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Immortal-Emperor is a freelancer, you can support them on:

I was puzzled as I watched Grubert suddenly collapse, and when I approached Lizlina-san, she had her hand over her mouth and was screaming.

“What the hell is going on!? Is there an enemy lurking somewhere? Damn it! Everyone, stay alert!!”

Following Guel-san’s instructions, Amy-san and the others took up their weapons and began scanning the area, on high alert.

“Could he have been silenced to keep him from talking… Grubert, what on earth have you gotten involved in?”

Duke Valdeck widened his eyes as he looked at Grubert and spoke.

As I looked at Grubert’s lifeless body, my mind went blank for a moment. However, as soon as I heard Guel-san’s words, I shook my head, immediately pulled out my JERICHO941PSL and Karambit Knife from the holster, and took a defensive stance.

The enemy must still be nearby! Judging from how the stone spear is embedded, it came from the opposite direction. There’s probably an enemy over there!!

I turned my face towards the direction the spear came from, and my eyes met with a hooded figure staring at us. In that moment, sensing danger, they ran towards the depths of the alley.

“Guel-san, there! The hooded person running into the alley might be the culprit! Chase after them!!”

I pointed to the alley while saying this, but Guel-san, seemingly disturbed, looked at me with a slightly uneasy expression.

“What, really? But Your Grace’s safety…”

“Guel-san! You’re the captain, right? Stop hesitating and give appropriate orders to your subordinates!”

Guel-san, realizing something from my words, looked at his subordinates and began giving instructions.

“Keith! Aid! Follow me! Amy and Lizlina, protect His Grace!”

“Ha!!”

“Elrina, what are you… what are you doing?”

Guel-san, who saw me pulling the stone spear out of Grubert’s chest, asked with a furrowed brow, seemingly angry.

“Don’t worry about me; just hurry and chase after them! I’ll catch up later!”

“…Understood. I’ll go ahead.”

Guel-san said that, and with Keith and Aid, he ran towards the alley.

Alright! The spear is pulled out. Since the resurrection mark hasn’t disappeared, using the resurrection potion should be fine.

I opened the menu, took out the resurrection potion I had stored, and injected the liquid into Grubert’s body.

“To be honest, I can’t stand this guy, but there are so many things I want to find out from him, so it would be troublesome if he died.”

The reason for doing this is because I remembered Guell-san talking about Memory Read on the way here. Memory Read is a magic that reads the memories in the head of a deceased person. It can read fragmentary memories from just before death up to three days ago. That means, the one who stabbed Grubert with this stone spear didn’t take precautions to crush his head and prevent us from reading memories within the last three days. Probably because it wouldn’t be a problem if we asked about events within the last three days, but if we asked about events prior to that, it would be problematic. So, they tried to finish him off here.

After confirming that the liquid in the resurrection potion had entered Grubert’s body, I pulled out the syringe. At that moment, Grubert’s body started to faintly glow, and the wounds began to heal. By the time the light disappeared, he had breathed back to life, lying there without any wounds.

“He… he’s alive!! Did you use some kind of secret potion on him?”

“I’m sorry, Amy-san. We’ll talk about the rest after I reunite with Guel-san and the others.”

I said that and opened the menu again, took out a small reconnaissance drone, and flew it into the sky. Then, instead of setting it to manual mode, I set it to auto mode to track the perpetrator I had found and equipped my ACE32.

“Understood. Searching for the target.”

With those words, the drone flew high into the sky.

“Well then, everyone, I’ll be back.”

“Be careful, Elrina. We don’t know who the enemy is.”

“I understand.”

Unconsciously, I stopped adding “-san” after their names. While responding to Duke Valdeck, I ran towards the alley.

“Target confirmed. Tracking.”

Alright! It’s visible on the radar now. All that’s left is to pursue and capture them!

“Caution, danger detected at 11 o’clock. Possible enemy.”

Enemy!? In this narrow alley? Moreover, the enemy mark is in the same direction as the perpetrator… What’s going on?

“Reinforcements? Or did Guel-san and the others fall into a trap set by that enemy? …In any case, the direction is the same. I have to go and see.”

When I arrived, Guel-san and the others were fighting five humanoid monsters.

“Gu… Guel-san!?”

Guel-san answered while looking at the enemies.

“Elrina! Sorry, but help me defeat these guys!”

“Understood!”

I can ask about the reasons later! Right now, defeating these guys takes precedence!!

I aimed my ACE32 and fired three shots semi-automatically, taking down one monster, then, in succession, fired three shots to defeat the monster next to it.

“Nice one, Elrina!”

While Guel-san said that, he bisected one monster with the large sword he was holding.

“Thunder, dwell in my hand!! ‘Thunderball’!”

The humanoid monster hit by Keith-san’s magic seemed to be paralyzed, standing still and trembling.

“Now, Aid!”

“Got it!”

Taking advantage of the moment when Keith-san’s magic stopped the movement, Aid-san cut down the monster with a sword.

“One left!”

Just as I targeted the last monster, it was enveloped in light and disappeared.

“It disappeared? …What’s going on?”

“Lost target. Searching for target.”

Huh!? Lost? That drone can track even if they hide inside a building, so unless they destroy it or use a jammer, it’s almost impossible to escape tracking… What the hell?

“It went around that corner to the left! Everyone, follow them!!”

“Understood!”

While I was bewildered, Guel-san and the others said that and ran, turning the corner.

“Wait, wait a minute!”

I also turned the corner, using the obstruction as cover, and confirmed the direction Guel-san and the others had turned. However, what I saw was Guel-san and the others standing in the middle of the road in a dead-end with no hiding places.

I ran to Guel-san and asked.

“Guel-san, where’s the culprit?”

“…Ah, they escaped. The fact that their scent stops here means they probably used teleportation magic to get away.”

I see. The drone also suddenly disappears when the enemy disappears, so it lost track.

“But, Guel Captain, if they used teleportation magic, there should be a teleportation circle somewhere nearby… but I can’t find it anywhere.”

“Keith, they probably used magic paper with the teleportation spell. Look at this. It was there.”

Aid-san showed burnt scraps, and Keith-san stared at them with widened eyes.

“Magic paper!? But if it was teleportation magic using magic paper, it can’t fly far. Since they should be nearby, let’s search this area.”

“No, it’s impossible. Most likely, after luring us here, they used the teleportation circle prepared for escape somewhere else. Then, they probably escaped far away using the escape teleportation circle they had prepared. They withdrew because there was no need for them to deal with us anymore. That would be the most reasonable assumption.”

“Ugh, considering the activation time and the mark of the teleportation circle, that seems plausible.”

“If there was a teleportation circle mark here, we could have investigated and pursued, but… it’s a shame.”

While I couldn’t catch up with what they were saying, is it safe to say that the enemy lured us here, detained us with monsters, and then, while we were dealing with the monsters, used teleportation magic to escape to another hideout or something, then escaped far away using another teleportation magic prepared for a getaway?

“Guel-san, if we can’t pursue them anymore, let’s go back to Duke Valdeck’s place.”

“That’s right. Let’s reunite with Amy and the others and think about the future. Also, leave the corpses of the monsters with just their heads cut off; I’ll come back later to take care of them.”

As I walked back along the path, I was thinking. There’s no way such a well-prepared enemy is just a small fry. Moreover, it’s strange that they came to deal with Grubert so quickly after he was captured. Grubert must have been dealing with a large organization.

“What was I up against…?”

No one could answer my question.