Ch.60XX Tina (5)

XX Tina (5)

Fortunately, the entire hero party managed to survive despite being buried under debris.

This was thanks to their extremely individualistic tendencies of thinking about themselves first.

As soon as Millia saw the ceiling collapsing, she threw aside Eirene who was wrapped in tentacles and immediately covered her entire body with tentacles for protection.

Eirene regained consciousness the moment she was thrown to the floor and, seeing the ceiling approaching, deployed the fastest single-person barrier she could muster.

Tina, after saying she had a bad feeling, immediately abandoned her companions and pressed herself against the wall to minimize damage.

And Esmeralda, before she could even react to the collapsing ceiling, was tackled by Lug’s mistake and ended up face-down on the floor.

Surprisingly, the one who worried most about others’ safety among the hero party was Lug, the demon spy.

“I’m glad everyone’s safe.”

“Yes, I was worried about what might happen.”

“I-I’m glad everyone’s okay.”

“I knew you all would be fine. My intuition told me so.”

“……”

“……”

“……”

“……”

The hero party fell silent after each muttered their excuses.

Of course, Esmeralda hadn’t just looked out for herself like the others, but she couldn’t help keeping her mouth shut because she had been protected by Lug.

“W-well. Anyway, it’s nice to see everyone after so long. Um. Though this might not be the right situation to say that.”

“Indeed. Things were so chaotic we didn’t even properly greet each other.”

“Yeah, we were caught by tentacles as soon as our eyes met.”

“……”

An awkward silence descended.

Esmeralda hung her head as if she were a criminal, while Tina scratched her cheek and read the room.

“Let’s settle our differences once we get outside. For now, shall we decide what to do next?”

“Sounds good.”

There was no time for awkwardness.

They didn’t know when enemies might barge in, so they needed to think about how to deal with them and what to do about the Eye of Truth to avoid confusion once they got out.

“Tina… are you thinking of leaving the Eye of Truth?”

“Well, honestly, I’m not sure. It was like a home to me. Hmm, even though I was suddenly expelled, I don’t think everyone there deceived me…”

Tina examined and felt along the collapsed walls of the ruins as she spoke.

While Esmeralda was tilting her head at Tina’s surprisingly unaffected demeanor:

“You saw it earlier, right? When you revealed the truth about the Eye of Truth. Some people just looked confused, and others hesitated even when ordered to attack. So… I don’t feel completely betrayed.”

“I mean, that proves my judgment wasn’t completely wrong, right?”

Tina said with a light-hearted tone.

“…Was I too hasty in revealing everything?”

“Maybe. It was a hasty statement, but it was something I needed to know. Ah, there’s some empty space here. We can get out this way.”

Tina responded while forging an escape route through the ruins. While Esmeralda looked dejected, the person actually affected seemed surprisingly fine.

A moment that proved one could have a big heart despite having a small chest.

“And it’s a bit embarrassing to say, but I have reliable companions I can count on.”

“But we doubted you…”

Esmeralda still felt guilty about suspecting Tina. Hadn’t she considered Tina her closest friend? The one who betrayed that friendship was none other than herself.

Tina also considered Esmeralda a very close friend. That’s why she seemed to understand why Esmeralda was feeling down now.

Tina glanced at Esmeralda’s dejected figure before smiling slightly and saying:

“Like I said earlier, even I would have been suspicious in that situation.”

Honestly, it was strange that someone of her successor status didn’t know.

Even Tina found her own ignorance so ridiculous that she couldn’t help but laugh.

“And well… unless you’ve been pretending to be stupid since we met and deceiving me all along, there’s nothing to call betrayal.”

“……”

Esmeralda hung her head even lower, almost on the verge of tears.

She really couldn’t lift her face.

“And unless Eirene is actually a vicious bitch who’s thinking of grinding up my friends, you’re all reliable companions, right?”

“Ahaha…”

At Tina’s words, Eirene unnecessarily checked her attire.

Somehow her collar felt tight.

“I can trust you all to watch my back, as long as Millia isn’t actually uninterested in us and only joined the hero party to get experimental corpses for her magic.”

“Ugh…”

Millia trembled and quietly hung her head.

Fortunately, Tina was focused on finding an exit, so she didn’t notice.

“Oh, was my joke too harsh?”

“Y-yeah…”

“Calling me vicious is too much.”

“W-we’re friends…”

At this moment.

An invisible bond formed between the three people excluding Tina.

The so-called Alliance of Lies.

They were people who now had a duty to take their past secrets to the grave.

For Eirene and Millia, they could simply abandon their objectives or stop caring, but Esmeralda would have to pretend to be stupid in front of Tina for the rest of her life.

A cruel fate. Esmeralda decided to willingly walk that path.

“And well, unless Lug happens to be a demon spy or something.”

The three of them simultaneously lost their words.

Lug’s acting couldn’t be called good by any stretch of the imagination.

“Ah, even I think this is funny. If Lug were a demon spy, he couldn’t have avoided detection. Right? Eirene would have exposed him immediately if she had used holy magic.”

Tina had hit the nail on the head.

As she thought, Lug was a demon spy, and the other three had already discovered this fact.

No matter how generously one looked at it, Lug wasn’t a good actor.

The bond of lies that tied the three together.

Through it, they could all think simultaneously:

‘We must.’

‘Not let Lug.’

‘Be exposed.’

That was clearly for everyone’s benefit.

“Hehe, I guess I said something too embarrassing.”

Tina, unaware of what the three were thinking, scratched her cheek and laughed.

In this moment when one person’s face was turning red with embarrassment,

The other three had faces turning pale.

***

Contrary to Esmeralda’s expectations, the scholars of the Eye of Truth were at a loss in the current situation.

“Damn… The ceiling collapses at this timing? Does that make any sense?”

They weren’t the ones who collapsed the ceiling. They weren’t that extreme. They had intended to subdue with force to resolve the situation, but they never planned to kill anyone.

The scholars, true to their profession, began to debate the current situation, putting their heads together.

“No! What are you all doing? Why did you attack Lady Tina?”

Scholars who belonged to the Eye of Truth out of pure academic curiosity demanded answers.

They didn’t understand the current situation, and they couldn’t believe that Tina, whom they respected, had been attacked.

To them, the scholars who claimed to know all the truth were nothing but terrorists and reactionaries.

Of course, they didn’t say such things out loud. They valued their lives too.

They were making appropriate protests while keeping within certain boundaries.

Of course, this was only possible because they hadn’t realized the absolute truth that killing might be easier if things went wrong.

“We should have waited for the Chancellor’s word in the first place. She ran away because you tried to capture her without warning!”

The second group, who vaguely knew the true nature of the Eye of Truth and couldn’t decide what to do with Tina, actively expressed their anger.

Wasn’t this clearly a mistake?

“If you’re going to argue like that, you lot who stood by are just as guilty! We’re all the same! If we had all worked together to restrain the successor, things wouldn’t have turned out like this!”

A group disintegrating in mid-air.

This moment clearly revealed the problems of secretly dividing one organization into three factions.

This was La•Pa’s mistake.

They should have kept them as separate organizations with cooperative relationships, not brought them together—this was becoming evident through the current situation.

While the three groups, supposedly scholars, were criticizing and tearing each other apart through debate rather than violence:

“Indeed. The squabbling of humans is truly disgusting to watch.”

A man barged in among them.

Standing in the center of the three groups—arguably the most dangerous position—the man leisurely leaned on his cane as he observed the members of the three groups.

“I have something I want to ask, and if you answer honestly, I won’t kill you.”

The man was holding an umbrella that didn’t match the day… or rather, was unnecessary inside the ruins.

The face revealed beneath it looked corpse-pale, and his pupils were as red as if they contained blood.

With these distinctive features, everyone could guess the man’s identity.

Pale complexion.

Red eyes.

And an umbrella to avoid the sun.

“V-vampire?!”

“It’s a high-ranking demon! Get into battle formation and form a perimeter!”

Even amidst the confusion, a systematic perimeter was being formed.

The man spoke with disapproval:

“I’m not exactly a vampire… But then again, when even my name has become Haona, what does my race matter?”

Former Legion Commander Twelve, current “Haona” Lieutenant General, asked through gritted teeth:

“Where is the hero party now?”