Chapter 205 Wreckage
In the letter passed by Luke to Alexis, she found unbelievable information because if it were true, the Broteforge Empire was in an even worse situation than anyone could imagine.
"Wait, Luke... you realized that all this doesn't just say about the Chimeras, right? This also practically exposes that the Smakusa Noble Family is allied with the demons." Alexis stated, tapping her index finger on the slightly crumpled letter.
"Sigh... I'm glad you came to the same conclusion as I did. Because I was worried that I had misunderstood because of my inexperienced text interpretation."
The half-dragon read the end of the letter twice more and spoke:
"We have no time to waste... We have to go back to Oukiwa and arrest these damned people." She stood up with anger and determination.
Seeing how stressed Alexis was that there was a Noble Family from their own Empire acting through the shadows to help the demons, Luke grabbed her wrist to stop her from starting to walk thoughtlessly. "Calm down... we have to think about one goal at a time. I'm as worried as you are, since Nathalia, Ayumi, and Shiro are in Oukiwa right now, but we have to focus on one thing."
When Alexis looked into the yellow-gold eyes of the half-wolf, she calmed down and sighed a little to calm herself down.
"You're right... After we get together with the others, we'll think about what we can do to be able to help everyone, but I'm not going to separate myself from you, not while the First Servant is alive."
Luke smiled, nodded, and released the half-dragon's arm.
After that, they searched for a few more minutes for clues in the wreckage of the Mansion, until they found the cook's body.
'Is that thing alive?' Alexis wondered, as she pulled him out from under a pile of rubble. This man had much larger legs and arms than normal.
"He's already dead." Luke warned, realizing that the cook's heartbeat had already ceased. "It may have been too much weight on his rib cage that left him without air. Anyway, apparently, all the kids managed to escape. There's no longer any reason to continue here. Let's go."
The S-Class checked her bag with the white cubes and then started to follow Luke.
Then, they went down the monumental staircase that was on the hill to connect the Mansion with the face of the city.
Luke couldn't understand why there was such a big house and so high up, because for him to climb hundreds of steps every day would certainly be a hassle.
Luke looked at the sides of the hill as he walked down the stairs and noticed that the tremors, caused by the collapse of the Mansion and the intense battle against the Legion, had generated several landslides, which covered the houses at the foot of the hill. Luckily, Meredith managed to get all the residents in at-risk areas evacuated in time, thanks to the help of the Family that welcomed them to the city.
"So, Luke... what was it like to seal a demon?" Alexis pulled conversation as they walked down the hundreds of steps.
"How can I tell? It was... weird." He described abstractly.
"Strange how?" As much as Alexis had sealed a few demons during her lifetime, she had never met another demon hunter, so she was genuinely interested in what other experiences besides her own were like.
"I met a woman... I think? My memories about that time I spent in there are very vague. I can't tell if it was years or seconds..."
Alexis slapped her weakly on the back, smiled, and said:
"Don't try too hard to remember these things... If you don't remember, it's because it wasn't important. Forget that I asked you about it."
" All right." Luke could vaguely remember that he lived a more peaceful life, that he saw a woman with blond hair and a moon symbol.
When the half-beast duo finally arrived at the base of the hill, they found the nine children who were in the Mansion. They were hiding inside what appeared to be a wrecked grocery store, but they were all looking out the double door.
"Oh! Are you still here, kids?" Alexis spoke fondly when she saw them and bent her knees to be at their height, then approached.
Suddenly, a girl came out of the huddle of fearful children and shouted as she pointed a wooden stick at Alexis:
"You will not hurt my brothers!" She had golden curls, very black eyes, and did not appear to be more than seven years old.
The half-dragon immediately raised her hands, surrendering to the little girl. "Oh, I'm sorry! I am not an evil person. What can I do to make you trust me?"
Lost because it was too easy to subdue Alexis, the little girl looked at the other children behind her, practically begging them to help her. The other eight children cringed in fear, like this girl was crazy to be challenging the two half-beasts.
"I command you to take us to where our parents are!" The girl with curls exclaimed, still pointing the wooden stick.
"All right. Follow me..." Alexis smiled and spoke.
Subsequently, she started walking, and the half-wolf followed closely behind her, without interfering with the two's dialogue. A few seconds later, Luke and Alexis looked back and saw the huddle of children following them.
After thirty minutes of walking, they arrived at the gang's camp outside the city, where now there weren't just the gang members, but hundreds of people warming themselves around a giant bonfire.
At the entrance, Luke and Alexis encountered the giant Zack, who was shirtless and cutting wood with his giant axe.
"Hey, Zack! Is everything okay here?" Luke had to shout to get his voice louder than the banging of the axe on the wood.
Zack stopped banging, looked back, and when he saw that it was his friends, he smiled.
"Everything is great around here! Meredith brought all the residents who wanted to leave their homes here, and now I'm chopping wood to help them get warm... Everything went well with..." He was going to ask about the demons loudly, but for the first time, he was smart because he looked at the children behind Luke. "Did everything go well with the Nobles?"
"Yes, we killed him!" Alexis shouted, surprising Zack. She had already talked to the children on the way and knew that they hated the Counts as well, so there was no problem talking about it.
According to the children, they had all been torn away from their parents two months earlier and were never allowed down the hill again. So, when the children's parents saw them approaching the temporary camp on that mountain, they ran to them, and together they cried with relief.
From that day on, definitely, no person from Latgor would ever again think that the half-beasts were like monsters, because for them, the half-dragon and the half-wolf were now the two heroes who saved their people when they had already given up on salvation.