A Regressor's Bucket List

Chapter 189 : Emily (1)

“Then let me introduce her, Emilia.”

“……Emily is ‘her’ name, not mine. I’m Eliya.”

“Anyway, she’s from Aberdeen. And she quite likes Magitek.”

There was no need to explain much to Eliya.

As she was also part of The Order, she understood the prestige of Magitek, and she knew a fair bit about Aberdeen, which could be called the center and birthplace of Magitek.

A simple explanation that we had taken on a promising new talent from Aberdeen in exchange for coordinates from the UMC was enough.

Well.

I didn’t know if she truly understood, but I thought it was sufficient.

“It doesn’t look like she just ‘quite likes’ it.”

“Then she ‘likes it a lot,’ perhaps...?”

“……”

Slurp- slurp-

“So…… in summary, we’ve gained another freeloading mouth to feed, Hero.”

“Oh, come on, she’s right here. How can you call her a ‘freeloading mouth to feed’? A priest, no less, shouldn’t speak like that.”

“……But she doesn’t even seem to be listening to me.”

“It’s just your imagination.”

“……”

Even after arriving, Emily, who had been endlessly chattering about Magitek as if nothing else mattered, only quieted down after Eliya inserted a straw into a peach iced tea and gave it to her.

In her previous life, she also liked sweet drinks, saying her blood sugar dropped when she was constantly researching, so it seemed to be a drink quite to her taste.

“Any news from the other side yet?”

While I was away in Aberdeen, Tom was tasked with using the coordinates received from the UMC to free the Beastkin slaves from the slave prisons.

Eliya had suggested that since it was an important matter, it would be crucial to follow the steps carefully.

The truth was, there was nothing for me to do in that mission, and I didn’t have the luxury of waiting for everything, so I entrusted all related responsibilities to Tom.

“Yes. You returned faster than expected, Hero... and it was an operation planned to take longer from the start anyway.”

A total of four sets of coordinates were received from the UMC.

And since they were located at strongholds in various regions, the distance between the prisons was considerable.

Even just considering travel time, it would naturally take a significant amount of time, and our goal wasn’t merely to free them and be done with it, but to lead the Beastkin slaves here.

So, as Eliya said, it wasn’t something that could be handled in just a day or two.

‘……’

In terms of method, it wasn’t really the most appropriate choice.

Superficially, going to each slave prison one by one seemed like a strategy so classic it bordered on foolishly simple.

Putting everything else aside, if news of the raid were to reach the Market Makers through the slave traders’ intelligence network, there was a risk of them escaping.

And if they were given time, there was a possibility they would close down and conceal the slave prisons.

Nevertheless, the reason we had no choice but to proceed this way was simple.

From our perspective, there were no other options.

Firstly, it was an operation we were undertaking unilaterally, and it wasn’t particularly relevant to the War against Demons, so borrowing The Order’s power was impossible.

Asking the UMC directly wasn’t impossible, but Ludwig Allegro would surely have refused.

While the coordinates themselves were something that could be explained later and cut ties from, directly dispatching personnel was a category that couldn’t be explained away later.

Of course, there was also the option of hiring mercenaries.

Mercenaries could be hired as long as one had money, and they could carry out missions even without being given complete information.

However, it was difficult to hire quality personnel among mercenaries.

Most active mercenaries were soldiers who had retired from the War against Demons due to injury or age, and it was difficult to hire high-level personnel suitable for such a task on such short notice.

While there were certainly high-level personnel who were retired Heroes, the current situation meant that the immediate financial and circumstantial conditions couldn’t be met.

Therefore, from my perspective, the only personnel I could assign to Thomas was Cheong-yi.

“They’ll have to handle it well on their own.”

Since it was an issue related to the Beastkin, Tom wouldn’t take it lightly.

And even if I didn’t know the full extent of the power he gained through Valencia’s complete succession, he was, by name, the one to inherit the Beastkin throne.

In the current situation, trusting their abilities and waiting was the best we could do.

“What about Jerry?”

Jerry did not accompany Thomas.

He certainly participated in setting the coordinates and the planning process, but since he wasn’t truly a combatant to begin with, his presence wouldn’t be of much help.

Even though this Guild House wasn’t officially recognized, the number of Beastkin Jerry brought wasn’t small, so someone was needed to stay here.

It was judged that preparing for any unforeseen situations here would be better than him ambiguously following along.

……And though I didn’t know exactly why,

『……I will remain here.』

『…….』

『I have something separate to investigate.』

He had also stated first that he had something of his own to do and would stay.

“Oh, now that you mention it...”

To the question about Jerry’s whereabouts, Eliya mumbled as if she had just remembered.

“……I haven’t seen him for a few days now.”

“……”

“That’s strange. Even if our routines are different and the place is large, we should have run into each other at least once.”

As Eliya said, it was a little too strange to just shrug off.

As he was of Vampire lineage, he was naturally nocturnal.

It was understandable that he didn’t do much during the day.

Strictly speaking, his active hours weren’t just the deep night, but rather the entire period when the sun was down.

Even roughly calculating, about half of his daily active hours should overlap with a normal person’s routine.

Furthermore, he was consciously concerned about the Beastkin and enjoyed night strolls, so it was reasonable to expect him to have encountered Eliya at least once.

Not showing up for several days was definitely not normal.

“……Hmm. Let’s check his room first, then.”

Feeling something was off, I immediately headed to his room to look for him.

***

Creak-

Burst open-

“……He’s not here.”

Jerry’s room was empty.

Well, I had a feeling he wouldn’t be there.

But confirming that fact directly felt a little different from just thinking it.

“……This is strange.”

The feeling of unease grew stronger.

The traces of Mana in the room were not just faint, but almost imperceptible.

‘……At this level, he hasn’t been in his room for days.’

Among what are called the three great human desires, Jerry was overwhelmingly the type with a high desire for sleep.

In particular, his obsession with ‘quality sleep,’ not just any sleep, was considerable.

After defecting to the Order Territory and adapting to human lifestyles, his biorhythms naturally became disturbed, making it difficult to get quality sleep.

This resulting deprivation had given him a stubborn, almost obsessive, attachment to quality sleep.

For such a person not to return to the sleeping quarters he had set up to maintain his sleep condition meant either there was something more important than that, or he had failed to return due to an unavoidable external force.

‘……Something has happened.’

I felt certain.

That something was amiss with him.

“……First, let’s check all the other rooms.”

“……Yes. I’ll continue checking downstairs. Hero, please check upstairs.”

“Okay.”

Eliya, also seeming to grasp the seriousness of the situation, spoke in a lower tone.

I nodded at her suggestion and began checking the rooms one by one.

Burst open- Thud!

Burst open- Thud!

Creak- Burst open!

“……”

But even after opening every door and checking my private office on the top floor, I couldn’t find Jerry, or even a trace of him.

Tap-tap-tap-tap-!

Deciding there was nothing more to see, I went downstairs to the first floor where Eliya was.

Without even needing to ask, I could tell from her expression that no trace of Jerry had been found.

She also seemed to read the same from my expression, as she didn’t bother asking if I had found anything.

A brief silence fell.

“……!”

Then, as if a different thought suddenly occurred to her, she turned her head towards the window, fixed her gaze on the group of Beastkin beyond it, and cautiously asked me,

“……Is there no possibility he’s outside? He was quite interested in the Beastkin, so perhaps he slept in their dwellings...”

Shake-shake-

“No.”

And to her question, I could instantly reply that it wasn’t so.

“Even if he’s only half-blooded, he’s still a Vampire of pure lineage. He wouldn’t die from sunlight, but he’d naturally dislike it. Staying outside for days on end is completely impossible for him.”

“……”

“Besides, there wouldn’t be proper sleeping quarters over there. It’s not a long distance, so there’s no reason for him to leave this place to sleep there. If that were the case, you would have checked anyway.”

Eliya regularly toured the Territory for record-keeping.

Checking the speed of the ruins’ reconstruction and the number of Beastkin was part of her daily routine, so if Jerry had been there, Eliya would have known first.

In other words, to summarize:

“It’s one of three possibilities.”

“……”

“Either Jerry is definitely in here and we just haven’t found him, or he was kidnapped by someone who entered the Guild House without our knowledge. Or, in the worst-case scenario……”

Shrug-

“He ran away.”

Honestly, I didn’t want to think that, but none of the three possibilities were impossible.

Given Jerry’s personality, it was hard to expect ‘affection’ from him.

After all, as he had always called me, I was merely a partner with whom he exchanged benefits.

“……I hope it’s not the last one.”

“Me too.”

Of course, it was still difficult to conclude anything.

There was only the fact that no trace of him had been found, and no other clues to extend our line of thought.

Click-

Around that time, perhaps feeling anxious, Eliya habitually brought her thumbnail to her mouth.

She paced back and forth, her feet making light, quick steps.

“……There must be something. We must be missing something…”

Muttering in a low voice and moving restlessly, she suddenly lifted her head as if remembering something.

Then, she turned her head to look at me and exclaimed,

“The basement!”