Ch.195[Episode 195] Unexpected Connection

“This is perfect timing. I saw people who said they came from the same place as Sir Dominic.”

Konga said to Sir Dominic while dusting himself off.

Since Konga’s memory wasn’t particularly good, he thought it best to mention it while he still remembered.

“!”

Sir Dominic looked surprised at Konga’s words.

Calculating the time since Konga had disappeared and reappeared, it meant that visitors from Ferallant were not far away.

“Where are they?”

Sir Dominic urgently asked Konga.

In response, Konga stretched out his hand and pointed in one direction.

The direction from which Konga had come running in a straight line, pushing buildings aside.

“Over there.”

However, restoration work was already well underway in that area.

Going in a straight line would be a short distance, but with repairs already in progress, they might need to take a detour.

“Thank you.”

But for Sir Dominic, that wasn’t important at all.

What mattered was that people from Ferallant were in that direction.

After thanking Konga, Sir Dominic hurriedly ran in the direction Konga had pointed.

Fortunately, he could still jump across two alleys that hadn’t been fully restored yet.

“…Couldn’t he just take an airship?”

Konga muttered questioningly as he watched Sir Dominic running away at full speed.

But Sir Dominic was currently completely focused on finding the visitors from Ferallant, with no room for other thoughts.

It was truly knight-like concentration.

Not knowing this fact, Konga just thought Sir Dominic seemed a bit slow-witted.

…

“Oh dear, this is a problem.”

“The path is blocked…”

Arkus and Ogreson were following the path Konga had taken.

Although it had been quite some time since Konga disappeared, they could precisely follow his route.

Since Konga had moved along the fastest path by pushing buildings aside, they just needed to follow the collapsed buildings.

But that path had just been blocked.

The buildings had begun to restore themselves, blocking the way.

“Truly this is the Hall of Warriors. Nothing here is ordinary.”

Since he had never seen or heard of buildings healing their own wounds as if they were alive, Arkus firmly reinforced his belief that this was the Hall of Warriors.

“This is no time for such talk. We’re about to lose our way.”

Ogreson’s face, already scrunched toward the center, scrunched even more.

Until just now, they could at least see the direction of the main road, but with buildings blocking their view, the narrow alleys had turned into a maze.

“Don’t worry. Clerics always have prayer as an option.”

Arkus knelt down with a pious expression.

Then he clasped his hands together, looked up at the sky, and closed his eyes.

“Great White Raven, I know that your two servants watch over the eight worlds. Guide us to the right path with your vague yet immense wisdom…”

“…Is that correct? It sounds a bit different from last time.”

“Shh. Just because someone’s a cleric doesn’t mean they memorize all prayers. They just pretend to.”

Arkus’s words weren’t appropriate for a bishop, but it was a fact they all tacitly acknowledged.

Regardless of the somewhat messy prayer, it seemed to work properly as two white ravens made of spiritual energy appeared and crossed the sky.

One began flying in a zigzag pattern across the sky, while the other started circling in one spot.

Ogreson was familiar with this prayer from seeing Arkus use it often, so he knew what the two ravens signified.

The zigzagging raven showed the path to take, while the circling raven indicated the destination.

“By the way, what exactly did you set as our destination?”

Ogreson prepared to move, habitually shouldering his greatsword.

“I asked it to find people from Ferallant.”

Arkus readjusted his bishop’s hat, which was sliding down with his cold sweat.

Already skeletal-looking, Bishop Arkus looked even more gaunt, as if his skin might separate from his bones with the slightest pull.

Of course, this also meant he had very little flesh.

“This prayer always makes me crave meat and bread,” Bishop Arkus grumbled.

“People from Ferallant. If this is the afterlife, there must be many from Ferallant. It would have been better if you had specifically asked for Sir Dominic…”

Ogreson said while supporting the staggering Bishop Arkus with one hand.

“But if I ask too specifically, I can’t endure it,” the bishop grumbled.

“Do you know how much mental energy this consumes? It’s only because my faith is deep that I can manage it. If some mediocre bishop tried this, they’d faint immediately. Not that I’m targeting Bishop Vincent, but Bishop Vincent needs to be more humble—”

“Enough, enough! Let’s get moving. Whether we find Sir Dominic or not, let’s at least get to the main road. If we meet people, we’ll figure something out.”

Ogreson quickly changed the subject, not wanting to hear any more of the bishop’s complaints.

Ogreson moved first, following the white raven’s guidance.

Bishop Arkus, barely walking on trembling legs, caught up with the slowly walking Ogreson.

The white ravens were leading them to someone from Ferallant.

…

Sir Dominic ran through alley after alley.

Then suddenly, a thought struck him, and he stopped abruptly.

“…So how am I supposed to identify these people from Ferallant?”

Sir Dominic fell into deep thought.

He thought he had found a clue, but it was actually a trap.

He had only heard about people from Ferallant, but didn’t know what they looked like or where they were going.

More precisely, he only knew that people from Ferallant definitely existed in Gacharland, but knew nothing else.

Sir Dominic wore a troubled expression.

“I should at least go to where these traces end.”

Still, Sir Dominic didn’t lose hope.

It was an optimistic belief that if he followed Konga’s trail to its end, he might find new traces of them.

Fortunately, the trail Konga had made hadn’t completely disappeared yet, so Sir Dominic continued following it.

And finally, he found the very first trace that Konga had made.

Though for Sir Dominic, it was the end of the trail.

“This place…”

Sir Dominic looked around.

It was a common alley scene.

Wondering if there would really be traces of visitors from Ferallant in such a place, Sir Dominic began to examine the alley carefully.

“Oh, my head…”

Then he found a middle-aged man still holding his ringing head, barely maintaining consciousness.

“I remember ordering delivery food for lunch, but why is lunch time already over?”

The middle-aged man was wearing a security guard uniform, and due to his brief unconsciousness, a chunk of his memory seemed to be missing.

Sir Dominic approached him, thinking he might have seen the people from Ferallant.

“Excuse me. Have you seen any people around here?”

“Huh?”

The guard was startled by Sir Dominic’s approach and became wary, but his guard dropped when Sir Dominic offered him a cookie.

His wariness decreased from “suspicious person” to “suspicious person who gives food.”

“People, you say. Yes, I saw some.”

The guard, recognizing that this cookie was an expensive one from a café on the main street, completely dropped his guard.

It was sufficient as a bribe.

“I don’t know what group of people you’re looking for, but there were two groups here.”

The guard began explaining the situation with large arm gestures.

“There, there, and there in the alley, the usual alley thugs appeared, and right here, right here were two people.”

“Two people?”

Sir Dominic leaned forward, sensing this might be important information.

“One looked like a cleric and one like a swordsman. The cleric was so skinny he looked like a walking skeleton, and the swordsman looked like an ogre, wearing flashy clothes and carrying a greatsword on his shoulder.”

“Were there any emblems or anything like that? A white raven, perhaps?”

Sir Dominic had his suspicions but needed more concrete evidence.

“Well… suddenly the building collapsed… or did it collapse? I can’t remember. Why is that?”

The guard clutched his head in pain, unable to recall.

It seemed the guard’s condition wasn’t good enough to ask more questions.

“I’m sorry. I seem to have asked too much. Excuse me.”

As Sir Dominic was about to turn away to look for other evidence, seeing the guard’s condition—

“That’s right! There was a white raven! There was a white raven!”

Sir Dominic quickly turned back to look at the guard.

“Really?”

“Of course! Absolutely! It was drawn on the cleric’s hat and on the mercenary’s breastplate!”

The guard pointed to the sky as he continued.

“There are some right there too! Two of them!”

Sir Dominic looked in the direction the guard was pointing.

There were two translucent white ravens flying there.

“Two white ravens…”

Sir Dominic smiled brightly as he watched the two ravens.

A new clue had appeared.