Buried Trail

There was no one giving us much attention. I knew we weren’t doing anything illegal, at least yet, but it felt like there might have been someone watching us. Perhaps some paranoia snuck up on me on the off chance Miss Welinna had a human criminal after her rather than someone else.

I didn’t know how powerful a weak demon was, but I had a feeling that I didn’t want to cross one. Part me definitely wanted it to just be a normal human that caused whatever happened here. Even if that would break the unity that Mrs. Erina spoke of.

Regardless, we approached the neighbors of Miss Welinna. I looked over to Eri'Sol who still had her energy, but a more serious determined expression laying over top. We didn’t know what happened to Miss Welinna, but I already assumed the worst situation. Did Eri'Sol reach the same conclusion as me? “Let’s split up and talk to her neighbors. Should see if anyone saw her return or leave, yeah?”

“Right!” She bounded off disappearing around the corner. Someday I’ll get used to her enthusiasm.

Taking the house directly across, I knocked, not finding anyone outside. A few moments later the door opened to a middle aged man. His slightly sour expression changed after a moment of looking at me. “A Hero?!”

“Yeah, sorry to bother, sir. Would I be able to ask you a few questions?”

“Questions? What is it?” His shift to confusion and almost a little bit of pride was a bit to get used to. It was strange having this notoriety to work in my favor.

I stepped to one side pointing over to Miss Welinna’s. “Do you know the woman that lives there?”

“What Welinna? I do, shares some of her leftovers with me. But I haven’t seen her lately.”

“That’s what I’m looking into, sir. She went on a hunt and returned two days ago. But a friend of hers hasn’t seen her since. We’re trying to locate her.”

The man nodded, looking a little contemplative. “Of course, she was always so kind. Anything I can do to help.”

“Did you see if she returned home two days after the hunt?”

“When we were eating, she mentioned she’d be gone for a couple of days. But other than that I haven’t seen her. I have my work I do during the day that keeps me inside. So I might have missed her.”

I knew that it wasn’t going to be that simple. Hopefully someone saw something to at least confirm if she made it back from the Markets. “Is there anyone that you can suggest I speak with that might also have seen her?”

He pondered the question for a minute. “She does a lot of business with Erina Voltun. They would know better than anyone.”

“She’s the friend.”

“Oh, I see. Of course she would. Then around here…you might try Goroa. Her house is on the street that Welinna normally uses returning from the Markets. She’d have the best chance.”

“Thank you, sir! If anything changes, please pass it along to Markets or Erina, if you could.”

“A demon incarnate couldn’t stop me!”

I smiled back. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” With that I stepped away and marched on to the house he directed me towards. Disappointment followed with Goroa as well. She couldn’t confirm that she saw Miss Welinna on that day. I continued from there to fan out more in the hopes of striking any bit of gold.

Nothing.

At the end of the questioning, I returned to the house waiting for Eri'Sol to return. It started to worry me. I wasn’t cut out for detective work. This might be something beyond me. If no one had seen her come back from the Markets it may have been very possible that she was taking in the town. I didn’t know how demons were in this world, but I doubted monsters could just step in unnoticed or disguised. If there was a demon among the town there would be more missing people. I hoped Eri'Sol found something useful.

Eri’Sol’s face said everything without the words. The sadness and frustration were apparent. We were running out of options. Magic existed in this world, flying monsters most likely and even demons, someone disappearing into thin air with no evidence was all too real of a possibility. Was this futile?

No. I didn’t want to give up just now. Though it would take some trespassing to do so. “Eri, let’s check inside her house. Maybe we can find something to confirm if she did return.”

She perked up a little with the suggestion. “Of course! But it’s probably locked.”

“Let’s check. Maybe there was a window open or something.” They didn’t have the same level of security as Japan, so maybe we could get lucky. The door was a bust, it was locked tightly. Though if she had the habit of leaving it unlocked while she was in town it might be proof that she never made it back. But it felt like I was just jumping at ideas. So I went around looking for windows.

There were four on just the side of the door with several more around. And eventually one of them we could open. I had never broken into someone’s home. I couldn’t imagine many people having that experience. It was a little uncomfortable doing so, but it was important.

The inside looked pretty clean. I guess I sort of expected it to be ransacked or something, but we didn’t even know the motive for her disappearance. At least from an immediate scan around the dining room we entered I couldn’t see any hint of her having left something unfinished. It was going to be difficult to know what to look for. “You take that room, I’ll search over here.”

For the home of a tanner, I didn’t really see any skins of animals around the house. It looked rather normal. Where did she do her work? Depending on what she would do after the hunt, if she had spare material from the hunt she might have taken it home.

The dining room just had a table and chairs with a chest under the window that we entered from. It was rather narrow, limiting the furniture that could be in. The kitchen was attached closely to it through a door. If she started anything, something might have been left out.

Most of it looked in order with everything put away. Though there was a medium sized pot over a floor rack. I approached to see that ashes and some burned wood remained underneath, likely from the last time it was used. Looking inside the pot there was some residue. It might have been the needed clue. Though staring it didn’t give me a lot of useful information. “Wait, would that work?”

I remembered something that I could do. Sticking my finger into the pot, I scraped up a little bit from blackened sides. It crumbled quickly under my finger, but hopefully it was enough. Checking, there was indeed an item name for it and description.

‘Burnt Broth – The charred remains of a Leth and Garish broth mix that has long been left to burn away until all the moisture and nutrients values have been exhausted.’

That wasn’t quite what I hoped for, but it gave me an idea. This could be the detective mode that I needed to get a clue. I quickly started going around the kitchen picking up anything that was out. Unfortunately, the descriptions were all straightforward. It should have been what I expected, but this was probably not the right place to do it.

I started going around the house until I found Eri'Sol. She moved furniture around and opened drawers. It actually started to make it look ransacked. “Eri you find anything?”

“No…”

“In the rooms that you’ve been in, were any of them her workshop?”

“I haven’t searched it yet, but it was in that door that I saw.” It was a relief to know she hadn’t sacked it. I hurried over before she got any ideas about it.

This definitely had the look of someone that worked and didn’t clean up all of their projects. There were a few racked skins that I’m guessing that were already processed. I knew nothing about tanning, but I felt like it was something done outside. If she had it inside, there was probably something else she did. Maybe a treatment process or even something magical that she had to do.

There were shelves and drawers along the worktable. It was more than needed to be searched. I doubted that she did very much if she made it back. But if any of these were leftover work or even something that she brought from the hunt I could learn something. I picked up the first racked item.

‘Tanned Felith Hide – Expertly tanned and dried hide of a Felith with the soft malleable material in excellent condition for working.’

I checked the next only to get the same message, and another. Another and another until I found one with a slightly unique description.

‘Tanned Felith Hide – Expertly tanned and dried hide of a Felith with the soft malleable material in excellent condition for working.

Nothing more can be learned. This is a dead end.’

That felt rather pointed. It appeared the descriptions were managed, not sure how I felt about that. But whoever I was frustrating clearly was annoyed. ‘Same as me then, buddy!’ We were running out of proof. What could we do?