Chapter 384: The Spread of Unease

“Why hasn’t the assistant squad leader come back yet?”

“Where exactly did Betty go? She couldn’t have gone far, right?”

Over by the squad, the light mood that had settled in after the battle had, at some unknown point, completely evaporated.

It was as if an invisible hand had quietly snuffed it out.

Was it because Betty hadn’t returned as expected?

Or because the assistant squad leader had been gone too long without coming back?

Or... was it because of the squad leader’s incoherent rambling?

No one knew.

But the squad’s atmosphere was now unquestionably, deeply wrong.

The members who had just been finding grim humor in their situation now wore grave expressions, restless and ill at ease.

The squad leader was still muttering something, one fragment at a time.

The potion’s effects, combined with his Rank-2 limit physique, had restored some of his stamina, but his mental state showed no improvement.

Ever since waking up, his condition had been abnormal.

At times he seemed almost lucid—his gaze would briefly focus on one of the squad members, his lips twitching as if he wanted to say something.

But more often, he would sink into deep confusion, his eyes darting restlessly, his words so jumbled that no one could truly understand them. They could only catch fragments.

“...No... still... watching...”

“...Don’t... don’t go over there...”

That voice echoed through the quiet corridor, and to the ears of the squad, it was deeply unsettling.

What made it worse...

At some point, a strange and subtle sound had also appeared in the air.

A soft, fine rustling—like countless tiny needles slowly dragging across the concrete floor.

That faint noise was like a splinter lodged in the heart, making it impossible to sit still.

“What the hell is going on... what do we do now?”

“I don’t know. The bigger problem is the squad leader’s condition right now...”

Two squad members spoke in low, worried tones.

Their voices were kept very quiet, as if afraid of disturbing something, their gazes darting toward the depths of the corridor every few moments.

In the direction where the assistant squad leader and Betty had disappeared, the gray-white mist still hung motionless, revealing nothing.

Jack barely participated in the two’s conversation.

He had never been much of a talker. Even faced with such an obviously wrong situation, he only frowned deeply and remained silent.

But this time, Jack suddenly spoke.

“How long has it been?”

His tone wasn’t so much a question as a confirmation of something he had already vaguely sensed.

The stocky member glanced at the watch on his wrist, then his brow furrowed.

“Ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes...”

Jack repeated in a low voice, his gaze sweeping over the still-dense gray-white fog around them.

Lady Pandora had said before that the Susurrus Mist consumed magic and couldn’t be maintained for long—it might not even last until she arrived.

Adding in the time before, it should have started dissipating by now.

But a single glance at the mist’s current state told him nothing had changed.

It still hung thick and heavy around them, showing no sign of thinning.

If anything, the gray-white fog seemed denser than before, heavier, like some kind of weighted liquid slowly settling downward.

“Why are things getting weirder and weirder?”

That squad member couldn’t help complaining, his voice tinged with barely suppressed agitation.

“First Betty goes missing, then the assistant squad leader disappears right after, and now even the time isn’t right? What the hell kind of mission did Lady Poppy assign us? How did it turn into this...”

“Don’t overthink it. It’s probably just a watch malfunction. Maybe it got knocked around during the fight and the internal parts are off.”

Jack frowned and replied.

But his attempt at reassurance did nothing to calm his teammates’ emotions—if anything, it only made the two of them more worried.

The squad member looked down at his watch, then glanced at Jack’s expression.

He wanted to say something, but nothing came out.

What if the watch isn’t wrong?

He didn’t ask aloud.

Because he didn’t want to know the answer.

Silence spread. That faint rustling sound never went away.

It was just there.

In the cracks of the walls, above their heads, beneath their feet, in every inch of air.

Suddenly, the atmosphere went still.

The rustling was still there, but another sound had stopped—the squad leader’s muttering.

The two stopped talking and instinctively looked toward the squad leader.

They noticed that he had just abruptly ceased his rambling. Now, looking at him, the foggy confusion on his face was gone. Though his brow remained tightly furrowed, his expression seemed to have regained its clarity and coldness.

Like a honed blade that had found its edge once more.

But they didn’t know how long he would stay lucid this time.

The last time, he had briefly regained clarity, only to sink back into deeper confusion soon after.

“What’s going on?”

The squad leader’s voice was low, rough with a trace of hoarseness.

“Where’s Betty? Where’s the assistant squad leader?”

“Betty vanished—we don’t know where she went... The assistant squad leader went to find her and hasn’t come back... Squad leader, how are you feeling now? Any better?”

The squad member answered quickly, his voice full of hope.

That hope ran too deep—like a drowning man clutching at the last piece of driftwood.

“Yeah, I feel better... I’ve got some strength back now.”

As he spoke, the squad leader braced himself against the ground and stood up.

His left arm trembled slightly. The wound at the severed stump, sealed by the potion, oozed a trace of pale red liquid, but his footing was still steady.

True to his words, he had recovered some stamina—at least enough to stand firm.

“As for Betty and the assistant squad leader...”

The squad leader paused, his expression shifting through several changes.

Anxiety, tension, fear—all sorts of emotions flickered across his face in turn, as if something was churning violently deep inside him.

In the end...

His expression became utterly resolute.

“No. They might not be coming back. We can’t wait any longer! We’re leaving—we have to leave right now!”

“What?”

The two squad members froze.

“But they’re not back yet...”

They wanted to say more, but the squad leader’s icy glare had already swept over them.

That gaze no longer held the earlier confusion, but had gained a heart-chilling coldness—even a trace of cruelty.

Like looking at two ignorant children playing near the edge of a dangerous cliff.

They fell silent immediately.

Jack felt the squad leader’s arrangement was somewhat improper—abandoning teammates like that was too cold-blooded—but he had no better ideas either.

Not to mention, the squad leader had risked his life to save him earlier. He had no reason to oppose him at a time like this.

So, after confirming once more that neither Betty nor the assistant squad leader responded to their calls...

The squad leader led the team in packing up their belongings and began to withdraw.

As they were leaving, Jack instinctively glanced back at the room behind them.

Traces of battle remained everywhere.

The cracks in the walls looked like open wounds.

The scorched patches on the floor still emitted faint wisps of smoke.

Not far away lay the scattered remains of the Bonebeast Anomaly, mixed among the ashes, along with the refuse left from their rest period—empty potion vials, crushed bits of flatbread, used bandages...

“Yeah, we’ve got everything we need to bring.”

...Except for Betty and the assistant squad leader.

Jack murmured, but didn’t look away.

For no reason at all, he felt like he was forgetting something.

What was it?

He frowned, trying hard to think.

Until the squad leader’s call came from up ahead, and he turned around, quickening his pace to catch up.

That faint, inexplicable sense of wrongness was temporarily pressed down into the depths of his heart.