"Ah.. Is it really safe to just leave him at our room..? I should've at least tied up his feet…"
"You should stop thinking about that guy. Innocent till proven guilty is the standard you know? That person's corpse is still being examined."
Serena responded to Kevin's grumbling with the same words she had been repeating since they left the hotel room.
"Don't stop him, it's fun. He keeps coming up with more and more ideas to keep that guy "safe" at our room I want to see what else he can come up with"
Saoirse slung her hand around Serena's shoulder as they continued walking. She then turned her head to Azreal
"But Azreal.. you sure it's fine to not reveal our identity to the authorities at the very least..? If we revealed it we'd have a chance to examine the body and learn of possible suspects"
Azreal continued walking forward with his hands in his pocket
"Like I said earlier, the authorities here aren't exactly trust-worthy. There has been more and more cases of disappearance since last year but they've just alerted the Prince? Let alone the bureau?"
"So we should go ask the locals right? That's definitely not conspicuous either.."
Elijah said sarcastically as he adjusted the string on his bag.
The five of them were carrying bags, containing some supplies and their weapons.
Normally, it'd make more sense to have their weapon in a scabbard but carrying a weapon around this town seems like a fine way to get reported to the authorities.
At least..
That is how it should be
Azreal scanned the surroundings, around them were a bunch of Mecernaries.
"It looks like there's more mercenaries than before, doesn't it Kevin?"
"It does, it makes me wonder why there's so much"
The mercenaries were drinking beers, hoarding seats at the shop and what else. It seemed like they weren't paying attention to them, but they all felt out of place in a town like this.
'Why where there so much mecernaries here in this small town?'
This thought was plaguing Azreal, but he left it alone.
"Let's head to the area the demonic creatures were last spotted."
***
As the five of them headed to the forest, there was still a nagging thought in the back of Elijah's mind
Who is Zaire? Why were his eyes glowing? And…
Why does he want to be friends?
Elijah knew he shouldn't get close, he knew he shouldn't be curious but…
He couldn't control it.
Normally, he could care less about strangers, but…
"Let's be friends!"
That guy specifically remained in his mind.
He was brought out of his thoughts by azreal's voice
"We should take out our weapons now"
From his bag, Azreal took out a falx, saoirse a sword, Kevin a hammer with a dagger sheathed at his waist and Serena, her gauntlets.
Elijah took out his sword and sheathe from his bag, placing his sheathe around his waist.
"Are we near the area where demons were last seen?" Walking up to Azreal, Elijah asked.
"Yep,let's scout our surroundings now"
For the next hour, They walked around, finding occasional footprints on the floor and maybe some animals, but nothing else.
"for an area that is supposed to have demonic creatures present, there is not a single sign of life"
Kevin complained as he sat down.wiping his sweat with his shirt.
"Yea.. there's not even animals, it's strange."
Serena put her chin on her hand as she leaned on a tree.
"Maybe the mecernaries took care of them? If so~ we should just head back!"
Kevin suggested, wanting to quickly go back to the hotel room.
Azreal looked around before his gaze landed on his four comrades already sitting down.
Elijah was quietly squatting against some tree, sitting on air for some reason. Kevin was laying next to Elijah in the shade, complimenting Elijah with words such as "excellent pose!"
Meanwhile the two girls, Serena and saoirse, were sitting under the shade. At the very least, they seemed to be discussing about their mission.
He held in his sigh as he walked forwards them
"Serena,as the apostle of law, do you have any thoughts?"
He squatted down next to Serena, who was laying out her gauntlets to lay on
"There has definitely been demonic creatures, otherwise there would be wild animals. Though it's possible that the mecernaries may have hunted them. But.there is one strange part"
"And that is?"
"The citizens and the mecernaries. Why are there so much mecernaries here? They all look to be pretty strong too. This place can't possibly have that much money to ask for this much mecernaries. Not only that, most mecernaries are subpar and often, open to crime."
"Hmm…"
Azreal sat down in thought next to Serena, who was drinking cold water given to her by Saoirse.
"Say.."
"?"
"?"
The two of them looked at saoirse as she spoke up
"Don't you think the mecernaries were staring at us?"
".. what do you mean?"
Azreal asked with a perplexed expression.
Saoirse untied her hair as she continued speaking
"When we walked around the plaza, there were gazes on us, staring at us like we were wild animals no? To me… it felt more malicious"
"Malicious…"
Azreal's expression crumpled slightly
"This mission seems above us. If those are our enemies, we are severely outmatched-"
They all heard a thunderous roar from their side.
The five immediately sprung up, holding their weapons as footsteps got closer to them
Walking out, a bunch of demonic creatures and demonoids appeared
"…shit"
Way too much
"Run!"
Elijah immediately starting dashing with Kevin, the other 3 followed suit.
***
I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.
Once again, I didn't have a dream. Looking at the time, it was about 1pm.
'I woke up pretty late today'
Well, that was probably because I slept at 5.
I stood up, looking around my surroundings
'They're not here'
Putting divinity in my eye, I looked at the past
My skin turned slightly paler as I held in a headache
'Am I using too much divinity these days…?'
I put my handcuffed hands on the table and let my hands rest on them.
Normally, I'd avoid the after effects by using the clock, but I was handcuffed and couldn't reach it, not that I could use mana to activate it anyway.
'Whatever, I should catch up to them'
I stood up, ignoring the headache and headed out of the room, placing divinity in my eyes to follow their traces