Chapter 150: The Locked Room
7 AM sharp.
Walfred’s party arrived in South Key West a mere two hours after leaving Coral Cave Shelter.
Over twenty-five miles as the crow flies.
Normally it was a distance that would have taken a full day, but thanks to Aria’s speed enhancement skills, the travel time had been cut down dramatically.
"Hah! Urgh!"
Alice’s situation, on the other hand, was a bit different.
Unlike Walfred with his [Snow Walker], she had no movement skill of her own, and her stamina gave out just as they were closing in on South Key West.
It was a good thing Aria had carried her the rest of the way on her back, or she would have been stranded then and there. And so, as they arrived at their destination, Coral World Shelter.
’What’s this?’
Something felt off about the atmosphere.
The air was chaotic and bleak. Judging by the Hunters bustling back and forth on the surface, had a new gate appeared overnight?
’Or else...’
Had the hardline Hunters risen up, just as Gordon had said last night? The thought crossed his mind, but it was too early to jump to conclusions.
Meanwhile, around that time.
"Something feels wrong here."
Aria voiced an opinion much like Walfred’s.
Glancing around, she immediately furrowed her brow and muttered.
"It wasn’t like this last time I came..."
The atmosphere was strange, sure.
But the atmosphere wasn’t what mattered right now.
’I have to find Jenna first.’
Jenna was somewhere in this place.
Walfred felt his heart pounding.
The fastest way would be to meet the shelter chief, Elma, and ask which sector the Brooklyn Girls’ Academy students were staying in.
And then.
"Hey, you there!"
An unfamiliar voice rang out.
A group of Hunters approached Walfred’s party, every one of them wearing a sharp-edged expression. They looked the party up and down carefully as they asked.
"You don’t look like you belong here."
"Where are you from?"
Just as Walfred was about to step forward.
Aria spoke first.
"Hello. I’m Aria, a B-rank Hunter from Coral Cave Shelter."
"...What? B, B-rank?"
A flicker of alarm crossed the Hunters’ eyes.
Judging by their reaction, they were lower-ranked than Aria. A moment later, they asked again in a noticeably more polite tone.
"What brings you here from Coral Cave...?"
"We’ve come on our shelter chief’s orders. We have an urgent message for Chief Elma. Could you show us the way?"
At that, the Hunters exchanged looks.
After trading odd glances, they nodded as if in agreement and said.
"...Follow us."
The youngest-looking of the three Hunters turned on his heel. Walfred’s party followed him down into the resort’s underground.
A little while later.
As they passed a darkened stairwell and walked down a long, straight corridor, fragments of a familiar shape, visible only to Walfred, came into view.
’Afterimage fragments.’
Vessels holding memories of the past.
Shards that let him read the memories bound to a place when he touched them with the [Mark of the Afterimage]. Among them, the larger fragments caught his eye.
’Fragments that size...’
Would hold relatively recent memories.
He felt the urge to use the mark and see for himself what had happened here.
But he was being escorted at the moment, so he decided to put off reading the memories until later.
’More importantly, why is it so quiet?’
For a place housing over three thousand people, the space was eerily silent. Not only the non-Awakened, but even Hunters were hard to spot.
Just as suspicion began creeping in.
"Huh? Wait a moment."
Aria tilted her head.
Looking around, she came to an abrupt stop and raised a question.
"Is this the right way? I thought the chief’s room was a bit closer to the surface..."
"...The chief is currently receiving guests."
"Guests? This early in the morning?"
"Yes. We’ll take you to her as soon as she’s finished, so please wait here for a moment."
The place he led them to was a small room.
The kind of space the resort’s old cleaning staff might once have used as a break room. The moment they stepped inside, faces sour.
Bang. Click!
The door suddenly slammed shut.
And the sound of a lock turning came from outside.
"...!? H-hey! Excuse me!"
Startled by the sound.
Alice rushed to the entrance and yanked on the door. But the firmly locked door only rattled in its frame, showing no sign of opening.
"Wait! Hey!"
She pounded on the door and shouted, but no answer came from outside.
Alice’s face went pale.
"W-what do we do? They locked it from the outside..."
"...This is seriously suspicious."
With things having come this far, even Aria narrowed her eyes in distrust. And at that moment, Walfred, who had been quietly watching the situation, stepped forward.
"Stand back."
Originally, he’d planned to stay on his best behavior.
He had no desire to stir up trouble in the place where Jenna was staying. But as the suspicious circumstances kept piling up, his thinking changed.
Crunch!
Gripping the door handle.
Walfred twisted it apart with monstrous grip strength. Then he shoved his hand into the hole where the handle had been and simply tore the door out.
Creeeeak! Crack!
The door came free with laughable ease.
At the sight, not only Alice but even Aria stared with wide eyes.
"W-what skill was that...?"
"I just ripped it out with brute force."
"No, how does anyone rip out a steel door with brute..."
Leaving the two stunned women behind.
Walfred folded the steel door in half and tossed it into a corner. He stepped straight outside and scanned the area thoroughly, but.
’No sign of anyone.’
Not Hunters, not the non-Awakened.
Wherever they’d gone, no one was in sight.
An ominous feeling crept over him, and just as he was narrowing his eyes, a strange smell drifted past his nose on a gust of air.
’This smell...’
A smell like burning meat.
Only fouler.
Where was it coming from?
Just as he was glancing around.
"Over there!"
Elsa, riding on his back, suddenly thrust out a finger. She was pointing at a corridor that stretched off to the left of the broken room.
"The burning smell is coming from there."
A keen nose, as expected of a Dragonkin.
Walfred turned at once.
If something was being burned, there had to be people there. He could ask them where Elma or the Brooklyn Girls’ Academy students were.
As the burning smell grew stronger and stronger.
"Hngh! P-please, don’t do this."
"Please, I’m begging you..."
Tearful voices suddenly reached his ears.
They came from the same direction as the burning smell, so he rounded the corner and looked.
What he saw next were girls in school uniforms, kneeling on the floor and trembling violently.
"...!"
At the sight, Walfred’s eyes went wide.
They were Brooklyn Girls’ Academy uniforms.
Standing before the girls was a single Hunter with a menacing face. He barked at the two sobbing girls.
"Don’t resist and stay still."
"Hic! Please..."
"Or do you want to be disposed of too?"
Disposed of. The words had barely left his mouth.
When the girls’ faces drained white.
The trembling children soon went limp, as if they’d given up on resisting. At that, the Hunter smirked nastily and reached out a hand.
"That’s right. Nice and quiet..."
Just as his hand was about to touch them.
It suddenly froze in midair.
"...Huh?"
The Hunter’s eyes grew wider and wider.
It wasn’t just his hand. From the tips of his toes to his upper body, he had frozen solid.
Flustered, the Hunter shouted.
"What!? What’s going... Gurk!"
Whack! Bam!