Episode 169: A sloppy man's sloppy closure (Third Party Perspective)

"Kyaa!!"

A woman's scream can be heard.

"Haaa!!"

Shindou rushes to the location of the voice and crushes the monster with a single blow. The enemy is a Macho Merman. It's a B-rank monster. It's not an enemy of Shindou, an A-rank explorer.

"Tch. At this rate ..."

However, due to the large number of enemies that invaded the city, it was expected that unfortunate encounters between ordinary people and monsters would occur one after another, at this rate, it is expected that rescue will not arrive in time and many people will be killed. While gritting his teeth at such a future, Shindou searches for and destroys monsters with his detection skills.

"W, who is that!!"

"Help me!!"

But such a time came sooner than he thought.

In an area where there are no other explorers who are rescuing them, there were calls for help from different locations.

"Damnit!!"

The first is the voice of a young woman, the second is the voice of a middle-aged man.

Shindou is faced by the ultimate choice.

However, there is no time for hesitation.

Shindou immediately selects the first person and heads for rescue. In the nick of time, he succeeds in rescuing the girl who is the owner of the voice. The reason he chose her was because he couldn't let a young girl die who probably wasn't even an adult. Of course, it's not that he thinks it's okay for an adult man to disappear, but Shindou prioritized that point.

After guiding the girl to safety, he returns to where the man's screams were heard.

A man's corpse was supposed to be lying there. But there was nothing there. He searched around the vicinity, but he couldn't find a corpse or even a blood stain. And of course, not even a monster.

"Where did he go? No way ... was he eaten ...?"

He's never heard of monsters eating humans, but he doesn't know anything about monsters either. Shindou thought that it would not be surprising if such a thing happened.

"S, someone help me!!"

There's no time to think about such questions. Immediately head to where the scream came from and rescue them ... or it was supposed to be.

However, the monster disappeared before he could reach it, and only the woman was left unharmed.

"Are you okay!?"

"E, eh, yes. Did you help me?"

When Shindou speaks to the woman, the woman is dumbfounded and asks him.

"No, I also headed this way, but by the time I got here, the monster was already gone, and you were the only one here."

"I, is that so ..."

Shindou shakes his head after honestly answering that he wasn't the one who helped her.

Shindou is a sloppy man, but he's a man who doesn't lie about things like this.

Then, who helped her?

Such feelings welled up in the two of them.

"So, I'm going to ask you something, but do you have any idea why you were saved?"

"Well, nothing in particular ... just."

The woman shakes her head when Shindou asked her to clear up his doubts, then pauses for a moment.

"Just?"

"Just before I was about to be attacked, before I closed my eyes, I felt that some kind of black shadow was moving."

When Shindou asks back, the woman answers while remembering the scene at that time.

"A black shadow ... is it."

"Yes. It was only for a moment, so I'm not sure. Sorry for being vague."

Rubbing his chin with his hand, he ponders the answer, he suggests that there is a possibility that the woman who was in serious danger may have been mistaken.

He doesn't know anything about their identity from that alone, but it seems certain that someone helped the woman, whether it was mistaken or not.

Shindou thinks such.

"No, it's not out of the question. Thank you for your cooperation. Monsters have been exterminated over there, so please head in that direction."

"I understand."

Shindou politely greets and guides her. The woman stands up and runs in the direction Shindou points out to her, where there are no monsters.

Shindou, who sees the woman off, resumes the rescue.

"D, don't come here!!"

"N, nooo!?"

"S, stop it!!"

Even after that, he heard screams that were helped by someone before him every time he headed for rescue.

Just in case, when he asked what they saw, they all said they saw a 'black shadow'. There was a possibility that he wouldn't be able to make it in time, so they were certainly saved, but the mystery of the unidentified black shadow that helped people who were about to fall victim remained.

Since there were no more clues, he continued to rescue the victims in the direction of Spa Emotional, after finally confirming that there are no monsters or humans who failed to escape within detection range, he goes straight to the facility.

"I understand that you are a member of the Emergency Response Department, but today we are renting out to a very important customer. I'm very sorry, but please go back."

"Is that so!?"

However, even though Shindou arrived at Spa Emotional, he is turned away at the door because he can't even enter the facility.

Shindou is a sloppy man as usual.