"It is all my fault. I misjudged his weakness," Galen muttered, his voice laced with self-reproach.
However, Brent and the others found it difficult to bla Galen at this mont.
After all, anything could happen in the heat of battle.
They had not entirely confird that the head was the demon's weak point, and the Wave Blade was indeed still carving through the monster's necrotic flesh.
Furthermore, the monster had shown no signs of halting its attacks or surrendering.
On the contrary, the creature had been compressing its necrotic flesh at the ti, which might have been the precursor to a devastating strike.
While Galen's attack was sowhat reckless, it could not be called a mistake.
"Alright, it is not a serious issue. He exposed a flaw earlier, so the trail of clues is not completely broken," Brent said, not wanting the team's relationship to sour.
Clinging to a single mistake and refusing to let it go was one of the quickest ways to destroy team cohesion.
For now, they could only drop the matter.
Seeing that the issue was smoothed over, the guilt on Galen's face seemingly deepened.
He turned around, only to find Isabella staring at him with her icy blue eyes.
Galen faltered for a fraction of a second, but he quickly steadied his nerves, letting a look of remorse wash over his features.
'Am I already under suspicion?' The thought flashed through his mind. Following that, Galen emptied his emotions, choosing not to overact.
Those with guilty consciences naturally exhibited abnormalities.
He just had not expected Isabella to be so perceptive.
Half a year ago, when Galen, Brent, Gabriel, and the others faced the entity possessing Fass, their reactions had been vastly different.
Gabriel was easily defeated by the opponent but was taught the Blood Blade in the process, which he developed into his own secret technique.
Recently, he had even begun to vaguely earn a moniker in the outside world—the Blood Knight.
As for Brent, he overca the enemy's oppressive aura and charged forward to rescue Gabriel. He also achieved impressive results; being of noble birth, his growth was exceptionally rapid.
Only he, Galen, had been completely paralyzed by Nemus's overwhelming presence at the ti, choosing to imdiately cease his attacks.
Although he was not punished afterward, an invisible rift had ford between him, Brent, and Gabriel.
In that mont, Galen had felt an imnse sense of panic.
Thus, he made his choice.
'If you cannot break free from fear, then surrender to it.' Soti later, Galen ventured into the South District. Before he could even find a lead, the Construct Protocol ca knocking on his door.
The entity known as the God of Fiction opened its arms to him.
Ever since that encounter, he was no longer afraid. His mind had beco perfectly tranquil.
With the support of the Construct Protocol, his strength advanced by leaps and bounds. He also passed the new trials, becoming an official Holy Knight.
And this ti, his mission was incredibly simple.
Guide the investigation team into a gradual collision with the Construct Protocol.
The Construct Protocol had developed to a point where it no longer needed to strictly hide itself.
In fact, because so many people had used the Construct Protocol to advance, the organization's structure had beco bloated.
These individuals had not undergone any tempering. It was one thing for their strength to be lacking, but their loyalty to the organization was also wavering.
Therefore, the Church was the perfect forging fire.
By guiding the Church into conflict with the Construct Protocol's outer factions, they could filter out the qualified mbers.
It did not matter how many organization mbers died in the process.
However, it was necessary to quickly silence those who had undergone demonization and broken away from the Construct Protocol.
This was exactly why Galen had suddenly struck to silence the La Demon. Even though Isabella might suspect him, Galen was not worried.
It was rely a bit of suspicion. As long as he did not reveal any other flaws, Isabella had no authority to interrogate him, even if she was the captain.
Coupled with the fact that, on the surface, he had absolutely no reason to fear being an enemy of the Construct Protocol, the doubts surrounding him would likely be cleared up very soon.
Looking at Galen, Isabella withdrew her gaze, sensing sothing peculiar in her heart.
Just a mont ago, although Galen appeared full of apology, she had detected a trace of an incongruous emotion.
Why would a person who made an error in judgnt, a person burdened with guilt, exhibit a slight sense of relief?
However, relying solely on her own intuition was undoubtedly insufficient to serve as evidence.
'There is no rush. If there really is a problem with Galen, he will definitely expose a flaw during the upcoming investigation.' Isabella firmly believed in one principle: as long as you do the right thing, those harboring malicious intentions will eventually reveal themselves along the way.
Isabella set aside her suspicions and began to contemplate their next move.
They had received information about a demon on Thirteenth Street. Upon investigating today, Isabella acutely noticed the uniqueness of the La Demon and imdiately tracked him down.
Originally, she thought it was just soone equipped with a Berserk Accessory. However, as they tracked him, the man quickly began to flee and relocate, which led to today's encirclent.
Although the man was dead now, his movent trajectory could still be traced.
After all, a limp was a relatively obvious physical trait.
Soon, the places the La Demon had visited recently were brought to light through Gabriel's interrogations.
Over the past half-year, after recovering from his injuries, Gabriel could no longer bear the humiliation of being lectured by the enemy. He applied to beco a stationed outpost guard.
He had beco relatively familiar with the South District.
Investigating it now was not particularly difficult.
The only thing they needed to be careful about was not casually using the Church's banner during their inquiries.
They also could not draw too much attention.
At the very least, they had to maintain the previous status quo. Even though they were conducting an investigation, they had to treat the target as nothing more than a minor religious order.
At most, they could be slightly stricter than before.
They had to ensure the Construct Protocol remained unaware that they were taking things seriously this ti.
Before long, the La Demon's identity and his recent activities were completely unearthed.
"Now that his identity has been uncovered, we can continue investigating his past social connections," Isabella noted, finding a new lead with a single glance.
The La Demon was rely an ordinary worker at a shop. He had been fired four months ago for stealing.
The underlying reason was his severe gambling addiction.
It was precisely because of his gambling debts that he couldn't make ends et, ultimately leading to his leg being broken.
Under such circumstances, he didn't even have the money to treat his leg. If he wanted to join the Construct Protocol, he must have had so sort of channel.
The sa went for Xiaobi, though her connection relied mostly on luck.
According to Xiaobi's confession, she had initially wanted to report her father to the Church. On her way there, she t an exceptionally beautiful woman who recomnded her, allowing her to sign the Construct Protocol.
Compared to Xiaobi, absolutely no one would pity a degenerate gambler like the la man. Thus, there had to be an internal reason for him joining the Construct Protocol.
"Four months ago, his leg was broken. Three months ago, a fire broke out at that gambling den..."
"This was likely the la man's doing. In other words, during that one-month window, he ca into contact with soone who introduced him to the Construct Protocol."
"Aside from that, why has he been looking for smugglers recently, trying to stow away to another whaleback?"
The investigation squad analyzed the situation piece by piece. Carrying their newfound questions, they set out once again.
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