"Now that we have come all the way here, we'll be safe."
A senior disciple muttered those words.
He was someone who was in charge of the senior disciples since Joseph's time, so in a dire situation, he showed a more mature appearance than others.
For example, in the current situation.
"Is this… a secret safe house?"
"Yes, Mast… Joseph built this place, and we'll be safe here."
Oliver looked around.
This building was located in an ordinary housing street and appeared to be in good condition with regular maintenance.
"It's a place prepared by Joseph in case of an unexpected attack or the raids of the Paladins. No one knows this place except us."
Oliver nodded and then asked Marie and Peter if they had evacuated everyone as ordered.
Marie answered.
"One, two, three…yes! Everyone has followed me here."
"Everyone has followed us."
After hearing the report of Marie and Peter, he went to his own room, unpacked his luggage, and ordered everyone to take a rest.
This was the first time everyone was in an emergency situation, so they didn't really know what to do.
There was nothing they could do other than pack up as quickly as possible according to the pharmacist's advice, and prepare according to the advice of the senior disciples.
"What's a firefly?"
"It's a paladin."
"What?"
"Paladin. A knight of God made by the Parter church."
Oliver tilted his head.
Parter church, God…
Oliver has never heard of it.
The supervisors at the mine would sometimes say something like that whenever they see children like Oliver, [Without God's blessing, trashes like you will go to hell].
Even though he knew the situation was quite urgent, Oliver still was curious nonetheless.
"What is Parter church, what is paladin, and what is a God? Can you explain?"
Confusion bloomed on the face of the senior disciple.
It was like having difficulty with a child, who keeps asking what the sun is and what's water.
"Uh…that's…so…"
The Senior disciple didn't know how to properly explain it.
Oliver, who grasped the situation, said it was okay, and ordered him to rest.
"Master?"
When the senior disciple left and Oliver was about to rest, Marie quietly approached.
"What Marie? What's going on?"
"Will it be okay like this, Master?"
"What?"
"That's… we're running away without taking any money or books?"
As soon as the note saying [Fireflies has arrived. Get everyone out of the base] came from Pharmacist, Oliver ordered everyone to pack a minimum amount of luggage and get out of the base.
He didn't know what the details were, but the pharmacist just told them to go, so he just depended on his own judgment and feeling.
The first thing that came to his mind was to take emotions.
Of course, the money he has recently earned was thanks to that.
He didn't even take the books.
Well, he had already read almost all the books, and he had enough money to spend, but Marie doesn't seem to think so.
"If we leave like this, we will definitely lose all our money and books, so why not go and get it now…? If the studio gets destroyed, it would be difficult to do business for a while."
At Marie's suggestion, Oliver shook his head.
"Um… No. Money is important, but life is even more important, right?"
"I, I will go."
Oliver tilted his head.
"Marie? Why?"
"… I want to be helpful to Master."
"What?"
"Master, I want to help you. If it goes like this, the damage will be huge. It costs quite a bit of money to set up a manufacturing room. If it continues like this, all of Master's hard work will go to waste."
"…?"
'Hard work?'
Oliver looked at Marie, unable to understand what she was trying to say.
He couldn't understand why she wanted to do it.
Oliver remembered what he had done until now.
When he returned after killing Joseph, he somehow managed to take over the family in a short time, he then spent most of his time reading books, making Pilgaret, and teaching black magic.
Everything was easy as if he was lucky.
He did everything to read books.
There was not any hard work or anything.
So, he couldn't understand why Marie was thinking about the studio over her life.
He realized that perhaps it has something to do with the emotions of obsession and adoration that she exudes now.
"Um… it's fine."
"Ha, but…"
"It's really okay. It'll be alright. Rather than that, could you go with someone and check where the secret passage is leading? Just in case."
At Oliver's words, Marie bowed her head in response.
"Yes. I will, Master."
"Okay, thank you."
After Marie left, Oliver thought to himself.
It's not like Oliver didn't understand anything of what Marie was trying to say.
He got enough money, but that was according to Oliver's standards.
Even Oliver knew that it was a very small amount when compared to the whole.
Nevertheless, Oliver decided not to care.
Oliver didn't know what kind of existence the firefly (Paladin) was, but from the words of the people around him, from the message of the pharmacist, and from the records of Joseph, he could deduce that they were like a kind of natural enemy that was quite opposite to the warlocks.
So Oliver was just going to wait for the predator to disappear.
.... But, on the other hand, he was also curious.
What kind of existence are they to be called the natural enemies of the warlocks?
Maybe they are beings who can tell him about the beautiful light that he saw.
These two conflicting thoughts collided inside Oliver.
One was the survival instincts that wanted him to lay low to survive.
The other was the curiosity to satisfy the desire for knowledge.
Both greatly influenced Oliver.
As the two thoughts collided, a silent war broke out within Oliver, and at that moment, someone approached him.
"Master…?"
"...what is it?"
Because of the little war that broke out in his head, Oliver responded later than usual.
The disciple misunderstood that Oliver was upset, so the disciple who was about to speak was even more scared.
"Oh, I'm sorry. But, I really think I should tell you the news."
"Okay. Please feel free to speak. What is it?"
"… Dominic, the owner of the Dominic family has arrived."
Oliver thought the disciple must have been mistaken, but that didn't seem to be the case.
Dominic, the owner of the Dominic family, who controlled the wineham along with Joseph and Anthony was in the basement of the safe house that Joseph had prepared.
They were confronting Marie and the others in the basement with only four of them.
They didn't appear to be fighting with emotions or black magic.
In fact, Oliver greeted them warmly when he went down.
"Hey, you're not dead, you're still alive."
"Yes, how are you?"
Oliver spoke as if he had met a neighbor.
Marie and the others, who were nervous, quickly found peace at Oliver's appearance, which made them relieve their guard.
"I think you came here to say something… is that right?"
"Oh, You knew it."
"Before that, can I ask you a question?"
"What?"
"May I ask how did you find this place?"
Dominic had a puzzled look when he heard Oliver's question.
"Are you curious about that in such a situation?"
"Um…yes."
"…haaa, Fine. It's not a big deal. Every safe house has a basement and a tunnel. In most cases, they are connected to each other so that you can run away when needed. I came by searching for such places through the sewers."
"I see. Did you use black magic?"
"… Yes. We used [Sensible Nose], a specialty of our disease-based black magic. It can dramatically enhance the sense of smell. Using this we can follow the smell of people even in the stinky sewer."
Oliver stored that information in his head.
Although he neglected to explore black magic due to many recent curiosities, he couldn't deny that exploring black magic was fun.
"Wow….."
Dominic's face showed dissatisfaction looking at Oliver's pure admiration.
His impression of Oliver kept worsening, but still, he didn't show outright displeasure.
Instead, his emotions turned more cunningly than before.
"So, can I tell you why I came, now?"
"Of course, feel free."
Dominic looked at Oliver for a moment, then opened his mouth.
"I don't know whether you know, they got Anthony."
"You mean the head of the Anthony Family?"
"Yes. Is there anyone else other than him in this situation? The paladin or something went straight to his place, so he couldn't avoid them. I'm pretty sure since I heard it directly from the disciples who escaped."
"Um… I see."
Oliver responded without showing any interest in the news.
Dominic, who didn't like Oliver's response, blew up with anger.
"Why are you acting as if it's someone else's business!! After Anthony, we'll be next."
"Won't everything be fine if we just hide?"
"No. Those Paladin fu*kers are mostly tenacious. After all, they are God's fu*king noble hounds, once they were given order, they would follow it blindly until finishing it?"
"Um, I see… Do you happen to know about the Paladins?"
"What?"
"Can you tell me about them? Because I don't know much about them."
BANG!
Dominic smacked the wall with his bloodshot eyes.
The force with which he punched the wall was so strong that a minor dent formed on the wall, and the building shook slightly along with crumbled dust falling from the ceiling.
"Are you kidding me now?"
"… I'm sorry. I was really curious."
Dominic glared at Oliver hearing his answer, frowning even more.
A cold silence filled the space.
After a while, Dominic spoke again.
"Anyway, the paladins are ruthless motherfu*kers. They won't leave this place easily. Even Anthony got hit. So, we don't know when this sh*t will come to an end."
"So?"
"Let's hit them first."
"But the pharmacist told us to hide because he'll solve it himself…."
"Are we that old man's servants?!
Dominic was half right and half wrong.
It was true that the pharmacist made a lot of money thanks to the warlocks, but at the same time, the warlocks were also able to procure the ingredients and easily cash out the product without much difficulty, thanks to the pharmacist.
In addition, he also took care of all the other small cleaning up, but it was not a matter of arguing, so Oliver asked without dwelling much into it.
"Then… are you going to fight?"
"Yeah! Why should we have to be afraid of those fu*kups in the first place?!"
"But, I heard they have the upper hand when fighting warlocks…"
"Still, if we work together, we can win. All the disciples from Anthony's side came to my side, so the actual combat power will be equal. If Oliver's family also joins us then we can bang those motherfu*kers… what do you say….?"
Dominic stopped speaking after looking at Oliver raising his hand quietly.
Oliver answered calmly.
"Ah, I have a few things to tell you. First of all, the name of our family is not the Oliver family but the Joseph family."
".... What?"
"I didn't change the name. First of all, it's a family established by Master, and I've only been in charge of it for a while."
"What kind of dogsh*t…"
"And secondly, I have no intention of fighting."
"What…! Why?"
"It's a dangerous enemy, do we really need to fight?"
"Are your ears clogged?! I said they are going to chase us to the end?!"
"Then, why don't we keep running until they go away?"
"FU*KING CHICKENSH*T!"
PTOOEY
Dominic growled and spat in Oliver's face.
Oliver didn't show any reaction despite getting spit on his face.
He just wiped off the spit on his face.
If being a coward could keep him alive, Oliver didn't mind being called a coward.
Dominic changed his posture.
"Then what? While we fight them covered in blood, are you guys going to have a tea party?"
"No, I don't think so, but I'm grateful… Maybe, I'll repay you in some other way"
"This fu*ker. I'm going to Fu*king kill him right now…!"
Dominic, who approached Oliver not being able to contain his anger, stopped suddenly.
A shadow tentacle was holding his ankle.
"Um… I'm not sure, are you planning to fight with me now?"
Oliver said politely, showing his palms as if calming the other person.
His demeanor was very polite, but the shadow tentacles that wrapped around Dominic's ankles were as strong as the roots of a thousand-year-old tree.
All of a sudden, the disciples of both sides took a fighting stance and the tension between them grew.
Oliver asked again.
"Can you please try to understand?"
"... Everyone, let's go back."
"What?"
"Let's get going! We have to fight against the paladin soon, so we don't have time to play with these cowards."
At those words, the disciples of the Dominic family loosened their posture reluctantly, and the disciples of the Joseph family also followed them.
Oliver released the shadow tentacles that were holding Dominic's ankles.
"…Once I deal with those motherfu*ers, it'll be your turn. JUST WAIT."
"Thank you for your understanding. I will greet you differently next time."
Dominic looked at Oliver with a disgusted expression as Oliver greeted them, after which, everyone from the Dominic family returned through the secret passage they had come through.
Ultimately the visit came to an end and all the disciples in the basement took a deep breath.
"It's all good. I thought something serious was going to happen."
"Me too...."
"I'm glad we didn't have any problems."
"Get ready to go."
It was the voice of Oliver who intervened softly.
"What?"
"I don't feel good about this, and it could be dangerous to stay here, so pack the bags again and get ready to leave this place."
"….."
No one said anything.
Everyone looked at Oliver with strange expressions on their faces.
Marie came to her senses and opened her mouth.
"What are you all doing?! Master says we should move!"
Hearing Marie's words, everyone came to their senses and began to move.
Peter came over and asked.
"Where are we going, Master…?"
"I don't know. Are there any other safe houses?"
The senior disciple nodded at Oliver's question.
"Yes, there are two or three. They are less well maintained and farther away from here."
"Good. Take everyone there."
"Yes?"
"Uh… I have somewhere else to go."
"Where, Master?"
Marie cut into the conversation and asked with startled eyes.
"I'm going to follow the Dominic family."
"What?"
"They said they're going to fight with the paladins, so I'm going to see what kind of beings they are."
Marie gave Oliver an absurd look, but for Oliver, it was a revolutionary idea.
Observing the paladins who will be fighting the Dominic family while secretly hiding.
It was the best compromise that could satisfy Oliver's curiosity while minimizing the risk.
However, for some reason, Marie didn't seem to think so.
"Master, but it's too risky."
"It's okay. I'm confident that I can hide well. Everyone, please take shelter in a safe place."
Marie's emotions fluctuated rapidly.
Negative emotions such as confusion, fear, worry, etc. started popping up one after another
It was on the same level as a person fighting a battle or a person on the verge of death.
Oliver couldn't understand why Marie was exuding such emotions.
"I will only take a few test tubes, so you can take the rest with you. Where is the test tub…"
Someone grabbed Oliver's hem.
It was Marie.
"Marie?"
"Then, I'll come with Master. At least take me with you. It's too dangerous to go alone."
Oliver looked at the hem of his robe.
Surprisingly, Marie's emotions shone brighter than ever before.
Her emotions flowed through her fingertips and even made contact with Oliver's body.
It was an interesting reaction.
Oliver didn't know why, but he wanted to know more about it if he had time.
But now there was something even more important than that for Oliver.
"It's okay, Marie."
"That, but…"
"It's because I'm more comfortable being alone. I have to move quickly and covertly."
At those words, Marie's hands dropped down.
"…are you saying that…. me…. I'll be… getting in the way?"
Marie's emotions fluctuated fiercely.
Negative emotions started shining more than before.
Disappointment, despair, fear, self-hatred.
Muddy feelings from unknown roots rose up.
Oliver looked into Marie's eyes and said.
"Um… that kind of interpretation is also possible…. Everyone, please evacuate carefully."
Saying those words, Oliver left.