While Snoc and Elena wandered around the city, Zich and Lyla watched them from afar. If the culprit appeared, they planned to jump in immediately. Only Hans was nowhere to be found. Zich had judged that he and Lyla were enough to capture the kidnapper, so he ordered Hans to investigate the city. Thus, Hans was going around the city and carefully searching the area for anything suspicious.
“Huh?” Hans went beyond the commercial district and reached a small stream crossing the city. There was a riverside neatly arranged with stones and a couple of stone bridges stationed there too.
‘She is…’
On the bridge, a woman stared blankly at the flowing stream below her with one of her arms leaning on top of the handrail. The woman looked familiar, and Hans soon realized that he wasn’t mistaken. Her unique characteristic was her flaming red hair.
‘Ms. Browning?’
He was sure that she was the person he had met in Violuwin before. They couldn’t be called acquaintances, and it wouldn’t be wrong for him to say that they just knew each other on the surface. Still, Hans remembered the conversation they had before and approached her. Additionally, since she was a skilled person—Browning could have noticed something strange about the city. Hans was about to initiate a conversation with her when—
Swish!
Lara placed her hand on her sword guard and turned around instantly. Hans backed off one step and raised both of his hands lightly.
Sling!
Lara unsheathed half her sword.
“Who are you!” Although it didn’t seem like he wanted to fight, Lara couldn’t help but suspect a male stranger suddenly approaching her. Lara’s eyes were filled with wariness.
“Calm down. I have no intention of fighting. Haven’t we met before?”
Lara glanced at Hans’ face suspiciously. With her stunning appearance, many guys approached her whenever she walked alone. ‘Haven’t we met before?’ was a common phrase that such guys often used. However, Lyla’s wary glare soon disappeared.
“You are…!’
Although it had been a brief meeting, Lara remembered Hans. The conversation they had at the time was memorable to her.
“Thank goodness you seem to remember me. Can I place my hands down, miss?”
“Ah, yes! Please!” Lara hurriedly pushed her sword back in, and Hans also put his hands down.
“I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“Same.”
“Did you come to tour the site?”
“That’s the plan for now,” she replied. Yet, her expression was strange. It wasn’t a happy one.
‘It’s not the face of a tourist.’
Now that Han thought about it, Lara was alone. Although they had met only a couple of times before, he couldn’t see the person who was always with her.
“Where’s your companion? I think his name was Glen Zenard?”
Lara’s expression turned even more sour. Before, she forcefully tried to put up a calm façade, but now it was completely broken. Hans could tell from a glance that the cause of her sour mood was Glen Zenard.
“…We did come here together, but we are moving separately right now.”
“I see.” Hans simply nodded and didn’t dive deep into the matter. He didn’t feel the need to push on a sensitive topic; furthermore, they weren’t even close acquaintances. Yet, he didn’t want to let this awkward atmosphere continue.
“You haven’t let go of your sword yet.” Hans remembered how Lara was conflicted on whether or not she should alter her battle style to focus on using a shield rather than a sword. Although she was still holding a shield, it wasn’t very big; she still had the sword she had before, indicating that she hadn’t changed her battle style yet.
Hans mentioned her weapon simply because he wanted to change the topic, and it was one of the few pieces of information they had shared with each other. Yet, contrary to Hans’ intentions, Lara’s expression grew even worse. Hans was at a loss.
‘W-What should I do in a situation like this?’
No matter how much Hans had changed, the change was limited to military prowess. Hans didn’t change much in matters regarding interpersonal relationships and social skills. His abilities to cope in situations like this was still lacking.
‘L-Let’s try complimenting her first!’ He thought people’s mood would become better once they received compliments.
“If you didn’t give up on your swordsmanship, your skills must have improved. Even my master said that you have talent, Ms. Browning.”
“…By your master, do you mean the person who clashed with Glen before? The one who is also an Honorary Knight…?”
“Yes, you are right, miss!” As Lara seemed less gloomy from her curiosity, Hans nodded eagerly. “My master’s skills are amazing! He is the one who trained me to this point even when I didn’t know anything.”
An amazing person like that acknowledged her skills. Lara felt like her mood became a bit better. However, that didn’t last long.
‘But what’s the point?’ she thought. The person she loved continued to encourage her to change her weapon choice. At first, he made nothing more than soft recommendations, but as time passed, his encouragement became more forceful and pressuring. The way he treated her also changed slightly. Even right now, he left her by herself, saying that he needed to take care of something.
‘I don’t think this is enough to cheer her up.’ Hans gave up on comforting Lara when her expression darkened again.
‘Now that I think about it, I didn’t learn about things like this from Sir Zich.’
The only people skills Hans learned from Zich was provoking others unintentionally. In the end, Hans thought Lara’s mood would worsen the more they conversed and decided to ask the main question he meant to ask her. “Have you perhaps seen a suspicious person or incident in this city?”
“…A suspicious person or incident?”
“Yes.”
“No, I haven’t seen anything like that. Is there something going on?”
Hans wondered for a moment if it was all right to tell Lara about their work. ‘It’s probably fine. There are already rumors circulating around the city. Also, there’s no way a Karuwiman Honorary Knight’s companion could be the culprit.’
Yet, he didn’t plan to tell her the details and narrated a simple summary of what was happening.
“Kidnappings have been happening inside the city, and we are investigating them.”
“Kidnappings?” It seemed like Lara really didn’t know about it as her eyes widened in surprise.
“Yes.”
Since Lara didn’t seem to know anything, Hans couldn’t find another reason for them to continue their conversation. They weren’t even that close in the first place.
“Then, I will leave now. I have to investigate more so that there aren’t more casualties.”
Hans turned his feet around to continue the investigation.
“Wait!” Lara shouted and he halted his steps. “I can help in matters like that.”
“…Ms. Browning, you will?”
Hans pondered for a bit. ‘I don’t think it’ll be a problem.’ Lara Browning was skilled; most of all, Zich had vouched for her skills. In addition, her comrade was Glen Zenard, a Karuwiman Honorary Knight like Zich.
‘And we also need more people.’ Since they needed to patrol the entire city, it was better if they had as many people as possible, especially considering the fact that they had a limited number of resources and people allotted to them.
“Ms. Browning, I’ll tell you this from the start, but even if you help us with this matter, we won’t be able to give you any compensation.”
“I don’t want something like that. I just want to help people,” Lara said with a bit of discomfort in her voice as Hans seemed to have misinterpreted her good will.
“Well, if you say it like that, there’s no reason for me to refuse. However, since I received your help, I’ll at least buy you a drink or meal.”
“Are you flirting with me?”
“I don’t have the leisure to do that. I’m very busy with just my training.”
“Is that so?” Lara’s expression softened as she seemed to like that Hans was very focused on his training. “That’s fine with me. I’ll join you for a drink or meal in the future.”
“Thank you. Then, let’s start moving.”
Like this, Hans began investigating the city with Lara Browning.
* * *
Unlike Zich and Lyla’s pretend date, Snoc and Elena looked like they were fully enjoying themselves in the city. It was possible to mistake them as a couple having fun. Zich watched them from a roof far away and said, “Look at that. As expected, you have to do what you enjoy—that’s how a natural atmosphere like that can appear.”
“Yeah.”
“So that’s why my casino date was not a problem at all.”
Lyla did not reply. No, she just decided to ignore him. However, she didn’t like Zich’s over-confident expression, so she added, “I’m just saying this to be clear, but I’m absolutely not going to count that as my first date.”
“What? Was my date too high-level for you?”
Lyla wondered how likely it was for Zich to fall down the roof if she suddenly kicked him; she seriously contemplated this. However, even while sharing small talk like this, Lyla and Zich did not stop watching over Snoc and Elena.
The sun began to set. The workers hired by the city began to light the street lamps one by one. The sky was dyed yellow, and then it was soon covered by complete darkness.
“Stay alert, Zich. It’s almost time for the culprit to appear.”
“I know.” Zich clutched Windur, and Lyla lightly surrounded her staff with her mana.
Lyla said, “It’ll be fine, right? I’m worried about Elena since she hasn’t really begun her training yet.”
“Snoc is also quite strong. I was the one who trained him. He’s at least strong enough to protect himself and Elena, so don’t worry about them.”
Then Zich and Lyla inched closer to Snoc and Elena.
* * *
“Ah, it was so fun!” Elena stretched out her arms while walking on the boulevard. Her arms carried the items she shopped for today.
“We also had a lot of fun, right?”
Koo!
Snoc and Nowem seemed to have also fully enjoyed their day.
“Are we going to return like this?”
“Let’s go back after circling the city a few more times. It’s almost time for the culprit to start appearing. As bait, we should drag it out a little longer.”
“…Yeah, we should do that.” Elena increased her wariness, and her body naturally became stiffer.
Unlike Snoc, who had experienced all kinds of experience from following Zich, Elena had joined the group recently. She not only lacked experience, but she was currently in the process of learning how to use her mana. Of course, the speed in which she learned was shockingly fast, but she needed a bit more time and support.
Snoc might’ve sensed her concerns as she reassured Elena, “Don’t worry too much. Sir Zich and Ms. Lyla are probably fiercely searching for the culprit right now. If they catch the culprit, the culprit will definitely become like this.” To show what he meant, Snoc drew a line across his neck.
“Also, before they come running towards us, I’m sure I’ll be able to block the culprit. Right, Nowem?”
Koo!
“These kinds of situations will probably happen a lot in the future, so just think of this as practice.”
“…Isn’t being a bait too much for practice?”
“This is Sir Zich’s style, so give up on expecting anything else,” Snoc laughed.
Elena also laughed as if she gave up. However, this didn’t mean that her nervousness was completely gone. Snoc also didn’t think her anxiety would completely go away either. Thus, he tried to carefully scan their surroundings even more than usual. It was at that moment—
Swish!
A shadow popped out in an alleyway next to them.
Flash!
However, the shadow hit a rock wall that appeared in front of Snoc and Elena and was unable to reach its goal.
* * *
“The culprit arrived!” Zich immediately jumped off from the roof.
Lyla floated in the air and began her incantations. The shadow blocked by the wall that Snoc made began wriggling. However, the shadow soon broke the wall and tried to approach Snoc and Elena again. However, Zich had already arrived next to the shadow.
“Die!” With a cheerful shout, Zich swung Windur.
The shadow quickly changed its shape to evade Windur. However, Windur was faster than the shadow’s transformation, and its edge scraped the shadow.
Tremble!
The shadow twisted its body as if it was trembling in pain and ran back into the alley again. Zich followed it. In an instant, he caught up to the shadow and was about to swing Windur again. But he felt a presence near him.
‘This is!’ Zich felt an enormous amount of mana. He quickly swerved Windur’s pathway and attacked the presence near him.
Crasssh!
Windur and the opponent’s sword collided. A loud explosion rang out in the alleyway. Zich narrowed his eyes and stared at his opponent.
‘Huh?’ The sword felt familiar to him. It had a black blade. ‘Tornium?’
It had been Zich’s favorite sword before his regression, but a different person was now its owner.
Zich checked his opponent’s face.
‘Glen Zenard!’
A completely unexpected person had popped up in front of him.