Afterwards, Crepes·Clair shifted his gaze back again.

"Since Tennan is just delivering something and not participating in the operation, he can arrive a bit later. But what about the others? I had originally asked them to be here by 12:50, and now it's already 13:12. Why haven't they arrived yet? Could something have happened on the way?"

"Well... I'm not sure, after all, they left before me. Although nothing happened when I came, but... maybe they just got stuck in traffic."

No, that's strange, isn't it? If I'm not mistaken, you all took the same route, so why have the ones behind arrived while the ones in front haven't? Even if there was traffic, it shouldn't have caused this much delay, unless they took a different route. But that's still strange because you should have taken the shortest route. Unless there's a special reason, you wouldn't give up the shortest route, right? So, what happened to them..."

"Is that so..."

Even Ryuto, who is new here, could think of these things. Crepes·Clair had no reason not to know, but even so, Crepes·Clair didn't ask anything, just a hint of helplessness appearing on his face.

Although it might be Ryuto's misconception, but...

That didn't seem like helplessness towards getting stuck in traffic.

Just as Ryuto was thinking this.

"Screech—"

A harsh brake noise resounded.

The reason it was harsh was that even the passersby turned their gazes towards this side because of the sound.

And why say they turned towards this side? It's because the culprits who caused that brake noise, no, there were more than one culprit, several culprits, in fact, several cars stopped in front of Ryuto and the others.

Afterwards.

"Thud—"

With the sound of doors opening, including the drivers, over ten men came down, all dressed in black suits.

Of course, this number was from several cars combined; otherwise, how could so many people fit in one car... it's not a bus.

Although they made more noise than Beet Nan·Mas, Crepes·Clair didn't blame them at all. No, not only did he not blame, he didn't even get angry, instead...

"Have you arrived?"

Unusually calm.

However, a certain young man in his twenties with blonde hair, who was walking in the front, seemed as if he didn't hear, just draping his right arm around the shoulder of the person who came with him.

"How was it? The restaurant I recommended was pretty good, right?"

"Yeah, it's really your style. Let's go there again next time."

"No problem, my treat next time."

The two chatted and laughed among the crowd, completely ignoring the people around them.

Later on.

"Ah, isn't this the captain? Didn't expect you to be here already."

"Oh my, captain, have you been here for a long time?"

Isn't that obvious? Wasn't the plan to meet at 12:50? You're almost half an hour late, yet you ask this kind of thing. And from the looks of it, it's not because of traffic or an unexpected event causing the delay. Instead, you simply went to eat somewhere else, and on top of that, treating everyone. Don't you realize action is about to commence? It's too calm to go grab a meal, and...

Seems like there's a scent of alcohol, that will definitely be noticed.

Whether it's the smell of alcohol or the fact that they went out to eat before they arrived, if Ryuto knows, Crepes·Clair must know too. And with Crepes·Clair's serious nature, he shouldn't tolerate such slack behavior from his subordinates, especially not at this crucial moment capturing terrorists.

However...

"No, I just arrived."

Crepes·Clair's response was unusually calm.