『Tivia!』

The moment Vosk left the room while carrying Tivia, who was still unconscious, along with Byune, who was still walking with him for some reason, two people raised their voices.

Luckily, Nakuto had already recovered from the numbness caused by Pree’s lightning magic and, while it was still a bit hard for him to move around, he stood up before walking over to Vosk.

「Vosk-sama, um……is Tivia okay?」

Vosk nodded at Essetus, who was looking at Tivia as he asked, leaving his spear rolling on the ground.

「Yeah.」

「But, that is……I heard all kinda of horrifying sounds from inside that room.」

From the perspective of Essetus and Nakuto, who had been waiting outside the room, they could only hear the sounds of battle as Oricule rampaged around.

Vosk spoke as he handed Tivia over to Essetus.

「It blessing amidst all the misfortune that there was some sort of magic barrier surrounding the magic circle.」

Hearing those words, Essetus let out a sigh of relief as he looked over Tivia to see if she had any injuries.

If he had know that the magic barrier had been put in place to prevent the person being sacrificed from escaping, he probably wouldn’t have been as relieved.

「The fact that she didn’t wake up even with all that commotion means that some sort of drug or magic was used. The Silva family doctor can check on her later, so take her back to the residence for now and let her rest. I’ve already told Sanctions in advance.」

「……Thank you very much for everything.」

「Thank you very much!」

Nakuto gave a deep bow, as did Essetus, as he carried Tivia.

「Heh, I won’t abandon my people……the ones I care about. ……Never.」

He glanced over at Byune, who was watching from his side.

Byune’s parents had saved his life and he admired them greatly. In addition, although it was something that Vosk never spoke about, Byune’s mother had also been his first love.

Not being able to save the two of them had left a deep scar inside Vosk. Enough to make him vow to never abandon his own people.

「Vosk?」

Nakuto asked Vosk puzzledly.

However, Vosk just shook his head and erased all unnecessary thoughts from his head before speaking.

「Anyhow, everything is fine here, so go back to the Silva residence. Oh, just in case, take some of the adventurers here with you as escorts.」

「Thank you very much! ……O-Oh.」

「Hey, be careful there. ……THat would be a great help, but what do Vosk-sama at the others plan to do?」

Essetus almost dropped Tivia as he bowed his head vigorously and Nakuto told him to be careful before asking Vosk.

Vosk replied to the two with a slight smile on his face.

「First of all, we need to investigate the residence. We might find evidence about the abnormal species or related matters and, above all, we need to do something about the member of the Church of Holy Light who are still unconscious.」

The members of the Church of Holy Light who had sneaked into the Silva residence had killed themselves after they were captured, despite having their limbs bound and mouths gagged.

(However, at the time, their goal was to distract us, so it’s possible they were able to blow themselves up specifically for that purpose. In that case, the unconscious people here probably can’t do the same thing……no, it’s too early to conclude that. Considering they were trying to stall out Rei and the others……)

Vosk pondered the possibility in his mind for a moment before quickly dismissing the idea.

After all, even though many people from the Church of Holy Light had been incapacitated or killed, none of them had attempted to blow themselves up.

As Vosk thought about that, it seemed Essetus and Nakuto decided that they would only get in the way if they stayed any longer and bowed their heads again before leaving with Tivia.

「When you go upstairs, tell them to send some people down here as well. We need to examine the rooms behind the doors in this passage and we also need to do something about the unconscious people.」

「We understand.」

As Vosk saw them off, he turned to look back at the room where the magic circle had been.

The troubled look on his face wasn’t imaginary.

A little earlier, he had been enjoying the quarrel taking place. But now, even though there was no bloodshed, he could feel strong anger emanating from the room.

The tension had been hard enough when he was talking with Byune, let alone going back into that room.

「……Mm.」

Looking at Vosk for a moment, Byune eventually grasped his large hand.

「Hmm? What’s wrong?」

「Mm.」

In response to Vosk’s question, Byune nodded before pulling him back into the room while holding his hand.

It was as if she was saying, it’s fine because I’m here.

Vosk was pulled inside and over to where Elena and Vihera were, as they continued to give off an aura of fighting spirit.

「Hey, you know……the fight is already over, so what are you doing starting another one?」

「Even if you say that, it’s impossible to stop these two.」

「Gururu~」

Vosk complained to Rei, to which Rei replied as Set gave a cry in agreement.

「Kyu?」

Yellow, who was on Set’s back, gave a soft cry without understanding what was going on.

「No good.」

Byune let go of Vosk’s hand before standing in between Elena and Vihera and speaking.

Elena’s eyes widened at the sight.

During the battle, she had seen Byune speak several times, but it was only now, when everything had calmed down, that she was finally able to process it.

「Byune……you’re talking?」

「Mm.」

Byune nodded at Elena.

Byune rarely showed any changed in her expression, but it seemed that she looked somewhat embarrassed now.

As if taking advantage of that moment when Elena and Vihera stopped for a moment, Vosk stepped forward while scratching his head.

「Hey, I would like to catch those guys over there, so could you give me a hand? Oricule, who was the key person, is dead, but fortunately many of the other believers are still alive.」

Vosk looked over at the robed figures lying on the ground.

Many of them had already died due to Vihera’s attacks, but there were still a few who were still alive.

However, since Vosk didn’t know what they would do after they regained consciousness, they had to be restrained by ropes and gags.

「……Here.」

Rei took out some rope from the Misty Ring and threw it over to Vosk.

Catching it, Vosk immediately went over to the robed figures.

First of all, he took off their robes, as he didn’t know if they were hiding any sort of weapons, before tying their hands and feet.

As Rei and the others started to help out, they heard some voices.

For a moment, Rei thought there were more enemies and tried to take out his weapon, but Vosk stopped him.

「Don’t worry, they’re the ones who came to attack the Marschel residence with us. I told Essetus and Naktuo to let them know when they went upstairs.」

Hearing those words, Rei lowered the Death Scythe.

At that exact moment, the adventurers from the Silva family appeared.

「Woah! What is this room……it’s too big, isn’t it?」

「I mean the floor, look at the floor. There’s a magic circle.」

「No, it’s not that strange for there to be a magic circle. After all, this is the Marschel family residence.」

「They attacked us with dolls and stuff. It’s bad enough that there’s no sign of them.」

「Ah……you’re right. But besides the dolls, there were only a few private soliders, and even they weren’t that strong, so it wasn’t that much trouble, right? The dolls were more……more……」

The adventurers, who had been talking to each other about the magic circle in the room and the private soldiers who guarded the Marschel residence they had fought, all stiffened when they saw what was in the rest of the room.

The remains of countless dolls. With no signs of murderous intent, they had struggled to defeate the small number of dolls they had been attacked with, but countless remains of such dolls were now scattered on the floor.

They couldn’t count the exact number as limbs, bodies, and heads had all been torn apart, but there must still have been at least a 100 of them.

They were scattered all over the room.

Originally, the remains of the dolls that Oricule had plafully destroyed had been gathered in one area. But, due to the synergistic effect of Rei’s magic and the explosion of the gems, the remains of the dolls had been sent flying all over the room.

「Wait a minute, this number of dolls……how fierce was the battle?」

「……A-Amazing.」

「Yeah.」

The situation seemed to have exceeded their expectations. They exchanged a few words with their friends as they looked around.

In the end, they looked over at Vosk……no, Set and Rei, who was stroking Set’s head.

「Crimson, huh? I heard rumours that he was clearing the dungeon at a tremendous speed, but it seems his skills were not a lie.」

「Is that the Mad Beast over there? I mean, she won’t challenge us to a fight, right?」

「It will be fine. She might be a battle maniac, but her opponent is too weak……I’m sorry.」

Perhaps he was trying to relieve the tension, the adventurer who made the joke immediately apologised when the rest all stared at him.

However, thanks to their exchange, the tension did settle down a bit, so in a sense, it worked as intended.

「Oh, pardon me. First of all, could you tie up all the people from the Church of Holy Light who are lying over there? Don’t forget the gags. The guys who attacked the mansion went as far as blowing themselves up, but as far as I can see, the ones here don’t have those sorts of tricks.」

Hearing Vosk’s words, the adventurers all gave a sigh of relief.

However, Vosk kept speaking and told them not to let their guard down.

「I know I said they were safe, but that’s only my guess. There’s still a possibility they have some means of self destruction, so don’t let your guard down. Half of you, check out the rooms that you went past while coming here. You’ll probably find a lot of messy stuff, but I want to make sure everything is secured.」

「……You’re not trying to cover anything up, right?」

Elena, who had been fighting with Vihera, paused for a moment as she asked Vosk.

However, Vosk just shrugged as he replied.

「Of course now. After all, it’s become such a huge incident and there’s also the problem of the Church of Holy Light. I can’t help but report it to the Kingdom, so I have to collect evidence of everything. Did it look like I was going to pull some tricks?」

「I think you fully understand that people can’t be judged by their appearance. Generally speaking, isn’t it strange for you to become the head of the Silva family without any major problems?」

Hearing Elena’s words, one of the Silva family adventurers tried to speak up……

Hahaha. Well, that might be true.」

But, before they could say anything, Vosk let out a hearty laugh, as if acknowledging it.

Since the man himself had just admitted it while laughing, the adventurer was reluctant to push any further and closed his mouth.

「……Well, if you say so, I’ll believe you. But if any evidence comes out at a later point, I won’t just let it go.」

「Naturally, I won’t try anything like that. ……If you want, you can go around collecting various materials and whatnot. A third party would certainly be helpful since doing that sort of work on our own might raise a lot of questions later on.」

Hearing what Vosk said, Elena hesitated for a few seconds before nodding.

「That’s fine. We’ve been together so far, so let’s keep it this way. What about you, Rei, and everyone else? If you’re tired, you can take a break……」

Rei shook his head at Elena’s question.

「No, since I’ve come this far, I’ll stay to the end.」

「Well, I’m fine either way.」

Vosk just shrugged at Rei’s words as their plans were settled.

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