“Regroup, but don’t group up too tightly!” Kurt instructed in a loud and clear voice. “Be ready to spread out again at any second!” He continued. “And don’t think of running away by yourself! It will gladly gobble up stragglers!”

The bunch of Rock and Iron rank adventurers, while generally compliant, still visibly showed unrest, fear, and worry. If one looked closely, there were several among them who were shivering uncontrollably. They were all once again gathered on the flat patch of land where the cleanup operation had previously been ongoing before the golems had attacked.

“I-I didn’t sign up for this!” One young male Rock rank adventurer said while on the verge of crying.

“Y-Yeah!” Another young male Rock rank, seemingly a teammate, added. “We came here to help in logistics, not to get killed!”

Kurt, not wavering, spoke back. “I already said to everyone during the briefing back in town that this is an Infested Area Extermination quest! There is always a risk of more Calamity Beasts showing up in this kind of quest!” He stopped briefly. “You had the chance to back out then, and you’re here because you chose to take the risk!”

Nobody talked back to Kurt. Elana, who was within earshot, felt intimidated to some degree for some reason despite having experienced or given harsher speech than Kurt’s. But it didn’t take long for her to realize why.

“He used a spell called Provoking Presence during battle, so I want to make a guess that he is now using Intimidating Presence or something similar.” Elana said with her arms folded while glancing towards Kurt in the distance. His speech still continued, but it was largely a tough motivational speech to get the low rank adventurers back on their feet so it was irrelevant to Elana and her crews.

“Yes, that’s correct.” Sedhoust, who was nearby, chimed in. “Part of Fortification Weave, which most adventurers above Gold rank can cast at least the basic spells of.”

“Hmm.” Elana mumbled with a slight nod. “Anyway, the more important thing is that black snake. Right now it is still swimming in circles down there. What is it doing actually?”

“We did considerable damage to its body, so it is taking time to mend itself.” Sedhoust said. “Like, its head was badly mangled, so it will move other parts of its body around to reshape the head back to pristine form.”

“So when it is back, it will be in its prime condition again but smaller?”

“More like shorter, but yes.”

Elana subtly rolled her eyes, not caring whether Sedhoust noticed or not. “This is going to take a while. I honestly cannot imagine people living with such monstrous creatures roaming about.”

“Then you better not try imagining how life was for us two decades ago.” Sedhoust said with his eyes staring to the sky. He let out a small sigh and, very subtly, clicked his tongue.

Elana realized that she might have brought up a topic that was unpleasant for Sedhoust, so she chose to remain silent for the time being.

“Captain.” Lillie spoke up. “Armaments check done. We’re up and ready for combat. What are your orders?”

“No particular orders.” Elana replied. “Once it comes out, engage the enemy and utilize all the information we have about it at your discretion as the squad leader.”

“Affirmative, Captain!” Lillie said, giving a quick salute before going back to Gregory and Ulysses.

“She sure is lively.” Sedhoust remarked. “And she follows your command with no hesitation.”

“Of course. I am their captain. They look up to me.” Elana said. “And in return, I have to live up to their expectations.”

“Hmm...” Sedhoust visibly squinted while glancing at Elana, who noticed everything and threw back a glare.

“What is it? You have something to say?”

“Nothing important.” Sedhoust averted his eyes with a small sigh. “Merely the fact that you remind me of someone I know.”

“I see.” Elana relaxed her stance and averted her eyes from Sedhoust too. “Hmm? I detect upward movement. It’s coming!”

Crackle! Crackle! Drrrd!

A rumbling sound of thunder was immediately heard from the sky right after Elana finished speaking. It was Sedhoust’s doing, which had been previously agreed upon to be the signal to alert all adventurers. As planned, the adventurers immediately went into formation, spreading out into smaller groups in order to minimize difficulties in evading the obsidian golem’s incoming burrow strike.

“Can you pinpoint the attack location?” Sedhoust asked.

Elana didn’t immediately answer. She concentrated fully on the interface projected in front of her sight, with her handgun in the tight grip of her right hand.

“I got it! Boost me!” Elana said, and immediately Sedhoust flew up about ten meters, carrying Elana by hugging her in the waist. “There!”

Elana shot her handgun at one spot within the formation of adventurers. What came out of the gun was a small canister which began to constantly spew out red colored smoke, creating a smoke pillar there. All the adventurers nearby immediately moved away from the spot and prepared their weapons, while Elana and Sedhoust returned to the ground.

Ten seconds later, the area around the smoke signal crumbled and the familiar jet-black snake head emerged with an unintelligible roar. True to the information from Sedhoust, the head was back in pristine shape as if all the attacks on it had never happened.

“Ranged fighters! Attack!”

Kurt commanded all the adventurers, and immediately a barrage of various projectiles came upon the golem from all directions. Augmented arrows, ballista bolts, and magic projectiles all converged on the golem and struck mercilessly, creating cracks and chipping off the golem little by little like before. The melee fighters remained in their place, keeping their distance from the golem while the ranged attackers behind them were still on the offensive.

Elana along with the Mountain Squad also took part in the attack, peppering the golem head with AP rounds from range. The Crisis Squad had been ordered to remain out of the battle so they stayed behind, guarding the ones not fighting due to either injury or other reasons.

At the same time, Sedhoust just stood still with his arms folded and not speaking any words. However, it was not difficult to tell from the wind flow that he was manipulating the wind to boost the speed of physical projectiles shot out by the attacking adventurers, while also making sure that none of them would overshoot and cause friendly fire.

In response, the golem pulled out more lengths of its body out of the ground and coiled around itself, making what basically was a huge donut around its figurative base. Once again it let out a loud and unintelligible roar, and the entire body in sight began protruding spikes pointed to all directions around it.

“Cover up and brace yourselves!” Kurt commanded right before raising his own shield to cover Leon and Anna. All adventurers who had a shield immediately lined up in front and raised their shields, making a wall to cover those without. The Mountain Squad immediately did the same, covering Elana and Sedhoust.

A second later, the golem’s coiled body shot out shards to all directions, with each shard being presumably sharp enough to pierce through unprotected flesh with ease.

“Wind Wall!” Sedhoust exclaimed, and Elana immediately felt a heavy air pressure from behind. It was apparent that Sedhoust used a wind magic spell to repel the shards, but with how streamlined the shards could possibly be, Elana had a doubt in her mind whether it would be effective. “Energy Shield!” He exclaimed again.

Immediately, a shining wall made of energy was erected right in front of not just the Mountain Squad but also all other vanguard adventurers, effectively encircling the golem. Right afterwards, the shards struck the wall and made noises akin to an unceasing hailstorm.

There was no sign of the shards stopping because the golem kept shooting them out from its body, and at this point cracks began forming on the walls.

Crash!

The energy barrier soon shattered, but the shard attack had mostly stopped by that time. The adventurers with shields braced themselves against the remainder of the shards barrage, and the same applied to the Mountain Squad members in front of Elana.

Soon after, the attack stopped. Gregory peeked over his shield quickly and reported. “The attacks have stopped for now, and the creature’s body no longer has spikes.”

Naturally, Elana had no idea whether it was a good sign or not, so she glanced at Sedhoust who definitely had more knowledge about the matter. But before she could see a response, she heard Kurt giving out a new command.

“Melee fighters! Attack!”

“Oooooh!”

Similar to the fight against the two rock golems before, the melee fighters from the group of higher rank adventurers shouted a collective war cry which echoed throughout the field and charged at the obsidian golem. They slashed, stabbed, and smashed away at the golem’s body, shaving off black shards from it. The golem tried to fight back, but since Kurt was visibly radiating the flaming aura of his Provoking Presence spell, all the attacks were directed at him, which he skillfully defended against. The other adventurers were basically having a free reign over the golem. During this time, Lillie and Gregory had joined the fray, beating down the golem along with the adventurers.

At a distance, Elana and Ulysses watched the beatdown happening. They were both visibly confused, showing their bewilderment in each their own way.

“Did Lillie order you to stay here?” Elana asked without taking her eyes off the scene.

Ulysses nodded in response. “Yes, Captain. Leader said that we don’t have as much intel on the beast as the locals, and that thing may do the same attack again. She ordered me to stay and cover you in case that happens.”

“I see.” Elana said. She then turned her head towards Sedhoust who was still standing next to her observing the adventurers with a subtly delighted look on his face.

“Care to share your knowledge, Sir Sedhoust?” Elana asked with a stern look on her face.

“The attack consumed a substantial amount of its body parts, so now it can no longer do the same attack again.” Sedhoust replied.

“Any reason why the golem chose to do what basically was a tactical suicide?”

“Because the barrage made it determine that it was massively overwhelmed, so it decided to do its desperation attack hoping that the attackers would be wiped out by it.” Sedhoust replied, then he looked upwards a little and put one hand under his chin. “For your information, automaton type calamity beasts are typically strong in physical aspects, but their decision making is rigid and limited, which makes their actions highly predictable to those with enough knowledge.”

“And manipulatable, like what Kurt did just recently.” Elana said with one arm on her hip.

Sedhoust made a small nod before replying with a single word. “Precisely.”

“Captain!” Ulysses called out. “Incoming!”

“I know!” Elana said, dashing to the side. The obsidian golem had just jumped away from the beatdown, making a huge flowing arch with its body just like previously. The trajectory of its head would lead right to the spot where Elana stood before she dashed away. Following her, Ulysses and Sedhoust also moved away from the danger zone. Elana, seeing the chance to attack, raised her rifle and fired the underslung grenade launcher. “Firing an explosive!”

Pssh! Boom!

The sound of the explosive projectile coming out from Elana’s rifle was quickly followed by the sound of the explosion occurring right on the mangled head of the obsidian golem. Shards flew all over due to the explosive impact, and the golem’s head was pushed away from the supposed landing point. With a loud thud sound, the head crashed to the ground and lied nearly motionless along with the rest of its body instead of burrowing into the ground like before. Being slightly less tense now, Elana noticed that indeed the snake-like body of the obsidian golem was now significantly shorter than she remembered before, probably only one-third of its previous length or even less than that.

“Captain. Is that...?” Ulysses pointed at one part of the fallen golem. There was a spot which was glowing red, and upon closer look the glowing object was spherical. It was most definitely the core of the obsidian golem.

“What are you waiting for?” Elana said. “Destroy the core!”

“Affirmative!”

Bwoosh!

Ulysses activated the thrusters of his suit, sliding towards the core at high speed while replacing the AP cannon on his right hand into Blaster Spear. Within a few seconds, he was basically face to face with the golem’s core with the pile bunker weapon armed and ready.

“Goodbye.” Ulysses said with a grin as he fired the Blaster Spear.

With a loud cracking sound, the spear impaled the glowing red core dead center. The core momentarily glowed brighter before disintegrating completely into dust. The rest of the golem’s body soon crumbled into small pieces with none of its form remaining. All that was left was the fact that a significant portion of the battlefield was now littered with black obsidian shards.

Other adventurers who were in combat against the obsidian golem hurried to the spot where Ulysses was. Lillie and Gregory were the first ones to arrive thanks to their suit thrusters.

“Did you just kill it!?” Lillie asked with her facial expression showing a mixture of excitement and delight.

“Yes, Leader.” Ulysses replied. “I spotted the core when the golem was down, and Captain Mayer ordered me to destroy it.”

Lillie grinned wide hearing the reply from Ulysses. “Good work, Uly!” She said before giving him a pat on the back.

“Thank you, Leader.” Ulysses said with a bit of a laugh.

Soon Kurt’s team and all other higher rank adventurers arrived at the scene. After stopping and looking around for a brief moment, Kurt walked to the spot where the core was used to be and gave it a thorough look. He then turned back facing the company of adventurers and raised his right arm high.

“We won!” Kurt shouted, and immediately a thunderous cheer came out from the other adventurers, followed by them expressing their joy to each other in their own way.

Elana breathed a sigh of relief looking at the celebration of the adventurers. She was glad that the enemy had been defeated without apparent casualties. The Mountain Squad along with the adventurers had done a great job winning the battle.

“Remember,” Sedhoust, who by now was standing next to Elana, suddenly said to her. “The battle is won, but the quest is not yet complete.”

“No need to remind me, or anyone in that matter.” Elana replied. “Kurt surely knows that as well.”

Sedhoust glanced at Kurt and smiled with his arms folded. “Yes, definitely. His team is exemplary.”

“Aren’t there Diamond rank teams who should be even more exemplary?”

“To tell the truth, there haven’t been any active Diamond rank teams in the kingdom for over a decade.”

Elana squinted and glanced at Sedhoust. “Huh? What could have been the cause?”

“Because we are in the age of peace.” Sedhoust replied. “Diamond rank teams have simply retired from being adventurers, having no worthy quest to do.”

“Age of peace? With these monsters around?” Elana reached her left arm around, pointing at the remains of the obsidian golem littered all over the field. Her voice was raised a bit.

Sedhoust, not fazed in the slightest, replied. “Yes. This is nothing compared to what people had to go through back then.”

“...” Elana didn’t immediately respond to Sedhoust’s words. “I suppose, you were among the ones who retired?”

“Yes.” Sedhoust replied. “I, Keith, Vierra, Lorheimdast, and Rukharist. We were all accomplished adventurers back then. A long time ago, our party went on a journey to bring forth an age of peace. We succeeded, but with a price.”

Sedhoust lowered his head a little. Elana let out a little sigh before speaking in response to that. “I heard a little of your heroic tale from Kurt, and from that I could say that people will surely remember your deeds for a very long time. All five of you.”

In response to Elana’s words, Sedhoust lowered his head even more and let out an audible sigh. However, it was not too difficult for Elana to notice that he also smiled.

Soon later, the cleanup work which had previously been interrupted by the golems resumed, with the added work of clearing out the obsidian golem’s shards. Obsidian was basically glass, so stepping on the shards without protective footwear would be dangerous.

The Mountain Squad once again played a big part in the cleanup with their exoskeleton suits helping significantly in the heavy physical works. Elana saw that there was no need to watch over them, so she decided to go to Doctor Kai and Crisis Squad to see how they were doing.

“I told you I’m fine!” The first thing Elana heard upon arriving near was a familiar voice yelling. It was the young adventurer boy who had been smacked by Sedhoust.

“No, you’re not!” The one disagreeing with the boy was Doctor Kai, trying to hold the boy on the shoulders. “You’re pale, and you’re clearly trying to endure pain.”

“Yeah, so what!? This much is nothing!” The boy retorted, brushing off Doctor Kai’s hand. At this point Elana noticed that the boy’s armor was damaged and a large part of his belly was stained with blood. “Just get off me! Wha-?” He suddenly lost balance by himself and tumbled down, but Elana quickly moved in and held him at the last second.

“Are you sure you are really okay?” Elana asked as she helped the boy regain his footing. “Were you hurt just recently?”

“I-I didn’t need your help!” The boy said as he brushed Elana off. “Yeah, I got hit by the pieces of that black golem but I’ve been healed already! Just leave me alone!”

“But-!” Doctor Kai said before Elana, quickly but gently, put her hand on his shoulder.

“It is not our place, Doctor Kai. Let’s leave.” Elana said.

“Captain?” Doctor Kai asked with bewilderment written on his face, but then he regained his composure and glanced at the boy whose breath was audibly running short. “Let me ask you one question at least. Where are you going in that condition?”

“Huh? Why should I answer you? Just freaking leave already!” The boy replied and turned away without waiting for any response. He then walked away leaving Elana and Doctor Kai, the former of whom was folding her arms while the latter scratched his head and frowned.

After a few seconds, Elana broke the silence by speaking to Doctor Kai. “I hope he is simply just being anemic after the wound he had.”

“I sure hope so.” Doctor Kai said with a sigh.

“By the way, where are Randy and Albert? They should have been with you.”

“I told them to stay put. That kid ain’t gonna listen to me if I’ve two armed escorts behind me, I thought.” Doctor Kai sighed.

“That was dangerous!” Elana said in a tense tone of speech while frowning. “You know he still believes that you have killed his mentor. What if he decided to attack you out of impulse? You could have gotten yourself killed!”

“I... didn’t think it through.” Doctor Kai averted his eyes from Elana.

“I am going to reprimand those two after this.” Elana sighed after saying that. “The escortee’s safety should have been prioritized above all else.”

“Oh, please don’t, Captain.” Doctor Kai said, showing a little object which was latched on the inner side of his white coat. “They still took my safety seriously.”

Elana didn’t look any happier seeing the little device which was currently glowing blue. “Well, that boy getting tased is what would have happened instead, and that would have complicated more things.”

“Ah, apologies, Captain. I was just concerned.” Doctor Kai glanced at the boy in the distance.

Elana smiled a bit while letting out a small sigh through the nose. “At the very least, I am glad that you still stay the same despite everything that happened to you recently.”

“I’m a doctor. It’s natural.” Doctor Kai folded his arms as he replied.

Elana laughed a little and smirked. “What happened to signing up to be the doctor for Martin Alphen crews and nobody else?”

“When I thought about it, the contract document was toast along with my medical tools in the ship anyway.” Doctor Kai shrugged.

Elana was about to laugh more heartily hearing Doctor Kai’s reply, however...

“Somebody help!” A call for help was heard. Both Elana and Doctor Kai immediately turned their heads towards whoever had just shouted. The first thing they saw was a male Rock rank adventurer kneeling and looking around, and the adventurer boy lying prone on the ground.

“Tch!” Doctor Kai said, immediately dashing forward. “I knew something was wrong!”

Elana also dashed towards the scene immediately, and she noticed Randy and Albert following right behind. It seemed that despite having been told to stay put, they still have been watching over Doctor Kai from a close enough distance hidden from view.

“What happened here?” Doctor Kai asked the moment he arrived at the scene.

“I don’t know!” The male adventurer replied. Elana remembered that this guy was one of the boy’s two partners. “He just keeled over and grunting in pain!”

“Just... leave... me... alone!” The boy said while holding on to his own stomach. “It will... pass!”

“No, it won’t.” Doctor Kai said, kneeling next to the boy. “Something’s definitely wrong with your body, and you can’t just sleep it off. Let me examine you.”

“No... way!” The boy said. “You... mur-“

The Rock rank adventurer quickly intervened. “Cut it out, Jean! You’re definitely sick and there is a doctor here! At least let him take a look!”

“Tch...!” The boy, Jean, grunted. “Fine..!”

Elana looked at Randy and Albert before giving a command. “Randy, Albert, assist Doctor Kai.”

“Affirmative.” Randy said.

“Yes, mo- ma’am!” Albert said.

Randy and Albert quickly set up an emergency mattress, and afterwards they assisted Jean to lie down there. Doctor Kai removed Jean’s armor and upper clothing and began rubbing Jean’s stomach carefully. At this point, a number of other adventurers have already gathered around the scene.

“Is this where it hurts?” Doctor Kai asked with his hand on Jean’s lower right stomach. There was nothing there on the surface other than a scar which looked new.

“Yes! Yes! Ow!” Jean replied. “Even though I’ve been healed... Why does it hurt so much?”

Doctor Kai looked to the adventurers around before speaking loudly. “Who healed this boy recently? I need to ask some questions!”

“Umm, that’s me...” A Silver rank guy dressed in robes stepped forward. “What’s wrong?”

“Tell me what kind of wound this boy had.” Doctor Kai asked with his eyes glaring. “Quickly!”

“Uhh, it was an open wound from having been pierced by a stray golem shard.”

“All the way through the back as well?”

“No, only the stomach was wounded. And then I cast a healing spell on it.”

“How does your healing magic work? What happens to his body when you cast the spell?”

“It highly boosts the body’s regeneration, so the wound closes by itself in seconds.”

“That’s it? Nothing else? No sanitization or removal of foreign objects?”

“I don’t think so... Oh!” The guy suddenly gagged himself with his right hand, realizing something.

Doctor Kai gritted his teeth and clicked his tongue. “Tch! So that’s why.”

“What? What’s going on?” Jean asked.

“The shard is still inside your stomach!” Doctor Kai replied. “We have to get it out if you’re in pain like this!”

“W-What?” Jean said, along with his face becoming pale.

Jean’s partner then asked. “How are you going to do that?”

“Surgery. In other words, I have to cut him open.” Doctor Kai replied.

“What the hell!? No way!” Jean shouted, raising his upper body in an instant. “Ugh!” But then he reeled in pain and ended up lying down again soon after.

“It’s the only way I know, unless there’s a magic spell for that.” Doctor Kai said, looking around to other adventurers nearby.

“There is.” The healer guy chimed in. “But I think no average adventurer can cast it.”

The moment the healer guy spoke, a lot of people immediately turned their heads towards Sedhoust who had just arrived at the scene.

“No.” Sedhoust shook his head. “When it comes to Teleportation Weave, I can only teleport myself over short distances.”

“Can’t be helped then.” Doctor Kai said. “Randy, Albert, prepare for surgery.”

“No way!” Jean shouted, jumping backwards, away from the emergency mattress. “I won’t let my mentor’s killer to- Ugh!” He painfully held his stomach.

“Your life is in danger and you still insist on that?” Doctor Kai asked, visibly looking upset.

“I won’t know if you’re not using this chance to kill me off..!” Jean gritted his teeth.

Suddenly, a female voice was heard among the crowd. “No, he didn’t kill Keith Pilgrim.”

Everyone who heard the words immediately looked at the person who just spoke. It was a female Gold rank adventurer dressed in sky-blue themed clothing. She stepped forward approaching Jean, and there were three other Gold rank adventurers following behind her, presumably her teammates.

“You’re...” Doctor Kai said while squinting.

“Juliana, leader of Team Enforcer.” Juliana said. “My team was the one that witnessed the crime scene. Doctor Terumoto Kai didn’t kill Keith Pilgrim.”

“But everybody saw him cutting mentor’s neck!” Jean shouted. “If he didn’t- Ugh..! ..kill him, then who!?”

Juliana didn’t immediately answer. She lowered her head and fell into silence, both hands lowered and clasped in front, eyes averting from everyone else’s. Her female partner put her hand on Juliana’s shoulder with a concerned face, to which Juliana responded a couple seconds later by raising her head and showing a determined face.

“It was me.” Juliana said aloud, to which nobody said any words. Therefore she spoke again loud and clear. “I killed Keith Pilgrim!”

Many people within earshot could be heard gasping the moment Juliana spoke the statement. Juliana herself didn’t seem to pay any heed to the reaction.

“What? I don’t get it!” Jean said. “If this guy cut mentor’s neck, then why you- Ugh..!”

“I’ll explain later, but for now please get yourself treated.” Juliana replied. “His skills as a doctor rivals the Belmott Empire doctors.”

A number of people around immediately turned their heads to Doctor Kai. Elana, who was next to him, had little idea about the medical advancement in Belmott Empire, but she could judge from the reactions that it was substantially more advanced than Arxhige Kingdom’s.

“But he..!” Jean scratched his head with one hand while glancing at his own stomach briefly before looking at Doctor Kai. “Alright. I’ll be in your care. However!” He pointed at Doctor Kai. “If I end up dying, know that someone will avenge me!” He grinned while saying that, but his pained expression was still visible.

In response, Doctor Kai smirked. “If you have that much spirit in you, you won’t be dying anytime soon.”

***

Soon, the emergency surgery on Jean was about to begin. Jean was once again lying down on the emergency Mattress, and Doctor Kai along with Randy and Albert were kneeling around him.

“Give him the painkiller.” Doctor Kai said while putting on his medical gloves and mask.

Albert immediately pulled out a small cylindrical object and put it close to Jean’s nose. “Take a breath, nice and easy.”

“What is this thing?” Jean asked while complying with the instruction.

“Something that prevents you from feeling the pain.” Randy replied while setting up veils around and on Jean. “Doctor Kai is going to cut your stomach open after all.”

“Hey, don’t make me nervous when I’m agreeing to do this!” Jean said. “And why are you putting this veil right in front of me?”

“Well, do you want to see what your insides look like?” Randy asked back. His medical mask covered his mouth and nose, but it was easy to notice from his eyes that he was grinning behind the mask.

“Uhh...” Jean averted his eyes from Randy and smiled wryly. “I guess not.”

“By the way.” Albert said while tucking away the painkiller capsule. “How do people here usually treat a foreign object being lodged inside their body?”

“Hmm...” Jean frowned, seemingly thinking about the question. “No idea. We usually ask for a healer when we get injured. If there’s none we just bandage the wound and tough it out. Never thought about things getting stuck inside.”

“That’s... interesting.” Randy said, glancing over to Doctor Kai briefly. “Oh, tell any of us immediately if you feel uncomfortable.”

“Well I’m already feeling uncomfortable knowing that the guy I believed to be my mentor’s killer is going to cut my stomach open.” Jean rolled his eyes. “Just get it over with.”

“Well...” Randy glanced at Doctor Kai briefly again, and grinned behind his medical mask once more. “Right away.”

“Operation complete.” Doctor Kai said, followed by Randy and Albert pulling the veils away.

“Wait what? Already?” Jean asked as he raised his upper body and took a good look at his stomach. There was a new scar on top of the previous recent scar, but the new scar was much smaller, one wouldn’t notice it without a closer look.

As Jean was still bewildered, Doctor Kai presented a thin metal bowl to Jean. “Here’s the thing that was stuck inside you if you want to take a look.”

Jean immediately looked at the bowl’s content, and what he saw there was a small piece of the obsidian golem’s body, about the size of his own index finger. It was thin and pointy, definitely very sharp on all sides. There were little fresh blood stains around it.

“Good grief you were lucky.” Doctor Kai said with a sigh. “If this thing was left where it was, you wouldn’t live past tonight.”

Jean didn’t respond to Doctor Kai’s words. He stared at the obsidian shard with his mouth agape. Meanwhile, Albert spoke to Doctor Kai.

“Great job, Doctor!” Albert said.

“I had to improvise a lot without my custom tools, but I still pulled it off thankfully.” Doctor Kai replied, putting away the bowl containing the single shard.

Clap! Clap!

Everyone around suddenly heard someone doing a slow clap. Upon a quick glance, they noticed that it was Sedhoust doing it, and soon all the people followed suit, turning it into a full-blown applause complete with occasional whistle. Doctor Kai, the main subject of the applause, looked bewildered not knowing what to do. However, Elana walked up to him and gently put her hand on his shoulder.

“Great work, Doctor Kai. I knew I could always count on you.” Elana said, to which Doctor Kai just rubbed the back of his own head.

***

Soon later, after things had calmed down and Jean got dressed up with his light armor again, he along with his two partners stood in front of Juliana and her team. Many of the adventurers who had been watching during the emergency surgery were also nearby within earshot. This also included Sedhoust, Elana, Randy, Albert, and Doctor Kai.

“Now, please explain.” Jean said. “What did you mean about you killing mentor?”

Juliana didn’t answer right away. She lowered her head with her eyes closed, and one could notice her worry written on her face.

“Are you sure about this?” One of Juliana’s teammates, Mathias, asked with a concerned face.

The other male teammate, Reiter, chimed in with one hand on his hip. “Juliana, whichever you decide and whatever happens afterwards, I will still always be with you.” He then looked flustered and awkwardly scratched his own head. “Ugh, I think I should’ve said it better. But anyway, you know what I mean.”

“Count me in too!” The female teammate, Yuril, said with one hand raised.

“Well,” Mathias said after briefly glancing at Reiter and Yuril. “I’m in too, of course.”

Juliana seemed to smile a little, then she raised her head and opened her eyes looking forward. “The truth is...” Juliana spoke, finally breaking her silence. “Doctor Kai was performing an emergency surgery on Keith Pilgrim to save his life. I, not knowing about it at the slightest, believed otherwise and had my team knock him unconscious without trying to figure out what happened.”

The crowd within earshot began whispering to each other upon hearing Juliana’s words. Jean was visibly surprised, but he didn’t say a word. Juliana then resumed speaking.

“After that, I cast my healing magic on Keith Pilgrim, oblivious to the fact that by doing that... Doctor Kai’s effort to save his life came undone.” Juliana said before lowering her head again. She was visibly gritting her teeth, and her eyes were on the verge of bursting tears. “It was all my fault!”

Jean, with disbelief written all over his face, turned back and spoke to Doctor Kai. “Is that true!? Is that what really happened back then!?”

“Yes, unfortunately.” Doctor Kai replied while covering his forehead with one hand and closing his eyes. “It was also my failure for not conveying my intention well enough, so please don’t blame yourself over it.” He continued, looking at Juliana and directing his words to her.

“No! It was all my fault!” Juliana hysterically replied, shaking her head and covering her eyes with both hands before falling on her knees. She broke down crying shortly after, and her wails echoed throughout the field for all the people within earshot to hear.

“Okay, that’s enough.” Reiter said, picking Juliana up and supporting her on his shoulders. “I hope you got the answers you were looking for.” He spoke to Jean before leaving the scene. Mathias and Yuril followed the two after taking a quick glance at Doctor Kai, who seemed indifferent.

One of Jean’s two partners spoke to him. “So, what are you gonna do?”

“I... I don’t know.” Jean shook his head. “It’s too much to take in.”

“Well, how about starting with apologizing to the doctor?” Jean’s other partner said with both arms on his hip.

“Huh? Oh, right.” Jean said, turning his head to Doctor Kai.

Doctor Kai shook his head and raised his hand as a sign of refusal. “No, you don’t have to.”

Ignoring Doctor Kai’s words, Jean boldly approached Doctor Kai and immediately bowed deeply once he was right in front of him. “I’m sorry for talking bad about you and calling you a murderer! It was uncalled for and I have no excuse for it!”

“W-Well...” Doctor Kai awkwardly rubbed the back of his head with one hand. “How should I respond to this now?”

“Accept or deny, Doctor.” Randy said while giving Doctor Kai a pat on the back.

“No way I’d deny this sincerity!” Doctor Kai retorted, then he cleared his throat before speaking. “Okay, apology accepted. In return, I hope you won’t hate Juliana and her team for what they have done.”

“I...” Jean said, averting his eyes. “I can’t make any promises. Even now, the more I think about it, the more upset I become.”

Clap!

“May I have your attention?” Sedhoust spoke aloud after clapping his hands once. Everybody around immediately went silent and directed their attention to Sedhoust. “Now all of you know in advance about what the guild will soon announce regarding the case. It was nothing more than an unfortunate event born from a misunderstanding, and both parties involved are covered by Passing Saint Law. I have no authority on how you should behave in the future, but I genuinely hope that you will try not to show animosity towards the Enforcer Team, especially Juliana, in the future. Otherwise, nobody will ever live it down.”

There was a brief silence, lasting for just a couple seconds before Sedhoust resumed speaking.

“Remember that you all are still on an official quest. Now that the matter is settled for the time being, please disperse and resume each of your own work.”

Clap!

With another single clap from Sedhoust, the adventurers dispersed and resumed the cleanup work. The only one still standing near him was Elana.

“Is there something you wish to say?” Sedhoust asked.

“I just remembered that I haven’t thanked you properly for clearing Doctor Kai from his charges. Thank you for your help.” Elana said, bowing slightly.

“Compared to your consent to my future research, this favor is merely a drop in the bucket. Think nothing about it.”

“If you say so.”

“Anything else? If not, get prepared for the next phase of the quest.”

“I shall take my leave, then.”

Elana then left Sedhoust and went back to her squads. Sedhoust then once again flew up to watch over the company of adventurers. This Infested Area Extermination quest was still far from over.

***