Life didn't get easier, even in another world.

"Report the situation."

-.... The situation was taken care of. We've captured some Philomns members and killed the rest. 

The answer came a few minutes afterward. 

"What about the village and the hunters?"

-... The village is partly destroyed... and a few villagers were greatly injured, but Asa saved them so everything is fine now. The hunters are safe as well. The ones who came with me helped them out in killing the monster and they are all alright now.

"Have you found out their goal?"

-... They told us that they were ordered to find a book and a painting, search the ruin thoroughly, and take anything found inside.

"Well done. Stay there for now and take care of the things there."

-... Yes, sir.

The team leader pressed a button on the communication device and the conversation was cut off. 

Then he pressed another button and started talking again.

"Darren, report."

Again, the answer came a little bit later.

-... We couldn't find anyone in the ruin or in the land, but there were traces of people coming and going here. 

"Did they leave before you came?"

-... Yes. This mage here confirmed that after using magic. She said they have most probably come and left via teleporting.

"Alright. If you are done, go to where Thea is."

-... Did something- Nevermind. Yes, sir.

The team leader leaned back on his seat with a sigh, closing his heavy eyes. However, he could only rest his eyes for a few minutes.

Click

Team leader Dains opened his eyes and raised his head, looking towards the door that had opened just now.

"You are back?"

Alan rubbed his hands together to warm them up and closed the door with his foot.

"What kind of silly question is that? Can't you see that I'm here with your eyes? Tsk!"

"...."

Alan grumbled like a grandpa and strode over to the sofa in the middle of the Inn's room.

"The kid is not awake yet?"

Poke Poke

He poked Kairen's cheek that was sleeping on the sofa with his frozen fingers.

"MMn..."

Kairen slightly frowned after getting poked with a cold finger and turned his head a little bit.

"Hehe!"

Alan chuckled and poked him once more.

Poke Poke

"MMM!!"

This time, Kairen moved his face and covered it with the blanket.

"Heh!"

"What are you doing? Are you a five-year-old?"

Alan could feel the furious gaze of someone on him. Alan ignored Reyan's gaze and plopped down on the sofa.

"What is wrong with this brat?"

"What? Why did you seat there?!!!?!?!??!"

Reayn glared at Alan who was sitting beside the sleeping Kairen with fires in his eyes.

"Because there are no empty sofas? Are you blind?"

Fortunately, before Reyan and Alan could continue their argument, team leader Dains stepped in and asked something.

"So, did you pick up your stuff from your house?"

Alan chuckled.

"No. I couldn't find my stuff..."

His voice trailed off. He looked up at the ceiling and stretched his arms out.

"But I found some interesting things instead."

Team leader Dains leaned closer in his seat.

"You followed them, didn't you?"

Alan's lips curled up in a smile as he nodded his head.

"The mage boy couldn't use mana so I followed them instead. We shouldn't lose them as much as I know."

"And?"

Alan folded his arms.

"I was found out."

"...."

"...."

Alan clicked his tongue with an annoyed face and avoided Reyan and team leader Dain's gazes.

"Don't look at me like that. That man is not your typical Philomns member, you know that as well."

Team leader Dains closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"So?"

Alan paused for a moment and thought about the things he had seen.

"That man... he was alone with a teenager. He was knowingly walking into a trap with his own feet, telling that he wanted us to go after him while carrying some of Philomns' confidential documents."

Team leader Dains and Reyan both frowned.

"He had what?"

Alan picked up a paper and a pen and started sketching something.

"They said it was some confidential documents. He said that he had stolen them. He knew I was there, so he purposely took them out for me to see... there was a symbol like this on the papers."

Alan raised the paper and held it in front of the team leader's face. 

"The Philomns' symbol..."

Alan tore the paper and threw it into the trash can. He didn't say anything else and the three people looked at each other in silence.

"...Should we... go after them?"

Reyan hesitantly opened his mouth after a few minutes of silence.

"This might be a trap..."

Team leader Dains shook his head from side to side.

"But it is also too tempting of a situation to ignore..."

Philomns confidential documents. 

If they could get their hands on them, they might be able to finally find something about their goal. They might finally be able to strike them once after years of fighting.

They couldn't find all of the documents inside the hideout today. Probably, that man was the one who took a portion of the documents in there and ran away.

But there was the possibility that what the man had in his hands was fake. It was possible that he wanted to lure them out with fake documents.

"I can't understand his goal."

Was he really a traitor? 

"It feels like he wants to help us, but at the same time works for Philomns..."

"Help us..."

Team leader Dains mumbled that under his lips.

"Not that we can trust Philomns after all the things they have done..."

Trusting Philomns members? 

They had tried that before. They had tested all of the possible ways so many times.

They had tried to negotiate and persuade some Philomns members to help them out.

There were Philomns members who ran away and came to them, asking for their help in exchange for intel on Philomns.

There had tried capturing the members alive and interrogating them in order to find some answers.

But their efforts were all in vain.

They were betrayed, stabbed in the back, and fed false information.

There was no way that they could trust a Philomns member again.

Team leader Dains had even thought about the possibility of that man being an agent that had secretly infiltrated Philomns. So he had contacted his higher-ups about it, but even they didn't know that man.

"It seemed that his only goal was to get rid of that spell."

Alan shrugged his shoulder and shared his mind. That was what he had understood after watching the man and the teenager for a while.

"But I'm sure that he wanted to drag us there. He knew I was following him, yet didn't even try to get rid of me. He was deliberately making us know his location."

Team leader Dains didn't say anything in answer. He looked outside the window. It was dark. He then glanced at the boy who was sleeping on the sofa. 

"We'll wait until morning."

"What if they get away until then?"

Team leader Dains pointed outside the window with his chin.

"I don't think they can walk anywhere in such weather."

It was windy and snowy outside the window. 

"Neither can we."

They were currently in a city near Mount Fiera and it was snowing heavily. The weather would be worse in The Frozen Ocean if it was like this here.

"Also, we can't leave him behind and go after those two."

Team leader Dains pointed at Kairen this time.

"The only way for them to run away is that they use Claire Raid's ability to move as far away as they can, which I doubt they can."

"Why?... Ah!"

Reyan asked why, but before the team leader could answer it, he raised his eyebrows and quietly exclaimed.

"They were walking towards The Frozen Ocean on foot and didn't use the portals... Probably because they couldn't... there must be a limit to how many times she can create portals in a day..."

"That's right."

"Then..."

"YAWN!"

Alan leaned back on the sofa and yawned. 

"Can I sleep now?"

The two people stopped talking and turned to him.

"Seriously, don't you have any other clothes?"

Reyan looked at his torn and stained pajamas with disgust and pity. 

"You dragged me out of my house with only these and now my house is destroyed. You fuckers didn't give me shit to wear and now are looking down on my mighty pajamas! Tsk!"

"....."

"By the way..."

Alan ignored Reyan and shifted his gaze to the team leader.

"How much are you going to pay me?"

The team leader answered without even looking at him.

"Depends on your performance."

Alan sneered.

"Then I must earn more than you fools!"

"Wait a minute!"

Reyan raised his hand to stop their conversation.

"Payment? What is he talking about?"

He looked between Alan and the team leader with a face full of question marks. 

"Hmm..."

Team leader Dains hummed and rubbed his chin.

"I didn't have the time to properly announce it to you guys... we were too busy that I forgot... but..."

He lowered his head and frowned. He exhaled heavily and pressed his lips together. He then rubbed his forehead with his hand. 

"...."

Reyan blankly looked at his team leader who had difficulty saying the next words as if he was greatly ashamed of himself. He seemed to be in great pain and suffering all of a sudden.

Finally, the team leader opened his mouth and talked in a rare sorrowful voice.

"...But he... Is our unit's... new member...."