Chapter 39
“By the way, where are you?”
Why did you go outside without fear?
What on earth did you think you were going to do in a situation like this?
Cheyan ran a hand roughly through his hair.
We need to find them before it gets dangerous.
No way… could they have already been taken by a monster…?
Wuuuuuuuush!
“Huh?”
“What’s that?”
“The trees…”
It was then.
With a strange resonance in the air, the black trees that had been covering the sky and shrouding the surroundings in darkness slowly began to shrink.
There was only one thing this phenomenon could mean.
“…The boss is dead?”
There was no way the entire Vacula would have been wiped out in such a short time.
Still, the disappearance of the black forest could only mean that the boss had been killed.
“Who on earth…?”
Ignoring the shock of those around, the area gradually began to brighten rapidly.
“Sister!”
Dada-da-da!
Yulia ran into the shop and threw herself into Ceres’ arms.
The child’s eyes instantly reddened, as if worried about Ceres having gone outside.
“Miss, are you hurt anywhere?”
“Are you alright?”
Others were also quick to ask about Ceres’ safety.
What had she gone outside to do?
Had she been checking on the mercenaries’ safety secretly?
Really? No, why would she…?
“I’m fine.”
Ceres ignored their questions and gently comforted the child for a moment.
Her violet eyes swept lightly across the shop.
There were no signs of an attack, but something strange was unfolding.
“What’s with the defensive magic around the shop? Did it break the protective stone I gave?”
“Oh, someone named Cheyan came by.”
“That guy?”
Surely he didn’t come to eat in the middle of a situation like this.
“He insisted so earnestly on receiving the protective stone you gave him… so he set up defensive magic around the shop in your place before leaving.”
“Protective stone?”
Ceres clicked her tongue at Butler Colin’s explanation.
Of all people, she had to run into him. Somehow, it felt like she was about to get caught up in another bothersome affair…
“The black forest seems to have been cleared.”
Seeing the clear sky slowly reappear, everyone let out a sigh of relief.
“Good thing the boss was caught so quickly. Since this happened inside the capital, the response was really fast.”
“I hope there wasn’t much damage elsewhere.”
“Exactly.”
Jay and Mark, seemingly worried about the surrounding shops, glanced out the window anxiously.
A black forest in such a busy area…
Could all those people have evacuated safely?
And what about the countless shops lined up endlessly?
Even from a glance outside, damaged buildings were sporadically visible.
“Doesn’t the country compensate for damage caused by the black forest?”
“That’s right. They compensate for everything.”
Colin nodded at Jay’s question.
All damages caused by the black forest were 100% covered by the country.
“Really? They cover everything?”
This was the first time she had heard that. Had it been like this in the past too?
Ceres’ eyes widened at their conversation.
As the head of the Elresia Count family, she had only wandered around the black forest herself and never paid attention to small compensations, so she didn’t know much about this side of things.
“Then I wonder if they’ll cover this too?”
“…Huh?”
Ceres quietly pointed to a corner of the shop.
There, remnants of broken chairs were still scattered around.
“Let’s ask them to compensate for this too.”
“……”
…But miss, you broke those. Not the monsters.
Despite that, Ceres dragged the chairs outside, determined to claim compensation for the shop that the monsters had passed through, and everyone could only give an awkward smile.
“I’ll do it, Miss!”
The only one who enthusiastically agreed with her was Colin, the faithful butler of the Draw family, seeing it as a good idea.
