As the cleaner of the large building, the man knew his way in and out of the place, and he also knew the worshippers' schedule, so he was fairly confident that he could take a group of guests to where they needed to be.
Not only that, but even when a worshipper in bright yellow robes had made eye contact with him and the others.
The cleaner just placed his hands together and gave a polite bow without much being said, and soon they were in a hallway that had a number of doors stationed next to each other.
"Why are there so many rooms?" Anna asked. "Isn't this just a palace of worship, it's not an inn, or anything like that."
The cleaner pulled out a ring that had a large number of keys on it. He was carefully moving key by key around the ring trying to find the right one to open the door.
"If a person is a true follower and is going through tough times, they have permission to stay here," the man answered. "People go through ups and downs in their lives, and through donations, the religion can offer things like this to their followers."
"Honestly, it seems to work out, since the most time an individual or a family ends up staying in these places is about a week before they move on."
"On top of that, the Meisters, if they are travelling from one area to the other to pass on their wisdom, they will stay here as well."
With his explanation over, he had found the right key, and a click could be heard as the door was unlocked.
"I know what you guys might be looking for, but I think you're going to be disappointed," the man pushed the door open, and one after the other, all of them had entered the room.
It was a fairly large space, there was an enormous bed with a luxury quilt laid on top of it. A fancy wardrobe, as well as a number of large ornaments such as porcelain vases and more.
The room was big enough for a large family to fit in, but there was only a single bed.
"I thought as much, you guys are disappointed, right?" the cleaner asked.
Himmy decided to sit down on a chair that was placed on the other end of the room after looking around for a while and took off his top hat, placing it on the table.
"Do you mind leaving us be, and coming back in an hour or so?" Himmy asked. "We need to think about what to do now, sir."
The cleaner was happy to oblige, as he closed the door behind him. Following the door closing, Himmy let out a big sigh.
"Is this even the right room?" Himmy asked. "The whole place, it looks untouched. As if no one has even been in here. It's quite clear that there was a clean-up operation."
"I can confirm that this is the right room," Anna replied. "Although they have cleaned up what is visible to most of the human eye, for me I can still see that there are traces of blood… and not just a little bit of it."
"This is the room where all members of the other Altered group had been killed in."
Himmy placed his finger by his nose and started to massage his head while it was closed. He was thinking about the best course of action, while the others continued to look around the room for anything they could find.
Eventually, he stood up as well and tried to investigate. At times, when people did a clean-up job, there were things that people left behind.
"I'm confused slightly," Himmy said. "We know that the Alter group is no longer here, because their deaths were reported, right? And we learned that it was in this room."
"That means there has to be a trail, who cleaned up this room, maybe they can tell us something, or perhaps those who knew about the deaths."
"The information was delivered by the Lethal Bite Clan. The members themselves might know something as well," Anna answered.
Himmy was reluctant to go straight to the clan. He was worried that the target they were chasing would be aware that they were being chased.
"There are also traces of magic that have been used as well, was there a mage on the Alter team?" Raze asked, touching the fabric of the rug.
"Wait, you can feel that, I can hardly feel anything," Charlotte said as she came over and touched the rug as well.
When moving to the position where Raze was, she could see he moved his hand back, but right where Raze was touching she could feel a faint trace of magic as well.
It was something that was impossible for her to notice without putting her hand on the area itself.
"How did you?" Charlotte asked.
"I'm a 4-star mage," Raze answered. "So my magic sense has increased quite a bit."
"4 stars!" Charlotte gasped. "But how did you manage to grow so quickly!"
Charlotte herself was still a 3-star mage. She remembered being above Raze in her magic capabilities, but now for him to be better than her.
"I had gone through a lot," Raze answered. "At the academy, we managed to get our hands on high-level power stones that I used to cultivate my magic quicker than normal, I guess I was just a bit lucky."
Anna, who was sorting through ornaments with a keen eye and across the other side of the room for a moment, turned her head back to look at Raze, she paused for a moment before continuing as she had been doing.
"The other team did have a mage. It looks like we're stuck with just this though," Himmy confirmed, standing in the center of the room.
"If magic was used, then maybe the Alter group had put up a fight, and if that was the case I would imagine this room to be in a worse state than it actually is at the moment.
"So the only thing we can do is go ahead and talk to the Lethal Bite Clan, talk to those that had seen this room, and ask what they saw."
Himmy was sure of the direction they would head but there was still an issue.
"We can't just head in there and ask to speak to the ones that did the clean-up though, right?" Charlotte asked.
"Right, I think I have an idea for that," Himmy said. "These clans, they're always looking for strong recruits, and we have two strong people with us.
"I was thinking, me and Charlotte will approach the clan the conventional way. Stating we are from Alter and investigating. Maybe we will find out something like this."
"However, it will mean they know Alter is on their trail if the person behind this is still here, and that's where you two come in," Himmy pointed at both Anna and Raze with two separate hands.
"You two will become members of the Lethal Bite Clan, through the selection. From the inside, you will dig up whatever dirt it is that's needed."
"Joining the Lethal Bite Clan?" Raze repeated nervously, thinking that this wasn't a good idea at all.
