Chapter 42 - The Children of The Defensive Point 14 (2/2)

Reina looked smug as she stated her rank.

“Mine is 23.”

There was a moment of silence between them. Akira showed no change in his behaviour and did not say anything back to Reina, she was very upset by that as she yelled to Akira.

“Are you listening to me?! I’m Rank 23! I’m above you, you know!!”

“So?”

“Don’t give me that! I’m above you, so you should listen to what I say!! Just get on your feet and come with me!!”

“No one told me to follow the orders from the Hunters who are ranked higher than me and the request description doesn’t say anything about that too. So I don’t have any reason to obey you.”

“…No reason? That might be true, but!!”

Reina raised her voice when she said that.

As Katsuya saw Reina getting heated, he thought that it would be bad to let her continue, so he interrupted her.

“Well, uhh, what can I say, although she said all of that, she’s actually just worrying about you. Isn’t it safer to be in a group than being alone if something bad happens?”

“I’m not worried about him!! Not even the slightest!!”

Katsuya was actually not trying to help Akira, he said that in order to calm Reina down. But in the end, Reina vented at him too.

Akira then casually said.

“I’ll take care of myself if anything happens. When the push comes to shove, you can just abandon me to die.”

Katsuya was surprised by what Akira just said, but he somehow tried to continue the conversation.

“Even if you tell us so, it’s still safer to be in a group, right?”

“Just leave him alone!! Brats like him can just go ahead and die all by himself!!”

Reina immediately turned and walked away, she was even half running. It was completely visible even from behind that she was livid.

Katsuya actually wanted to ask Akira about his relations.h.i.+p with Elena and Sara. But if he kept standing there, Reina would get angry at him too and he wanted to avoid that. Not to mention, Akira also did not seem to be in the mood to talk. So he had no other choice but to return back following Reina.

Alpha just smiled as she was watching Katsuya and Reina walk away.

“Well, they’re very lively, aren’t they?”

“You can say that again. I bet they were so lively that they even got into a fight with the other group before I came here.”

Mimata’s group was looking down at Katsuya’s group, it was obvious from how they were behaving. The Hunters here already broke into 2 groups when Akira came, so he thought that it must be right after they had a fight between them. And his guess was spot on.

It was doubtful whether they would even help each other if they were attacked by a swarm of Yarata Scorpions at this moment. It could be considered lucky if they were just abandoning each other. In the worst-case scenario, they might even “accidentally” shoot at each other.

Akira planned to run away alone if the situation turned from bad to worse. He was given the right to do so in his contract. Other than the right to withdraw alone, he was also given the right to move alone. So just to be safe, he wanted to avoid any needless fighting.

Akira frowned and sighed.

“…And here I thought I was a.s.signed to a safe place where I can take it easy.”

Alpha smiled mischievously.

“Just give your best so that you can wrap up today’s request as a lucky hit since you’re a.s.signed here.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Akira grumbled, he was forgetting to count himself in his consideration. But in contrast to that, Alpha knew well that Akira was the biggest threat here who might worsen their situation.

Forget about accidental shots, he shot and killed the person who threatened him without even a trace of hesitation. He was probably the most volatile person in this place in case a problem arose. Alpha judged that she needed more observation data to understand the principles behind Akira’s actions.

Alpha was observing Akira while still smiling like usual, but she has always been watching him closely.

Nothing in particular happened after that. Akira had no complaints about it, but that was not the case for the people who were seeking a big reward. As the calmness continued, those people started complaining and talking about what they could do to solve the problem.

Mimata’s group started talking more specifically about their complaints.

“We really have nothing to do, huh? Nothing is happening. I bet those Hunters in the exploration team are also collecting relics while exploring the underground ruin, but we’re in the defense team right now.”

“Even if you want to look for relics, there’re only cheap relics left in the outskirts of the ruin, you know?”

“That might be true on the surface, but I heard that might not be the case down here. There are not that many Hunters who would come to the underground city to look for relics since this place is always filled with total darkness. I also heard that the shockwave from the explosions used by the defense squad during that big fight not too long ago had opened a path to an undiscovered area inside the ruin, you know? It seems that the Yarata Scorpions used that new route connected to the unexplored area to come to the surface.”

“Wait, doesn’t that mean that the exploration team can have all the relics in the unexplored area for themselves?”

“Yep.”

“It’s not that strange to find a big load of untouched relics inside an unexplored area. I bet they’ll get a whole lot of money from the relics that they bring back from here. Dammit, I should’ve joined the exploration team.”

As Mimata heard his friend complaining, he joined in their conversation.

“About that, you see. It seems that they can’t bring home relics that they find during this request. It’ll be an infringement to their contracts, after all. And if they are found out, the city staff would seize their relics and the penalty is pretty harsh too. But with that being said, it’s not like they would leave the relics that they have found, so what do you think they will do in this case?”

“…If it’s me, I would hide the relics somewhere safe where only I can find them.”

“Exactly, I’ll do the same too. So in short, there might be relics hidden around here by those people. So, want to try searching the area?”

Mimata and his friends made greedy smiles as they looked at each other.

As Mimata’s group was trying to sneak away from the area, Reina saw them and rebuked.

“Hold it! Where do you think you’re going?!”

Mimata answered back apathetically.

“…Where, you ask? We’re just going to patrol around the area.”

Reina could feel that Mimata was mocking her from his random excuse.

“There’s no need to patrol the area if you’re in stand-by here!! Moreover, that’s the exploration team’s job!! Our job is to guard this area!! So don’t go wandering around without permission!! That’ll only bring us trouble, you know!!”

Reina shouted at Mimata’s group, her voice echoed deep into the underground city. But Mimata did not show any concern at all as he replied back.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be back in no time. It’s not like there are any monsters coming here anyway, and if there’s any movement, I’m sure the people in the HQ will inform us.”

“That’s not the problem here!”

Reina was yelling at Mimata’s group but they were ignoring her. It did not seem that any of them were trying to find a middle ground. As their unproductive argument continued, everyone’s attention was on them. Suddenly Mimata turned to Akira who was neither a part of his group nor Katsuya’s group. He then laughed lightly and asked for Akira’s opinion, trying to get Akira involved.

“What do you think?”

Everyone there s.h.i.+fted their gaze to Akira. Mimata was looking at him with the eyes showing that he’s looking down at Akira while Reina was glaring intensely at him, both of them were waiting for his opinion.

Akira who was suddenly pulled into the conversation thought for a bit before answering back.

“…Just go and return back quickly if it’s just for the toilet, after all, we wouldn’t want you to do that here. If you take too long, I’ll a.s.sume that you met some monsters and ask for confirmation from the HQ.”

Akira was basically approving Mimata on what he was going to do. Reina looked surprised and angry at the same time, while on the other hand, Mimata smiled victoriously.

“It’s great to have someone who is so understanding. Yeah, I’m just going to the toilet. I’m about to burst to be honest, later then.”

After saying that, Mimata took his whole group together with him and left the area.

Reina was glaring intensely at Mimata’s group, but once they were gone from her view, she turned her displeasure and intense glare towards the next target that she was furious at. She then yelled at Akira while walking towards him.

“What was that?! Are you taking their side?!”

Akira looked a bit annoyed as he answered back casually.

“I bet they won’t listen to what I say anyway, so it’s faster to let them go do whatever they want and have them return back here after that. That’s all.”

The way Akira said it as if it had nothing to do with him rubbed Reina in the wrong way, she then exploded in anger.

“That’s not the problem here?! Are you saying that it’s really okay to let them do what they want?!!”

“I have no right to stop them. If you want to complain, you can just report them to the HQ. Or do you want to point your guns at them and tell them to stop? Well, I won’t stop you though, but I won’t get myself involved either.”

Not to mention that Akira was planning to act alone depending on the situation, so he was not in a position where he could complain about what they were going to do. Moreover, if there were any important notifications like an order to withdraw from the HQ while they were still gone, Akira was not planning to wait for them to return back before withdrawing. To put it bluntly, he did not give a rat’s a.s.s if they were left behind to become the monster’s meal. Akira thought they left that place fully knowing about this fact.

So, relatively speaking, Akira’s status and position here was closer to Mimata’s group rather than to Reina’s group.

Reina was still yelling at Akira after that but he just ignored her. He thought that it would only worsen the situation if he said anything back to Reina.

As Reina realized that it would be pointless to keep yelling at Akira, she just glared at him with rage before returning back to Katsuya’s group.

Akira sighed.

“I guess the only time when they don’t cause a fight is when they die or something similar to that happens, huh?”

As Akira did not seem to realize that he was also at fault, Alpha just smiled bitterly at him and said.

“Some people just don’t get along with other people. It might be just that your way of thinking doesn’t fit well with theirs.”

“I guess that must be the case.”

If they always picked a fight with other people no matter who they were, they would not be able to work as a group. But Katsuya and his friends formed a group and worked together in their group. So Akira thought that it must be that they were not compatible with people like him or Mimata. After coming to this conclusion, Akira decided to just stop thinking about them.

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