It was the onset of winter, with the weather dry and cold. The sky was thick with clouds, dull and lifeless, revealing a faint leaden gray that felt oppressive. Below the clouds stretched patches of earthy yellow and gray low-rise buildings, old and dilapidated, like stacks of faded, painted wooden blocks piled together.
Likely to save space, some of the brick-and-wood structures rose two or three stories high. But even a three-story house only matched the height of a two-story standalone building in a noble's manor.
This was the dwelling place for the poor in the Re-Estize's capital, not far from the slums that looked as rundown as withered leaves—home to people even poorer than the poor.
"Ludus Street, Corner Lane, 43, second floor." EeDechi muttered the address Lakyus had given her. "Unbelievable, the last surviving member of the legendary Thirteen Heroes, living in a dump like this!"
Adamantite-level adventurer Lakyus had given her a ring and recommended that EeDechi seek out Rigrit Bers Caurau, who lived in seclusion here. Rigrit was a founding member of the Blue Roses adventuring team and had since retired. She was over 200 years old and had once been the necromancer in the legendary group known as the Thirteen Heroes from more than 200 years ago.
EeDechi believed that connecting with a living fossil like this person could help her find a way to counter Ainz Ooal Gown.
But she couldn't find her.
The address should be correct; Lakyus had no reason to deceive her. It was just that the residents here often expanded their homes on their own, turning the already web-like dense paths even more chaotic, like a tangled ball of yarn. Brass or iron doorplates were either rusted to ruins by wind and rain or pried off and sold for scrap.
The people living here didn't need addresses—they had no packages to receive or send, and postmen couldn't navigate the area anyway. If there was the rare letter to mail, they could just head to the nearby postal carriage station.
The Last Defender of the Way adventurer team had already mobilized in full force, searching this area for Rigrit's secluded address. Most residents had left home to go to work, leaving only a few mischievous kids chasing and roughhousing on the streets, so they couldn't find many people to ask for directions.
EeDechi rubbed her forehead, feeling a bit of a headache. Nothing in the world ever goes off without a hitch; unexpected snags always pop up. She'd been wandering around this rundown neighborhood for nearly two hours and still came up empty.
"Captain, I spotted the sign for Corner Lane 41!" Sean's shout came from across a small alley. Finally, some good news—EeDechi immediately hustled over.
With Sean's pointing, on a rusty copper plaque, the printed words "Corner Lane 41" were indeed there. The letters were almost illegible, covered in green rust, blending right into the stone wall full of withered moss. If not for Sean the archer with his keen eyes, regular folks would have a tough time noticing it, and the rough-and-ready EeDechi would probably have just blown right past.
"If this is 41," Barrett eyed the nearby buildings—he and Stella had shown up too—"then that two-story squat next door should be 43."
"Which of these crappy houses around here isn't a squat?" EeDechi griped, leading her teammates ahead.
In front of the squat was a drainage ditch reeking of rot, with filthy household wastewater sluggishly flowing through the black channel, mixed with murky yellow gunk, chunks of broken fish bones, fruit pits, even strips of crap, you name it—it seemed like the locals dumped all their everyday trash right into this ditch.
The adventurers couldn't help but feel relieved it was winter; if they'd come here in summer, the sewer would surely be like a moat in those war tales, brimming with dark wizard potions and corpses, stinking to the heavens.
A slab of stone spanned the drainage ditch, acting as a bridge. The four adventurers stepped across the slab and entered the squat building. They climbed the creaky wooden stairs, and just as they neared the second floor, EeDechi, leading the way, suddenly froze.
"Captain, what's wrong?" Stella asked softly from behind her.
"On the second floor," EeDechi stepped over the last few stairs and reached the tin door, "there's another small space."
"Another space?" Barrett and the other three were totally baffled.
In their eyes, the cramped second floor had just one rusty thin iron door, with earthy yellow walls where the plaster had flaked off, exposing red bricks the color of spoiled raw pork—no different from the other residents' homes, if anything, even more rundown.
But EeDechi could see that behind the walls, there was a murky space, like a jelly overlapping with the room, filled with deep shadows; she couldn't make out what was inside.
A heavy copper lock secured the door wrapped in thin iron sheets, covered in a thick layer of dust. EeDechi brushed the lock with her fingers, leaving clear prints. The keyhole was eaten away by uneven copper rust, making you wonder if a key could even be shoved in to trigger the mechanism.
This place seemed sealed away by time in some forgotten corner, never unsealed by anyone. Clearly, the owner wasn't home—maybe hadn't been for decades.
The hallway was tight, so Barrett squeezed up next to EeDechi. He pressed against the thin tin door, sensed for a moment, and said, "No runes or wards, just a plain old door. Want to bash it open and head in?"
EeDechi shook her head. "Even if we get in, it's just a regular room. That other small space overlapping it is inaccessible—the small space is 'locked,' and without the owner's permission, we can't enter. Besides, we're here to find a person, not to turn the place upside down looking for info."
Actually, I could break the "wall" of the small space—maybe I'd be able to get in, EeDechi thought to herself. But whether the small space would still exist after she broke the spatial "wall" was anyone's guess.
A slow footstep sounded from around the corner of the stairs. The four adventurers turned to look, and couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed—the footsteps came from an elderly old woman.
The old woman was hunched over, her back curved like a shrimp's, with snow-white curly strands peeking out from under her gray-striped headscarf. She moved very slowly, carrying a small wooden bucket in her hand, shuffling down the wooden stairs step by step.
Because the stairway was so narrow, the four adventurers had to press themselves against the wall to make room for the old woman to pass.
As she went by, the adventurers got a clear look at what was in the bucket she carried: all sorts of grime-filled liquids swirled together, dingy yellow rags, even strips of cloth that looked like sanitary pads.
A foul stench wafted from the bucket, and Stella—the one who cared most about her looks—immediately covered her nose. The old woman seemed to be heading to the drainage ditch downstairs to dump out this trash produced from human activities.
"Barrett, don't you know to respect the elderly and care for the young?" EeDechi said, plastered against the wall. "You see an old lady carrying something so heavy, and you don't go help? Have you got no sense of decency?"
"Huh?" Barrett, also stuck to the wall, couldn't help grumbling inwardly, but seeing the old woman trembling pitifully with the bucket, he felt a pang of compassion. He took the foul-smelling bucket from her hands, rushed down the stairs two at a time, and poured the sewage into the ditch.
The old woman's face was crisscrossed with wrinkles, her eye bags swollen, and her sagging eyelids squeezed her eyes into slits.
She took the empty bucket back from Barrett, then turned to thank EeDechi, "Thank you, Sister. You're truly a kind-hearted person."
Old lady, are you blind? Can't you see who dumped the water for you? Barrett thought, utterly speechless.
"No need to thank me; that's what Barrett should do." EeDechi said righteously. "Besides, I'm not a nun—I'm an adventurer."
She pulled an orichalcum-level metal badge from her spatial ring, pinned it to her chest, and asked, "Granny, do you know if anyone lives in the room on the second floor?"
"Well... I'm not sure. I moved here a few years ago. After my son died in battle, my husband passed away too, and I've been living here alone ever since." The old woman's lips trembled as she spoke, revealing her toothless gums. "Since I moved in, I haven't seen the second-floor door open. Sister, could you keep me company and chat for a bit?"
"Sorry, granny, I'm busy saving the world." EeDechi said without a hint of shame. "When I get a chance, I'll come visit you."
"Well... alright then." The old woman hunched over, climbing the stairs step by step, her figure looking forlorn. Living alone as a widow in this place, her life must be lonely and miserable.
The four adventurers left the squat building and headed back out to the street.
"Can't find her—what now?" Barrett asked, his own curiosity piqued about the last member of the Thirteen Heroes.
EeDechi paced irritably for a few steps. "I need to go ask Lakyus again to clear this up, or have her take me there personally."
"But adamantite-level adventurers are even harder to track down."
"Then I'll go find Renner first," EeDechi said without a second thought. "I hear she's tight with the Blue Roses adamantite-level team."
"Captain, in the future, it'd be best to keep some distance from Princess Renner," Barrett suggested.
"Why?" EeDechi asked, puzzled.
"From the info I've gathered, Princess Renner may look kind on the surface, but she's got all sorts of schemes and tricks up her sleeve behind the scenes. Put simply, she's two-faced—I worry you're too..."
Barrett had meant to say "too dumb," but after a second thought, he changed it to, "too innocent, easy to trust people, and might get tricked and used by Renner."
"What are you babbling about!" EeDechi frowned. "Renner is a total saint! When we chatted yesterday, she heard I wanted to crack down on prostitution and specifically gave me the addresses of three local brothels."
My gods! Barrett couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath. No wonder he had no idea where EeDechi had vanished to yesterday—she'd gone off causing chaos at brothels again. Poor three brothels; Barrett couldn't help but silently mourn for those prostitutes and their clients.
"But I searched all day and couldn't find the locations of those three brothels." EeDechi scratched her head, a bit embarrassed.
"Huh?" Barrett said in surprise. "Didn't I give you a map and compass?"
He'd been worried about EeDechi getting lost in the city before, so he'd specially bought her a map and compass and taught her how to read the map.
"It must be that the map you bought is outdated! That's why I couldn't find them!" EeDechi put her left hand on her hip, pointed at Barrett with her right, looked up at him, and declared righteously, "Next time, you take me to those three brothels!"
How did I get myself into this mess! Barrett felt a dull ache in his head. He quickly came up with an excuse and said, "Tell me the addresses of those three brothels."
EeDechi pulled out a piece of paper with the addresses written on it and handed it to him.
Barrett took the paper, read it over, then pulled out the map, pretended to study it, and said with a look of sudden realization, "I get it—these three brothels have all shut down. The info Princess Renner gave you is outdated, no wonder you couldn't find them."
"How could that be?" EeDechi widened her bright eyes.
"Princess Renner doesn't usually go to brothels, right? It's normal for her info to be out of date," Barrett forced an explanation.
"Oh, so that's it." EeDechi nodded thoughtfully, agreeing.
Barrett let out a sigh of relief—finally, he'd bluffed his way through.
This Princess Renner is full of sly tricks. He looked over the addresses of those three brothels again, and combining them with the rumors he'd heard in the streets, he realized that these three brothels, along with the one EeDechi had wrecked before, all belonged to nobles who were enemies of Princess Renner's faction.