Finn sighed. He understood how crazy this all sounded. "I know it looks weird..." he said, scratching his gossamer hair. "But...my information is really limited—but accurate."
Fortunately, the team just looked at him in concern. "How are you communicating, anyway?"
"It’s via a special tool..." Finn said. "It’s a special rune my master embedded into me, so only I can see the contents. He is unfortunately far away and cannot do it himself. I didn’t even know I had a sister until recently."
There had always been a few ways to communicate in this world, but considering the magical inn, they had to assume there were things they simply didn’t know about him, or there were tools they had never heard about before.
Besides, because there was so much knowledge that had been lost since the Enclosure—the period where the dungeons and portals were blocked—so it wasn’t really something unimaginable.
It was easy to just take things as they were, assuming that what he had was part of the technology that had been lost due to the disappearance of strong magic and the deaths of the masters during the dark ages.
However, this was obviously not the time to be curious. Finn’s eyebrows were furrowed and his voice shaky. "She’s...running out of time."
[Time limit: 88:02:11]
"I’m sorry... that’s really all I have," he said, voice cracking, and it made everyone flinch. Marcus held his shoulders.
"Don’t worry, we believe you. We just need you to remember as much information as you can."
The whole situation was odd, but not once did they think he was lying.
"She should be in a temporary safe place... and had been safe there for four years."
"So we will look into orphanages and other houses with four-year-old girls," Nona said.
"Thank you... I... I will look elsewhere," he said. "I can’t shake the feeling that I am missing something."
Marcus nodded. "Orphanages aren’t exactly known for being nourishing."
This made the women glare at him simultaneously. Marcus flinched, blinking.
What did he say?
There was no lie in there.
Nona shook her head at him, a disapproving frown on her face, while Reesa looked at Finn. "I’m sure the kids there still live decently, and as for the orphanages...there are some that are good," she said, obviously trying to be comforting.
Finn nodded, standing up. Once more, he read the mission description.
More information will be provided according to proximity and actual site conditions.
Looks like he’d have to look around himself.
...
According to the others, this town was approximately a few square kilometers throughout, with each side at least a few thousand meters or so across. That would easily take him a few hours just to go around. However, hopefully, even a rough closeness would give him clues.
For some reason, he had a feeling it wasn’t going to be an orphanage. Considering how the system was, if it were
They grouped into smaller teams, with him having Leiah and Marcus in his.
They agreed to meet back in the restaurant in 6 hours. He thanked them for their help and promised a 3-day free stay with food in his inn regardless of what happened. Of course, if they did find his sister, then he would owe them a lot more.
Finn couldn’t stay in one place after this, and he hurriedly went around, the other two following closely next to him.
Lotus Town, as a border town, served both as a defense outpost and as a supply hub for adventurers and stopovers for merchants.
There were tall, fortified walls with watch towers and guarded gates. He started along these and swept through wherever he had access to, which of course wasn’t everything.
He passed through a barracks area, though that was walled and blocked, and then he passed through some residential and commercial areas. In both cases, there was no change in his mission description, so he could only move forward, ending up in various other areas.
He knew there was a central market in front of the Lord’s palace, but now he knew there were also smaller markets in other neighborhoods as well.
If he had the time, he wanted to explore these places more thoroughly. Maybe he could go around with his sister.
The thought made him both hopeful and in pain.
The roads were relatively walkable as long as there were no carriages passing through, but there was no sidewalk specifically just for pedestrians.
It was basically a free-for-all, which could get quite dangerous because there were many mounts going to-and-fro different places here. This was especially so since many of the people here had large packages.
As such, Finn and his group preferred going through the narrower roads, around a few meters wide, so that carriages wouldn’t fit. In a sense, this was also good, because he could also see a lot of places that wouldn’t be noticed if they had taken the main roads.
Another relief was that there wasn’t (much) feces on the streets, with the main streets having the occasional shit from a mount, but otherwise it was much better than he thought. After all, he heard a lot of horror stories about legitimate medieval towns back on Earth.
He remembered there was some version of plumbing here, but not that sophisticated. Later, he’d also find out that whoever threw shit in public was going to get beaten up by powerhouses, who saw this as a personal affront to them, who used those spaces too.
Finn encountered various shops while he was rushing through the streets, looking at his mission window at the same time.
There were tanners, blacksmith shops, bakeries, herb shops, and so on. With a Town full of adventurers, mercenaries, and merchants, these shops naturally flourished.
Sadly, he didn’t have much appreciation for them right now.
Hopefully, his sister will appear soon!