At the End of Revenge, There You Are ~The Scum Who Killed My Beloved, Prepare Yourselves! I Will Drag You All to Hell... Wait, What? Why Are the Heroine and the Demoness Coming After Me, a Woman!?(GL) - Chapter 5

Back at the Guild, I sat down at my desk in a hurry, booted up my PC, and accessed the folder containing the incident reports.

The folder held not only my report but also statements and investigation records gathered by others. First, I needed to carefully go through the details I had overlooked before in my daze.

After that, I planned to head to the archives and the video records room for further investigation—

But then, my supervisor’s irritated voice cut through my thoughts.

Honestly, I wanted to ignore him.

“Hey, Shinomiya! What the hell are you doing?!”

“What do you mean? I’m investigating last week’s case.”

“Don’t bring personal matters into the workplace!”

“So, is it Guild policy to ignore dungeon regulations? There are too many inconsistencies in Hanashiro Yuzuha’s death. If we let this go, the difficulty rating of the Musashino Dungeon itself comes into question.”

“You little…! You already have your next assignment! It’s Okutama!”

“I’m still investigating the last case, so assign it to someone else.”

“Are you kidding me?!”

He yelled at me.

But what hit me harder than his anger was the fact that I had already been assigned a new job.

It was disgusting.

To the Guild, Yuzuha’s death was already a closed case.

I hadn’t expected them to block me from gathering information altogether.

…Maybe it really was time to quit.

Even as I argued, I kept searching through my computer. I wasn’t going to stop just because of him.

I just needed to push, push, and push harder—maybe someone else would take my assignment instead.

“Hold it, hold it. Both of you, calm down. Look, I’ll take the Okutama job, so just take a deep breath, alright?”

Gen-san stepped in between us.

As always, he was looking out for me.

And yes, please, take that job off my hands.

“Forget it. Just do the job you’re assigned. Anything else is a waste of time.”

“I won’t stop unless you give me a reason that actually makes sense.”

“Tch…”

He glared at me with pure irritation. But I wasn’t backing down. Not now.

I kept searching the files, but—nothing.

No useful information at all.

Just that bastard’s worthless statement.

It was clear. I needed to check the video records.

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

“To the video records room.”

“Are you stupid?! You’re not authorized to access that footage!”

“…What?”

“Ah—”

What did he just say?

“Not authorized?”

The Tokyo Branch Special Investigation Unit of the Dungeon Association Guild wasn’t allowed to review video footage?

Then what the hell are we supposed to investigate?

The weather?

What kind of bullshit is this?

Incidents inside dungeons almost never have third-party witnesses.

If someone dies, how do you determine if it was a monster attack? An accident? A suicide?

Or… murder?

That’s exactly why video records exist.

Sure, dungeon recordings aren’t perfect. Some areas are clearer than others.

But they’re always recorded.

If they told me the footage was from a blind spot and couldn’t be used as evidence, I’d understand.

But to outright forbid access?

That only meant one thing—

Someone was hiding something.

Someone either killed Yuzuha or was involved in her death, and they didn’t want anyone to find out.

“Drop it. Don’t go any further.”

It was my supervisor—the man who had trained me—telling me this.

So that’s how it was.

The Guild’s higher-ups were protecting that bastard.

There was no way I could let that slide.

Then…

“Fine, then I quit.”

“Hah… Glad you finally understand.”

Oh, do I now?

“Well then, thank you for everything. I doubt we’ll ever see each other again, but take care.”

“Wha—?”

I grabbed my bag, stood up, and pulled out my resignation letter, tossing it onto my supervisor’s desk.

I had no regrets about leaving this organization.

A Guild that protects scum…

That shields the very bastard who took Yuzuha from me…

The Yuzuha who had looked at me with those anxious yet affectionate eyes…
The Yuzuha who would never return.

“Wait, wait, wait! Are you serious?!”

Supervisor Kimura raised his voice in a panic, but of course, I was serious.

All that talk when I first joined about staying true to your beliefs no matter the circumstances—that was all bullshit, wasn’t it?

“If you quit, what’s going to happen to the Special Investigation Unit?!”

“Someone else will do it, won’t they? Sure, my skills are useful for field investigations, but they’re hardly essential.”

“Wait! Hold on a second!”

“No.”

There was nothing left to say.

I bowed in silence and turned to leave the office—

“Wait, Shinomiya. I’ll let you investigate. So stay.”

“…Gen-san!?”

Gen-san suddenly stepped in front of me, giving his approval without hesitation—causing the supervisor to scramble in alarm.

“You’ll let me see the footage?”

“Yeah. But it’ll only be the public recordings.”

“…Understood. That’s enough. In that case, I’ll withdraw my resignation and submit a leave of absence instead.”

Gen-san’s wording tipped me off.

Lowering my voice slightly, I tucked my resignation letter back into my bag.

“Why the hell were you carrying that around?!”

“I always keep it in my bag. Just in case. Problem?”

“Ugh…!”

“Enough. Let’s go.”

“Gen-san!?”

“Give it up, boss. You know there’s no stopping her now. Come on, Shinomiya.”

“Yes.”

I quickly sent in my leave request and followed Gen-san.

Our destination was obvious—the Video Records Room.

“I’m sorry, Gen-san. I just… couldn’t let it go.”

“I get it. But don’t blame the boss too much. He doesn’t have as much power as you think.”

Maybe that was true.

Even as a department head, Kimura still had plenty of higher-ups above him.

“If you say so, I get it. But… I’m disappointed.”

What else could I feel?

Even though he was usually careless and had a bad habit of workplace harassment, I had at least thought he had a heart.

But now, I knew better.

As we talked, we arrived at the Video Records Room.

Gen-san pulled out a card—his explorer’s ID, not his Guild staff ID.

“So you still kept it, huh?”

“Yeah. Someone once told me I might need it someday. This will only let us access the public footage, though.”

I didn’t ask who had told him that.

It was probably a superior back when he transitioned from being an explorer to working at the Guild.

But that didn’t matter.

Even just the public footage was enough for now.

Even if Yuzuha’s death wasn’t recorded, the journey leading up to it should be.

That alone could provide clues.

Just as Gen-san was about to scan his card into the entry terminal—

A voice called out from behind.

“Don’t jump to conclusions.”

“…Boss?”

Kimura was standing there, slightly out of breath from chasing after us.

Maybe he was just out of shape—he did always rely on my skill to move around quickly.

Maybe he should get some exercise.

“…You heard that?”

“Of course I did, idiot.”

“I’m not taking it back.”

“You should!”

“No can do. My memory of you has been permanently set to ‘workplace harassment old man.’”

“…Oh yeah?”

With that, he scanned his card into the terminal.

The Special Investigation Unit Chief’s ID.

With this, we could access the restricted recordings.

“That’s a solid move… I’d give it about a ten.”

“Hah. Full marks, obviously.”

“Your smug face deducts a hundred thousand points.”

“Oi!”

Ignoring his complaints, I stepped into the room.

“Thank you, boss.”

“Yeah…”

“Fine. I’ll take back the ‘disappointed’ part.”

With that, I entered one of the private booths to review the footage.

…

I think I heard the old men muttering something behind me, but honestly, I couldn’t care less.

My mind was focused on only one thing—Finding out what happened to Yuzuha.

“Damn, she’s really not cute at all.”

“Nah, she’s got guts. You trained her well, boss—no complaints.”

“Hmph.”

“By the way… you sure this is okay?”

“Don’t act all innocent now, Gen. You were planning to use your old ID to show her the footage anyway. Besides… if something comes crawling out of this, it might actually work in our favor.”

“Hah. Not honest at all, are you?”

“Shut up.”