What greeted Cyril upon finally exiting the 'interrogation' room were the impatient faces of his friends.
He spent quite some time in that room, making them wait mixed in with the local soldiers.
Cedric, of course, didn't mind; he was the type of person to befriend just about anyone.
"Finally, what took you so long?" Rose said, sitting on a chair with her chin resting on her hand.
Myra was sitting nearby; in her eyes could be seen the same question.
The moment they saw the awkward face of Cyril and the excited face of the knight that led them here, they understood that something must've happened.
"Young heroes, you are free to go. Remember, if you have any problems, come to the tower and look for Alfred. If I am available, then I will definitely help." The knight said with a reliable expression.
Everyone could feel him becoming a few times more friendly, leaving them in confusion.
"Can you tell us what will happen to the zoo? I've tried asking the soldiers, but they don't know," asked Cedric.
He felt that now there was a chance this previously silent knight would let something slip, and he was right.
After a brief hesitation, the knight opened his mouth. "You are from Ailanthus, so it should be fine to tell you..." He cleared his throat and continued with a lowered voice.
"The Emperor already decided to abandon this park. From now on this will be the territory of beasts" The knight solemnly said.
"What? They'll just let that snake remain in the center of the city?" Rose whispered.
"That snake will not go beyond its territory; we know that for sure. Instead of wasting manpower trying to defeat it, which might only bring untold destruction on the city, we will let it sleep on top of the mana vein." The knight explained the decision of the authorities.
"In the meantime we will try to come up with a solution that doesn't require a fight," Alfred said.
Then his face brightened up a bit. "Who knows? Maybe this will be a special zone with real wild animals about. Think of the value of such a place," he said in a joking tone.
The group wasn't in a laughing mood, however.
No matter how brave they were, it still felt weird that there was such a monstrosity living not that far away.
"There must be other reasons for such a decision. I don't buy this explanation," Rhamn said with suspicion.
"Don't worry, the Emperor himself will invest some energy to make a barrier around this place, preventing the beasts still inside from leaving," Alfred tried to reassure them.
"'Still inside?' Have some animals escaped into the city?" Myra asked after catching a peculiar word.
"Unfortunately, that's the case. A number of magic creatures have escaped our sight and are currently hiding somewhere." Alfred sighed with helplessness. "There were some troublesome ones among them too..."
"Leave that to us for now, all right? Once you graduate, you'll have plenty of trouble to help us with, I am sure." The knight said while waving his head.
He didn't want to speak further on the matter.
With no more questions, Alfred led the group out of the building.
In the end he waved everyone a goodbye, saying they'll meet again.
Cyril felt this was more directed at him than at the others.
"Your father turned out to be quite popular. I wonder if there is a fan club or something even," Rhamn jokingly said.
"His behavior changed quite a bit... What happened in that room?" Cedric asked Cyril with curiosity.
"Turns out they knew my father," Cyril said without hiding anything.
"That would explain it. Lucky for us! Now we know some insider information," Cedric said with a smile.
"Speaking of... Why is there such an investigation for people leaving the park?" Rose said with confusion.
"They are checking to see if any magic creature is attached to people," Myra confidently replied. "Some of them have dangerous abilities when brought into a populated area."
Hearing these words, a certain spark appeared in Rose's eyes. She was clearly interested in finding out more.
"Let's just go to a hotel already," Myra tiredly said.
She had enough unforeseen events for today. Somehow it just kept happening, leaving her with bad thoughts.
"Does anyone know where Edmund is?" suddenly said Cyril.
Before this, he completely forgot Edmund even came with them to the zoo.
Looking at the faces around him, he wasn't the only one with such a problem.
"Who would care to remember someone as cowardly as him?"
Everyone turned to face Anna, who was the last person to see him. This caused her to shrink slightly.
"I don't know, we separated early on... He must've been evacuated by now, right?" Anna whispered a guess.
"The hotel is close; let's check it," Cyril proposed without any worry.
Seeing Cyril so calm, the other people didn't worry too much as well.
They've said goodbye to Cedric and Anna, and started walking towards the hotel.
...
It turns out there really was no reason to worry.
The moment they entered the building, the first thing they saw was the nervous Edmund sitting on the couch in the corner.
"Thank Gods you are fine!" Upon seeing them, he sprang to his feet and approached.
"What took you so long?" Edmund asked as a complaint.
Cyril actually expected him to be missing.
There was even a plan to sneak back into the zoo forming in his mind.
"We took our time to enjoy the zoo," said Cyril.
They've caught up with one another, and the group said goodbye to each other for the day.
It had been dark outside for a long time already. They were tired and wanted to sleep.
Cyril quickly washed up and dropped on the luxurious bed, staring at the ceiling in thought.
Morpho and Tigris, of course, soon joined him.
Looking at the carefree kitten sleeping without any distracting thoughts, Cyril didn't know what to do with him.
Making another person bleed indefinitely because you were a bit upset didn't seem like an acceptable thing to do.
Tigris also wasn't repentant for what he did at all.
But that's not something unique to this tiger as well.
Cyril noticed that whether it was Rhamn or Morpho, none of them treated regular humans particularly well.
Rhamn was hostile to basically anyone Cyril ever met, always suspicious of their every action.
While Morpho refused to even interact with people normally.
Today during the trip, Cyril even felt numerous times how Morpho wanted to beat up some of the regular visitors.
He had subtle hopes that Tigris was going to be different, but seeing his actions today, that may not be the case.
Why are you so hostile to people? Thought Cyril.
"I wouldn't say I am particularly hostile." Rhamn appeared on the other side of the bed, staring at Cyril.
"I'm just on our side of the fence. So what if Tigris hurt some random human? No one else matters but us." She softly said.
"If I ever get the choice of sacrificing the whole of humanity for the sake of one Morpho or Tigris, I would do it in a heartbeat, no hesitation," Rhamn said with a smile.
"I am sure you would do the same." There was a weird conviction and pride in her voice.
...At least you are being honest. Thought Cyril, slightly stunned.
"I am always honest with you."
There were a lot of thoughts going on in Cyril's head right now, and Rhamn didn't interrupt him.
In a way, it wasn't entirely unexpected to hear this from Rhamn, but coming from someone usually so supportive, the words still left him with a sense of whiplash.
I'll focus on trying to mellow out Tigris and Morpho for now...
Maybe they just need proper education.
After all, they weren't born too long ago, and kids can be cruel.
Rhamn only smiled in response to his thoughts.
In the end, Cyril slowly fell asleep thinking about his close companions.