[Border Town]

Quite some time has passed since the co. Started heading out to the distressed border town from the exit point of the passageway

Due to some unconventional occurrences the co. Lost their track in time inside the dark passageway which resulted to them arriving at a later date of after 2 weeks and so

Due to the excellent manipulation of to time and space inside the dark passageway which seemed like a dungeon, Kaido was greatly motivated to perform a legit otherworld travel

In the end it only resulted in him able to distort space a little even if he had understand the theory of space distortion and travelling

When they arrived at the border town, the town itself was quite gloomy compared to its beautifully constructed buildings

When the townspeople saw them, they were greatly surprised for such type of visitors that they quickly and excitedly welcomed them as if they haven't been distressed for this past weeks

"Welcome! Welcome! Please enter our town"

"Do you like anything to buy?"

"I suggest you should eat at my place"

"Can we invite you guys for some dinner?"

Welcoming cheers came from all direction as the townspeople approached the co.

Even with all these cheers,praises, and smiles which resulted for the Hero's party to smile wryly for a little bit, Kaido himself says otherwise as he felt that these kinds of smiles, cheers, and praises are somewhat, eerie and disgusting

Unknowingly not only Kaido felt this way but also Melfina, Anna, Jack, felt like this kind of atmosphere is suffocating and scary by its own sense

The only reason that they could think of why they felt such a thing was that the four of them has somewhat a similarity and that is all of them has experience either being in the underworld of the society or have fought and investigated underworld people from before

The smiles of the people felt somewhat forced that made even Kaido to feel wary

As if reading Kaido's mood, Jack silently approached him and said

"These smiles... These smiles can only be seen to people that have become mad at trying to please someone"

"What are you trying to say? Are saying that these guys are literally getting on our good side? Because if it does then I'm not happy about it" complained Kaido

"No what I'm saying is that they feel like being pushed to despair which made them smile like that" replied Jack

After thinking about it Kaido gave a smirk as if he is confirming something

"I guess that it is because of that Archdemon's doing" said Kaido

"Yes... We couldn't agree more"

At that instant the one who answered were Melfina who is followed by Anna

"There's no other reason but that" added Anna as her expression turned dim

"Well I confirmed my guess... Cause after all I'm feeling that something is watching from somewhere else... And I deducted it as the Archdemon" deducted Kaido

"We couldn't do anything about it... We can't move if it doesn't move so I suggest that we should follow along their act" suggested Jack as he shakes his head

"Indeed! That is way better than going on a rampage spree" said Jack as if he is boasting himself

As Kaido's group were having such conversation, the Hero's party however chose to Lodge at an inn near the border's gate

Even thought the townspeople insisted otherwise, they still couldn't complain since the hero says so

As the co. Lodge inside the inn with their own individual room, Hibiki immediately thanked the fat inn's owner for it's hospitality

When everyone has gathered inside the reception room to discuss their next move, only Kaido himself haven't arrived yet so they eagerly waited for him

As Kaido was walking along the long and dark hallway, he suddenly saw a girl child at the age of 8 at the far end of his sight

When he turned a glance at the girl, the latter herself immediately went into it's hiding

In response to the child's action Kaido himself snorted

"Weird kid!"

At that moment after he walked a little bit more, he finally arrived at the reception room where everyone are located at

At the same time they started the inn's owner entered the room with a meat soup in bowl as an Energizer for our stomachs

At that same moment Kaido saw the girl once more peeking behind the door, not only that he also saw a woman urging the girl to look away and head straight for their room

At first Kaido thought that they were another customer of the inn but because of the child's weird actions until now, it even made Kaido to feel wary about this place

As he thought of this Hibiki called out to him

"Hey! Kaido! Did you get what I said? I said that we should split into teams tomorrow and investigate the town in order for us to know the location of the Archdemon" said Hibiki as he conveyed his idea to others

"Ah! Sure..." Replied Kaido

Hearing Kaido's weird reply both Mia and Anna felt that something was off about Kaido while for Jack, he just closed his eye as if saying he already understood  what Kaido meant in his words

As everyone was talking idly they also took their time as they indulge themselves at the meat soup that were given to them

For some reason Kaido's senses couldn't stomach the soup at all and is warning him about this place

With that in mind he pushed the bowl away which suddenly took in for granted by Alda and asked if he could take his soup

Hearing that Kaido nodded and returned his attention at the plan

*********************
~next day~

When morning arrive the co. indulged themselves at the crispy limb that were offered to them by the inn's owner for breakfast

As expected Kaido's senses were telling him not to eat it, so he easily rejected in taking dinner which greatly confused everyone

When Kaido walked passed the hallway he was suddenly greeted by the small girl

"You... You didn't eat? Why?" Asks the girl

Looking at it's complexion that the girl was malnutritioned which resulted to its thinness of body mass

"My senses are telling me not to eat it... If it's your cooking then I can say that it sucks... And I'm quite disappointed because it seems that you were trying to poison me" stated Kaido

But instead of hearing a refute from the girl, the latter completely did the opposite which stunned him for a little

"That's great! It's great that you haven't fallen yet" said the girl as she cried in tears

Seeing her like this Kaido was flabbergasted

"Oi! What are you..."

But before he could ask a question the girl spoke up

"If you please help me and my mother after you see what it is hidden here... By then please judge if we're worthy of being saved" said the girl with eyes that were resolute no matter what

After some time instead of Kaido that were going to reply, Hibiki who secretly followed Kaido spoke up and answered the girls plea

"Sure thing! I will judge if you guys are worth saving if you show me the thing that this facility is hiding" said Hibiki

Seeing Hibiki even the girl was surprised by his sudden intervention but nonetheless she still lead both of them somewhere after giving a nod at Hibiki and wiping her tears away

As they were being led both Kaido and Hibiki were stunned as the girl led them to a secret passage that leads underground located at the inn's library

At first Hibiki was quite hesitant but it all changed as Kaido kicked him from behind and urged him to go forward

After some time they felt that the stairs were endless by how deep it was located

When they reached the bottom they were met by a huge iron door and of course Hibiki insisted that he will be the one to open the door for the girl but later on Hibiki would regret that he opened the door

When Hibiki fully opened the door, he was purely stunned and shaken as he witnessed the gruesome scene in front of him

Rows after rows of naked bloody body's of humans that were once alive were dangling on a hook that was pierced at their neck

But what Hibiki saw next greatly disturb him

What he saw from afar was a bloody chopping board and a bloody knife beside a dead corpse body of a child laying beside it missing a limb