“Hng, I knew it. There’s no way my wings look bad!”
Siren flicked her wings, looking proud already.
Even the human girl that the watchdog brought thought she was like an angel after seeing her wings. Since then, she had put more effort into caring for her wings so naturally, there was no way they would look bad to Arachne.
“Kng…! Yuri!”
Speak of the devil; while Siren was having such thoughts, Leo came back. Just like Siren said, Leo didn’t come back too late so Yuri didn’t have to wait a long time for him.
Leo quickly ran over, his tail wagging happily as he rubbed himself against Yuri’s leg.
“Leo, good to see you.”
“Ng, Ng!”
“Look at this watchdog punk acting so detestable. Get away from Arachne!”
Siren glared at Leo with displeasure when she saw him happily rubbing himself against Yuri.
It wasn’t that long ago when he was flirting with that human girl and now once Yuri came, he was acting like this again, the sight of him was simply unseemly.
Of course, that little human girl was a little cute but…either ways!
‘Even that Odin used to act like a leech as if he’ll always be with Arachne but nowadays, he’s doing something else just like the watchdog. Sure enough, Arachne only has me!’
Siren felt pride at her own consistent self-confidence and snorted. She boastfully thought that she was the only one who deserved to be called Arachne’s friend.
“I came because I have something to tell you guys today.”
Yuri told Siren and Leo about what happened in the East this time and the search for heretics that arose as a result.
“Seriously? I thought the East was at least a good place to live but then there was that bastard at the slave market. It’s always one bastard after the other, why do they keep bothering us?”
Siren trembled with anger.
“That’s why I think we should watch the situation for a while.”
“If it comes to it, it might be better to just move to another place.”
Siren nodded and agreed when she heard what Yuri said.
From her point of view, she wasn’t really attached to the East and the only reason she came here in the first place was to follow Arachne. So she figured it would be better to leave if the situation was bad.
But since she didn’t know the situation in the north or the south…
‘Then, the West is still the safest, I guess?’
Of course, when she remembered her time in the research institute, the west still made her uncomfortable.
“What are you going to do, watchdog?”
“I, I’ll stay here. Yuri is here.”
“If Arachne goes somewhere else, you’ll follow her too?”
Leo hesitated a little then he nodded his head.
Siren was a little surprised.
She thought he would be stubborn about it because he didn’t want to separate from his new human girlfriend.
“I think I’ll keep staying here though.”(Yuri)
“Ah, true. It’s not obvious you’re a mutant when you don’t do anything, Arachne.”
Siren mulled it over for a bit then she spoke.
“Well…we should be okay as long as we hide ourselves well, right? For now, we still don’t know how elaborate the search will be, so I think I will use a bird to watch the situation for a while then we can decide.”
Leo wagged his tail and his expression looked brighter than before, like he was in a better mood because he didn’t have to leave the hideout right away.
Either ways, Yuri only came here to explain the situation and the final decision was to be made by Siren and Leo, so she simply agreed and nodded her head.
* * *
That night, Yuri quietly slipped out of the house.
It hadn’t been that long since she went out at night but somehow, it felt a little unfamiliar today. It was probably because Lakis was no longer at home.
It had been a long time since she left home without notifying someone about her leaving. Although Lakis earnestly said things like ‘everything outside the blanket is dangerous so don’t go out’, Yuri wasn’t the type to follow things like that.
For the first time in a long while, she went out freely at night without anyone trying to hold her back or stop her.
As she stepped out of the door, she suddenly wondered when she began to secretly care about Lakis without even realizing it.
She thought that wasn’t really the case but even now, the fact that there was no one stopping her from going out this late made her feel a little disappointed. When she glanced back at the house with all the lights off, she also felt empty.
However, Yuri soon tossed those thoughts away and began heading on her way again.
The place Yuri was heading to right now was the area that Kalian Crawford was investigating. It was also the place where the explosion occurred yesterday.
Although Siren said she would send a bird to check out the situation occasionally, Yuri felt the need to know the progress of the situation as well.
As of now, she heard Kalian say that heretics were involved in the explosion incident and she also wanted to verify that fact with her own eyes.
And so, Yuri moved quietly under the cover of the night.
It should come as no surprise but the explosion that happened this time was similar to that of the shopping mall. The scale of the damage also seemed to be similar.
When Yuri arrived, Kalian happened to be at the scene.
“You’re working hard, even when it’s so late.”
“Not at all, Lord Crawford.”
“Has anything showed up?”
“We are searching as hard as we can but…we still haven’t found any more evidence.”
At Kalian’s questioning, his men spoke like they were ashamed. Kalian comforted them that they’d been doing a good job then he left.
Yuri watched him act like this and tilted her head. She knew Kalian was in charge of this case. So she thought he would look around the scene a little longer by himself…
Unexpectedly, Kalian looked like he was just stopping by the scene of the incident for a bit.
Yuri pondered for a while in the dark.
The reason why she came here in the first place was to enter the site of the explosion and look around so it was definitely better if she could achieve her purpose while Kalian was away.
However, her instincts were telling her a different thing, so she followed Kalian instead of infiltrating the building.
Perhaps she should say ‘as expected’ because she found that Kalian’s carriage was traveling in the opposite direction of the Crawford mansion. He wasn’t going back home instead it seemed like he was going to do something else.
Fwip!
Yuri moved to the roof of the building and followed after the carriage that Kalian was in. And after a while, the carriage that was moving ahead of her came to stop.
Kalian stepped down from it and began walking somewhere.
Yuri quickly followed him.
Stops. [1]
But all of a sudden, Kalian abruptly stopped walking. His sharp eyes began to look around him. His hand was touching the sword on his waist.
Yuri felt his gaze gliding towards where she was and buried herself deeper in the darkness.
She had definitely erased her presence as much as she could and moved to a blind spot where Kalian could not see. However, like the male protagonist he was, he seemed to astutely sense something.
However, it looked like he wasn’t completely sure that there was something following him instead he seemed to have felt a little strange while walking so he looked around for a while.
Shortly after, Kalian put away his sharp aura and turned around. And he began walking again.
‘I guess I have to move more carefully if I don’t wanna be caught.’
Yuri inwardly clicked her tongue, thinking that his senses were needlessly sharp and he was a exhausting man.
The place Kalian approached was a shabby building. The outside of the building looked very old like it had been neglected for a long time.
Yuri erased her presence and lightly jumped to another roof which was a bit far from the building Kalian was in. It was quite some distance away but information about her target easily flowed into Yuri’s eyes and ears.
“You’re here, Lord Crawford.”
“And Genos?”
“He came before you.”
Like before, the man standing in front of the door seemed to be Kalian’s subordinate.
Creak.
The two of them walked through the open door and went inside. The rusty door let out a unpleasant and sharp noise.
Seeing as Kalian went inside himself instead of just checking how the situation was going, it seemed like he was more focus on whatever was going on here.
‘Genos Sheldon is inside this place?’
However, what I heard a moment ago was a little unexpected. I thought Genos would be working on the explosions that happened.
Yuri didn’t follow after Kalian right away, instead she stared at the building in front of her. Her eyes were ice cold.
‘…What the hell is this place?’
She felt this earlier too, but something was strange about it. She couldn’t really explain what exactly was strange but…
Somehow, this place gave her a bad feeling. A dirty and slimy energy was leaking from the inside of the building and it seemed to squeeze around her ankle and wriggle up her skin.
It was very unpleasant feeling so Yuri’s eyes hardened as she looked at building which Kalian had entered. Somehow, she didn’t really want to step into that building.
Only
It had been a very long time since Yuri had ever wanted to avoid something specific like this.
For now, she waited until Kalian Crawford came out again.
About 30 minutes passed then he soon came outside. Only Kalian appeared outside the door and it seemed like Genos was still inside. Like earlier, Kalian looked around for a bit then he got into the carriage.
Yuri didn’t move until the carriage carrying Kalian turned into a distant dot and disappeared from her sight.
Translator’s Corner:
[1] Lol there’s an sfx to say he stops. So I wrote stops.
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