2nd Welkalach of Secafiel 1237

Belgrynd's POV

Since my course of action has been determined. It is time to think about how I find those monster dens. 

*blop*

This is one of the journals in the monster den that managed to hurt Lucy. At that time I took it from one of the monsters but didn't really look at the content of it... now that I think about that, this is a pretty stupid action of mine. If I had read this earlier, maybe I could know more info about these guys to just directly go and stop them... now let's see...

...

...

Who the hell writes their diary and doesn't lock it behind a locker. Not to mention, what the hell is with this guy. It is mostly only talking about his weird dream of owning an estate in a cave... I highly doubt this guy is sane. 

But there is one piece of info that I can get from this diary. It is that almost all of the bases that this guy or his associates were are inside caves. That is the good part. The bad part is that they are planning to increase personnel soon and once they have enough manpower after recovering from a certain accident. They will launch an attack from inside the island in the elven forests. Well, I assume they are talking about elves as they keep saying about the long-ear demihumans. 

This means that those bases would be my first target.

Then next comes a problem. I have no way to know where are those bases unless I have insider info or have the info from the hunter guild or the dwarven kingdom. I know that Petrasha is also having headaches to this due to Ganmol telling me that they are thinking of new weapons to fight humans. But if I asked them, they will think that I am interested in going to take down the monsters with them, which kinda defeats the goal of making them safe. Let's see...

If, I use the search magic I found before, but tune it to only react to the human souls... along with the amount of magic I have, I could possibly find all of them on the continent! 

I took out the map that I bought while searching for my furniture and immediately began my search magic.

!

MY HEAD! IT HURTS!!!

The amount of information is too much!

" I have to endure this..." I hold my head with one of my hands as I immediately mark the map with my other hand.

As time passes, the pain in my head just continues to grow larger, but at the same time, the amount of marks on the map is increasing. From 10 to 40 to 100 and finally...

" A total of three hundred and forty-eight bases... just how is the empire able to send so many personnel into here... not to mention one thing. How are there even this many humans left alive and able to fight..." 

The amount of bases is absurd, well the number of caves too to be honest, but then again that thing is all nature's work while the base is the monster's work.

Urgh, I need a bit of rest... is the last thing I thought before I collapse on the spot. But I somehow still managed to store the map back into my inventory.

---

Amy's POV (the time is back directly to after Belgrynd left the house)

The atmosphere now is very tense. Everyone is just silently finishing what they are having. 

I didn't expect Bel to react that way. After all, back then she would just be excited whenever we would party together to take on quests or bosses. The reaction we got today... is very unexpected.

' Petry, please come help, I have something I need your opinions on...' I sent a message to Petry and another message to Christine to immediately come over. At the same time, I continue to check my minimap to see where Bel is at. Surprisingly she is still near us, but this doesn't mean it is accurate by any means as the map is a top-down map. She could have been a thousand meters above in the sky or in the ground.

The situation continues for more than half an hour, but it feels like an eternity before Christine enters the house, with Petry about 10 minutes later.

" So what is the problem? And where is Bel? Shouldn't she be in her own house?" Petry asked us while looking around.

" That... is one of the problems I want to talk about... so... please sit down a bit," I said as I asked Petry to sit down at the dining table. All of us never moved during the time we are waiting except for May who offered to clean the plates.

The mood didn't change after Petry sat down. It is still very tense. I don't know how to start the conversation and Lucy doesn't seem to be starting it too.

" Well, remember the old times when we played together and form our little party to fight bosses?" May broke the silence with a very simple question. To which Petry and Christine answered a simple yes.

" Amy tried to suggest it to Bel. But this time our target isn't simple monsters but the human hideouts that the country keeps finding. This kinda made Bel very angry due to what happened to Lucy before. After that, she just stormed out of the house probably to calm down." May simplistically explained what happened just now to both Christine and Petry. 

Sorry for making you take the hard work...

" And now I am regretting asking her... some of what she said is true too... not to mention, this definitely would have triggered some bad memories with her since she has lived with the hu- er empire for the longest," I said, quickly correcting it as well, I don't think living with the human brothers is a bad memory for her.

" It is ok lass, we don't mind." " Yep." the two brothers replied, seems like they got what I wanted to say huh...

" This... can be a problem. At least I know that Bel's personality has changed throughout the years she spent on that continent. And to be honest, I was kinda expecting her to just directly rage over it..." Petry replied. Now that she said that... it seems like it kinda is a miracle that she didn't slap me too...

" Nah, that won't be the problem. You probably have to worry about her taking this problem into her own hand though." Christine casually said.

" You mean?" May asked.

" I mean, it is a troupe in this situation that she would be so overprotective that she becomes a yandere right? Maybe something along the lines of, I will kill you so that the others will not be able to get you. Something like that." Christine said. In a sense, that is the plot of some of the isekai troupes that some MC gets overprotective and became a yandere that would kill anyone who gets near the heroine. But I don't think Bel has fallen that far... 

" Oi, if we really follow that troupe then I am the first one to get chopped you know?" Lucy retorted, instantly denying Christine's theory.

" You already lost a leg." 

....

" That said, did she talk about anything else?" Petry asked, getting back on the topic.

" Well, she is emphasizing a lot on not to underestimate the humans and always be careful of them, and also mentioning Lucy almost dying to it," I replied honestly.

" Ignoring anything else. I would also have the same reaction to Bel, to be honest. As someone who is in a high position. I know the dangers of finding and fighting human hideouts. One, we do not have enough intel. Two, we can't afford to fight in such small numbers, yes we all are individually strong, but their weapons would just ignore all our strength. It doesn't matter if you have trained for years or decades, once you got hit it would be a death sentence. Third, so far, all of the bases we always use more than 200 people to fight, now you're suggesting we fight with us 6, that would be quite insane I must say. So, in a sense, Bel is right that we can't fight them by ourselves. I am sure that she is saying this only to protect us and she definitely doesn't want to be separated so fast after reuniting. We already let Bel feel the loneliness once back on Earth, surely you don't want her to feel it again that fast right?" Petry said. I know all of that... but it just felt wrong when people are dying outside while we are staying inside living comfortably without a worry about the world...

" I am not saying that we can't fight them. It is just that it's not the time to do it now." Petry said, comforting me.

" Yeah, you cant expect us to charge into a firestorm without preparing fire resistance gear right? It is kinda the same this time! Just leave it to Petry to think of some mysterious material to fight against them alright?" Christine said this time.

" Plus, don't you still want to take the commanding classes with Lt. Kasren? Maybe you should do that first, that way we could fight more efficiently and reduce the risks right?" Lucy said this time as one of her hand's landed on my head, slowly patting me.

" Go rent a room. Not in this house too." May said as Lucy quickly retracts her hand.

" Ahahaha, young people these days!" Flux said that. Er, I am probably the older one here...

" Yeah, I will apologize to Bel later..." I said before a sound came out.

" No need, I heard it all. Here, Petry, hope this helps." Bel's voice came out as she toss a metal box toward Petry. Which she almost dropped. It seems the box is quite heavy... but what is this bad feeling I am having from the box...

" Inside is that anti-mana stuff. I hope you know what to do next Petry. And Amy." Bel said as she stopped while looking at me.

" Until you could beat me, I won't let you form this party. And that goes to any of you all." Bel said as she went upstairs.

" Well, she made it clear. Good luck Amy! If you need my help just ask! I might be mostly doing concerts, but I am still good with my old role of assassin or thief you know!" Christine said as she got a knife out of nowhere.

" Yeah, me too, Bel made me a sniper before and I still train my range attacks too," May said it.

" So just chill down and take your time. Even though we brothers probably won't be useful, if you need our help just asks!" the human brothers said too. 

" Thank you guys... alright! Let's prepare for it then!" I said out loud.

" Ummm... did anyone notice that Ms. Belgrynd has been holding her head ever since she came back? She also seems to be hiding her hands too..." the princess suddenly said.

" Huh? I didn't notice that." " Me too." " Same." we all said.

" I don't think there's anything that could hurt her though," Lucy said.

" It could be just your imagination." Christine shrugged her off.

" Yeah, let's go back and do our stuff. I have to research this thing that Bel gave me." Petry said as she carefully hold the box.

With that, our impromptu meeting ended, and all of us now had a goal in our minds.

---

Belgrynd's POV

I have laid the foundation now... a map with all the targets, and mobile personal teleportation circles. 

Let their nightmare start tonight.

But just let me sleep for a few hours cause my head is still freaking hurting!