“Over there, bro.”
Erhan pointed toward the crowd of people who looked like they were watching an explosion at the Racial Oversight Office. I could see thick smoke billowing ahead of us.
“Move it! This isn’t a show!” I shouted as I pushed through the line.
“Hey, bastard! Don’t cut in line!”
A woman behind me shouted after I passed her, followed by complaints from everyone else cursing me for butting in.
“What line...? Can’t you see there’s a fire?” Seeing their behavior only made me more annoyed.
“Hey, kid, if you want to see the fire at the Racial Oversight Office, you need to go that way... Damn it, the fire was put out half an hour ago.”
The speaker was a middle-aged man with white hair and ears like a wolf’s. He was a Beastman.
“Huh? Then what are all of you gathered here fo—r...?”
I spoke while looking toward the place they were all facing, and I was utterly stunned. No wonder they had been yelling at me. They were lining up to buy grilled corn and other foods cooked over a flame and coated in barbecue sauce. The interesting part was that the one grilling the food was a member of the Dragonkin. He breathed fire as though his throat contained an endless furnace.
“You see what we’ve been waiting for, don’t you? Now get out of the way, kid. I’ve been standing in line all day.”
The Beastman began to look furious, as if he wanted to tear me in half.
“Whoa, sorry! I thought there was a fire!” I shouted as I ran away from the line, dragging Erhan with me.
After running a considerable distance, I shouted, “ERHAAAAN!” and taught the kid a lesson without bothering with any preamble. That boy loved to eat, but he never seemed to gain weight. Who knew where all the fat from everything he ate went?
After getting lost several times, we finally arrived in front of the Racial Oversight Office. The area had already returned to a calm, ordinary state. Only a few people were still looking around in front of the burned office. I spotted one of our company’s magic vehicles parked not far from where we stood.
“Hey, let’s go over there first and see whether any of our people are hurt.”
Erhan and I approached the vehicle.
“Hey, Zen... Erhan... over here!” We searched for the source of the voice and saw a woman standing in front of a restaurant, calling to us. We began walking toward her.
“Well, well, Rin, you’re still alive? I thought you’d been roasted... Heh-heh.”
I joked with the woman who had called us over. She had red hair and brilliantly shining blue eyes.
“What did you say?”
WHAM! SMACK!
The woman hit me with tremendous force.
“Hahahaha, you two always look so close.”
Old man Kaynan said this as he walked out carrying his drink bottle.
“Big sis Rin is so strong, and Bro Zen is weak! Hahahaha!”
Erhan enjoyed the show while eating the grilled corn that had gotten us lost and embarrassed earlier. This kid was seriously annoying.
“Hah! You think I’m that weak? I didn’t die fighting terrorists as pathetic as them.”
------Rin Emre, secretary of Kaynan’s caravan------ ------Abilities: mage and talented elementalist------
“So... who’s the lunatic who attacked the Racial Oversight Office in broad daylight?”
I asked curiously as I sat on a bench in the restaurant and enjoyed the captain’s leftover food.
Smack! The captain casually hit me on the head. “Who told you to eat my food, huh?” he said, hitting me again before sitting beside me and taking his food back.
“Tch. He’s the one who called us here, and he won’t even feed us. What a jerk.” I grumbled as I watched the captain act like a child.
“Nothing was left behind except a scrap of cloth bearing an image of a planet and the words Terra Vitae...” Rin added while continuing to eat.
“Seems like it was just another attention-seeking group. Look around us—nobody’s panicking or afraid. It’s like nothing happened at all,” Rin continued, glancing around the restaurant, where the customers looked perfectly ordinary as they enjoyed their meals.
I looked around too, and sure enough, everyone seemed relaxed, as if nothing strange had happened. There had been a massive fire and a terrorist attack right in front of them, yet this was hardly unusual on Ouditors. Events like that happened all the time here because the races constantly crossed paths on this planet.
“Yeah, things like that happen all the time here, so the people are used to it,” Erhan chimed in while eating the food the captain had given him. The captain spoiled him often, and he also knew when he needed to be serious with the kid.
Rin set down her plate and stared at us with a serious expression. “But there’s one strange thing.”
“What? Besides you calling us over just to show off your food?” I asked.
“The cloth wasn’t burned,” Rin continued, her expression grave.
I stopped chewing. “What do you mean?”
“The office burned fiercely. The desks, documents, even the storage shelves were all reduced to ash. But this cloth was found in the middle of it all, completely intact. There isn’t even the slightest scorch mark on it.”
Captain Kaynan, who had been silent until then, finally lowered his drink bottle.
“And another question arises: was that cloth theirs, or was it already in the Racial Oversight Office from the beginning?”
Erhan tilted his head. “So where’s the cloth now...?”
The captain slowly looked around and whispered, “I’ve secured it. We just need to investigate how it managed not to burn. If we succeed, we might be able to apply it to some of our merchandise.”
I looked up. “Hah. You money-grubbers always bring everything back to money.”
“Heh. If you don’t think about money, what are you going to eat, huh? Eggplant sandwiches?” The captain sarcastically reminded me of that food again.
“Hah! Don’t remind me.”
We still had time to joke around, but the sound of footsteps outside the restaurant slowly drowned out our laughter. It wasn’t one or two people. The footsteps came in a heavy, steady rhythm, as if many shoes were striking the stone road in unison.
Rin stopped moving her hand. Erhan also turned toward the door, still clutching his grilled corn.
“What’s that sound?” he asked.
I peered through the restaurant window. From the end of the street, a convoy of black-and-silver vehicles moved toward the burned Racial Oversight Office. The lead vehicle bore a symbol of eleven interlocking circles—the emblem of the Supreme Authority of the Racial Alliance on Ouditors.
“Captain... those aren’t ordinary vehicles, are they?” I asked.
Captain Kaynan rose slowly. His relaxed expression vanished, replaced by a wary gaze.
“No. That’s a Supreme Authority convoy.”