The beast tamer exiled from the hero’s party and the cat eared girl from the strongest race meet
"……"
In the room she’d been assigned, Mina sat on the stool by the vanity, staring at her reflection in the mirror.
What she saw was a well-proportioned, beautiful face—one that others might envy.
But never once had she felt proud of her appearance.
Whether it was beautiful and refined or completely disfigured—it didn’t matter.
It was irrelevant.
No matter what she looked like, her mission remained unchanged.
"Peace with the demons… Is that truly possible?"
The reflection of Mina in the mirror was distorted.
Since Arios had supported the idea, Mina had followed suit and voiced her agreement.
But deep within her heart, she couldn’t help but question: Is this really the right path?
Demons were the enemy.
The natural enemies of all living beings.
As long as the demons existed, humanity would never know peace.
Not just the Demon King—but every last one of them had to be eradicated.
Without a shred of mercy.
Without hesitation.
No compassion.
Only after making them realize the depth of their sins should they be judged.
That was what she had been taught.
“Demons are the enemy… Peace with them is fundamentally impossible. And yet…”
The current situation was deeply frustrating.
Had she not been a fugitive, she might’ve considered returning to the church.
To ask: What should I do?
But that wasn’t an option.
She had to decide for herself.
Yet no answer came.
The more she thought, the more lost she felt.
Her thoughts tangled like a whirlpool, and the answer only grew farther away.
“I…”
No matter how much she pondered, there was no answer.
And that made sense in a way.
Mina had hardly ever made decisions on her own.
When she joined Arios’s party, she had simply followed the church’s orders.
When they set out to defeat the Demon King, she just believed it was her destiny.
Even when Rain was cast out, it was only because Arios said so.
She had abandoned the act of thinking for herself.
No—she had never even developed the mindset to begin with.
Someone would always guide her.
Show her the path to walk.
But now, no one said anything.
No one showed her the way.
What should she do?
She was supposed to figure it out herself, find the answer on her own—but she couldn’t.
There was nothing she could do.
Like a lost child, Mina was left adrift, overwhelmed and confused.
“Mina, are you in there?”
“Ah… yes.”
A knock came at the door, followed by Monica’s voice.
Snapping back to reality, Mina responded.
“What is it?”
“There’s something I need to talk to you about…”
“Huh?”
Monica’s voice sounded serious—too serious. A bad feeling crept over Mina.
――――――――――
"Lin… is dead?"
"No way… how could this happen…"
They had just moved to the hall when they were informed of Lin’s death.
Apparently, even Arios hadn’t known—he was stunned.
Recently, Lin had been traveling all over the place helping Monica…
But to think she’d end up never returning… who could’ve predicted such a thing?
"I’m so sorry… I was with her, and yet it still came to this."
"What the hell happened!? Why Lin?!"
"Arios, please calm down. What happened to Lin is… truly unfortunate, but taking it out on Monica won’t—"
"Tch… Y-You’re right. I’m sorry, Monica. I lost my composure."
"No, don’t worry about it. In fact, considering your feelings, it’s completely understandable."
"So then… what exactly happened? Can you tell us how this came to be?"
"Yes, of course."
Monica and Lin had been traveling from place to place in an effort to promote peace with the demons.
If they tried to go straight to the upper echelon of demonkind—like the Four Heavenly Kings—there’s no way they’d be taken seriously.
More likely, they’d have been attacked outright.
To avoid such a scenario, they began by seeking out the more peaceful demons—those who were free-spirited and roamed on their own—and tried to win them over.
By gathering numbers, they hoped to push their message through.
The plan had been going well.
Though they were occasionally attacked, they were gradually succeeding in gaining allies among the demons.
At that rate, even the Four Heavenly Kings wouldn’t be able to ignore them, and would be forced to consider peace.
It was at that promising moment… that Rain appeared.
He refused to listen to a single word of their plea, and slaughtered every demon who had joined their cause.
The violence didn’t end there.
Even as Lin, in tears, apologized for her past actions and begged for a chance to start over—he cut her down.
That was the story Monica told, through tears.
If the person being spoken about had actually heard it, they wouldn’t have been angry—they’d have been utterly dumbfounded at the sheer number of lies.
But Arios and Mina had no way of knowing Monica was lying.
They couldn’t even imagine that the one who had saved them would speak such falsehoods.
"Damn it!"
Arios, consumed by rage, slammed his fist against the wall.
A crack formed, and dust trickled down.
"Rain again! Rain, Rain, Rain, Rain, RAAAIN…!!! That bastard, even here he shows up—and he took Lin from us too… damn it, damn it!!"
"…Arios…"
"How much more does he have to interfere before he’s satisfied!? It’s him. It’s all Rain’s fault! Because of Rain, we…"
The truth was that it all started because they banished Rain…
But Arios couldn’t even acknowledge that—he couldn’t recognize it or accept it. Instead, he kept pouring out curses.
He could never admit his own mistakes, never face the consequences, and continued to avert his eyes from his sins.
And Mina…
"Oh God… please, show us the way."
Even in a time like this, she made no effort to think for herself—instead, she tried to entrust everything to someone else.
Both Arios and Mina were still beyond saving.
…Two members left in the hero’s party.
Thank you for the chapter!
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