endless path, infinite cosmos

chapter 62

The shout of the girl cut through the tense atmosphere and drew the eyes of everyone in the area towards the source. The party of adventurers saw that, though she was in a disheveled state, the girl was without injury. Judging by how the 'monster' was able to heal their allies, they began to believe he had been telling the truth since the beginning.

The elf, who had kept his guard up the entire time, decided to speak to the girl to confirm the situation. "I am Rein Valst of the Tyche Familia. Chienthrope girl, explain the situation." His tone was arrogant and he kept his bow at the ready while maintaining a distance with Vahn.

The girl, who identified herself as Naaza Erisuis, began recounting the story from before Vahn arrived. She spoke of how a duo of high-class adventurers that her party had met earlier in the day arrived later with a horde of monsters in close pursuit. The duo used Naaza's party to draw the attention of the monsters before abandoning the fight and fleeing.

"Pass Parade!" The leader of the party spat in contempt after hearing Naaza's recounting of events. Kiting a group of monsters to another group to drop aggro was one of the most frowned-upon and hated actions anyone could do to another group. There were many weaker parties that had been completely wiped as a result of the desperate act. Anyone found to perform a 'pass parade' would be severely punished by the guild once the matter came to light.

Naaza continued after nodding through gritted teeth. She had tears in her eyes as she talked about how her allies tried to resist the horde but were slowly overwhelmed by the sheer number of creatures. To make matters worse, at one point the variant War Shadow showed up and started massacring both her allies and monsters alike. It seemed to derive pleasure from the slaughter and before she knew it, Naaza was the only one remaining of her party.

At this point, Naaza paused in her story and seemed to struggle with explaining something. She had gotten to the part about how the White Shadow tortured her and began shaking in fear. Remembering how the monster reveled while slowly torturing her...the sadistic glee it had as it severed one of her arms before tossing it into the mouth of a Frog Shooter. Unable to drive the image from her mind, Naaza collapsed and vomited.

The party of five began to feel pity for the girl. She had survived something that most people would never be able to walk away from and now had to live with the sequelae of the event. The purple-haired cat girl, who had awoken at this point, began rubbing Naaza's back in an effort to comfort the traumatized girl.

After a few minutes, Naaza managed to recover her senses and continued the story. She skipped over the parts about how she was tortured, and everyone seemed to agree it wasn't necessary, allowing her to continue detailing how Vahn had shown up at the last minute to save her. Not only had he defeated the White Shadow and all the remaining monsters, he even managed to restore her body after she had passed out. The next thing she remembered was waking up to see everyone fighting her savior which lead to this moment.

Everyone except the elf had apologetic and embarrassed expressions on their face. They were able to infer that, after Vahn had saved the girl he was waiting for her to awaken before escorting her out of the dungeon. They misunderstood the situation, as Vahn was surrounded by 'corpses', and assumed he had been the culprit behind the slaughter. The leader of the group seemed to be trying to come up with a way to apologize, but the elf spoke out before he was able to.

"It does not change the fact that this boy is a monster. All humanoid monsters are targets for extermination, no matter if they are intelligent or the type to go around saving people. We don't know his purpose for being here, and this may all be an elaborate setup for future plans. By earning your empathy, he may use it as a means of wreaking havoc on a larger group of people after earning your trust."