Hobart, who had spotted Aputon in advance and put on his mask, said, "I understand.
"Don't panic. You sensed danger; perhaps they'll monitor you within the next six hours.
"This is Backlund. At the very least, they won't launch an attack until the latter half of the night. We have plenty of time."
Hobart's calmness made Aputon let out a long breath.
Hobart added, "Go back first. Once the fighting breaks out tonight, if the enemy is roughly as we expected—one Sequence 6, two Sequence 7s, and a Sequence 8—you need to use the Sealed Artifact to hold at least one Sequence 7 down for half a minute."
Aputon nodded repeatedly and hurried away.
Hobart said to Bishop Utravsky, "Priest, the horn of battle has sounded. Please prepare yourself."
Utravsky nodded slowly, then began confessing to the Saint Emblem of Life that he was about to use force to solve a problem again.
Hobart left the church wearing his mask. Only after getting into a rental carriage did he take it off.
After returning home, he left Christine a note: Tonight is hunting time.
This was Hobart's trump card. Although Christine had not agreed to help, he would certainly come to watch the battle. If matters completely spiraled out of control, Hobart could ask Christine to save his life.
Next, he went to the North District, picked up Daly directly from Blackthorn Security Company, and collected 2-355.
Only then did he go to pick up Xue and Fors.
Hobart and Daly took a rental carriage to the address Xue had left behind. Hobart knocked on the door for quite a while before an old woman opened it. "Young man, who are you looking for?"
Hobart froze. He did not remember the original work mentioning that Xue and Fors had hired