Better? Or worse?

"Sooooo, what will we do know?" Asked Kaori with an excited look. "We have received our super important quest, now we need a place to start."

Seojoon ignored her and continued to stare at his quest information in a focused manner.

[Mother Minerva's Concerns (Main Story Quest)

Homeless children disappear all the time, it is the sad truth. But lately, mother Minerva has begun to notice that the frequency where familiar children never come back is increasing. Go out and find out if these disappearances are of a natural cause or the result of something more sinister. Failure may lead to death.

Completion Requirements: find out who is responsible for the disappearances.

Reward: 1000 Exp and mother Minerva's gratitude.]

"Helloooooo? Caaaaan you heeeeaar meee?"

"Shut the hell up Kaori."

"Stop ignoring me then, what are we going to do."

Seojoon sighed before scanning the crowd around him. "You said that you were an assassin type ranger right?"

"Yessu!"

"Then you most likely know stealth, right?"

"Double yessu!"

Seojoon pointed at a little girl far to his left. "Follow her around and observe. However, make sure she doesn't get hurt, that is your number one priority."

Kaori tilted her head sideways. "But why specifically that girl? Is there something special about her that I should pay attention to?"

"She looks somewhat decent."

Kaori gave a frown. "... pervert."

"Stop being a stereotypical Japanese manga character, it long since lost its impact and is plain boring now."

"Triple Yessu!"

"....The reason for the children's disappearances can be one of three things. The standard case of homeless children being kidnapped to become slaves-"

"Yikes."

"- a slightly used scenario where the children were taken by some secret organization or person to conduct experiments on-"

"That sounds gross."

"-and finally, a unique storyline where what we expect to happen never will."

"... wait, isn't the last scenario the worst thing that could happen?"

Seojoon nodded. "At least with the first two plots, we can use predetermined strategies to isolate and neutralize the threat. For the third one, we will have to base it on luck and rng guessing until we stumble upon a massive clue."

"So why follow the little girl?"

"If it's the first scenario, slave traders will most likely go for the above average girls and sell them for their looks."

"Then why don't I stalk the prettiest girl or handsomest boy?"

Seojoon shook his head. "Slave traders won't go for the prettiest or handsomest child they can find, not if they are human at least."

"Why?"

"You've been reading to many light novels. If a child is naturally very handsome or beautiful, then they garner a lot of attention from their surroundings. If these attention grabbing children suddenly disappear, then people are bound to quickly notice."

"Oh?"

"The one thing that drives slave traders to acquire slaves is the ludicrous amount of money they gain from selling a slave. Now if people begin to notice children disappear and notify the guards, what do you think will happen?"

Kaori went blank. "Uhhhhh.... it gets.... harder to kidnap children?"

"Exactly, and if they can't acquire a steady stream of children, they will lose out on money in the long term. Sure they can move to other cities and continue their work there, but this is the capital of the empire. The population of children without homes are the largest for many mile around. What do you think is worth more? A single very expensive high quality diamond, or a steady supply of diamonds of above average quality?"

"Umm... the latter seems to be more like a stable lifestyle-"

"Exactly," said Seojoon, grabbing Kaori by the shoulders causing her to yelp in surprise. "So what I need you to do is follow that girl to the ends of hell and prevent her from getting harmed."

"A-and what will you be doing?" Asked Kaori with a slight blush on her cheeks.

"I will be tailing after him." Said Seojoon pointing to a rather ugly looking boy.

Kaori frowned. "I thought that we're we going to target above average children?"

Seojoon rolled his eyes. "Above Average children mostly get targeted by the slave traders. I'll be making sure whether or not scenario two is where this story is headed."

"Why an ugly child?"

"If targeting above average children was to remain unnoticed, targeting ugly children is so that no one will miss them even if they are gone."

"What? What does that have to do with experimenting on children."

Seojoon shook his head in disappointment. "If the quest is for us to find who caused the disappearances of children, then it means that whatever the thing is, it is taking a majority of its children supply from here, in this city. Now if it were a slave organization, they would want to milk out the most profit they can before abandoning ship and heading to a new city, thus the secrecy. If it is a secret organization, they can't just pick up everything and move away to a different location, at least, not very quickly. Thus, they will make sure to target children that won't be missed when gone as no one will wish to search for the reason behind their disappearing."

"W.... what if the slave traders are working together with the secret organization?"

Seojoon sighed once more. "Kaori, you are still thinking as if it is just a normal game too much."

"Huh? Why am I wrong again?"

Seojoon shook his head. "A slave trading organization provides for multiple buyers and sells to the highest bidder. This will bring a huge amount of unwanted attention to the organization as well as create a rather unnecessary expense for the organization. And secondly, slave traders and secret organizations have different moralities. Although slave traders value slaves as goods, they still take care of them.... at least the professional ones do. Secret organizations have a crueler and more cold way of treating subjects. If slave traders get caught dealing with these evil organizations, they will lose their number one buyers."

"And who is that?" Asked Kaori curiously.

Seojoon narrowed his eyes and frowned. "Nobles."