Chapter 506: Runaway (1/2)

After seeing Fernand leave, Jin turned to everyone else.

“Okay then, we should go get as much information as we can ourselves as well. According to Fernand, lots of rumors about this have spread around the city.”

“Yeah. That way, if that guy comes back with sloppy information, we’ll know right away.”

Shion nodded several times as if her head was working swiftly.

(Reiko, just in case, get two of our Covert Units to attach themselves to Fernand and have them be on the lookout for anything strange.)

(Understood. I’ll send in Panse and Viola.)

Reiko chose the two smallest Covert Units and issued them their instructions. With this, there would be no need to worry about being tipped off to or getting themselves targeted by strange organizations.

First, Jin and his friends decided to look around the town while pretending to be simply sightseeing.

“…”

“…”

“…Yuck.”

A mountain of garbage was piled up right next to the alley. It wasn’t only food scraps, but also strange garbage of unknown nature that completely covered the sidewalk.

Jin and the others immediately turned around, and decided to stick to the main road for the time being.

There was almost no food to be found in grocery stores, and to say that the magic tool stores had a wide selection would have been an overstatement.

At accessory stores, there were only a handful of luxury items.

“The economy here is really weird, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, it looks that way.”

“This place is such a mess. Humans really are untidy creatures, huh?”

“…Just like there are differences between the clans of demons, there are all sorts of humans. That’s all.”

While having that conversation, they returned to the middle of the main street.

“Okay, let’s keep going straight ahead.”

As they started to walk, the surroundings suddenly became very noisy. Screams could be heard at a distance.

“What…?”

“Father!”

Reiko got herself in front of Jin. Edgar also jumped forward to cover Elsa.

“Uwaaaaahhhh!”

“I-It’s a runaway carriage!”

Looking in the direction of that voice, they could see that a small carriage was running at a tremendous speed. It had no coachman.

It was pulled by a single horse, but it seemed to be frothing profusely from the mouth as it rushed recklessly through the middle of the road.

People who noticed it hurriedly tried to dodge it, but the horse wasn’t running in a straight line but meandering, so even trying to avoid it was very dangerous since the horse could end up going towards someone who had thought that they had already avoided it.

“AAAIIIEEEE!”

A person had been sent flying. And the carriage was now headed towards Jin and the others.

Reiko was about to jump forward to try to restrain the horse, but reconsidered after realizing that it was probably better to stay by Jin’s side to protect him.

Instead, she prepared a spell.

(‘Paralyze’)

Since she had used her maximum output to cast that spell, the horse fainted instantly.

“Uwaah!”

Someone screamed. When the fainted horse fell to the ground, the carriage fell sideways and slammed itself onto the surface of the road.

Then, nothing but silence.

The horse and the carriage it was pulling both stopped a mere two meters away from Jin and the others.

The first one to return to her senses was Reiko.

“Father, are you hurt?”

“Ah, no. But it was close.”

“Someone’s injured.”

A middle-aged woman was lying down on the ground. It seemed that she had been the one who screamed earlier.

“…Are you okay?”

“A-Ah, m… m-my leg…”

The lower part of her right leg had been bent in an unnatural way from the shin below. It seemed that it had been trampled over by one of the carriage’s wheels.

“…Give me a moment. ‘Diagnose’ …This should be fine. ‘Schmerzmittel’.”

“Huh? Ah…”