Who was it that said it?

That when a human hears something too absurd, the brain temporarily stops thinking.

Margaret’s expression right now was exactly that.

A face mixed with bewilderment and confusion.

The rational, cold demeanor she’d shown all this time had vanished without a trace.

"W-wait...! Hold on a second."

After a little time passed.

Quickly regaining her senses, Margaret looked at Walfred while lightly waving a hand. Then she asked again in a trembling voice.

"What did you just say? That the Frost Crown Stones..."

"I broke them."

And in that instant.

Margaret’s rebuttal followed.

"That’s impossible! The Frost Crown Stones have over 90% resistance to every attribute, so, so how could you possibly...!"

"Because I have a skill for it."

"...Excuse me?"

"A skill that ignores attribute resistance."

Walfred said it calmly.

It looked like she wouldn’t accept it unless he explained it this way. But even though he’d told her the truth, Margaret’s agitation didn’t subside.

"That makes even less sense! I’ve never once heard of such a skill existing in my entire life!"

"Then I guess I’m the first."

"Walfred!"

Did she think he was making fun of her?

Margaret’s expression stiffened.

At that, Walfred’s expression hardened in turn.

"If you don’t want to believe it, you don’t have to. But it’s a fact that I broke the Frost Crown Stones."

"..."

"Just go to the eastern plaza right now and you’ll see that what I’m saying is true."

Right after his firm answer ended.

A heavy silence settled over the area.

Margaret pressed her lips tightly shut as if lost in thought, and Walfred said nothing more either.

And then.

One of the men standing guard spoke up in a cautious tone.

"Major. Should I call for Lucas?"

"...Yes, please do."

Margaret nodded.

The man headed straight into the shelter, and before long he returned with a young man.

"This is Hunter Lucas."

Margaret pointed at the shaggy-haired young man who’d come back with the guard and continued the introduction for him.

"He’s a darkness-attribute C-rank hunter, and with a skill called [Dark Eye] he can observe the view at coordinates he’s marked beforehand and share it with everyone."

An observation and detection skill, [Dark Eye].

It could only be used at night, and it supposedly allowed him to observe the view at pre-marked coordinates in real time and play it back like footage.

"Hunter Lucas."

"Yes, Major."

"Could you share the view of the eastern plaza of Philadelphia Station that you marked earlier with everyone?"

"Of course. I’ll begin right away."

Lucas stepped forward.

He stretched out his hand toward the darkness beyond the barricade and activated his skill.

And in that instant.

Wooong!

Along with a brief vibration, the darkness rippled.

Then, within the darkness, the view of the eastern plaza of Philadelphia Station played back like a hazy video.

And.

"...!?"

"Th-that’s...!"

It unfolded before everyone’s eyes.

The sight of the ice pillar that had towered at the center of the eastern plaza, completely shattered.

"Good lord..."

Not just Lucas, but even Margaret stared with eyes gone wide. Seeing them unable to find their words, Walfred shrugged.

"I told you, didn’t I."

That it was true.

At Walfred’s words, Margaret finally pulled herself together. And right away she bowed her head.

"I’m sorry for doubting you. But..."

"...?"

"Um, why did you break the Frost Crown Stones?"

A question laced with genuine puzzlement.

Walfred answered briefly.

"You only told me to figure out the number and locations of the Frost Crown Stones. You never said not to break them."

"Th-that’s certainly true, but..."

Margaret trailed off.

She asked back, putting her heart into it.

"Does anyone normally even think to break those?"

"..."

This time it was Walfred who fell silent.

Just as Margaret said, breaking the Frost Crown Stones was far from a normal way of thinking.

As he kept silent like that.

"Wait..."

Margaret, who had worn a blank expression for a while, suddenly had her eyes clear and sharpen. Then, as if she’d hit on some clever idea, her eyes lit up.

"No, hold on a moment."

"Yes?"

"This... might actually have turned out for the better."

"For the better?"

Destroying the Frost Crown Stones?

Walfred tilted his head. Then, just as he was about to ask what she meant by that.

"My brother said something like this before."

Margaret beat him to it.

"That a spirit king before it becomes a complete adult is only a little stronger than a high-ranking spirit."

"That’s..."

It was a story Walfred knew too.

The SSS-rankProfessor had mentioned it as well.

And then.

"With every Frost Crown Stone destroyed now, the spirit king has lost its chance to grow into an adult. So as things stand now, extermination might just be possible!"

The reason Margaret had said it turned out for the better became clear. Like someone who’d found hope in the dark, she clenched her fist and spoke passionately.

Walfred’s thoughts, on the other hand, were different.

’Extermination?’

The spirit king? How?

We’d have to break through thousands of frost spirits and deal with the high-ranking spirits on top of that?

And besides, spirits were attribute monsters.

Unless you had a special skill like Walfred’s [Ice Shatter], an opposing attribute was essential. So just as he was showing a skeptical reaction.

Fwoosh!

Flames suddenly shot up.

Flames drifting through the air around Margaret.

She smiled brightly.

"Would this serve as an answer?"

"...A fire-attribute hunter."

Walfred muttered under his breath.

A fire-attribute A-rank hunter, and a spirit king that, right after birth, hadn’t become an adult. Looking at just this alone, the odds didn’t seem to be zero after all.

The problem, though...

"The spirit king isn’t the only opponent."

Three high-ranking spirits. And on top of that, the ordinary spirits numbered in the thousands. No matter how much of a fire attribute she had, taking on numbers like that would be impossible.

"Yes, I’m aware of that too."

Margaret nodded as if she knew this fact. Then, with a relatively calm reaction, she revealed a fact she’d been keeping hidden all this time.

"But you don’t have to worry about that problem. Besides me, there are two more A-rank hunters in this shelter."

"...!"

Walfred’s eyes widened a bit.

To think there were A-rank hunters here besides Margaret. As he was surprised, Margaret raised her clenched fist and fired up her resolve.

"And on top of that, if we just exterminate the spirit king, there’ll be no need to worry about the other spirits."

"Huh? Now what does that mean...?"

"Spirits that have lost their king are essentially the same as having lost their reason to exist, so they vanish in no time. Just like what happened in Mexico."

About three years ago, as of now.

A gate of unknown rank had once been liberated in the highlands of northern Mexico.

A catastrophe that left over a thousand dead, recorded as the worst case of a gate liberation. It had been a huge issue worldwide, so Walfred knew it well.

"A forest spirit king appeared in the gate back then, and it had grown into a complete adult. The international association dispatched an S-rank hunter to exterminate it."

And as a result.

After a fierce, life-or-death struggle, the raid party succeeded in exterminating the forest spirit king.

"And then the moment the spirit king was exterminated, the thousands of spirits circling around it all vanished at once."

The reason behind it isn’t known.