Walfred might not come back.

Lauren’s eyes went wide at the sudden words. Her heart pounded as a terrible premonition crept through her body. Then.

"What do you mean by that?"

Jonah stepped forward.

He pressed Miles, who had been hanging his head with a dark expression the entire time.

"What do you mean Hunter Walfred won’t be coming back?"

"It’s..."

Miles bit his lip hard.

After a moment, words crushed under the weight of guilt squeezed through his tightly sealed lips.

"It’s because right before Hunter Walfred came down underground, I collapsed the exit."

"...Excuse me?"

Jonah’s eyes widened.

It was the first time he’d heard this. Meanwhile, seeing the look on Jonah’s face, Miles blurted out in a panic.

"I, I had no choice!"

"What do you..."

"The Drake was relentlessly targeting Hunter Walfred! If we’d let that man into the underground, just imagine what would’ve happened...!"

He explained the situation at the time, emphasizing that his decision had been the best possible one.

Along with the worst-case assumption that if they had let Walfred underground, everyone might have been wiped out.

"That’s why I said he won’t come."

Driving the point home from what he’d said earlier.

Miles wore a bitter expression.

"I know I chose the best option to save everyone, but from Hunter Walfred’s perspective, we abandoned him."

Perhaps it was because he’d finally come clean about the truth he’d been hiding?

His expression eased slightly.

Jonah’s face, on the other hand, hardened like stone.

"..."

Miles wasn’t lying.

Jonah had seen it with his own eyes, how the Drake had relentlessly targeted Walfred. So he could understand why Miles believed it was the best course of action.

’But the problem is...’

He’d said all this right in front of Lauren. Even if it was a decision made for everyone’s sake, it could sound very different to her ears.

And.

Jonah’s concern hit the mark.

"Wh... what did you just say...?"

A thin, trembling voice.

Lauren stared at Miles with an expression of utter shock, half dazed.

"You blocked him from coming underground? Why? Why, why? Why would you do that?"

"Like I just explained..."

"Walfred fought to protect the people here! He was buying time for all of you to escape! How could you do that to him?!"

Lauren’s voice grew louder and louder.

Overwhelmed by her intensity, Miles flinched for a moment. But only for a moment. His face twisted in anger and he shouted back.

"I’ve been explaining this the whole time! The Bone Drake was fixated on Hunter Walfred to an abnormal degree!"

His tone was completely different from when he had been explaining the situation to Jonah. Miles glared at Lauren with cold eyes and continued.

"If we’d let Walfred underground, that monster definitely would’ve followed him in! And then it would’ve been over. Every single one of us would’ve died!"

Miles’s expression contorted.

"I had to make a choice. Sacrifice one to save everyone, or die together. If you’d been in the same situation, I’m sure you would’ve made the exact same call, Chief."

Miles looked at Jonah.

Jonah said nothing, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. Lauren, meanwhile, still looked completely unconvinced by Miles’s argument.

’...The Drake was only targeting Walfred?’

That’s a lie. There’s no way.

Lauren didn’t believe it. Instead, a far more plausible theory circled through her mind.

To these people, Walfred was an outsider.

Unlike the comrades they’d spent ages working alongside, he was nothing more than a stranger they’d met for the first time today.

’So that’s what happened...’

They must have told Walfred to draw the Drake’s attention, then ran away without him.

Lauren fired back immediately.

"The only reason the Bone Drake targeted Walfred was because he deliberately drew its attention! So the rest of you could escape!"

"No, that’s just hindsight. The Bone Drake really was only targeting Hunter Walfred!"

"How does that make any sense? Then explain why he was the only target."

"Th-that’s..."

Miles was at a loss for words.

"...I don’t know the reason."

"Are you even hearing yourself right now?!"

Just as I thought.

These people used Walfred as bait.

And there was one more thing.

There was another reason Miles’s story didn’t ring true. While he was still stumbling over his words, Lauren brought it up.

"Besides, if this monster called a Bone Drake was so powerful that everyone had to run, how did Walfred manage to take it down by himself?"

"That’s what we’d like to know! A D-rank hunter soloing an A-rank Elite? That’s something that should be absolutely impossible!"

The two were locked in a heated standoff.

Just as the argument was reaching a boiling point.

"Enough!"

Jonah cut into their exchange.

"This conversation ends here."

"Chief! But..."

"Lauren."

Leaving the red-faced Miles behind.

Jonah turned his gaze to Lauren.

"You may not understand this yet, being Level 1, but the Bone Drake is a formidable enemy that everyone here combined couldn’t defeat."

"And as Hunter Miles said, we had no chance of winning at the time. So choosing the best option to save everyone was the right call."

"..."

Jonah spoke as if defending Miles.

Then he looked at Lauren again.

"On this matter, I’ll personally apologize to Hunter Walfred when he returns and clear up the misunderstanding. If we explain the situation at the time, I’m sure he’ll understand..."

"Understand?"

Lauren raised her head.

Her eyes scattered a cold light. She stared straight at Jonah and shot back.

"You think Walfred will understand?"

"I do. Hunter Walfred is a rational man with a clear sense of judgment."

"Ha..."

Lauren let out a hollow laugh.

"So having clear judgment means understanding the people who used you as bait and threw you away?"

"That’s not what I..."

Jonah started to respond but trailed off with a deep sigh, shaking his head.

"...Let’s all cool our heads for now. We can talk again after some rest."

With those final words.

Jonah left with Miles.

Left alone, Lauren watched their retreating backs in silence. Then she overheard the conversations of the people who had been watching the whole thing.

"Honestly, what else could he have done?"

"Right. Miles made the right call."

"The guy just had bad luck. I mean, who asked him to get targeted by a monster like that?"

Crunch!

Lauren bit down hard on her lip.

They were only alive and safe because of Walfred, yet they dismissed his sacrifice as bad luck or an unavoidable situation.

There’s a limit to how selfish people can be.

Lauren glared at them, but they ignored her gaze and kept talking.

"Didn’t the extermination alert or whatever say he soloed the Bone Drake anyway?"

"Then he’s fine either way."

"Yeah. He’s alive, that’s what matters. Is it really worth getting that worked up at the Chief over something that’s already done?"

Beyond shameless. It was disgusting.

Lauren squeezed her eyes shut.

She pressed both hands over her ears, too. The more she heard, the worse she felt.

And in her mind, she thought of Walfred.

’...Walfred.’

Walfred had survived.

But he wouldn’t come back.

He wasn’t foolish enough to return to the group that had used him as bait and abandoned him. And the chances of Walfred coming back for Lauren specifically weren’t high, either.

’We just happened to be heading to the same place, that’s all.’

Walfred and Lauren had moved together because they shared the common goal of reaching the Silicon Alley Shelter.

Now that they’d linked up with the Silicon Alley Shelter survivors, Walfred had no reason to come back for her.

They would probably never meet again.

’Still...’

She hadn’t wanted it to end like this.

She’d always expected the day they’d part ways would come, but she hated that it was such an empty goodbye.

But there was nothing she could do.

Lauren buried her face into her knees and quietly wept. After a long time had passed, she finally opened her eyes that had been closed for so long.

And.

"..."

Her two eyes turned cold.

Rage. And distrust.

With a look nothing like before, as though she’d become a different person entirely, Lauren glared at the people around her. Curled up in the darkness, in silence.