The atmosphere between a certain two people seemed to have become a bit subtle.
Sampo, Stelle, and Nero all tactfully refrained from going over.
After asking Stelle what supplies Natasha still needed, the three of them moved together to look for things.
———
[Inside the Goethe Hotel…]
The rooms where the Trailblazer squad was staying were all on the same floor, so Nero had only installed tripwire mines in a single corridor.
At this very moment, several dark figures suddenly appeared.
These people had their faces covered, and their clothes looked rather shabby.
One of them laughed and said, "Haha, Grandpa finally escaped. That idiot Sampo, no idea where he ran off to."
Then, beside him, someone with a shrill voice said, "Hehe, even though we didn't manage to find the other brothers, getting out is already good enough. Want me to work? Not a chance!"
After that, another person with a dumb, honest-sounding voice said, "Uh… um, boss, what are we doing here…?"
"What are we doing here? Of course we're here for revenge!" The leader among the three said.
This small-time leader was holding a crumpled piece of paper in his hand. He'd picked it up along the way. On it was handwritten content, recording room numbers and reviews of the Goethe Hotel.
The person who left the review had signed it as Galactic Baseballer, and combined with the rather abstract-looking review content… the drifter leader concluded that this must be someone from that detestable group of outsiders.
It turned out that after Stelle finished writing the review earlier, she stuffed it into her pocket, planning to hand it to Gerti when she got the chance.
While running around with Seele, it fell out, and just happened to be picked up by these drifters who had escaped from Sampo.
As for why these three drifters were able to get away… yes, you guessed it right, Sampo deliberately let them go.
As everyone can probably tell, the drifter group is very complicated. People become drifters for all kinds of reasons, and these three were clearly from the batch that deserved no mercy.
So, after Sampo finished helping Nero install the tripwire mines and then took Nero back to retrieve Korgi, he let these few out.
Punishing dangerous elements who harmed Belobog while also getting to enjoy a bit of fun, why wouldn't Sampo do it?
Here's a brief off-topic note, Sampo Korgi, who appeared and then disappeared for quite some time, was currently in the middle of a mad sprint, hauling the Flamespawn back to its nest in a most bizarre way.
Back to the three people at hand, the shrill-voiced drifter let out two cold laughs. "Heh heh, these outsiders are nothing but a ragtag bunch. Not even anyone standing guard. Either they're really capable, or they're just overly arrogant idiots."
"Hmph, let's go! Teach them a lesson!"
The drifter leader called out, leading his two underlings into the corridor.
Then… before they could even take their first step, all three froze in place.
They widened their eyes, staring at a certain red, bird-like Fragmentum creature floating in the corridor ahead.
"Holy crap!" the dumb-sounding drifter blurted out, then immediately covered his mouth. He looked left and right, and fortunately didn't draw anyone else's attention.
Then he whispered in a panic, "B-boss, up ahead there's a Fr-Fragmentum m-monster…"
"I see it!" the drifter leader snapped irritably.
"T-then what do we do, boss… I-I think maybe we sh-should r-run…"
"You're right, after all, the danger of Fragmentum monsters… tch, I didn't expect these outsiders to be so… sneaky! I'm not reconciled to this…"
Just as the drifter leader was starting to waver, the dog-head strategist stepped in.
The shrill-voiced drifter squinted carefully and realized that the Fragmentum monster seemed to be hanging from the ceiling, swaying back and forth, almost like it was fake.
So he spoke up, "Boss, no need to leave. Look at that thing, it seems fake. Even if it's real, it's fine. It's hanging from the ceiling. As long as we carefully pass by and don't startle it, we'll be fine."
Hearing this, the drifter leader looked again and found that it did indeed seem to be the case.
And so, the fighting spirit in his heart was reignited.
"Damn it, let's do it! Move."
"Let's go!" the dog-head strategist echoed.
"A-are we r-really g-going? Isn't it a b-bit too d-dangerous…?"
"Damn it!" The drifter leader smacked the dumb drifter on the head.
The latter immediately clutched his head. "Boss, d-don't h-hit me. If you keep h-hitting me, you'll h-hit me stu-stupid…"
"Tch…" The drifter leader took a deep breath, then said, "Are you really willing to give up such a great chance for revenge?"
"I…"
"Think about it carefully. They wanted us to work for them!"
"I… no… c-can't l-let them g-go. H-hit, hit them!"
Thus, the three drifters united in purpose, eyes fixed on the "hand warmer," shuffling forward with cautious steps.
None of them noticed the inconspicuous thin lines in the dim corridor.
Finally, all three arrived close by and took that last step.
With a crisp snapping sound reaching their ears, the dumb drifter raised his head.
Before he could even say, "Boss, I think I stepped on something," he saw a burst of light erupt. Then, some indescribable force condensed out of thin air into the shape of a train. That train sped forward and directly plowed across the dumb drifter's face.
The dumb drifter's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the ground on the spot.
And with his fall, more tripwire mines were triggered.
Thus, accompanied by a series of snapping sounds from the thin lines, several fist-sized phantom trains came charging in, slamming into the other two drifters as well and knocking them to the ground, unable to get back up.
Thank Pom-Pom for this, when Nero asked it for tripwire mines, it didn't hand over any high-powered ones. Instead, it found some small items closer to children's toys, tripwire mines that don't explode, only ram people.
But in the end, they were still products of Trailblaze power… their might was still not to be underestimated.
If Pom-Pom hadn't given the lowest-powered ones…
At the same time, Dan Heng's door opened.
He had already sensed something when the drifters first began stirring and had woken up from his sleep.
And just as he was patiently listening, confirming the drifters' intentions, he suddenly felt an unusual fluctuation of power, followed by screams and the sound of bodies hitting the ground.
So he immediately stepped out to check, and what he saw were three drifters lying on the floor, unable to move, as well as Nero's setup in the corridor.
"..." Dan Heng fell silent for a moment, then raised a hand to his forehead with some helplessness. "Nero really did… forget it. I'll wake March up first. Good thing the Conductor didn't give Nero any high-powered tripwire mines."