v5c81 (1/2)

Chapter 081 - Black Silhouette

I, who had been driven out of the country, rendezvoused with Snow and the others and left the country on the airs.h.i.+p.

Though I said 'out of the country', it was just next to the Enol national borders.

For now, we complied with the kidnappers' demands and went outside of the country.

After disembarking the airs.h.i.+p, we stood on standby, just barely outside of the border.

Fully equipped, of course.

Meiya sighed in discontent.

”But, to really drive Lute-sama out, there has to be a limit to being rude!”

”Well, his daughter did become a hostage. It can't be helped if he wants to be careful. Also, we’re going to help Luna, aren't we?”

”Speaking of helping, Lute-kun, did you make sure to get Luna-chan's belonging from Lyss-chan?”

”Of course, I didn’t forget it!”

I answered Snow's question by taking a handkerchief out of my pocket.

”Next is whether that guy will come here as instructed or not, but …. Chrisse-chan, try calling him.”

[Understood.]

Chrisse temporarily let go of the mini blackboard and pressed one hand to her lips, which were pouted in the shape of a circle.

She inhaled deeply.

”Fushuuuuu”, she whistled.

A few seconds later, the Saber Wolf that Luna usually rode on, Lexy, appeared from behind the vegetation. It seemed that he had followed us as planned.

Chrisse was not startled and ruffled Lexy's chin.

I proposed using the Saber Wolf Lexy like a police dog and looking for Luna.

A dog's sense of smell far outstrips a human's.

It's a thousand or ten thousand times sharper than a human's.

A Saber Wolf's is even higher than that.

I remembered learning, on the internet and television, about the use of that sense of smell to look for people and drugs, and even in medicine they studied ways to discover cancer by using a dog's sense of smell.

Incidentally, in my previous life in America, there were special units that used dog’s sense of smell to discover explosives―known as explosives detecting dog units. Secret services, customs houses, the national park police, the army, and a lot of civilian police organizations depended on a dog’s sense of smell to find bombs hidden by terrorists, or criminal who took delight in seeing people’s reactions to their crime.

This unit was formed in the year 1975.

There were 30 dog and trainer teams, and their a.s.signed jobs were 80% searching for explosives and 20% patrol duty.

Training was done in the Secret Service Canine Training school in Beltsville Maryland, and took 20 to 26 weeks.

The contents of the training included suspect pursuit training and pa.s.sing through obstacles like stairs or windows, as well as training to discern 13 kinds of explosives, including RDX and Semtex, by smell.

Drug-sniffing dogs were trained to snap at and shake suspicious people, but explosive detecting dogs were trained to sit when they sniffed out an object that might be an explosive.

If a dog snapped at or shook an explosive, they were liable to explode.

Those explosive-detecting dogs had more than a 75% percent probability of detecting plastic explosives.

It wasn't 100%, but it was better than not being able to detect anything.

Also, the explosive-detecting dogs were no more than just one part of the bomb discovery system.

To return to the story — I put the handkerchief full of Luna's scent near Lexy's nose.

”Please Lexy. Your master's life depends on your hard work.”

After lifting its face from the handkerchief, he started off towards the Enol border.

”Meiya, prepare the airs.h.i.+p so it can go at any time.”

”Understood! Lute-sama, everyone, may luck be in your favor!”

I raised my hand to answer Meiya and ran towards Enol.

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――Third person perspective――

Late at night, three days after Lute and the others left the country.

The perimeter of the barrier stone was lit with magic and was defended 24 hours by up to 50 soldiers.

The condition for a soldier to be a.s.signed to defend the barrier stone was being at least B-cla.s.s magician.

Since it was such a position of honor even within Woodcastle, not even one of the soldiers at work yawned, even though it was late at night.

They possessed that much pride in the job of defending the barrier stone.

”——Wha!?”

Which is exactly why they were shocked.

About 50 soldiers, magicians of rank B and above, had continued to monitor the surroundings without any slips.

Yet, there was one completely black silhouette standing still in front of the barrier stone, touching it with their hand.