BMD 102

Bang―! Boom―!

While the two men, unaware of the man’s actions, were still trying to deduce the identity of the corpse, several loud explosions were heard from outside the cave, and the sound gradually grew closer.

It seemed that someone fighting with demon beasts was driving them closer to this area, and the impact caused a strong vibration inside, and cracks appeared in the ceiling, causing stone powder to fall from the gaps.

Leonardo glanced at the ceiling and immediately wrapped the corpse he was holding in a cloth. Then, he turned his head and said to the member.

“Let’s get out of here.”

“Ah, yes!”

The newbie, who had been looking at the ceiling with an uneasy expression, answered as if he had been waiting for the words.

“Put handcuffs on that guy so he can’t move. You have handcuffs, right?”

“That’s… I was going to put them on, but I dropped them because of the explosion…”

Leonardo, who had been gathering things to take with him, paused for a moment when he heard the stupid words and stared at the member without saying a word. He didn’t say it in words, but the look seemed to say that he was pathetic, and the newbie was completely deflated.

In the end, instead of saying anything that would hurt his mouth, Leonardo strode towards the man.

The man made a ‘hic’ sound as he approached and stepped back, but he was caught before he could go far. Before the man could react, Leonardo struck the back of his neck hard, knocking him unconscious. He grabbed the back of his neck and threw him in front of the member, saying.

“You carry him.”

The member, who had never seen someone knocked unconscious in front of him, was horrified and examined the man thrown at his feet.

“He’s not dead, is he…?”

“He won’t die from that.”

Leonardo’s nonchalant words made him feel even more uneasy, but getting out of here was the top priority, so the newbie decided to put his worries about the man aside for now.

He wondered how to move the man, then slung him over his shoulder like he was carrying a sack of rice. It was fortunate that the man was small, or he would have had to drag him.

But somehow, he had a bad feeling from the start, and a foul odor, as if the man hadn’t washed for days, rose from him and stung his nose.

“Ugh…”

The newbie, feeling nauseous because of it, involuntarily covered his nose and frowned.

Leonardo immediately slung the man’s bag over his shoulder and moved along the markings left on the wall. Thanks to this, he was able to avoid getting lost, but the ground was shaking more and more, so he had to hurry. He turned his head back and shouted at the member, who was lagging behind, as if he was annoyed.

“Hurry up if you don’t want to die!”

“Yes, I’m coming!”

The newbie gave up breathing through his nose and hurriedly flew after Leonardo, who was already far ahead.

Before long, wind blew in from the outside, and the cave entrance leading outside came into view. But because of the subtle shockwaves, the floor seemed to have collapsed a little more than before, making it look precarious.

Below was a gaping cliff, and above was a huge rock wall that looked like a roof, threatening to collapse at any moment, making his knees weak. The newbie, impressed by Leonardo’s fearless appearance as he passed through the space without hesitation, picked up the man again and followed him as quickly as possible.

But the more he went, the more the rock wall on the ceiling seemed to be sinking lower and lower. He couldn’t tell whether he was getting closer or the rock wall was coming closer.

* * *

Hugo immediately handed the egg brought by Battalion Commander Hastings to the investigators for analysis, and then held a brief meeting with the commanders of the Southern Branch’s 9th Battalion to discuss the situation. During the meeting, 9th Battalion Commander Rainer Molton raised a thought-provoking question.

“Even if they took the egg because it was their offspring, why did they take our member’s body?”

As the eyes of all the commanders focused on his words, Rainer glanced around the room and continued.

“The moment the support troops arrived, they seemed to sense that they were at a disadvantage and immediately retreated. But isn’t it strange that they took the body while running away, knowing that our troops would chase them?”

A brief silence fell among the commanders. It was because the words made sense.

While they were pondering the reason, Flynn, who was a little further away, was talking to a messenger sent by the headquarters of the border area on behalf of Hugo. After receiving the situation, he immediately approached the commanders.

As the eyes of the commanders, including the commander, reached him, Flynn gave a brief salute and opened his mouth.

“We just received news from headquarters. A large stable near Paren’s base in the western Eldermilli area was attacked by a demon beast. When discovered, all the horses in the stable were gone, and judging from the claw marks left behind, it’s highly likely to be the work of a Dermokas.”

As Flynn reported, Rainer, the commander of the 9th Battalion, muttered with a dumbfounded expression.

“Attacking a stable near the base? They’ve got some nerve.”

Hugo, too, raised an eyebrow and asked Flynn.

“Near the base?”

“Yes, to be precise, it was the most isolated of the stables managed by Paren’s base, but it wasn’t that far away.”

“Time of the attack?”

“It’s estimated to be dawn, but the guard who was watching the stable was found dead, so we don’t know exactly when the attack occurred. For reference, this is the first time this has happened since the army was stationed in the border area.”

Flynn briefly conveyed the information he had heard from the messenger. Rainer, who was listening, looked at Hugo and said.

“It seems they want a full-scale war.”

His voice was cold, and his eyes flashed with murderous intent. It was a murderous intent stemming from guilt over the deaths of members of the 9th Battalion and anger towards the enemies, as he was responsible for them. It would be more difficult to maintain composure given the situation, but Hugo, sensing that he was becoming impatient, shook his head.

“It’s too early to judge.”

“But it doesn’t make sense that they went all the way near the base just to get food. Their food is all over this peninsula, isn’t it? But to approach the army’s base, hunt horses, and even kill our members in droves―.”

“Sir, Battalion Commander.”

Charlotte, the vice-commander, interrupted Rainer, who looked as if he would start a full-scale war with the enemies right away. It was to calm her superior down. Rainer, realizing that he had become overly excited during the meeting, stopped talking at Charlotte’s action.

Flynn, who had come to report the situation, hesitated, watching the 9th Battalion Commander’s reaction, and swallowed the rest of what he was going to say. He felt that if he spoke here, he would only further fuel the 9th Battalion Commander’s anger.

Hugo stared at Rainer for a moment, then checked the watch on his wrist and said.

“Let’s take a break from the meeting and resume later.”

The commanders were a little puzzled by the suggestion to take a break and resume later, even though the meeting hadn’t been that long. However, Rainer realized that the Supreme Commander was indirectly ordering him to rest.

“…Understood.”

With his answer, the meeting was temporarily adjourned.

As those gathered dispersed, Hugo also moved away from the meeting place. Then, he gestured to Flynn, who was standing blankly, to come closer.

Flynn looked around a bit, then cautiously approached Hugo. As he got closer, Hugo didn’t say much and immediately asked Flynn.

“What’s the situation?”

At Hugo’s question, Flynn replied with a dissatisfied expression.

“First of all, there’s no particular movement. No noticeable actions either.”

“…I see.”

“Commander, please don’t send me alone for things like this. Do you know how nervous I was that I might get caught?”

Flynn whined, but Hugo looked at him with an indifferent expression and said.

“There’s no guarantee that they haven’t planted someone on that side, so if you think about it, you’re the only one qualified.”

Flynn felt a little better hearing Hugo say that he was the only one qualified, but soon felt very simple-minded and scratched the back of his head bitterly.

Hugo, seeing him trying to pull down the corners of his mouth that were about to rise, turned his gaze to the 9th Battalion Commander, who was sitting far away, cooling his head, and opened his mouth.

“Flynn, what do you think this situation means?”

“Yes? What situation are you talking about?”

“I’m asking what you think about this situation where the Dermokas, who had no clear movements, suddenly appear on a large scale and roam around.”

At the sudden change of topic, Flynn followed Hugo’s gaze. Then, finding the 9th Battalion Commander there, he vaguely grasped the Commander’s intention.

He thought he hadn’t shown it, but it seemed the Commander had noticed that he hadn’t been able to say what he wanted to say because he was watching the 9th Battalion Commander’s reaction at the meeting.

Knowing that he was giving him a chance to speak, Flynn didn’t hesitate this time and brought up what he had quietly swallowed earlier.

“Molton Battalion Commander seemed to think that they wanted a full-scale war, but I thought the opposite. It seemed like they were trying to subtly scratch our nerves while avoiding a full-scale war.”

Hugo, who had been looking at the 9th Battalion Commander, turned his head at Flynn’s words and asked again.

“What made you think that?”

“Well…, you said that when the Central Branch procession entered the peninsula not long ago, Dermokas appeared in the early morning and Blaine took care of them, right?”

Hugo’s eyebrows twitched slightly at the sudden mention of the name.

“That’s right.”

“At that time, the Dermokas appeared on the opposite peak from where the base camp was located, and it was quite far away. If their purpose was to attack, I think they would have attacked the base camp right away instead of showing up on the opposite side.”

Flynn conveyed in detail what he had been speculating.

“Therefore, at that time, they came for the purpose of reconnaissance, not attack, and it seems that most of the reconnaissance team was defeated by Blaine, so they judged it was dangerous and did not appear in front of the Central Branch procession after that. They were trying to avoid a full-scale war with high risk.”

Certainly, the route they had moved along after that was a path where Dermokas appeared, but they had not been seen for a while, which was considered strange.

Hugo nodded as if it made sense, retracing the path he had taken so far. Flynn, gaining confidence from that, added.

“But recently, the frequency of attacks has increased, and they deliberately target when there are few people to attack Paren’s base and our Council members. It seemed like they were constantly exposing themselves to provoke and anger humans.”

“……”

“And as a finishing blow, they took the body of a member and made the pursuit team chase them. Could those smart guys not have predicted that? I think they deliberately intended this situation. And I felt like I’d seen this pattern somewhere before. It’s like….”

Flynn, who had been speaking well, suddenly stopped and looked up at Hugo. He seemed to be hesitating whether to add the last word or not. Hugo, staring at him, said as if telling him to continue.

“Like?”

As Hugo waited for his words, Flynn, who had been hesitating a little, carefully opened his mouth.

“Like… Blaine was trying to lure the Council on purpose?”