The conversation was short and sweet, and ended with Myne stating in a blunt fashion, "We need to know where these children came from, how long will that take?"
"They must have been in my orphanages, why does it matter which ones?" Yuri demanded and tapped her foot impatiently.
"We can have pictures drawn of each of them, and ask if anyone saw anything around the time they disappeared we may need some bodies for this…" Myne scratched her head, "Can we have resources for this? Some guards maybe?"
"I can have Governor Enri provide some guards, they can ask questions, show pictures, and do the field work for you. What else do you need?" Yuri's voice went up an octave higher, her eyes were sharp and demanding and pierced the sisters both with ice colder than the frozen prison in which they now stood.
"If any of my old contacts are still alive, I could ask questions, are information brokers still a thing?" Clementine tapped her hand absently against the side of her head, and missed her weapons dearly.
"Some, perhaps. Crime is all but exterminated, at least the violent sort. But underground gambling, smuggling to avoid taxes, small scale thefts and the like, those are harder to stamp out. Some who just can't stand working for someone else, they operate alone and trade in information or as dealers of stolen goods. Most get caught and punished, but… a few?" Yuri Alpha looked away in thought, "Yes, we can identify a few possibles if you would recognize them."
"I would." Clementine said with confidence.
"And as for me, get me a map of the area that encompasses all the villages, and a space to work!" Myne clapped her hands together excitedly at the prospect of the work ahead.
"You actually care about finding the killer?" Yuri Alpha asked with surprise in her voice, though her face remained calm and neutral.
"No, just about winning, like my sister over there is about the kill, I am about the hunt." Myne explained without emotion, "Let us use our skills, and we'll work quite hard. All we need… is the right motivation." Myne winked her ice blue eye, just as Clementine spoke up.
"I'll need weapons, stilettos by preference, please… Lady Yuri." She clapped her hands together and rubbed them eagerly, her eyes narrowed like a cat honing in on prey and about to leap.
"I can provide all of those things, but you…" Yuri pointed to Clementine, "will also require a change of clothes."
Clementine looked down at the front of her armor where her death hurled blood still coated the various adventurer plates she'd taken as trophies over the years. The memory of her death caused her body to shake involuntarily, the way the thick blood erupted out of her mouth, how it splashed upward, the feel of her breasts compressed against someone so impossibly strong.
The tightening, the collapsing lungs, her sense of suffocation when she couldn't expand her lungs to breath and ran out of air to scream with… watching the fountain of her life erupt in the air before all memory was gone…
She was snapped back to the present as Yuri spoke up, "Follow me, then we'll get to work." Yuri ordered, and they left the unfortunate corpses behind.
Enri looked at the written request in her hand that had been sent by the battle maid, Yuri Alpha. On soft white paper, it sometimes stunned Enri that she could even read at all. 'Mom and dad… they wouldn't even recognize me now.' She thought and looked around her expensively decorated office in Kami Miyako. The stone walls of the large office that once belonged to the Pontifex Maximus were covered with art, most of it made by survivors or family members of the conflict that brought her here. It comforted her, to see that those who survived destruction had gone on to create.
She looked away from the written request and out the window toward Crossroads. Heikeren was probably working like an undead bureaucrat. Relentless, efficient, incorruptible. 'For that matter, so is his wife, they make an even better married couple than they did comrades in arms. Hard to believe we were ever enemies now.' It was a pleasantly distracting thought from the request in hand that she still didn't look down at.
"Something wrong?" Lupusregina asked from where she sat quietly reading a story about slutty maids… the third volume in the series about one of the lizardwomen. Enri rolled her eyes, recalling how Lupusregina had given a copy of the book to Zaryusu… and a maid outfit to Crusch Lulu. Whether they were pleased or not, Enri never heard. However, the two had cancelled meetings for the better part of a month, and had another child on the way not long after. 'Probably not a coincidence, but I'm glad I never asked either.'
"If you've got an itch you need me to scratch for you…?" Lupu licked her lips, watching Enri blush before she managed to shake her head, bouncing her golden hair around.
"No, not that...ever. It's just, well Yuri Alpha is requesting quite a few soldiers for this sweep, and I want to help, but we're spread thin, the soldiers we have are also used for construction, not to mention regular duties, and this may belong to His Majesty now, but people still shut down around demihumans. We haven't quite… fixed everything." Enri explained regretfully.
"So? Go to the temples. Or even ask the Pope, you know she won't turn you down." Lupusregina remarked offhandedly. Her teasing smile told Enri that the maid knew quite well it wasn't that easy for her.
"It's still a little uncomfortable between us. I haven't seen her in person since that little vacation to Calca's beach property… What about eight years ago? Except in an official capacity. At least our children all get along. Besides, you know Neia, she's been working herself half to death building up the faith's militant arm. They're up to seventy-five thousand paladins, not to mention squires. Not to mention the work with… Ainz." Enri smiled gleefully when she said the name, a warm glow filled her heart as if speaking the name of a treasured and much loved parent.
Again Lupusregina felt the instinctive outrage on hearing anyone outside of Nazarick use the name, but seeing the glowing happiness and love with which it was spoken spread over Enri's face, she couldn't criticize. "How can I complain when my name is intoned with devotion?" The question her master had asked in response to whether it was appropriate for anyone to use, had settled the matter.
"Right, the undead. What are they up to now? Twenty thousand?" Lupusregina asked rhetorically.
"Something like that," Enri remarked dismissively, "the point is, what with all the preparations for the prophesied war against the Beastmen Triumvirate in another… about nine years I guess, she barely responds to any other written communications. I get it, even I have things I'd prefer to do back in Carne than be here, but work is what it is. However I doubt she'll even notice a letter from me for weeks. This is a situation now."
"So, I'll bring it to CZ, tell her it's important, she'll talk to Neia, and you can expect she'll have used a gate scroll to send you her personal three hundred elites before the day is done. They're the best of the best and meet all Yuri Alpha's needs and then some." Lupusregina replied with a pleasant, sadistic smile. 'And probably break a few things along the way.'
"Lupu, you're the best." Enri smiled gratefully and let out a sigh of relief.
"I know, I know." Lupusregina folded her fingers into her palm and blew on them smugly before activating her message spell.
'Hey CZ, I've got a problem, or… well, not me exactly, it's Yuri Alpha who has the problem, some cute kids are being killed that used to stay at her orphanages, she's upset and needs some help, can you get Neia to send her three hundred to Kami Miyako… oh, and with some scrolls for undead horses, they're going to have to ride to a bunch of different villages to ask questions.' Lupusregina sent the message in her usual mental sing song voice, and she was not disappointed.
'Cute things. Dead. Understood. Neia is with me now, I will ask her to summon them. Expect support within three hours.' CZ responded, and then killed the communication link.