Chapter 1217: 204. Picking Up the Pace
The restrictions extended from bottom to top, covering the entire city.
Unlike the enormous formation Hamreign had first used to seal this place, this vast restriction was composed of countless small restrictions. Every street, alley, and even every narrow gap had become a supporting point for the restrictions.
Countless faint layers of golden light overlapped one another, finally forming the dazzling golden radiance before them now, so dense that it resembled the eye of a giant dragon and made it difficult for anyone to keep their eyes open.
That was right. During this period, Hamreign had actually placed an individual isolation restriction around every single house in the city, completely separating the residents by household!
Every house.
Every family.
All of them were the same.
Muen was deeply shocked.
Even a magical idiot like him could sense what an enormous and complicated undertaking this was. The amount of magic power required definitely far exceeded what would have been needed to completely destroy the city.
It would probably have been more than enough to destroy this place ten times over.
Not to mention the additional energy and patience required. That was even more unimaginable.
In this entire world, aside from Miss Dragon and that old loli, there was probably no third person capable of accomplishing something like this in such a short time.
As expected of a calamity.
However...
From a rational perspective, using the restrictions this way was not cost-effective at all.
It could even be described as excessively extravagant.
According to Muen’s original calculations, sealing and isolating the city by district would have been the best option. Even if Pollution appeared in a certain area, the damage could still have been kept to a minimum.
But he had never expected Miss Dragon to simply...
Muen secretly looked at that fiery-red figure from behind once again.
She stood there, transcendent and detached from the world, overlooking the blue-tiled roofs and red walls beneath the golden light. No emotion could be seen within her calm golden pupils. Only the slight swaying of her black thorn-covered skirt proved that she truly existed in this world, rather than being a projection cast from some endlessly distant place.
For some reason, that familiar sense of contradiction faintly rose from the depths of Muen’s heart once again...
“This should completely prevent the Pollution from spreading, right?”
After thinking for a moment, Muen returned to the more practical issue.
“Mm.”
Hamreign’s golden pupils shifted, her gaze traveling from one end of the city to the other as she confirmed the operating condition of every restriction.
“Pollution requires a medium, but investigating exactly what that medium is can be extremely difficult. Touch, sound, food, water... Even calling out an Evil God’s true name can become a medium for Pollution. Rather than exhausting ourselves trying to investigate all of that, it is better to directly eliminate every possible path through which the medium could spread.”
“Now that I have separated everyone, even if someone among them becomes Polluted without our knowledge, that Pollution will absolutely not spread.”
“I see... I’ve learned something.”
Muen praised her sincerely.
“As expected of Miss Dragon. You really are experienced in this area. It puts me at ease.”
“...”
Hamreign suddenly fell silent.
“Huh... Did I say something wrong?”
Muen asked cautiously.
“No. I merely remembered a few insignificant matters from the past.”
Hamreign shook her head without the slightest emotional fluctuation.
“Is that so?”
Muen glanced from the corner of his eye at her blurred face.
He could not see anything, nor could he investigate exactly what his careless remark had touched upon.
He could only continue discussing the issue before them.
“I’ve already finished making arrangements over there. I had Morton issue an order completely stopping the supply of food and water to the residents for the next few days, preventing any possibility of Pollution spreading through those channels.”
“You arranged that?”
Hamreign showed a rare trace of surprise and turned to look at Muen.
“I believe I said that the most basic supply of food and water could be maintained. A small number of additional inspections is nothing to me.”
“Just in case... Ah, of course, it isn’t because I don’t trust Miss Dragon. Morton also said that every household here keeps several days’ worth of supplies at home. Cutting off deliveries for a few days will not affect anything for now, and it can completely eliminate the possibility of Pollution continuing to spread.”
Muen smiled and shrugged.
“It seems I still understand humans a little better than Miss Dragon does. The people here are so prosperous. Who would not keep some food stored at home? No matter how innocent and naive they may be, hoarding food is human instinct.”
“Nosy.”
Hamreign gave a cold snort.
“At a critical moment, everyone should endure hardship together. They may all be innocent, but isn’t Miss Dragon innocent too?”
“That sounds nice.”
“Of course.”
Muen solemnly straightened his collar.
“I have always been an upstanding person. I pity innocent people, but I also will not allow their innocence to become a reason to hinder Miss Dragon.”
“That is not what you said when you stopped me before.”
Hamreign’s tone was disdainful.
“At the time, I was still clinging to hope. Now that I know there is no other solution, I will not show mercy.”
“That hardly sounds like something a righteous character would say. In human stories, you would probably be the sort of ridiculous villain who appears, says a few lines, and is immediately killed.”
Apparently, Hamreign had even read cheap human storybooks.
“What about Miss Dragon, then? You are even less righteous than I am, and your reputation is much worse. If I am a ridiculous villain who dies after saying a few lines... then Miss Dragon is probably the foolish, shortsighted, and laughable leader behind that ridiculous villain.”
Muen rubbed his hands together and deliberately put on a flattering expression.
“My great leader, remember to pay me. I don’t want anything else. How about giving me a few more of those beads that restore mental power?”
The two looked at each other.
Muen playfully winked at her...
Then Hamreign crushed him with one hand.
“...”
Tch.
No sense of romance.
Muen muttered inwardly, but then restrained his expression and became serious again.
Now was not the time to fool around and flirt.
“It’s time to work, right?”
He stood up and patted the dust from his clothes.
“You have already rested enough?”
Hamreign turned around, the corner of her mouth curving into a faintly teasing smile.
“Do not complain later that I drained you dry again.”
“Looks like I’ll have to show Miss Dragon my legendary endurance that never goes soft!”
Muen rolled up his sleeves and assumed the fierce posture of a man ready to fight anyone who refused to accept it.
But he quickly went from a fierce man to a little kitten.
Because Hamreign did not say another word. She directly hooked a finger into his collar, and the two of them began flickering at a speed completely impossible for the naked eye to capture.
They moved so quickly...
Even Muen, who manipulated time, found it difficult to endure.
By the time they stopped, Muen was already dizzy and disoriented, almost vomiting on the spot.
“Never goes soft?”
Hamreign raised an eyebrow, her tone full of implication.
“Ugh... I-I forgot to step out with my left foot first when I left today, so my condition is a little off. I’ll... prove it to you next time.”
Although he had nearly embarrassed himself again, Muen’s condition had indeed recovered considerably.
After all, during these two days, Hamreign had been the one truly carrying out the complicated arrangement of restrictions. He had only been assisting.
As long as his mental power was not being depleted, Muen’s recovery speed was now frighteningly fast.
After all, he had undergone all kinds of harsh training...
If his recovery ability were not strong enough, those dissatisfied possessive women would have already chopped him into several pieces.
“Then let us continue.”
“Understood.”
Muen took out the register.
By “continue,” they naturally meant continuing the search from before.
After the incident with the little girl, Hamreign had reacted quickly. She had directly separated the city’s residents with restrictions to prevent the Pollution disaster from spreading further. That could also be considered a way of thwarting whatever later schemes those survivors might have planned.
But it only prevented the survivors from continuing to exploit Pollution to cause trouble.
If they could not drag them out, this matter still could not be completely resolved.
Therefore...
Bang.
Hamreign unceremoniously pushed open the door.
Before, the two of them would still knock politely, but now they no longer had the time. They entered directly.
Inside the house, a family of three trembled.
Muen examined them.
They were still ordinary people. They probably did not understand much about the present situation and were merely afraid of the evil dragon who had arrived.
However...
The degree of their fear seemed to far surpass that of the people Muen had encountered before.
Even the innocent child was tightly curled up in the adults’ arms, not daring to innocently accept candy from Muen or Hamreign like the previous little girl had.
That was only natural.
After the Pollution incident, restrictions had been activated to seal everyone off, all communication had been cut, and now even the most basic supply of resources had been stopped...
Under Miss Dragon’s many protective measures, the people here felt not the slightest sense of safety.
On the contrary, many of them had probably already become convinced that they had been completely imprisoned by the evil dragon and were merely waiting for the moment when she would finally kill them.
Even Muen, the “evil dragon’s lackey,” was no longer treated with the same disrespect as before, when they had taken him for some incomprehensible monster.
Because deeper fear made people too afraid to mock you at all.
“P-please... have some coffee.”
The slightly braver man forced himself to bring them coffee, his posture incomparably stiff.
Hamreign did not even glance at it.
She merely touched each of their foreheads casually with a fingertip.
At the same time, her perception spread outward.
“They are not those rats. There is no Pollution, and there is no one else hidden in the house. Let us go.”
“Mm.”
Muen quickly crossed the three names off the register.
After confirming there were no mistakes, he followed Hamreign out.
This time, both their efficiency and their coordination were far better than before.
Not a single unnecessary word was spoken during the entire process.
The two of them seemed to have become pure screening machines.
Their wind-like speed of arrival and departure left the man holding the coffee frozen in place.
Only after a long time did he finally recover, looking as though he had been granted a pardon.
“Will this really be all right?”
As they left, Muen glanced back one final time.
“What?”
“Their fear. At this rate, they will eventually be unable to endure it, won’t they?”
When facing a powerful and evil existence, fear would arise.
When facing the reality of being sealed in and confined, fear would arise.
When facing an unknown future and a hopeless situation, fear would still arise.
Just as Muen had seen, these citizens, individually sealed inside their own homes, had already become extremely afraid.
As time passed, that fear would only continue to intensify.
There was no solution.
As long as Miss Dragon descended in the form of the evil dragon from their stories, everything she did would become a mountain pressing down upon the hearts of the city’s residents.
No one knew when it might crush the minds of those who were more fragile.
“Is that important?”
Hamreign’s golden pupils glanced sideways.
“Rather, fear is a good thing. It will make them behave and save me a great deal of effort.”
“I am worried that some people may be unable to endure it and instead do something troublesome.”
“Compared with becoming Polluted, this is already an extremely small price. If their minds truly break and they decide to do something foolish, then I can only let them.”
Hamreign remained completely emotionless.
“My restrictions are more than capable of stopping a few ordinary people.”
“Is that so?”
Muen was helpless, but there was equally nothing he could do.
Miss Dragon was not wrong.
Compared with becoming Polluted, being a little frightened was not a serious problem.
Not to mention that the people here were frightening themselves.
“In the end, they were simply brainwashed too deeply.”
Muen sighed.
The survivors’ move had indeed been ruthless.
Perhaps only after they had been completely dragged out, the crisis had ended, and Miss Dragon and he had simply left this place, would the people here gradually come to understand the truth they had misunderstood.
Therefore...
They only needed to endure a little longer.
Thinking this, Muen gritted his teeth and immediately increased his pace.
But no matter how much he sped up, that fiery-red figure remained exactly one full step ahead of him.
Her pace...
Seemed to have quickened slightly as well.