In a remote corner, a sudden commotion erupted from an unremarkable house. Moments later, Jeanne and the other two stepped out with expressionless faces. Looking back inside, one could see a group of burly Ursus men tossed about like fallen dominoes, defeated and disheveled.
Since leaving the dessert shop, they had been roaming through various districts. Talulah couldn't help but marvel that this car had given her a "second life"; if they had searched this way on foot, her feet would have been worn down to nothing by now.
The places these children could hide were all located in the darkest, most unsavory corners of the city. This area was practically a paradise for criminal syndicates—a gathering point for every shady character in the metropolis. To retrieve a child from here, even Hellagur's reputation carried little weight. While these people wouldn't openly snatch Infected in broad daylight, their audacity to kidnap under the cover of the recent riots was immense.
Stepping out of the house, Talulah cast a look of pure disgust at the men inside. Those lying on the floor were a pack of human traffickers who dared to do anything; they didn't just kidnap the Infected, they even snatched non-Infected residents from the slums.
Kidnapping the Infected was essentially their bread and butter. Every month, Chernobog was required to send a certain quota of Infected to the frozen tundra, but those tasked with this job didn't always meet their targets through "legal" means. To protect their careers, they would occasionally come here to buy a few people to make up the numbers. The lion's share of this money would be taken by their superiors, and the blood-stained wealth would continue to be enjoyed layer by layer up the chain of command.
This was precisely why no law enforcement officers bothered with the matter. Aside from the Infected themselves, everyone profited from this human trade. No one opposed it.
"Is this city truly rotten to the core? To see such things happening and treat them as if they don't exist... The City Lord here is even worse than Kashchey. At least Kashchey wouldn't do such things so overtly."
A short while after they left, several figures rushed into the building. Soon, a few screams echoed out; the lackeys lying on the ground had all been silenced. Subsequently, a fire was lit. The flames purified the filth of the place, leaving only a ground full of ash to recount what had just transpired. Nearby, passersby witnessed the entire event with numb, hollow eyes.
Even when Talulah was managing the mobile cities under Kashchey, she had never seen such scenes. Kashchey would never use such low-level methods to deal with the Infected; his schemes were far more sophisticated than the crude tactics of these thugs.
"To hear you validate my methods so firmly... I am quite satisfied. If I were managing this city, I would not allow a place like Azazel to exist. Or rather, I would establish an Azazel of my own..."
"Shut up!"
Talulah cut off the rambling voice of Kashchey in her mind. This fellow truly had no intention of hiding his thoughts, even going as far as to explain his methods to her.
"Right you are~"
Seeing that his daughter was in no mood for bickering, Kashchey obediently shut his mouth. He didn't want to provoke Talulah to the point of her dragging him down into a mutual destruction.
"The children have been sent away. Now there are only three left to find. I truly admire this City Lord—if anyone dared to do this in Laterano, Mr. Executor would be working overtime again."
Lemuen, who had removed her halo, complained from the side. She had never been to such a place before and it was her first time seeing such brazen administrators. Was the Emperor so useless that he couldn't even control this?
This was already the fifth gang they had dismantled today. Along the way, they hadn't even encountered a single high-level leader—only the lowest-level thugs. One could only imagine what the dark side of this city truly looked like, and to what extent their human trafficking had flourished.
To think that just two small districts could hide so many "ghosts and monsters." Even with her most cynical outlook, Talulah was once again revolted by these people. In this state, even if Chernobog were handed over to Talulah, she wouldn't be able to eradicate all the criminals. With her current manpower, she simply couldn't oversee a place like this.
The final outcome was predictable: either she would have to take over by force, leaving other areas unmanaged, or the final result would be an uprising—or she would have to tolerate their atrocities. Through her understanding of the city over the past few days, Talulah realized that upon her return, she had to rapidly develop the members of Reunion, and perhaps even spread the word to the Infected in other regions...
"I'm back. Hiding and sneaking around the whole way is such a hassle. If I wasn't worried about being discovered and causing trouble, I would have just taken my weapons and wiped out all the enemies."
Jeanne, who had just delivered the rescued children to Azazel's local outpost in the area, grumbled about the figures secretly observing them. If she didn't have a "cheat" ability like Revelation, she likely would have been put on the wanted list by the nearby police station long ago.
"Even if you were discovered, it wouldn't stop you from moving freely, would it? Honestly, can that transformation ability of yours really not be taught? I feel like that power would be incredibly convenient here!"
Talulah and Lemuen looked with interest at the returning Jeanne. She was no longer wearing her purple dress and white outfit; now, Jeanne was dressed entirely in black. Her entire being looked as if it had been doused in bleach—giving off a sense of pallid whiteness—which, combined with the black clothing, created a stark, striking contrast.
If it weren't for the face being identical to the original Jeanne, anyone unfamiliar with her would never believe that these two images with such different temperaments could be the same person.
Talulah had curiously asked Lemuen what she thought of Jeanne's complete reversal in temperament. Lemuen had simply remarked that it was no big deal—if a Sankta could turn into a Fallen Angel, why was it strange for a Saintess to have a transformation skill?
"I can't teach this ability to you. Why do you have to ask every time we meet? Let's go; the last location isn't close to here at all. How did they even manage to get into that place?"
Jeanne picked up the new map Hellagur had given her and compared it to her surroundings. According to the guidance, that place should be near a residential area. That kind of place wasn't somewhere ordinary people could hide easily. How did these few children get in? And how had they stayed hidden for so long without being discovered?
The three of them walked toward where their car was hidden. Suddenly, Talulah looked in one direction as if she had spotted something, then quickly hid behind Jeanne and Lemuen.
"What's wrong? Why the sudden weirdness? Did you spot some dangerous person?"
Jeanne asked curiously, looking at Talulah, who was trying to stay as low as possible beside them. Logically speaking, there shouldn't be anyone in this city she needed to hide from—and even if there were, didn't they have her Revelation to guide them?
"It's nothing. I just saw someone I don't want to meet. Let's go, quickly, before we run into unnecessary trouble."
Talulah hurried the two to leave, appearing as if she had encountered someone she was extremely reluctant to see. Jeanne and Lemuen understood her intent and quickened their pace, vanishing down the street.
On the other side, a figure dressed in a black straw raincoat (Shadow Guard) walked along, appearing somewhat stunned, as if he too had seen someone unbelievable.
"That... was Miss Talulah, wasn't it? What is she doing here?"