That night, without any waves, Team Yumi Tatsumi returned to the Support Division.

Miss Elijah's threat case is not easy to solve, and no one thinks that it is a case that can be solved in a day by an anonymous support department.

Moreover, there is obviously a shady scene in this case, and You will not take Noelle and Hexu to investigate wantonly like a stunned young man. I went to Kurotsuki because I guessed Kurotsuki's thoughts, and the other shady forces - especially organizations like the Karumun Foundation that feared that there would be no reason to start a war - were not places to go to where the military lady and the children who were scared by the Karumun Foundation's heavy machine guns before could go out.

To investigate, choose the dark late night as well. After the others have fallen asleep, swim alone to investigate.

So, Yu just took the two of them around, which was more like a date than a task.

No, no, no, to be precise, it's more like a couple. A gentle father, a strict mother, and a cheerful and lively child to play around. In the eyes of outsiders, this is probably how it feels.

If there was anything that you didn't expect today, it was that she met some children while on patrol, and He Xu quickly got into a mess with them.

After dinner, Yu carefully prepared the weapons and poisons that he was about to use in his room.

The places to be investigated are all tiger's dens and dragon pools without exception, and no matter how well-equipped and carefully calculated, it is not too much.

Rui was by his side, silently helping him clean up small equipment such as smoke bombs for escape and graphite bombs that temporarily disabled the guidance system.

Before Rui Neng spoke, the two had cooperated so tacitly countless times.

Now, the scene remains the same, but Rui's state of mind is different.

It's not the absolute trust of the past, it's not just obedience. It's uneasy. Intense uneasiness.

Several times she tried to speak, but finally she shut up because of her slave obligations. Rui broke a wall, only to find that there was a higher barrier in front of her, the barrier of identity. The perennial idea of slavery makes Rui afraid to change.

Being a slave is very happy, you don't need to think, whether it's warm or cold or the world, it has nothing to do with you. The only thing a slave has to think about is to obey orders and complete them. There is no need to think about the correctness of the order, nor about the feasibility of the order. Even if Yu Tatsumi ordered Rui to drink all the water from the Lupine River (a river that flows through Crossbell), Rui would not hesitate to jump into the river to drink.

Therefore, when it is very troublesome to be an individual, you have to think about how to speak, and you have to take care of people with multiple personalities, and you have to use different words in the face of different people. And what everyone says often has a deeper meaning. On the contrary to your arrogant words, it may be a villain with a small belly and chicken intestines, and those who talk to you about wine may hope to put you to death. The complex society makes this simple girl instinctively feel scared. It's like a newborn creature instinctively dodging flames, it's an instinctive fear.

Should I change or not...... I...... I...... I don't know, what the hell do I ...... What should I do...... My master wanted me to be like him, from slave to human, but ...... I don't want that......

Rui was at war in her heart, and the panic of thinking was reflected in the action, she accidentally made a mistake for phosphor and **, and was so frightened that You quickly pulled her away. There's no mistake with that!

In case it was in the dark cave, Yu took out the bag that should have contained phosphor...... And then Peng! That's a big game.

Thinking about the consequences, You still decided to let Rui rest first.

"I'm not tired......"

"Only those who can confuse phosphor and ** are not qualified to say that."

"Uh......h Only, just by chance......"

"There are no accidents on the battlefield."

He had no intention of accusing Rui, but You's tone was inevitably tough.

There is no way around it. After all, this is something that must not be mistaken. Any slight mistake in battle can lead to death. In particular, You is about to spy on the Lubacher and the Karuman consortium at night, and this dangerous move cannot tolerate the slightest mistake. The chain box is still not available to Illya--this woman has become a child after encountering something new-You is not strong in combat, and must be more careful.

"The host ......"

"I told it, don't ......"

"Master!"

Rui interrupted him forcefully. Feeling that his family had something important to tell him, You sighed, put down the equipment at hand, turned around, and stood officially. Serious topics require a serious attitude.

"The host...... How did you go from slave to human? ”

Rui's voice was clear and lovely, like a spring, but the doubts, sorrows, and pains in the words made the spring water chaotic.

"Me?"

You smiled bitterly. "Like you, I'm still a slave."

"That ......"

"If you ......"

The two of them spoke almost at the same time, Rui quickly closed his mouth, and You wanted to continue, but ......

A letter interrupted him.

The letter is ordinary. The white envelope, boxy, doesn't show anything out of the ordinary. It's just that it is not sealed with fire paint, and it can be seen that the sender is not worried about misoperation at all.

The letter is also not ordinary. Its location is on the wall. Like a shuriken, a cross dart or something like a hidden weapon, one corner of it sank deep into the wall.

can use ordinary letters as hidden weapons, which can only show that the sender wants to show strength, or ...... Demonstrate.

Rui was startled, pulled the quilt and fell on the bed, her small body curled into a ball. You looked calm and pulled out the letter directly.

No problem, paper indeed. Secretly surprised, You opened the envelope, and inside was a rather long manuscript, roughly discussing the rapid development of Crossbell's economic system but the stagnation of politics.

Of course, Yu wouldn't be stupid enough to think someone would be bored to send him this thing.

This is a cipher letter. The password used is the password used by the killer organization. Originally, it was used to "encrypt classified information", but because it was so widely known - almost every killer knew about it - no killer actually used it to write classified information, and most of the time it was used to contact other killers.

Whoever knows this password, if nothing else, should be someone from the same organization as me. You judged in his heart, and at the same time thought about whether he had any enemies.

The answer is no. You rarely appears in the killer organization, and registers as a killer, just to facilitate the task. Rarely interacting with people means rarely offending people.

The letter was simple: I am waiting for you in the underground passageway of the Old Town.

You can see that in order to confuse the public, this letter can be deciphered with more than 8 kinds of passwords, and only the general password of the killer organization can decipher such a complete sentence.

"Really...... I'll pick the time. ”

You Leng snorted. I continued to organize my gear.

"Rui, I'll go out for a while. You lock the door, and if someone comes to me, you pretend to sleep. ”

You stepped on the window with one foot, turned around and instructed. Without waiting for Rui to reply, he jumped out of the window and melted into the night sky.

Master......

Rui stared blankly at the window, not knowing what to do for a moment.

This was the first time she felt a feeling called loneliness.

――――――――――――――――

Crossbell's underground access is very complex.

You can say it's all over the place, or you can say it's messy.

In order to make money, politicians casually pulled out the banner of "developing Crossbell's underground passage", openly put a large amount of money into their pockets, and in order not to be honest, they picked a small cherry from the whole cake and licked the cream before they were willing to let go.

This nonsense underground passage is the product of this cherry after it takes root and sprouts.

You didn't have much effort, and came to the agreed place.

In the perennial unmanaged underground passageway, as long as the traces of the intruder are traced, the target can be easily found.

On a wide platform, staggered pipes cast complex shadows under the light. A man stands in this dappled light and shadow. Standing with his hands down, he was a head shorter than Yuki Tatsumi, dressed in pitch-black clothes decorated with strange patterns of gold, and his hair was long, and his whip-like braids dragged behind him, almost down to his waist.

Seeing Yu Tatsumi arrive, he barely managed to squeeze out a smile on his pale face.

"Welcome here, Senpai."

"Who are you?"

Come straight to the point.

You wasn't going to say anything more to him. With his colleagues in the Killer Organization, he has always had nothing to say.

"Hehe, you're asking a pretty straightforward question. So, introduce yourself. I am the Eater Serpent, Executor NO.XVIII (NO.18), 'Moon' Osiris. Senior, are you interested in our association's 'Phantom Flame Project'? ”