After a stretch of silence, Saroye suddenly spoke with a troubled expression. "In my opinion, things may not be that simple."
"Not that simple? You mean there's more to it?" Felia asked in confusion.
"That's right. I didn't dare mention it while the monster was around, but that thing actually had another mastermind behind it." Saroye's face was pale, as though merely mentioning that being frightened her.
"Another mastermind? How did you know?" Felia was greatly shocked. If that was true, then the situation might be even more complicated.
"Yes. That mastermind was named 'Bajieli.' I once fought it—or rather, it could hardly be called a fight. I was merely toyed with in its palm. Black Cat should remember it even more clearly, since what it wanted to exploit was Black Cat's Awakening. It even created an indestructible iron cage to trap Black Cat." Saroye turned to Black Cat as she spoke.
"Me? I was captured by that monster. I never saw any Bajieli," Black Cat said, puzzled.
"Don't you remember anything from before the time reversal? No... thinking about it carefully, perhaps it was because I have an Undying body that I was able to retain those memories..." Saroye recalled how her nerves had repeatedly been burned apart and then healed automatically, and came up with a reasonable explanation for that obvious loophole.
"That Bajieli mastermind has the ability to manipulate time and space?" Yao asked in astonishment.
"That wouldn't be strange. Isn't the place we're in right now an abnormal space? An alternate dimension on this scale doesn't seem like something a monster of that level could create. And if that's the case, the sudden appearance of tens of thousands of monsters can be explained as well..." Felia said.
"You mean Bajieli is Grade S? That makes sense.