CHAPTER 1448: WORST CASE, BUT GREAT CIRCUMSTANCES

Instead of just using her words to paint a picture of how dire this revelation was to the others, Harriet extracted from a spatial storage treasure on her hip a rather hefty medical tome and placed it on the table with a heavy bang.

Once it was placed, she immediately flipped it towards the page dedicated to products related to Mandrake roots, and the various rituals one could perform with them.

Harriet made sure to stop as soon as she got to the party that showed a more detailed diagram of that exact same bruise that Axer had shown the girls.

"What the fuck..."

However, his focus was on the diagrams next to those bruises.

The diagrams next to those bruises depicted what appeared to be a corpse being raised from the dead as a corpse puppet.

"I am suddenly reminded of a certain shared love interest," Bellona mumbled as she looked at the puppet in question.

"Necromancers from the Umbral Spider continent learned that people who died while having [Mandrake Tears] in their veins were...a touch more receptive to puppetry in comparison to other methods," Harriet explained. "While it’s entirely possible that whoever used this poison to kill your grandfather’s friends didn’t know this, this doesn’t change the fact that it’s a possibility. Especially since [Mandrake Tears] is not exactly something that can be acquired through straightforward means."

"What do you mean by that?" Alicia asked for the group.

As the daughter of an auctioneer, she had the privilege of seeing all sorts of weird treasures and items flow through the Golden Clover Auction House and knew damn well how some of them were acquired through...questionable means.

However, this was the first time she and everyone else in the room had ever heard of [Mandrake Tears], and this was coming from a friend who had a hyper fixation on medicines and poisons.

So if she said something was questionably sourced, then it had to be incredibly nasty.

And she did not fail to deliver in the slightest.

"You all know how mandrake-type aether plants let out a scream that, depending on the species, causes different detrimental effects?"

"Yeah..." Alicia, Alice, and Bellona answered simultaneously, remembering their lessons from the academy and how mandrakes could ironically be processed into medicines that treated the exact same detrimental effects they inflicted on to people.

"Yes, but the important point is that scream is from pain and fear as the plant is ripped from the earth, but that doesn’t produce tears," Harriet explains. "The only way to get tears from a mandrake is to grow them in a source of true sorrow."

After making this statement, Harriet proceeded to turn the page of her book and show a diagram that caused everyone else in the room to gasp.

"And there’s no greater sorrow than having a life snuffed out before being born... unwillingly."

"By the heavens..."

The diagram depicted mandrakes being plucked from the bodies of pregnant women.

The mandrakes in question were releasing tears as they were torn from the rounded bellies of the women, who were also crying tears as well.

Axer, understandably, grimaced at the sight, while Alicia, Alice, and Bellona all had rather ugly expressions on their faces for obvious reasons.

The girls managed to swallow their disgust long enough to ask Harriet a very pertinent question about this horrific revelation.

"This means that whoever made this poison probably either has access to a lot of slaves to serve as incubators or at least knows someone who manufactures it themselves," Alicia observed.

"Yes, exactly." Harriet nodded.

"And because this stuff is used to make corpse puppets, there is a very high possibility that whoever did this is probably in Rainbowden," Bellona guessed. "Axer, we’re new here, is there a district dedicated to aether puppets of the corpse variety?"

"There is an aether puppet district," Axer answered. "And there are several people on that street that are dedicated to the art of corpse puppetry. Hell, they’re technically a sub-neighborhood in that district.’

"Great..."

In other words, there were going to be way too many leads to work with.

"So...to sum up, Axer’s grandfather and his grandfather’s friends got bumped off with a poison meant to create corpse puppets, meaning there is a non-zero chance that whoever did it is going to be making those deceased bastards into corpse puppets?" Alice said it aloud in order to emphasize the bullshit they were about to deal with. "And that poison is our only lead, and there are multiple groups and people who use that stuff?"

"Basically."

"Yes."

"Fuck."

In an investigation as vague as this, the ability to mobilize a huge number of stealthy investigators was basically mandatory.

Unfortunately, neither Axer, Alive, Alicia, Harriet, nor Bellona was able to do such a thing with their current resources. They could try and ask around, but doing so would definitely attract unwanted attention if they went too far. Plus, none of them really knew any stealth-oriented aether arts.

However...the girls did know someone who was definitely more than qualified to do what they needed.

And as luck would have it, that particular someone was on their way here.

As the group tried to rack their brains together in attempting to find more clues, or at least identify the groups that made use of [Mandrake Tears], Sprocket and Hypnos suddenly piped up in the heads of their respective partners.

...Bellona...

[Miss Bellona.]

’Hmm? What is it, Hypnos? I thought you said you were going to sleep until dinnertime.’

[I was going to, but I got a notification from the library. The shepard has managed to restore his connection and is able to communicate again.]

’Really?! That’s great!’

[Not only that, but he is on his way here.]

’Really?!’

[And he’s bringing along some friends, including Miss Rianna and Miss Jinju Ren.]

’...dang, well, there goes my plan to try and get some alone time with him. Oh well, I suppose solving a murder mystery will be fun at least.’

...Alicia...

[Mistress Goldshire, good news! Master Zhen Liu has managed to repair his connection to the Library and the kaijin. Not only that, but he is also on the way here with allies and two of the other mistresses!]

’Sprocket, what did I say about info dumping all at once?’

[To take it slowly as to not overwhelm you or others if the situation calls for it?]

’Good boy. Also, good to hear about Zhen Liu coming here... wait, did he know about us being here or is this by complete coincidence?’

[I think it’s the latter, mistress. The curators did mention that Rainbowden was the home to a previous Kaijin Lord, after all.]

’Right, the Rainbowsmith...hmmm.’

[Is something up?]

’Nothing, Sprocket, just... I wonder if any of us can inherit that legacy as well.’

[I don’t see why not.]

’Yeah...’

...

Now that they knew that help was on the way, Alicia and Bellona visibly relaxed. This release of tension was unnoticed by Axer, due to the man dealing with his own personal problems, but this change was noticed by Alice and Harriet.

Using a bit of aether, the two young warrior women privately asked to know what had gotten them to visibly relax.

[Alright, why do you two look like a massive just got lifted from your shoulders?] Alice asked, sensing something to their demeanor.

[Help is on the way, in a couple of days,] Alicia answered.

[Really? Who?] Harriet followed up.

[Someone more qualified than us in dealing with this skullduggery crap,] Bellona replied.

[Cool...so what do we now then? Hang around until they come or try and get some stuff done?]

[Well...I can think of a couple of things we can do...]

...A couple of days later...

’So that’s Rainbowden, huh? It’s as colorful as the name suggested.’

After several days of traversing through cursed jungle, eventually reaching a series of pastoral hills that were filled with angry murder-llamas, and finally crossing a medium-sized river, the caravan from the [Mines of Malevolence] had finally arrived at the outskirts of Rainbowden.

To be more precise, the group was on a hill overlooking the aforementioned city.

From their vantage point, they could see that the city was established with a circular layout, with distinct districts being literally color-coded.

Staring at the city layout, Zhen Liu briefly thought that a place called Rainbowden, of all things, should’ve been more at home on the Radiant Feather continent.

However, once Zhen Liu noticed all of the smokestacks and forges and the fact that the central portion of the city appeared to be a giant furnace powered by lava, it was very clear that this city was definitely of Dozing Salamander origins.

As Zhen Liu continued to stare at the city, he was eventually joined by Lythero and Olstenna.

He expected the former because he had promised to help the man fix up his swords while he was here, but the latter was mildly unexpected.

"So...are you guys excited about visiting Rainbowden?"

^Honestly, yeah.^

^Less so. I think my ex still lives here.^

"..."

^...^

At this comment, both Zhen Liu and Lythero turned their gazes at Olstenna in shock.

’This guy had interests other than fighting?’