He can help you more if he stays with you."
Hephaestus wasn't her contracted companion. Her breakthrough wouldn't affect him, and if she took him, he'd probably just sleep in the bag the whole time.
"If anything happens, you can summon him. Hephaestus should listen to you now."
Gauss still didn't feel fully at ease.
And if Hephaestus was with Alia, it would be as safe as it got.
In raw combat power, Hephaestus was second only to Gauss himself.
And if they couldn't win, Hephaestus could lift Alia into the sky and escape at any time.
"What danger? Are you worried because of that tiefling paladin's commission this morning? We didn't even take it."
Alia shook her head.
"Maybe I'm overthinking it. Still—take Hephaestus."
"Alright. If it makes you feel better."
Alia finally agreed.
Night fell.
After preparing supplies, Alia mounted Ulfen and said goodbye to the others outside the inn.
"I should be back in a week."
"Don't miss me too much."
"Go."
After Alia left, Shadow nodded to Gauss, then melted into darkness and followed.
She escorted Alia all the way to the seclusion site, scouted the surrounding woods, and only then returned to the city.
"I checked—everything nearby is safe."
"Good."
Gauss nodded.
He was starting to think he really had been overcautious.
But for some reason, ever since entering Longflute City, he'd kept feeling like unseen eyes were watching him.
It wasn't the first time—back in Lincrown Town, he'd also felt that faint sensation of being tracked.
So he'd been paying extra attention on the streets, trying to catch where it was coming from—which was why he'd noticed so many details lately, and why he'd bumped into incidents.
"Serandur—what are you doing tomorrow?" Gauss asked.
He planned to give everyone a short break.
"Me? I'll probably volunteer in the slums," Serandur replied earnestly.
Whenever they weren't taking commissions, he often went to lower districts to treat poor people for free.
One, it helped his growth.
Two, people who couldn't afford medicine tended to be grateful rather than judgmental—snake body or not.
"Shadow?"
"I'm going to walk around the city," Shadow shrugged.
"Same," Albena added. "But I'm hitting the smithies to buy some steel ingots. My gear needs maintenance."
"Alright. Everyone be careful."
Gauss also intended to move alone.
He wanted to catch that unseen shadow watching him.
If his teammates weren't with him, he'd worry less.
…
Late night, Lower Longflute.
In the backyard of an unremarkable shop with a sign reading 'Old Books & Sundries'—
The ground was cluttered with junk, seemingly ordinary.
But if someone moved the moldy oak barrel in the corner and pressed a loose brick behind it, they'd reveal a narrow stone stairway just wide enough for one person.
At the end was a hollowed-out basement.
The air was stale.
It reeked of old parchment, cheap lamp oil, and a faint hint of sulfur.
Dim blue flames provided the only light, casting trembling, ominous shadows.
Three people sat at a table with a city map spread out and several sheets of scribbled notes.
"The target mentioned in the letter has appeared."
"What timing. Right when we're putting the plan into motion."
At the head sat a thin middle-aged man in wire-rim glasses and an immaculately clean dark robe—like a scholar.
Opposite him was a man almost swallowed by the shadows, wrapped in a deep-gray cloak.
The third was a burly man in a leather apron stained with grease.
"We must seize him and offer him to the great Undying Dragon Empress. The aura he carries is so pure—so vast."
The scholar's eyes glittered with obsession in the blue firelight.
"But the city's too crowded. We can't act in full view," the burly man growled.
"Wait. Let me think."
The cloaked man finally spoke.
"One of his companions has left the city—and took the young dragon with her."
"That might be our opening," the scholar nodded, satisfied.
"Keep eyes on the target as well. That little dragon is valuable—but the target is far more precious."
Their voices flickered like shadows in the cold light.
Under their sleeves, tattoo-like marks began to glow faintly.
"There is no king anymore—only a shattered throne."
"And the great dragons will rule the world again."
As they spoke, all three pressed their right palms down. In the wavering light, the shadows of their five fingers stretched and twisted like strange, writhing heads.
…
Gauss walked the streets of Longflute.
The weather was nice.
A bright sun warmed the autumn air, and more people were out.
He walked, quietly scanning his surroundings.
His raw Perception stat wasn't extraordinary—but his soul was. He was unusually sensitive to wrongness.
Then he spotted a furtive figure up ahead.
"Hey!"
The kid he called to stiffened and turned around.
When he saw Gauss had already approached, he visibly relaxed.
"Hah… it's you. The idi— I mean, the good guy."
The tiefling boy Dray loosened up completely.
He'd thought a shop owner might have caught him.
But he'd never forget the handsome man who'd paid for the stolen bread two days ago.
Even bad kids liked talking to good people.
"You were about to say 'idiot,' weren't you?" Gauss asked with a smile.
Dray forced an awkward grin.
"Which bakery are you eyeing this time?" Gauss sighed. "You haven't even finished what you stole before."
"Heh. I'm not here to steal today."
Dray looked oddly shy.
"I… I want to buy a present for my little sister."
"With what money?" Gauss eyed him skeptically.
Dray's face flushed.
"I have money… okay, fine, not much. I picked it up. You know—between paving stones, in alley corners."
He produced a few battered copper coins from his pocket.
"Then what are you hesitating for?"
"There are shopkeepers on that street who've 'donated' to me before. I need to avoid them."
"…"
Gauss shook his head.
So it was guilt, not poverty.
"Come on. Walk behind me."
"No one will notice you."
The shop wasn't far anyway, and Gauss didn't mind taking a few extra steps.
He'd help—this time, all the way.
~~~
Patreon.com/NotEvenMyFinalForm
– More Chapters There! You can read Chapter 1 to Present there for free!