Chapter 336 (Self Edited) – Entering Veritas
Looking into the distance, Soma suddenly squinted.
What he saw was a wilderness, and he couldn’t see a single person in sight. He let out an unintentional sigh even though he knew it.
“Hmm… I’ve certainly heard that there seems to be no particular anomaly. As long as I don’t know what’s been going on in the past, I won’t know whether there is an anomaly or not.” (Soma)
“Well, even so, I’m sure there’s nothing strange about it. At least for now, that is.” (Aina)
“Yeah.” (Soma)
Nodding to Aina’s words, who was also looking out at the wilderness by his side. Then, she muttered.
“What’s going on?” (Aina)
Looking around the place, there was really only the wilderness. Not just people, there were also no animals, and they couldn’t even see trees.
There was only soil and rocks, and that was all that was spread out in front of them.
Well, for the time being… shall we go ahead?” (Soma)
“Well, all I know so far is that I don’t feel anything unusual going on here.” (Aina)
“Hmm. there’s no point in coming all the way here if we can’t get even a little information about what really happened in Veritas.” (Soma)
While saying such a thing, Soma and Aina took a step forward.
There was nothing definite here. There were no lines drawn on the ground, nor were there any landmarks.
But still, it was a bordering place. A place to distinguish between the empire and Veritas, and that was the border.
So, Soma and Aina were crossing the border at the moment, and it was their first time entering there.
“Now… I wonder if the first thing to look for is a village or something else. We can look for a town that is rather large…” (Soma)
“Well, why don’t we start with a village? How about the light that we saw… we can confirm what it was about, or was there any impact, and it would be easier to explore from a small place.” (Aina)
“I feel it’s easy for us to look suspicious, but… it depends on how we do it. We may not get any information, but that’s how we can get information anyway.” (Soma)
Of course, it would be best if they could get some definitive information, but as expected, it wouldn’t work out that way. Rather, if it was an easy thing to do, Soma and Aina wouldn’t have come to such a place.
They were in such a place, coming to Veritas, to investigate something that happened in Veritas about two weeks ago.
On that day, almost everyone living in the empire was watching the light rising from the direction of Veritas. Soma and Aina were discussing the future with Victoria and her people at that time. Everyone who was there was surprised at the sudden event.
However, that wasn’t the problem. Certainly, there was no one there who could fully understand what that was, but what… mattered was that there was someone who could understand a little bit of it.
While everyone was trying to figure out what had happened, Victoria let out a whisper.
‘I don’t know what that is, but… perhaps, the Devils did something.’
According to Victoria, she had never borrowed the power of the Devil, but she could understand it because she made a contract with the Devil. And from the light that Victoria saw, it seemed that she felt that the power seemed to belong to the Devil.
However, although she said that she couldn’t confirm it, it was highly possible that was true, considering that the Devil, who signed a contract with her, was wary of Veritas. In fact, Soma also thought that matter would be most likely to be true, so did everyone else.
Moreover, the more information they collect, the more likely it was true. That was because the scale of the light was a bit too big to consider that the Devils did something normal.
After all, those who saw the light rising from the direction of Veritas were all conscious at that time. As he would expect, those who were asleep didn’t seem to see the light, but even so, they mentioned that they felt something which was quite remarkable.
Of course, they didn’t really hear from all of those who were asleep. Plus, maybe there were some that didn’t see the light at all, but at least, as far as Victoria and others were able to ask people, there were no exceptions.
What was more interesting was that the impressions they received from seeing the light varied. Some said it felt divine, others felt awe, and it turned out that wasn’t a simple phenomenon.
But at the same time, it was bewildering since it was the only thing they could think of. They knew something happened, but nothing was particularly visible. Those who were watching near the border also saw the light, but they couldn’t confirm that anything was happening on the Veritas side.
Of course, it was safe to say that nothing happened, but that wasn’t enough. What happened was at large scale to the extent that the border security became tighter.
They needed to investigate more closely, but they didn’t know what would happen if they investigated half-heartedly. Soma and Aina… or rather, Soma alone, was supposed to bear the responsibility for that reason.
However, although he was given the responsibility, he volunteered to do more than half of the work. He didn’t know what would have happened if this event had happened in another country, but Veritas wasn’t sharing borders with only the empire, but also Radeus. If something happened to Veritas, it could affect Radeus, and he couldn’t help but to investigate.
But as mentioned before, Soma was the only who was originally to take on this responsibility of investigating this event. If anything, Aina went along on her own…
“…Why are you staring at my face? You’re not going to complain about me following you, right?” (Aina)
“Well, of course I have nothing to say. It’s just that, I don’t know what will happen, so it would be safe for you to wait in the empire.” (Soma)
“I don’t know if I’m going to be safe there or not. They said that they are with us, but that doesn’t mean that they’re on our side. Are you going to make me wait in a place like that by myself?” (Aina)
That seemed to be the case.
He thought that Aina was indeed overthinking this, but she also had a point in what she was saying. And the bottom line is he just has to protect her from anything that happened.
Soma shrugged his shoulders at Aina, who turned her eyes away.
“I understand. Well, that means that I should protect you properly, right?” (Soma)
“Pr-protect… uhm, do you mean…” (Aina)
“Hmm… anyhow, I think you don’t have to change clothes in that case.” (Soma)
That said, Soma tilted his head because the clothes Aina was wearing weren’t maid clothes. She was wearing something he used to see, but recently, he had started to get used to her wearing maid clothes, so he felt slightly out of place.
However, when he said that, Aina gave a strong stare.
“It would be strange to wear maid clothes when going to Veritas!” (Aina)
“No, I mean, wouldn’t there be some people who are maids, right? Besides, I think you look good in it.” (Soma)
“Uhm… even if you say that…! Besides, it is unsuitable for traveling!” (Aina)
“Hmm, certainly, if you say that, you’re right. It’s a shame because it really suits you…” (Soma)
“I told you…!” (Aina)
And that happened when she was talking about that.
Soma reflexively turned his gaze to the left and squinted his eyes. Then, as expected, Aina seemed to realize that something had happened immediately after seeing him acting that way.
Her expression tightened. She immediately turned her eyes.
“…Is something happening?” (Aina)
“I’m not certain that’s the case, but… if I overlook it, it makes me wake up later in a worse mood.” (Soma)
There was a group of about five people, and another person who was probably being chased by the group. Moreover, the person who seemed to be chased was a child.
“Yeah. In that case, we have to help.” (Aina)
When Aina becomes aware of what caught Soma’s senses, she replies as if nothing happened. For the time being, they were coming to investigate what was happening in Veritas, and they shouldn’t make too much noise. However, there was no need to mention that.
After all, there was no objection.
“You’re right. It’s a bit far away, so I think we need to hurry.” (Soma)
“If so, let’s go then. I’ll catch up later, so you can go ahead first, alright.” (Aina)
Aina, who just said that she didn’t want to be alone in the empire that wasn’t always safe for her, told him that nothing to worry about. Soma thought that this place was also considerably dangerous, but it seemed that she didn’t mind at all.
He loosened his mouth there because he thought it was very typical of her. So, in order to meet Aina’s expectations, Soma nodded.
“Hmm, I’ll be back in a bit.” (Soma)
Then, when Soma turned his gaze toward the direction of those whom he could still sense, he ran at full speed as it was.