Volume 4 Chapter 10.2

Volume 4 Chapter 10.2

「It’s here, then？」

As Hiroshi and the others were progressing with their little “game”, Rainy (fully restored) tracked down the road to Elza Main Temple, beginning the search. It had been a week since she was incapacitated from spy duties, the break taking effect when she accepted her recent funding.

（……Something’s clearly off about this area……）

After walking five minutes to the narrow path leading to the trail, Rainy noticed the subtle shift in the atmosphere; a feeling of brutality that she couldn’t quite place. This sensation was probably new to Rainy because she had been in that environment for so long as an assassin. When she was summoned to the embassy this morning, they had given her (courtesy of Aearis) things like talismans and miasma counters, and at this moment they were displaying odd signals.

That was totally fine. She had anticipated this after all. The real problem was……

（Weird. Aearis-sama’s tools are displaying crazy readings, but the miasma leak is too small）

Rainy frowned at the disparity between the miasma counter digits and her own intuition. If the numbers were correct, then even an amateur like her should sense something, but even with the tense air, the presence of miasma was so faint she could hardly tell. Normally you’d doubt the machinery in this case, and normal priests would almost certainly do so.

Although amateurs or people thoroughly out of the loop wouldn’t get it, Rainy, who was a resident of the boundary of both worlds, was able to tell there was a clear abnormality in the air. In this case, she needed to doubt not the machinery, but her own intuition.

（……It’s probably a trap from there on……）

Setting her eyes on the area the miasma counter indicated with a severe warning sound, Rainy thought carefully about what she should do. She didn’t think any of the people out of contact would have disappeared in this area. But there was definitely something up here.

（The main source of this is probably further ahead, and there’s a high chance that something might occur here in order to lead to it）

That much was clear, but Rainy had an extremely bad feeling about what kind of trap this might be. Her intuition told her she wouldn’t be able to use the charms on hand. In that case, it would be logical to investigate just what this was, but she probably wouldn’t be coming back if she were to do this. Rainy just felt that to be true, paralyzed with horror.

（……I…had better come back later……）

After five minutes of inner conflict, Rainy decided to throw in the towel and head back. The next moment……

「Mm! I knew it！！」

The trees around her twisted into a dance, the ground turned into slush all at once, and tons of “hands” sprouted out.

「I’d better get back and report this！！」

Jumping high up before the sludge got to her feet and evading the tree branches attempting to grab her with a kick, Rainy yelled out. Cutting the branches off with her knife, Rainy desperately tried to escape while avoiding the ground as much as possible. She nearly got captured several times, her armor completely rupturing with unidentifiable attacks and her lower clothing ripped apart in several areas, a very immodest appearance, before escaping the forest.

You wouldn’t think this exhaustion came from simply running away. Her energy had probably been sucked out of her every time she had a close call. Rainy had at least managed to avoid losing the tools given to her, but returning to her base right now would be quite difficult. Besides, she should tell Hiroshi and the others first.

（I shouldn’t go around the city looking like this……）

Although Rainy didn’t have much shame in that area, her instincts as a spy and an assassin convinced her it was a bad idea to walk around town in such a crude appearance. However, she did not currently have a cloak in her possession to hide this fact, which only left one option: thoroughly erase her presence and go along a route that no one usually went down to get to Hiroshi’s base. Thankfully, the base was closer to her relative location and on the outskirts of town, so there were plenty of those kinds of routes.

In order to report what she was obligated to, as well as to seek additional help from her beloved Deary, Rainy erased any traces of herself and carefully made her way back.

「Are you still continuing that project in a situation like this？」

After she lay the downed Rainy on the bed and sat down at the briefing table, that was the very first thing Haruna asked.

「Sure, we’re in a bit of a pinch, but there’s a lil problem that came up, mate」

「What problem？」

「I think we ain’t gonna make progress till the temple people, Elle ‘n Artiem come over here」

Haruna seemed half convinced, half dissatisfied at Hiroshi’s statement, and it showed in her eyes. On the other hand, Tatsuya and Makoto seemed to be against rushing in with this half baked information, slightly relieved at hearing that Aearis and Artiem needed to arrive first.

「Dark god fragments rampagin’ around, Crest Cave Mine’s a dungeon, flashy stuff like that is goin’ on, so I don’t think they’re havin’ that good of a time. So although I do think we needa hurry up, it’s just plain idiotic to go rushin’ into what we know’s a trap, y’all.」

「Well yeah, that’s true, but……」

「Plus from what Rainy tells me, it sounds likeElle ‘n Artiem’re gettin’ ready over there, so it’s a fool’s game to charge in ‘n make their efforts pointless.」

「……」

Even Hiroshi, who was usually the one to charge on in, admonished Haruna, who decided to just suppress her discontent.

「So when will Elle and Artiem be coming over here？」

「I don’t think y’all gonna know until ya hear from ‘em, but thinkin’ of the car’s speed ‘n all that, maybe earliest when the tournament ends?」

「That sounds about right」

Tatsuya immediately agreed as he considered the distance from Wulls to Forre. Even in the case of using transportation circles to cross the borders for shortcuts, they would take three days to arrive.

「Wazzup Haruna? Ya look like yer about to fall forward.」

「Yeah. This time you seem to be discontent with the idea of not moving to action.」