"If you can, please excuse me for a moment, everyone." Reddy bowed to the rest of them slightly and moved towards me, her expression not looking good in the slightest.

She looked upset, and from the looks that the rest of the people behind her, all of the association employees had, it seemed like something pretty big was going on right now.

"When did you get back? From the looks of it, you seem to have heard about what's going on." Reddy was not acting like how she usually was with me.

She was still in her Guard captain mode, which, as even Qwy could tell, was worse.

"What's going on…?" The voice coming out of me was pretty weak.

It was obvious to me that I was the reason behind all of these happenings, but there was no evidence to prove it.

Reddy, however, knew for a fact that whatever was going on here was because of me.

"I was hoping you weren't behind all this, but… from the looks of it, it seems like you do have a hand in this." She sighed deeply, a new look of concern present on her face.

She was sad, but there was no evidence of anger on her face.

Instead of anger, there was a deep worry.

"Listen, it's not a good time right now." She looked back at all the association people holding all kinds of strange magic devices that seemed like tablets and phones, glaring at us as if I was disturbing some super secret meeting.

Reddy even shook her head at one of them, as if to confirm I was no threat to them.

"Aria, go up ahead and wait for me at the wood shop on the left of this corner. I will be there in ten minutes." She placed her hand on my shoulder to reassure me that it wasn't anything too serious… or at least, she tried.

She looked back at them once again, and even though she wanted to say something else, she stopped midway and just shook her head. "Just go for now, I'll be there as soon as I can."

She looked me directly in the eye with her deep blue eyes, a strange terror I had never seen on her face.

It was strange how she had such a grim expression, but what she said worried me even more.

'What the hell is happening here?!'

I wanted to scream right then and there, but I somehow took a deep breath, looked back at the people from the association, and accepted the fact that this was not my area of expertise.

"Come… come back quickly."

I knew I needed to go, so I looked at her with the same grim expression and walked away from the place, Qwy slipping away right as our conversation was going.

As I had wanted, Qwy found a spot that was well hidden and at a good distance and concealed her presence completely.

The surroundings filled with a new sweet scent as well, something no one noticed consciously. But that wasn't something I needed to concern myself with…

I turned around and left the alley with a straight face, focusing on my bond with Qwy and connecting our senses, looking back at the group that was left behind.

"She is the new star holder, huh?"

"Does Captain Riddle actually have an intimate relationship with her?"

"Caan I ask, Captain Arcage? How is it that Miss Aria found this place? No one should have known about it, no?"

"From the looks of it, she seemed troubled as well? Could it be that she is the one involved in this incident that we weren't told about?"

The association people instantly started interrogating her. But the expression Reddy had was one that she had never made when I was around.

"What relationships I have with someone does not concern our work here, so it would be good if we do not talk about the unnecessary things. As for how she found this place, I think it's thanks to her familiar, the flying eye she has.

However, if we are talking about the person involved in this incident, only the branch leader and the people directly permitted by him are allowed to know anything about it.

If you so wish, I can deny or confirm whether she was involved or not, but if I do that, you will have to face the consequences yourself… should you have me do that?"

While I could not feel it myself since I was away from them, Qwy could feel a unique anger from the whole situation.

The anger did not come from Reddy; I would have felt it directly if that was the case, but from all the others who heard her.

They did not seem to be pleased with how she was acting right now, and I could clearly understand their reasoning.

'Fuck those bastards. She's not even saying anything wrong!'

The group did not show their anger or even a hint of hostility. They simply brushed the whole matter off and went back to what they were talking about before.

"We will be making the announcement in an hour from now."

"The appearance of that new safe zone was not a blessing but a wave of warnings. Had we been more careful about it, nothing like this would have happened."

"No. The creature was aware of others' presence in the area. It took hold of the safe zone right when there was no one present."

"The moment the creature took hold of the safe zone, the safe zone started treating it like how it treats the others, even though it was just a monster."

"To make things worse, it is said that the [Argent-Scale] evolved while it was recovering inside the safe zone."

"When a creature evolves in the state of pregnancy, they become far more protective than their natural form. To make things worse, a [White-Scale Naga] had never been seen before under the 25th floor."

"They are far too protective of their children and accompany them till their deaths."

"It is not going to be easy to deal with the creature as long as it is inside the safe zone. That safe zone does not let anyone inside, so we will either have to destroy it if we want to take down the creature, or seal off the area forever."

"In the first place, keeping just one of those creatures on the first floor means keeping a certain death threat before our eyes. As we just saw, the dungeon's summoning modes are random."

"We cannot control where anyone appears inside the dungeon. So we cannot leave even one of them there."

From what I can understand, the situation was far worse than I had expected.

'Nagas are usually (Level-50) high bosses of a dungeon according to the black guide.'

Even if we are talking about one that has just evolved, we are talking about a city-level threat. And to make things worse, the creature is inside my safe zone.

'It just had to be this rugged situation.'

A bug had made its way deep inside a firewall, and now it was being protected by the firewall. I know it doesn't make any sense, but that's what's happening right now.

'If they don't finish the creature as quickly as they can, the entire dungeon's system will be in big trouble.'

And that's not all. If we are talking about a creature that only appears on the higher floor that isn't accessible to most of the people, we are talking about strategic resources.

'This isn't just about a creature, but the big shots wanting to take it down.'

And if they are to fight a being that is of such a great level, deaths are bound to happen.

"Reddy…"

As the guard captain, she has the duty to save the people of this town, which includes those who are going to fight in a big battle as well.

'Knowing her, she would join the battle as well.'

And I guess that's what is worrying her… It's not going to be an easy battle. Also, it seems like the association branch master and a few of them are keeping my involvement secret.

They will confirm whether I had anything to do with this or not, and I know I will know what I am supposed to do soon enough as well.

"Haaaaa…"

I could not help but sigh at this moment.

'Good work, Qwy.'

She stayed behind, continuing to transmit everything going on over there. And even after Reddy parted ways, Qwy stayed behind.

'Their unofficial talk might be more important than this whole talk they just had.'

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