The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated

About an hour later and having left the adventurer's guild, the members of Vivian's party had arrived at an out of the way corner of Lamdrion and entered an empty side street in disrepair.

Vivian looked at the twisting and broken down street and turned to Diere behind her.

"Are you sure it's here?"

Vivian tried to confirm with Diere.

"If the address on it wasn't wrong anyways."

Diere gave a lukewarm response.

"But… But this doesn't look like somewhere that a person could enter though."

Lumia timidly raised her opinion.

"I've never heard that somewhere like this place existed either. If it's just in consideration of hiding, this is quite a perfect location though."

Melika seemed to be somewhat nervous too. She had kept her staff in front of her the whole time.

Everyone in Vivian's party discussed the matter with the utmost caution just like that.

Only Shien, who followed along behind everyone with his mouth shut, fully displayed what it meant to as if it had nothing to do with him.

Ever since Diere brought up that she had a clue to the targeted individual, Shien had kept this particular behavior.

No one particularly detected anything strange about him either. Instead, they just followed the address that Diere provided and came to this place.

However, just like what Lumia had said, this didn't look like somewhere livable at all. Rather, it's more like an abandoned ruin full of wild animals and perhaps even demonic beasts. Even the so named slums were probably in better conditions.

Shien thought it was quite unbelievable. He had no idea why the town would have a place like this. Was this an undeveloped area or something?

With such questions, in a normal time, Shien probably would have already asked Vivian's party about it long ago.

But today, Shien only wanted to stay nice and silent and be a weak and helpless baby here.

In such a situation, Vivian gave her orders.

"No matter how it is, let's go in and take a look first." Vivian spoke quietly, "Otherwise, given that we have no other clues, we would only be able to rely on unusual means to find them."

Originally, Vivian had planned to use money to deal with this issue.

Based on her own words, she seemed to know a bunch of information broker-like people. So long as she could pay, they will start moving on their side. It's just that they would need quite a bit of time, that's all.

Now though, since Diere had a clue, that's obviously the best option.

"T-That's true."

"Then let's go in and take a look."

Lumia and Melika had also agreed.

Thus, the group entered as one.

However, just in case, Vivian moved to the front as the vanguard and tank, and she even removed the tower shield from her back and took a defensive stance. Lumia also kept to Melika the mage's side as a guard. Only Shien and Diere were set as the rearguard.

That finally gave Shien the opportunity to get close to Diere.

"Um…" Shien weakly spoke, "Miss Diere. May I ask you a question?"

Shien was finally prepared to bring up his own suspicions.

However, Diere acted indifferently.

"You wanted to ask me why I have that clue, right?"

Diere replied without even turning her head.

"You are most discerning." Shien spoke in a very humble style, "If you might be willing to enlighten me, this one will be most grateful."

"Don't talk in such a strange style. It makes me feel uncomfortable." Diere continued in her indifferent tone, "I just coincidentally picked it up, that's all."

"Coincidentally picked it up?" Shien carefully confirmed, "Are you sure?"

"Is it that important if I'm sure or not?" Diere continued in a completely even tone, "Or do you need me to tell you directly that I was there at the time. Otherwise, no matter what I say, you'd still suspect me, right?"

"Cough…" Shien had nothing he could say to that, so he could only change the topic and whispered, "Then, how did you know that the address written there is the location of the person the Old Demon Faction is looking for, in other words, or target?"

That's a very strange matter in and of itself.

Logically speaking, Diere shouldn't know just who that poser was looking for. Only Vivian had the possibility of having seen the portrait that poser was carrying, and she shouldn't have known that Diere had a clue that could lead to the person on the portrait.

And yet, Vivian just unconditionally believed Diere. She didn't even ask a thing before taking everyone here. Yet, just how did Diere put that clue together with the person on the portrait, that was a matter that Shien just couldn't understand.

No, there was one possibility that he could think of.

However, Shien really hoped that it wasn't that.

Unfortunately, in this world, hopes are often dashed.

"Back when you two were facing off, didn't that person admit that she came to Lamdrion because she was on the run?' Diere continued speaking without any shifts in tone, "Given that, the chances were fairly likely that that person was the one the Old Demon Faction was looking for."

Such an explanation was quite reasonable.

What's unfortunate was though, that it was also the thing that Shien least wanted to hear.

After all, that revealed a certain problem.

"… So you were watching the whole time?"

Shien felt that a bunch of mysteries had become solved.

What was Diere willing to teach him [Magic Sword] despite the fact that his displayed level and ability were completely short of the requirements.

That's because she had seen Shien's true strength.

Why did Diere only show amazement but not suspicion at the fact that Shien fulfilled all the conditions for learning [Magic Sword] as well as the earth-shattering anomaly he caused?

Because she knows how special Shien was.

That night at the foot of the Mangir mountain range, back when Shien returned to camp, Vivian told him that Diere was patrolling the surrounding area at the time.

Therefore, at that time Diere ended up seeing Shien and his secret outside the camp, right?

"I'll make I clear, I wasn't following you on a whim at the time." Diere tossed that out there, "At the time, your condition was a bit unusual, and Vivian was worried that you might end up encountering danger wandering out alone. That's why she had me follow you and keep you safe in secret."

"Vivian?" Shien stopped for a moment and then hurriedly asked, "Does Vivian also know too?"

"That I'm not sure about. At least, I didn't tell her about this." Diere spoke with directness, "However, based on her behavior, even if she didn't discover directly like I did, she definitely has as least detected that you're special. Otherwise, there's no way that she wouldn't keep pursuing the matter even though she knew full well that you're the culprit behind that anomaly."

That statement made Shien completely discomforted.

In other words, he thought that he hid his identity well, but in reality, Vivian and Diere had long since knew about it?

And more than that, there's also the possibility that there might be even more people who knows?

Shien really wanted to swear at that.

Thankfully though, Diere told Shien the following.

"Don't worry, I never told anyone about this, not even Lumia and Melika. Vivian definitely also didn't leak this either." Diere spoke calmly, "Your identity is just far too sensitive in this time and circumstance. If it gets exposed, never mind anything else, the Old Demon Faction would definitely have their attention on you, first thing, and use this as a means to break our hard-earned peace. This matter is too big, and we know to deal with it carefully."

"Is that so?" Shien let out the breath he was holding at that while also sighing, "Sorry for the troubles."

"Don't worry about it." Diere spoke like she didn't mind, "This is also for ourselves too."

As Shien and Diere had this conversation unknown to all others, the three people in front suddenly stopped moving.

"It looks like we've found the right place after all."

Vivian stared at what's before her and so confirmed.