Chapter 2416: () A Chance Encounter with a Mysterious Merchant
The next day, it was already late morning.
At a spot far from the graveyard that was perfect for camping, Annie and the druid girl Doric had slept comfortably, eaten breakfast, and cheerfully finished packing their things. Only then did Edgin, Holga, and Simon—wearing three pairs of dark circles, looking utterly exhausted, and reeking from head to toe—stagger back to the makeshift camp as if they'd been completely drained, or were walking corpses.
And then...
Before the gleeful little Annie or the slightly sympathetic Doric could ask how they were doing, the three men collapsed and fell asleep. They slept until the afternoon, and only woke near dusk. Then, scowling, they set off again.
Annie could imagine what the three of them had gone through the night before, so she didn't ask.
Doric was much the same.
Since she'd fled in the middle of the job and left the other three with even more work, she was sensible enough not to ask about it. She certainly didn't try to pry, either. She just occasionally shot the three of them a playful look full of sympathy and amusement.
In any case!
The whole affair became an unspoken "taboo" among the five of them. For the sake of team harmony, Annie and Doric didn't ask for two whole days how the three men had dealt with the "corpses strewn everywhere." They simply rode steadily toward their next destination alongside their companions.
They already had a rough idea where the "Helm of Disjunction" was. Now they just needed to find the last person who'd been in contact with it—assuming that person was still alive.
As it turned out, the person was indeed still alive—and doing very well!
Apparently, he was a Thayan with