The beast tamer exiled from the hero’s party and the cat eared girl from the strongest race meet




Chapter 485: Is this the human heart?

(TL:By Rafael,valhallatls.blogspot.com)

Out of nowhere, a ball of light came flying and—Bang!—mercilessly pierced through the beast's head, shattering it.

“Huh!?”

This turn of events must have been unexpected, as Mona let out a startled voice.

But I was just as surprised.

I think that was Tina who did it… but why is she here?

“Hehe, I'm taking Nina back, thank you very much.”

“Wha—!?”

With eight wings spread wide, Iris descended from the sky, snatched Nina away from Mona, and flew back up again.

Nice!

“Lord Rain, I’ve retrieved Nina.”

“Thanks. Can you put her to sleep, just like that?”

“It’s possible, but…?”

“She’s being controlled by Mona. If this continues...”

“I see. Then…”

Iris pinned down the struggling Nina.

While Nina is one of the strongest kinds, Iris is even beyond that—a top-class celestial species. There was no way she could win by force, and so she was subdued.

“Then, goodnight.”

“Fwah…”

Iris took out a handkerchief from her pocket, soaked it with some unknown liquid, and held it to Nina’s mouth.

Soon after, Nina slumped over and fell asleep.

We were saved—though…

“Was that a sleeping drug? Why are you even carrying something like that around?”

“In case I got the chance to use it on you, Lord Rain... Er, never mind.”

“…We’re in the middle of a battle, so I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”

I figured asking further might get me a scary answer, so I decided to let it go.

“Hey, hey, hey! What the hell did you just do to my adorable, precious Nina!? Huh!? I’ll beat the crap outta you!!”

Tina was furious.

Her rough tone and angry outburst made her usual carefree attitude seem like a lie.

She was so incredibly angry that I felt my own rage fading.

“Wait, why are both of you even here? You didn’t destroy all the wedges, did you?”

“Sorry, we only managed to destroy two more after that.”

“But then we had this weird bad feeling, and figured we’d better check on you, Lord Rain.”

“You did all that… but why?”

“Oh, this is something we learned from you, Lord Rain.”

“Me?”

“You once said, ‘There’s no logic to people’s actions.’ Remember?”

“Ah…”

“So we acted according to our hearts. That’s all there is to it.”

“Seems like it turned out to be the right call. Who’d have guessed someone would take Nina hostage and then control her... That piece-of-trash demon scum! I’ll beat her to a pulp!!!”

Given our original goal of saving Nokia-san, maybe their decision wasn’t entirely praiseworthy.

Even so, I couldn’t help feeling happy.

It made me realize just how strong our bond as comrades had become…

My chest—my heart—felt warm.

“Alright!”

Smack—I slapped my own cheeks to psych myself up.

“Everyone, let’s take down Mona—fast! Then we’ll destroy the rest of the wedges!”

““Roger!!””

We were fired up.

Our motivation was sky-high.

Now then… How will Mona respond?

I know I’m saying this myself, but with the way we are now, we’re seriously dangerous—anyone would be terrified to face us.

“Yikes, this is bad. I thought I’d managed to split up the party, but now you’re all coming at me together?”

“Prepare yourself.”

“Hmm… Okay, I’ve decided. I’m gonna run away.”

With a carefree tone, Mona took a step back.

“After everything you’ve done, now you’re running away!?”

“Tina, calm down. It might be a trap.”

“No worries. I really am just running. I’m not very good at fighting. If it were just Rain-kun, maybe—but going up against all three of you head-on? No way I’m doing something that dumb.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“Well then, I’ll say goodbye here. Bye-bye ♪”

“Come forth, flames of the otherworld!”

“Tina’s Spinning Magic Ball!”

Mona smiled sweetly and waved her hand.

That gesture must’ve really ticked them off—both Iris and Tina launched attacks...

But they were a second too slow—Mona’s figure vanished without a trace.

"Tch, she got away."

"If Nina hadn’t been captured, I could’ve unleashed a massive destructive attack without hesitation."

Both of them had a steely look in their eyes.

I understood how they felt… but it was a little scary.

"Tina, Iris. Thanks. You saved me. If I had been alone, it would've been dangerous."

"Don’t mention it. When Nina’s taken hostage, there’s not much you can do."

"But it’s suspicious whether she’s really retreated. There’s still the possibility she’s trying to lower our guard and come back again…"

"No, I don’t think that’s likely."

If a surprise attack fails once, people will be on alert.

To avoid repeating the same mistake, she wouldn’t try to divide our party again either.

Given that, I couldn’t imagine Mona plotting a second ambush.

She’s not that much of an idiot.

"So now all we have to do is destroy the remaining wedges?"

"Hard to say…"

When she retreated…

Mona had said “I”.

If we read into it, that might imply she left someone else behind.

"There might still be something going on. We need to stay on high alert and destroy the remaining wedges."

"Understood."

"First, let’s wait for Nina to recover."

After about ten minutes, Nina woke up…

Thankfully, the brainwashing had worn off.

After that, we immediately set out to destroy the remaining wedges, but—

"...What is this?"

At the location where a wedge should have been, there was nothing.

There were traces of where roots had been, but the massive tree itself was gone.

Rather than being dug up…

It felt more like the tree had sprouted legs and walked off on its own.

"Where’d the wedge go? Don’t tell me… it ran away?"

"That’s probably not the case, but… it may have been hidden or relocated somehow."

"Al-san."

When in doubt, we rely on Al-san.

I called out, but—no response.

"Al-san? Can you hear me?"

"She’s… not hearing us."

"What happened? Could it be… she’s being jammed?"

"If that’s true, I have a really bad feeling about this."

What is happening?

Or perhaps… what’s about to happen?

We heightened our alertness and watched our surroundings carefully.

"Ah."

Suddenly, Nina let out a small sound.

Following her gaze…

"…Nokia-san?"

There stood Nokia-san.

TL Note- Nokia?



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