Chapter 79 - The Secret of the Missing People (1/2)

The Secret of the Missing People

My house was close to the palace. This meant that there were many mansions owned by powerful nobles in the area.

Because of this, it was a safe neighborhood. There were officers patrolling the streets at all times.

“It’s unusual for people to disappear from this area.”

Ten people in fact.

It would be one thing if it was ten people in the entire city, but it was ten people from this district alone.

“That is true. I also looked through the missing person requests from last month as well…”

“Were there any from this area?”

“No, hardly any. I mean, none at all. If I went back to last year, there was at least one request, but that has already been resolved.”

Serulis muttered seriously,

“So that means there was a sudden rise in incidents this month? That is very suspicious.”

“It really is.”

Ten people had disappeared in just one month.

It would definitely be necessary to investigate this area a little.

“So, this is a map of the area…”

Shia said as she took out a residential map.

It was very large and included not only this district but the surrounding ones as well.

It was about as big as Milka was tall.

“Did you buy this today?”

“Indeed I did.”

“It’s very detailed. It must have been expensive. You can send me a bill later. I’m going to forward them all to Eric.”

“Understood!”

Maps were very costly. Maps of residential areas weren’t published by public institutions.

They were drawn and sold my cartographers.

Of course, that meant that the more detailed ones would be expensive. And Shia’s map was definitely up there.

“Marquis Mastafon’s house is here. Count Markle’s house is here. And Viscount Fria lives here.”

“I see. All in the same neighborhood. But not that close either.”

“That is true. And the houses that have a single missing person are here and here…”

Shia made marks on all of the houses.

“Pretty scattered then. It’s like the disappearances are evenly distributed in the district.”

“Exactly. There are eight houses that have missing servants or apprentices, but there doesn’t seem to be any connection between them.”

“So I guess we will just have to check all eight houses.”

That was the worst case scenario. But I wished we could narrow it down a little.

I stared hard at the map. Surely there was some kind of regularity here.

“What about the addresses of the people who went missing?”

Obviously, the apprentices would be living in the house, but the servants would have their own houses.

“Among the people that went missing, six of them were apprentices and four were servants.”

“So there are fewer servants.”

“Yes. And their addresses are here and here…”

Shia marked the houses of the servants.

Districts that had a lot of mansions for nobles tended to neighbor a district where a lot of servants lived.

And all of the missing servants lived in that area.

But while it was the same district, the houses weren’t close together. They were all scattered.

“I don’t see any common points…”

“Hmm. Mister Locke. I was just thinking…”

“What is it, Milka?”