Chapter 559: Do You Smell That?

Frowning deeply, Eris picked Yuki up and handed her to the Spirit Initiate before her, "Take Yuki with you to track that man. With her nose, he won’t be able to escape no matter where he runs. And send someone back to the Guild and have Grand... have Guild Master Teagan sort through requests similar to this one that were put up today."

Raising his brow, the male Spirit Initiate from the Balfour Family Guard asked the young lady before him, "Do you suspect this is some kind of conspiracy?"

Pursing her lips, Eris nodded, then shook her head, "I don’t know, but... I know the Guild has been encountering difficulties recently, with people causing trouble for us or trying to smear our reputation. Then today, Master left, taking a lot of strong Cultivators from the family with her..."

The look on the bodyguard’s face also turned solemn when Eris put it like this. He had always felt this young lady was a bit naïve, at least compared to the Marquess’ other two Disciples, but it now seemed he had underestimated her.

Saluting properly, the man accepted Yuki from Eris and declared, "I will see to it immediately, Young Lady Eris; however, a lot of my Squad’s manpower will be dispersed if I do this, so I must insist that you return to the Guild."

"En, I was planning on doing just that," Eris agreed without raising a fuss; she knew that she couldn’t act willfully here.

Saying so, she quickly turned around and dashed back to the warehouse, calling out to the other girls, "Becky! Everyone! Come here quick!"

The girls had barely started clearing the short outdoor path, so it didn’t take them more than few seconds to respond, "What’s wrong, Big Sister Eris?"

Not wanting to worry them, Eris told a small fib, "One of the City Guard just came by and said they were looking for a thief. They want us to leave the area while they conduct a thorough search."

"Oh, okay..." Becky heard this and was a bit disappointed, as it meant they would have to abandon their current job, but they also didn’t want to get in the way of the City Guard.

Smiling brightly, Eris patted the younger girl’s head, "Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll catch the bad guy soon, then we can get back to work."

.....

"Where did Yuki go?" Becky asked as the girls were making their way back to the Guild.

"Oh, uh," Eris stuttered for a bit, but quickly recovered, "Yuki has always been a righteous one, so when she heard there was a thief nearby, she volunteered to help the City Guard track him down!"

Eris felt a bit of cold sweat form on her brow when she saw the confused looks on the younger girls’ faces, but considering the story she just told was basically the truth, she stuck with it.

Thankfully, Becky and the orphans didn’t question her any further and simply returned to chatting about more trivial things, like what was for dinner tonight, or what kind of request they should take next time.

None of them was really that eager to return to the current job they were on, but not completing a task that they had taken also came with a penalty, so they figured they would be back in that run-down warehouse sooner rather than latter.

Given Eris’ suspicions, the girls’ worries were likely superfluous, but they didn’t know that yet.

*Sniff sniff*

"Hey, do you smell that?" One of the younger girls, Julie, suddenly stopped and asked.

Prompted by their friend, the rest of the girls, Eris included, stopped to sniff the air, their noses wrinkling a bit in the next second.

It smelt like... burnt cooking?

That, on its own, wasn’t too odd; after all, people burned food all the time.

What was odd was that they were smelling this in the middle of nowhere, where there were no lived-in houses or restaurants of any kind nearby.

In fact, the only place that had large amounts of ’food’ being cooked anywhere close to here was...

"Oh no..." Eris gasped before scrambling up onto a nearby rooftop, which should have been a challenge for the young girl given her prosthetic right arm, but surprisingly didn’t take her much effort.

Standing on that rooftop, Eris looked out towards the south-east, where just as she suspected, she saw smoke rising from a large complex down by the mouth of the Lorren tributary.

That alone would have been bad enough, but as Eris swept her gaze around further, she noticed that there were columns of smoke rising from a number of different sites all across the southern residential district, indicating that there were fires burning in multiple places.

Frowning deeply, Eris leapt down from the rooftop and rushed back over to where Becky and the girls were waiting.

At the same time, 2 adults rushed over, seemingly from the nearby back alleys, their weapons drawn.

"Don’t worry, they’re friends," Eris calmed the girls, who were on the verge of panicking, before addressing her bodyguards, "One of you escort Becky and the others to safety, the other, come with me."

"But Young Lady," one of the guards tried to object, but Eris simply raised her hand to stop him and shook her head, "I’ve made my decision. Follow my orders."

It was an unreasonable demand, and these guards had no reason to obey Eris as their orders were only to ensure her safety, but looking at the determined expression on the young girl’s face that so closely resembled Celestina’s, the leader of the guard squad couldn’t help nodding, "Very well, Young Lady Eris."

The guard, however, added, "If the situation escalates further, I will be taking you back to the Guild, even if I have to knock you out to do so."

Knowing this was as far as the High-Rank Spirit Initiate she was bargaining with was willing to go, Eris nodded, "Agreed."

She then turned back, leaned down slightly, and held Becky’s hand, "Go with this aunty here, she’ll keep you safe, okay?"

"Come with us, Big Sister," Becky pleaded, clearly feeling nervous now, a sentiment that all the other orphan girls shared.

In response, though, Eris smiled confidently and shook her head, "I’m sorry, Becky, but I have to stay and help."

"Then we can..."

"No!" Eris cut Julie off, "It’s too dangerous."

The girls looked sad and reluctant, but they ultimately nodded, knowing that if they insisted on staying, they would just get the way.