Chapter 230: Yuria’s Past (2)

“What conscience are you talking about?”

“I already told you earlier. That you betrayed us. In exchange for that, we are asking you to do just one favor, is that hard?”

Following that, Johnny whispered in a sly voice.

“Think carefully, Yuria. We are giving you a chance right now. A chance to settle the debt of the past cleanly.”

“…….”

“Honestly, you must have been uncomfortable all this time too, right? You say you did it to save the spirit beasts, but anyway, it is also true that you stabbed a dagger into the hearts of us who were your family. Isn’t it?”

Johnny’s words were accurate.

Yuria could not forget the events of that day.

Occasionally, when happy memories with Green Circle’s mercenaries and her father Ianco came to mind, she would be engulfed in guilt and remorse.

“……I kept telling you. To stop killing innocent spirit beasts and fold the business. But it was Dad and you guys who ignored my plea and pushed ahead with the business. Then didn’t you guys betray me too?”

“No. Business has something called speed, so it’s not something you can just fold like that right away. Also, what about the position of the other family members? Telling us to stop a business where many interests are entangled just because of your own greed is too selfish of a thought.”

“So you shouldn’t have done such a thing in the first place.”

Johnny raised the corner of his mouth with a smirk.

“Haven’t you thought that you are sitting there right now because we did that?”

Yuria, having nothing to say, shut her mouth.

The reason she could live abundantly in Green Circle, eating well, drinking well, sleeping well, and receiving various teachings and undeserved love, was all thanks to the money Green Circle earned by dismantling spirit beasts.

She didn’t know at the time.

If she knew, she wouldn’t have accepted it.

But even if she did, nothing changed.

“What would happen if the Academy finds out that you were from the Green Circle of the past? I think they would probably view it quite negatively.”

Johnny’s pressure came in abruptly afterwards.

Yuria flinched and trembled.

“Are you threatening me right now?”

“What do you mean? It’s just that you seem to keep pretending not to know the past you had with us, so I am just trying to jog your memory a bit.”

Yuria’s eyebrows trembled slightly.

Yuria was not someone who would believe those words obediently.

Green Circle was a poaching group and a clear villain organization in the Frey Empire.

So, in the personality interview for freshmen held just before the entrance exam.

There, Yuria had hidden her past of being in Green Circle and answered that she simply lived as a mercenary.

In a way, she had deceived the interviewers and gained admission fraudulently, so she couldn’t easily guess what measures she would receive if that fact was revealed.

In the worst case, she could be expelled…….

‘……I hate that.’

It wasn’t that she was afraid of or hated expulsion.

What she hated was Gerard.

The situation of being separated from him itself.

‘What should I do?’

Phew, Yuria closed her eyes and let out a sigh.

And Johnny’s eyes watching such an appearance were shining sharply.

‘She is conflicted.’

It was clear that her heart was half swayed.

‘I can probably tell her soon?’

Thinking so, Johnny grinned.

“Didn’t I tell you? This is a chance we are giving you. If you grant our favor, we won’t resent the wrongs you did in the past anymore. Also, we will keep silent forever about the story that you were in Green Circle.”

“……Still, I cannot help but kill spirit beasts.”

“Ah. Come to think of it, I didn’t explain properly what the favor is, did I? The favor to ask you is not to kill spirit beasts. We washed our hands now.”

Washed their hands?

Yuria’s eyes opened roundly.

“We don’t kill spirit beasts anymore. We only hunt magical beasts. How is it. Are you getting interested now?”

***

Two days have passed since Yuria did not return to the Academy.

The Academy still hadn’t realized the particular seriousness and was taking a lukewarm attitude, but I was different.

‘This is a kidnapping.’

Reason?

Because there is no way Yuria would disappear without a word to me.

If asked how I am sure of that, I can’t really pinpoint and answer.

Just…… nothing but the trust and promise existing between me and Yuria.

So I summoned Shadow.

I conveyed the situation, gathered opinions, and took action immediately.

In a kidnapping, time is life.

We had to move fast.

For now, there was only one clue.

That the person who requested the visit was exactly her father.

But there is one strange point here.

If it wasn’t her father but someone else in the visitation room, and he tried to forcibly kidnap Yuria, there would have been resistance.

If so, the Academy side would have noticed right away.

At least some trace would have remained in the visitation room.

But the visitation room was clean.

It didn’t seem like anyone erased traces, and they said there was nothing strange at the guard post near the visitation room either.

Right.

When I asked the guard who was at the guard post at that time, he said Yuria followed the man obediently that day.

Then isn’t it not a kidnapping? One might wonder, but.

I guessed a little differently.

‘What if that man threatened her with Yuria’s weakness?’

Then all the circumstances fit.

Even the fact that Yuria couldn’t resist.

And the fact that she couldn’t leave any words to me either.

What remains is the identity of that man.

The list of suspects narrowed down in an instant.

“The ones who know Yuria’s weakness would only be the people who spent a long time with her.”

“If so, it is the Green Circle.”

“Correct. And coincidentally, I recently met guys suspected to be Green Circle in Binhawk.”

“I will investigate immediately.”

The investigation did not take a long time.

“We found out that people with the same description as the ones in Binhawk recently entered Icata. Also, they did not stay long and left Icata, and that time exactly matches the time Miss Yuria disappeared.”

Then the guys are Green Circle.

“But it’s strange? Didn’t you say the guys called Green Circle were already ruined, Boss?”

At Dayle’s question, everyone’s gaze focused on me.

I nodded.

“I guess they weren’t ruined.”

“…….”

“That’s not what is important right now. Let’s scatter and search.”

We couldn’t deploy all personnel.

We had to leave the minimum personnel to run Lunatic.

Me, whose body is free.

And Dayle and Rachel.

We decided that these three people would go out and chase after them.

Luis had to watch over Lunatic, and Reina had to focus on recovery until her leg was firmly attached.

At that time, Luis spoke.

“However, while tracking the guys, I discovered a strange point.”

“A strange point?”

“Yes. I investigated the identities of those who entered Icata, and they were all affiliated with the Ianco Mercenaries.”

“Hmm? What. It’s not the Green Circle?”

Rachel spoke nonchalantly.

“It’s not strange though? Would guys doing poaching go around revealing their identities properly? They would have made at least one fake identity each to go around.”

“Aha. Like Boss?”

“If it was like that, I wouldn’t have told you it was strange.”

Luis continued speaking.

“Ianco Mercenaries is a mercenary group that is active across the Andra Continent and has been making a name for itself in the last 2 years. Their main task is exterminating magical beasts. And they are also carrying out the work of fighting against groups and companies that indiscriminately develop the environment for ecosystem protection.”

Everyone had a puzzled expression.

“……It is certainly strange. Poachers who used to catch spirit beasts and make them into artifacts are exterminating magical beasts and doing environmental protection movements.”

“So they are actually doing activities, right?”

“Yes. If you say Ianco Mercenaries, they are quite famous in the southern part of Frey and there is no one who doesn’t know them in the Southern Neutral Countries.”

Reputation is not something made that easily.

Results.

Results must exist unconditionally.

Even if they made a fake identity called Ianco Mercenaries avoiding the net of the law, the fact that they spread their name with magical beast extermination and environmental protection movements means they derived many results over the past 2 years.

“Poaching versus magical beast extermination and environmental protection movements, these two things are too contradictory…… Could it be that these two are really different guys?”

Rachel looked at me with eyes full of concern.

Asking if Green Circle and Ianco Mercenaries weren’t really different organizations, not just some fake identity. Her eyes were asking that.

If so, we would be making an irreversible mistake.

But there was no time to do further background checks.

“We have no choice but to chase thinking the two are one. So, the expected route?”

“The expected route is also divided into two.”

Luis continued the answer.

“If they are really Green Circle, their destination is returning to the Southern Neutral Countries, their main area of activity. Anyway, the Frey Empire is not a good environment to continue poaching, so the expected destination is Georgetable City here, which they must pass through to cross into the Southern Neutral Countries.”

To get to Georgetable City, they had to go down to Roenberg City by airship, then transfer to another airship once more at Roenberg City.

The fortunate thing was that there were not many airships bound for Georgetable.

Because the waiting time was long, we could narrow the gap if we moved quickly.

“And if it is Ianco Mercenaries, it is even clearer. I heard their target is ‘Laiadon’.”

“Laiadon? You don’t mean the crazy Drake?”

“That is correct.”

Crazy Drake Laiadon.

In other words, it was also called the nuisance of the southern cities.

A variant of the Drake, a Grade 1 magical beast, it was a Named Magical Beast that was bigger and fiercer, with the number of destroyed villages reaching double digits.

“To exterminate even a Named Magical Beast. It’s a place with a bigger scale than I thought?”

“Anyway, since Laiadon’s nest is at the end of the Ludain Mountain Range. We will be moving together until Roenberg City?”

I nodded.

But since there was no time to spare, we had to inevitably split into two from there.

Dayle and Rachel moving together.

And me moving separately.

‘Where did they go?’

Having finished preparations quickly, we boarded the airship bound for Roenberg.

***

“Ianco Mercenaries?”

“I told you so? Have you really never heard of it?”

“Yes.”

“……It seems our name hasn’t reached where you are living yet. Tch, that’s a shame. But you will be able to confirm it if you go down.”

At those words, Yuria withdrew her suspicious gaze.

Seeing him say it to that extent, it didn’t seem like he was lying.

Ianco Mercenaries protecting the ecosystem.

She couldn’t fully believe it yet, but if it was true, it was a surprising and happy thing.

‘Because Dad granted my favor.’

Suddenly, the wind blew fiercely.

They were currently moving aboard an airship.

Yuria eventually decided to grant Johnny’s favor.

The South.

He said her father, Ianco, was waiting somewhere there.

It was after 2 years and 6 months.

What should I say when we meet.

What expression should I use?

‘I don’t know.’

I hope I don’t stutter out of awkwardness.

As if that tension was noticeable, Johnny, who glanced at her, opened his mouth.

“Are you trembling? Kuku. Well, it is a reunion after a long time so you might be nervous. But don’t feel too burdened. Can’t you just think that you are going to meet your dad comfortably?”

Yuria’s eyebrows furrowed.

“I am fine. Rather than that, please tell me about the work in detail. Did you say spirit beasts are becoming magical beasts?”

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