"Why be so polite!"
Flandre followed Tallulah, walking at the very back of the crowd.
"If it weren't for you this time, given the weapon configuration inside, we would have suffered heavy losses even if we took this place."
It can be said that you saved many of us.
This word of thanks is necessary."
Tallulah said very seriously.
"So we're withdrawing now, but what about Buldrokkas'tee's side?"
Flandre asked as she walked.
"No need to worry about that. The intelligence officer has already sent word of the successful rescue. They will also withdraw from the battle quickly and return to the home base."
Although she didn't see how Tallulah and the others transmitted intelligence, since the other party said so, they must have corresponding channels.
In any case, she didn't plan on staying with the Reunion Movement permanently, so there was naturally no need to keep questioning.
As long as she was sure that everyone on the Reunion Movement side had safely withdrawn from the battle, it was fine.
The next day, the Ursus people, who had not received any news from the factory, arrived, but all they saw was an empty factory and a pile of corpses burned beyond recognition.
The officer who came was extremely furious.
His own men had pinned down Buldrokkas'tee, yet this place, which should have been the safest, had met with disaster.
"Don't be so quick to anger, sir... I think our opponent might hold more than just the Buldrokkas'tee trump card."
A man beside him, appearing to be a staff officer, came to the side of the pile of nearly incinerated corpses after carefully inspecting everything.
"Sir, don't you think it's strange?
This room is far too clean."
He spoke while crouching down to rummage through the indistinguishable corpses.
"Hmm, what do you mean?"
A flash of killing intent appeared in the officer's eyes.
"Of course, I'm not saying there was a traitor in the Reconnaissance Squad. After all, with over fifty people in the squad, if they were all traitors, they couldn't have all died here.
And if there were too few traitors, they couldn't have ended the battle as cleanly as they did in this factory.
It's as if everyone didn't resist, or died before they even had time to resist.
Bloodstains can be found in many places in the room, but there are no marks around them resulting from a battle, indicating they didn't even have time to act in resistance before they died.
These people belonged to different Reconnaissance Squads. It would have been difficult for our opponent to plant traitors among them, let alone plant enough traitors in every squad to kill the others.
Furthermore, these people died in different locations, meaning they weren't ambushed while gathered together.
I recorded all the places with bloodstains, and I can confirm that they discovered an enemy attack and were in a combat state.
Then the enemy killed them directly before they even had time to fight back... It's too efficient, simply terrifying."
The staff officer's eyes finally lit up.
"Found it!"
He pushed aside a corpse that hadn't been completely burned and shouted in surprise at the empty chest.
"The heart is gone... and the chest was ripped open from the front to pull the heart out.
Just what kind of monster could do such a thing?"
The staff officer muttered to himself while poking the corpse with a wooden stick.
Considering that this staff officer did have some real skill, the officer suppressed his anger and waited for the staff officer to finish inspecting everywhere.
Finally, he delivered a report to the officer.
After reading the report, the officer's expression became even more furious. He looked at the staff officer.
"You mean to say there's a mysterious expert among our opponents who can move at high speeds of at least a hundred meters per second, can fly, and cleared the entire factory within ten minutes, ripping the hearts out of all our people from the front?"
The staff officer nodded, then adjusted his glasses.
"Other than that, I can't find any other possibility.
Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however absurd it may seem, must be the truth.
Sir, I mean no offense, but this is the conclusion I've drawn from all the intelligence collected in the factory."
"Then tell me, who is the enemy? A Mindflayer?"
The officer said helplessly; he also knew his staff officer was telling the truth.
But he couldn't submit this report, which looked extremely absurd.
"According to my knowledge, there is indeed a branch in the Sarkaz called the Mind-Whipping Demons, but they don't eat hearts." The staff officer's words almost made his blood pressure spike again.
In the end, he didn't submit the report.
After all, if he submitted this thing, the higher-ups would likely think he'd gone mad and transfer him somewhere to retire.
So he reported that there was a traitor within who used poison, causing the personnel stationed there to die of poisoning, and they were currently tracking the traitor.
However, the opponent was very cunning and burned the others to ashes, so it was temporarily impossible to know who the traitor was.
Although he would still be punished, because there was a "traitor," it could seem excusable. With a little maneuvering, he could maintain his current position.
Even if it cost some money, as long as he kept his position, the money would always find its way back into his pockets.
Flandre and Tallulah didn't know that because Flandre killed so quickly, the enemy officer couldn't report the absurd scene to his superiors and chose to file a false report, which successfully kept her out of the higher-ups' sight.
By the time they returned to the camp, it was already noon on the third day.
Buldrokkas'tee, who had returned first, had told the home base the good news of Tallulah's successful rescue of everyone, so everyone was looking forward to their return.
Seeing the people returning whole and intact, cheers erupted one after another in the home base.
Upon learning that the great hero who saved so many people was actually that Vampire girl they had been afraid of two days ago, many people showed surprised expressions.
Alina looked at Flandre, who was walking at the back of the crowd and preparing to sneak back to her room, and walked over quickly to give her a hug.
"Little Flandre, you're the great hero this time. Everyone is looking forward to seeing you, you can't run away now!" Alina picked Flandre up and walked into the crowd.
Looking at the curious, grateful, and surprised... all sorts of gazes directed at her, Flandre showed a slight smile.
Feeling the cheers from everyone around her, she kept nodding her head in response.
This was different from her sister's praise, but it also made her feel very happy, and this feeling was actually quite nice!
Flandre smiled while giving herself a mental thumbs-up.
Because she had saved many people, the gazes everyone cast at Flandre were full of goodwill.