"How is the situation?" Nelfer asked while looking at the city from the roof of one of the buildings.
"We can't find him yet." Qiel shook her head. "It's practically impossible to find him in the city."
"We should have just led our people inside and checked every single person." Nelfer harrumphed.
"This is why you are not the leader of this expedition. You would definitely die in Dimitri's hand." Qiel snorted. Just from his words alone, she could imagine Nelfer bringing all his subordinates inside the city.
When they traveled inside the city, a person suddenly moved alongside them. In just a split second, there was a fluctuation of energy as a blade sent one head flying.
After noticing that change, Nelfer and the others turned around, albeit finding nothing. After that, Nelfer became angry and tried to search for Dimitri. But they didn't realize that Dimitri was still among the crowd.
Dimitri attacked them once again, killing another person. Out of anger, Nelfer tried to chase after Dimitri and turned in a junction, only to find Dimitri disappear among the crowd. At that time, Dimitri would take out another person.
Eventually, Nelfer's subordinates would die in Dimitri's hands. Even Nelfer would definitely die if he wasn't careful. As a result, a single person managed to weaken the Supreme Devil Organization.
Dimitri would definitely use guerilla warfare to his advantage.
Just thinking about it gave her a headache. Qiel bit her lips, wanting to berate Nelfer. But since she was the one leading this operation, she had to remain calm. It was impossible to find Dimitri without casualties.
However, there was one thing that confused her.
"Is Dimitri hiding in this place to kill us? No, wait. If we wait here for too long, the Supreme Devil Organization will have trouble. After all, we're still fighting against the Demon Banner Army openly."
With two Devil Saints away from the organization, it was clear that the Supreme Devil Organization would be at a huge disadvantage. It seemed that Noel had seen through their condition and knew they couldn't do this in a prolonged time.
"Wait a minute. Is he going to hide here forever? No, if we're talking about Noel Ardagan, I don't think he has that much time either."
The sun was already up, so the people began to come out of their houses to do their daily activities. However, as one would expect, the plaza was actually surrounded by people as they displayed a few ice statues while trying to resurrect the others.
It was clear that they were trying to showcase the result of the expedition. This would increase the second prince's reputation.
However, the second prince and Legolaz had yet to complete their expedition. It was true that they had gotten the most important things, but the ruins were still full of treasure.
So, they were still assembling people to do another exploration.
And among the crowd, Qiel could actually find another Spirit Grandmaster.
"Huh?" Qiel narrowed her eyes. "Is that Dimitri?"
Nelfer tilted his head in confusion. But Qiel actually pointed at a certain person who was actually another Spirit Grandmaster among the people.
"We have investigated the city before going to the ruin, right?" Nelfer asked.
"Yeah. And the result is that no one other than the Great Protector was a Spirit Grandmaster."
"…" Nelfer fell silent before moving to the edge of the roof. "I'm going."
"Wait, Nelfer. The fact that he is openly showing himself means that there might be a trap." Qiel tried to stop him, but Nelfer added, "If that's the case, I will fall into his trap."
Just like Qiel said, the moment he said those words, Dimitri suddenly disappeared. However, the fluctuation continued to the south as if it was trying to leave the city.
"!!!" Qiel widened her eyes in shock. She hadn't processed the change yet, but the other party had made a move. "This is bad."
"You can stay here. Try to find a Spirit Master in the town. Since Dimitri is trying to leave the town, you should be able to explore the city and find the fluctuation of a Spirit Master, right?" Nelfer asked. "I'll keep Dimitri outside the city."
"Alright." Qiel could only agree, not being able to think of another plan better than that. She never expected she would have this much trouble just to capture Noel. It seemed the reason why Laufey couldn't capture him previously was because of this.
And if she ended up failing like Laufey, the next time they tried to capture Noel would be extremely hard.
After seeing Dimitri leaving the city, Qiel hurriedly signaled the rest of the group to begin their search. They had to find all the Spirit Masters inside the town and make sure no Spirit Masters left the town. Even if they had to leave, they needed to be inspected.
While the Supreme Devil Organization was searching for Noel, who had already gone, the second prince and Legolaz chose to fulfill the promise to Noel, which was to give a letter to the designated person.
However, before they sent it, they checked the content. It was morally wrong, but it didn't matter because they were suspicious of Noel and wondered who were the ones connected to him.
When they opened the letter, they couldn't help but be surprised by its content. It looked like a parting message from Noel, but he actually gave him a few runes.
"This is… rune, right?" Legolaz asked.
"Yeah. However, I'm not sure what this rune is. Who is this person to be able to get a rune from the author of the rune book?" Ramuer frowned.
"Do you want me to investigate them?" Legolaz asked.
"Currently, we have no manpower because of those frozen statues. For the time being, copy the runes on this letter and send the letter to this person. After that, just put one or two people around that area to make sure that person doesn't leave. After dealing with these frozen statues, we will begin the investigation about that person."
"Understood." Legolaz nodded and took the letter.
As he ordered, Legolaz asked someone to copy the rune before giving the letter to another subordinate to deliver.
…
A few minutes later, Legolaz's subordinate had arrived at a certain inn where Tristan and Sandra were.
He knocked on the door, which happened to be opened by Tristan.
"Is there something wrong?" Tristan asked.
The other party took a glance at the room that didn't seem to have another person other than Tristan. So, he handed the letter while saying, "This is given to you."
"Oh? Thanks?" Tristan looked confused while receiving the letter and checked the sender before politely bowing his head. "Thank you."
Seeing his reaction, it was clear that Tristan was connected to Noel Ardagan. After confirming it, he left Tristan alone and went downstairs, where his comrade stayed.
"How is it?"
"I have delivered the letter. It's true that he is related to him."
"Then, should we wait here?"
"He has seen my face, so I will wait outside. You can stay here and make sure that person doesn't leave the inn."
"Alright."
The two split up as the one delivering the letter was watching the inn from the outside.
Meanwhile, Tristan was happy that he finally got the letter Noel was talking about. Sandra suddenly came out from her hiding spot, which was under the bed.
"Is it alright now?" Sandra asked. "And what does it say?"
"Hmm…" Tristan opened the letter and read it.
"Can you even read it?" Sandra asked.
"Of course." Tristan nodded with a serious expression. This was the part where Tristan's extraordinary memory showed its might. Dimitri had been teaching him language, manners, and other necessities.
However, everything related to memory, like language, could easily be absorbed by Tristan. Although his reading ability wasn't at the level of someone who had read for a long time, he could easily recognize words that were usually spoken.
He read it with a low tone so that Sandra could hear it as well. "Tristan. I'm sorry that I can't go with you anymore because of a problem. Although it's only for a brief period, I'll be leaving. Because I can't fulfill my side of the agreement, you can take this rune as compensation."
"Huh? Is that all? Master Noel said that he has given us the instructions in the letter, right?" Sandra asked, feeling confused. She couldn't understand the words or even the runes, so she only listened to what Tristan said.
Unexpectedly, Tristan suddenly fell silent when he saw the runes.
"This is…" Tristan seemed to have noticed something. "This rune is supposed to be the Chain Bind Rune… But there are a few strokes that are different… This one is the Muscle Enhancement Rune, and just like the previous one…"
Tristan suddenly understood what Noel said about the instruction.
"M…o…v…e…" Tristan could actually find four characters that joined together to create the word 'move' in the Chain Bind Rune. Tristan could remember the exact details of the Chain Bind Rune, so it was easy to find the difference. In fact, Noel had been teaching him by spotting the difference between runes and correcting all the mistakes.
It turned out Noel had given the instruction inside the runes. Others would be able to find it out sooner or later, but only Tristan could see through the hidden messages in an instant. This was truly the message Noel left behind.
"Sorry, Sandra. Please give me some time, I have to decipher Master's secret message."
"I understand." Sandra didn't understand the secret message, but it seemed that Noel had trusted Tristan that much, which was something to be happy about.
Just like Qiel, Noel was planning to outsmart the second prince and Legolaz through this letter in order for Tristan and Sandra to leave the city safely.
