“Well then… Ah, that’s right. It’s just the right time, so I’ll tell you now,” Gihren said with a solemn expression, putting down his half-drunk sake.
“What is it?”
“Fade and the others have disappeared. This is my fault. I’m sorry,” Gihren lowered his head.
“It’s impossible to control an S-rank party, and there’s no one stronger in this area than they are,” I replied.
“Even so, I was hoping they would understand the risks, and even if they were warned against complacency, I was stupid to think they wouldn’t ignore their suspension and move anyway,” Giren expressed rare anger.
Well, yeah… except for Roig, we were trying to do something about it and now this happened. Gihren must be in shock, feeling betrayed…
But still, I see… The Fade and the others have escaped the guild…
“So, what are we going to do?”
“We have sent out a search team, but I don’t think they’ll move without thinking.”
“That’s understandable…”
Fade should have been quite happy to be recognized as a hero. Quella is officially recognized as a saint, and Roig will clear his name as a member of the knight’s order. I don’t know what Meiru was thinking, though…
“Probably, they will come back with some kind of achievement as a souvenir…”
“Is breaking the suspension worth it for that?”
Gihren shook his head.
‘Well, yeah… Suppose a dragon zombie had attacked the town and caused great damage, it wouldn’t be hard to understand if they helped save the people there,” I said.
“I see…”
‘Wait a minute?’
“What…?”
Gihren noticed my frozen expression and urged me to talk, but it was just something that crossed my mind. It would be complicated to report it now…
“No… I think it will get complicated if I try to connect this to the situation…”
“That’s fine. Tell me.”
Gihren prompted me. Well, I have a reporting obligation anyway. I judged that Gihren would not narrow down the possibilities too easily, so I decided to answer.
“When we arrived at the dragon’s graveyard, according to Milim’s estimate, it wasn’t yet at a state where it would turn into a dragon zombie.”
“Huh…?”
“We were planning to investigate normally and return if there was no other host besides the dragon that was a problem…”
“Wait a minute!”
Gihren grabbed my shoulder before I could finish speaking.
“That’s right. Someone manipulated the flow of miasma. This dragon zombie was artificially created.”
“No way…!”
If I told them this now, they would inevitably think of the Fade group. Although it was not intentional, it was the timing that would make them think so.
Gihren was worried and perplexed.
