The beast tamer exiled from the hero’s party and the cat eared girl from the strongest race meet
It seemed that Iris had reached her physical limit after sleeping for so long, and she quickly fell asleep again.
However, according to Elfin, once she had woken up, there was no longer any danger.
Leaving Iris in the care of Elfin and Finia, I went outside to cheer for everyone fighting.
That said, it looked like the battle was almost over, so there wasn’t much for me to do.
We managed to save Iris and drive away the monsters.
A near-perfect outcome.
If Monica had been here, she would’ve been frustrated.
Serves her right.
"Here, have some tea~"
Tina floated gently through the air, passing out tea to everyone.
Gathered on the first floor of the inn were eight of us—myself, Kanade, Tania, Tina, Chiffon, Elfin, Finia, and Alpha.
Sora and Luna were still asleep, exhausted from continuously treating the wounded.
The same went for Chocolat and Mille-Feuille.
Nina and Rifa had played a huge role in clearing the monsters from the town, but they had become so drowsy from exhaustion that we had to force them to rest.
Sakura, just in case, was keeping watch outside along with the animals I had temporarily contracted.
The eight of us decided to share information for the time being.
So much had happened, and we needed to strategize.
But before that, if we didn’t fully share what we knew, we might overlook something crucial.
"Things just keep getting more and more complicated..."
After about thirty minutes of discussion, we finished sharing information.
And I found myself holding my head in frustration.
That’s how tangled the situation had become.
Monica.
The demons.
And… Arios.
Problems were surfacing one after another.
Something was happening outside my knowledge.
Or perhaps… something was about to begin.
That’s the feeling I got.
"Chiffon, you don’t know much about Monica, do you?"
"Yeah, sorry. I became a hero after the former one—Arios—was exiled. So I hardly know anything about Monica, who disappeared at the same time. I’ve only heard rumors about her personality, but the first time I actually saw her was during the recent incident."
"I see… And Tina, Monica definitely mentioned a ‘branch family,’ right?"
"Yep. I may be a ghost, but I’ve got great hearing."
"Does being a ghost have anything to do with that…? Well, never mind. Either way, there’s no doubt about it. I heard it too."
Hearing the term "branch family," the first thing that came to mind was myself.
When I met with the king, I learned that I was from a branch family of the hero’s lineage.
Which meant… could Monica be the same?
"Chiffon, how much do you know about the hero’s branch families?"
"Um… Sorry, I actually don’t know much at all. In fact, before I became a hero, I didn’t even know I was from a branch family."
"So, it’s similar to my situation."
What kind of circumstances did Monica have?
What connections was she involved in?
And what was her goal?
For now, the only thing we knew for sure was that she had taken a hostile stance against humanity.
"Let’s put Monica’s case aside for now. We just don’t have enough information. We’ll have to keep gathering intel and analyzing it as we go."
"Yeah, that sounds good. I’ll report this to the king. If the country gets involved, more information should come in."
"I’m counting on you, Chiffon. Now, moving on to the demons…"
"They’ve been more active than ever lately."
Just as Alpha said, their movements had become more frequent, and we were seeing them appear in more and more places.
Elfin’s expression grew serious.
"Could this mean… the Demon King is preparing to act?"
"You have some insight?"
"Yes. I fought a Demon King several generations ago…"
She said something absolutely shocking as if it were nothing.
"As the dormant period ended and the active phase began, the demons indeed became more active."
"However, assuming that increased demon activity automatically means the Demon King is making a move… isn't that a bit hasty?"
Alpha voiced a counterargument.
"I don’t think they’re expanding their activity without reason, but it might be dangerous to immediately link this to the Demon King’s awakening. What if they’re not acting on his orders, but rather plotting something to break his slumber?"
"That’s a good point. There’s no doubt they’re up to something… but whether it’s for the Demon King or just an individual acting on their own, we can’t say for certain."
Once again, we reached the conclusion that we simply didn’t have enough information.
I felt a headache coming on.
"Now, for our final topic… Tina, is Arios still with Monica?"
"Yep, no doubt about it. It didn’t seem like they were even trying to hide it. Their attitude made it pretty obvious."
"…That’s troublesome."
Arios was moving alongside Monica.
And Monica was connected to the demons.
"Even if he’s a former hero, the idea of him working with demons is unheard of."
"Rather than capturing him, I should’ve just burned him to ash with my flames."
"Whoa… Tania, that’s intense."
"F-Flames…"
Kanade took a step back at Tania’s remark, while Finia seemed oddly reactive.
Maybe there was some kind of shared understanding between those who wielded fire.
"What the hell is Arios thinking? What could he possibly gain by siding with demons…?"
"Honestly, maybe he’s not thinking at all?"
"That actually sounds about right. He’s always been obsessed with power and fame. The perfect example of a small-minded man."
"T-That’s really harsh…"
Kanade and the others showed no mercy in their words, making Chiffon wince.
"I agree."
Elfin nodded in agreement.
"Even if he was a hero, he’s still just a human. Left alone, he won’t be much of a threat."
"B-But, Mother… there are strong humans too, like Rain…"
"Well… that’s true. Hmm… it seems my judgment becomes clouded when it comes to humans."
"U-Um, if a hero were to turn into a demon, like what happened with that human mage… i-it would be a disaster!"
Finia was right.
When Lin turned into a demon, even with Elfin and Shigure present, defeating her would’ve been an immense struggle.
If Arios, a hero, were to become a demon…?
Just thinking about it was exhausting.
"So in the end, we don’t know the details, but we can at least say for sure that a major threat is approaching…"
Even after organizing our thoughts and discussing various possibilities, we couldn’t come up with any fundamental solutions.
All we could do was acknowledge the severity of the enemy’s threat.
We didn’t know Monica’s objective or who was backing her.
Of course, we also had no idea where she was.
I wanted to do something… but there was nothing we could do right now.
"The best we can do for now is keep training every day, so we’re ready for anything."
"And staying vigilant. I’ll head to the royal capital immediately and advise the king. Even if we don’t know what actions to take yet, just being mentally prepared makes a huge difference."
"Yeah, I’m counting on you. The king will surely come up with countermeasures, and maybe we’ll find an effective strategy among them."
"Leave it to me. I’ve been failing a lot lately, but this time… I need to act like a real hero."
We might be fine for now…
But soon, we wouldn’t be able to just leisurely continue our adventures.
A storm was coming, and I had to prepare myself for it.
"Hey, hey."
As if she had suddenly remembered something, Kanade turned to Chiffon.
"Reporting to the king is fine and all… but shouldn’t we repair the Comet Sword first?"
"Ah!"
Both Chiffon and I, having completely forgotten why we had come to Kagune in the first place, let out a dumbfounded exclamation.
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