Xio pursed her lips. "She's Madam Natasha. And I don't have an old boyfriend either!"
"Ah?"
Fors blinked, momentarily baffled.
Vincent laughed. "I've heard from Miss Audrey that Miss Fors is a veteran researcher of the mystical — you must be no stranger to mystical items that can alter a person's appearance."
Fors coughed and muttered, "Ah, well... naturally. Naturally."
A little while later, once Fors had absorbed the news — that the Zemangg Gang was gone, and that she and Xio might be in danger at any moment — she sat there completely dumbfounded.
"I... I just dozed off while writing, and when I wake up, that's the news you give me?"
Xio lowered her head. "I'm sorry, Fors. I've dragged you into this."
"...Not much point worrying about it. At worst we find a new place to stay, and it's not as if that's the first time." Fors patted her on the head and pulled her into a hug. "You must be feeling awful right now. I know — you were actually hoping to help those highland men turn over a new leaf, find a legitimate way to earn money instead of crime..."
Xio bit her lip. "I... that was just preparation for acting as a Sheriff. Nothing more."
"So stubborn."
Fors smiled and looked across at Vincent. "Madam Natasha, Xio was pushed into a position she never asked for because of you. Now that something like this has happened, do you have any suggestions?"
Vincent thought for a moment. "Xio — has the Zemangg Gang done anything unusual lately?"
"No. Apart from asking them to look into the missing vagrants, I haven't had them do anything else."
"The vagrants... did they find anything?"
Xio gradually settled back into her usual composure. "Yes. Over the past several years in Backlund, there have been periodic mass disappearances of vagrants — waves of them, at regular intervals. Based on my analysis, disappearances on this scale cannot be coincidental. They're engineered."
She paused, then stated her conclusion plainly: "In other words, this is almost certainly connected to human trafficking."
Of course.
Could it be that killing Capim today and freeing those captive girls hit a nerve with the people behind this — and that's why they moved against the Zemangg Gang?
Xio frowned. "What I don't quite understand is this: while plenty of nobles still secretly purchase slaves, they very much prefer slaves from the overseas colonies rather than penniless vagrants. After all, if they wanted the vagrants, they wouldn't even need to go through a trafficker — just visit any workhouse and there'd be endless people willing to do whatever they're told. In name it'd be employment, but in reality it'd be indistinguishable from slavery."
Vincent didn't bother elaborating. "My suggestion is this: go to Audrey and ask for her help. Have her arrange you an identity and lie low at the Hall family estate for the time being."
Fors and Xio blinked, then nodded in dawning realisation.
Bernadette spoke up in his mind: "I thought you'd have them come to us."
"I'd like that too — but I know my own limitations."
"You'd like that?"
"...That's not the point!" Vincent said helplessly. "Based on the leads we have, the people behind this are almost certainly MI9, and MI9 answers to the royal family. They have no shortage of demigod-level Beyonders."
Bernadette asked mildly, "I still can't quite work out why the Loen royal family would involve themselves in human trafficking." Then, after a pause: "Although that does explain why they've been permitting the disorder in the East Borough and the Docklands."
"The trafficking itself might not be the point. The question is where the trafficked people end up."
Vincent didn't dwell on the question — he already knew the answer from the source material. He summoned his invisible servant, quickly wrote out a note explaining the situation, and dispatched it to Audrey.
The reply came quickly. Audrey welcomed both of them warmly.
"Start packing."
"Right!"
Having moved house so many times, the two of them had never bothered furnishing their lodgings with anything large or permanent — just a few simple changes of clothing. Fors glanced back at the room as she was pushed out the door. "Ugh, we only lived here a week of this month. Three weeks' rent, wasted."
"Out you go, out you go."
Xio herded her out with both hands.
The three of them made their way through the dark to the Queen's Borough, arriving at the Hall family's grand villa, where Audrey had Annie waiting for them.
As the apple of Earl Hall's eye, Audrey's parents rarely questioned her requests provided they weren't excessive — and "hiring two new maids" was the sort of small matter she could decide entirely on her own.
Half an hour later, Audrey sat on the sofa in her bedroom, watching the two women — one tall, one short — now dressed in maids' uniforms, and broke into a delighted grin. "Ha! I never imagined you two would end up as my maids."
Fors hesitated. "Are your maids allowed to smoke?"
Xio immediately clapped a hand to her forehead. "Shut up, Fors!"
"Cough — I just had a sudden flash of inspiration. A story where the protagonist is a maid..."
"What's the point of inspiration if you never actually write it?"
"Don't kick a person when they're down, Xio."
Watching the two of them bicker, Audrey had to stifle another laugh behind her hand. She quickly looked around. "Hmm? Madam Natasha didn't come with you?"
"She's here."
A voice sounded right beside Audrey, and Vincent's figure materialised out of thin air.
"Ah—!"
The sudden appearance of a male figure made Audrey's heart lurch — she nearly cried out — but she caught herself immediately and guessed this must be Madam Natasha. Her curiosity swiftly overtook her fright. "Madam Natasha? How did you — you turned into a man?"
That couldn't be explained by makeup alone, could it?
Vincent drew a hand lightly across his face. His features and build shifted fluidly, quickly returning to the "Natasha" they all knew.
"Utterly remarkable," Audrey breathed, eyes wide with wonder.
"Right, you two keep each other company — I need to head off."
It wasn't that Vincent was in a hurry. It was more that the Witch Ring's negative effect was about to kick in, and he had no idea what sort of chaos that would cause.
Bernadette said with a faint, amused lilt, "Letting three beautiful young women all develop a fondness for you — isn't that rather pleasant?"
"..."
He held it in for a few seconds, then muttered, "But I'm a 'woman' right now."
"Oh? So you'd be happy if you were a man?"
"I never said that."
"Hm hm. Truly — you and Father really do come from the same world."
"???"
Watch your mouth before I report you for defamation.
After Vincent left, Audrey couldn't wait to pull out the investigative materials she'd received from Xio earlier in the day. "Xio — now that you have some time, walk me through all of this properly."
"Ah?"
Xio felt a flash of guilt. One of the pages had the honorific name of that mysterious entity written on it — and faced with Audrey's request, she couldn't exactly refuse. She grabbed for the documents hastily. "Hold on, let me sort them first—"
"Hmm? What's this?"
But at that moment, Audrey was already looking at something on one of the pages, head tilted in puzzlement. She murmured quietly, reading the three lines of Hermes script: "Ruler of the Domain of Chaos... the One Who Restores the Tilted Scale... the Shadow of Order and Rules."
Xio: "..."
I thought I was reckless — but Audrey, you're genuinely something else entirely.
Guilt flooded through her. Audrey had answered her plea for help without a moment's hesitation, and in return she'd... done this to her. She wanted to dig a hole and disappear into it.
Having read all three lines aloud, Audrey finally caught herself. Wait — this sounds exactly like a three-part honorific name. Did I just... read the honorific name of an unknown deity?
She looked at Xio in alarm. "Xio..."
"This... this..."
In her Spectator state, Audrey had already picked up on Xio's guilty discomfort, but she took a quick, steadying breath and said, "This was given to me by Madam Natasha!"
"Last time you were curious about the 'Broker,' weren't you? So I asked Madam Natasha, and she gave me this — she said reading these three lines aloud would naturally reveal whatever you wanted to know."
Audrey paused. "Broker?"
She looked again at the first line: Ruler of the Domain of Chaos.
That was... the Lord of Chaos?
So these three lines were the honorific name of the Lord of Chaos?
Audrey didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Good news: Mr. Fool — the task you gave me seems like it might actually be... complete.
Bad news: I may have just attracted the attention of the Lord of Chaos.
She forced out a thin smile. "I just need to, um, use the washroom for a moment."
To be continued…
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