As white light points floated from Jingxin and Shazi's bodies, the overly tempting scent on this mountain for Keli and Kazuma finally completely dissipated.
Here, there might still be people hiding, but there were definitely no Corpse Demons left.
Keli and Kazuma gathered everyone and announced their last crucial task as rebels.
"If they have support or have severed ties, they will definitely surround the village to prevent us from leaving! Perhaps the opponents will be professional Yakuza, or even the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, but what we need to do is escape from here, pick up the weapons collected from the mountain, and break out!"
"Good!!"
About 50 people around them let out a thunderous cheer.
"Then! Let's go!" Keli waved his hand, and everyone descended the mountain.
They decided to break out through one route first, and then everyone would split up and run towards the city.
However, before they left, some people stopped Keli.
"That! Thank you so much for saving us, may I ask… how can we thank you?"
Kazuma waved his hand at the person who asked.
"As long as you don't spread our story everywhere, that's thanks enough."
Keli and Kazuma both knew that many people here had witnessed their miraculous regeneration, and if they got out or were caught by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, they might talk indiscriminately.
Right now, everyone seemed united, but once they separated, it would be hard to say.
If they wanted to maximize their benefits, they would, of course, kill everyone who knew about their special abilities.
However, they would not do that.
Or rather, people who would do that, why would they come to this mountain in the first place?
Waving their hands, everyone gathered and rushed down the mountain.
...
At this moment, inside a civilian residence, Gotō Hitori was trembling.
Her mind replayed Keli's words; he had told her to make a bigger fuss if she didn't see him by night.
But she really, really wanted to open YouTube and start talking right now; she was so worried, so worried about the safety of her parents and sister.
In this house, with no living people, only a few corpses accompanying her, her throat was already dry and hoarse from crying.
She found a knife and placed it by her hand, but she didn't know if she would have the resolve to pick up a weapon if an enemy attacked.
She felt a bit foolish; for her safety, she should have immediately thought of a solution, but she didn't take any action.
That person's meaning seemed to be that he was going up the mountain to do something, was it to save people or… Gotō Hitori didn't have the courage to ask clearly at the time.
Even if that person seemed to have indeed survived a seemingly certain death situation, and had a companion.
Gotō Hitori also felt that it was too unrealistic for them to go trouble those villagers; they had guns, and they had so many people.
But an unrealistic, ethereal, and illusory hope arose within her.
What if… what if he really succeeded?
What if he really brought her mom, dad, and sister down the mountain?
Even though she knew it was impossible, she still held onto this fantasy.
Like gazing at the fleeting shadow of the moon in the water, in this country where believers make up more than half of the total population, she had no particular faith, but at this moment, she prayed sincerely, praying for a turning point from heaven, praying for a miracle that couldn't possibly happen.
Praying for some miracle that transcends her ideals and shatters her understanding to occur.
And not, not for her to face the cold reality and this sorrowful future.
However, no matter how much she yearned within, reality never seemed to produce miracles.
The sky grew darker, the sun set, and she had only drunk a little water all day, and hadn't slept for a minute since last night.
Her heart, along with the gradually dimming sun, the red glow, and the unextinguished fire that stained everything outside the window, sank little by little.
"Knock, knock, knock!" The door was knocked, it was the front door, the door on the first floor!
Gotō Hitori, who was by the window on the second floor, trembled all over. Who was it?
Was it the villagers here or…
"Yili! Yili! Are you okay! Yili!"
"Mom!" Hearing that familiar voice, the string in Gotō Hitori's mind completely snapped; she didn't even have time for wild joy, fearing it was her own auditory hallucination.
Using her hands and feet, Gotō Hitori burst out with the fastest speed of her life, scrambling down the stairs; she fell once on the first floor but immediately got up again, rushing to the entrance where Keli had left a corpse, and opened the door.
Seeing the anxious and haggard faces of her family, Gotō Hitori rushed forward without a care.
And Goto Naoki, the middle-aged man who usually cared about what others thought, also disregarded the many people around him and embraced his daughter, weeping bitterly.
All these people around had heard that his daughter was still down the mountain and had come to help prevent anything from happening; another group of people had already started running ahead on the road.
"Let's go! If we fall behind, we might not be able to break out." Gotō Hitori, crying in her parents' arms with her sister, heard the voice she had often heard these past few days.
Gotō Hitori looked up and saw the person who had told her to hide in the house earlier.
He was waving his hand, signaling to the people around to leave with them.
"Alright, Yili, it's important to get out now." Goto Naoki stroked his daughter's head.
"We really have to thank Shimura-kun this time; if it weren't for him bringing Sato-kun along, we wouldn't have made it out alive."
Gotō Hitori then noticed that her father actually had a hunting rifle in his hand.
And her father's gaze towards that direction seemed to carry a light she had never seen before—a strange excitement and fanaticism, yet it didn't seem to be worship.
Everyone gathered on the road, put some disabled people and children into the few intact cars at the back, and together they rushed towards Matsubushi!
...
Three days later, Arakawa Ward, Tokyo, under the Arakawa Bridge.
The village chief watched as two people, with sacks over their heads, leaving only two holes to see outside, took off their hoods.
"I… I thought I would die of exhaustion! I already said, we should just run, but you still wanted to go to Matsubushi to 'cut the grass by the roots' and wipe out their entire territory, including the external connections!"
Even after sitting down for five minutes, Kazuma only just started to catch his first breath.
Keli also waved his hands repeatedly.
"Phew! No choice, even without Corpse Demons, those people would only continue to engage in human trafficking if they lived. By the way, Kappa, is your soup ready?"
A "well" character seemed to appear on the village chief's forehead.
He had never expected that these two bastards, pursued by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department all the way, would unhesitatingly hide with him, forcing him to deal with this matter.
However, the village chief still didn't retort Keli, but continued to cook the fish soup.
Recalling the news he heard from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department liaison, he felt a series of shocks.
"You two certainly caused a big stir; the New Township incident is probably going to be reported nationwide in a few days. Many people from the Ritsumin Party were involved this time, and a large number of them are likely to be purged. They might even lose their eligibility for re-election next year."
--+--
T/N: Although I'm an inexperienced Editor, I do have a Patreon account! Although it seems like I don't have many supporters right now, my webnovel will be released in full every day, and the advanced chapters will be uploaded to Patreon.
It may not be worth it now, but who knows, it might be different in the future. Who knows!
patreon.com/Greyhounds
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