Chapter 286
The battle was over.
They had taken down all the gang members, patched them up just enough so they wouldn't die, and tied them to a tree stump along with the ones who had surrendered.
Later, once they returned, they could contact Vengeance or the vigilantes of the Neutral Zone, who would take care of the rest.
"Hello—"
Maelyn approached, waving her hand at Sasha with the prettiest smile she could manage.
But perhaps finding the stranger uncomfortable, Sasha quickly turned her body away and burrowed into Kamibarez's arms.
Maelyn straightened up with a pout.
'She's not letting her guard down easily.'
Sasha barely said a word to anyone other than Kamibarez. She only glanced warily around, like a young animal full of caution.
"Hahaha! Well done, everyone!"
Just then—clap, clap—Seiyur appeared, applauding.
While everyone else was covered in sand on their robes, splattered with blood, and generally in disarray, he alone was pristine.
"Thank you for following my command so well, agents."
"Command, my foot…!"
Maelyn snapped.
"Where were you all this time? There were some pretty dangerous moments during the fight, so why didn't you help?"
"My, what a hurtful thing to say."
Seiyur shrugged.
"I too was locked in a fierce battle for my life. I faced over thirty opponents at once."
"There were only a little over thirty in the whole gang, what are you talking about?"
"Agent Maelyn, that kind of constant nitpicking only hurts team cohesion. At this rate, your teamwork score might get a deduction."
Sensitive to the matter of scores, Maelyn's face trembled with frustration.
'...Petty as hell, clinging to scores like that.'
"Ah, here they come."
Dick and Simon, wearing tattered clothes, were returning after interrogating the prisoners.
Dick had used the same method he'd employed when questioning the gang member they'd caught in the village last time.
"Looks like they really don't know anything."
Dick reported.
"In the Neutral Zone, it's common for clients to hide their identity when they approach. They got paid a lot of money, so it seems they just did as they were told."
Simon nodded in agreement.
"I see. Excellent work, agents."
Seiyur said, looking around at them all.
"Seeing your skills improve so much under my guidance and command fills my heart with pride."
"..."
Simon snorted inwardly.
"Ah, yes, yes. It's all thanks to you, sir."
Dick said, polite and socially adept as always. But even his tone was starting to lose its usual liveliness, his praise now sounded hollow.
He, too, had begun to doubt Seiyur for not joining the fight.
"Well then!"
Seiyur pointed sharply at Simon.
"Let's hear your thoughts on what we should do next, Agent Simon!"
"..."
When Simon only looked bored, Seiyur seemed to grow wary of his silence and quickly added,
"If you give an answer close to what I think is correct, I'll award you tactical points!"
At this point, Simon couldn't care less about points.
He sighed lightly and turned his head. A hill shrouded in darkness came into view.
"We don't know who the client is, but I got the meeting place from the Sentinel leader. It's about twenty minutes from here, so I wanted to go there and capture them directly."
He glanced back at the wreckage of the battle—the smashed wagon, the splattered blood.
"But the fight happened far too close. Of course they'll have heard the commotion, so chasing them now would be pointless."
"Exactly! I thought the same thing!"
Seiyur said like an interjection.
"Besides, Sasha's leg is injured. Before it gets any later, we should treat here and head to the first village, where Vengeance's headquarters is. How about we look around for transportation?"
Seiyur agreed, and they quickly split up.
"Oh, look, Simon! Here's a wagon that's still in decent shape!"
Dick knocked on the wagon's body.
"Looks like one wheel's broken, can you fix it?"
"Of course! I'll just swap it out with a good one."
While Dick began repairs, Simon went looking for horses to pull it. Most had fled in the chaos or died in the fighting.
'Guess I can't make a skeleton horse.'
He crouched beside a dead horse's corpse to examine it.
On this continent, wagons were usually pulled by a breed called "Hanobreed", born from crossing monsters and horses. Only the corpse of a pure horse monster could be turned into a skeleton horse.
This one's a Hanobreed too.
As he was looking around, he spotted a horse lying on its side, wheezing.
Simon quickly ran over.
'Damn.'
The horse was still tied to the wagon, unable to escape, and was bleeding from its belly—clearly dying from the battle.
"That one's no good. Better to put it down and end its suffering."
Seiyur said, having wandered over.
"I'll check its wound first."
Simon replied, taking a potion from his subspace.
"It's useless."
Seiyur said, shaking his head before wandering off toward Maelyn to offer more unsolicited advice.
Simon pretended to pour the potion on the wound while glancing around several times.
'No one's watching, right?'
Everyone was far away. Taking the chance, Simon clasped his hands together in front of the horse's wound.
Quietly, quickly—
Vwooom—
White holiness flowed from Simon's palms, wrapping around the wound.
'Focus, focus.'
The structured white magic he'd learned from Farahan, the Defense Against Holiness professor, was paying off.
The wound closed rapidly. Soon the horse's breathing steadied, and it stayed still, as if aware it was being healed.
'Done.'
When the injury was completely sealed, Simon finished by splashing on some potion for show and stood up.
"I think this horse can run."
He said.
Dick and Maelyn rushed over with a "Really?" Seiyur joined them, his jaw dropping when he saw the healed wound.
"Hmph, well done, Agent Simon! In fact, when I told you to put it down earlier, it was merely to provoke you into showing your true ability—"
"Yes, yes."
Simon cut in.
Next, he went to check on Sasha.
Maelyn followed, whispering, "Hey, Simon. Don't you think Agent Seiyur's a bit suspicious?"
Simon smiled faintly.
"Suspicious, yes. I think everything you're imagining is probably true."
"Huh?"
He didn't explain further.
Ahead, Sasha was with Kamibarez, her leg already wrapped in bandages from first aid.
"Hello."
Simon greeted.
Sasha flinched and tried to run away.
"Easy."
Simon said, stepping back a few paces before she could.
She dove into Kamibarez's arms, and Kamibarez warmly embraced her, stroking her head.
Maelyn crouched nearby, keeping a bit of distance.
"At least Kami's someone she trusts—that's good."
She said, resting her chin in her hands as she gazed at Kamibarez and Sasha.
Watching the two snuggling together, she smiled as if melting.
"Cute plus cute equals super cute!"
'…What the hell is she talking about.'
Simon crouched beside Maelyn and gave Kamibarez a signal.
Kamibarez acknowledged with a small nod, then said to Sasha,
"If we stay here, someone might attack again. Would you like to come with us?"
Sasha quickly nodded.
"…As long as I can stay with you, I don't care where we go."
* * *
Thankfully, Sasha followed Kamibarez without resistance.
Soon, the five of them boarded the wagon. Dick took the driver's seat, with Simon and Seiyur beside him, while Maelyn, Sasha, and Kamibarez sat in the back.
As Simon and Seiyur discussed their next move, Kamibarez kept talking to Sasha to ease her anxiety.
"Are your parents in the village?"
Sasha shook her head with a blank expression.
"I've never even seen my mom and dad's faces."
She was an orphan.
"Then… do you want to go back to your village, Sasha?"
"I hate the village, it's scary!"
Her reaction was sharp.
"Scary? Who are you afraid of?"
"…The villagers."
Her shoulders trembled, and leaves began to fall from the trees.
Kamibarez quickly pulled her into a tight hug, soothing her.
"Alright, I understand. We won't go to the village."
As she said that, Kamibarez glanced at Simon, who nodded back.
The people of Kelso definitely called Sasha a 'monster'.
A child born with special abilities from birth.
To ordinary people, she could seem no different from a monster, especially someone like Sasha, who couldn't properly control her powers.
This time, Maelyn asked,
"If your mom and dad aren't around, did you live alone in the village?"
Sasha shook her head.
"My godfather came by sometimes."
"Godfather?"
"Mm."
"Who is he?"
"I don't really know. But when I was sick, he helped me. He made the pain go away."
Simon recalled the traces in Sasha's home showing someone had been there—syringes, medicine.
He made a mental note about this "godfather" as well.
'Alright, let's sum this up…'
Sasha was an orphan. Because of the ability she had from birth, the people of Kelso treated her like a monster. That's why she feared returning to the village.
And it seemed that this godfather figure had occasionally stopped by to prevent her powers from going out of control.
'That's enough for now, let's just focus on getting back to Vengeance.'
Simon unfolded a map.
"Agent Seiyur. Let's move like this."
On the way here, the route had been: Vengeance HQ → Sasha's hometown Kelso → Haldun Mountains.
Now, they would go straight from the Haldun Mountains down to the village where Vengeance HQ was located.
There was a forest in between, so monster attacks were a concern, but it was also the best place to avoid pursuit teams or an ambush from the Efnelle Priests.
Simon looked at Seiyur,
"And please contact Vengeance. We don't know when Efnelle will attack, so it's best to ask them to come meet us as near as they can."
Seiyur froze like he had a mouth full of honey, then stammered,
"H-ha ha! I don't think that's a good idea, Agent Simon! Vengeance is busy, so we should handle this ourselves—"
"No way."
Maelyn smiled like she had caught him red-handed.
"You're not going to tell me that the ace agent of Vengeance doesn't even have a communication crystal to contact HQ, are you?"
* * *
—Grrraaaagh!
—Grooohk! Grooohk!
If there was a hell in reality, it might look like this.
In a pond filled with blood, monsters with grotesquely swollen body parts let out cries of agony.
Their numbers reached into the hundreds.
Amid this hell made by rounding up every monster in the mountains, a tall man with orange hair blowing in the wind stood.
His face was mottled like burn scars, and one pupil was faint and cloudy.
Beneath the fluttering priest's robe he wore, an outfit covered in countless cases and utility pouches could be seen.
Inside were syringes, medicines, and all manner of supplies.
"Hopefully this will work."
With no emotion in his voice, the man drove a syringe into a monster's body. One of its fingers swelled hard as stone.
The monster writhed in pain, but the man stood as if its suffering meant nothing to him.
"Rather distasteful."
At the voice from the darkness, the man turned and bowed.
"Laus, ladies."
From the shadows stepped four girls in white Efnelle uniforms, each carrying different weapons.
One of them came forward and spoke.
"You're the commander?"
"Yes. As it happens. My name is Figaro."
"Lilinet."
After the brief exchange of names, the two faced each other.
"Commander, what exactly have you been doing?"
One of the girls behind Lilinet pointed at the monsters' corpses.
"I've been making use of those cursed by the Goddess."
Figaro spoke as if it were nothing. In the Holy Federation, monsters were generally regarded simply as creatures cursed by the Goddess.
Lilinet herself wasn't particularly interested in monsters, so she moved on.
"Let's talk business."
"Yes, first let me brief you on the situation."
Lilinet shrugged.
"Is there really anything to brief? We're just kidnapping Neutral Zone residents with high holiness compatibility."
"The situation has grown more complicated. Keyzen caught the scent and stepped in."
At the name Keyzen, Lilinet's eyes widened, and the girls behind her whispered among themselves.
"Keyzen's side was faster. Because your arrival was delayed, I moved on my own initiative. I hired a local gang to bring the target here."
"Smart move. Did it work?"
"It failed."
Shaking his head, Figaro continued,
"Keyzen caught up and took the girl. By now, they've probably gotten away."
"…Tch."
Lilinet's expression hardened. Figaro went on.
"If Keyzen is involved, she's not just someone with ordinary holiness compatibility. She also has a unique ability, and might even be a candidate for Saint."
"Then let's pursue them immediately."
Lilinet said with rising fervor.
"If Keyzen attacked and took the target, then we'll just attack Keyzen and take her back."
Figaro smiled.
"Are you confident? An entire mercenary gang of over thirty was wiped out."
"A fight between Keyzen and Efnelle is inevitable. And besides—"
Lilinet's lips curved upward.
"No necromancer from Keyzen could ever stand against us from Efnelle."