Kai changed his uniform to a dry one. Ayaka also did the same.

They were instructed by Shirotsuka Sanae to be on standby inside the stadium. After that, she just flew off again.

Kai didn’t have anything to do, so he just stayed inside the tent. As for Ayaka, she didn’t know how to face Kai after that incident, so she decided to stay outside while carrying an umbrella.

It was at this time he suddenly heard Ayaka’s voice.

“Katsuragi Takaki, how are you here? Do you know that your teammates were killed by someone?” Ayaka looked at Katsuragi Takaki with a displeased gaze.

“Well, well, Ayaka? Where are your teammates, especially that Kai?”

“Hmph, they were killed by the magical beasts. I don’t know why the magical beasts targeted them. It seems that someone wanted to kill them by bringing the magical beasts. If Kai hadn’t noticed it, all of us would have died,” Ayaka coldly said, her eyes not showing any warmth to the person she was talking to.

After Kai cleared the misunderstanding, she thought about it again and again.

She had two feelings about it. First, she felt a bit of pity for them because they died instead of them. The second feeling was hatred. When she thought about it, she slowly hated them because they wanted to kill her and Kai. But what she herself didn’t expect was that the second feeling was far more vivid to her than the first feeling.

She could say such a cold thing about them because of her second feeling. Of course, she didn’ spite or mock them openly.

Surprisingly, after she said that, Kai noticed the slight difference in Katsuragi Takaki’s heartbeat. When he noticed that, he knew that the magical beasts were somehow related to him.

“Don’t change the topic, you still haven’t answered my question. I saw George and Yuria’s dead bodies before I came back here. They were killed by someone, not by magical beasts. You must know something.” Ayaka narrowed her eyes.

“You-!” Wada Miyako, who was standing beside Katsuragi Takaki, was offended by her words. Still, she was immediately stopped by the cold gaze from Katsuragi Takaki.

He then smiled again, “Of course I know. All of us were chased by someone, and we decided to split up. But it seemed that he was that person’s target.”

She kept staring at him to see whether he was lying or not.

“Hmph,” she snorted and left.

“That girl! Takaki-sama has even-!”

Miyako wanted to complain about Ayaka’s attitude, but she was stopped by Katsuragi Takaki’s gaze yet again. “If you speak rudely to her one more time, I will kill you.”

“Ye-yes.” Wada Miyako looked down as she bit her lips. She had done everything she could for him, but Katsuragi Takaki only had eyes for one person, and it was Ayaka. She hated this Ayaka to the bone.

Kai was frowning this entire time the moment he heard it. He knew there was something off about the incident of the magical beasts. Unfortunately, he didn’t find anything about George. However, he found that Katsuragi Takaki’s tone was also not right here.

It was as though he was happy when he knew George was dead. He felt the need to investigate the Katsuragi family once again, but he didn’t know how he could do that. He remembered how they couldn’t do anything the moment Ikeda Kenzo showed his true prowess as a veteran S-rank magician.

It was at this time that he thought about torturing Katsuragi Takaki for information. He didn’t have any concrete proof, but he could somehow relate everything that happened to him by how he reacted to this.

Sadly, his and Tasha’s power wasn’t enough to contend with the Katsuragi family. If he were to do that, he would reach the point of no return. And if they found out he did it, he and his family would have to bear the wrath of the Katsuragi family.

He gritted his teeth. He felt very useless in this situation, especially when he remembered how powerless he was when he fought Ikeda Kenzo. If the Katsuragi family were to make a move against them, Ikeda Kenzo would definitely help them.

He and Tasha would be fine, but he still had his father and mother, so he couldn’t do anything recklessly.

He thought about moving toward another base, such as the US base, which was the closest or the base in Europe. But if he decided to do that, he would definitely pay them back by at least ending Katsuragi Takaki’s life.

After all, they had no right to complain about it since they also wanted to kill him. For that, he would need to prepare the money to escape to the US base, since doing that would require a huge sum of money.

But what concerned him the most was George’s death. He reminded George to be careful against Katsuragi Takaki a few days ago, but he suddenly died. And the clue he left, he was really clueless about it.

He didn’t really care about the matter as a whole. The only thing he cared about was whether it was related to him or not. If it was related to him, then their situation was really bad as they would need to escape immediately.

He sighed. His life goal was to fight on the front lines carefully and amass enough money, then live the rest of his life peacefully with his wife. It was a simple but carefree dream.

He never thought that he would get tangled in such a big problem. Even with Tasha as an S-rank magician, they wouldn’t be able to protect their father and mother all the time under the full onslaught of a big family like the Katsuragi family.

As for the government… He never thought of it. The government only appeared to be the figurehead. In fact, United Asia didn’t have a single leader because the government was useless. They just created the government to calm the masses.

Each prefecture had its own leader, and usually, it was the most powerful group in that area. Tokyo had Kudo Group, Miyagi had the Ikeda family, while Hokkaido had the Katsuragi family.

It was very hard to fight those big families with just both him and Tasha while protecting their parents, so if they could send their parents to the US base, they would be free to move around and could fight the Katsuragi family with guerilla tactics.

They had an acquaintance in the US base, so he thought they could entrust their parents to them. If everything was settled, they could live normally again here or in the US base.

He even had a thought about selling himself to the Kudo group just to get the money. Ayaka was beautiful and wise while her grandfather seemed to approve of their relationship. But when he thought about that, he felt something empty in his heart. So, he decided to make that idea his last resort.

As his current temporary plan, he wanted to ask Tasha to raise money so they could send their parents to another base.

After a few more hours, Kai was called by Shirotsuka Sanae. They used an abandoned room inside the stadium. It seemed that Shirotsuka Sanae also did not want to make this meeting public. As for the reason… Kai could imagine her saying, “I need to make a full report if I tell the commander. I’m just a teacher, and I’m too lazy to make the whole report.”

When he entered the room, Shirotsuka Sanae immediately said, “The guy that you trapped inside the cave had died. Before I could get anything from him, he already killed himself. But it seems that he truly killed Fujino Chitose and Carmina Elvera. As for where he came from or who sent him… I didn’t get anything about it.”

“I have a question…” Kai hesitated a bit.

“What is it? Just ask,” Sanae straightforwardly said. 

“Why do you even bother about this? I mean, you complain again and again, but you still do it.” Kai wanted to probe how much he could tell her. In fact, if she could be useful, he would use her to counter the Katsuragi family.

“You just reminded me of my best friend. Well, she died on the front lines, and I don’t really care about friends and family anymore. I only care about myself and this problem… No, your problem with the magical beasts and Inshov Tanas Georgiy’s murder case… I need to make sure whether those two have any relation or not.

“If the two cases are related to each other, then I’ll need to report it fully since my livelihood will also be on the line. As you might already know, the government is only a facade to keep the masses from panicking while the real leaders are the big families in each prefecture.

“But when big families or powerful people start attacking each other, who do you think will suffer the most?”

Kai thought of his parents when he heard her question. He answered seriously, “The common people.”

“That’s right. Although the government is weak, if they have information or some cards in their hands, they might be able to incite the other families to attack this family and solve the problem. If this problem is solved, then people like me will be able to live peacefully. Well, after seeing your eyes, I’m sure that we’re pretty similar. We just want to live normally, but problems keep coming into our lives,” Shirotsuka Sanae complained and sighed.

“Indeed.” Kai nodded. “That’s why I want to solve this problem first.”

Ding!

Kai was startled when he heard this. The sound came from his device, and when he checked it, there was a message from his acquaintance in the US base…

He just put it down and continued talking to Shirotsuka Sanae. However, he was surprised when he saw Shirotsuka Sanae open her mouth wide in shock.