## Chapter 526 – A Useful Bastard

“Those meticulous bastards!”

Standing in front of the basement door, I couldn’t help but scream.

“They locked the door!!”

Those meticulous sons of bitches had locked the door.

A steel padlock firmly sealed the entrance to the basement. Splitting it with sword energy would be simple, but that would give us away.

Those goddamn sons of bitches! They should all be locked up.

“Now, now, calm down, Katt. Something like this is no problem.”

Hildegard tapped the padlock with her finger, and—*clatter!*—the lock disengaged on its own and fell to the floor.

“You bastard! You could do that?!”

As expected of a succubus with outstanding magical abilities, she had all sorts of convenient functions. More useful than I thought.

Tough to deal with as an enemy, but so helpful as an ally.

A demon assistant, literally.

“Hehe! Did I do well!”
“Yeah!”

Anyway, we immediately entered the basement.

—*Tsupat.*

Wienia immediately cast a light spell, illuminating the space.

The silent basement was so still, it was as if the gathering from before had been a lie.

“Hildegard, deploy.”
“Yes!”

I immediately ordered Hildegard to find any items with a demonic scent.

“Ah, Katt! I think it’s this!”

Hildegard, who had gone to the podium, pointed to a trace of something. We approached and examined it.

“This is?”
“It’s something like a magic circle that demons use. A lesser demon who can interfere with the human mind did this.”
“Oh, really?”

It was a magic circle that had been half-erased.

Did they draw it, see the effect, and then roughly erase it as they left?

Those demonic bastards.

“Unfortunately, it’s only half-erased, though.”
“Any other evidence?”
“Hmm… I don’t think there are any other items.”
“Damn.”

At this rate, we won’t be able to collect any evidence.

Well, they wouldn’t bring speakers or beam projectors. Even if they did, they would have taken them all back. It seems the gathering place keeps changing, too.

We searched the basement for a little longer, erased any traces of our intrusion, and went back outside.

There was nothing much to find.

“Hey, Hildegard.”
“Yes.”
“You said there’s more than one or two bastards borrowing demonic power, right?”

Cardinal Kedia had clearly detected suspicious people “gathering” in this city.

The directive stated that her judgment was based on compiling all the reports and information coming from around Isvant, and on the places where demons were found, the places where humans who borrowed their power were arrested, and testimonies.

Her judgment was certain.

As expected of someone who makes a living as a saint in a high position, her analytical skills are outstanding. This demon-proletariat group isn’t the only one here.

“Yes, yes. There seem to be quite a few. This one was the largest, so I told you about it first. It will be the most helpful to Katt.”

Hildegard replied that she had told me about the largest demon-group because it would be the most helpful to me.

Does that mean the others aren’t very powerful?

“Then what else is there?”
“Um… there are those who don’t show any particular movement, those who kidnap human children, and those who help this gathering. All sorts. Demons’ desires are the same as humans’, so they each want different things.”

What?

“This city seems to be quite developed, but it was easy to infiltrate because there are no churches. All sorts of guys are gathering here to get what they want.”
“Wait a minute. What did you just say?”
“Human desires?”
“Before that. Kidnapping human children?”
“Ah, yes. They’re the most common sacrifices.”

For a moment, it seemed like Hildegard’s fangs were showing. Her vertical pupils had become sharp like those of a predator.

—Human children meant kids.

“You goddamn bastards!”

What kind of crazy bastards are kidnapping children!

If I think about it for just three seconds, I can figure out what those bastards are going to do. I felt an extreme impulse, as if the true truth of Fusion Confucianism was burning within me.

“Huh? What do you mean, the most important? That’s the smallest incident. They’re targeting abandoned children, so it seems like other humans don’t even notice.”
“Oh my god!”

Hildegard, being a demon, didn’t seem to realize the seriousness of the situation. Her values are very different from humans’… no.

In the first place, it’s humans who are kidnapping the children.

Those goddamn bastards.

As expected, the most fucked up thing was humans.

“Tell me in detail. That’s the most important thing to me right now.”
“Is that so? Since Katt said it’s the most important, it must be the biggest deal! I’ll tell you right away!”

Hildegard started explaining excitedly, as if it were nothing.

Whether a child is kidnapped or not, she just cares about what I consider important.

“Demons have various tastes, but if I had to pick one of the most representative, it would be receiving human blood, souls, and bodies as sacrifices.”

Her story was quite disgusting.

“There’s no easier sacrifice to obtain than abandoned children. There are so many of those children neglected in the cities humans have built, so it’s safe to say they’re the easiest sacrifices to get.”

There are always orphans overflowing in cities like this.

That’s because they have a lot of children but not enough infrastructure to raise them properly.

The cruel combo of men’s irresponsibility and women’s incompetence results in countless abandoned children.

Every city tries to provide relief in its own way, but they can’t feed all the overflowing orphans. There are plenty of those guys in the slums of Isvant right now. For now, Lina is also an orphan.

Those orphans who are outside the boundaries of society live a hard life without any protection.

Few children survive, and even if they grow up, they can’t have grown up properly. And then those guys produce more orphans. It was a repetition of a terrible reality in many ways.

What’s more, it would be even easier to be exposed to crime in a city without a church.

The story Hildegard told me was that kind of story.

“You’re saying they’re sacrificing children to gain demonic power?”
“Yes. That’s exactly it. Honestly, those guys disappearing isn’t very noticeable, so I don’t think anyone knows.”
“Those goddamn bastards.”

To think that such a terrible thing is happening openly… it’s right to kill all the demons.

Anyway, I’ll have to track this case down as well.

In accordance with the Fusion Confucian way, I can’t forgive those bastards who lay their hands on children.

Cardinal Kedia will also consider this serious matter important. After all, crimes against children are bound to cause outrage.

Even someone who has never paid any attention to orphans would be furious and demand that the perpetrator be caught and killed immediately if they heard this kind of story.

The report will be more substantial.

“First of all… I should rest today and then track that down.”

I’ll go back and write the report, and then track down this child abduction case.

Kedia, you bitch. How dare you tell me to solve such a serious matter alone.

I’ll make you pay the price.

“Then have a good night!”

I parted ways with Hildegard and returned to the lodging.

“Katt. That succubus is quite useful, isn’t she?”
“She is useful… Claudie, what are you thinking?”
“Hehe, do you want to know Mama’s thoughts?”
“You’re thinking something bad!”

Claudie clung to me and whispered in my ear.

As expected of a half-elf, she’s becoming more tolerant of other races?

Elves and dwarves are people, but even if monsters can talk, they’re not people.

Anyway, as I was playing around by putting my hand in Claudie’s panties and poking her with my finger, Wienia said.

“Darkie, if you’re going to play, write the report first.”
“Ah, I should.”

Wienia, who was in her underwear, came to my side. Her body, which had just been showered, smelled very fragrant. She had brought all sorts of soaps, too.

I immediately let go of Claudie and grabbed a pen.

“Darkie, you know you have to thoroughly hide the part about that succubus when you write the report, right?”
“Don’t worry. I know it well.”

Thoroughly hiding these parts is the wisdom of living in the world.

No matter what happens, I have to hide anything that could harm me.

“But then I’m a little worried about how to write the introduction. What should I write about how I caught their tail?”
“Remember when you and that nun raided the slums last time? Refer to that when you write. Say you paid the poor people to investigate or poked around suspicious places.”
“Hmm… I guess I’ll have to do that.”

I wrote the report with Wienia. The two of us continued to review it in that way and completed today’s work. There were no problems.

* * *

We stayed in Audville for several days and, with Hildegard’s help, investigated various things in detail.

Most of the things were happening secretly in the shadows.

If we hadn’t received help using Hildegard’s demon detection sensor, it would have taken a really long time. I’m a little grateful that she’s cooperating so diligently.

Anyway, we were able to narrow down the demon-related incidents happening in the city to about three.

One is the guy who is currently instigating the workers.

This guy is doing the most work on a large scale.

I don’t know what his purpose is, but every time he holds a gathering, it’s packed, and every time he condemns the bourgeoisie, exclamations erupt. Other than that, he doesn’t work at home and just lives like a dead mouse.

He’s not doing anything particularly criminal.

But he seems to be contacting demon-related people.

And the other is the guy who is secretly kidnapping the city’s poor orphans.

This guy must be rubbing bodies with a fairly weak demon, because his energy is so weak that Hildegard can’t pinpoint his exact location.

Lastly, the guys who are silent.

Those guys are emitting demonic energy, but they’re not showing any particular movement, so there’s nothing to shake out of them.

Arresting someone who isn’t active is extremely awkward. I decided to leave them alone because I couldn’t think of an excuse to write in the report.

Anyway, if we arrest the two guys above, we can wrap up the situation and go back.

I decided to solve the urgent problem first and looked for a place where orphans gathered.

“Hey kids. Don’t you want to eat this?”

I said, shaking the cheap bread I had bought in advance before coming.

“…!”

The orphans who saw me suddenly appear ran away in droves, but they were hungry, so they kept their distance and showed interest.

Bread is the best way to talk to these starving kids.

“I’ll give you this, so can you answer my questions?”

I kept shaking the black bread. I bought plenty of it cheaply.

I can invest a few coppers for work.
Well, let’s just say I donated for the first time in a while.

“What kind of question…?”

A small boy who seemed to be suffering from starvation approached.

One person has already been hooked.

“It’s nothing much. Have any of your friends disappeared, or has a suspicious adult taken your friend away?”
“…I don’t know.”
“Really? If you don’t know, I’ll have to eat all this bread.”

I was also hungry, so I immediately grabbed a piece of bread, shoved it into my mouth, and chewed it. It’s cheap bread, so it’s hard and doesn’t taste very good.

“…!”

As I was chewing the bread, the child with a tearful face froze like a stone.

There’s plenty of bread, so don’t worry, you bastards.

Anyway, I ignored him and continued to chew the bread.

“T-there…”

About a minute later, a dirty kid slowly walked over and said.

“A, a friend suddenly disappeared.”

That’s right.

“Why did he suddenly disappear?”
“I, I don’t know… It’s common for friends to disappear… He was a friend I always saw, but I haven’t been able to see him for a few days…”

He was probably kidnapped a long time ago and became a sacrifice to the demon.