The discussion between Hope and the old man continued for about three minutes.

The communication with the built-in manacam was very dense, and the old man received and analyzed the information from Hope in an instant.

On the other hand, the call with the manaphone took a long time, so that the apparent talk time was 3 minutes.

"...... is more than that."

<<

<

"Yes, sir."

Hope switched off the manaphone and the call ended.

"Let's wait here until we hear back."

"That's fine."

Hope and < are both golems, so it is not hard for them to just sit and <>.

The two were waiting to hear from us: .......

* * * *

"Yes, we should all go with , but who should the other two be?"

<

"Yes, that's right."

Since Arnold is an engineer from the time of the war, there is a possibility that he may know about the first magic brain.

That might move things along.

And with Chel as his companion, it's not a problem.

"What about the other one? I don't think we should go with Rhodes or Phylicious.

There is a big possibility that <> will consider them as enemies.

Likewise, Sion, Marikka, and Rorona are also out of the picture.

<>.

"How about Hannah?"

<.

In any case, since she is going with a doppelganger, she won't be in any danger.

It will be interesting to see what Hannah has to say to the .

>

"Well, let's go with ...... Anne."

.

Since Anne is also an automata from the <>, Jin thinks that she may have some connection with <> .......

Anyway, now the members who are going to meet <> have been decided.

>

"Well, we should take the instead of the <."

Since Hope is using <>, Jin and the others decide to go with <> of the same series.

In any case, there is no problem since they will use the transporter to get to their destination at once.

"Oh, we should call Hannah and Arnold.

<

"I see. So, have you heard back?

Yes.

Arnold and Chelle arrived at Horai Island the next day.

Hannah will be coming from Hale accordingly.

Considering the time required for transportation, the schedule was set to arrive there half a day after the gathering.

Yes, I will do that.

Yes, then we will arrive the day after tomorrow. We will be waiting for you.

Hope was also informed.

"As you said, sir.

"Yes, all right. Then we will wait until then.

The golem is not bothered by waiting in vain.

Hope and began to wait in place.

* * * *

Arnold's leave of absence from the 22nd to the 24th was accepted without incident.

"Then, for the rest of the day, let's re-inspect the golems of and the others."

<, he instructs the members to do so.

Of course, we had done a thorough inspection when we confiscated the golem and found no abnormalities or problems, but we had not examined the <>.

"This time it won't take long because we only need to check for <>, but please make sure to investigate thoroughly."

"Yes, sir."

The inspection was completed in an hour, with everyone working separately.

In the end, no backdoor was found, and the safety of <> was assured.

Avalon was secured.

At the same time, the old man, who was working on another pending issue, finally took a step forward.

<>

One of the destinations of the Mitsuho dyes had such a description.

However, the name of the purchaser was not given.

However, this has narrowed down the scope of our investigation considerably.

There is a slight possibility that the dye was sent from Ulaanu to some other place, which can be found by checking the account book of the shipping company.

So the old man started to examine the books again.

And he found this one with relative ease.

>

This is one more confirmation of the suspicion against Maaliks.

The "Mere Old Man" thought that he would leave it to who was nearby, since would not be able to do that.

* * * * * *

Maolikus, the manager of the distributor, had just left the Aegean city.

Peggy Xenos is not with him.

Since this <> was meaningless, she and Maolikus have decided to go their separate ways.

(We still have no proof that the manager is not one of them.)

This is the conclusion I came to based on my judgment without preconceptions.

He may be inexperienced, but his judgment is sound.

Seeing this, Zegar Ramban raised his opinion of this junior.

（He was right. ...... I'll keep a closer eye on Maaliks.)

And Zega Ramban leaves the town of Aegean.

Peggy Xenos was going to stay in Aegean for the day to do some research.

and Horai Island.

Which will arrive at the truth first? .......