[center][h2]Kochiya Sanae[/h2][h3]Nieve — Red Light District[/h3][/center]

"Well, if you put it like that, I [i]really[/i] can't overlook it..."

Despite the very air around them feeling like it was weighing her down, Sanae could do little more than try to psych herself up before following after Qing'e. The overbearing pressure was not enough to deter her by any means, but there was only so much she could do to guard herself against the miasma in what little time they had before closing in. The very least she could do before entering, though, was set up a barrier around the brothel before the three of them proceeded inside the building proper. It wasn't likely that anyone or anything would attempt to enter, granted, but making sure that whatever was inside didn't get [i]out[/i] seemed just as important to the situation as actually clearing up the root of the curse.

Once they had entered, though, and witnessed the presence of [i]butterflies[/i] within the abandoned building, however, Sanae wasted no time in firing out a cluster of [i]ofuda[/i] towards them. When more began to replace them, however, it became clear that those were going to be the biggest obstacle in getting to their target. While dodging them might have been easier in open ground, this [i]was[/i] a brothel...

Which, obviously enough, meant that there was only so much space that they had to work with.

"Guess we're just going to have to muscle on through. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that those butterflies mean death, given past experiences... Well, that and the fact that butterflies usually don't live in places like this. Either way, I'm going to say that 'kill on sight' is probably the best way to proceed from here."

Unfortunately, it was likely that they would have to comb every inch of the place to find their target; with any luck, they would do so before anything got too bad...

And if they [i]did[/i] reach that point, calling Kanako-sama in didn't seem like [i]too[/i] bad of a plan B.

[@DracoLunaris][@VitaVitaAR]

[hr][center][h3]Nieve — City Streets[/h3][/center]

Despite their role as the city's protectors of the peace, the guards that had moved to apprehend the white-haired swordsman, adamant in she was at her refusal at going peacefully, could do little more than watch as she simply [i]flew[/i] away. The ensuing hasty attempt at chasing after her only went so far, though, especially when they only had eyes on the ground and the group and had escaped towards a veritable maze of streets and back alleys.

Mokou would be the first to encounter company once more, as the blonde girl that she had been speaking to had failed to get [i]too[/i] far on foot since they had last spoken. There was a slightly annoyed look on her face as she noticed the white-haired woman floating overhead, but that irritation seemed to stem from how much the woman stood out by flying [i]on top of[/i] looking so thoroughly out of place from the rest of the populace. Landing, at least, seemed to help stifle any follow-up reaction on that front.

"I suppose that 'friend' of yours also fled, then?" she asked, refusing to stop for even a moment as she continued to walk through the streets. "Probably for the best. Musashi told me she was going to lay low for a while, which [i]completely[/i] defeats the point of her becoming my bodyguard... But I digress. I don't suppose you wouldn't mind working with me for the moment, would you?"

There was a moment of silence before the girl, now having realized she had been so crass so as to never actually introduce herself, acted to resolve that issue.

"Carol. Carol Malus Deinheim. At the very least, being able to refer to each other by name would be far more effective than not."

Whatever the result of their pseudo-agreement was, the pair would continue to weave through the back streets and alleys before the sounds of guards milling about had finally become inaudible. With the immediate problem at hand out of sight, the pair eventually came to a stop after finally breaking through the veritable maze they had been in for who knew how long, and in so doing found themselves facing the entrance to a cemetery filled with mausoleums. In direct view of the pair—and Youmu, who had apparently managed to exit the maze from a slightly different path—were a pair of figures who seemed to be arguing in broad daylight.

Or, well, [i]one[/i] of them seemed to be arguing.

"Look, I'm just asking if you know where——"

"This is no place for the likes of you to enter!"

The [url=https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/89098918]former[/url], a young man garbed in Buddhist robes, seemed markedly irritated as the [url=https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FhXmO6gaAAAsY9v?format=jpg&name=large]girl[/url] in front of him cearly refused to listen to any words coming out of his mouth.

"...What am I even doing, trying to communicate with a walking corpse...?" the man sighed, shaking his head briefly before glancing briefly at his palm. As he did so, though, the three girls who had come across the scene would notice that something [i]else[/i] was amiss in the cemetery. Odd, malformed creatures seemed to be staring from them from within the bounds of the walls in front of them, and the monk-apparent, in turn, would turn to face them as well.

"Hm. You three, over there!" he called out, "I don't suppose you would happen to know where this place is? I'd hazard a guess to say this is some place in Europe, maybe...? Should I try and restate the question in English...?"

[@VitaVitaAR][@Raineh Daze]
[hr][center][h3]Nieve — Mages' Guild[/h3][/center]

Serena gave Remilia a slight look of disapproval when the vampire had immediately insisted that they head to the royal castle, but simply chose to ignore it in favor of speaking with Anne instead. It seemed quite apparent that the offer was taken positively, and if the only requisite was that the agreement was committed to paper, who was she to argue?

"Of course we can get that in writing," the princess replied before looking towards Bren with a smile. The minister, who [i]was[/i] still a minister at the end of the day, let out a small sigh and nodded.

"...I'll go prepare the necessary documents. If you'll excuse me..." the man sighed before exiting the room, leaving the four girls behind for the moment. Soon thereafter, though, Serena's attention focused towards the box that Anne had produced. Any sense of half-playful polticking was promptly thrown to the wayside as the princess promptly accepted the container and placed it onto the desk to examine the contents proper.

"Hm... The vial's out of my realm of expertise, but I could send this to some botanists..." the princess mused before picking up the necklace and watching it point towards the distance—a reaction that would be familiar to Anne, given how she had seen it firsthand.

Opting to now grasp the accessory by the pendant rather than the string, Serena began to twist the object around in her hand before placing it back where she had found it.

"This one's a tracker... And it seems to be one attuned to a person, no less? Things like these aren't simple to make without an imprint of the magical signature or something approximating it, but I have no clue as to what that could be. As for the jewel..."

With that, the princess took the object into her hands and began to examine it in much the same way as she had the necklace, though with extra care taken to view each glyph so painstakingly carved into each facet of it. Slowly, though, her reaction turned from one of curiosity to once of mildly meaningful concern.

"How to explain this one... Right, okay, how about this, then? In layman's terms, you can think about this object as if it is linked to a person... Whoever that is. Whenever that person dies, the magical bindings on it—the runes you see carved here—will glow. At that point, the intended 'inheritor'—let's call them that—can release the binding by injecting some mana into it, which will then cause it to release the spell inside of it. As for what that spell might be... Well, I wouldn't be able to tell without breaking the jewel open, but there's a self-destruct mechanism inlaid here so that's not exactly an option."

With a sigh, Serena calmly placed the jewel back in its place before turning towards Anne.

"You said that you received this from a commander? The vial would make sense, but the other two..."

[@VitaVitaAR][@Drifting Pollen][@Rezod92]