Gwen tried to hide behind the street urchins, keeping Josh from noticing how bedraggled she looked.
But Josh still noticed. He sniffed, frowned, stepped forward, and grabbed Gwen's clothes.
Gwen hurriedly pulled the hem from his grasp, lowered her head, and took a step back, trying her best to hide that section of cloak behind her.
Josh looked down at his hand. A streak of red, mixed with mud, had stained it.
"Did you go outside?"
He glared at Gwen but said nothing more. Time was of the essence, and the intelligence Gwen had brought was extremely important.
"Yes, Head Priest. I just saw that many monsters were mixed in among the Mother Goddess believers outside!"
Gwen spoke urgently.
"Monsters? What kind of monsters?"
Josh's fingers trembled. No matter what, he was only an ordinary person and knew very little about the world of Transcendence. All he could do now was force himself to face it.
Damn it. He had only wanted to become a merchant back then. How had he ended up leading a bunch of cultists against monsters?
"They were like Tommy... monsters stitched together from many people!" Gwen started to say, then suddenly remembered that Josh had not been present when the prince confronted Mira, so she hastily changed her wording.
"S-stitched together!?"
Josh swallowed hard. He felt completely awful, his mind filled with all sorts of chaotic imaginings. But then he suddenly frowned. "Would stitching more limbs onto a person make them stronger in battle?"
Though he had intended to become a merchant, he was still from Castel. After attending quite a few lessons, he had developed something of an engineer's mindset.
For instance, upon hearing about monsters, his first thought was not fear, but whether such mutations were practical or not.
Gwen took a deep