862: Conflict Settled

When we returned to the plaza, both the beastmen and the dragonkin were quiet.

After taking on Frans intimidation and hearing the mysterious explosion, they no longer had the nerve to continue their dispute.

They were still wary of each other, but mostly just stood there looking confused.

The grunts in particular were kind of twiddling their thumbs. They had no clue what they were supposed to do next, and they couldnt just leave without orders from their leaders, w.a.n.gon and Gephe.

Even w.a.n.gon and Gephe no longer seemed to have the will to fight.

Miss and Boss! Are you acquainted with the Black Lightning Princess?

Ah, w.a.n.gon. That is correct.

Nn.

So you are the Black Lightning Princess after all!

!

Woops, Fran was still trying to hide her ident.i.ty! w.a.n.gon must be smarter than I gave him credit for! Fran quickly shook her head in a panic, but it was too late.

No, I dont know any Black Lightning Princess.

w.a.n.gon continued staring at her with squinted eyes. Fran tried to keep denying him, but

Uh, but Miss confirmed it just now!

D-Dont give me that look Sorry.

Whatever.

Fran muttered and slumped her shoulders after giving Mea a stare. She managed to hide her ident.i.ty up until now, but Mea exposed her so easily. That made her a little sad.

Since we have some things to discuss, why dont you all just calm down andOh, I guess you already are.

Not like I have any clue whats going on anymore.

It seems that w.a.n.gon recognized Mea as well as Fran as a superior. He quickly accepted Mea as his boss and obeyed her orders to stop fighting.

Leaving Mea to explain the situation to the beastmen, Fran approached Gephe. I kinda expected her to be viewed as a friend of the beastmen, but Gephe showed no signs of suspicion.

The other dragonkin were apprehensive, but Gephe smiled instead.

Youre pretty awesome!

Nn?

That power! No one has been able to make me s.h.i.+ver in a long time! If you were a dragonkin, Id be in love with you!

Apparently, Frans strength had impressed him. Its as if he was about to ask to be her apprentice at any moment.

He would fall in love with her if she was a dragonkin? But wouldnt that make him a lolicoNo, lets just say its a figure of speech. Please be so.

Stop all fighting.

Fine, but weve lost some of our friends. We cant just back down empty-handed.

Gephe apparently wanted to obey Frans words. In the first place, he knew that Fran could defeat all of them if she had to resort to force.

However, outlaws were all about pride. He couldnt afford to show any signs of weakness when his subordinates were watching.

You mean Gazzol?

You know him?

Nn. But I dont think the Beastmen Union did it. Come here and Ill explain it to you.

Okay.

Now they started explaining the situation to w.a.n.gon and Gephe as the other outlaws looked on. First, Fran took out a certain something.

No wonder the outlaws went into an uproar, since she took out the lower half of Numeraes body. Some of them held their mouths to stop themselves from vomiting.

These guys are surprisingly sensitive. Wait, I guess the people of this city often fought antidemons, so perhaps they werent accustomed to blood and gore.

Y-Youre bringing out some pretty nasty stuff here. Who is this?

The one who shot this arrow.

Hohoh? You mean to tell me it wasnt that dragonkin archer?

Nn. He used this arrow to make the beastmen and dragonkin fight.

w.a.n.gon and Gephe glanced sharply at the arrow that Fran had taken out. They both realized now that someone was working in the shadows to incite a war between them.

So he mimicked Miranleils arrows to pin the blame on us?

Whos this guy? Wheres he from?

His name is Numerae. Thats all I know.

He died right in front of us before we could question him.

Mea and Fran gave a brief account of what happened. Well, its not that complicated. Numerae admitted that he had shot the arrow, but then he got killed by a magical tool induced explosion.

So youre saying that someone somewhere wanted to incite a war between us and the Dragon King Syndicate? And this half of a corpse belongs to one of their men?

Nn.

Its hard to believe, but it doesnt look like youre lying.

Indeed. This is no lie!

I see.

Gephe looked at Mea rather suspiciously, since she was acting pretty self-important while hiding her face. Still, he didnt ask for her ident.i.ty due to the unspoken rules of the city.

Many people coming to the illegal city didnt want to be asked about their past.

I think they took Gazzol too.

Makes sense, but how do you know him in the first place?

Because we fought.

Hah?

Fran recounted the time when Gazzol a.s.saulted her, and she took him down. Also about how he was surprised when she healed his wounds. After that, she explained that he might have been kidnapped because she had left him unattended afterwards.

Fran grimaced during the explanation. Since we left him in a bound state, it might have been our fault that he got taken away without a chance for resistance.

The rage was clearly visible on Gephes face after listening to Frans story. However, his anger was not directed at Fran.

They sent f.u.c.king Gazzol on an a.s.sa.s.sination? What the h.e.l.l were they thinking? They should know hes not the man for that kinda job!

It was anger at their superiors for sending him on a mission he was not suited for.

It seems like you feel responsible, but dont. Were a hundred times more at fault.

Nn.

We knew its mostly Gazzols fault for attacking us in the first place, but we couldnt help but feel a little responsible if hes one of the reasons for this conflict between dragonkin and beastmen.

Anyways, Im not going to be played by those a.s.sholes sneaking around in the shadows, so Ill back off for now. Weve gotta find out whos really behind this, and also grill my higher ups.

Oh, great! Hes willing to back down. My only concern now is that the Dragon King Syndicate might have an internal war, I guess?