episode_0252

Even though it was Asha’s first time as an adventurer, she skillfully organized everything she had to do in her head in order and immediately put it into action.

smart. When I knocked on the door, a middle-aged woman with a warm appearance appeared.

“Who…?”

“Hello. My name is Asha, an adventurer who was commissioned to search for a missing person.”

“Ah! okay! Thank you so much for finding my son…!”

“Yes. So, can I borrow your belongings for a while? At best, it’s something like clothes with body odor permeating it. I need it for tracking.”

“Wait a minute!”

Asha quickly packed up the clothes the client woman brought and reassured her with a relaxed smile.

“This is enough. I will definitely come back safely, so don’t worry too much and just wait.”

“Ah… Thank you, thank you!”

Even though nothing had been resolved yet, the woman repeatedly expressed her gratitude to Asha. This is proof that Asha appears trustworthy.

‘Hmm… Okay, it may be a little difficult, but I can find it.’

Needless to say, the dragon’s five senses were extremely excellent. Unlike other senses, the sense of smell can cause pain or fatigue, so it was normally insensitive, but it was possible to forcibly increase the sense.

His sense of smell, which was incomparable to that of a wolf, guided him as if visualizing scents and guiding Asha to which direction the same scents existed.

Inside the city, the smells of various people were mixed, but when I came outside, all the confusing smells disappeared. I followed the trail of scent that became more and more clear, but Asha’s expression was not so bright.

Even though the smell was clearly getting stronger, Asha’s expression changed completely. The reason is that the smell of blood was clearly mixed into the smell.

‘Is it already too late?’

Ashada carefully checked the posting date of the request. Since the request was created just yesterday, Asha judged that there was a high possibility that the missing person was still alive.

However, there is one thing that was missed. This means that the Adventurer’s Guild will not be tasked with searching for missing people if they have not returned home for a day or two.

Additionally, Asha didn’t know that the first thing people look for when their child goes missing is usually the militia, not the adventurer’s guild.

This means that the missing person had been missing for much longer than Asha thought.

‘…Well, the request was a search, so there’s no need to bring him alive.’

If at least the body is retrieved, the request will be completed. Rather than worrying about unexpected events, Asha continued what she was doing with a cool-headed judgment. It was a natural enough thought circuit for a dragon, not a human.

Asha, who went forward without distinguishing between the path and the non-path in search of traces of smell, was able to find a blood trace that clearly belonged to her.

It didn’t look like blood at all as it was stuck to the dirt blackly, but Asha was certain that it was the bloodstain of the missing person.

‘Hmm… Usually in books, you can guess how long ago an incident occurred and what its current status is based on traces like this…’

No matter how versatile Asha was, it was impossible to imitate her. If he had been able to use magic, there would have been some possibility, but unfortunately, he had not yet become an adult.

One fact that is difficult to determine, whether unfortunate or fortunate, is that the smell and traces have become clear enough to be certain that the missing person exists in this area.

Asha looked around. Since the forest was already far away from the city, there was nothing particularly distinctive about it.

There is something Asha learned from her father, Eugene, about what to do in times like these.

“Hoo-eup…!”

Take a deep breath and bend your knees. Exhale and bounce your ankles to jump high.

Asha, who literally jumped a height of approximately 80 meters, scouted out the area below before falling.

‘There is something.’

Although I couldn’t confirm exactly what it was, I was able to confirm that it was a man-made structure mixed in with nature. Needless to say, it can be said to be the most influential and suspicious place.

‘good.’

Asha fixed her gaze in the direction of the building and as soon as she fell, she kicked the ground and jumped out. There was a loud explosion and a cloud of dust rose up, but Asha was not hurt at all.

However, due to the commotion, the person inside the building Asha was heading to reacted.

“Umm…? What is it?”

Before he could even raise his head, the door burst open. Asha came running quickly.

“Huh?”

“Huh!?”

And Asha and the person inside the building could not help but be embarrassed when they confirmed each other’s identities.

“Asha? Why are you here?”

“Adele? Why are you here?”

The identity of the person inside the building was Adele.

“Is that what I want to ask? This is the den of the grave robbers I’m chasing. Why is the guy who said he was going to find a missing person here… Huh! no way? You were planning to secretly receive additional requests like mine and attack me!”

“Don’t say nonsense. I was searching for a missing person as you know. The traces of the missing person ended here.”

“Wait a minute… Then the grave robber I’m looking for and the missing person you’re looking for…”

“Yes.”

“You mean it’s the same person!?”

“No, that’s not right. Common sense dictates that grave robbers must be outsiders. If someone inside the city had done something like that, of course they wouldn’t have known about it, and they would have placed a wanted notice on it.”

However, in Adele’s mission to arrest the grave robber, the identity of the grave robber was listed as unknown.

“Then…?”

“Even if they are not the same person, they are not completely unrelated. Either they are helping each other, or the grave robbers have kidnapped him for some reason and are securing his safety… Once this happens, the bet is off.”

“Huh? why? Can we continue like this? I have no problem at all.”

“…Adele. It’s good for us to be competitive among ourselves, is that okay? Since we’ve come this far, our paths will continue to overlap, right?”

If the bet continues, they will naturally keep each other in check. Even if it was Adele, it was something that could easily be inferred.

“Ugh… If we fight so hard, we could both lose.”

“That’s what I said.”

Dragons were not a species so foolish that they lost sight of what should take priority over the greed in front of them. Asha and Adele gradually calmed down their rivalry and exchanged information with each other.

“How did Asha come here?”

“Nothing much. I just went to the client’s house, borrowed the missing person’s belongings, and traced them through the smell coming from there, and ended up here.”

“Wow, there was a method like that.”

“I heard you were asked to arrest a grave robber, so I thought you were searching a nearby cemetery, but how are you here?”

“Me? At first, I also wanted to work undercover at the cemetery, but when I thought about it, I thought it was strange that people who had received the request before me would have done the same, but they haven’t been caught yet.”

“So you approached it in a different way.”

“Yes! There was a faint trace of the body being dragged, so I tracked it and found it here.”

Adele was following an extremely faint trace that could not be found by an ordinary human, but could only be recognized by the eyes of a dragon.

“Anyway, the common denominator between the two missions is this… So, have you discovered anything?”

“No. It hasn’t been long since I came too. Just as I was about to check, I suddenly heard a loud noise and you appeared.”

“Only from the outside, it looks like a house where ordinary humans live.”

“Yes. But I can barely see any traces that should be visible if I live there.”

Food, clothing and shelter are concepts that are difficult to separate. As a living space, there must be clothes and food to wear. However, in this place where Asha and Adele were located, only the concept of ‘home’ seemed to remain.

“Let’s take a look first.”

“Can I touch it however I want? They say this is a crime among humans.”

“What do you need to know? They say it is suspected to be a grave robber’s hideout. And I have no choice because I have to search for missing people anyway.”

“Okay. I was just saying this too.”

Asha and Adele didn’t check each and every adventurer exemption, but even if it were a problem, they wouldn’t be too concerned.

The two began to search the house without permission, and coincidentally, they found the item they both wanted.

“Here’s a shovel with dirt on it. Looks like a grave robber.”

“Wow, there are clothes here! Judging by the blood on it, I don’t think it’s the landlord’s clothes. Or do you have a terrible fashion sense?”

“Good. It’s becoming more and more clear. Have you searched all the other rooms? Then, let’s look at the places we didn’t check last time.”

Asha suddenly threw down the shovel she was holding and hit the floor of the house with her fist as hard as she could. Then the floor fell off, revealing the basement beneath it.

“Whatcha.”

“Ugh! Asha! If you want to break the floor, speak faster!”

Adele, who had suddenly lost her footing and was struggling, finally regained her bearings and landed, causing trouble for Asha. Whether her twin did it or not, Asha grinned at the person hiding in the basement.

“Hello. Can I ask if you are a grave robber or a missing person?”

Although the bet was canceled, Asha, who still wanted to find the missing person first, asked in an expectant tone, but clicked her tongue when she saw the man’s face, who raised his head after hearing her words.

The eyes are so black that the distinction between white and black is meaningless, and the face is covered with age spots, as if rotten. Crucially, he was dressed in a shabby naked body without even a single layer of clothing.

Crucially, the man in front of me was full of the energy of necromancy.

“Chet, anyone can tell that he is not a missing person.”