Reveal of a problem

"Umm… Lady…?"

"Do I appear more feminine to you, Miss Adrianna~?"

The maid, who calmed down from her initial outburst, spoke up awkwardly, squinting her eyes as she tried to figure out the correct way to address Hugin in the proper manner, making them raise their brows and ask in great interest and amusement.

"...are… are you not…? I mean no offense…!"

Adrianna flinched at the reaction and hurriedly apologized while blushing from embarrassment.

"No, no. I'm pleased, if anything. You see, by human standards, I seem to appear more masculine to most, but in terms of my own species, I am a woman. I don't correct people about mistaking me for a man, though. Frankly, people always expect or demand details or even proof of some sort, and it's embarrassing to try to explain how different our reproductive systems are despite our otherwise similar body structure."

Hugin revealed while giving off a pleased aura, unable to stop herself from smiling.

"Oh! What did you want to ask about, Miss Adrianna?"

Hugin then flinched and shook her head before inquiring attentively.

"That's right…! Ehem. Lady Hugin, I wanted to inquire about the extent of your research into my Lady."

Adrianna also flinched and cleared her throat, turning serious - or at least as serious as she could be while speaking with her head on somebody else's lap.

"Clearly not enough. Just that Young Lady Melinda Fenrioette is a prolific adventurer holding a current record of most completed quests… and that apparently the staff of the local guild, with one exception, all think that she is cheating somehow. But even so, her kill log was never checked properly. Not once since she registered…"

Hugin tilted her head and looked up at the indifferent gold-haired girl. She stopped herself from finishing the sentence as the gold-haired girl reached into her pocket and took out a green adventurers' guild card.

"Can I count on your discretion?"

"Of course, but I cannot speak for His Majesty."

Melinda tilted her head and asked while holding the card, to which Hugin nodded back while being upfront about relaying everything to her superior.

"Hmhm~"

Melinda chuckled, and delicately lobbed the card towards Hugin who caught it from the air and moved around through her fingers, carefully examining every inch of it.

After a moment, the pastel-gold-haired woman grabbed the card with both hands and poured some of her mana into it, activating the display Kill Log function, and began cautiously browsing through it, starting with the most recent additions.

"That's odd… if you are that female inquisitor, why were there no demon-crowned humans…?"

After going through a couple hundreds entries, Hugin furrowed her brows and asked.

"Oh, those were just some small fires I hunted to mask the real Kill Log in case it was inspected by the gates. Go on, take a good look at the slider. You hardly even started it."

"...eh…?"

Melinda snickered, shaking her head and making Hugin let out a confused gasp.

The monsters in the kill log had levels in single digits, making the pale-gold-haired Dusk Elf assume it was the very beginning.

And, well, it was. But not in the sense she thought it was.

"...!"

After two or three more low-level monsters, a miniature of a spherical monster, a head with a bark-like face - Deep-Dusk Silva Head - made Hugin tense up and stare at it wide-eyed.

"It will take forever at that pace."

"!!!"

Melinda pointed out, causing Hugin to flinch and gulp down her saliva with almost a fearful expression.

And then she sped it up indeed. With her eyes growing wider and wider as an image after image flashed by.

Roaming boss after roaming boss.

Mini boss after mini boss.

Champion after King after Variant monster after Deep-Dusk Glacier Head.

Hundreds of Demon special units after Demon commanders after archdemons after champions after Demon Lord Gore's Second Demon General Sapiena.

Then even more monsters over level 50.

Some above level 60, 80 or even over 100.

Land, flying, and aquatic.

And then more roaming bosses, stationary bosses, mini-bosses, and tens if not hundreds of thousands of monsters over level 50.

A vampire, his thrall, and dozens of citizens who had been proclaimed missing or deceased after the unknown magic explosion in the middle of the slums in Jade City.

Deep Dusk Hearth Head, and a Veteran Boarkin Chieftain and his army.

Human bandits, half-elf bandits, other mix-blood bandits...

All sorts of members of intelligent races, monsters, demons, a neverending kaleidoscope of death including legendary monsters like Forest Mother and Red Cedar Ent.

Adventurers and civilians who went missing after the freak superstorm and the cast of the Amber Sea, to then go by the Royal Serpent of the Tempest and finish a bit anticlimactically with four common Boarkin Orcs.

"..."

Hugin trembled and closed her eyes before taking a deep breath and stepping forward.

She returned the guild card to the gold-haired girl without ever daring to meet her eyes.

"Thank you. I need to check something myself… I swear I saw Deep-Dusk Glacier Head there, but that must be a mistake…!"

Melinda hurriedly grabbed the card and activated the Kill Log herself, rapidly scrolling through all the entries until she found something she wished to have hallucinated.

A miniature pale-blue image of Deep-Dusk Glacier Head in all of its spiky half-transparent glory.

"..."

Melinda's expression turned extremely grim as she checked dozens of monsters before and after the Glacier Head entry in the log.

"...it must have been hiding amongst the monster that I killed with the toothpicks right after we left Jade city after Sapiena's appearance and got done in by the shockwave… I completely missed it…!"

"...!"

The gold-haired girl groaned in disbelief, shaking her head with a bitter expression while Hugin, clenching her hands together and, staring at her own feet, trembled like a leaf in a hurricane.

"Miss Hugin, could I trouble you for a message scroll? It turns out that Zane and his teammates might be in grave danger. He must be informed that all three Deep-Dusk Heads are dead. He will know what that means, but in case you're wondering, with all of its heads dead, Deep-Dusk Dullahan will enter a frenzy mode, and if not killed soon enough, it will keep taking the heads of other monsters while gaining their levels and abilities. It will keep stacking. That is the lore… the story behind sealing the Heads in the first place. While it will not be a problem for me, everyone else could be in danger if not dealt with as soon as possible."

"At once, Young Lady."

Melinda announced with a serious expression and surprisingly Hugin acknowledged it and rushed out of the room immediately without even attempting to ask any questions.