By Zephyria Seeing her always strong superior blaming himself, Squad Leader 8 clenched her fist so hard that she didn’t even notice the nail marks digging into her palm. It was hard for her to see her respected Commander in such a state any longer, not just for her own sake.
Squad Leader 8 quickly composed herself and said in a voice that had returned to being cold and rational.
“I will go and find him right away. Other battalion members are still searching, so we might find him soon.”
She bowed lightly to Hugo, then quickly turned and moved towards the outside of the tent. Some of the hesitant squad members also bowed to the Commander and followed the Squad Leader.
However, the Squad Leader, who was about to go outside, had no choice but to stop abruptly at the voice that came from behind.
“No, the search operation involving other battalions is terminated.”
When she stopped, the squad members who were following her also stopped abruptly.
As the sound of military boots crossing the dirt floor ceased, Squad Leader 8 turned to him with an expression as if she had misheard and asked.
“Why… why are you terminating the search?”
As her confused gaze reached him, Hugo wiped his face with one hand as if he was washing it dry, then slowly rose from his seat. After handing the used handkerchief to Flynn, he put on the protective gear and gloves next to him and stared at her.
His gaze was sharp and piercing, even though there was no force in his eyes, and the precarious appearance from before was nowhere to be found. And he clearly told the Squad Leader once again, as if pointing out something wrong.
“I said I’m terminating the search involving other battalions, not terminating the search.”
Squad Leader 8 stared into Hugo’s eyes for a long time, trying to understand his intentions.
* * *
It was late at night, with darkness all around, but the base camp where they were was still brightly lit. In the center of the camp, Hugo, the commander of the 9th Battalion of the Southern Branch, the commander of the 6th Battalion of the Central Branch, and some of the other battalions that had come to support were gathered.
Light balls floated around, illuminating the darkness, and gnats gathered nearby, falling helplessly when they touched the hot spheres. Dellua, who had her nose covered with gauze, looked at the scene with a disgusted expression, then shook her arm appropriately and shifted her gaze back to the makeshift table.
A large map was spread out on the table, and Rainer drew a line on it with a pen.
The map showed the terrain and peak elevations of the area, and the lines Rainer drew roamed around the peaks, forming a tangled, interwoven circulation structure. Flynn, who was watching it, thought the lines he drew looked like an ant nest.
Soon, Rainer closed the pen cap and put it down on the table.
“It’s the space that was under the ground. I can’t say I drew it exactly as it is, but the approximate location and direction are correct.”
Dellua’s eyes widened, and she stepped forward. Then, looking at the lines Rainer had marked, she asked him.
“Oh, so there was a space after all?”
Rainer nodded at her question and replied.
“Yes, not only was there a space, but when the Commander and I first arrived, the spaces were connected like tunnels. Of course, now it’s completely collapsed and all blocked.”
Hugo turned his head and asked Dellua, who seemed to know about the existence of the space.
“Commander Rivera, did you know there was a space under the ground?”
“Ah, yes. I didn’t know from the beginning either, I discovered it while chasing a Dermokas in the plains.”
Dellua blinked and looked at the map, then raised her head and asked the two of them again.
“But that space, wasn’t it a bit strange? If there was such a place in the first place, I would have noticed it even if it was above ground, but I didn’t feel any air currents at all. And when I went inside, it felt like magic was being suppressed.”
Hugo nodded in agreement.
“Yes, that’s why Molton and I couldn’t get out with just our own strength.”
Hugo briefly explained the situation he and Rainer had been buried in.
When the two jumped between the cliffs and reached the very bottom, the area had not yet completely collapsed, so the unknown space under the ground remained intact.
They wandered through the collapsing tunnels, searching for the two missing people, and the first time they realized that they couldn’t use magic properly was when their flight speed noticeably slowed down.
After that, as the peaks began to collapse in earnest, they used large-scale magic to block the pouring soil and rocks, but the timing was delayed because it fell far short of the original casting speed and scale, and in the end, they were swept away by the dirt and completely buried.
However, even while trapped underground, they continued their search, breaking through blocked paths. They searched for traces of the missing people for quite a long time, and only when they realized that oxygen was running out did they move to a low-lying area with a low risk of landslides to go above ground.
However, since they couldn’t exert their magic to its original ability, it was difficult to estimate the amount of soil that would be piled up, and the psychological pressure of running out of oxygen, exhaustion, and the adverse condition of magic suppression made their escape even more difficult.
Thanks to that, Rainer shuddered slightly, recalling the valuable experience of almost freezing to death in the hot underground. Dellua, who was listening to Hugo’s words, pondered something, then clapped her hands as if she had realized something.
“The reason I missed the Dermokas I was chasing was also in that tunnel. So we should assume that the tunnel-like space that the Commander and Molton saw has a function of blocking certain energies and suppressing magic.”
“I guess so.”
“If so, that tunnel would have been the passage that the demon beast could use to pass by without being detected by humans, and if we follow that path, we might find the nests of those we haven’t discovered yet?”
As Dellua finished speaking, Squad Leader 8, who was listening to the story, hurriedly stepped forward and said.
“Then shouldn’t we find the missing people as soon as possible? What if the two of them are attacked by a demon beast while unconscious…?”
“I don’t think you need to worry about that.”
It was Rainer who interrupted Squad Leader 8’s words.
“The path that the Commander and I searched until the end had traces of rocks that were scorched and melted by fire.”
When she stopped talking and looked at him, Rainer pointed to a certain part of the map with his finger and continued. The place he pointed to had two peaks close to each other, and it looked like a connected path.
“The place we reached by chasing those traces was probably around here, but only this path connecting to the other peak was full of rubble and blocked. It wasn’t just blocked, it was quite unnatural, as if it had been deliberately blocked.”
He repeatedly drew lines on the map with his fingertip.
“We were about to try to break through this place when we were also buried in the rushing dirt, so we couldn’t go all the way, but I think the missing people deliberately collapsed the ceiling to prevent the soil from pouring in.”
Squad Leader 8, who heard Rainer’s words, scanned the map again carefully. Rainer looked at her and shrugged as if she didn’t need to worry too much.
“If an S-class magic user had the presence of mind to do that in such a desperate situation, they wouldn’t be killed by a demon beast, at least, would they?”
Her expression didn’t change much, but her dark complexion gradually became tinged with hope. The other squad members and Flynn were the same. As the possibility that the two missing people might be alive appeared, their gloomy faces began to brighten.
Squad Leader 8 finally understood why the Commander had said that he would end the search mobilizing other battalions.
As Molton Battalion Commander said, if they had the mental and physical capacity to deliberately collapse the ceiling to block the path, there was a high possibility that they had safely escaped from the collapse site.
And to find them quickly, it would be more efficient to move with a small number of people with good mobility than to mobilize a large number of people.
She looked back at Hugo with a brightened face, as if she now understood the meaning.
But the moment she saw his expression, she had no choice but to stop.
Even though it was clearly good news, his face didn’t look bright at all.
Come to think of it, if it was the Commander, he would have been with Molton Battalion Commander all along, so he would have seen the traces with his own eyes. Nevertheless, he was severely blaming himself earlier, and his face was full of heavy worries.
Having been relieved, she grabbed the string of tension again. Judging from his expression, it didn’t seem like a simple problem. Squad Leader 8 stared at the Commander with slightly anxious eyes.