Ch.244Chapter 244 – A Matter for Discussion (2)

After parting with Eve, I headed straight to the distribution center and prepared meals for three people.

I made something like a meat porridge by soaking dried jerky in water and heating it, then placed it on plates along with dried fruits. Following Dodo’s guidance, I headed to where Sera, Beatrice, and Asam were located.

Entering a somewhat large building in the village, I found chairs and bundles of paper scattered about in disarray.

‘…Looks like everyone went to eat.’

Originally, dwarf craftsmen were also staying in this building, working with our group to research the convergence point of the Soul-Absorbing Formation.

It seemed the dwarves who were originally here had temporarily left to receive their rations since it was mealtime.

As I went further inside, I saw two familiar figures.

“So… this property…”

“…That would be too broad…”

Sera and Beatrice were discussing something with each other.

I couldn’t hear the exact content, but I could immediately tell that the two were deeply engrossed in their research.

And then Sera, who had been actively conversing, suddenly stopped and looked in my direction.

“Oh, Mr. Kay?”

“Good morning.”

Only then did Beatrice notice me, stopping mid-sentence and looking at me with slightly widened eyes.

“What’s that?”

“Breakfast. Eating properly should help you think better, don’t you think?”

As I said this and placed the tray in front of them, Sera and Beatrice looked at me with slightly surprised eyes.

Then Sera smiled and said:

“Thank you so much, Mr. Kay.”

“It’s nothing. Sorry I couldn’t bring anything better.”

At my words, Sera looked at the menu and smiled.

“I’m grateful just for you bringing it.”

And Beatrice said to me with a playful expression:

“This isn’t all, is it? If you’ve got some hidden snacks, you’d better hand them over.”

“Should I confiscate yours? Would you like some drug-soaked biscuits?”

Beatrice immediately raised both hands.

It was a gesture of surrender.

And seeing Beatrice like this, Sera smiled and said:

“Let’s take a break and eat first. I was definitely feeling like my brain wasn’t working well.”

“Let’s do that. We should wake Asam…”

Beatrice said this while looking at Asam, who was curled up asleep in a corner of the research room.

She paused for a moment, looked at me and Sera, then smiled and said:

“…I’ll go have a smoke. Let’s let him sleep just a little longer until then.”

“Oh, but…”

“You two can chat for a bit until then.”

With those final words, Beatrice grabbed her cigarettes and strode outside, making it clear she wouldn’t listen to any objections.

As I stared blankly at Beatrice’s retreating figure, I heard Sera’s voice softly:

“She’s being considerate.”

“You think so?”

When I immediately asked Sera, she quickly smiled and waved her hands dismissively.

After rolling her eyes for a moment, she gently asked me:

“…What are your plans for today, Mr. Kay?”

“Right now, I’m thinking it would be good to secure the safety of the village surroundings…”

In truth, since Sera’s research needed to be completed before we could proceed with our next actions, there wasn’t much I could do immediately.

For now, securing this village’s safety and checking on other villages if time allowed was about all I had planned.

As I was thinking that far, I remembered something I hadn’t mentioned.

“Eve asked me to talk with her after this.”

“Eve did?”

“Yes.”

Sera made a slightly displeased expression at my words.

Then she quietly asked me:

“…Is it like a date?”

“It wasn’t like that.”

I spoke quietly while looking at Sera.

“She seemed to want to have a serious conversation.”

“A serious conversation?”

“Yes. She asked me to come right after I finished delivering the meals.”

Sera listened to my words and fell into thought.

“…A serious conversation, huh.”

Soon she nodded and looked at me, saying:

“In that case, Mr. Kay, I think you should go quickly.”

“Why?”

“This is just, well, a woman’s intuition…”

Sera hesitated for a moment but soon opened her mouth again and began to share her thoughts.

“Eve can see the future, right? I think that if she wants to talk to you, it must be because something is going to happen in the future.”

“Something is going to happen.”

“Of course, it might be nothing serious and Eve might just be unnecessarily worried.”

Sera quietly added that Eve wasn’t perfect either.

“Even so, I think it would be better for you to hear what she has to say and decide what to do.”

After saying that, Sera seemed to check my reaction, then soon began to speak again.

“Saying this makes me feel like I’m not being very helpful, so I’m a bit hesitant, but…”

Sera looked at me and said:

“I think you should listen carefully to what Eve has to say.”

“I see.”

I nodded at Sera’s words.

“I’ll take your advice to heart.”

“Yes.”

It seemed like Beatrice would be returning from outside soon.

I stood up from the chair and turned to head outside.

Then I paused and looked back at Sera.

“Sera.”

“Yes?”

Though she couldn’t see it because of my helmet, I smiled as I spoke:

“You’ve always been a great help to me.”

After saying that, I immediately turned around and headed out the door.

“…Thank you.”

I heard a small voice from behind, but I pretended not to hear it.

+

After delivering the meal to Sera.

When I arrived back home, Eve was waiting for me.

“Did you have a good visit with Seraphina?”

“Yes.”

When I told her that Sera looked a bit tired but was fine, Eve nodded.

“So, Eve. What’s going on?”

“…There’s a place I’d like to check.”

Eve said quietly.

Soon she began to explain what she had seen before going to sleep.

An empty village, bloodstains as if something had been dragged away.

And Zeolei Order armor abandoned in the center of the village.

“…Why would Zeolei Order armor be abandoned there?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Eve answered quietly.

“But what’s certain is that we should head to that village quickly to find out what happened.”

Eve took a moment to catch her breath, then continued:

“We’re currently in a situation where we need to eliminate the Soul-Absorbing Formation. However, the demons wouldn’t have left their convergence point unguarded.”

“That’s right.”

The Soul-Absorbing Formation is a barrier that converts souls within the formation area into magical power.

As Lorona had theorized, this formation is a technique to strengthen the demons’ forces.

Naturally, it was an important technique for them, so it was predictable that they wouldn’t let it be easily destroyed.

“But in this situation, something inexplicable has happened.”

Eve spoke quietly.

“Traces of several people being dragged from the village, signs of destruction that don’t seem to be caused by monsters, and the armor of a Zeolei Order holy knight, who should be working with the Emiris Order, found in the village covered in blood—it’s all strange.”

The holy knight’s armor was found covered in blood, but not from fighting monsters.

“…It seems the Emiris Order is plotting something.”

Since the armor found was from the Zeolei Order, it seemed reasonable to assume that the Emiris Order, who had been working with them, had plotted something and the holy knights got caught up in it.

And Eve seemed to think the same, as she nodded and continued:

“That’s highly likely. And that order… frankly speaking, isn’t one that would do anything good for us.”

Eve spoke with a slightly sharp tone.

But soon she composed her expression and said:

“…At the very least, I think it’s worth checking what happened in that village. If we’re lucky…”

“We might be able to interfere with whatever the Order is planning before they execute it.”

“The traces I saw weren’t that old.”

Eve nodded in affirmation.

‘Indeed. It would be good to know.’

When we first came to this village, I didn’t think the Emiris Order, which should be defending the capital, would make a move first.

Unless the capital’s situation was dire, the Order shouldn’t be able to move easily.

But they had moved.

Those who should have been too busy with defense to have any capacity to move.

‘…It can’t be for a good purpose.’

I was certain they were plotting something unnecessary behind the scenes.

If we could prevent it, it would be better to do so in advance.

‘I should go check it out.’

Just as I made that decision in my mind, a question occurred to me.

“Do you know the location of that village?”

“It’s on the outskirts of Ferarius. Close to here.”

She already knows the exact location?

Then there shouldn’t be any problem finding it.

‘Now I need to convince the others to go there.’

Obviously, I couldn’t use Eve’s ability to see the future as a persuasive point with others.

They would just think I was crazy.

I needed some pretext to motivate the others.

‘…A pretext, huh.’

After thinking for a moment, I looked at Eve.

“Eve. In that future, why did we go to that village?”

When Eve sees the future, the knowledge she gains at that point becomes part of her knowledge.

So she should know the reason.

After organizing my question briefly, Eve quietly answered:

“It was because of food.”

Eve took a slight breath and continued:

“It started when you told us about Chief Dodo’s request to help this village and that the food situation here was bad, suggesting it would be good to help.”

“I see.”

I nodded at Eve’s words.

The reason was probably due to the conversation I had with Dodo at the distribution center earlier.

So that’s why I had proposed to the group to help secure food for the village.

“Originally, we were supposed to leave tomorrow. Even though food was scarce, there was still enough for the immediate needs.”

I nodded at Eve’s words.

According to her, if I had made such a proposal today, we would have moved quickly and departed tomorrow.

Now that I knew this much, I could understand how things had unfolded.

I also had some idea of how to persuade the others.

“Let’s start by talking to everyone.”

“That would be best.”

Eve quietly nodded at my words.

+

Mikhail couldn’t understand the current situation.

‘…Is this really okay?’

All this time, the holy knights of the Zeolei Order had been watching over the Holy Maiden and Hakan alongside the Emiris Order.

And from the conversations between the two and the reactions of the Emiris Order’s holy knights, the Zeolei Order had learned that the Holy Maiden wasn’t much respected, so they decided to focus on supporting Hakan.

Since they didn’t have a deep relationship with either side anyway, they could always help the Holy Maiden if necessary.

So, this was the conclusion.

Leaving the capital of Ferarius and heading to some dwarf village on the outskirts, fully armed.

‘Is this right…?’

Mikhail was troubled by how easily Hakan and the Emiris Order’s holy knights had abandoned the city walls.

Their claim was that they had no reason to care about the dwarves.

Even when the Holy Maiden appealed to their sense of compassion, saying they should help innocent people, they ignored her.

Though it didn’t actually happen, it was only after the Holy Maiden had practically begged on her knees that they finally agreed to leave the Red Holy Knight Order behind while the rest went with Hakan to carry out other missions.

In the midst of all this, the Zeolei Order was just an afterthought.

‘Is it okay to leave the walls?’

While he thought they probably wouldn’t make much difference in the overall battle, they were still armed and trained combatants.

Moreover, they were also clergy.

Because of this, Mikhail felt uneasy about the current situation.

His comrades also seemed inwardly uncomfortable.

‘By the way, what exactly is this mission?’

An important mission for the Emiris Order that wasn’t about capturing heretics?

‘And the looks they’re giving us are concerning.’

Somehow, he got the feeling that the Emiris Order’s holy knights were expecting something.

‘I’m worried.’

Mikhail had a premonition that if he didn’t flee now, if he didn’t distance himself from this immediately, he would be caught up in something absurd.

“Hey, Max. Did the higher-ups really tell us to keep helping…”

“There’s been no word yet, so…”

Max replied with an anxious voice.

Just as they were thinking something was going wrong, a village appeared before their eyes.

‘A village?’

Could they have come to save this village?

With a slight hope, Mikhail quickly assessed the village’s situation.

And he was immediately disappointed.

‘It looks fine.’

Was this an incredibly lucky village?

While the residents seemed to be preparing to evacuate, they didn’t appear to have been attacked by monsters yet.

‘…Why are we at a place like this?’

As Mikhail once again cast a suspicious glance toward the Emiris Order.

The Emiris Order began to draw their weapons.

Immediately, the Zeolei Order’s holy knights approached the Emiris Order’s knights in confusion.

“What are you…”

“What are you trying to do?”

A holy knight looked at Mikhail and spoke quietly.

Then, smiling, he said:

“We’re carrying out our mission.”

“Mission?”

“Yes. A very important mission from the Holy Kingdom.”

“Please think of it as missionary work.”

Mikhail wanted to ask what kind of missionary work begins by drawing weapons.

But the Emiris Order’s holy knights ignored his intentions and began to disregard him.

As Mikhail was about to say something again, a voice came from the front.

“Come on, everyone. Draw your weapons.”

Looking ahead, Hakan was standing with a greatsword slung over his shoulder, smiling.

And ignoring the aghast Zeolei Order, he quietly opened his mouth.

“It’s time for a fun hunt.”

Pointing to the dwarf village in the distance,

Hakan smiled fiercely and said.