After leaving the sewers, Liyami and Lavinia returned together to the demonkin’s laboratory from before. There, Colin and the others had already dealt with the demon minions who had tried to escape, and were cleaning up the battlefield as they waited for their return.
“You’re back. How did it go? Is it settled?”
Colin quickly noticed the returning Liyami and Lavinia. He had intended to ask Liyami, who was the first to chase after the enemy, but forcibly stopped himself just as he was about to speak, then turned to question Lavinia instead.
Seeing this, Lavinia glanced at Liyami, then, as if nothing had happened, reported truthfully, “Don’t worry, Liyami has already taken care of that demonkin. She’s finished the aftermath as well.”
“Good. Let’s hurry up and finish cleaning the battlefield, then head back.”
With that, Colin turned without another word to help Sifney and Elinor clear the battlefield. During this time, he never said a single word to Liyami.
Although Liyami was rather puzzled by this, she actually preferred it this way.
She had no idea why Colin suddenly behaved like this, but it happened to fit her own thoughts perfectly. Liyami had been planning to keep some distance from Colin for a while, so she’d have a better environment to think over that matter.
Of course, there was one downside to the current situation: Liyami had originally intended to keep a certain distance while still eavesdropping a little on Colin’s thoughts. But with things as they were now, that seemed impossible.
Still, it wasn’t a big problem. Things wouldn’t stay like this between her and Colin forever—she could worry about Colin’s thoughts after she figured out her own issues.
With this in mind, Liyami quietly followed Colin’s lead and cleaned up the battlefield. During this period, aside from the occasional concerned glance from Lavinia, only Elinor looked over at her from time to time.
Liyami really couldn’t figure it out. Was there something interesting about her? Was she really worth Elinor’s repeated looks?
Luckily, Elinor was only looking and did nothing else. On the contrary, Colin had completely changed from his usual self, not once casting a glance at Liyami. Although this matched Liyami’s wishes, she couldn’t help but wonder why.
Other than Colin, there was one more person who didn’t look at Liyami—Sifney. She silently used magic to burn the corpses of the demon minions, occasionally collecting samples from them.
Sifney also hadn’t looked at Liyami. Whether she was thinking of something else or still upset about what happened before, Liyami had no way of knowing.
Ever since returning from the knight order, she’d felt the atmosphere among the team change somewhat. It wasn’t as relaxed as before—everyone seemed to have something on their mind. Maybe that was just how things really were now.
Amidst this atmosphere, Liyami and the others finished tidying up the scene. After confirming that all related materials had been burned or collected, Liyami and the group returned to the inn in town.
This time, the high-risk incident had happened near Kitt City—just in a small town on its outskirts. So, they hadn’t planned to stay here long; they would likely return to Kitt City the next day.
As evening fell, in Colin’s room at the inn where the squad was staying, everyone was gathered to discuss matters.
Just as Liyami had thought, with this case closed, there were no more high-risk incidents nearby—they could rest for a while.
Of course, it hadn’t always been this way. In the past, they’d travel all over the kingdom, handling all sorts of high-risk incidents, not just things in one area.
Thanks to the efforts of the Special Incident Response Squad, their workload had been reduced. Now, as long as nothing major happened across regions, Liyami and the others were only responsible for Kitt City and the surrounding areas.
This was undoubtedly good news for everyone—after all, they wouldn’t be as busy as before. But for Colin, it wasn’t necessarily a good thing. He’d created this squad to help the people of the kingdom with all dangerous incidents.
Colin was clearly unwilling to be tied down in one place—he wanted to travel the country again, solving high-risk cases everywhere, even if it meant being extremely busy and in constant danger. He’d probably do it without complaint.
But this time, Colin didn’t say anything. He went against his usual attitude and decided to stay in Kitt City for now, without objecting like he used to.
Liyami had some idea what he was thinking. Colin was probably considering the others. After all, they didn’t share his ambitions—handling high-risk incidents was just their job, unlike Colin, who had a deep sense of mission.
This made Liyami both happy and surprised. The happiness was obvious; the surprise came from the fact that Colin very rarely acted like this in the past. It seemed that recent events had brought about some changes in him.
But whether these changes were good or bad, and what they meant for Liyami herself, she still didn’t know.
Soon, the discussion in the room drew to a close, and everyone’s plans were settled.
Colin, Liyami, Lavinia, and Elinor would stay on standby in Kitt City, while Sifney had something to take care of elsewhere.
This outcome surprised Liyami for two reasons. First, Elinor had decided to stay in Kitt City instead of returning to the Sanctuary.
Usually, in this kind of situation, Elinor would use the opportunity to improve herself—she’d return to the Sanctuary to train and seize every chance to grow stronger, hardly ever relaxing.
But this time, Elinor chose not to return for training, staying in Kitt City instead. Why would Elinor do that? Did she want a break, or… did she want to keep an eye on her?
Liyami frowned in thought. She had no idea what she’d done to draw Elinor’s attention, but the reason Elinor was staying was most likely because of her.
Though she wasn’t sure what the consequences would be, Liyami resolved to be careful from now on. She absolutely couldn’t let Elinor discover her faith problem—otherwise, the president would never let her off easy!
As for Sifney, she said she’d been invited once again to the kingdom’s most advanced magic chamber, wanting to see if there was any new magical research to learn from.
A bit worried, Liyami asked, “Sifney, are you sure you’re okay? We just finished the matter with the knight order, and now you’re off to study new magic? Aren’t you exhausted?”
Sifney glared at her fiercely.
“Exhausted? How could I be exhausted? I was born to be busy 😄, born to work like a horse for certain someone’s sake ðŸ˜! How could I possibly get tired 🥰? Don’t you think so, Liyami 😡?”
Liyami could plainly sense Sifney’s hostility towards her—clearly, Sifney was still mad.
Realizing this, Liyami wisely shut her mouth, and Sifney said nothing more. It seemed she’d just wanted to vent and didn’t really mean it.