Upon entering, they found a dark space with furniture scattered haphazardly around. It looked no different from an abandoned house.
"It looks pretty normal, doesn't it?"
Luca asked, still not understanding what was so dangerous about it. Amelie seemed to feel the same way. Lyse, as usual, went back to sleep after warning them.
Luca was about to tell them to go back when he stopped, feeling something was off… Seeing this, Amelie looked at Luca with a worried expression but said nothing, knowing she couldn't control her voice volume; she wished she could use an indoor voice.
Amelie looked around, then put Lyse down and handed her to Luca, then went to scout the area.
While waiting for Amelie to return, Luca looked at Lyse, sleeping upright, and tried to lift her… but he wasn't as strong as Amelie, and Lyse ended up pinning Luca down and falling asleep.
"Oh my…"
Luca sighed wearily. Just as he was about to wake Lyse up to help Amelie, he noticed a strange door that didn't match the surroundings.
Luca tried to find a way in, but no matter what he did, it wouldn't open, leaving him helpless. Lyse, who had been sleeping, finally got up, sleepwalked to the door, and walked right through it, much to Luca's astonishment. But no matter how hard Luca tried, he couldn't get through either. Luckily, Lyse opened the door from the inside.
"How did you get through?"
Luca, curious, asked,
"Strong...that's enough."
Lyse fell back asleep, and Luca had to struggle to drag Lyse, who was lying on the ground, along.
After a while, they entered a pitch-black tunnel.
Luca and Lyse found a white room, like a church, with children inside, including the child they were looking for. However, they didn't seem normal; each of them was praying to a statue in the center of a summoning circle made from the children's blood.
"Is this some kind of unofficial summoning?"
Lyse didn't answer, half-asleep and half-awake, hugging her pillow.
"Yes…must…act."
Luca approached and tried to attack them, but nothing happened. Just as he was about to break the circle, all eyes turned to him.
"Heresy, heresy, heresy!"
They all shouted the same thing and approached Luca. Lyse then used her pillow to hit a nearby child, but because she was half-awake and half-asleep, she wasn't very agile.
Luca, on the other side, tried to dodge. He couldn't hurt these kids, and besides, he didn't have any weapons with him…
"Papa is so clumsy!"
Luxie appeared on Luca's shoulder as a doll and transformed into a pair of scissors.
"Papa! You should feel lucky that I stay in your pocket!"
Luxie was annoyed, and Luca secretly thanked himself for not being completely unlucky. Luca roared, using his spatial scissors to trap them, but their sheer number and the weight of the scissors made it impossible for him to keep up with their speed without hurting them.
Lyse, meanwhile, was very relaxed, simply hitting them with pillows and then throwing them into the spatial rift when she saw Luca open the spatial rift. Of course, using so much was tiring, and Luca was now panting heavily, with about 10 more children to deal with.
Lyse just looked around, yawned, and lay down, making Luca panic. Was he really going to have to handle all these kids by himself?!
The savior arrived. Amelie appeared and looked at Luca.
"Oh, my God! Did you just get caught in the rain?!"
She burst out laughing as she quickly grabbed the children, who were acting like they were going crazy, and tied them up as if playing.
"Where have you been? Did you find out anything?"
Luca and Lyse were too weak to resist, while Amelie was stronger than average, so that was only natural.
"There are also a bunch of scoundrels planning to lure a few more kids as sacrifices!"
"Sacrifice?"
Luca was even more surprised; it was just as he suspected. This was an unofficial summoning ritual.
"But this is only a small part of it. I must report back to Lord Orion!"
Amelie simply picked up the kids and looked at Lyse.
"You'll have to walk home, okay?"
Lyse was still asleep, so Amelie sighed.
"Alright then!"
Amelie lifted Lyse and tied her to her back like a mother and child, while Luca stood there wanting to burst out laughing but had to hold it in.
They took a shortcut. Amelie led Luca and showed him a secret route to return after completing their mission, so as not to attract too much attention from the locals.
Entering the office, they were met with Orion, who looked rather displeased.
"You know what you did wrong, don't you?"
He gave a rather unfriendly smile.
"Orion, please listen to me first!"
He looked at Amelie and shook his head.
"Silence, Amelie. I'm so disappointed."
Amelie was stunned, frozen like a statue petrified by Medusa.
"And Lyse, don't think you'll get away with sleeping. This week you'll have double the tasks."
Lyse, who was asleep, began to mumble in her sleep.
"No....a forced situation."
After saying that, she collapsed.
"I was going to give you your salary, but you broke the rules, so I'm cutting it by half this month."
Luca thought nothing could shock him more, but a salary reduction… all three of them were stunned, unable to believe it, but Orion just laughed.
"I was just joking, was it funny?"
WHAT'S SO FUNNY ABOUT THIS?!
All three looked at Orion with no trace of joy in their eyes. Orion, however, remained oblivious, simply staring back at them.
"Amelie, next."
"Yes!"
Amelie led Luca out and back to the lounge.
"Wait a minute, let me jot down today's findings and the situation."
Luca nodded and released the children from their space. Now the children were in one corner, and the two pairs of twins had just arrived, leading in the strange people wearing hooded cloaks and masks.
"Who are they?"
"They're the cleaning crew hired by the king."
Jullian replied to Luca with a smile before bowing and leaving the room with Kieran, who was giving Luca that sharp look.
"Done!"
Amelie handed over the file.
"Sign it, Luca!"
Luca nodded, looking at it—it was just a summary of what they had discovered—and signed it. Amelie looked at Lyse and took Lyse's hand to make a fingerprint. Once finished, Amelie stood up.
"I'm going to give this to Orion. You can collect your salary at the reception desk and tell them Amelie told you to!"
Amelie hummed as she went, while Luca went to collect his own salary. Luca walked past the crowd, looking at the paintings and antiques.
He didn't understand why they liked looking at these things so much. Luca just sighed; it wasn't his business. Finally, Luca reached the reception desk and looked at them.
"Excuse me, Amelie asked me to come here to collect my salary."
"Oh, you're Luca, right? Here's your salary for this month."
Luca stared in astonishment. It was 20 gold coins and 4 silver coins?! Wasn't he already rich?
Luca's eyes lit up at the money, a bright smile spreading across his face. He had to go home early today to enjoy it.
Luca stopped on the way home. Should he stop by the library? Before heading home, Luca stopped by the library to look for clues for the next level, since he didn't know when he'd be back... But there would probably still be some time before the next game began.
'Hospital' is a word that the system suggested to him, so maybe he should still research a little in advance in case he just comes in and doesn't know anything.
But the problem is which hospital? How many hospitals have ever appeared in the world… isn't that a vast number? But speaking of the hospital, should he ask Cassian?
Luca thought the idea of inviting Cassian was a good one, not a bad one at all. He decided to try searching and ask him tomorrow.
Luca went to look for books related to hospitals, but he had to be selective, so he only chose to read about hospitals that no longer existed or had a dark history.
After an hour, Luca finally left the library, sighing. He had found many stories, but none could prove their existence, and because there were so many, he didn't know which one was the right one.
Luca could only guess now…
Luca walked along his usual route, having just bought some leftover bread from Mrs. Mary's shop as usual, but he was in the mood to walk today.
Walking around, Luca came across a rather interesting stall where a small witch sat, her face completely covered by a hat, so Luca couldn't make out what she looked like.
"What do you need? Potion? Or a test subject?"
She smiled, tilting her head to look at Luca.
"No, I just wanted to take a look."
Luca didn't want to spend that much money, and the witch just nodded and stared at Luca intently.
"Hey, you have beautiful eyes. Are you a player? Why don't you hide them?"
Luca was startled; he'd forgotten about this, but how did she know?
"Are you a player too?"
"You could say that... your god is very special, that's what I meant to say."
She smiled, then simply started packing up her goods, ignoring all of Luca's subsequent questions, and closed the door.
"What's going on? Is my god really that strange...could it be that I'm using an unconventional summoning ritual?"
Luca sighed. Perhaps tomorrow he should ask the people in the guild how to hide the markings on his eyes.
Luca's day passed by as if it were one of those days he could enjoy a day off just for himself.