In the somewhat stiff atmosphere, under "Dr. Araide's" control, the vehicle carefully made its way toward Fuyudo Villa.
Two hours later... the minibus smoothly pulled up in front of a mountain villa.
Vermouth: "?"
...They were here already?
Was this for real? Could she be dreaming? Perhaps if she reached out and pinched her thigh now, she would open her eyes amid a sharp pain and find herself still in that wooden inn filled with hazards?
Action was better than doubt. Vermouth quietly pinched herself...
Then she became even more confused.
—She wasn't dreaming. What lay before her was undeniably real.
...So they had really arrived this smoothly?
"I thought this trip would be like when Bourbon took Jiang Xia back and forth—having to endure eighty-one trials before reaching the destination. The journey would be full of accidents, random corpses, and flat tires..."
Yet none of that had happened. They were like the most ordinary group of tourists, arriving at the place they wanted to go without a hitch.
After a brief daze, as she got out of the vehicle with the others and looked at the three policemen carrying luggage, Vermouth seemed to understand something.
"Could it be because these three officers all have official jobs and can't adjust their schedules as flexibly as Bourbon? Uzo was worried that before the main course was even served, the three officers' vacation days would be used up on all sorts of little setups, so he only arranged two appetizers to spice up the journey?"
Though she had barely found an explanation for this unusual smoothness, Vermouth did not relax. Instead, she became even more vigilant.
—Countless experiences, along with her understanding of Uzo, told her that arriving here did not mean it was over. On the contrary, it felt more like