Abyss and Andal, who were looking at her until she leaped onto the rooftop… whether they had gone down to the ground or had risen to the sky, their nose was nowhere to be seen.
“Huh?”
Riley, who was sticking his face out of the rooftop, could roughly guess what the situation was by Iril’s stuttering who was as if in bewilderment and crumpled his face.
“They’re gone?”
“No, that… Up until just now, they’re definitely…”
Iril stuttered once again, pointing her finger at the road, to be precise, where Andal and Abyss stood before.
“They’re… definitely over there though?”
Realizing that Abyss and Andal suddenly disappeared from Iril’s reaction, Riley gently closed his eyes and began to widen his senses.
Nothing.
Even if he looked for them with his eyes, widened his senses, and looked around… Neither Abyss nor Andal could be seen or felt.
“They’re not here.”
Riley told Iril, who was bewildered, that they were definitely not around here, then pulled his face back that had been sticking out of the rooftop and looked at Sera.
“You don’t think so too, right?”
“Even if you ask me… It’s impossible to answer such a question simply by senses.”
When Sera shook her head, Riley, with his arms folded, asked Iril while thinking where Andal and Abyss possibly were.
“Did these guys say something?”
“No, they didn’t say they were going anywhere.”
When Iril answered with a sullen look, Riley put his hand on her head as if it was okay, and slowly continued.
“It could also be a clue. There must be a good reason why they suddenly disappeared without telling you anything or giving a clue.”
Iril, who had lost confidence, nodded laboriously at Riley’s words as she recalled the last conversation she had with them.
“If I act on the young master’s memorial stone… he said that a saintess named Helena might come, and the other parts might come here as well. No matter what movement you make, there will be ones approaching this way, so at that time… ah?”
Iril, who was muttering what Abyss had said, talked to Riley with an expression that she had remembered something.
“Whether it’s the ones under me… He said that, too.”
“Under?”
“Yes, Abyss’s subordinate…the one he thought might also come to the memorial. He definitely said that.”
Riley thought of several possibilities at Iril’s words, then lowered his hand that was holding his chin and spoke.
“Anyway, it would be too much to find Abyss and Andal right now… The acting he made you do was probably ‘the follower who acts me’, right?”
“Yes? Ah, yes… that’s right.”
“Once again… why did you say ‘I’m back!’ on top of my memorial?”
“I’m, I’m sorry…”
Still, the cunning Helena must have missed it. It’s definitely that if remembering that the four capable men who had just fought against Iril melted away in Helena’s way.
“Abyss’s strategy… I think it’s half successful.”
After pondering over the words of the masked men who muttered while looking at Iril, ‘You are not him,’ Riley looked out of the rooftop again to look at the memorial.
“As he said, either way, it will move.”
In the middle of the city, Riley muttered softly as he looked down at the people who didn’t care about the memorial.
*****
Inside an abandoned building that rarely passed by people, a blue light flashed and three people appeared there.
“…huu.”
It was Nainiae’s group.
“It might be a shabby place to use as a hideout, but please understand. Because it’ll be convenient in a place where there aren’t many people.”
When the old gentleman in the group, who was teleporting supported by the girl wearing the white beret, asked for understanding, the girl, who had been staggering as if dizzy in the aftermath of the teleportation, answered with a slight smile.
“It’s okay. I’ve slept in worse places with commander Nara, you know? I’m rather grateful if it’s this much.”
After teleporting, Nainiae, who had checked the safety of the two who were talking, slipped away and stopped at the end of the abandoned building.
“Is it… evening soon?”
Nainiae muttered as she looked up at the increasingly darkened sky and was worried about Riley and the other parts that scattered around.
Will everyone… be okay?
Nainiae, who was lost in thought while fiddling with the ring in her pocket, squinted one eye when the back of her hand began to throb all of a sudden.
“This?”
The trap she had set up on the side of the memorial informed her that someone nearby had used mana.
Is there another part near the memorial?