Chapter: 253
“Demonic beasts didn’t invade; they just appeared. From that place.”
“What kind of nonsense is that…!”
Someone retorted, questioning Dwight’s claim as absurd.
His reaction was understandable.
Originally, demonic beasts are spawned in areas with high concentrations of miasma, but boundary areas were places where people could walk around just fine.
While demonic beasts could appear in boundary areas, it was incredibly rare.
Thus, even if one were to happen, most would be low-tier, with maybe a couple of mid-tier beasts appearing in extremely rare cases.
It was not a place where high-tier beasts could spawn from the get-go.
Let alone seven of them!
If there were enough miasma to spawn that many beasts, the boundary area would have been uninhabitable long ago.
They had already struggled significantly just to manage the corpses of the demonic beasts that had emerged this time.
Despite his claims, the man who shouted was still caught up in his own thoughts.
“You may not have known, but there was sufficient miasma to spawn those beasts.”
“Where on earth is that kind of miasma in this city─!”
“In the Purification Facility.”
Dwight simply replied quietly.
And because they couldn’t find the correlation between the miasma and the purification facility, everyone started showing expressions of confusion in unison.
Except for one person.
“Oh, no way…”
Excluding Scarlet Evande, who was sitting quietly next to Sylvia.
Upon seeing her reaction, Dwight nodded and spoke.
“I once checked the magic circle installed in the Purification Facility. I wasn’t confident because it was a complex magic circle, but according to my calculations, the Purification Facility can only purify about 90% of the miasma that is processed. That leaves 10% unaccounted for. So where did that 10% go?”
As Dwight spoke, the expressions of the people who had been puzzled began to harden slowly.
Everyone was recalling some scenarios in their minds.
They all thought the same thing, yet they hesitated to voice it.
Because the thoughts they were having were the worst disgrace to the Dolos family.
“You know, the first place the demonic beasts were found was where the purification facilities are located. The prevailing theory was that a witch intentionally targeted the purification facility and sent the beasts there to commit terrorism. But if those beasts could break through the teleportation barrier, it means they could have entered from the very start. If they were going to commit terrorism, that would have been the more effective approach. If they weren’t sent there on purpose and instead spawned from the purification facility, everything would make sense.”
However, as Dwight continued his explanation, those hesitations began to dissipate.
“Is it truly a coincidence that the number of spawned demonic beasts matches the number of destroyed purification facilities? Seven beasts, seven facilities. It’s too coincidental to be mere happenstance.”
That’s clearly absurd. Would the Dolos family do something like that?
Given the gravity of the situation, it was far too plausible to just dismiss it.
“The purification facilities have been operational for roughly 300 years. No matter how much lower the spawn rates were compared to recent times, even 10% of miasma processed over 300 years is enough for high-tier beasts to be born. I believe that should answer your previous question.”
The hesitant gazes slowly turned into suspicious ones.
Didn’t they all know?
“And those purification facilities were established and managed by Dolos. Isn’t it odd not to raise suspicions about that? I believe this should help everyone understand my perspective.”
The circumstances seemingly aligned perfectly to point directly at Dolos as the owner of the purification facilities.
But despite that situation,
“While it sounds plausible, that doesn’t mean we should suspect Dolos! When we think of Captain Telos, who fell in the line of duty while stopping the beasts, that kind of act would…”
Someone cried out, unable to bring themselves to suspect Dolos.
Yoon Si-woo mentioned the name of Telos Dolos, the predecessor before him, defending the family.
It was hard for them to accept the notion that the family of a hero who died protecting the city would be the very culprits who unleashed the beasts.
At that, Dwight lowered his head and quietly asked.
“…Do you know why the city was in danger back then?”
“Y-Yes? Because the demonic beasts suddenly attacked…”
“No. While the beasts were certainly a threat, the city had the means to mitigate the damage with its full force. Yet, they didn’t. Do you know why…?”
“Uh… Ah…”
Although he recalled the answer to Dwight’s question, he couldn’t dare to voice it.
The answer to Dwight’s question.
“…It was because Former Captain Telos couldn’t stop the beasts and died.”
It was too cruel of an answer.
It was sacrilege.
The worst kind of sacrilege to the sacrifice of a hero who perished protecting the city.
Thus, the others shot Dwight sharp gazes, wondering how a hero-wannabe like him could say such things, but,
They could see it.
Dwight, who was biting his lip hard enough to bleed as if he was tormented by even speaking such words.
So, they couldn’t blame him.
They could see in his expression what kind of feelings drove him to say such things.
After a moment of silence, Dwight spoke up again.
Recalling the image of Telos from the Academy.
“I have seen Former Captain Telos.”
Certainly, he was a man like a mountain who would never fall.
“That man didn’t seem like someone who would die like that.”
Dwight believed in Telos.
It was because Dwight was a mage.
Mages only believe in what they see with their own eyes.
And from Dwight’s perspective, Telos was a man one could trust.
So Dwight believed.
That he would never falter.
That he would protect the city from the demonic beasts without incident.
However, Telos had died at the hands of the beasts.
“…To think, he fell to a high-tier beast. He wasn’t someone who would die to high-tier beasts that other captains had managed to fend off…!”
After a scream that sounded like he was about to cough up blood, Dwight quietly pulled out a piece of paper from his chest, murmuring tearily.
It was a paper bearing the signature of Telos Dolos.
“Um, the witness in the witness stand is Investigator Rhea Abela from the Department of Public Safety, who possesses psychometry capabilities. Together with her, we found out—”
To be precise, it was the signature that the manager Joseph had received from Telos Dolos before handing it to his children.
“We discovered that Former Captain Telos Dolos had visited the Purification Facility right before the demonic beasts emerged.”
Dwight believed in Telos.
“Former Captain Telos, no, Telos wasn’t someone who could be killed by mere demonic beasts.”
As a mage who believes absolutely in what he has seen with his own eyes, he believed in him more than anyone else.
“But he died.”
Because no one believed in him more than Dwight,
He was the only one who could acknowledge the betrayal of his faith in Telos.
“By causing danger to the city.”
The very man who endangered the city, Telos.
Through suspicion and doubt,
“Intentionally, to put the city at risk with the demonic beasts he unleashed.”
That was the truth he didn’t want to know, didn’t want to accept.
And the people who realized this looked towards the seat occupied by Dolos without even realizing it.
“Am I wrong…?”
Dwight asked Diakonos.
“If I’m not, please convince me otherwise…”
With fists clenched so hard that his palms bled.
“Please, convince me that it’s not true…”
He begged, as if pleading.
But,
“…”
Diakonos said nothing in response.
His silence caused the buzzing hall to gradually quiet down.
Doubt, betrayal, confusion, horror.
It felt like every drop of blood had frozen in that solemn silence.
Then,
“Ah, no…!”
A girl shouted.
“It’s not like that…!”
Flone, the daughter of Dolos, cried out to the people.
“Oh, no…! We didn’t do anything like that… don’t look at us like that…!”
With a really wronged face, tears streaming down her cheeks, she looked at Dwight and Marin.
She pleaded to her friends.
“Ugh, believe me… I didn’t do anything bad… neither did my family, I swear… please, please don’t suspect us… we’re friends, right…? Huh…? Dwight, Marin… guys…”
The sight of Flone, always so lively and cheerful, now crying and pleading was shocking to the children.
But the one most shocked was Marin.
“…Yeah, friend. You and I are friends.”
She muttered in disbelief.
“We’ve been childhood friends for nearly 15 years…”
Her voice even mixed with a sob.
Perhaps moved by her words, Flone looked at Marin.
“Marin…”
“Since we’ve known each other for 15 years… to me, Flone is that irreplaceable friend…”
And looking back at Flone,
“I know, Flone doesn’t refer to herself as ‘I’… she says ‘Flone’ instead…”
Marin muttered, staring blankly, as if all the blood had drained from her face.
“…”
At Marin’s words,
Flone let out a sigh.
“…Who are you?”
To Marin’s question, Flone wiped her tears.
“Ah…”
Then towards Marin,
Flone said,
“Caught.”
No.
Someone else laughed.
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