The Investigation Request
I was a little taken aback when I spotted the central tribe.
That flag was unmistakably the banner of the central tribe — that much wouldn't have changed. And yet this was definitely Area 29.
Just to be sure, I looked at Joo Ha-yeon and asked.
"What area is this?"
"Area 29. Why?"
"...No reason. Do you see that flag over there?"
"...Now that you mention it. I don't think I've ever seen a flag like that before..."
The orcs you'd encounter on the Middle Floor each had a unique banner representing their tribe. Gnolls, however, only raised their own flags once they reached the rank of a ten-thousand-man commander. And that distinctive emblem over there was the symbol of the one that had been the central tribe.
The Worshipping Golden Gnolls.
It was the unique emblem of the Golden Gnoll Tribe's central tribe. Moreover, beside that flag stood another banner signifying the central tribe itself.
Which meant that at this point in time, the Worshipping Golden Gnoll Tribe already was the central tribe.
And in my memory, that central tribe had definitely existed in Area 30. What's more, the Worshipping Golden Gnoll Tribe — the central tribe of the Golden Gnolls — was an unusual tribe that, unlike other gnolls, did not migrate. So why were they here?
Time had been rewound. Nothing should have changed. Everything should have been exactly as it was in the past. And yet the future I knew had changed? The only variable, as far as I could tell, was myself. At most, perhaps the Administrators who had obtained Interference Power, or trainees who had class-changed into Hidden Classes, might have had some influence.
Currently we were the sole vanguard — the only trainee team on the Lower Floors. That meant we should have been the ones to cause any such change...
All we've done since coming to the Lower Floors is stop one unit of Brown Gnolls and hold off an invasion of five hundred Golden Gnolls.
And that was enough to drop the central tribe into Area 29? That didn't make any sense.
In the end, the only thing that had changed from the past was the timing of our entry into the Lower Floors...
Could they not have fully grown yet? Is that why this land was classified as Area 29?
It was possible. If their power later grew strong enough that this land was promoted from Area 29 to Area 30, that would make sense.
But according to my memory... this land had been Area 29 in the past as well. Area 30 was still a bit farther on.
Which meant...
The Gnoll Hero.
It meant they had moved the tribe's location after its resurrection. They weren't the type to do that. So why?
The question nagged at me.
The Main Quest had been to stop the resurrection of the Gnoll Hero. The conditions attached were the annihilation of the Golden Gnoll Tribe, or the destruction of the Gnoll Hero's heart.
I had assumed those carrying this out would most likely be the central tribe in Area 30, and that had more or less checked out. I was simply surprised that they existed in Area 29 — a memory that differed from the past.
Area 29 and Area 30. I had a feeling something was here.
I immediately spoke to Ha Yoo-jin.
"Yoo-jin."
"Yes, hyung."
"I think we need to check something. Could you take a closer look at the village? Don't go too far in, though. And if you think you've been spotted, run immediately. I'll back you up."
"Got it, hyung."
Thanks to his accumulated experience, Ha Yoo-jin wasn't particularly afraid of scouting a gnoll village. He'd never been caught, after all.
But you never knew. A chieftain of the central tribe might just detect him. That was why I'd told him not to go too far.
The moment I finished speaking, Ha Yoo-jin activated Stealth and began approaching the village.
Slowly. Slowly.
Ha Yoo-jin circled the outskirts of the village, peering inside. He seemed to be testing the waters first, thanks to my warning not to go too deep. Then, after a moment — apparently convinced he wouldn't be discovered — he carefully vanished into the village.
With my warning in mind, he wouldn't go too far in. After a considerable stretch of time, I saw Ha Yoo-jin carefully slipping back out of the village.
For someone moving slowly and cautiously because of Stealth, his face was flushed red with excitement. It seemed my prediction had been right.
"Hyung! Hyung!"
Once he was far enough from the village, Ha Yoo-jin's excited voice reached me.
"I found them! I found them!"
"Were there people inside?"
"Yes. A whole lot of them! Like thirty — about thirty people!"
"Thirty?"
Na-yeon seemed stunned by the number — far more than she'd imagined.
Thirty. That was more than I'd expected. Even excluding the three who'd been kidnapped this time, that meant twenty-seven people had already been there.
And they'd still attempted another kidnapping?
"Did they all look okay?"
"No. They didn't look okay at all. Everyone looked exhausted. They were locked up, and even though there was food piled up in front of them, they were all skin and bones."
Something was going on here.
"...Alright. We need to find out what they're doing with those humans. We'll have to set up a camp around here."
Fortunately, a place to set up camp existed. A rocky area the gnolls rarely visited. Given how massive the tribe was, their territory was vast, so we had no choice but to pick a spot quite far away — but the rocky terrain lay outside their domain, and they didn't search it often. It was the perfect location.
I already knew it was nearby, so I pretended to search for a suitable spot as I immediately led the party there.
The party quickly agreed to make the rocky area our base camp once they saw it. We promptly found a cave among the rocks that wouldn't be easily noticed and made it our base.
"What on earth could it be? Thirty people... and they still launched another raid after that..."
"There's definitely something. We'll have to find out."
I turned to Ha Yoo-jin.
"Yoo-jin, I'm sorry, but it looks like you're going to have to work hard this time. I'll support you, but you'll be the one taking the lead."
"Yes! So I just watch the people like before?"
"That's right. That'll be your main mission. Of course, your safety comes first. Be especially careful if you see any gnolls that look strong. If they find you, you'll be in real danger."
"Don't worry! They didn't notice me at all, at least up through the middle of the village! It was actually kind of fun — felt like playing hide-and-seek!"
...Kid's got no fear.
Better than being too scared to do it, I supposed. It was an excessively dangerous mission to leave to a child, but there was no one else who could do it besides Ha Yoo-jin. And if anything, Ha Yoo-jin seemed delighted that he'd been entrusted with such an important role.
He hadn't expected to be given a job this critical, and he seemed to feel a thrill at being trusted and recognized.
A side effect of being invisible, maybe.
Spending so long as an invisible person because of his skill had apparently left a deep wound on his young heart. This looked like the rebound.
"Alright, I'm counting on you. If it really gets dangerous, use this."
I handed him a signal flare I'd prepared in advance.
If that thing went off, we'd have to storm the gnoll settlement ready to die. A massive settlement where well over ten thousand gnolls lived. Even with our improved equipment and higher levels, making it out of there alive would be genuinely difficult. No — close to impossible. The moment he was discovered, Ha Yoo-jin was as good as dead. If he was lucky enough to make it outside the village, I could grab him and run. But we'd have to split from the rest of the party. If the others joined us, we wouldn't be able to escape.
There was a reason every investigation request had failed.
Ha Yoo-jin accepted the flare with a happy expression. Watching him, Joo Ha-yeon spoke with a pained look.
"Of all things, it had to be a tribe that huge..."
"Well, wasn't that always the most likely scenario? Given how few people were taken, I figured they'd probably ended up in a powerful tribe."
It was within the range of what I'd predicted.
"...Can we save those people?"
That was Na-yeon.
"Na-yeon, we can't. We couldn't save them even if we tried — we'd all die too."
Joo Ha-yeon cut off Na-yeon's lament.
"Our goal is reconnaissance, nothing more. We need to learn their purpose. Once we find out what they're plotting and why they're attacking the village, we leave. We don't have the strength to save those people too."
"...I know, unnie. It's just... it's too heartbreaking."
"It is. But you need to distinguish between what we can do and what we can't."
"...Okay."
I nodded in satisfaction.
Joo Ha-yeon. From the moment I'd judged that she'd opened her heart to me, she'd been properly looking after the party. At this point, she was even more concerned about the party's safety than I was.
For someone who'd always had to play the villain, it was an extremely satisfying sight.
In truth, aside from Na-yeon, no one else really cared about those people's well-being. If you looked closely, Ha Yoo-jin had no interest whatsoever in people who didn't properly acknowledge him — anyone outside our party. He'd even make a sullen face when he saw them. If things had gone wrong, he might have harbored anger toward them, but after recognizing that they simply lacked ability, it hadn't risen to the level of rage or hatred.
Still, losing interest in people like that was inevitable. From my perspective, that was a very good thing.
Na Seoyun still had no interest in anyone besides me and the party, and Nam Eun-ju seemed to feel sorry for them, but that was as far as it went. She wasn't about to stick her nose in other people's business when she could barely take care of herself.
Joo Ha-yeon had also been putting the party first lately. She understood me best of all. Na-yeon talked like that, but she never actually acted on it. It was within my acceptable range, but Joo Ha-yeon seemed to see it as spoiling the mood, so she'd been stepping in like this recently.
Thanks to that, I could focus on our objectives on the Lower Floors.
The Main Quest's goal was their annihilation, or destroying the Gnoll Hero's heart. Destroying the Gnoll Hero's heart alone would suffice, and if we could properly convey information about the Gnoll Hero, there was a chance a large-scale subjugation of the Golden Gnoll Tribe would be organized.
If that happened, clearing the Main Quest wouldn't be difficult. Human forces were weaker than the gnolls, but since the gnolls also fought among themselves and couldn't unite, dealing with a single tribe was somehow manageable.
The casualties would be enormous, of course...
I shook my head.
Do what we can, first.
That was what mattered.
The surveillance continued from the next day onward.
Thanks to the gnolls being diurnal, the watch was relatively easy. During the day, whatever they were doing, Ha Yoo-jin couldn't be discovered anyway.
Ha Yoo-jin closely observed the situation around the prison where the humans were held. While he scouted the interior of the village, watching the exterior — or more precisely, the surrounding area from a distant location — was almost entirely my role.
It had to be. I was the one in the party with the greatest combat power, the fastest situational judgment, and the highest chance of survival. If something happened to Ha Yoo-jin, I'd have to grab him and flee in a direction other than the base camp — and besides me, only Na Seoyun could even attempt to fill that role. The rest couldn't. Even Na Seoyun couldn't do it as well as I could. Her physical abilities and experience were clearly lacking. On top of that, even setting that role aside, we also needed to check what was happening outside the village, and observing from a distance required high physical ability as well. Still, saying I shouldn't be the only one working so hard, they would occasionally take over watching the village exterior in my place.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party either rested or helped with Nam Eun-ju's training.
Nam Eun-ju had apparently started to feel anxious if she didn't train, so she cautiously asked me if she could. Judging that this might take quite a long time, I gave her permission as long as she didn't overdo it. The one helping with that training was Joo Ha-yeon.
Something she would never have done under ordinary circumstances. Nam Eun-ju had probably asked me because she recognized how unusual the current situation was.
Na-yeon didn't stay at the base camp for long. The reason was simple. Her main duty was scouting and keeping watch around the rocky area — that is, around the base camp. With the power of spirits, it wasn't a difficult task. Because of range limitations, she couldn't remain inside the base camp for extended periods.
This investigation was important, but it wasn't more important than the party's safety. When she wasn't helping me, Na Seoyun either rotated with Na-yeon or rested. Besides Na-yeon, Na Seoyun was the only other one with the physical ability to handle watch duty.
For about ten days, uneventful days continued.
It had taken more than two weeks just to get here, so nearly a month had already passed since the mission began.
All we'd learned in that time was that the gnolls, for reasons unknown, were force-feeding the humans, occasionally making them exercise, and that as long as they didn't resist, the gnolls didn't torture or torment them at all — they even seemed to be managing their physical condition. Moreover, while they were confined separately, they weren't kept far apart. They were placed close enough to confirm each other's existence.
But rather than quietly complying with the gnolls' so-called consideration, the humans resisted as much as they could. They refused to eat unless the gnolls force-fed them, and even when given relative freedom to exercise, they didn't move a muscle. When that resistance grew severe, the gnolls watching them would beat them to the brink of death. Then a gnoll shaman would painstakingly treat the wounded humans. And yet, given that a considerable number of the humans had been emaciated when Ha Yoo-jin first went in, they seemed to be resisting with genuine ferocity.
I couldn't understand why. Something was truly strange.
And today, an even more unusual situation finally occurred.
Ha Yoo-jin emerged from the village earlier than usual, as if something was happening. I happened to be on watch, so I asked carefully.
"Something going on?"
"Hyung, they're moving."
"Moving? ...Don't tell me."
"Yes, hyung. The gnolls are taking some of the people out and moving them somewhere!"
"...Where. Which way did they go?"
"This way. Follow me."
There was no time to tell the others.
I immediately followed Ha Yoo-jin.