Chapter 60 – Dead End and Unexpected Call (POV Hestia and Eina)
— POV: Hestia —
The empty warehouse in the East District looked like the remains of a building that had been abandoned for ages.
A roof with holes that let the afternoon sunlight filter in as thin streaks.
Old brick walls with peeling paint like a snake shedding its skin.
In the corners, puddles of rainwater had turned murky brown from days of accumulated dust and grime.
The smell...
sour and damp.
A mix of rotting wood and something I didn't want to think about too hard.
Right now, Eina and I were standing in front of a wooden door that was barely hanging on its hinges.
The sound of children whispering came from inside, mixed with the scurrying of rats between the old wooden beams.
"Goddess," Eina whispered, tugging at the edge of my robe, her fingers cold even through the fabric.
"Are you sure this is the right place?"
I stared through the cracks in the door, trying to see into the darkness.
Inside, there were at least a dozen kids in worn-out clothes sitting in a circle on the cold concrete floor.
They were sharing hard bread and water in cracked glasses.
My throat went dry.
I wasn't even sure if this lead was right anymore.
"It's the only lead we have."
With a gentle push, the door slowly opened.
CREEEEAK.
The sound of protesting hinges immediately made all conversation inside stop dead.
Dozens of pairs of eyes stared at us with a mix of fear and trained wariness.
The look of children who'd learned that adults usually brought trouble.
These kids...
God, they were still so young.
The oldest might've been fourteen, the youngest looked barely seven or eight.
Their faces were gaunt with prominent cheekbones, big eyes with dark circles underneath, and clothes that you couldn't even tell what color they used to be.
Some of them didn't even have decent clothes.
My chest tightened seeing them.
This was my first time seeing something like this!
I... wait, how could I not know?
I'm a goddess living in Orario, but I didn't even know my own city?
I thought Orario was super prosperous, but apparently it wasn't that prosperous.
Turns out only the center of the city was wealthy while the outskirts weren't.
A weird guilt washed over me.
But I quickly pushed it down...
I couldn't let emotions take over and forget my purpose.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to talk to them.
"H-hello," I said in the gentlest voice possible, trying to soften my tone until it was almost a whisper.
"We won't hurt you. We just want to ask about something."
A boy with messy brown hair sitting closest to the door immediately jumped to his feet.
His movement was quick and reflexive, like an animal ready to run or attack.
He stretched out his arms to protect the smaller children behind him—
a gesture too mature for his age.
Seeing the color of his eyes and hair somehow reminded me of Kaen.
They looked similar, especially the eyes.
Eyes that wanted to get a good life and didn't want to die quickly even though the world was harsh.
Wait.
Was I imagining similarities that didn't exist?
Was I so tired that I was seeing Kaen everywhere?
"Who are you? Are you guards?"
His voice trembled, but there was steely stubbornness in those brown eyes.
Eyes that had seen too many bad things.
"No," Eina stepped forward with careful movements, like approaching a wounded wild animal.
"I'm from the Guild. And this is Goddess Hestia. We're looking for someone named Rick. Does anyone know him?"
The change in atmosphere was immediate.
Several kids exchanged nervous glances, their shoulders tensing.
Without realizing it, their eyes briefly glanced toward the darkest corner of the warehouse—
a reflexive movement too honest to hide.
There, a boy about thirteen years old was sitting with a smaller child.
The older kid... That had to be Rick.
He was staring at us with sharp eyes like a cornered animal.
Even from this distance, I could see the tension in his small shoulders.
He must've been really nervous.
"There's no one named Rick here," said the brown-haired boy from before, but his voice wasn't convincing.
His tone rose slightly at the end of the sentence—a classic sign of someone lying.
This kid...
Really cared about his friend.
With steps that felt heavy, I walked slowly toward the dark corner where the boy named Rick was.
Behind me, nervous whispers from the other children sounded like rustling dry leaves.
"Are you... Rick?" I called gently, trying to make my voice as friendly as possible.
"We won't hurt you. We just want to ask about what happened a few days ago."
The boy in the corner looked at me briefly before finally standing with slow, wary movements.
He was indeed around thirteen, with messy black hair that looked like it hadn't been washed in days.
Next to him, the smaller child—probably his little brother—
was hiding behind Rick's thin body, his hands gripping tightly onto his big brother's shirt.
"What do you want from me?" Rick's voice was sharp and defensive, his eyes moving quickly between me and Eina, like he was looking for signs of danger or traps.
Eina crouched down with slow, deliberate movements, making herself level with the children's height.
This gesture lowered the tension in the room a bit...
at least now she didn't look intimidating.
"Ahem... Rick, we just want to know about your work a few days ago. Around the Guild. Did you ever... take something from a brown-haired man?"
Rick and his little brother exchanged glances, and I saw something I didn't expect on their faces.
Pure confusion.
Not fear from being caught.
Not anxiety from lying.
But genuine confusion.
Like people being asked about something they truly didn't know about.
My heart started to sink.
This didn't feel right.
"Brown-haired man?" Rick scratched his head, his brow furrowed deep.
"We never operated around the Guild. That's another gang's territory! We don't want trouble with them!"
My heart started beating faster, but not from excitement.
Something was wrong here.
Very wrong.
From the way Rick was talking, from his body language, from the tone of his voice...
I didn't sense them lying.
And as a goddess, I had pretty sharp instincts for things like this.
"Rick," I tried again, my voice starting to sound uncertain.
"A few days ago, there was a man who got robbed in an alley near the Guild. He lost his money. Do you... know anything about that?"
"ROBBED?" Rick immediately got offended, his voice rising an octave and echoing throughout the warehouse.
Several other kids flinched at the sudden shout.
"We don't rob! We only pickpocket! And like I already said, we don't operate near the Guild!"
I fell silent.
Was my question wrong?
"Is there... a difference?" I asked in a small voice.
Wasn't robbing and pickpocketing the same thing?
Both taking something that wasn't ours?
Rick stared at me like I was the stupidest person in the world.
A look that made me feel a bit ashamed as a goddess.
"Of course there's a difference! Robbing uses violence, forcing people to give up their money. Pickpocketing is taking without them noticing. We never hurt anyone!"
There was a strange pride in his voice when he said that.
Like he had his own code of ethics, even in the criminal world.
But was something like that worth being proud of?
Eina pulled out a small piece of paper from her pocket.
"Then look at this. This is a description of the person who got robbed. About 160 cm tall, brown hair, brown eyes, wearing simple adventurer clothes—"
"Never seen him," Rick cut in quickly while shaking his head vigorously.
"And on that day... what day was it anyway?"
"Three days ago, in the evening," Eina answered.
Her voice was starting to sound hollow.
Rick laughed bitterly... a sound too mature for a kid his age.
"Three days ago? We were in the trading district from morning till night. There was this rich woman wearing a gold necklace, we followed her all day until we got a chance. Just ask Mika!"
He pointed energetically at a small girl in the corner.
"She was the distraction."
The girl named Mika nodded enthusiastically, her eyes sparkling.
"Yeah! We got a nice necklace that day! But Rick said not to sell it right away, wait a few days first."
Hearing what they said.
I felt my world starting to crumble.
Like the feeling when you realize the ground under your feet is actually loose sand, and now everything's starting to cave in.
I stared at Eina whose face had already gone pale, just like mine.
She also realized what was happening.
All our theories were wrong.
"Rick," my voice started trembling even though I tried to hold it back.
"Are you... sure you never went near the Guild three days ago?"
"POSITIVE!" Rick answered irritably, his hands starting to move around...
a sign of annoyance.
"Why don't you believe us? We have rules... don't operate in other gangs' territories. The Guild is 'White Skull' territory. We don't want to die stupidly!"
Eina stood up slowly with movements like an elderly person with arthritis, her hands shaking as she folded the paper with Kaen's description.
Even from here I could see how her fingers couldn't move steadily.
"Is there... anyone else?" Eina asked in an almost whispered voice, like she was afraid of the answer she'd receive.
"Other kid gangs that might operate around the Guild?"
"There are," Rick answered while sitting back down, apparently feeling safe now that we weren't arresting him.
"But they're not regular street kids like us. They have backing from certain familias."
"What familias?"
Rick shook his head while glancing briefly at the other kids.
"Don't know. What I do know is, the kids in that gang don't live in places like this. They have proper houses, eat three times a day, wear nice clothes. Different from us who are really on the streets."
Those last words were like the final nail in the coffin of our hopes.
I couldn't say anything else.
I realized from the beginning, ever since we started looking for information...
Basically everything was fake, as if someone was manipulating the information.
Who was it?
They seemed to know what we were going to do!!
My throat felt blocked, like something big was stuck there.
All the clues we'd gathered, all of Eina's hard work in the Guild archives, all of Hephaestus's money I'd used to hire informants...
it was all wrong.
All wasted.
We'd been chasing the wrong trail from the start.
"Thank you," Eina whispered while bowing to the children, her voice hoarse and barely audible.
"Sorry for bothering you."
Just like that...
We walked out of the warehouse with unsteady, uncoordinated steps.
Behind us, the sound of children starting to murmur again, probably talking about our strange and sudden visit.
The warehouse door closed with a low sound.
Click.
Like the sound of our hopes closing with it.
— POV: Eina —
Evening was falling as we walked away from the East District with heavy, powerless steps.
The sky changed from bright blue to golden orange, then slowly darkened to deep purple.
The magic crystal lamps along the road started lighting up one by one, creating circles of warm light between the lengthening shadows.
But that warmth couldn't touch the coldness in my heart.
We walked in suffocating total silence.
No one dared to speak first—
afraid that voices would make this bitter reality more real.
I glanced at Goddess Hestia walking beside me.
Her shoulders drooped forward like an invisible burden was weighing her down.
Her head hung low, her blue eyes that were usually full of energy now empty and unfocused, staring at the street with a lost gaze.
Even the way she walked was different—
her steps were short and slow, like someone who'd already given up.
I knew what Goddess Hestia was feeling right now because I was feeling it too.
Guilt hit my chest like a sledgehammer.
My logic was wrong.
All my data, all the patterns I'd analyzed with complete confidence...
turned out to be just random coincidences that had nothing to do with anything.
I was so sure when I spread out the timeline in front of Goddess Hestia earlier.
I spoke with complete confidence about theft patterns, about two kids selling stolen goods at Mordecai's shop, about how that kid was the one we were looking for.
I felt like a genius detective who'd found clues in a complicated case.
But actually?
It had nothing to do with anything at all.
Rick and his little brother were indeed thieves...
but they'd never even been to the Guild area.
Kaen's robbery was done by a completely different gang...
a gang that had familia backing and operated in a more organized way.
I let my emotions override my professionalism.
As a Guild advisor, I should've been more careful, more skeptical of the data I analyzed.
I shouldn't have let my sympathy for Kaen and determination to help Goddess Hestia blind my analytical eye.
Now...
we were back to square one.
Even worse than square one.
Because we'd already wasted precious time.
I glanced again at Goddess Hestia.
Seeing the goddess's shoulders trembling slightly, her eyes starting to water even though she was trying hard to hold it back.
She was biting her lower lip...
Guilt came again, stabbing my chest like a slowly twisted knife.
I had given her false hope.
I had made a goddess who was already desperate believe that there was a way out, that there was a way to save her familia member.
And now that hope was shattered because of my mistake.
"Goddess..." I started to speak, my voice hoarse and unstable.
"Don't..." she cut me off softly without lifting her head, her voice like a tired sigh.
"It's okay, Eina. It's not your fault."
But I knew she was just trying to comfort me.
I could hear the sadness in her voice, see how her hands clenched and unclenched repeatedly in her robe.
Both of us...
a goddess and a Guild advisor, were now just two people who were lost and out of ideas.
Two people who had failed.
And what hurt the most...
we didn't even know what to do next.
Even if we could meet Kaen, would that solve the problem?
But maybe it could, right?
Or maybe not?
— POV: Hestia —
I failed.
Once again, I failed.
My steps felt like dragging tons of weight.
Every time my feet moved.
It felt like a reminder of how useless I was as a goddess.
I promised Kaen I'd get him out of prison.
I told him not to give up, that I'd find a way.
I even said with complete confidence—with sparkling eyes and a wide smile...
that in a few days he'd be coming home to the church.
But what did I do?
I just wasted time and Hephaestus's money chasing shadows.
Every dead end.
Every door slammed shut hard.
Every clue that seemed promising ended in disappointment.
Now I didn't even know where to start again.
The private investigators I hired found nothing except reducing the already thin balance.
Informants in Orario's underworld gave wrong clues and wasted money on useless information.
Even Mordecai's pawn shop, which seemed like the key to all mysteries, turned out to have nothing to do with Kaen's case.
All dead ends.
I stared at the increasingly dark sky.
Deep purple color slowly turning black.
Stars were starting to appear one by one, but their light felt so far and cold.
Like they were mocking my helplessness from up there.
Even though I myself came from up there.
How ridiculous.
How could I go home to the church tonight and stare at the empty space where Kaen should be?
How could I sleep in a comfortable bed, knowing he was alone in a cold, damp prison cell?
How could I look into his eyes tomorrow when visiting and say that
I still hadn't found anything?
I even had to ask for his help even though he was also struggling?
I was truly useless.
I glanced at Eina walking beside me.
She was also hanging her head low, her face pale and tense like someone holding back pain.
I knew these past three days Eina...
her life hadn't been going well.
Her brown hair that was usually neatly arranged was now a bit messy.
Her glasses were slightly fogged.
Maybe because she was holding back emotions, or maybe because of tears.
I didn't know.
I had dragged Eina into my failure.
She had her own life, her own job, her own responsibilities.
The Guild definitely had lots of work piling up on her desk.
But she chose to spend her days helping this useless little goddess.
And in return, I gave her disappointment and failure.
I felt like the most useless goddess in all of Orario.
Even some other goddesses were probably more useful than me.
At least they could...
Tears started gathering in the corners of my eyes, making my vision blurry.
I blinked quickly trying to hold them back.
At least I had to maintain a little dignity as a goddess in front of Eina.
But how much longer could I hold out?
We kept walking toward Orario's main square.
The merchants had already packed up their stalls earlier, leaving a wide open area with a fountain in the center.
The sound of flowing water was soothing in the night's silence.
Which made me even more depressed.
Even that fountain sound felt like mockery...
flowing continuously without problems, while my life was completely stuck.
Haha... Why was I comparing myself to a fountain?
Was I that desperate?
I felt like crying but...
Suddenly...
"Goddess Hestia."
A deep, heavy voice was heard.
Making both of us stop immediately.
My chest immediately tensed.
I lifted my head and saw a large figure walking toward us from the shadows at the edge of the square.
His silhouette was familiar... a muscular body with steady and confident steps.
And...
a half-elephant mask covering his face.
Hashana Dorlia from Ganesha Familia.
I was already used to him because I often met him.
Not just me—everyone knew him.
Seeing Hashana here.
My heart immediately beat faster, but not from happiness.
This had to be trouble.
Big trouble.
Hashana stopped in front of us at a reasonable distance.
He bowed his head respectfully...
"Goddess Hestia," his voice was formal but not threatening, there was even a nuance of...
respect?
"I was ordered to find you."
"Ordered?" I managed to keep my voice calm even though my heart was pounding like war drums.
Had the investigation results successfully established Kaen as a suspect?
"By whom?"
"Lord Ganesha requests your presence at our headquarters. He wants to speak with you privately..."
He paused for a moment, and although I couldn't see his eyes behind the mask, I felt him glance at Eina briefly before returning to me.
"...regarding the case of your Familia member, Kaen."
The world stopped spinning.
I stared at Hashana with wide eyes, not sure I heard correctly.
The sound of my heartbeat suddenly became very loud in my own ears.
Beside me, Eina gasped softly—a small sound barely audible, her hand reflexively pulling at my robe sleeve.
Lord Ganesha... wanted to talk to me... about Kaen?
Why?
Why now?
Why suddenly?
Had that elephant mask finally returned to his familia and was willing to help me?
Or was it the opposite?
Anyway, Ganesha Familia was responsible for Orario's security and order.
They were the ones who arrested Kaen.
They were the ones who handed him over to the justice system.
They were the ones who closed the case and declared the evidence sufficient.
Why did they want to talk to me now?
Was this good news or bad news?
I didn't know whether to hope or be afraid.
Maybe both.
Had they found something new?
Or did they want to tell me something that would make the situation even worse?
After a full day of failures and dead ends.
Suddenly the most tightly closed door was opening by itself.
My eyes that had been empty and desperate now showed a fragile glimmer of hope.
Like a small candle lit in a dark cave.
I didn't know if this would end with more disappointment.
I didn't know if Lord Ganesha would give me the news I wanted to hear.
Or actually make this already broken situation worse.
But this was something.
And as a goddess who had no other choice.
Who had tried every way and failed...
I had to enter it.
I took a deep breath.
Gathering the remaining strength still left in this tired body.
The cold wind filled my lungs, and somehow it made my head a little clearer.
"Alright," I said with a voice that was still hoarse but starting to be firm.
"Take me to him."
Hashana nodded once and turned around, starting to walk with steady but unhurried steps.
I would face Lord Ganesha and hear what he wanted to say.
And if it wasn't the answer I wanted...
I would make it become the answer I wanted.
No matter how.