
All had gathered in the space that Asoka had prepared. Not only the Heroes, but Asoka, Natalia, Tirith, Misa, Odin, Gahdevi and even Garfiel were invited to the meeting. Rigel deliberately invites people outside of Heroes and Kings, as they may have information that Rigel or other Heroes do not have.
Tea and coffee drinks are provided for the participants. Rigel had not taught the servants to make a snack from the earth, so it could not be prepared now.
"Now let's start talking about the White Tiger and the mysterious figure who almost killed me."
Everyone became serious upon hearing that the mysterious figure that attacked Rigel nearly killed Rigel. They all know that Rigel is the hardest germ to kill. It was shocking that he declared himself almost killed.
"It seems like people like you can also be killed huh," Marcel chuckled slightly.
Rigel is strong, but not powerful. He could even be injured with a kitchen knife. Even he can feel pain when bitten by mosquitoes which are his toughest enemies.
"Yes, we missed it first. Regarding White Tiger, he had an unreasonable speed, probably almost reaching the speed of light."
Given the previous events, he was unable to ignore that super speed of his. Rigel can't be sure, will he be able to keep up with that speed or not. Moreover, its attack power and fog were still mysterious.
"With no Hazama, it seems that we would have much more trouble. Especially to people who can't keep up with their speed" Marcel said as he crossed his arms.
Without the presence of Hazama counteracting every attack, the fight would be very difficult. Rigel can certainly be a substitute shield for Hazama, but if so the effectiveness of Rigel will be reduced.
In addition, no one can move fast other than Ray, Rigel and Nadia. Takumi could certainly move fast, but he had to use the slacker curse to gain such speed.
"While I initially underestimated its existence, it is now clear that Hazama's existence is much needed" Aland said.
Rigel didn't expect that it would be this troublesome. Its size which is only as big as a tree can be grateful, but not with its super terrible speed.
Indeed facing it alone can be an option because it has no other burden on its back other than its own life. But there are some things that cannot be done alone. Moreover, he did not want to ruin the relationship with the other Heroes.
"In addition, the fog that accompanies it is still mysterious and nothing else is more terrifying than something unknown."
Of course, the fog is not just to cover and hide its existence. But there was definitely something else from the White Tiger fog.
For example, something that is already common in manga and novels. Mist of misdirection, which makes the people in it blind and separated from each other. With that speed, it was no surprise that the White Tiger killed in silence.
"For that, I brought other people besides Heroes because they know more about this world than we do" Rigel said.
When viewed from another point of view, Rigel and the others are just foreign tourists who come from another world and will not be able to return to where they came from. They do not know this land and do not know the dangers that lurk. For example, they might pick a fruit that looks like a blueberry but in reality it is the bait of a plant-type monster.
As Rigel said, there is nothing more terrifying than the unknown.
Amidst the silence of the meeting room, Natalia stood up and saluted. As usual, although Rigel and the others did not care much about formal attitudes, Natalia still did it because as a trader, she highly upholds formality to people who are higher than her.
"Please ask the Heroes for permission to voice my opinion that is either useful or not."
"Yes, speak clearly and easily understood," Rigel gave his approval and stressed Natalia not to use complicated words. Because not everyone is smart and can grasp meaning quickly.
"Thank you for your generosity... Regarding the case of the doom monster this time around, it seems to be much more complicated than Phoenix. To be honest, as a merchant I felt ashamed of not having much information about the White Tiger along with the mysterious fog that accompanied it, because anyone who entered the fog never returned safely."
Everyone's expression did not change, they took matters seriously and had no intention of underestimating them anymore, like what happened to Tortoise that was hard to beat.
"It looks like we're reaching a deadlock, yeah. Because there are no survivors to tell you the information they have about the fog" Petra said with a slight disappointment.
It would look like that, but Rigel knew that Natalia didn't get up just to say that.
"Not really. I'm sure it's not really a dead end, because then there's no point in him talking" Ozaru said, sticking to a bored-looking posture while turning a small stick in his hand.
"As Hero Ozaru said, I wouldn't dare waste your time listening to something so uninformative."
He is that kind of person. Serious, astute and an excellent observer. Surely there will be nothing unusual about people not returning. Rigel is convinced that Natalia did not hear that from rumors or bird news. He must have tried to make sure of it by sending out some people. But in the end those people didn't come back and there was certainly something he found.
"As a merchant noble, I am very confident in the coordination and name of the people I assigned to ship goods to other lands. But once at a time, a neighboring nobleman sent a letter of protest because the goods his order did not visit for a month. Of course I was surprised, because I would not miss any order that could bring down the reputation of the Ainsworth family. So, I searched for any information or phenomenon that had occurred in the past month and discovered the phenomenon about the white fog that enveloped the road that led to where the noble was," Natalia paused for a moment and let the Heroes process the story she was telling.
They had lived for quite a long time in this world and had certainly understood the nobility well. They should not be the type of people who will make such easy mistakes. Especially with Natalia.
Although Rigel had not known her for long, he could guarantee that Natalia was not a figure who would foolishly forget such requests, especially from important people like royalty.
Some Heroes must have question marks in their heads, but no one had any intention of asking them before hearing the full story. Natalia observed the reaction of the Hero and the other listeners. He nodded as soon as he realized that Rigel was gesturing for him to continue the story.
"For that, I tried to investigate the fog and look for a place that has a similar phenomenon. In the end, I discovered a similar phenomenon in a small country and I happened to have an acquaintance of nobility. I used Spatial magic to visit him and say that I would send the goods. Then, if the item doesn't arrive in more than two weeks, I want her to send me a letter I made myself with words that only me and the husband master understand."
Surely there would be a certain awkwardness if a completely unrelated person sent a letter with a message that only Natalia and Walther knew of such a code.
"I sent people to go to the place of my acquaintance's nobles and through the fog, but in the end the item did not arrive and I really did not remember anything about it, until the letter I sent arrived. I wrote the letter in a secret code explaining that I sent people to deliver goods to my acquaintances. Inevitably, I can only believe it, because no one other than the husband master can write the code."
The ambiguous story ended. Up to that point, Rigel had understood the outline of Natalia's story.
"Wait, I don't understand this. I understand at the point where you forget that you're sending stuff to a noble. However, I still do not understand how you can tell the story and seem to remember the incident. Is this not made up??" Aland glanced at Natalia with a suspicious tone and gaze.
Natalia remained respectful and said, "Of course I'm just making up the story as closely as I can imagine."
"So you admit it" said Aland.
It was very clear that he was not really an expert in using his head to analyze information. That's why Rigel asked Natalia to explain it as easily as possible. If it had been like this, there was no other choice but Rigel to explain it.
"Short story, Natalia who served and lived life as usual suddenly got a letter from a noble that contained about the goods she ordered did not arrive. As a result he will feel strange because he will never miss a single order that comes to him. To be sure, he investigated the incident that happened on the path that the merchant would take to get to the noble's residence."
And it was there that he discovered the phenomenon of white fog on the route that merchants were supposed to go. She is not stupid enough to get through the fog just like that and Natalia decides to look for a place that has the same phenomenon. He wrote down this incident in a letter that only he and Walther understood.
"Obviously to prevent forgetting or something, he deliberately wrote down the peculiarities that existed and when two weeks, the letter he wrote reached him. Surely he did not remember the reason why and what made the letter come to him, until finally he understood the full occurrence of the letter" Rigel said. He started to sigh long as it was really troublesome to tell a story.
"In essence, he made the story as similar as possible from the original incident. If he uses the actual information even though it is vague, it cannot be categorized as a lie" Ozaru added.
It is a point to be grateful that Ozaru can now decipher the information he received. Besides Aland, it seems Petra, Yuri, and Nadia also do not really capture the core of the Natalia story. Marcel and Takumi seem a little better at being able to understand some of the main points.
But it is no longer something important. Because he had gained new information about the truth of the fog that was with White Tiger. Surely there was a possibility that the fog did not have the ability he thought it would. But the possibility is very small.
"If that were true, then this case would be much more terrible than the others, yes," Ozaru glanced at Rigel.
There will be no other opinion than agreement with Ozaru. In fact it was not only his insane speed and powerful attacks. The White Tiger had another thing that was very troublesome, namely its fog. Surely there is a possibility that the fog saves something other than something newly revealed.
"Yes.., this will be much harder than expected. Without the presence of Hazama who became a protector, then the threat we get is quite large" said Rigel.
"What do you mean??" Garfiel who since you've been quiet finally spoke.
"That fog is not an ordinary mist, it will not only mislead, but it will also seem to wipe your existence from the memory of everyone who knows you once you enter the fog," Rigel answered as calmly as possible.
"Erasing out existence..., doesn't that make no sense??" Garfiel asked again.
"Maybe more precisely erased everyone's memory of the person entering the fog," Gahdevi explained briefly so that Garfiel understood it easily.
"Nothing hurts more than being forgotten by everyone. If I get to experience it, then it can be said it's apes among apes," Odin tried to joke a little but only himself can chuckle.
"Yes. No one wants to be forgotten in everyone's life. Although we know that the fog can erase the memory of everyone from a particular individual, it certainly takes some kind of condition so that it can be active and erase the memory of everyone," Rigel said, closing his eyes.
Memory fog, that's what Rigel would call it. However it can change at any time when he learns that the fog has something other than erasing memories. It seemed like this would be a big fight where if killed, there would be no one crying because no one had any memory of the individual dying in the fog or being wiped out by the fog.