Rebuild World

Chapter 119, Togami’s Resolve

Elena and her team went to the city district of the Mihazono ruin again. Akira was driving his vehicle while looking at his surroundings, the area was cleaner than yesterday. Most of the wreckages from yesterday had been cleaned up, or at least, moved to the side of the road.

Akira found that a bit strange as he mumbled.

“The road is already cleaned, but who exactly did that?”

Carol answered his question.

“It might be the squad sent by the Hunter Office to secure the city district of the Mihazono ruin. I bet they cleaned the road for carrying supplies to the frontline.”

“Ahh, now that you mention it, they’re doing something like that, huh. If they finally completely secure the city district, I wonder if the SOS emergency request would stop coming.”

“It depends on how far they secure the city district. Although it’s only my guess, I think that squad would withdraw after they clean up some monsters in the inner area of the city district. I believe they’ll just clean up the monsters in the inner area that disrupt the Hunter Office from maintaining its branch and then they’ll just check to make sure that no monsters are wandering into the wasteland before withdrawing, I’m pretty sure they won’t do anything more than that.”

“Is it okay if I ask you why do you think so?”

“Let’s see. It’s just simply because Mihazono ruin is too big of a ruin for the Corporate Government to completely secure and control, not to mention the area around it. After all, it’s not an easy thing to keep their guard up all the time against the monsters that keep coming from unknown locations inside the ruin. But well, I’m sure it’s possible for the Corporate Government to do that if they get serious, but I don’t think the profit that they can get from doing so is worth the expense. Basically, they would have done that if it might bring them a lot of profit. As a matter of fact, they had done that in the past, the Corporate Government created Kugamayama city in order to secure Kuzusuhara ruin.”

Carol continued.

“And even if some monsters from the Mihazono ruin wander into the wasteland, they’re highly unlikely to cause any fatal troubles to the nearby cities, so I’m sure they just ignore it too. And even if they do, the cities would also dispatch their defense squad here. Whichever the case, I’m sure that the current squad will pull back after confirming the situation around the ruin.”

As far as Akira could remember, the monsters had attacked Kugamayama city 3 times, he had no idea if those attacks happened because someone made a miscalculation or something. Although the inner wall was not damaged at all, those attacks did some damage to the lower district, especially to the slum city, but that might as well because it was designed to be so.

Akira listened closely to Carol’s explanation.

Carol’s explanation was actually the result of her analyzing the huge amount of information that she had gathered. Akira did not have that information, he did not even have the ability to obtain them, while Carol had both.

Akira who noticed that felt a bit of admiration toward Carol, and Carol noticed that thanks to her sharp senses toward such things.

As Akira showed amazement and interest in a piece of information that any veteran Hunters would know. It showed just how he was lacking in the basic knowledge of being a Hunter, and judging from his impressive fighting ability, that was a really strange thing. It was one of the downsides from quickly attaining power due to relying on Alpha’s support.

Carol then thought.

[Akira is, strangely enough, clueless about the basic common knowledge for Hunters given that he’s so powerful. I’m honestly curious why that is, but let’s put that aside for later, as for now...]

Carol pretended to smile innocently at Akira.

“Akira, you’re that kind of Hunter who doesn’t do much research about being a Hunter, right? Like the popular ruins at the moment, or what kind of relics that you can sell for more money at the moment, or what kinds of equipment are famous right now, or what the other Hunters are doing, right?”

“...Well, that’s true.”

If he had to make an excuse, Akira could say that it had not even been that long since he learned how to write his own name. So forget basic common knowledge for Hunters, he was not in a situation where he could learn basic common knowledge for the people who live in the eastern district. Honestly speaking, Akira was interested in that kind of thing too, but since he spent most of his days training and studying, he had no time to gather such information.

“In that case then, I can help you learn about them. After all, it’s better if you know about those kinds of things to some degree.”

But Akira replied with a rather twisted answer.

“I’m already paying you 10,000,000 Aurum now. I have no plans to pay you more, you know.”

Carol smiled bitterly and said.

“I won’t ask you any money for sharing such kind of basic knowledge with you. I’m just thinking of casually telling you like for a subject in a casual talk.”

“...In that case then, it’ll be great if you can tell me about some.”

Although Akira hesitated for a bit, he decided to take that offer since he was indeed interested in it too.

“Got it. First of all, well, let’s see, since we’re in Mihazono ruin, let’s start with the basic knowledge about Mihazono ruin.”

Carol then started explaining about Mihazono ruin in a good mood.

Akira listened closely to Carol’s explanation. Carol thought that it was a good chance for her to gather approval points from Akira as she continued her explanation with a smile on her face.

Carol felt conflicted since Akira seemed to react to this far better compared to when she tried to seduce him with her beautiful body that she took pride in. But she decided to put that aside for now and continue to bring in subjects that might grab Akira’s interest.

Togami was sitting on the long bench inside Shikarabe’s APC. Inside that APC with a faint smell of blood and corpse, he was seriously working on his information terminal.

Togami was carrying powerful equipment. Although all of them were borrowed from Drankam, they could easily cost more than 100,000,000 Aurum if he had to buy them himself. Even among the equipment lent to the young Hunters of the Drankam, his rifle, augmented suit, information-gathering device, and even the ammo and the medicines that he was carrying were all high quality. Even Katsuya, who had the support of one of the high officers in Drankam, Mizuha, did not get that level of equipment.

Togami was recognized as one of the Hunters that successfully hunted a bounty monster with a small team headed by Shikarabe. Although some of the high officers inside Drankam knew the truth behind it, as long as Togami was recognized as such outside, they had to give proper rewards to him. As such, Togami was allowed to borrow powerful equipment.

If it was the past Togami, he would have been delighted knowing that Drankam finally recognized his skill, or he might even lash back complaining that it took too long for Drankam to finally notice his skill.

The past Togami believed that the people around him were underestimating him. The basis of that evaluation was the handful of Hunters among the young Hunters in the gang who were considered to be strong. As a matter of fact, he still thought so even now, that was why he was the rising star of the anti-Katsuya faction. That belief caused him to tend to overestimate himself, both for the better and for the worse.

But that confidence was crushed during the bounty monster hunt. So much to the point that he was suspicious if the high officers in Drankam allowed him to borrow powerful equipment just to spite him.

Since Togami finished that bounty monster hunt, he had been thinking if his pride up until now were nothing but empty. He had been thinking about it without being able to share it with anyone as he thought that all of his amazing achievements up until now as well as his pathetic performance during the battle against the Tank Tarantula were not because of his own skill.

After thinking about it for so long, he finally decided to wait for a chance to confirm his real skill. So, his next question was what kind of chance he could use to do so.

Even if he tried to work together with another young Hunter outside Drankam, he could not exactly use that to confirm his skill. It was because he could not take off his mind from Shikarabe’s words when Shikarabe told him that he was just a fool who misunderstood his real skill just because he had a high Hunter Rank.

After some time, Togami regained his composure and realized that Shikarabe’s words were actually referring to the people who got ahead of themselves, and not particularly referring to him. But even after he realized that, that was not enough to get his mind off it. It showed that he actually agreed with what Shikarabe said, albeit only to some degree.

After spending a lot of time thinking about it, Togami eventually came to a conclusion. If he could once again get in the same team with Shikarabe and perform as well as him, and produced results as good as him, it might help Togami reconfirm his own skill one more time.

Togami was originally scheduled to join the squad dispatched by Drankam to Mihazono ruin. But due to his request, he was suddenly transferred to Shikarabe’s team. After all, he was recognized in public as one of the 4 Hunters who defeated the Tank Tarantula, thus Drankam at least allowed him to do that much.

So, in order to once again reconfirm his own real skill, Togami made his resolve and joined Elena’s team. Togami then mumbled as if he was saying to himself.

“I’ll once again reconfirm my skill in this request, I don’t care if it turns out that I’m just a weakling who got ahead of myself. I just have to train even more. After all, I don’t want to stay as a weakling forever.”

Togami renewed his resolve there.

Togami then thought about the members of the team. It was Shikarabe, himself, Akira, Elena, Sara, and Carol, six people in total. After he thought about each person in the team, he then frowned.

[It’s a good thing that I got to meet Akira again, this is a good chance to look at his skill... But that Hunter with an augmented suit that basically invites men... Akira brought her to the team, right? What exactly is going on?]

Togami was surprised when he saw Akira was there too, but he was more surprised when he saw Carol next to Akira. Togami was moderately used to girls for someone of his age, but even for him, Carol’s augmented suit had a design that highlighted the beautiful figure wrapped under it. It was a rather provocative design for men around Togami’s age.

[Even that Katsuya, who everyone calls the leader of the harem squad won’t make the girls wear that kind of attire, right...? Does Akira have that kind of fetish or something?]

People used to say that great people had a particular fondness for pleasure, whether it was Katsuya or Akira, it was still unclear whether that was the case for great Hunters too. Togami groaned thinking that he saw a completely unexpected side of the person that shook his confidence.

Elena’s team moved deeper and deeper into Mihazono ruin city district. Right about the time Togami started making slanderous guesses about Akira behind his back, they encountered a group of people, it was the squad that the Hunter Office dispatched to secure Mihazono ruin city district.

Long sharp objects were installed on the side of the road, from there, a thin metallic wire-like object extended out. It was a simple force field armour wall. They were basically easy-to-carry pillars that had strong enough power to bounce back regular-sized warheads and cannons, it was common defensive equipment usually used for temporary bases built in the middle of the wasteland or inside a ruin.

There were heavily-armed people complete with tanks equipped with huge machine guns standing guard near that simple force field wall. They had enough power to make a quick work of a swarm of mechanical monsters.

Elena stopped her vehicle and negotiated with one of the soldiers guarding the wall. That person then told his men to temporarily lower the force field wall. With the narrow metallic object blocking the road removed, Elena could pass through the road again.

That person then warned Elena.

“Be careful out there. We just got attacked by a huge monster just now, and the smaller monsters also keep popping up from time to time. Since you took that SOS emergency request, I’m sure you’re a skilled Hunter, but if you think that this is the same Mihazono ruin as before, you’ll only get yourself killed.”

That person pointed in the direction where Elena and her team were heading when he said that. In the direction that he was pointing, there was a wreckage of a huge dead mechanical monster, empty warheads and missile pods could be seen scattered around that wreckage. It must have been a pretty powerful monster.

“Thanks, we’ll be careful.”

Elena said her thanks to that person as she restarted her vehicle and stepped on the gas. Shikarabe and Akira followed behind her. After Akira passed over the force field wall, it immediately erected back up.

Akira looked around his surroundings while driving his vehicle after passing through the force field wall. The area around him was filled with rubbles, wreckages, and dead monsters. The situation inside and outside the force field wall differed greatly.

Akira scanned his surroundings and said.

“There are obviously more monsters than yesterday. Is it because they’re pushed out from the inner wall so the area outside becomes more dangerous?”

Carol, who was sitting next to Akira answered that question while also scanning around her surroundings.

“Well, with all of these monsters dead, the outside area might have become relatively safe though?”

“Maybe. If the monsters get more reinforcement, the same number as the dead here, safety would be a pipe dream. After all, it would come as no surprise if the factories produce as many new monsters to replace all of these dead monsters, you know?”

“I did hear that the cleaning drones of the old-world ruin gather the remnants of the dead monsters when no one is looking and then they use the material gathered to create new monsters. But since these wreckages are still here, it means that they can’t use them for material to create new monsters, right? So, I don’t think it’s that easy for them to produce replacement monsters.”

“There might be a warehouse somewhere filled with mechanical monsters, right? In that case, there’s no need to retrieve the dead monsters just to create new monsters. Furthermore, Mihazono ruin has a factory district, right? It won’t be strange if there’s a warehouse filled with monsters over there.”

Carol always gave a more optimistic guess while Akira always gave a pessimistic guess. She found that really weird as she looked in Akira’s direction. Akira who noticed Carol’s gaze then asked.

“...What?”

“Akira, for someone who always takes the worst-case scenario in mind to the point that I can easily call you paranoid, it’s strange that you tend to act without proper planning. Not only did you come to Mihazono ruin without first contacting Elena and Sara where to meet up, back there when we were chased by monsters inside the Seranthal building, you decided to go alone without any plans too. If you’re really that careful, you should think before you act.”

After Carol pointed that out, Akira was lost for words.

The reason why Akira was being paranoid was simply because he knew that he had bad luck, or at least, he thought he had bad luck.

He got unlucky and got attacked by former Hunters that had fallen off grace, he got unlucky and got roped into facing a swarm of monsters, there was also a time when he had to fight powerful relic thieves. In the first place, if he had good luck, he would not be living in the slums of Kugamayama city.

In reality, Akira was actually not as unlucky as he thought he was. After all, if he was really that unlucky, he would not have met Alpha and received that sudden power boost in the first place, which was in itself a very lucky encounter.

Moreover, he would not have visited Shizuka’s shop where Shizuka was so nice to help him with a lot of things. He would not have met Elena and Sara in Kuzusuhara ruin, where both of them later saved him from a swarm of monsters. All of them were lucky events, so it was not like Akira always got nothing but unlucky events.

Strictly speaking, Akira simply had a twisted personality, or he might have put too much trust in Alpha’s words when she said that he had used all of his lifetime worth of luck by meeting her.

While on the other hand, Akira also was not as reckless as Carol thought he was. Or at least, Akira thought so of himself. Due to the complicated order of priority that he abided by, he thought that it must be simply because he looked reckless from Carol’s point of view.

But with that being said, Akira could not tell Carol the reason behind his order of priorities since it included information about Alpha as well as Elena and Sara. So instead, he tried to evade that subject.

“Well, it’s not that simple for me too. Moreover, it’s a good thing to be careful when exploring a ruin, right?”

It was easy for Carol to notice that Akira was trying to evade the subject, and she also noticed that there was something that he was not willing to share. But she thought that trying to poke for that information would only worsen her relationship with Akira, that was why she tried to follow along with his intention to just let it slide.

“That’s true. But, it’ll be bad if you get too careful and because of that you get to meet monsters when your concentration is significantly lowered, so it’s not good to be too careful. Well, that’s all I want to say.”

“Ahh, I see, got it then. Don’t worry.”

Akira agreed with what Carol said and nodded. He looked relieved, it might be because he was able to successfully evade the subject that he did not want to talk about.

Carol was staring at Akira’s face and thought.

[...Although he had that incident in Seranthal building just the other day, I wonder why he would even come to Mihazono ruin again to meet up with Elena and Sara. Is it simply because they are his friends? Or is it that Akira actually has some feeling for them? Or one of them is actually Akira’s lover or something? But if that’s the case... ]

Carol mumbled.

“...If it’s something that they keep secret, then there’s no need for me to hold back.”

“Did you say something?”

“Hm? It’s nothing.”

Carol smiled amusedly when she said that.

Elena and her team continued moving deeper into the city district of Mihazono ruin and away from the secured area.

The situation outside the wall was worse than yesterday. The condition of the road was so bad that it was hard to go through it. Even the vehicles designed to explore the wasteland were only barely able to pass through it. Thanks to that, Elena and her team could only continue forward slowly.

Putting that drop in speed aside, they did not encounter any other problems, they did not even get to encounter any dangerous monsters. They only met relatively small monsters and they had no problem taking them out.

Akira suddenly asked Alpha a question.

“I don’t see that many monsters outside the wall though. Alpha, do you detect any monsters around?”

Alpha replied casually.

“Yep, there are some monsters.”

Akira was a bit surprised when he heard that.

“There are? You should’ve told me then, where are they?”

Akira looked around, but he did not spot any monsters around.

Alpha smiled and said.

“They’re scattered around the area. Since they don’t seem to be going to attack us, there’s nothing to worry about.”

Alpha then enhanced Akira’s vision. He could see mechanical monsters pass through the rubbles and wreckages. Some of them were on the other side of a building, some of them were inside a building, some of them were hiding under the wreckages on the side of the road. They were hiding in all kinds of places around the area. And just like Alpha said, they were not trying to attack Akira. They were just there waiting in silence without moving.

Akira was a bit confused by that.

“Why are they not trying to attack us?”

“I can come up with a lot of guesses. They might be just weak monsters, so they’re just observing us from where they’re hiding while sharing that information with the other monsters. Or they might decide not to attack us since they know they have a low chance of winning after seeing our armed vehicles. Or they might be waiting for extra reinforcement to gather their strength together before attacking.”

“So we’re basically safe for now, right?”

“They’re not attacking us, and even if they do, we should be able to easily take them out. So from that point of view, yes, we’re safe at the moment. But monsters are basically dangerous beings, that’s why people call them monsters in the first place.”

“Well, that’s true, but that’s not what I meant...”

Akira felt that he was not fully convinced by Alpha’s answer, but he did not know the reason why. Alpha also did tell him that they would not have any trouble fighting those monsters, so it might be okay to just ignore those monsters for now. In the end, he decided not to let those monsters bother him.

There was one monster that was outside the detection range of Elena and her team. Although it was damaged, it still had enough strength to fight. It was one of those huge monsters that fought the humanoid soldiers dispatched by the Hunter Office, so in short, it was an aggressive and dangerous monster, an enemy.

The scanning device installed in its body was showing Akira and the other Hunters’ positions. The image of Akira moving inside the ruin was transferred from its detection devices that were scattered around the area. That so-called S101 big-sized multi-legged tank had the main duty of destroying enemies of the same type, i.e. the tanks and the humanoid soldiers.

The image displayed in the S101 control device was Akira’s vehicle with Akira and Carol inside it. Alpha was invisible to that monster.

The S101 fixed its aim at Akira. The huge cannon that it was equipped with had enough power to destroy the humanoid weapons used for securing cities. It could launch a warhead at a high speed, it had powerful firepower, and it had a wide explosion radius. If Akira’s vehicle got hit by that warhead even once, the people on that vehicle would not be able to get by unscathed.

Right before it launched a warhead, Alpha’s image suddenly appeared in the control device of S101. Alpha showed some kind of symbol next to her, she pointed at that symbol while shaking her head.

The S101 confirmed that symbol and stopped from trying to attack Akira. It then immediately returned back to stand-by mode just like before it discovered Akira.

Elena and her team finally reached their destination. It was a 3 storey-building inside the city district of Mihazono ruin. They parked their vehicles next to that building, stepped out from their vehicles, and gathered together.

Elena made a grim expression as she checked her information-gathering device. She then lightly shook her head and said to the rest of the team.

“...Nope, no reply at all. Forget signal from local connection, I can’t even find any trace of signals at all.”

Elena tried to contact the rescue target, but sadly enough, she did not get any reply at all.

Shikarabe tried to analyze the situation as he said to Elena.

“Even if the rescue targets are all dead, I think we should be able to at least get some signals from their information terminals but... Does that mean that they got attacked by some powerful monsters and got all of their equipment destroyed? The target location is here, right?”

“If we follow the information from the request, yes, it’s this building.”

They then peeked inside from the entrance of the building. The interior of the building was pitch black, there was no light source at all. There was not even a trace saying that the entrance was barricaded either.

If the rescue targets were really in that building, then they should be barricading themselves somewhere inside that building. While on the other hand, there was also a chance that the information of the rescue targets was wrong and they were not in that building.

They peeked inside that building while having a conflicted feeling. They saw a lot of monsters flooding out from inside a building just yesterday, so they did not want to explore that building to search for the rescue targets if it could be helped.

But it was not like they could just return back without trying to do anything there. They came all the way to that building because they accepted a rescue request from the broker that Elena was contracted with. So in order to properly do their work based on the information given to them, even if the rescue targets were no longer inside that building, they had to at least check the inside of that building and properly confirm that there was no one in that building.

If that building was filled with mechanical monsters, they could use that as an excuse to make a guess that the rescue targets were already dead. But if that was not the case, if they had the option to check a bit inside of that building, then they could not afford to just return back without doing anything.

Elena sighed, her face turned stern as she said.

“It can’t be helped then. Let’s search the inside of the building. Sara, Akira, Carol, and I will go and search the building. Shikarabe and Togami will guard the building from the outside. Give us a call if anything comes up. If we don’t return back after 1 hour and you can’t contact me, then issue an SOS request for us.”

Shikarabe nodded and said.

“Roger that. If that happens, is it okay for me to decide where to issue the request?”

“Since we’re here because of the request from Alhain insurance company, you should first send the request to them to let them know what happened. Then after that, it’s up to you.”

Shikarabe seemed a bit dissatisfied as he said.

“Got it. Is it okay if I set a high reward offer for that SOS rescue request and take that request myself?”

Elena smiled and replied.

“Of course. That is, if you think that I will pay any amount of reward that you decide without resisting.”

Sara and Carol just smiled lightly watching that short exchange between Shikarabe and Elena.

Akira too was watching that short exchange filled with interest. In the back of that short exchange, there was a lot of underlying knowledge about how to handle an emergency situation and unspoken common senses among Hunters, and Akira had almost no knowledge at all about both of those things. He simply did not have enough experience working as a Hunter. Although he received a sudden power boost thanks to Alpha’s support, it did not instantly turn him into an experienced Hunter.

Togami somehow looked unsatisfied with that plan since he actually also wanted to search the building. After all, there was a good chance that nothing would happen if he just stood there guarding the building from the outside. He believed that was the exact reason why Shikarabe did not protest at all when Elena proposed to use most of the team’s firepower to search the building instead of guarding the building.

Togami joined Shikarabe because he wanted to reconfirm his skill. Of course, there was no guarantee that something would happen if he joined the team searching the inside of the building. But he believed that he should be able to get more chances to reconfirm his skill by going inside instead of standing guard outside. Even if he did not get to find monsters, he could at least see how the other Hunters explored a dangerous place and compare that to himself.

After a bit of thinking, he then nervously asked Elena.

“Uhmm, if it’s possible, I actually want to search the inside of the building too, is that okay?”

Elena looked a bit surprised. She then shifted his gaze to Shikarabe.

Shikarabe then answered Togami’s request in place of Elena.

“No.”

It was a short answer that did not show any willingness to negotiate.

Togami looked at Shikarabe with a dissatisfied look, while Shikarabe looked back at Togami with an annoyed gaze, there was even a trace of mockery mixed in that gaze too.

“If you slow them down, I’ll be the one in trouble. So like hell I would let a dead burden like you to go with them.”

“...Alright, I understand”

Although Togami still looked like he could not accept it, he obediently gave that reply.

Shikarabe looked obviously surprised, he thought that Togami would lash back at him. But since Togami unexpectedly obeyed him, Shikarabe awkwardly felt relieved.

“W-well, it’s all good as long as you get it.”

Seeing how Togami properly stood guard there, Shikarabe tilted his head in confusion.

After finishing the preparation to go in, the rest of the team went inside the building. They were using a relatively powerful torchlight while exploring the building. The powerful light from the torchlight banished the darkness inside that building that the sunlight could not even reach, the light pierced deeper into the building through small openings and cracks. Elena told them to intentionally use powerful light so the rescue targets would easily find them if the rescue targets were still somewhere inside.

There were traces of battles inside that building. There were bullet holes both in the walls and the floors, there were also wreckages of dead mechanical monsters. But there were no blood marks nor corpses of dead Hunters. It seemed that the Hunters were able to get away from the monsters uninjured.

Akira moved carefully while searching the inside of the building as he asked Alpha a question.

“Alpha, do you find any monsters or the rescue targets?”

“I don’t detect anything inside my searching range.”

“I see. This building is a rather small building, so if you don’t find anything, the rescue targets might be really no longer in this place.”

Akira knew very well just how great Alpha’s detection skill was, moreover, Alpha also had a very wide detection range. So, after he knew that Alpha did not detect any monsters nor any rescue targets, Akira unconsciously lowered his guard.

But the other Hunters immediately noticed that Akira lowered his guard there. Normally, they would have scolded him for lowering his guard in the middle of a dangerous place. But since all of them knew just how unnaturally sensitive Akira was when it came to detecting enemies, they did not scold him at all.

Sara then asked Elena a question.

“Elena, do you find anything?”

“Nope. Even my information-gathering device doesn’t detect anything.”

Even Elena’s information-gathering device also agreed with Akira. So there might be really no monsters nor their rescue targets inside that building.

Both Elena and Sara already realized that Akira was someone who can connect to the old-world domain. But because of that, they always pinned the unnatural skill that Akira showed from time to time, like his astounding ability to detect monsters, as his ability as someone who could access the old-world domain. They did not even guess the existence of Alpha at all.

Sara looked at Akira one more time and scanned his current equipment. Akira was using an augmented suit that was way outside the reach of fresh Hunters, and he was carrying heavy weapons that normal humans could not carry unless with the help of an augmented suit. It showed just how powerful Akira was as a Hunter.

[When we met for the first time, Akira was carrying nothing but AAH rifles and he was just using a cloth that was neither an armour nor an augmented suit. But in such a short time, he got all of that equipment. Not to mention that his detection ability is more or less as good as Elena, then to top it off, his fighting ability is nothing to scoff at... At this rate, it won’t take long for him to surpass me and Elena. I wonder how long we can stay as his senior.]

Sara smiled bitterly, she felt a bit lonely when she thought that she did not have much time left until Akira became stronger than her, and when that time came, Akira would stop relying on her and Elena as his senior.

On the side, Carol confirmed how Elena and Sara reacted when they noticed Akira lowered his guard, she then thought.

[They continue exploring the building without showing any reaction even when they notice Akira lowered his guard, as in matter of fact, it seems that they also lowered their guards too. Judging by the information-gathering device that Elena has, I don’t think both of them are Hunters who would lower their guard because of something like that... Does that mean they know why Akira is so good at detecting monsters? Or is it that because they know Akira for a long time and really trust him? Or is it that they’re already used to it since they have worked together with Akira many times before?]

Carol knew that Akira had an unnaturally high ability to detect enemies, but she did not think that it was because he might be someone who could connect to the old-world domain. It was because she knew that being an old-world connector did not equal having a great ability to detect enemies. Of course, it was not completely unrelated, but that also did not give a definite proof either. Carol knew that very well.

That was exactly why Carol credited Akira’s skill to detect enemies as one of the rare talents that those great Hunters had. She did not even consider the possibility that Akira might be able to connect to the old-world domain.

[...Honestly speaking, I want to ask a lot of questions about it. But I guess I should do that later and not here.]

If Carol tried to poke about that information from Elena and Sara here, of course, Akira would be able to hear her too, and it might cause trouble later down the line. If she wanted to gather information about Akira, she should at least do that somewhere where he could not hear her, and she should choose her words wisely as not to cause any suspicion.

Moreover, she should be able to deduce whether it was something that she could ask Akira directly or not by seeing how Elena and Sara would react to her questions. So for now, Carol tried to calm the curiosity that was welling up inside her heart as she tried to keep her poker face.

After they looked around the inside of the building, they ended up with the conclusion that no one was there. Elena then told the rest of the team to stop searching and head back to Shikarabe.