While Jeanne and Lemuen were still debating the relationship between the car's sturdiness and being overloaded, Crownslayer had already settled the "future trouble" and walked out. Looking at her clothes, which remained clean, her methods must have been quite efficient.
"Drive, quickly. I just set a small trap; in a moment, that warehouse will catch fire and burn everything inside to ash."
Crownslayer walked swiftly to Jeanne's side and whispered to her. She wasn't at all worried that the three men would attract any attention; in a place like this, countless people like them disappeared every day.
Having finished speaking, Crownslayer hurriedly sat in the back seat. Whether it was because the car was spacious enough or because the four in the back were either thin or small, the four of them sat together without even feeling cramped.
Once everyone was settled, Jeanne floored the gas and left the area, driving in the direction indicated by her "navigation." Not long after they departed, a massive fire broke out at the warehouse.
However, just as Crownslayer had said, the people nearby were already used to such occurrences. For the warehouses here, it was a rare event if a few didn't burn down or explode every month. Most of these warehouses were rented out as secret headquarters, and the rest were filled with dangerous goods. Whether it was gang wars or hazardous material explosions, nothing was surprising—let alone an empty warehouse catching fire.
These people didn't care about what happened inside, who died, or who did the deed. In a place like this, the more you knew, the faster you died.
In any case, even the Chernobog Fire Department wouldn't bother with this place. These warehouses were designed so that as long as they didn't explode, the fire wouldn't spread to the surroundings. And if they did explode, there wasn't much the firefighters could do anyway. The onlookers gathered here were simply waiting for the fire to burn out so they could go in and scavenge, seeing if they could find anything valuable. After all, those dead souls inside wouldn't be needing them anymore.
"Do you know the specific route to Azazel? Didn't you say you were an outsider? Why does it feel like you're more familiar with this place than I am?"
Looking at Jeanne driving in the front, Crownslayer asked with some confusion. At first, she thought Jeanne intended to lead them slowly while looking for clues, but she hadn't stopped once along the way.
"I go with my gut. My intuition finds the way to the destination for me! When it comes to finding targets, I've never failed."
Metaphysical driving? Crownslayer thought of a term she had heard from a Yan local back in Siracusa. It was said that in Yan, there was a type of person whose ability to reach a destination while driving relied entirely on luck.
The term described Jeanne's current state quite accurately. She felt that Jeanne was also driving using her luck—but was that really reliable?
"Don't worry, Jeanne's pathfinding ability is quite amazing. I'm actually jealous of this talent; if I had it, I'd never have to buy maps or locators when going into the wilderness again. It would save me a fortune to spend on other things."
Lemuen, sitting in the passenger seat, explained Jeanne's peculiar ability to Crownslayer. She was a Saintess, after all; never mind pathfinding—even if Jeanne told her she could make herself fly, Lemuen wouldn't doubt it.
Crownslayer found Lemuen's words a bit chaotic and found the explanation hard to accept for a moment. This logic was far too strange! She had never heard of an Originium Art like this. This wasn't "Terra-logical" at all!
As for the three little ones, they were currently poking their heads around, looking at the passing scenery. This was their first time in a vehicle like this, and they were curious about everything around them.
"You can look, but you aren't allowed to touch the handles or anything else on the car! If you accidentally open the door, you'll be thrown out!"
Hearing Crownslayer's warning, the three children huddled closer together. However, their eyes seemed to sparkle with light as they tried their best to remember the various sights along the road. While the area seemed dilapidated to Jeanne and the others, the three children had truly never seen the scenery of a highway or the surrounding buildings. Those shops, which looked quite old and worn to others, were things they had only ever heard about from people's stories.
"Do you like it? Perhaps you'll be able to go inside and play in the future."
Seeing the light in their eyes, Jeanne spoke to the three little ones while driving. This caught the children's attention immediately.
"Really? But Grandpa and the nurse sisters told us that we aren't allowed to appear there, or else it would be dangerous."
Hearing this, Crownslayer opened her mouth as if to say something, but she didn't speak in front of the children. She didn't want Jeanne to say these things to them; while it might make them happy for a while, it would also give them unrealistic fantasies, which would only hurt them in the end. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to say those harsh words. Looking at how happy the children were, gazing at them with eyes full of hope, even she didn't want to shatter that hope so quickly.
"That day will come. Wait for it, and wait with hope in your hearts for that day to arrive. When it does, we'll take you inside."
Crownslayer looked at Jeanne and realized instantly from her gaze that Jeanne wasn't joking or just humoring the kids; she was making this promise with absolute sincerity.
What a bunch of... naive people.
Unwilling to speak further, Lyudmila could only close her eyes and rest. She hadn't had a good rest for several days, and with her injuries acting up, she needed to recover some energy.
On the other side, Azazel was well aware that they had lost some children. It wasn't just these three who couldn't be found; several other children had also gone missing due to this district separation.
Talulah had been helping search for the missing children for the past few days. After running back and forth for days, she felt as though her scales were about to fall off from exhaustion. At this moment, she missed Jeanne's nearly prophetic intuition immensely. If Jeanne were here to find people, she estimated the missing children would have been found within two days.
"Ah, Jeanne! My Superman! Where are you? Appear quickly! I really need your help right now!"
Talulah sat in a chair, slightly exhausted, crying out for her "household Saintess" in her heart. In truth, there was no need for a guest like her to be so busy, especially since Talulah was a benefactor who had helped this clinic. However, where the safety of children was concerned, Talulah didn't care about her status as a guest. Since she had been here before and was familiar with the routes—plus the fact that she was a capable fighter—she had actually helped them find and bring back several children already.
"Take a rest, Miss Talulah. Have something to drink. You have already helped us plenty; there is no need to exhaust yourself so much over our mistakes."
An old man's voice came from nearby. The newcomer was the current manager of this underground clinic known as Azazel—Hellagur!