13 Mink Street

The newcomer looked at Richard in surprise. Richard, seeing the reaction, understood it perfectly well; The newcomer was obviously a little overwhelmed by the warmth of a senior squad member.

As someone who had only recently joined the squad himself, and who had experienced just how easy it was for a newcomer to be overlooked, Richard felt that he should do something for this new arrival to help him integrate into the group as quickly as possible. Precisely because Richard had experienced that awkwardness himself, he did not want another newcomer to have to go through it all over again.

Most importantly, Richard felt an inexplicable liking for this newcomer. He instinctively wanted to get closer to him and look after him.

Thus, Richard directly slung an arm around the newcomer’s shoulders. The man was a bit tall, so Richard had to rise onto his toes to do it. “Don’t worry. With me looking after you from now on, you’ll soon feel the unique charm of our squad.”

The newcomer asked, “Do you... go to pastry shops often?”

Richard laughed. “Of course.”

“You’re... very familiar with them?”

“What kind of nonsense is that?” Richard tossed his head, trying to let his bangs meet the night wind at just the right angle so that his expression, under the moonlight, would produce a suitably world-weary aura. “Ah, they’re all just poor souls. Either their fathers lost money gambling, or their younger brothers and sisters need schooling, so if I can help a little, I help a little.”

“You—”

Richard lifted a hand to cut the newcomer off. “It can’t be helped. I’m simply that kind.”

At that moment, Nio and Karon walked back over. Immediately, everyone silently put on their masks. Every time the captain appeared, the entire atmosphere of the squad changed in an instant.

“Let me introduce him. This is the newcomer...” At that point, Nio looked toward Karon.

He immediately picked up. “The newcomer is Memphis.”

The newcomer said nothing, so Richard jabbed him in the chest with an elbow and teased, “Your name sounds just as awful as my father’s.”

“Tonight’s operation is a cleanup mission. Three Whip of Order squads will be acting together, and I’ve decided to divide our squad into two combat groups.

“I, Karon, Fannie, Paige, Wynn, Gray, Richard, and Memphis will form the first group under my direct command. The rest will form the second group under Marlow’s command.

“The first group will advance, probing and engaging in initial contact. The second group will maintain ample distance behind the first, remaining ready at all times to provide support or cut off retreat routes.”

Upon hearing the captain’s strategy, surprise appeared in everyone’s eyes. All of them had assumed this would be a simple cleanup operation, just a matter of dealing with some demonkin that had gone mad. They had even thought they would proceed in the same manner as usual, with their own squad heading out early to finish off whatever the mission was, collecting anything that could be stripped, not leaving the other two squads so much a chance to clean the battlefield.

Yet the captain’s current attitude made it clear that he was preparing to for an immediate retreat, should anything change. Obviously, in his view, this cleanup mission posed an extremely high level of risk.

“I do not want to see any member of this squad die, but if anyone insists on being careless, I can only choose to attend a memorial service.

“Let’s go!”

The entire squad boarded a freight train headed for the city’s outskirts. After arriving at their destination, everyone jumped from the train. Nio took the lead, and the first combat group advanced on foot, while the second group, following Marlow, remained in place, resting.

Their target was a coastal estate. It had once belonged to a prosperous family, but after the family had declined, even their home itself had been sold.

Naturally, this had not been an ordinary estate sale. It had likely been a place quite similar to Allen Manor. The difference was that the Allen family had managed to hold on to their ancestral lands, while this family had not.

For a family with a faith system, decline often meant that the family members were reduced to being treated as pigs in a pen. What they did not merely lose wealth, but their souls as well.

Before long, after crossing a low hill, a castle appeared ahead of them, angled towards the sea.

The castle was lit with electric lamps, and quite a few rooms in the castle were illuminated. An initial glance revealed nothing abnormal.

Paige laid down a simple concealment array, and the group paused to rest behind the hill.

Fannie spoke first, “This used to be Sandro Castle, and is now Arles Castle. The Arles family supplies ironsand and has business dealings with the church, but there were problems with the composition of the latest batch they delivered. There were far too many defective goods, so three days ago, the relevant department of the church sent people to demand an explanation.”

“And then?” Karon asked.

“And then the people sent to demand that explanation never came back.”

The fact that people sent out had never returned was enough, in itself, to explain the seriousness of the matter. If one simply replaced the Arles family in this case with the Allen family and thought things through, would the Allen family ever dare to adulterate a shipment intended to be delivered to the Church of Order? Clearly they would not.

On top of that, when faced with representatives sent by the Church of Order to question them, would the Allen family dare to detain such people, or even deal with them in some harsher manner? They would certainly not dare to do that either.

How could a mere family show such disrespect to the Church of Order?

Still, Karon had his doubts, so he asked, “So in other words, we don’t actually know the current situation inside the castle?”

“That’s right.”

“But the captain called this a cleanup mission.”

“They made a mistake so serious and caused trouble on this sort of scale, so regardless of whether the Arles family acted willingly or under compulsion, there is no longer any reason for it to continue existing.”

Karon nodded to show that he understood.

Whether demonkin were actually involved was no longer important; The Church of Order believed itself to have been offended, and since that was the conclusion, action was inevitable.

While every sign suggested that the Arles family, unless every last one of them had gone utterly insane, could not possibly have done such a thing of their own accord, the Church of Order clearly had no interest in digging into the reason.

That was indeed the kind of arrogance that was unique to an orthodox church.

Still, for those carrying out the night’s mission, this manner of defining the situation made things much easier. They did not need to hold anything back when they struck. After all, an extermination mission was certainly simpler than a rescue mission.

Richard plucked a blade of grass from beside him and put it into his mouth, chewing it bit by bit. Though the spicy, earthy taste nearly made him retch, he still maintained a cool expression and the seasoned gaze of an old hand. He looked at the newcomer beside him and saw that the man’s body was a little stiff. Richard shook his head and said, “I really don’t know if your luck is good or bad. The captain actually assigned you to the first combat group.”

There was a distinct undertone in his voice, as though only veterans were fit to shoulder such an important task.

The newcomer said nothing.

“Are you nervous?” Richard smiled. “Don’t be. I’ll protect you.”

As he spoke, Richard patted the pack on his back, but the newcomer still said nothing. He simply laid down and looked up at the stars.

Richard felt that this newcomer did not seem to understand the rules of being a newcomer at all. Richard had been taking such care of the man, and yet Memphis did not even know enough to respond.

Richard picked up his head to look over toward Karon on the other side. He wanted to go lie down beside Karon instead, as at least that way they could talk a little, and things would not be so dull.

Finally, Nio saw the people he was waiting for.

Two convoys came tearing along the road below the hillside. The reason it was easy to tell that they were two separate groups was because, even while driving, they were quite plainly cutting each other off and provoking one another.

At the sight of this, a mocking smile tugged at the corner of Richard’s mouth, and he said in a teasing tone, “Ah, what a pack of naughty children.”

After sighing over that, he glanced back at the newcomer lying beside him. The man was still just staring up at the stars.

The two convoys came to a stop at the main gate of Arles Castle. Two separate groups got out of the vehicles.

Both groups entered the castle together. Once all of them had gone in, every light in the entire castle abruptly went out, plunging it into utter darkness. The darkness itself was strangely deep, because not even the moonlight or starlight seemed able to fall inside the castle. It was as though the place had been cut off from the world in an instant.

“Something... feels wrong,” Richard said.

“What feels wrong?” The captain’s voice came from directly behind Richard, startling him badly.

He turned to look at Nio, who was suddenly standing beside him. Swallowing, Richard replied, “Captain, how could I possibly know that specifica—”

“It isn’t a barrier, and it isn’t a ritual array. It’s pure concealment.”

“Concealment? Is its body really that large?”

“‘Body’ doesn’t refer only to just flesh and blood. Anything that can extend outward from itself also counts as part of the body.”

“What do you think it is?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then do you think we ought to go in and take a closer look?”

“I don’t know.”

“So should I immediately report this upward and maintain observation on the spot?”

“I don’t know.”

Nio nodded. Far from being angry, he actually laughed. Despite still wearing his mask, Richard could clearly tell that the captain was laughing.

Seeing the captain have such a conversation with the newcomer allowed even Richard to understand that this newcomer was no simple figure. For a moment, Richard felt his face grow red.

The captain moved away, and taking advantage of the opening, Richard reached out and nudged the newcomer, asking, “What did you do before this?”

The newcomer turned his head to look at Richard, then turned back to continue staring at the stars.

Richard’s lips moved, and he delivered a completely silent barrage of abuse at the newcomer.

“What do you feel right now?” the captain’s voice sounded at Karon’s side.

“Feel?”

“Yes.”

Karon felt that the captain seemed to be treating him like some kind of Chasset divining gypsy. “I think it should be dangerous down there, but the specifics still depend on when those two squads come back out. Even if they don’t, there should still be some kind of disturbance inside the castle.”

Since the moment the two squads had entered the castle, there had been no movement at all. Of course, even though Karon’s group occupied higher ground, they could no longer see a single thing inside the castle.

“The feeling I have is very strong,” Nio replied. “That mass of darkness makes me very uncomfortable.”

Karon knew that the power in the captain’s body belonged to the Light system. As soon as that darkness had appeared and filled the entire castle, the captain must have sensed something.

Karon even suspected that the captain had likely had some sort of premonition before Karon himself. What the captain had said outside of Lemar’s Pottery Studio in the afternoon, about Karon taking an advance nap inside, might only have been said because the man did not want to play the role of the gypsy himself and so he had pushed it onto Karon.

In any case, this was the first time Karon had ever seen the captain, who always regarded himself as a hunting hound, behave with such... caution.

Time passed, second by second. Close to an hour had passed since the other two squads had entered the castle.

Throughout that entire stretch of time, Nio, as captain, had issued no further orders. Every member of the first combat group remained silently crouched or lying behind the slope.

“The time is about right. Fannie, notify the second group. In my name, report to the church that our three squads were struck by a strange attack inside the castle and that we’ve taken severe losses and require reinforcements.”

“Yes, Captain.”

After giving that order, the captain disappeared again. Then, on the far side of the slope, Karon saw the man reappear.

“Where’s your sword? Why didn’t you bring it this time?” Paige shifted over beside Karon and asked.

“It’s too heavy and didn’t seem convenient.”

“Oh, I see.” Paige reached out and lightly patted the back of Karon’s hand, her eyes on where the captain currently stood. “Don’t you think the captain’s a little strange tonight?”

“The captain must have his reasons.”

“I know that, of course.” Paige rolled her eyes at Karon and said no more. She simply laid flat and began idly toying with her nose ring with her fingertips.

Suddenly, the darkness shrouding Arles Castle began to dissipate, and the lights suddenly came back on.

A group of people emerged from the castle gate. They appeared to be the members of those two Whip of Order squads. They got back into the same vehicles they had arrived in, and the cars started up almost at once, their headlights blazing once more. The convoys turned around and began heading back the way they had come, and even during the return journey, they were still cutting one another off and provoking each other.

The whole thing was unspeakably strange.

All three squads had received the same mission, which meant that the nature of their mission could not possibly be trivial. Those two squads had gone into the castle and come back out, yet there had not been any sign of disturbance within the castle?

In that case, just what exactly had they gone in there to do?

The only reasonable explanation was that Arles Castle had likely shown sufficient sincerity in its apology, and handed over the true culprit while also providing enough of a reward to satisfy the two squads, in addition to letting them take one person back to report as completion. After all, the extent of “cleaning” in a cleanup mission was still determined by the ones performing the cleaning. That meant by each individual squad captain.

At this point, the two squads were effectively returning after completing their mission, but if things were really so simple, what explained that earlier darkness?

Nio reappeared among his squad, and he ordered, “All personnel, withdraw. Fannie, send word to the second group: have them find a way to intercept those two convoys.”

“Yes, Captain.”

And so, after waiting on the slope for nearly two full hours and doing nothing at all, the group began withdrawing. Even so, not a single person complained.

After retreating for roughly a quarter of an hour, they saw the convoys ahead on the small road. Every car had been pulled over to the side of the road. The headlights were still on, and the engines were still running.

Marlow and the others stood to either side of the vehicles. When they saw their captain return with his group, they approached on their own initiative, reporting, “Captain, something happened. We were moving up the road to intercept the convoys, according to your orders, only to find all these vehicles parked along the roadside. There isn’t a single person inside any of them.”

Nio went over to the vehicles and opened a door on one of the cars. He reached in to touch the seats, then leaned his body inside the car and sniffed. He could find nothing out of the ordinary.

The two squads had clearly driven out in those cars. There was no reason at all for them to have abandoned the vehicles there and continue on foot, so where exactly had the people from those two squads gone? Or rather, who exactly had driven those cars out?

“Squad, withdraw and wait for reinforcements!” Captain Nio gave his order. This also meant that the mission, at this point, was almost certainly considered a failure. Nio had no intention of pressing on.

The squad began moving back toward the railroad where they had jumped from the train. Along the way, there was a place where the road and the railroad intersected; The railway ran above, and the road passed beneath it through the hollow of an arched bridge.

Just as the squad reached that location, lights appeared within the hollow, and one car after another drove out. They were honking at one another, cutting one another off, and quite a few even had people leaning out of the windows, raising their middle fingers at each other.

The number of cars, their models, and even their license plates were exactly the same as the vehicles the squad had found abandoned along the road behind them.

“Stop those cars!” Nio gave an order, and the squad moved onto the road, Fannie firing a red signal flare from her rifle.

The two convoys came to a stop. The doors opened, and a large crowd of people got out.

Immediately following that, two men wearing silver masks stepped forward from the crowd formed by the two squads. One of them asked, “Is that Nio’s squad?”

The other replied, “It has to be. I already heard from others in Port Mulberry that every time they move, they act like hunting hounds; sneaking off early to eat the meat themselves and not leaving so much as scraps for anyone else.”

“Damn, looks like we came late again this time. The matter at the castle must already have been resolved by them.”

Nio walked forward and looked at the two captains standing before him. “I’m Nio.”

“Hello, Nio. I’m Anthony.”

“Kassel.”

Nio removed his mask to reveal his face, and then said, “Take your masks off now.”

“Nio, what exactly do you mean by that? We’re still on a mission.” Despite saying that, Anthony still removed his own mask, revealing a gaunt face.

“What’s this about?” Kassel also took off his mask, exposing a bearded face.

Nio’s eyes moved across both men’s faces, yet he said nothing.

“Has your squad already dealt with the castle?” Anthony asked.

“Nio, you can’t have us make this trip for nothing!” Kassel shouted. “At least leave me something so I can treat my men to a late-night meal.”

“I’m sorry...”

“Heh, so it really has already been dealt with.”

“Damn it! There’s not even room to negotiate? This mission was assigned to all three of our squads together!”

Nio looked at the two of them and said, “I’m very sorry, but I suspect both of you are already dead.”

Anthony and Kassel immediately showed signs of wariness. Anthony drew a whip, while two curved blades appeared in Kassel’s hands as he raised them across himself. Seeing their captains assume defensive stances, the squad members of both teams behind the man also entered a state of combat readiness.

Nio rolled his sleeve back to expose a silver watch on his wrist. He then said, “Check your watches.”

“What the hell do you mean by that? Did you just get weaned or lose the power of speech?” Kassel cursed directly.

Nio said, “Four-oh-five.”

Anthony lowered his head to glance at his watch, his eyes tightening as he answered, “One-oh-five...”