The Hero Who Became a Monster Girl Will Never Fall to Evil

Vieya lifted her head and looked toward the sun hidden behind the dark clouds, her attention drifting from the letter in her hand to the mysterious person behind it.

If she wasn’t mistaken, that letter hadn’t been there when Anna came to visit last night. It must have appeared sometime later—during the night, or early this morning.

Because she’d worried about the rain, she’d brought in the clothes hanging outside right after preparing breakfast.

That was when she’d noticed the mailbox glowing green.

Based on the usual working hours of the couriers in this world, this letter probably hadn’t been delivered by any courier.

Could it be that the sender had come to her doorstep last night?

It was possible.

Perhaps that person had quietly stood before her mailbox, watching her home for a long while in the dark before slipping the letter inside and turning away.

Was it a threat from some perverted voyeur?

Or maybe... a ransom note from whoever had “lost” her pet cat-girl?

Vieya couldn’t help but laugh at the thought. She dismissed those absurd ideas and, holding the letter, went back inside.

A low thunderclap rumbled across the sky, and moments later, fat raindrops came pouring down.

Vieya shut the front door, shutting out the curtain of rain.

Anna, who had been guiding Jasmine through the basics of spell formulas, turned her head curiously.

“What were you doing out there?”

Vieya lifted the white envelope in her hand. “Someone wrote me a letter.”

“Waa~oh, is it a love letter from a secret admirer?” Anna teased lightly.

“...Get lost.”

Returning to the sofa, Vieya sprawled lazily onto it and tore open the envelope. A brass key fell out.

Clink!

She picked it up and studied it closely. Aside from being rather finely crafted, it seemed like an ordinary key. No mana, no carved inscriptions or runes of any kind.

Just a simple key—its only purpose being to open whatever lock it belonged to.

So... what lock did it go to?

And where was that lock located?

She stared at the key for a long while, lost in thought, but found no clue.

To her knowledge, she didn’t have any safes or storage boxes lying forgotten somewhere.

Setting the key aside, she shook the envelope again, but there was nothing else inside.

“Which idiot mailed me this...” Vieya leaned her head back against the sofa with a long sigh.

In any case, her first priority was still to find that stupid cat and her missing student. As for the key—since it bore no trace of magic—it could just stay on her person for now, in case it proved useful later.

At this point, the two had already been missing for nearly three days.

And the City Lord’s Office still had no news. Lilian hadn’t come to her these past few days, either.

It seemed...

They must have run into obstacles during their investigation. No new information meant no progress at all.

They had mobilized almost every major power in Fengxiang Town—and still not uncovered a single clue. That was disturbing.

Vieya thought of the mysterious organization behind Hu Xiaoqi and the others, but upon reflection, the style of whatever caused Helcat and Rania’s disappearance didn’t match that group at all.

Still, she couldn’t completely rule out the possibility that she simply didn’t understand that organization well enough.

Maybe... she should send Hu Xiaoqi a letter too?

She didn’t even need to ask much—just whether that organization had made any recent moves.

Come to think of it, the fox-girl tribe’s situation in Monster Forest was probably not great now.

They had to deal with the fallout of leaving the organization while also facing the difficulties of rebuilding a settlement from scratch.

But it had been their own choice to stay in the forest, so Vieya had no right to interfere too much.

Hmm... when Luna’s group had finished their last commission, they had also said they would track down the client who issued it and follow the clues to those masked people...

It had been over half a month now. She wondered how they were faring.

Still, Vieya wasn’t too worried that Helcat or her student were in mortal danger.

As Big White was Helcat’s contracted beast, if its master died, it would die as well.

And right now, Big White was brimming with energy, flitting all around the house and devouring dried fish at an alarming rate. At this pace, that stupid cat’s stash of fish would be gone in a few days.

Since that confirmed that the black cat and Rania were still alive, the weight pressing on Vieya’s heart eased somewhat.

Then her thoughts began to turn again.

Helcat had gone missing while investigating Rania—most likely because she’d discovered something she shouldn’t have and been caught up in it.

As for Rania, the only thing certain was that she had disappeared the night she ran out after arguing with Vieya...

So—had she been targeted by an enemy? Or had she, like Helcat, stumbled upon something suspicious and vanished while investigating?

If both of them had disappeared while digging into the same matter, didn’t that mean the danger had been lurking in Fengxiang Town for quite some time already?

Vieya twirled the brass key between her fingers, then took a sip of sweetened milk.

If that was true, then her earlier theory—that the enemy had infiltrated during the monster siege—was wrong.

And it might mean the City Lord’s investigation was heading in the wrong direction too.

Still, Beckham Castle definitely had issues.

Last time, she had gone there with the old city lord, guided by the butler, but they had found nothing on the surface.

Those servants who had been hired and later died had all signed agreements in advance; even if they died there, nothing could be done.

But their cause of death hadn’t been torture—it was blood loss.

Could it be that nobles in this world also had a hobby of bathing in the blood of young maidens?

Had those poor maids been drained for that reason, bled to death?

And Rania—had she, on the night she left, stumbled upon the noble’s underlings abducting girls as blood sacrifices and, enraged by the sight, drawn her weapon to intervene?

“What nonsense... could some border noble really have the means to make both a Level 7 Hero and a Level 8 monster vanish without a trace?”

“If they had that kind of power, they wouldn’t be stuck here in Fengxiang Town—they’d be thriving in the Royal Capital!”

“Stop running yourself into dead ends. It’s pointless.”

Vieya downed the rest of her milk in one gulp, slipped the brass key into her pocket, and stood up to head toward Jasmine and Anna.

Right now, her only goal was to find those two. Whatever crimes the nobles were committing—whether the convent or the City Lord’s Office ignored them—she had no intention of playing the meddling fool.

Finding them came first.

“Jasmine, Anna, I’m heading out for a bit. I’ll be back later.”

Vieya warmed two cups of milk, set them in front of the two, and added, “If I’m not back by noon, Anna, just fix something simple for Jasmine to eat. Everything’s in the kitchen.”

“Fine. But are you sure you won’t be back? My cooking’s not bad, you know,” Anna said.

“I’m not sure.” Vieya shook her head, gave Jasmine’s hair a firm ruffle, and smiled at her daughter’s pouty glare. “I’ll definitely be back before nightfall. Take care of yourself.”

“It’s about Cat Sister and the others, isn’t it...” Jasmine nodded knowingly. “Then, Mom, you be careful too.”

“Don’t worry.”

Vieya waved her [N O V E L I G H T] hand and stepped out the door.

Inside the house—

Anna, left behind to babysit, sipped her milk silently. What a carefree mother.

She could just walk out, leave her daughter to a near stranger, and not even look back.

Truly, a heartless woman.

Anna shook her head to herself and turned her focus back to the lesson.

“All right, Jasmine. Let’s go over the key structure of a spell formula next...”

...

The sky was heavy with clouds.

Raindrops the size of beans splattered furiously against the ground.

Vieya walked alone down the narrow path, holding a black umbrella. Her plan was to reconstruct the scene of Helcat’s disappearance.

First, she needed to piece together Helcat’s movements that morning and her approximate time of disappearance.

The most important clue would be the place where they had vanished—

The spot where they had faced their unseen enemy.

However—

Based on the current information, it was impossible to determine where Helcat and Rania had disappeared, whether they had been ambushed, defeated, or taken captive.

There was simply too little data.

But... that was fine.

Vieya spat out a small white pearl from her mouth—the true body of the Mirage Demon she had once captured.

The moment the Mirage Demon appeared, it shrieked in a childish voice, “You stupid slime! Is this how you treat the great me?! You said once I helped you save those people on that ship, you’d let me go—but you lied!”

“Quiet down.” Vieya’s tone was sharp with irritation. “I’ll do with you as I please. If you don’t want to spend the rest of your life stuck here, never seeing your mommy or daddy again, then behave and cooperate.”

“For life?”

The Mirage Demon gave a bitter laugh. “You expect me to be your slave for life?!”