The two moons were already high in the sky, and the night already running deep, when Yugo passed through the doors of the town hall.
Once in front of Karlen's residence, the guards greeted him, saying that the mayor was already waiting for him and was worried, in that he hadn't seen him yet.
They led Yugo inside, where he found the mayor and his wife sitting in the small lounge in which they had received him earlier.
As the mayor saw Yugo at the door, he stood up and went to welcome him back.
"Ah, young master, you're here!"
Sensing from the heavy atmosphere in the room that something was off, and he himself having a string of questions running through his head,Yugo stepped in and answered.
"Yes. Sorry to have worried you."
"Not at all."
The mayor looked at Yugo's damaged equipment and took on a slightly morbid expression when he saw the arm in a splint and the end of the bandage visible through a hole in the Reaper's torn shirt.
"You're injured! I hope it's not too serious?!' he said, fidgeting in a visible panic.
Yugo, who was beginning to find all of his detours suspicious, decided to get straight to the point.
"Yes, I've got a few cracked ribs, a torn leg and a broken arm, but I'll be fine. However, let's stop beating around the bush and get to the main reason I'm here."
Karlen took out his red handkerchief and wiped his forehead, then nodded.
"A-All right! Please take a seat. Darling, could you bring some tea, please?"
Starring strangely at Yugo for a few seconds, Aleone quietly nodded and did as told, without even a noise coming out her mouth.
He watched her get out of the room and shifted his gaze back towards Karlen who, as soon as he noticed it, darted his eyes around.
'I swear, they're too suspicious. He's not even able to hide it!'
Yugo sighed.
"I think discussing all this over a nice cup of tea would be beneficial for us." finally said the mayor with an awkward smile, after a few seconds had passed.
Then, he wiped his forehead again with his handkerchief.
"I hope you don't mind." he continued
Yugo looked at him suspiciously once more, without a word, and the mayor, taking note of that, looked away so as not to meet the emissary's gaze.
'These people are hiding something... or at least they're trying to. It's obvious for the mayor...'
Turning his head toward the exterior of the room, Yugo narrowed his eyes, and glared at the door, as if someone was standing in front of it.
'...But the one I should be careful of, is the woman!'
Nevertheless, he had to put them at ease if he wanted to find out more.
Yugo finally sighed and then grunted, raising his eyebrows and shoulders, to express his lack of particular interest in tea.
At that very moment, Aleone returned, accompanied by a maid holding a tray with cups of tea and a kettle on it.
However, The mayor's wife served the tea herself, while the maid simply stood there, holding the tray. After that, she motioned to the servant, to place the tray on the nearby chest of drawers and leave, which the maid did.
Taking her cup of tea in her thin hands, Aleone raised it to her mouth level and sipped a little of the contents, followed by her husband.
Yugo also lifted his cup and brought it to his lips, intending to drink the seemingly refreshing beverage.
But he stopped at the last moment.
'I knew it!'
The smell of his tea was a little stronger than it should have been. A bit too strong even.
'They put something in my cup, huh!
He quickly circulated a little bit of his Kilith, which he maintained as much as possible, and finally drank the tea. But at the same time, he immediately released his internal energy, letting it flow through his whole body and reaching the deepest parts of his physic, to which he applied a reinforcement.
'Whatever their motive for doing this is, I'll find out. I simply have to follow their whim.'
Gulping a good level of the apparently drugged tea for a moment, he placed the half-empty cup on the coffee table and exhaled. All of this act was executed and calculated to let them know, or at least let them believe, he had ingested whatever product had been put in his drink.
Aleone, seeing that the contents of the cup had indeed decreased, sighed with relief, her face relaxing all the tensed muscles that composed it.
She nudged her husband twice with her elbow, to which he nodded discreetly.
Karlen then spoke up.
"Good. Now that we've had a chance to quench our thirst a little, I'd like to hear your account of what hap-"
"Before that, can you explain to me why the barrier that was supposed to protect the city failed in its mission?" rapidly interrupted Yugo.
The mayor, taken aback, stammered a little and tried to reply.
"Um... Well... It turns out that... Uh..."
"The incanters who were supposed to carry it out, had a... problem." Aleone interjected.
Yugo shifted his gaze towards her.
'A problem, huh. And what was that, if I may ask?'
The mayor and his wife exchanged glances, clearly undecided, then he nodded to his spouse.
She sighed, shaking her head as she did so, and spoke up.
"Three of the nine members of the incantation circle were found dead a short time before the attack. And by the time we found more of them, it was already too late. We don't even know if there are other casualties among them, for now."
"Dead?! How is that possible?" Yugo asked, baffled by such a statement.
"Well...The investigation is still ongoing, but our current suspicions point to–"
She paused, hesitant to say what she was thinking.
Understanding that this was the cause of all the commotion, Yugo applied a Kilith barrier, similar to the one used during his fight against the Negacion. The mayor and his wife were a little surprised by the barrier, but the reaper waved his hand to indicate that everything was fine.
"Go ahead, say everything you know. This barrier is soundproof and highly resistant to external attacks." he added.
Reassured by the gesture of their interlocutor, Aleone and the mayor calmed down a little, then she continued.
"Um... as I was saying, we are currently conducting investigations, and for the moment, our suspicions are turning towards the cathedral and the clergy who reside there."
"The cathedral? Why do you think that?" replied Yugo, rather surprised by this hypothesis.
"It's quite simple, actually. Since they closed the doors of the building, several witnesses claim to have heard screams coming from inside. And one of the employees in charge of cleaning the high stained-glass windows even affirmed to have seen a rather large figure. But he thought it was just a shadow cast by the light from the chandeliers and candles." Aleone answered.
"I see... But that isn't enough of a reason to be suspicious of the church!"
"Well, apart from that, they've been trying to distribute leaflets and flyers on which it was written a so-called 'prophecy' of the doom of our city, retelling the one of the ancient city, that is said to have been located around where the ruins of the floating gardens now are, and on which the legend of St. Meroa is based."
"Still... That does not completely explain the involvement of the cathedral." Insisted Yugo.
"I'm coming to it... Recently, one of the patrolling officers said they spotted a small group of suspicious people around the barrier dome installations, but when they tried to call them out, they ran away, leaving behind only a starry cross that had fallen to the ground.
"Oh I see ! That plus the leaflets is what led to these suspicions, right ?!"
"Yes, young master."
She drank a little bit of tea, and continued.
"These leaflets also stated that the 'arrival of the gods' is near, and that the believers of this city should repent themselves, by following the church's preaching. Otherwise, they would be cleansed of all evil by divine force."
"Do you, per chance, have one of said leaflets?"
The woman took one out of the pile of documents laying on the coffee table, and handed it to the young man.
Thoroughly examining the paper for a few seconds, Yugo made a mental note of what he saw, then immersed himself in his thoughts for a brief moment.
"Okay, now I get it. But why didn't you tell me about it when I came by earlier?"
At that moment, the mayor took over.
"We had no idea that what was happening with the cathedral could really endanger the safety of the city and its citizens, let alone be responsible for the failure of the barrier..."
He gulped his tea and took a deep breath.
"...So, we didn't find it worth mentioning. It was certainly negligence on our part, but we would never even have thought much of it, without the current situation." He continued.
Yugo sighed.
"Is it also the reason why the knight's order didn't help to deal with the monster?"
"Well... For now, we don't have.. uh... an exact answer. But it's safe to assumed they obeyed the church, as our request to dispatch troops never came with... um... a response. Plus, it is widely known that the knights have a tight bond with the church, especially here in the county of Merina, where a lot of knights are... uh... fervent believers of the faith of the Il-Naearâd..."
He took another sip of his tea, which he gulped loudly.
"...T-Though, until now we had thought it was because of a misunderstanding with said request."
"All right. I understand better now..." said Yugo, his head lowered, and his eyes closed.
Hearing that, the mayor's face lit up a little.
"...Is that also why you tried to drug me?" Yugo abruptly asked, without giving them a moment's respite.
They stiffened.
Exchanging quick glances with his wife, who was also visibly panicking, even trembling, Karlen fidgeted, unable to answer.
After a few seconds without a response, Aleone finally confessed.
"Y-Yes! But don't misunderstand, young master... It was only to... be sure of your reaction."
"Huh? My reaction? I don't understand!" exclaimed Yugo.
"W-Well, when you left, we made direct contact with the Scythe Agency director, about our deal regarding the creature's crystal core."
"And? What does that have to do with this matter?" Yugo replied, still confused.
Karlen spoke, a veil of panic covering his tensed face.
"Um... Uh... First, you told us you would contact him and the rest of the board, yourself. But... uh... we overlooked your decision and acted on our own. And also..."
He gulped.
"He told us how surprising it was, coming from you, given your... case. He especially kept emphasising that you take everything related to the Negaciones extremely seriously... And how you've always been very quick to overreact on this subject."
'That old fool! He opened his mouth again when he shouldn't have!' Yugo thought with an irritation, as he sighed through his clenched teeth.
"Fine! I get it now! Don't worry..."
He showed them his broken arm.
"...Besides, in my current state, I couldn't have done anything at all even if I wanted to! And I'm not the kind who would attack people, based on what they think about Negaciones... I guess." he added.
The couple sighed with great relief, knowing that the rest of their days weren't numbered, or even just about to be spent in some prison for treason as a motive.
"Okay. Now it's my turn to tell you what I know."
Karlen and Aleone sat up with interest, eager to know what had happened.
Yugo watched them for a moment, keeping the pair in suspense so as to capture their full attention.
He even drank a bit of the drugged tea, under the impatient gaze of the two people.
Once he was sure he had them hooked, he put down the cup and recounted what had happened. Taking his time to explain the unusual difficulty he'd had in purifying the Negacion, he made a clear point in stating the fact that, this one was a bit too gigantic, even for a Basura type — all of this while omitting, of course, the fact that much of his current condition was also probably due to the hunger he had been enduring since morning.
"Basically, what I'm trying to say is... among the known classification of Negaciones, the bigger ones, the Basuras, like the one I purified, are generally in between three to five and a half metres tall. Even the rarest and largest species observed until now, do not reach more than that in height..."
He paused for a moment.
"But the one I fought tonight, was around six or seven metres at first glance, maybe more. It felt like I was fighting a house, or a small building. Plus, its movements were abnormally fast for such a massive creature, and it kind of knew what it was doing, whereas its peers are generally slow and completely mindless..."
Yugo stopped for a moment, leaving the time for what he had just said, to sink deep into the mind of his interlocutors.
And it did so.
The news of an exceptionally tall and dangerous Basura, sent a shiver down the spine of the couple.
"...Oh and also, as you and I know, Negaciones are generally in a shade verging on dark purple or dark blue right ?... But that one was entirely pure black." Yugo added
Hearing that, Karlen nearly fainted.
"What does that mean ?!" asked Aleone, her limbs trembling at the sole idea that a creature like that was roaming the streets of their city and had caused this catastrophe.
In her head, a thread of horrible, disgusting, imaginary events that could have supposedly taken place, was unravelling. As it did so, a primal fear engraved itself in every fiber of her skin.
"I'm not sure myself, but from my current investigations, I feel like this Negacion was some sort of...."
Yugo paused again, unsure if what he was about to say was even reasonable.
He shook his head, resolved to share his thoughts.
"...Some sort of genetically modified Negacion... If that's even possible."
Feeling her strength leaving her body,Aleone nearly collapsed and leaned back abruptly in her chair.
"What the hell is happening?" she blurted out in a shaking breath.
"Again... It is just a mere speculation for now, as I need more evidence, so don't get too hung up on that hypothesis!" Yugo added, to put them both back in a shimmer of ease.
After that, he took the monster's crystal core out of the bag and placed it on the table.
The bright, purple, radiance of the crystal dazzled the table, influenced by the light emanating from the barrier — still active.
As they saw the crystal, Karlen and his wife marvelled at it, regaining a semblance of light on their faces.
"With this, we should be fine!" exclaimed the mayor.
Aleone nodded while smiling, her face gleaming with clear relief, and lit up by the radiance of the crystal.
Yugo exhaled and deactivated the barrier.
At the same time, his earpiece began to beep.
"Yes, Lucile! Do you have any news?"
[Yes, I do. I conducted a complete analysis of the images you sent me and know more about the intel you gave, and also about the mention of the—]
As he was talking to Lucile, one of the guards entered the room in a panic.
"Mr Mayor, we have an emergency!"
"What's going on?" asked Karlen, confused.
"W-Well... it's the bishop. He's at the gates of the town hall, accompanied by a small group of clergymen!"
"Okay! I understand. Take them to the town hall reception room then!"
"No! The problem is, they're armed!"
"Armed?!" exclaimed Aleone.
At that moment, Yugo cut off his communication.
"Mayor, I think you were right about them!" he said gravely.
"What?! What do you mean?"
"They are indeed involved in tonight's attack!" replied Yugo, who himself was also starting to become alarmed a little.
No sooner had he finished speaking than the floor of the outbuilding began to shake, not vigorously, but just enough to startle everyone.
At that moment, Karlen and Aleone's daughter rushed inside the room, and clung to her mother.
"M-Mommy I'm scared!"
The little girl was shaking with visible fright.
Looking at her, Yugo crouched and raised his arm then patted the girl, trying his best to comfort her.
"Don't worry. I'm here to protect all of you ! So be a big girl and stay with your mommy and daddy !"
The sight of this terrified girl made Yugo remember himself at the same age, shaking of fear, the night of the incident where he lost everything.
The ground shook again, stronger this time.
"What's happening?!" asked the mayor, panicked.
Nervously smiling, Yugo gripped the sheath of his sword.
"They're coming!"