Searching for Clues About Their Hometown, Night Raid's Base

However, Yorii Tsugikuni's gaze only lingered briefly before moving away. He had no interest in Night Raid.

Amid the crowd.

Leone, Akame, and Chelsea were hiding in an extremely concealed spot.

They could withdraw from here at any time.

"What is it?"

Seeing Leone stop, Chelsea looked at her curiously.

Now that Aria had been killed, there was no reason for them to remain.

"That guy seemed to have noticed us just now."

Leone scratched her head, sounding uncertain.

Through a gap in the crowd, she had seen Yorii Tsugikuni looking in their direction.

Although Yorii Tsugikuni had only glanced at them, she felt that their location had already been exposed.

"At this distance, that should be impossible."

"But to be safe, let's withdraw first."

Chelsea stood on tiptoe and looked at Yorii Tsugikuni's retreating figure, which had already become a tiny dot. She shook her head.

At such a distance, the chances of being discovered were very low.

The three of them soon vanished from beside the execution grounds.

At noon.

On a street.

"We've finally investigated every place."

"So being an officer is this exhausting too."

Ieyasu flopped down onto the grass and stuck out his tongue, copying Little Bi beside him.

At first, he had thought that joining the Security Force would mean living in comfort.

But he had never expected the Security Force to be so exhausting.

Of course, he did not regret it. Compared to the other outsiders doing grueling labor, their work in the Security Force was already extremely respectable.

At the very least, when they returned to their hometown in the future, they could boast about it to everyone there.

"Of course it's exhausting."

"Otherwise, who would catch all the bad guys?"

Sayo flipped through the information they had gathered.

After several days of work, they had not only been screening people who might commit crimes, but also determining the general area where that perverted serial killer had been active.

Looking at Ieyasu sitting on the ground, Sayo merely shook her head.

Although Ieyasu usually complained a lot, he never let them down when it mattered.

Whenever they went on missions, he was always the first to charge forward.

He said the most discouraging things while doing the most reckless things. That perfectly described his style.

"So, do we have any leads now?"

Yorii Tsugikuni took a sip of water. Standing on higher ground, he formed a map in his mind from the areas where they had determined the decapitating maniac had been active over the past few days.

"There are many suspects."

"Further screening will take time, but to reduce the number of victims, we may need to patrol every day from now on."

Sayo looked at the thick stack of screened information in her hands.

She could not help feeling a headache coming on.

But no matter what, they had to catch that decapitating maniac.

So no matter how hard it was, she would keep tracking him.

"Oh, right. There's somewhere else we need to go today."

"Consider this a personal favor I'm asking of you. Once we're done, I'll treat everyone to a feast."

After organizing all the information, Sayo looked at the others resting nearby.

"No problem."

"I suddenly feel full of energy again."

Hearing Sayo's words, Ieyasu, who had been lying weakly on the grass, sprang up from the ground like a spring.

He thumped his chest, looking completely energized, his eyes practically shining.

"Ieyasu, you really are such a foodie."

"The moment you hear about a feast, you look like you're about to drool all over the ground."

Seeing her companion's appearance, Sayo covered her mouth and laughed.

"Then let's go."

Yorii Tsugikuni did not ask any questions.

Since joining the Security Force, Sayo had helped them a great deal.

Now that Sayo needed help, he naturally had no objection.

At dusk.

On the outskirts of the Imperial Capital.

On the roof of a house.

"Master, give me some more tiles."

Tatsumi stood on the roof with his sleeves rolled up, looking down at Yorii Tsugikuni, who was responsible for loading tiles for them.

After working all afternoon, they were finally about to finish repairing the leaking parts of the orphanage roof.

"Mm."

There was a rare smear of dust on Yorii Tsugikuni's face.

He quickly loaded the tiles Tatsumi wanted into the basket.

"Master, don't move."

"I'll wipe it off for you."

Sayo found a towel, wrung it dry, and began wiping the dust from Yorii Tsugikuni's face.

After knowing Yorii Tsugikuni for so long, this was the first time Sayo had seen him look so disheveled.

"Hahaha... Yorii, your face was so black just now."

Sayo approached from afar with Little Bi. From a long distance away, she had already noticed the black dust on Yorii Tsugikuni's face.

Unlike the usually spotless Yorii Tsugikuni, this version of him felt a little more approachable to her.

Chapter 41: Searching for Clues About Their Hometown, Night Raid's Base

And so Sayo burst into loud laughter.

Just how loud was it? Loud enough that even Little Bi seemed to find its owner a little embarrassing.

"Everyone, you've worked hard."

"I just bought a lot of food. Please help yourselves."

After the roof tiles and other repairs had been completed, the orphanage's renovation work had basically reached its final stage.

Sayo was rarely dressed in combat gear. She wore casual clothes instead, and the change in attire gave the warrior-like girl a hint of gentleness.

Standing before a large pile of food, Sayo called Yorii Tsugikuni and the others over to eat.

As a key member of the Security Force, Sayo earned quite a substantial salary, but she had few places to spend it.

That was why she often liked bringing food to visit the children at these orphanages.

"Then we won't hold back."

"When it comes to food, I have absolutely no resistance."

Ieyasu moved quickly. Due to the famine, there had been very few times in the village when he had been able to eat his fill.

That childhood habit made him naturally wolf down food whenever he ate.

Yorii Tsugikuni, as usual, took a rice ball and stood to one side, chewing slowly. He ate at an unhurried pace, giving off an elegant impression.

It made an extremely stark contrast with Ieyasu beside him.

"Even the way Master eats is so, so, so handsome."

Sayo watched quietly from the side, looking every bit like an adoring fangirl.

Sayo, meanwhile, rapidly stuffed food into her mouth. Because she often carried out missions, eating was frequently little more than shoveling food down for her.

The faint gentleness she had just displayed completely vanished the moment she started eating.

As for Tatsumi, he was playing with a group of orphanage children.

Judging from his somewhat forced smile, he was only putting on an act.

After eating and drinking their fill, Sayo's team sat beside the grass in the orphanage to rest.

"Tomorrow is our day off."

"Does everyone have plans?"

Sayo leaned against Little Bi. Having grown a size larger, Little Bi had become a perfect cushion.

"A day off means sleeping, of course."

"After being busy for so long, I've decided to sleep for a whole day and night."

Ieyasu's eyes lit up. Sitting back-to-back with Tatsumi, he did not want to go anywhere right now.

"I'll probably go to a bookstore."

Yorii Tsugikuni thought for a moment. He wanted to continue searching for news about his hometown.

"What about you, Sister Sayo?"

Sayo did not know where to go. Back in the countryside, they had never had days off.

So to her, a day off felt rather novel.

She looked at Sayo, who was leaning against Little Bi.

"I'll probably just wander around."

"And continue tracking that guy."

Sayo had always been a workaholic.

To her, bad guys were like stimulants that made her extremely excited.

So after joining the Security Force, she spent all her days off hunting criminals.

"Then I'll go with you, Sister Sayo."

"Tatsumi, do you want to come too?"

Although Sayo really wanted to browse the bookstore with Yorii Tsugikuni, she thought it over and suppressed her impulse to forget her friends for a pretty face.

She and Sayo were good friends now.

"Sure. I don't have anywhere in particular that I want to go anyway."

Tatsumi nodded. His purpose in coming to the Imperial Capital was to make a name for himself.

So compared to sleeping, Tatsumi would rather follow Sayo and catch bad guys.