I swung by Orsted’s office once I was back from Ariel’s castle. It was late at night—the witching hour, even. So late that you’d feel bad dropping in on someone. However, there were still people I wanted to ask to help me, and lots of them. Normally, I’d go back to work tomorrow, but I had to ask Orsted for time off.
Alec was in the office. Apparently, he hadn’t gone to bed yet.
“Oh, hey, Rudeus. Did you find Aisha and Arus?” he asked.
“No, not yet. Is Sir Orsted in?”
“He’s in his room.”
“Alec, have you been looking for them this whole time?” I didn’t know if immortal demons required sleep, but Alec did sleep. Was he awake out of concern for me?
“Yeah. I’ve never been particularly good at finding people or things, so I came up empty-handed.”
“I see… Thanks.”
I said my farewell to Alec and went inside the office. Falia—the receptionist—had already gone home. I passed through the empty lobby and proceeded to the back of the building. Before entering Orsted’s room, I stopped and took a moment to think.
Would it be doable for him to give me more time off for personal reasons? Orsted had never questioned my reasoning for taking time off; whenever I said I needed some, he gave it to me, no questions asked. That being said, was it all right to abandon my work for days for family reasons?
But that didn’t matter—my family mattered. I entered the room.
“Rudeus, hm?”
Orsted glared at me as I stepped through the door.
He was actually just looking at me, but it seemed like he was glaring. That was just how his face was, but I couldn’t help but feel like he could see through me. I broke into a cold sweat.
“I, um, have something I would like to talk to you about,” I said unsteadily.
“Aisha and Arus, yes?”
I hadn’t expected that reply. “Who did you hear from?”
“Roxy.”
Roxy was helping out too? Well, of course she was. Sylphie and Eris were probably doing the same. I’d set out to solve this on my own, but they were also doing what they could. I needed to thank them when I got home.
“So, Aisha has vanished?” Orsted asked.
“Along with Arus, yes. I’m currently looking for them.”
“If she truly wants to remain unfound, you will not find her.”
“Everyone keeps saying that, but I still have to look. Could I have some time off?” I asked boldly, staring into Orsted’s eyes.
He looked back at me with his usual murderous glare. “I will talk to Perugius.”
“Huh?” Why was he suddenly bringing up Perugius? Were we scheduled to do something with him?
“He is constantly monitoring the surface world. He might find them.”
“Ah, right! Thank you very much!”
Orsted was going to help with the search.
“Considering how unmoving you were with the two of them, I imagine you must have had a good reason, but…” He trailed off.
“I…honestly don’t know if I did,” I said. His face turned perplexed.
I really did need to think long and hard about this.
✦ ✦ ✦
I went around asking my friends and acquaintances all across the land for help. Millis, the Great Forest, the King Dragon Realm, the Demon Continent, and the Biheiril Kingdom. I went everywhere I had connections and told them what was going on.
Cliff gave me a stern talking-to. He said that even though this was a complex issue, who was I to object, considering my own polygamy? He told me that even if I was against their marriage, I should have been more flexible. Elinalise looked flabbergasted as she told me I should forgive them. Norn was exasperated with her sister’s actions and grew upset; she told me she agreed with what I’d done. Ruijerd didn’t say anything. He only interjected once to say that he would help look for them.
Everyone had their own opinions on what went down, but they agreed to help with the search regardless.
On the Demon Continent, I asked Atofe’s guards for help. They still hadn’t found Atofe, nor had Moore returned yet. It wasn’t my place to criticize them considering I was responsible for getting Atofe caught up in my battle, but without someone to organize them as a unit, they weren’t nearly as effective as before. They were bordering on a disorderly mob.
I hoped to find Kirishika, considering how useful she would be for reconnaissance, but unfortunately, I had no luck. It always seemed like I could find her if I looked, but not this time.
I kept going. I traveled the whole world and tapped all of my contacts to search for my son and little sister. Leo helped out, Ruijerd was on the move, and while he wasn’t particularly proactive, even Perugius was helping by searching for them from the sky. Orsted and Alec both used the free time they had to search too.
We still couldn’t find them. Even all these people with powerful search and tracking skills couldn’t find a single clue to their whereabouts. It was as if Aisha and Arus had vanished off the face of the planet.
✦ ✦ ✦
A month passed.
Lillia was in bed with a fever from her shock. While in bed, she repeated to me over and over again, “I’m so sorry. I must have raised her wrong.”
She seem to believe that Arus and Aisha eloping was her responsibility.
She eventually recovered for the most part, but she was still disheartened and haggard. Just once, I saw her crying in her room while Zenith gently stroked her head.
Me, on the other hand, she hit. I wasn’t sure what Zenith meant by that, so I asked Lara for a translation.
“She’s sad, basically.”
She was all for Arus and Aisha’s relationship, even though I’d assumed she would have been against it. That being said, Zenith saw the world through a positive lens, so maybe their relationship seemed like something to be celebrated to her.
Sylphie remained distressed. “If only I hadn’t cornered her like that…”
She did both Aisha and Lillia’s jobs while they couldn’t. She wasn’t participating in the search, but thanks to her, we didn’t have to worry about the laundry building up or feeding the children. I was tremendously grateful for her support.
Eris didn’t say much, but I saw her frowning while holding the wooden sword that Arus had left behind. Then, she seemed to come to some kind of internal decision, took his shinken, and swung it.
Roxy said nothing and began to prepare to leave. Apparently, she was using her contacts to look for them in her own way.
“I think I’m going to go look for them,” she said in a slightly panicked fashion.
I stopped her in a hurry. I felt like if she also ended up leaving, the whole family would be torn apart.
The kids also looked worried. Lara wasn’t the type to wear her emotions on her face, but she definitely did less pranking. Sieg became very quiet. He was usually a very talkative boy, but he stopped talking much in the house. Lily had always been a bit of a shut-in, but now she occasionally left the house, grabbed Byt, climbed to the top of the gate, and stared off in the direction of the main street. Chris cried while asking, “Where’s Arus and Aisha? I wanna see them.”
Lucie was angry at Arus, but she was also concerned. She’d already graduated from the magic university and was attending the academy for nobility in the Asura Kingdom. She’d only just started there, which meant her dorm life also had only just begun. She had enough on her plate to deal with, but she nonetheless asked her old magic university friends for help.
✦ ✦ ✦
As time continued to pass, I returned to work. Aisha and Arus were both important to me, but there was still so much I needed to do.
The hours I could dedicate to looking for them decreased, and the time I spent thinking things over increased. I thought when I ate. I thought when I took a bath. I thought before I went to sleep. I thought right after waking up.
Why had I objected the way I had? Why did I tell them no without hearing them out? Why didn’t I explain myself before putting my foot down? I should have known that doing things that way was no good.
Without an answer, two months, then three months passed me by, and we still couldn’t find Aisha and Arus.