The stench of blood clung to the hot, humid air, forcing them to face the gruesome sight before their eyes.
After confirming the face of the corpse one last time, Hugo covered it with a white cloth and rose to his feet. As he did, the two members holding the stretcher at front and back also stepped forward heavily.
Hugo watched until the very end as the comrade began his final journey home, paying his respects to that last path.
When the Commander raised his arm, all nearby members saluted the fallen. Their eyes followed the white cloth covering the corpse, engraving in their hearts the comrade who had bravely fought and fulfilled his duty to the empire.
“I’m sorry. If only I had arrived a little sooner...”
The commander of the 9th Battalion, Southern Branch, clenched his teeth and bowed his head as he spoke. His combat uniform was soaked in monster blood and torn in places, showing how fierce and horrific the frontline battle had been. Seeing such traces of the fight, Hugo said quietly,
“It’s not your fault.”
At the heavy, subdued tone of Hugo’s voice, the Battalion Commander lifted his head briefly. Yet his eyes, clouded with endless guilt, showed he could not accept the consolation.
Although the situation was roughly under control, the atmosphere among the members who had just sent off their comrade was miserable. There was still no word from the pursuit team chasing the platoon leader, and with both the sudden news and the long mission, the Southern Branch members looked drained—mentally and physically.
While checking over each member one by one with his eyes, Hugo also listened closely to the report given by the company commander on behalf of his weary superior. When something concerning caught his ear, he turned and asked,
“You said the creatures were fleeing with eggs in their mouths?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
The company commander reported on the Dermocas horde being pursued and caught while fleeing. Hearing this, Hugo shifted his gaze to the broken eggshells the investigators were studying.
Those shells had been found alone inside the ruins along with unhatched eggs. At first, they speculated that the creatures had carried eggs of another species to store as food.
After all, Dermocas were classified as mammals that didn’t lay eggs, so they couldn’t be theirs. And since traces of them storing food had been found across the peninsula, the theory that the eggs had been placed in the ruins for food seemed plausible.
“Why do you think they deliberately carried the eggs while fleeing?”
Hugo asked without taking his eyes off the shells. The company commander, after a moment of thought, carefully replied,
“I suppose... the natural conclusion is that they’re the creatures’ own eggs?”
It made sense.
If they had only intended to eat them, there would be no reason to carry them away while retreating under threat. That suggested the eggs were important enough to protect even at the risk of death.
The creatures’ nesting sites had never been specified, and no clear nest had been found.
Moreover, calling them mammals was only a classification—likening their traits to beasts. There was no definitive proof they gave birth to live young. So, if the unhatched eggs were theirs and they were trying to protect them, the idea was at least plausible.
After hearing this, Hugo fell into brief thought, then gave a small nod and asked,
“I see. Then what happened to the egg they carried away?”
“Deputy Commander Hastings is leading part of the pursuit team to retrieve it directly. Ah, it seems they’ve just arrived.”
Even as he spoke, shifting his gaze behind Hugo, the thunderous cry of “Loyalty!” rang out from the Southern Branch members.
Hugo turned as well. Approaching was the deputy commander with a detachment of the 9th Battalion. Upon spotting him, they strode straight toward his position.
The deputy commander, the highest in rank among them, stood before Hugo, saluted, and declared,
“Loyalty! Charlotte Hastings, Deputy Commander of the 9th Battalion, Southern Branch of the Council. Greetings, Council Commander.”
“Loyalty. Good work.”
Hugo returned the salute lightly, his eyes immediately falling to the whitish egg with a blue tint cradled in her arms.
“Is that it? The egg the creatures carried away?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
At her reply, Hugo extended his hand without hesitation. She promptly handed the egg over.
It filled Hugo’s large palm.
Its sturdy shell, heavy weight, and unpleasant warmth told him at once—something was alive inside.
****
The new squad member squeezed his eyes shut the moment Leonardo’s egg hit the ground.
When he felt something heavy tap against his foot with a dull sound, he opened them again. To his surprise, the egg had only rolled to his feet and stopped, completely unscathed.
Leonardo frowned, stepped forward, and gave his shoulder a light push.
“Move aside.”
Startled, the member stepped back. Leonardo kicked the egg into a groove in the ground and pinned it with his foot. Then, grasping a blazing flame sword, he raised it high and brought it down squarely on the center of the egg.
Chiiik—!
As the blade touched the shell, an acrid smell like burning protein rose where the surface melted.
Smoke coiled upward from the friction, but Leonardo pressed the sword down harder without pause.
The tip that had only pierced slightly now sank deeper into the shell, and a bizarre, monster-like scream erupted from within. At the sharp, nerve-jangling sound, both the new member and the man clapped hands to their ears with pained grimaces.
Leonardo only frowned faintly and kept going. The tough shell sizzled and cracked around the blade.
With eyes narrowed, he lifted the egg, sword still lodged in it, and smashed it to the ground. The sword drove all the way through—and the eerie sound within stopped at once.
Silence fell, chilling and complete. Leonardo glared at the egg, waiting for any further response. When none came, he extinguished the flames and swept away the thick smoke with a gust of wind.
When he nudged the shell with his foot, it crumbled easily, softened by heat. Amid the shards lay something white, wrapped in sticky mucus.
It had been alive until just moments ago.
Leonardo crouched, lifted the corpse with a gloved hand, and studied it intently. Then he turned to the new member.
“Hey, didn’t you say the Dermocas kept chasing earlier?”
The new member, staring queasily at the pale thing, answered with disgust,
“What? Yes. They were chasing me in particular, so the seniors told me to run far ahead. I ended up here while they kept after me.”
“And that bastard was with you the whole time too?”
When Leonardo gestured at the man, the member glanced his way and said,
“Yes, I found him first and was trying to arrest him. He’s been with me ever since.”
Dermocas weren’t the sort to prolong a fight or chase. Even when hunting prey, if the odds turned against them or too much time passed, they were clever enough to give up.
But the new member had said the Dermocas persistently chased him. And the outsider had been with him the whole time—carrying an unknown egg in his bag.
Unless the two of them possessed some bizarre trait that lured monsters, the most reasonable assumption was that the Dermocas pursued them because of the egg.
By common sense, if a species relentlessly chased after an egg, it was because the egg was their own. But looking at the small corpse now, Leonardo was confused.
The tiny creature did seem monstrous, yet its appearance and color differed from a Dermocas offspring. And it was difficult to identify its species.
It seemed reptilian, yet also like # Nоvеlight # a four-legged mammal. Its skin was soft and pliant, making it impossible to tell whether fur or scales would eventually grow.
Perhaps it was a mutant. But if so, then the question remained—
If this isn’t a Dermocas offspring, why were they after it?
Would the creatures really have reason to hunt something that wasn’t even their own young?
Leonardo sighed and ruffled his hair with his left hand. Nothing about the peninsula’s creatures made sense. It was a nest of riddles, enough to make his visit here years ago seem meaningless.
While everyone’s attention was on the corpse from the egg, the crouching man slowly lowered one arm.
Quietly, he picked up a blue mineral buried beneath the dead Dermocas’ body—the very one the new member had thrown earlier, which had failed to detonate.
He slipped it into his inner pocket with a sly motion, unnoticed by those before him. Then, as if nothing had happened, he raised both hands again.
