[Vol. 7] Chapter 74: Don’t Panic, Panicking Won’t Help
Layla City, Adventurers' Guild.
“She just disappeared? What happened? Calm down, take a deep breath, and explain everything slowly.”
As soon as Violet arrived at the guild hall, led by the frantic Miss Le Qiaoqiao, she saw that Hongyan, along with many guild guards and staff, had already started searching everywhere. Even the guild’s usual reception tasks had been put on hold, and many trusted local adventurers had voluntarily joined the search party. The atmosphere was tense and serious.
It made sense.
This was the Adventurers' Guild Headquarters, the central hub for handling all kinds of civilian cases.
For a child to go missing here, in broad daylight, was a huge deal. If they couldn’t find her, the reputation and credibility of the entire adventuring community in Layla City would take a major hit.
Not to mention… this wasn’t just any child.
She was the relative of a legendary adventurer from outside the region. She had only been left outside the meeting room while the guild’s top officials discussed important matters. If something really happened to her…
That would be a disaster.
The thief girl was pacing around, waving her arms, looking absolutely panicked and guilt-ridden.
To be honest, Violet had never seen this usually carefree troublemaker looking this stressed before.
“Well… here’s what happened…”
“We were with the little dragon the whole time, but then we had to register for the adventurer database, right? We had to fill out some forms with our personal details. And since we were inside the guild hall, with guards nearby, we thought it’d be fine to leave her alone for a minute.”
"You know, Boss, we’re still not that good at reading and writing the local language here, so it took us a bit longer than expected. And when we finally turned around… she was gone! Just like that! I mean, how does someone as big as our little dragon just vanish into thin air!?”
Le Qiaoqiao pointed toward the lounge area, where a public sofa and a small tea table were set up. It was barely ten meters away from the registration counter they had been using.
On the low table in front of the sofa, a few pieces of mystic realm candy were still sitting there, obviously something she had offered to a certain dragon girl.
"That's how it happened. The last time I saw her, she was still sitting here just fine..."
"......"
Seeing that the black-haired girl was just silently observing the area with a blank expression, Le Qiaoqiao didn’t dare to say anything more. She just lowered her head, looking guilty. Almost as if she blamed herself entirely for Xiao Guang’s disappearance.
"This is outrageous...! What were the guards even doing!?"
The two Tree Spirit adventurers who had rushed out of the lounge with them also looked extremely upset. While this incident might push the priestess into agreeing to cooperate with them, it was clear that, in their eyes, the safety of the child was far more important than any political or personal conflicts.
Besides, they were the ones who had asked Violet to step away, which led to the golden-haired girl, who was suspected to be her relative, being left alone. Depending on how the situation was perceived, it was entirely possible that the girl’s disappearance could lead to misunderstandings or even hostility.
Enrique quickly stepped forward, looking both embarrassed and serious as he spoke.
"Miss Violet… I sincerely apologize. We never expected something this serious to happen. This is a complete failure on our part, the entire Layla City Adventurers' Guild is responsible for this. I will immediately mobilize all available resources to conduct a full-scale search across the city. She hasn’t been gone for long, she couldn’t have gotten far..."
"Wait a moment."
The girl’s sudden words froze Enrique mid-step just as he was about to turn and leave. He hesitated for a second before turning back, looking even more uneasy.
"Um… I know you might not trust us right now, and I understand that at this point, trying to explain ourselves probably won’t mean much… But I, Enrique Lingmu, swear on my life! As an adventurer bound by honor, and as a proud member of the Lingmu Tribe, Sophie and I would NEVER resort to such disgraceful tactics!"
"Oh, alright, alright… I'm not accusing you guys of staging this whole thing. It's just that something about this situation feels off. If you ask me, I doubt we’ll be able to find her using ordinary methods."
Violet cut off Enrique’s serious declaration, then glanced around the busy guild hall where people were rushing back and forth. She waved a hand casually and said,
"Tell them to stop searching. Qiaoqiao, go call Hongyan back too. There’s no point wasting time and manpower, the kid isn’t in the guild anymore."
………………………………………
West Layla City, Zena District.
"Move, move, move! Load the goods onto the carts! Hurry up, we’re almost out of time!"
In the backyard of a distillery, a group of about a dozen men dressed as laborers were carrying massive wine barrels, each over a meter tall, out of a storage room. Under the loud orders of their leader, they were quickly loading the barrels onto several waiting horse-drawn carts.
Judging by their clothing and the carts they used, they looked like a small group of independent wine merchants, organizing a private transport operation to sell their goods elsewhere.
In other words, they had no ties to any powerful factions that could be traced.
The Austre Empire was known for several famous wines, all of which required various seafood ingredients during the brewing process. Because of this, coastal cities like Layla City had plenty of wineries, making it a thriving industry.
At first glance, this seemed like just another routine shipment of freshly brewed wine heading out for sale…
That is, if you ignored the mysterious figures in strange robes, their faces completely hidden behind metal masks.
One by one, the massive barrels were carried up from the underground storage and placed inside the carts, which were tightly covered with black cloth. The workers hauled with all their strength, and in just a short while, dozens of barrels had already been loaded.
Each of these carts required four to five strong horses to pull when fully loaded.
Now, as soon as one cart was filled, they immediately started loading the next.
From the way the carts were lined up, this looked like the last batch.
As the last cart was nearly full, one of the robed men, a middle-aged man dressed in black robes, began to look visibly anxious. He kept glancing at the pocket watch in his hand, checking the time, and frequently turned toward the backyard entrance, as if waiting for someone.
"Why aren’t they back yet…? What the hell are Juan and Ramon doing? We only sent them to keep an eye on those two Legendary Adventurers at the guild. Don’t tell me they got caught doing something that simple?"
Another robed figure, a woman judging by her build and voice, frowned and responded with doubt.
"That doesn’t make sense. They’re both new converts, devoted believers, and they have official adventurer identities as cover. They’ve never been involved in any of the church’s past missions. Unless they exposed themselves on purpose, there’s no way the guild could have figured out they were spies."
The first man, either impatient by nature or simply irritated by the delay, snapped at her.
"How the hell would I know?! But we’re already fifteen minutes past the scheduled time. Those two idiots still aren’t back. What, should we delay the departure just to wait for them? The city gate guards won’t be so patient! And if they got caught…"
Before he could finish, another sharp-eyed cultist near the back entrance suddenly called out.
"They’re back! Alvaro, look! There they are!"
The masked man called Alvaro finally exhaled in relief as he spotted two familiar figures hurrying into the yard.
"Phew, at least nothing went wrong. We can’t afford any setbacks, this shipment has some of our best…"
But then, his tone suddenly changed, as if he had just noticed something strange.
"…Wait a second. Why the hell are they carrying a sack?!"