A group of fair-haired individuals met for breakfast at the inn they spent the night, refreshing the information about the investigation they traveled to that part of the Empire for.
"In the end, all we can say is that something changed in the pattern of the Deep Dusk Dullahan."
Rose concluded with a tired sigh.
"Something changed my ass! We're finding more and more headless monster corpses only to discover the missing head in a completely different area, already decomposed! That's not a change in pattern. That's some sort of mutation!"
Alenas scoffed at the albino human, smacking her hand against the table.
"I'm more concerned about the levels of the decapitated monsters. There is no way that the Deep Dusk Dullahan that we have information on could just kill all of them like that."
"Not to mention that the one assumption about it evolving in a way that allowed it to use fire magic was wrong, too. There's not even a trace of fire whenever it goes."
Stein pointed out, and Viran added with a bitter expression.
"It also turned a whole lot more elusive, didn't it? It's been a while since anyone actually saw it instead of just investigating its tracks."
Rose ended up leaning back into his seat, tossing a half-eaten sandwich back on his plate.
"Suspicious."
The wolf beastman agreed with a solemn nod before biting into a whole piece of ham on the bone that he ordered.
"Our oh-so-kind Cardinals said that it isn't a high-priority mission since no damage was done to the members of the intelligent races…"
"Viraaaaaaan! You said you don't want anyyyyy!"
The part-succubus began to speak, taking a moment to steal a juicy tomato from the vegetable salad of the half-elf, who cried out, grabbing onto his arm and shaking him while pouting.
"...but let's be honest, the only reason why we got no news about members of intelligent races getting attacked is because no one who gets attacked by it survives."
"You took another one! I can't believe you actually took another one!"
Despite being shaken back and forth, Viran not only ate the initial tomato but also stole another one, much to Alenas's dismay.
"I agree. Even back when the population of monsters was oddly low, the number of travelers going missing while traveling by land did not decrease in the slightest."
The leader of the group, a monstrous white-haired man who already finished his meal, took a sip from his jug with a bitter expression.
"Nooooooo! Viraaan! No! No way! OOOOMNMN!"
While the part-succubus snatched the third tomato out of the half-elf salad despite her fearless defense, the girl called out in adorable grumpiness and clung onto Viran's forearm, twisting herself around it and ending up on his lap from where she was in the prime position to chomp down on the tomato…
…which resulted in her nibbling on Vrian's thumb and index finger…
"...you make so much noise at night, could you at least keep it down during meals…?"
Stein's ears twitched at the high-pitched cries Alenas let out, which prompted him to grit his teeth and complain.
"...Viran started it… He stole my tomatoes…"
The half-elf who managed to get her tomato back grumbled, not sitting back up and instead rolling away from the beastman, turning her face towards Viran's stomach.
"True. Sorry, Stein, it is my fault."
"You're not going to apologize to me!?"
Viran admitted, apologetically raising one hand towards his comrade, to which Alenas immediately grumbled at him, poking his thigh while pouting.
"Here, grumpy princess."
"!!! Aaaan~!"
The man rolled his eyes, taking a hold of Alenas's bowl of salad, taking it upon himself to start feeding her while she laid in his lap opening her mouth like a baby bird.
"..."
Zane observed the two of them in silence for a few moments…
"...haaa… I want to return to the Academy for a bit. Is anyone against it?"
…finally, it appeared as if he had given in and sighed before looking at all of his comrades and asking.
"It's fine~ If you use one of Rose's devices, you can take care of whatever business you have and come back if we need you, boss."
The appeased Alenas nuzzled up to Viran while raising her hand to show Zane a gesture of approval.
"You haven't snitched on any of us. You scrub our back. We scrub yours~"
Viran smirked, winking at the monstrous man.
"No objections."
Stein assured, returning to his ham.
"Actually, I also wanted to request permission to return to Jade City. The rare materials I ordered for a new device that should help us track the Deep-Dusk Dullahan I came up with should have already arrived, and I want to pick them up."
Rose straightened his back and announced with his usual expression.
"If you want, I can pick them up for you."
"Thank you for the offer, but the shady merchant I'm dealing with will not hand my order to anyone else. Family rules and so on."
Zane offered, but Rose waved his hand dismissively with an apologetic smile.
"Didn't you swear an oath to cut ties with your past?"
"Hey, you scratch my back, I scratch yours. The higher-ups don't need to know everything."
Viran chuckled playfully, making Rose smirk back and shrug his shoulders.
"Do some investigating while we're gone, but don't rush into danger. Keep the emergency devices and message scrolls on you at all times, and don't hesitate to use them. I can always make more."
"Sure, mom~! We will not get too far away from home~!"
Rose got serious again, reminding the trio that would stay behind, prompting Alenas to salute him from her spot - that still being Viran's lap, of course.
"I'll keep those two away from danger."
To make the scene complete, Stein promised while crunching through the ham's bone.
Shortly after, Zane crawled out from the darkness under his bed back in the Jade Academy's dormitory.
"Oh, Daniel is already up?"
The white-haired man raised his brows at the sight of the empty bed, surprised, considering the fact that his roommate had a habit of sleeping in late on weekends.
Without the need to explain his rather horror-esque appearance, Zane fixed his clothes and exited the room and then the boys' dormitory.