"I'm fairly certain this isn't your patrol zone, Mr. Humarc. What are you doing here?"
Kuon walked closer. His face, his steps, and his voice were all kept carefully calm, but anyone who noticed the ready metal rod hidden in his hand would know at once that he was on guard.
In this dark marsh, Kuon's figure, almost entirely white, looked like an illusion, making Humarc swallow involuntarily as he stared at him.
The light of the giant moon overhead reflected off Kuon's monocle as he tilted his head slightly. "I'm sure you have a good explanation, don't you?"
Humarc instinctively knew that drawing out the conversation with Kuon would only work against him, so he had no other choice here. Humarc let out a resigned sigh as he turned to look toward the river not far from where he stood.
Kuon looked in the same direction. Given the darkness, nothing seemed visible at a glance. But once his eyes adjusted, what he saw there wasn't the pleasant sight one might hope for, but evidence of an 'accident'.
In the middle of the river, whose current had now slowed, there was a strange patch that didn't seem to flow along with the rest. A black pool that looked filthy and dense—so dense that even the river's current failed to sweep it away.
Kuon turned back to look at Humarc. He seemed to be struggling to explain, so Kuon tried to steer him into talking.
"Black Tide, is it? Do you know something about it?"
"… What I'm about to say is going to sound insane. Will you believe me?"
Humarc finally opened his mouth, though his face looked as though he had just swallowed a bitter insect when Kuon answered, "Whether I believe you or not depends on your explanation."
Humarc then drew a breath and, after carefully choosing his words, finally spoke. "The information we received from the UAA might be false. No, calling it false isn't quite right either. 'Incomplete' is probably the better word."
"… Tell me more."
Kuon could already feel a bad premonition after hearing that. As much as possible, what he wanted right now was to finish this mission quickly and without complications. That way, he could continue working on his plan.
"Before that," Humarc shook his head. "Can I trust you? Are you willing to keep this a secret?"
'I can, but my broadcast system can't.'
He wasn't certain whether his stream was still active or had automatically cut off the moment he began this secret conversation with Humarc. Now that he thought about it, he probably should have asked Kanon about that first.
"If you believe this is critically important information, then fine, I'll keep it. But if it also concerns the safety of many people, including my own team members, I believe I have the right to speak up."
What Kuon said sounded reasonable enough that Humarc couldn't help but shrug his shoulders, his face twisted with difficulty. "I suppose that's fair," he said.
"Do you remember what happened this afternoon?"
This afternoon. If that question was coming from Humarc, the answer could only be about when they had been at the village chief's residence to report their presence for the mission. Kuon remembered all of it clearly, and that was precisely why his impression of everything here was somewhat poor—especially of Humarc.
Back then, Humarc had caused a scene by repeatedly pressing the village chief to answer questions Kuon wasn't convinced were relevant to the mission. But both parties—the village chief and Humarc—were equally stubborn, so there had been no common ground for the issue that had suddenly arisen.
That was why Kuon had decided to intervene. He had cut off every question Humarc raised, and also cut off every exchange with the village chief.
In truth, Humarc, as the one who had started it, was the party at fault here. But Kuon hadn't made any judgment about it, since he was still uncertain about the situation.
"Kuon, are you also starting to suspect the village chief?"
Kuon shook his head before letting out a tired sigh. "My suspicion of him is nothing more than something basic, without any deep reasoning behind it. I'm only suspicious because he wouldn't answer your questions to end the conversation, even though I knew those questions weren't very relevant. On the other hand, why do you suspect the village chief?"
No matter how foolish it sounded, Humarc surely had a reason behind his suspicion. And every question Humarc had asked the village chief wasn't entirely irrelevant either, even if not entirely connected.
'A missing person, huh?'
Just from hearing the questions Humarc had raised, Kuon had already guessed several things forming the basis of Humarc's suspicion toward the village chief. But that was a personal matter. Mixing personal issues into a mission carried out by a large team, especially a team that wasn't well known to one another, could become a problem. If Humarc wanted to search for a missing person in this village, he could have submitted a private request to the UAA or to the village chief directly. But that was the key issue. The village chief had kept his mouth shut no matter how hard Humarc pressed, using the excuse of an 'ongoing mission' to cover up the conversation.
That was why Kuon had flagged both of them—not just one side—as a potential problem.
"I'll assume you only have the information the UAA provided when you took this mission. But, Kuon, there are some things they've been hiding—information that was never disclosed to us."
The smell of trouble grew stronger, and Kuon began furrowing his brow with displeasure. "Is it serious?"
"For our mission going forward? I'm not certain, but it should be. What they're hiding isn't something especially dangerous, at least not for now, but I believe we have a right to know it, because it concerns the lives of those who went missing some time ago."
Kuon closed his eyes, trying to hold his patience and process all the vague information Humarc was giving him. "So in the end this is about missing people, isn't it? Let me guess—they went missing after Black Tide started becoming active around here. Am I right?"
Humarc widened his eyes, both startled and disappointed. It seemed the guess had been correct.
Kuon ignored Humarc's question about how he had guessed it so perfectly, and instead asked back, "That alone is suspicious. But it's still not enough to be certain. The military and the UAA might genuinely be withholding the information to prevent panic, especially given they're currently short on personnel to provide proper security. But setting all that aside—Humarc, where did you learn this?"
Humarc instinctively understood that depending on his answer, Kuon's next move could shift drastically. There was no anger in those eyes, only pure suspicion that seemed capable of judging him the moment it pleased.
After swallowing once, Humarc finally spoke. "I… honestly didn't know anything at first. In fact, I never even intended to bring my team to take this mission. But… one of my team members has a contact in the Knight Order, and they leaked a bit of important information—about Black Tide activity growing increasingly massive and suspicious across nearly every affected area around the city of Narc't."
"Several people had already fallen victim to the 'plague' it carried, despite never having made direct contact with Black Tide, and naturally—they died not long after. But that wasn't what moved me, because Apocrypt spreading from feral Black Tide is fairly common. At first I simply ignored the news. But… then I heard about people starting to be reported missing, and that made me uneasy."
"What's more, the Knight Order also seemed uneasy, as rumors started spreading among them about signs of an impending Deas Rift. But… the Deas Rift phenomenon isn't quite that rare, so I wasn't too surprised at first. That's why, when the military and the UAA started recruiting teams to take over guard duty from the Knight Order, I didn't sign my team up right away—the risk was too great, and the gain my team could expect wasn't worth much either."
Humarc paused to look at the pool of black sludge consuming the surrounding area minute by minute. Once Black Tide became active and started spreading, there was no sure way to stop it. The best people could do was hope its spread wouldn't reach settlement areas or other vital zones like farms and livestock land.
Fortunately, Black Tide's 'lifespan' was relatively short. After being active and spreading for several weeks, it would eventually enter a dormant phase and stop spreading. Even so, there still wasn't much that could be done: Black Tide remained far too dangerous for direct contact with any biological life form, and there was still no way to eliminate it other than letting time do the work.
Humarc fully understood the danger, which was why he never actively pursued missions involving Lios's 'anomaly disasters'.
"But in the end you took this mission anyway. Why? Especially since you should have known from the start that there was missing information in this mission."
Humarc's face shifted into mild discomfort. He tried to avoid the sharp gaze Kuon had been fixing on him all this time.
"That… one of my contacts is a resident of this village."
The moment Humarc said that, Kuon's mind immediately connected all the loose threads that had been floating in his head. Now everything made sense, especially Humarc's behavior toward the village chief during their first conversation.
"That contact of yours, they're missing, aren't they?" Kuon guessed quickly, immediately confirmed by Humarc with a nod.
"He never came back after going hunting. After three days, he was declared missing. I really didn't want to get too involved in something already so clearly dangerous, and I didn't want to drag my team or anyone else into it either. But if a Deas Rift truly is coming, and it's the cause behind my contact's disappearance, then standing by and doing nothing is no longer an option."
He had been desperate. That was why he had pressed the village chief that afternoon, hoping to find any scrap of information he needed. He was certain the village chief was hiding something, but he had no way to prove it. Fortunately, Kuon had stepped in just before things spiraled out of control, and the incident had been avoided.
"I see. So, has your investigation made any progress?"
Humarc shook his head briefly before smiling wryly. "Unfortunately, no. I'm confident in a fight, but investigative matters like this I usually leave to someone else, so I'm not particularly skilled at it."
"Alright, that's not a problem. I'm already involved, so I'll help out. For now, head back to your post. We'll talk again once we've found something."
Kuon turned quickly and was about to leave, but Humarc stopped him. "This whole thing… I think a similar pattern happened before, somewhere in the past. I don't know the details, but that Karanta kid on your team might know something, because the location I'm thinking of is an old Karanta settlement area here in Czes'na."
"… I'll keep that in mind."
***
Once he returned to his guard post, he quickly found Kanon still staring blankly at the campfire.
"What do you intend to do now? Ignore it?"
Kanon's question had already confirmed everything Kuon wanted to ask, so he sighed and sat down beside her. "So my broadcast really is still active, huh."
"The viewers were more than happy to leak your conversation to me," Kanon said flatly, raising two fingers in a peace sign aimed at Kuon.
"I can't ignore this matter entirely, since it's closely tied to the mission we're carrying out. But… right now there's nothing I can do either. There's no solid evidence yet that could resolve this directly, and Humarc's investigation has also hit a dead end. So… for now I intend to wait and watch how the situation develops."
"Won't it all be too late by the time you finally decide to act?"
Kanon's concern made sense. Honestly, Kuon had already considered the same thing. But there was one thing still worth keeping in mind.
"Not quite. Since we took on this mission, we've inevitably become tied to whatever problems will emerge down the line, so eventually we'll have to act regardless. But for now, I want to see which direction this situation moves, and how Humarc will respond to it. Of course, it would be ideal if he could resolve the matter before it grows any bigger, so we don't have to make any unnecessary decisions."
Kanon nodded to show her understanding, then turned her gaze back to the flickering campfire. "So, are you going to ask the Karanta on our team too?"
Kuon gave a single shrug before tossing a dry branch into the dwindling fire. "Felix? I do intend to ask him later, but I'm not expecting much. He still seems too young, regardless."
Kanon still didn't quite understand phrases like 'looks young' or anything similar, since she had never been able to judge someone based on appearance. But when she heard Kuon say it, for some reason she felt fairly convinced.
It was true that Felix was even younger than Kanon. From their earlier introductions, Felix had mentioned he was seventeen this year—a year younger than Kanon. It wasn't surprising that the information Felix had might be flawed, especially if it concerned something that had happened so long ago.
"The details from Humarc are too vague, so I can't really count on Felix to fill in the gaps."
***
The next morning, during the planned joint guard shift, Kuon began questioning Felix about what he had heard from Humarc the night before. The result was exactly as he had expected.
"Something like that did happen, but it was when I was still little, so I don't know the details. But… it's true, that whole pattern is the most common sign of an impending Deas Rift that the elders in our village always taught us."
Felix's face looked somewhat disappointed as he answered. Partly because he felt a little useless for wasting a good chance to talk with Kuon. But he wasn't lying. The fact was, he genuinely knew almost nothing about a past event that had never been told to him in specific detail.
But his face suddenly brightened when he remembered something. "Oh, right. Speaking of Deas Rift, the most recent one happened not too long ago, in one of the regions of the Empire of Yvesh'aq. And just like what you described, the pattern of events was the same."
The incident itself had occurred in a region that was extremely closed off to the outside world, but it was information fairly easy for Felix to obtain.
Karanta like Felix were a branch race descended from the Karantia who lived in the Empire of Yvesh'aq. As a small clan dependent on other nations, they still maintained their own regional autonomy housing every member of their clan. Though they had split off and formed their own clan outside their homeland, the Karanta still kept connections and information networks deeply embedded in the Empire of Yvesh'aq, making information like this relatively easy for them to obtain.
"The location is somewhere in the southern part of the Empire. I believe it's a stretch of land the Empire uses for one of its logistics transport routes. Black Tide started becoming active almost at the same time the Deas Rift occurred there, about three months ago."
Deas Rift was a widely known type of anomaly disaster, but a fairly rare one. Like other anomaly disasters, the timing of its appearance couldn't be predicted. But once it occurred, the affected region was almost certain to be utterly destroyed.
No one knew when it first occurred. Deas Rift was a disaster variant that blackened the sky and unleashed numerous natural disasters and anomalies all at once. Earthquakes, massive storms, and meteor showers could all happen simultaneously depending on the location, and at the very end of it all, black pillars called 'Dead Piles' would begin falling, driving into the earth like needles.
Hearing this, Kuon felt curious and was tempted to see it firsthand, but considering how far the Empire of Yvesh'aq was from his current position, he set that idea aside. Besides, the Empire of Yvesh'aq was a nation closed off from the outside world, one that held its own race's sense of superiority in the highest regard. Kuon wasn't confident he could stand being in a place like that.
"Why do you want to know all of this?"
Vierra, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up. Her eyes looked bored as she focused her hearing on monitoring the surrounding area. As a Strigim, this was a physical advantage she rather enjoyed.
Kuon thought for a moment, then decided to share the information he had gotten from Humarc with Felix and Vierra. Of course, Humarc had asked him to keep all of it confidential, but Kuon had already said he reserved the right to speak up if it concerned the interests of his own team.
Once he was certain, he pulled a small wooden box from his pouch. It was something he had already prepared to convey the information to Felix and Vierra. Kuon tossed the small box to Vierra and said, "Last night I met Humarc and talked with him again."
The wooden box was now in Vierra's hands, and while she wore a startled expression glancing back and forth between Kuon and the box, Kuon rose from his seat alongside Kanon. "Go over the details in there. Kanon and I will go on a quick patrol. Either way, for now there's nothing we can do yet."
"For now, huh…."
Vierra murmured as Kuon's back grew smaller in the distance alongside Kanon. She opened the box and read the paper inside together with Felix. Its contents were exactly a summary of Kuon and Humarc's conversation the night before, with a few of Kuon's own suspicions about the situation added in.
"I don't fully understand the situation, but… this might end up being troublesome."
Felix let out a sigh right after Vierra said that. And with one simple motion, Vierra made certain the box and the paper containing the information in her hand burned perfectly to ash.
***
"Is it really alright to just give them that information so easily?"
In the middle of their patrol, Kanon suddenly asked, referring to the information Kuon had given Felix and Vierra.
Even so, Kuon answered with a slight shrug, saying, "Who knows. Don't you trust them?"
Kanon shook her head immediately. "I trust them to a certain extent, but that's all. At the very least, I don't want to hang my life on them."
Hearing that made Kuon smile faintly. At the very least, he was relieved that Kanon wasn't easily charmed into trusting someone unconditionally. And that was the right way to be.
"It's a small gamble. I deliberately gave it to Vierra first, because as a Strigim, she's able to move and carry out her duties quickly and almost silently, like an owl. Felix, on the other hand, is also fairly skilled at concealing himself, even if his appearance is a bit conspicuous and easy to spot. I gave them a 'request' to keep watching the surroundings."
Because of those special traits, Vierra and Felix were the perfect people for scouting and silent strikes. In fact, Kanon herself had already fallen victim a few times to just how little presence Vierra left with each step she took.
Kanon had accidentally bumped into Vierra a few times, simply because she could barely hear or sense her movement at all.
"In that case… what will we do after the investigation? And why are you bothering to get involved in something this unclear? Especially since our mission here is only two weeks long."
Kanon asked purely out of curiosity. At the very least, she didn't see Kuon as someone who liked jumping into other people's problems on a whim.
Kuon stayed silent for a moment, simply walking beside Kanon without saying a word. But then he finally spoke. "Our mission will indeed be done in two weeks, if and only if everything goes according to plan. The UAA and the client withheld important information from us, and something could happen because of that. The problem is, Deas Rift is a phenomenon that can't be predicted, and the recent state of the Black Tide also seems to be undermining the assumption that we can finish this mission on time."
They stopped walking. Kuon turned to the side, and Kanon followed suit. She had deliberately kept her eyes shut this whole time because the Aether display from the Black Tide was too intense for her eyes, but she decided to open them slightly now.
But a second after opening her eyes, an excruciating pain immediately surged through her head from both eyes.
Kuon used his own hand to cover Kanon's eyes and help her steady herself.
"The Black Tide is extremely thick around here. Yesterday, most of this area still looked green, but now the Black Tide has already started spreading—nearly the whole area is covered in that black sludge now. No wonder you were startled."
Kanon drew a long breath and let Kuon support her for a moment.
"… Is it really that bad?" Kanon asked, hoping Kuon could give her a straight answer. But Kuon only let out a tired sigh that sounded both irritated and resigned at once.
"I'm not certain. This is also the first time I've seen Black Tide this massive—the Black Tide from our previous mission feels like a puddle compared to this."
Kuon didn't even want to describe the sight before him any further to Kanon. The best he could put it was 'the landscape from yesterday had now completely vanished, swallowed by the black sludge'.
"This is a wide settlement area with thousands of lives living in it. If a Deas Rift truly happens here, not only the land but the people in it would be wiped out too—whether directly by the Deas Rift itself, or slowly by Apocrypt, which sooner or later would kill everyone all the same."
Deas Rift, Black Tide, and other disasters were one thing, but Apocrypt was a different matter altogether. Kuon still lacked solid information about that 'disaster'. What he knew was that Apocrypt was a kind of 'disease' that afflicted those who had made direct contact with Black Tide, or had even been exposed to it over a long period.
A disease with a mortality rate of 100% that he didn't even fully understand. That alone meant Kuon couldn't afford to act recklessly right now. But beyond all of that, there was at least one thing he still wanted to do.
"If possible, I also want to prepare an evacuation process for all the residents around here."
As an Adept assigned here, his mission was to complete it as well as possible. But the lack of information from both the UAA and the village chief inevitably frustrated him, since it proved both parties' unpreparedness in facing a disaster.
If other parties couldn't be relied upon, then he would just have to handle this matter on his own.
However things stood, turning a blind eye to innocent people suffering was something Kuon never wanted to do, so he had to prepare his own way of protecting them.
Kanon heard all of it and swallowed. Her hands clenched into fists as she imagined the expression Kuon must be wearing on his face right now.