63 – Meruru, Disappeared
I told Selphee that Meruru suddenly disappeared.
And I was looking into related information, wondering if she had gone to find her sister.
“Well… I saw her on the request board.”
“So, I was wondering if she went to find her sister….”
“Senior, have you been to Meruru’s house?”
“Not yet.”
The information I received from Tina about the Aquarians was not enough to be a decisive motive.
So there might be some other reason.
It was necessary to investigate the house where Meruru had been staying, as Selphee suggested.
Above all, it was strange that Meruru suddenly disappeared without saying a word to the people around her.
Even if she had been away for a long time, she would have at least said something to Tina, whom she was close to.
Although Meruru may have some foolish aspects, she was not an ungrateful and thoughtless child.
If she had decided to leave the receptionist and leave the guild to find her sister, she would have definitely talked about it first.
As my thoughts reached this point, my concern deepened that something unpleasant might have happened.
“For now, should I go to Meruru’s house?”
“I’ll go with you, senior.”
As I got up from my seat, Sylphy naturally followed me.
* * *
I explained the situation to Tina and asked her where Meruru was staying.
She handed me a spare key and said she would let me know if there was any new information about Meruru.
While some adventurers had started showing interest in finding Meruru through the bulletin board, no meaningful information had come in yet.
I headed towards the room where Meruru was said to be staying while working as a receptionist.
Meruru’s place was not an inn, but a small rented room where she paid monthly rent.
As an adventurer, she could have rented a room in an inn for a long term, but it seems that renting a place like this was cheaper with the income of a receptionist.
I immediately opened the door and entered Meruru’s room.
Inside, there was still no one.
Meruru’s small room, which was much smaller than a typical inn room, still had a strong sense of life.
On one side, there were clothes that seemed to belong to Meruru piled up haphazardly.
Instead of a bed, there were several layers of blankets piled up, and there were tufts of fur that seemed to have fallen from Meruru.
There was a wooden cabinet against the wall, and when I opened it, there was a small jar sitting alone.
“What’s this….”
The jar was filled with jerky shaped like dice.
It seemed like seasoned jerky sold at street stalls.
She piled up clothes on the floor haphazardly, but stored the jar of jerky in the cabinet.
It was a lifestyle that I couldn’t understand, but I thought that Meruru might be capable of that kind of thing.
“No matter how you look at it, it doesn’t seem like the room of someone who’s going far away.”
After looking around the room, I honestly expressed my thoughts.
If someone intends to leave and go far away, wouldn’t they at least pack their belongings, even if it’s simple?
Although their lifestyle is a bit strange, there was no sign of packing or anything.
“Yunoa was gathering clues in that direction because she thought Meruru had left to find her sister.
Yunoa was following the right clues, but the situation was not that simple.”
The narration flowing through my mind only added to the confusion of my thoughts.
Can’t they just tell me where Meruru went instead of not seeing her for so long?
No, at the point where I had such thoughts, that damn narration would never give me the answer so easily.
“Sylphy, does anything come to mind?”
Since nothing came to mind about Meruru’s whereabouts, I asked Sylphy who was next to me.
Having two heads is better than one.
“Well… I thought that Meruru likes beef jerky… It’s delicious, you know.”
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“No, not that kind of thing.”
“If she likes it enough to buy and collect so much, wouldn’t she want to take it with her when she goes somewhere?”
That’s definitely possible.
She collected so much in that jar and just threw her clothes on the floor, but it seems like she would put them in the cabinet.
Seeing that, it seems that she didn’t disappear with plans to go far away after all.
Then, could she have been kidnapped?
Regardless of her own will, could she have been forcibly taken by someone and unable to come back?
But this is the heart of Kubele.
There were too many eyes here for something like that to happen.
Even in the outskirts of Kubele where people rarely visit, or in the back alleys, I don’t think anyone would think such a thing could happen.
Even if someone had an accident on their way home in the evening, there would have been plenty of witnesses.
But according to Tina, no one nearby saw Meruru.
“Senior, could this be Meruru’s sleeping spot?”
Sylphy asked, pointing to the place where several blankets were piled up in a corner of the room.
The blankets were wrinkled as if someone with a small build had lain on them several times, with the center sinking in.
Brown and orange hair was scattered throughout the blankets.
Needless to say, it was clear that fur had fallen out from Meruru’s ears and lush tail.
“Is she shedding…?”
At that moment, a thought crossed my mind.
If there’s a blanket that’s filled with Meruru’s scent like this, wouldn’t it be possible to determine the direction she disappeared based on the smell?
Although it didn’t seem likely that I could find a tracking dog that could chase scents in this world…
Regardless, if I could somehow track the scent, it would be a great help in finding Meruru.
“Sylphy, is there any way we can track scents?”
“You mean scent tracking?”
“Look here. Meruru’s scent must be all over this spot where she used to sleep every day. So if we can track this scent, we might be able to roughly determine the direction she disappeared.”
“Wouldn’t that be difficult? If it’s inside the house, maybe, but once you go outside, scents quickly spread and disappear.”
Judging from Sylphy’s reaction, it seemed that using scent to find a missing person was not a method commonly used in this world.
However, in the world I lived in, it was quite common to use search dogs when searching for missing persons.
Of course, well-trained search dogs were necessary, but…
Even if it wasn’t a search dog, it was a world of magic.
Whatever the case, there could be other ways that I didn’t know of, ways to track scents.
Who would know about this?
The first person that came to mind was Guild Master Algott.
She had a career of various activities in different places, so if I explained the situation, maybe she would come up with something.
“For now, let’s go back to the guild.”
After finishing the investigation of the Meruru Room, I told Sylphy.
Sylphy followed behind me with a puzzled expression on her face.
* * *
As soon as we entered the guild, I explained the situation to Tina and requested a meeting with the master.
Tina knocked on the master’s office door and entered. After a while, she came out and said to me.
“He wants you to come into his office.”
I politely knocked on the office door like Tina did, slowly opened the door, and went inside.
Guild Master Algott’s office was a neatly organized room.
There was a flag with the guild symbol hanging on the wall, and several shelves filled with books.
There were also several large maps pinned here and there, and boxes that seemed to be for storing items.
Algott was sitting at the desk in the office, with a feather pen tucked behind one ear, reading a thick book.
As soon as I entered, she put a bookmark in the book she was reading and closed it.
“Are you looking for a way to track down Meruru by her scent?”
“Yes, I thought that if you’re the master, you might know something.”
“If there are other werewolves, it might be possible. Werewolves have an exceptional sense of smell.”
Algot said immediately.
Come to think of it, Meruru had a special ability different from others.
The ability to detect plants underground with a sensitive sense.
But was it really through smell?
It felt more like finding it with a sixth sense.
And if we needed werewolves to find Meruru, where and how would we find them?
“There aren’t many werewolves around here other than Meruru, right?”
“That’s right. If it’s a werewolf of the same kind as Meruru, we have to go to the Helvetika Island to find them. And even if it’s a different kind of werewolf, they usually don’t come to cities where humans live.”
“Hmm… What about using magic?”
I asked again.
Honestly, I’ve never learned about magic and I don’t know much about it.
But somehow, I had a vague expectation that anything would be possible with magic, for some reason.
“Magic might be more difficult. It would be hard to find a magician studying such a strange field. Usually, they learn more practical and combat-oriented magic. Magic training is very difficult, so they don’t have the time to learn useless tricks.”
My fantasy about magic was shattered by Algot’s answer.
Come to think of it, most of the magicians I met in the expedition force only knew a few offensive spells.
It seems that the idea of a magician being versatile and capable of anything is almost impossible.
“Is there no other way? For now, tracking Meruru’s scent seems to be the most likely way to find her. We don’t have any other clues.”
“Hmm… If we’re talking about maximizing a specific sense, potions might have more potential.”
“Potions?”
At Algot’s words, Philstone’s unfortunate face came to mind like a trauma, and without realizing it, I furrowed my brow.
That potion-making addict, I wonder how they’re doing in their cold prison.
“Magic has developed in a practical direction, so it’s difficult to find magic that can chase away odors, for example. But with potions, you can combine effects that you never would have thought of based on the ingredients. Like a potion that permanently changes the color of your hair when you drink it.”
A potion that you drink for permanent hair dye, that’s incredible.
“In that case, there could be potions that enhance the sense of smell, right?”
“There’s a good possibility.”
“But Koubel’s Potion Refinery…”
Of all things, Philstone mentioned something that I needed in his area of expertise.
And on top of that, didn’t Koubel Refinery already burn down due to an incident involving making potions?
Seeing my worried expression, Algot smiled slightly as if amused and said,
“There’s more to the world than just Koubel making potions. Since Philstone, who monopolized the distribution of Koubel’s potions, was arrested, many other refiners have flocked to Koubel, hearing the rumors. Now, refiners from all over are competing with each other.”
“I see… I understand.”
Indeed, with Philstone, who had a tight grip on the distribution of Koubel’s potions, gone, other refiners who had sneaked into empty houses rushed in to take their place.
People everywhere are attracted to the smell of money, it’s the same in any world.
“Coincidentally, I have a list of refineries from the guild for potion supplies. How about we take a look around the refineries with that? It’s still before the selection process, so there are many strange places.”
Algot proposed to me.
Now is the time to seize even the smallest opportunity, so there was no reason to refuse.