Daru was jolted out of his thoughts, instinctively turning to look.

His brows rose at the familiar sight of the young woman's pale-gray skin.

'Veshari…'

Lesha boldly examined him as she proceeded to grab a chair for herself, surprisingly choosing one right next to his, as if she was not aware at all of the animosity between their races.

Of course, Daru bore no hatred in his heart.

He fully understood that he shouldn't resent the enemy races for merely trying to survive like them.

If there was someone to blame, it would be the gods.

He couldn't deny that there was a budding seed of curiosity in his heart as to why their races were being pitted against each other in a harsh trial of survival.

However, how would he even demand answers?

He couldn't just kick their gates down and begin questioning them, could he?

'Well…could I?'

Daru didn't know, and for now, many other things were topping his curiosity list.

He shall start with those.

"Hello, Onimaru Kunitsuna," the slightly older female Veshari greeted with an unexpected smile.

"Ah, hello." Daru greeted back with a slight, polite bow.

"My…aren't you handsome?...unlike these two here. Sigh…if only we were from the same race, huh? We only live once, don't you agree? Why don't you accompany me to my shack lat–"

Before she could finish her words, however, Ascalon interrupted with a violent "Ahem!", followed by a reprimanding glare.

"Let's talk about important things, shall we? Brother Onimaru here has a lot of questions, and we're here to answer whatever we can. So…go, brother, fire away!"

The young female Veshari clicked her tongue in annoyance, proceeding to cross her legs and her arms over her chest.

She at least seemed willing to listen to reason.

Nando, on the other hand, moved his neck as if shaking his head in whatever emotions he was feeling.

"Youngsters these days…"

Daru felt that they were quite the chaotic bunch, but he didn't mind, simply proceeding to ask his questions, the first of which was how Ascalon and the others ended up becoming Damnedlings.

The answer turned out to be more harrowing than he expected.

Apparently, everyone in the village had already been caught and buried by the Accursed Soulcatchers and Burdened Gravediggers once.

"I-I see…" Daru stuttered.

His lack of social skills didn't allow him to react any more appropriately.

"How did you guys get out?"

It was then that a rather uproarious and proud chuckle resounded from the headless old man: "Why, everything here is because of me! These helpless little bastards would still be choking on ash right now if not for me!"

Nando certainly wasn't a modest individual.

However, both Lesha and Ascalon seemed to have already seen the boasting coming, chuckling while shaking their heads in response.

They didn't deny it.

In fact, the young female Veshari even supported the claims.

"Indeed. Problematic as this nutjob of an ancient fart is, he's indeed the reason why we're all here, and we're very grateful to him, which is why we want to help him leave this goddamned place. But this bag of senile bones just isn't making it easy! Sneaking here and there, losing his head with all the valuable information! Now, we have to risk our lives and retrieve it from the cemetery. If only this guy's body wasn't wrinkled all over, I would've mistaken him for an unruly brat!"

Not even two seconds passed before Nando snapped right back:

"You're the unruly brat! Your whole family is unruly brats!"

Lesha only shrugged in resignation, knowing the senseless conversation would only continue if she didn't drop it herself.

Daru found their verbal exchanges quite amusing.

However, this was the perfect chance to ask why they've dropped their operation just to bring him back first, and so he immediately followed up with the said question.

"Well, to put things simply, you're the only one who can save us, brother Onimaru. We've already become Damnedlings, technically becoming bound to Limbo. We need someone from the Surface or the mercy of the divine before we can get out. At least that's what the ancient fart told us…"

Daru nodded in understanding

The wretches of Egress seemed to be doing their preparations, but if there was a step they wouldn't be able to do no matter how hard they tried, then it made sense that they were willing to delay such an important operation for a more important piece of their preparation.

They could return to retrieve Nando's head another time, but who could be sure that they would encounter another Visitor like Daru?

"I see. I also want to leave. As long as you guys wouldn't perform heretical rituals on me, then I'm more than willing to help."

The other three froze and blinked for a moment before erupting into chuckles.

"Hahaha! How irresistibly adorable you are, Onimaru Kunitsuna…Of course! We might look like abominations outside Egress, but we won't do such a thing to you…uhh…probably…" Lesha said in an amused attempt to ease Daru's heart, glancing at Ascalon.

The SS-ranker noticed and immediately chimed in with relatively more accurate information:

"There…might be something similar, but don't worry, you won't be harmed. It's just that you'll have to be the one to open the portal…something like that. This ancient fart could've explained in detail, but he just had to lose his head and become senile!"

Nando cleared his throat in mild embarrassment.

"W-Well! I have a reason. How do you think you guys are able to increase in number, huh?! Me! I'm the reason! If not for me actively circling that damned cemetery for only the gods know how long, you wouldn't know which graves to dig, now would you?! Lost Damnedlings are called "lost" for a reason, you dumb brats! While the exact details are in my head, I can say for sure, even without it, that your numbers are still lacking if you want to attempt to leave."

"Hmph, aren't you doing it so you can escape too?" sneered Lesha.

Ascalon, on the other hand, fell silent, reminded that although they were progressing well in the past few months…years, their preparations were far from enough.

They still had a lot to do.

The headless old man uncharacteristically didn't respond intensely, either, only snorting in disagreement.

It was then that Daru spoke, snapping him out of his heavy thoughts:

"Well, I still need to represent my class in a competition, you see, so let's not dally and retrieve the ancient fa–...the old man's head as soon as possible. I'll join the cemetery raids."

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