Agent of Seraphim-Chapter 48: Finished, Nice and Clean

The beetle fluttered its wing, hovering on Ruby’s hand. She tapped on the beetle, curiously what kind of sound it would make. It didn’t seem to be alive, it didn’t respond to any stimulus it received.

She conjured a torch on her finger and placed it in front of the beetle.

"You’re not afraid to fire?" She asked, without expecting a reply from it.

She then started to raise the temperature of the hand holding it.

"No reaction?"

Now she wanted to surround it with flame. No, let’s put a flame on it.

’That would be too much...grr..." Her spirit beast whispered while growling.

"I don’t think so, its shell was kinda strong." Ruby replied, and started to slow roast the beetle.

This time, the beetle started to move, hovering up into the air and circling around her. Ruby felt the beetle pulling her hair up briefly, and dropped soon after.

"Huh?" Ruby was startled. "Suddebly it has so much reaction?"

’Its summoner reacted to the danger...’ Her spirit beast answered her concern.

"Brand?" She pondered, the beetle seemed to only react when it was truly in danger.

She also thought about herself. Lately, she had been opening her heart up to her spirit beast.

Before this, she never had conversations with the spirit due to her personal grudge on it. But everything changed after the man appeared in the village, completely different than how he behaved two years ago.

’Brand Smith is disguising himself as Brand Essen... You know it... But what if Brand Essen is still alive?’

The spirit best teased her, its tone danced between mischief and provocation.

She had been with the spirit beast since she was a kid, before she arrived in the village for refuge. She knew what the beast implied, and ignored it.

Well. She tried to, but she also couldn’t help but wonder if Brand Essen was still alive.

’Don’t forget... He went missing after the expedition in this ruin... Maybe... You will find traces of him, or even him himself...’

The spirit beast’s word stirred her heart. This had been her concern as well.

It had always been her goal to join the expedition team so that she could search for Brand Essen’s trace. But now that Brand Smith appeared, she started to waver.

Her memories of Brand Essen were fading, and the mysterious guy with his face had appeared. Although they behaved completely differently.

She somehow found that interacting with him was enjoyable. She thought she would never feel so again, after the incident two years ago.

’Ahh... He was done over there... He is ruthless... Hahaha!’ The spirit beast was laughing.

She couldn’t help but wonder what had happened over there that made the spirit beast sound so satisfied. But she wouldn’t want to know. She knew the spirit beast was twisted in mind and decided to not ask about it.

Suddenly, a bright light shone over the path ahead of her, as if it were the day. It was so bright that the entire surrounding had lightened up.

—BANG

A loud bang then echoed from the direction. She panicked, wondering what had happened in front of her, and if he was in danger.

’He is coming.’ Her concern was soon dismissed, as her spirit beast reassured her.

She then saw Brand return with a weird, rectangular-shaped metal object in his hand. His eyes were glued to it.

***

"How was it?" The girl in front of him asked.

Brand raised his head and found Ruby staring at him, curious about the object he was looking at.

"How’re the two traitors?" She asked. Her complexion had gotten better since he last saw her, before he headed to clean the two outsiders.

"I have finished them, nice and clean. They also already reveal everything we should know." Brand replied to her while continuing to check on the footage recorded in the outsider’s device.

"Do you want to see together?" He asked Ruby, whose eyes never left the device he was holding.

When Ruby looked at it closely, her eyes widened, as if this was the first time she had seen something like this.

A device that could play recorded scenes. To Ruby, it seemed like magic cast on some piece of metal.

She tilted her head as she heard a voice coming out from it, too.

She got closer and closer to Brand.

"Your heartbeat is fast.. What happened back there?" Ruby asked him while putting her hand on his chest.

Brand didn’t avoid it, but his heart fluttered, although he couldn’t outright tell her about it.

’You’re getting too close!’

"Tsk. She’s even denser than you..." Seraphine muttered, shaking her head as she watched the two of them. "Honestly, it’d be easier if you just flirt already. This is painful to watch."

He shot Seraphine a sharp glare, silently telling her to shut it.

Ruby blinked at him, worry softening her expression. "Your eyes look so tense... Was it really that bad back there?"

"No... It’s nothing serious... but I got the answers here." He showed Ruby the footage, hoping to shift the topic of conversation.

Ruby was very focused when watching the footage. She seemed to have a lot in mind, but she kept quiet until she finished watching the footage.

"Was what was shown here really what happened?" She asked, even though she had been in the battle earlier and had observed everything that happened.

She looks to be more concerned about the footage in which she was not in the scenes.

"This is the first time I saw this kind of metal, which looks like it can keep memories of people..." Ruby expressed her thoughts to him.

"There are no traces of magic at all..." Ruby seemed to be still skeptical about the footage, but she had started to accept them as reality.

"If what has been showing here is real, the village might be in danger!" Ruby was emotional when she came to her realisation.

"Things might still remain as they were for now, as the demon rift cut off any communication with the village outside." Brand tried to explain to Ruby without using complicated terms.

"The higher-ups of the outsiders had not seen the footage yet."

"But we need to quickly complete the raid and inform others when we get out." Brand reassured Ruby, but she still looked worried.

’The one thing I worried about now is the old man in the village, who muttered ’traitor’ when he saw me.’

’Things are still not added up yet. Why has Essen been called a traitor from their mouth?’

’Maybe the outsiders and the old man are on the same side?’

’If they are on the same side... How about Brand Essen?’

Things were becoming increasingly complicated for Brand, but he would unravel them slowly.

Karl and the others would be reaching Brand’s position soon. He planned to head to Ed’s team together after reuniting with them.

He had been worrying the expedition team since earlier, as the Map showed that they had begun venturing into the demon gate.