By Zephyria Hugo’s eyebrows, which had been moving slightly, now shot up. He stared at Flynn for a moment, then turned his gaze to the empty air for a moment, lost in thought.
Hugo, slowly recalling the situation, took his hand off his chin and said.
“An excellent analogy. I understood it right away.”
“Haha, right?”
Flynn’s expression became very proud. Looking at Flynn, Hugo nodded slowly and asked.
“So, do they have a purpose to lure humans?”
“Well…, if it’s as I speculate, that’s true, but I think we’ll have to wait for the pursuit team’s report to know what the exact purpose is.”
He had spoken easily, but it was a fairly complicated hypothesis. He had to keep in mind that the purpose of the enemies’ lure could be a trap.
The large group of Dermokas that had appeared in the plains a few hours ago was a much more overwhelming number than the Council had estimated to be the total number of Dermokas on the peninsula.
The problem was, where were all those guys hiding? If the place they were trying to lure was their hidden base and nest, and they were trying to lure them in to wipe out the enemy, the number of pursuit teams would be far from enough to handle them.
Flynn, feeling his head getting complicated as he added flesh to the hypothesis, unconsciously brought up the name that came to his mind.
“How about asking Blaine about this topic now?”
At the sound of that name again, Hugo’s gaze towards Flynn became a little colder. It felt as if he was saying something useless, so Flynn hurriedly added.
“Blaine knows a lot about demon beasts. Maybe he can read the demon beast’s mind and figure out their purpose. He even succeeded in luring the Council’s pursuit team to the vicinity of the frost territory.”
It was definitely a reasonable story. However, Hugo didn’t seem to want to hear more and turned his gaze away, shifting his gaze to his wristwatch.
“Yes, maybe. But when you share the situation with Leonardo and ask for advice, you should leave out the last part. If you say that the demon beast’s actions are similar to what you did, so try to guess the purpose… it’ll only get worse.”
“That’s… I know that too. Of course, I wouldn’t say that.”
He didn’t intend to say that, but Flynn felt embarrassed when the Commander, who seemed to be listening casually, subtly picked at his words. He scratched his cheek with an awkward expression and glanced at Hugo. He had a feeling that the Commander’s reaction was subtly different whenever a specific name came up, and it didn’t seem to be his imagination.
In fact, he had wanted to ask a lot about that name for a while now, but he was worried that he would be tired of it, so Flynn was hesitating whether to ask or not.
But since he had set the stage this much, he thought it was a good opportunity now, so he cautiously opened his mouth.
“Sir, Commander, have you talked to Blaine?”
Flynn, who had asked the question, carefully examined Hugo’s expression. However, there was no particularly meaningful change in his face, which was looking at his watch.
“……”
However, the silence after that was quite long, to the point of being meaningful. He was silent for a long time in that state, and in the end, he didn’t answer Flynn’s question and turned his gaze elsewhere. Flynn tilted his head at Hugo’s action.
In his original way, he would have already finished the conversation in terms of work, no matter what the situation was.
But Flynn knew. He had been watching for the timing to talk to Leonardo for the past few days.
The fact that Hugo was watching for the timing meant that he was surprisingly concerned about Leonardo’s emotional state.
So, he thought that if the two of them talked again, things might work out well, so Flynn was constantly yielding(?) to him on topics that he could talk to Leonardo about, like now.
But despite such efforts, the Commander’s reaction right now….
‘Did the conversation not go well? Or haven’t they even had a proper conversation yet….’
He was just confused.
While Flynn was guessing the situation between the two, two of the investigators who were conducting the investigation in the center of the Southern Branch base camp came to them with a lot of data. One of them, who seemed to be the chief investigator, stood in front of Hugo and said.
“Commander, may I report the investigation results so far?”
Hugo, who had been looking elsewhere, turned his head at the chief investigator’s words. Then, as if he had been waiting, he answered readily when he found him.
“Yes, let’s hear it.”
It was a calm answer that was no different from usual, but Flynn, who had been with the Commander for a long time, felt that he seemed to be welcoming the investigator who had helped him move on to another topic.
As permission was granted, the assistant investigator next to him unfolded one of the records he had brought and handed it to Hugo. As Hugo received the record, the chief investigator began the briefing.
“As you instructed, we focused on the relationship between the eggs and the Dermokas. Originally, we were going to report after organizing it a little more… but I thought it would be better to deliver it quickly.”
The record that the investigator handed over was a record of the investigation results of the demon beasts captured so far and the analysis of the components that made up the individuals.
“First of all, to give you the conclusion, the epidermis and internal components of the individual in the egg do not perfectly match the Dermokas adult.”
At the investigator’s words, Hugo made a subtle expression and asked back.
“Doesn’t perfectly match? What does that mean? Does it mean that it matches to some extent?”
“Well…, yes. I think you can say that too, but please refer to this first.”
The investigator next to him unfolded another record and handed it to Hugo. The contents written there were data comparing the components collected from the demon beasts in the peninsula that had been discovered so far with other individuals.
“Didn’t a lot of deformities suddenly appear recently? So, as soon as they were captured, we were collecting samples and keeping them as records, and we were able to confirm quite surprising facts.”
Hugo didn’t take his eyes off the data even while listening to the report. In the meantime, his brow gradually narrowed as he looked at the record.
“The types and appearances of each individual were all different, but when compared with other individuals, the epidermis and internal components matched from a minimum of 70% to a maximum of 98%, and even some genetic traits matched. This is the same when compared with the individual in the egg.”
The investigator said with shining eyes as if it was a very interesting topic, but Flynn, who was listening to his words, had an expression that he didn’t understand well.
“Wait, wait a minute. What does that mean? That the types and appearances are different but they match….”
“In simple terms, it means that even if the species and appearance are different, they can have the same genetic traits.”
The investigator handed Flynn a handwritten copy of the record he had given to Hugo and continued the explanation.
“To give you an example, a recessive factor that has a gland that completely opens the throat and secretes digestive fluid under the jaw when swallowing large things is rarely found in the demon beasts of the peninsula, but among the individuals recently discovered, the reptile 17 and the bird 19 have completely different species and appearances, but both individuals had the characteristics mentioned earlier.”
“……”
“In addition, the digestive fluid components of the two individuals were also almost identical, with only a difference in moisture content.”
Flynn blinked his eyes to understand his words, which were going deep while saying it easily. Then, suddenly, the deformed demon beast he had seen in the crater a few days ago came to Flynn’s mind as he listened to the investigator’s example.
The demon beast, which had a bizarre appearance, had a body like a mollusk, and Leonardo had said that the demon beast had the same toxic components as the Illaptor.
The Illaptor and the deformity would have completely different species as well as appearances. Nevertheless, the fact that they have the same toxic components could be because the two individuals have the same genetic traits, as the investigator said just now.
While Flynn was recalling the conversation with Leonardo, Hugo, who was looking at the record, asked the investigator.
“Is it possible that they have the same ancestors?”
Flynn looked up at Hugo with slightly surprised eyes at the unexpected words. Then, as he looked at the chief investigator to hear the answer, he slowly nodded and answered.
“Yes, that’s right.”
Hugo’s eyes narrowed at the investigator’s answer. Then, he immediately looked at the contents written in the record again and opened his mouth.
“Let’s resume the meeting soon.”