Intertwined

Nightingale and Shin were surprised at the sight of the room cluttered with journals, notes, and paperwork. They went to work, tearing the room apart. Fuyumi investigated the crumbled-up papers along the floor while Nightingale and Shin checked the papers and journals on the desk. They could spend hours reading through each individual paper but it wouldn't make a noticeable dent in the stack. Each sheet contained information regarding the people they trafficked - their name, age, gender, race, nationality, class, and level were all listed. There was a separate shorter stack of papers that had information on NPCs that had been turned into slaves.

Shin began collecting various documents that piqued his interest. He began to notice a trend as he made his way through the stack.

"There's kind of a disgusting trend here."

"Eh? What do you mean?" Nightingale continued flipping through pages of a journal as he answered.

"Most of these adventurers are westerners, aren't they? Mostly younger women."

Nightingale closed the journal and put it on the table.

"Now that you mention it, I guess you're right."

Fuyumi spoke up from under the table.

"Maybe they just have a type."

"It's a little too… obvious?"

Shin tapped Fuyumi's shoulder with the stack of documents he collected.

"Don't you think there's a little too many of these?"

She turned around to grab the stack. Fuyumi flipped through the documents quickly, scanning through each individual entry before hanging the stack back up to Shin.

"There's a lot of them, sure. But isn't there like hundreds or thousands of other sheets on the table?"

Shin continued to dig through the stack of papers on the table as he answered.

"Well, those were just the ones from when I first noticed it, but it's really not a coincidence. Look for yourself."

"Alright, let me see."

Fuyumi stood up and began sifting through the stack with Shin while Nightingale observed from the side. Nightingale raised an eyebrow as he noticed a small red envelope peeking out from the drawer underneath the desk. He tried pulling it out but it was stuck.

After scanning through a hundred documents, Fuyumi leaned back against the wall and sighed.

"I take back what I said."

"See what I mean? I told you I'm not crazy." Shin said as he sat on the desk.

Nightingale clenched the tip of the envelope with his two fingers and wiggled it loose from the drawer. Fuyumi opened her eyes to see Nightingale examining the letter.

"Oh, what's that?"

Fuyumi pushed herself off the wall and walked over to Nightingale as Shin leaned in to get a closer look. Nightingale made a small blade of concentrated wind at his fingertips to cut open the ends of the envelope. He pulled out the letter and unfolded it and cleared his throat before reading its contents aloud.

"Regis, I expect that Breyll's training is going well. We're a little cramped on our end and we could use some extra help transporting people to your sector. If you could, we would like to send some people over tomorrow. I expect great things from you, Xiao, and Zhao. From, Sanjo."

"Those two!?"

Fuyumi and Nightingale wore puzzled expressions on their faces.

"Those were the guys that were with Ghast. How deep does this rabbithole go?" Shin sighed as he leaned back into the desk, with his arms supporting him.

"Ghast could be involved in this too? Sounds like whoever sent the letter is a manager or leader or something." Nightingale thought out loud.

Fuyumi pointed to the backside of the letter.

"Oh, there's something on the back."

"Oh?"

Nightingale flipped the letter over to the backside to find a quest.

---------

[Repeatable Quest: Dragonfall Transport Hub: Trade Imbalance IV]

Escort the products from Trade Market Sector H to Sector L.

The products cannot be damaged or lost during the journey.

[Rewards]

2,580 XP, 8,200 silver coins

---------

"So there are quests for human trafficking? That's kinda fucked." Shin said, crossing his arms.

"If this is a quest, that means that the NPCs are in on it. But that's weird since some of the slaves they're selling are NPCs too." Fuyumi added.

Nightingale scratched his head.

"Sectors and NPCs too, huh…"

"Got any ideas, Nightingale?" Shin asked.

"Well if the sectors are named H and L, it'd be pretty safe to assume that there's one for every letter in the English alphabet. Which means… there's probably a whole lot more to this cave than this one hideout."

Fuyumi stuck her hand out, signaling for Nightingale to let her see the letter.

"Figures as much, we saw slaves everywhere on the streets since we've been here." She said as she grabbed the letter.

"Was there anything else in the envelope?" Shin asked.

"Let's see…"

Nightingale ran his finger along the inside of the envelope.

"Ah, here."

He took out a small square note and unfolded it.

"This is handy."

Nightingale held out the piece of paper in front of them. It was a map of Dragonfall. The top half was an illustration of every building and store on the surface level of the city while lower half had a detailed technical map of the underground tunnels that connect each part of the city. The paths intertwined and weaved around the city like a labyrinth. However, they all went around the underground structure in the center of Dragonfall, Urumel.

They stared at the map in awe. Shin floated his finger above the map in an attempt to pinpoint their location.

"We're about here, aren't we?"

As his finger touched the map, a small interface panel opened in his vision.

"Whoah!"

Shin was taken aback.

"Do you guys see that too? Touch the map!"

Fuyumi and Nightingale touched the map in two different spots and were greeted by the same interface that Shin saw.

On the panel was information on the building, what the building was for, and who owned it.

Shin dismissed the panel.

"Uhhh… we should probably keep this, huh?"

"Uhuh."

"Yeah… probably is definitely an understatement."

Nightingale put the map away back in his item pouch.

Fuyumi turned her attention back to the letter, folding it, and putting it in her item pouch.

"Hey, I was gonna keep that!" Nightingale reached out toward her pouch.

"Don't hog all the information to yourself. Besides, I can keep it safe better than you can."

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

"Yeah, to be fair, if anyone was going to lose it, it would be you." Shin interjected.

Nightingale's arm went limp as he accepted his defeat.

"Anyway, what are we gonna do about all this information?"

Fuyumi and Nightingale shifted their attention toward Shin. They thought in silence, unable to think of an idea.

Fuyumi spoke up, breaking the silence.

"This all started because we wanted to tail Geoff…"

"I have a headache." She said as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

Nightingale picked up the journal from the table again.

"I'll continue digging through this notebook in my free time. I think we're done here. We've already instigated enough. Shin, I know you're struggling with the thought that there's more left to do but we aren't prepared for this."

He put the journal in his bag.

"We can tackle this in the future."

Shin slumped his shoulders as he responded.

"You're right."

+++++++++++++

[10:39 | May 06, 2035]

They left the hideout, taking a few documents and notebooks as evidence. They didn't bother doing anything to hide their infiltration. If anything, their faces were about to be exposed to the entire underground human trafficking ring once the captain woke up in the church. More than likely, another bounty would be put on their heads.

The party of three began walking back to their rooms. During the walk, Shin reflected on his decisions and what happened recently.

Eventually, he could come across someone powerful enough to overcome him. He already felt that when he came across Ghast. Ghast seemingly negated his attacks without much effort. Shin knew that saving the adventurers was obviously not a bad thing. However, they gambled with the outcome. It was certainly possible for the captain to be strong enough to take all three of them on.

The jewels were also another thing to consider. An entirely new equipment slot could be filled with its own effects. There was the one from the ravine in Freila and now the two they discovered here.

Ghast and their involvement was still unknown. Shin thought long and hard about it but there weren't any obvious conclusions that could be drawn. He suddenly scratched his head in frustration which confused his two allies walking beside him.

"Feeling that headache too?"

"Yeah…"

"Here."

Fuyumi took out a piece of cloth and placed it on her hand. She then poured out a handful of water from a small leather pouch and clenched her fist, turning it into ice.

"Put this on your head."

"Ooh, that's a cool application of your skills." Nightingale chuckled as he spoke.

Fuyumi rolled her eyes as she handed the makeshift icepack to Shin.

Once they made it back to the inn, they split up. Shin went back to his room and sprawled out on his bed. Not much time had passed but he felt like the entire day was over. The perpetual night sky didn't help with his sense of time. Exhausted, Shin took his headset off.