The concept of a race of beings called the 'Demons' does not exist to the current people of Aidos, so the restrictions should apply, just like it did when I tried telling Dad that the invaders are actually the 'Demon' race.
But for some reason, when I accidentally spoke about the demons, Richard heard my words loud and clear and I received no repercussions for breaking a restriction.'
That was the reason she had become suspicious of her brother and had been watching him closely. Arnold was just an extra target because he was very close to her brother, however, now she was 80% sure that Arnold was definitely in on something with Richard, something that made them aware of the 'Demon' race, a race that people didn't even know existed.
There were restrictions on the seven heroes that prevented them from speaking important details concerning the incoming invasion by the demons as it was the 'justification' for the flawed reincarnation magic that messed with the law of reincarnation, with one of the said details, being the identity of the invaders.
However, if the person being spoken to already knew about them, then there were no restrictions preventing the seven heroes from speaking about them.
The crest in Laurene's blue eyes lit up with a golden light as she sorted through her thoughts. She wanted to ask Arnold one more question but decided against it for now.
'I can't make him any warier, I should instead be making him drop his guard.
So, the right decision, for now, is to act like I didn't notice his slip up.'
"Hey, Arnold."
"Yes, princess."
"Have you ever heard of a mountain chicken?"
"Huh?"
Arnold could only stare at Laurene dumbfoundedly as he had definitely never expected that question at all.
Seeing his expression, Laurene snickered to herself as she stood up and walked the shelf in the room.
"What do you think It looks like?"
Arnold replied with a strange expression on his face after considering it for a few seconds.
"Well, a really big chicken, I suppose?"
Laurene nodded upon hearing his reply as she finally found the book she was looking for and opened it.
"You'd think it'd be a really big chicken, but It's actually not. Here, look."
She flipped to a particular page and showed the picture on it to Arnold, who only stared at it with a strange expression before finally commenting.
"Isn't that a frog?"
"I know right!"
Like so, Laurene used such a pointless conversation to distract Arnold from his thoughts and prevent him from realising his slight slip-up.
◇ ◇ ◇
Boss Room
Mansion of the Damned, 30th Basement Floor
City State of Magic, Kasteblum
January 20th
Year 1052
"If you were a bull and I had a red cloth, then I would be able to fulfil one of my long-time wishes right now."
Those were Evan's words as he stared at the five-metre-tall horned frost boar that was growling at him with reddened eyes.
It looked just like a normal boar would at the base, just that its body was significantly larger and it had two curved horns that looked just like elephant tusks protruding from its lower jaws.
Its skin was a shade of light brown that was infinitely close to white and it possessed partial dark brown stripes on its sides.
With each breath it took, Evan could see the frosty air pouring out of its nostrils and the frost boar's blood-red eyes made it look all the more menacing.
'It looks like it weighs a ton, just how heavy is this thing?'
Evan did not know that he had already answered his question before he asked it. The Frost Boar in front of him really did weigh a ton, a little bit over that to be exact.
That was more than a thousand kilograms.
With a body like that, Evan would only be begging for death if he got hit by any of its charges. Not only because of its weight but because the sheer strength of this frost boar was enough for it to run through about a hundred two or three-storey buildings and turn them all to rubble with relative ease.
'If it used its unique skill, things would only get worse...'
Owing to its title as Frost Boar King, this frost boar possessed a unique skill that could allow it to freeze a small town into a block of ice hundreds of metres tall if it so wished to.
"Guys."
"What?" "?" [Master?] [?] [Yes?]
Eliza, Pride, Kayla, Amy, and Kuro who had assumed battle-ready positions all turned to him in response to his call.
"Under no circumstance, can we let this monster use its unique skill. It would LITERALLY, become an Ice Age."
The expressions of the spirits/human/demon who heard his words turned solemn, however, they could not ask any questions as the frost boar king roared loudly as it stomped its hooves on the ground, making the earth underneath its feet tremble.
The next moment, it kicked off the ground and charged forward with speed unexpected by its enormous body, signifying the start of the group's last boss battle in this dungeon.
Now then, a quick rundown of the events of the past ten days is in order to explain just how Evan and co ended up here.
◇ ◇ ◇
After resting up with David Dyer's group, Evan, Eliza and Pride continued their monster hunting on the nineteenth floor for a few more hours, before deciding to go to the boss room with David's party following them.
The boss monster was a superior variant of rift mages, that had dozens of other rift mages of almost all elemental types as servants.
Since they already knew this beforehand, Evan chose to opt for the simple but effective strategy he and other players used in the game.
And that was to kill the rift mages faster than they could summon anything.
The moment they entered the boss room, Evan shot forward and activated a full-powered Vortex, firing the roaring mass of magic power toward the rift mages without hesitation.
However, these rift mages were far stronger and faster than those on the other floors, with 70% of them either instantly teleporting out of the range of the vortex or activating their elemental shields just in time for the explosion to hit.