"They are all dead, Captain Shalom," Brooke said, a cold smile tugging at his lips as he bent his back slightly.

"Good. Have you counted them?" Shalom asked, already weighing contingencies.

"Yes. All grown adults are dead," Brooke nodded confidently. "But the kids are missing."

"Kids…" Shalom waved his hand dismissively. "Hidden, no doubt; they will die anyway. Without food."

Hearing that, Brooke understood—they would take all the food out of the village.

'As expected for someone who clawed his way to the top… he knows every shortcut.' Brooke mused, feeling envious.

"By the way… wasn't this the village the third young lord—and that woman Shirley—visited for leveling?" Shalom asked, doubtful. He didn't spot them on the way.

"Who knows? The third young master might have decided to have fun in a nearby city," Brooke said, shaking his head. "Remember two months ago? The third-born liked a house, so he stayed in it for more than a month."

"Yeah. Only when the baron gave the order did he return… if not…" Shalom recalled.

"But Captain, what if that slime maker hid among the kids?" Brooke questioned, wanting to test Shalom. 'I will use it against you,' he grinned internally, imagining complaining to Baron Blackwell about Shalom letting a dangerous enemy slip away.

Shalom turned his head and coldly ordered, "Hmm. Search every corner of every house, and don't miss a single one."

Brooke cursed inwardly. 'Damn it. I should've stayed silent.'

----

After a few hours, Brooke and the army searched every spot in the village, missing nothing.

Brooke alone couldn't search the entire village by himself, after all.

They also took anything edible.

"Now the kids will starve," Shalom said, grinning as he glanced at the food in his magic pouch.

"They aren't lucky enough to die in my hands." He shook his head, disappointed at the fate of the kids.

"Did you find anything?" Brooke asked a slender woman—the leader of the sensory and scout unit.

She was wearing lightweight white armor, stained with dust. "No. I cannot sense the kids," she said with a weak smile, sweating on her forehead, due to mana exhaustion.

In her team of ten members, some held stiff faces as they glanced at the kids' hiding spot.

'It's all I can do for you kids,' she mused, feeling hopeless.

Brooke grinned as one of her team members pointed at a dwelling and said joyfully, "Deputy Captain Brooke, kids are hiding over there!"

'Promotion and a good word in front of the baron,' The team member imagined, seeing his good future as he glanced at the team leader.

He scoffed at her sweet and kind nature.

Brooke nodded at the man, then said coldly to the scout leader, "I will speak about your behavior to the baron."

He walked to grinning Shalom and said, "I found—" but he was cut short as "We're leaving," Shalom said. "They'll starve."

He continued with a sigh, "I already decided they are unlucky. They don't have enough merit to die by our hands; only starvation is their destiny."

"Then about…" Brooke wanted to ask, but Shalom cut him again by asking, "If a necromancer—or whatever he or she was—was here, would the sensory unit be able to detect them?"

Brooke nodded and stepped back.

"Why are we leaving? Shouldn't we kill that powerful enemy by finding him?" the skinny man with a monkey‑like face questioned doubtfully, eyeing the bulky woman next to him.

They were informed of the demon slime and the baron's order by Brooke, so he was confused at Shalom's order.

The bulky woman sneered, explaining, "If a powerful being was present with the kids like we expected, then the sensory and scout unit wouldn't have been able to sense them. But they did—meaning there wasn't any… or he left long ago!"

----

A few hours ago…

Blackwell City.

In Baron Blackwell's mansion.

Fifth floor.

The old man set down his magic pen after finishing the letter and clapped his hands.

A middle‑aged man in a black butler suit entered the baron's office, knelt down, held his right arm near his chest horizontally, and placed his left arm behind his back.

The butler asked politely, "What's your command, my lord?"

"Take this letter to the Adventurers Guild and give it directly to the guild manager," the baron said, stamping the letter and rolling it up.

"Seal." He cast a spell as transparent blue magic runes flashed, and two rays of chains bound across the letter.

"Yes, my lord." The butler took the letter with both hands politely, accepting the command.

Thud!

He soon left the room, quickly rushing to the guild.

The baron tapped his blue magic pen on the office table. Pat! Pat!

----

The butler left the twenty‑story building and walked quickly along the green garden area of the mansion.

He passed the fountains, red roses, yellow petals of flowers in bushes, and maids and servants who were taking care of the garden and drying clothes.

After a few seconds of elegant walking, he exited the entrance.

"Where to, my lord?" a young man in a servant's uniform asked, stopping his work—cleaning a carriage.

He opened the decorated curtains of the newly cleaned carriage.

"No thanks. I will walk," the butler rejected him, wanting to check the city along the way.

The man nodded, closed the curtain, and went back to his work.

The butler entered the clean white roads of the city. After a few minutes, he glanced at the busy streets.

Many vendors nodded at him politely, and he responded with a nod as well.

'Nearly fifty million people… It's quite a busy city,' he mused as he rushed along the way to the guild.

He spotted a broken magic sigil on the road.

The road had a magic sigil every few meters.

'I have to let the guards check them. If they break, roads will be easily broken in a battle,' he mused, deciding to make sure the magic sigils were working properly.

"And at the city walls as well… they are more important than roads," he muttered as he glanced at the large barrier that covered the city sky.

After a brief glance at the towering wooden buildings on both sides of the road, he sped up and—boom!—dashed toward the guild.

Soon, he reached a fifteen‑story building inscribed with magic glyphs, and a plaque at the center read: 'Adventurers Guild.'

He entered the guild, pushing open the wide wooden doors.

He quickly went to the counter as the counter lady, noticing him, "Butler Jack," she smiled. "Another mission?" as if they were old acquaintances.

End of the chapter.

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