The beast tamer exiled from the hero’s party and the cat eared girl from the strongest race meet
According to Sora and Luna, the magic disguising us as demons can’t be dispelled by just anything.
So, as far as fighting normally goes, there’s no problem.
However, depending on how things unfold, we may end up having to fight Cassion. If we show our full strength in front of him, we’d be exposing our hand… but if we don’t, the city might suffer damage.
It’s quite a dilemma.
“We came all this way to save people abducted by demons, and now we’re about to fight to protect a demon city. Kind of ironic, isn’t it?”
“True enough.”
I gave a wry smile at Yuki’s words.
It’s far removed from our original goal. It doesn’t make sense.
It doesn’t… but still, we couldn’t just ignore it.
If the demons had truly been heartless, then we wouldn’t even consider helping them. But that wasn’t the case. The demons of this city, Cassion included, were surprisingly human-like. They had the same emotions… the same hearts as we did.
Once we had seen that, once we had come to understand it, there was no way we could just turn away.
Even so… just what does it mean to be a “demon”? That’s something I’ll have to think about properly later.
“Come to think of it, Yuki, you use twin blades, don’t you?”
Shorter than a normal sword, one in each hand. That was Yuki’s weapon of choice.
I remembered that when we were attacked by monsters on the highway before, he had used an ordinary sword.
“This time, it seemed better to go all out. I’ve got a weird kind of talent… I’m better with twin blades than a normal sword.”
“I see.”
“But Rain, you using a double saber is unusual too, isn’t it?”
“I’m still training with it. My real specialty is this dagger.”
I gave the dagger, Kamui, at my waist a tap.
That one was my trump card. Hopefully, I wouldn’t have to use it.
“Ray! Yuu!”
Cassion came running over.
“The monsters are almost here. You two take middle guard—pick off anything we in the vanguard miss.”
“Got it. Leave it to us.”
“But are you sure it’s okay for us to be in the middle?”
If we were thinking purely in terms of strength, we should be at the front lines too.
“No, middle guard is fine. You two just got to the city—I can’t drag you straight into the thick of it. That city has to remain a symbol of hope for moderates like us. Throwing newcomers into the front lines isn’t something I can do.”
“I don’t really mind, though…”
“I mind. Besides, you two are strong, aren’t you? If you’re covering the middle and protecting the city, then we can fight up front without worrying about what’s behind us. That peace of mind is actually a huge deal.”
“Makes sense.”
Indeed, it’s hard to fight while worrying the city might be attacked. Being able to fight without concern is important.
“Alright, then I’m counting on you. But don’t overdo it—if things get bad, run.”
Cassion patted our shoulders lightly, then hurried back to the vanguard.
“…Hey, Rain.”
“Yeah?”
“Cassion’s… a demon, right?”
“He should be…”
But no matter how I looked at him, he was no different from a human. Yuki and I were still bewildered by that fact.
That said, we couldn’t afford to stay lost in confusion.
We had decided to protect this demon city, and we would see it through. We wouldn’t let even a shred of damage happen.
“Alright. Let’s do this, Yuki!”
“Yeah, Rain!”
Yuki and I braced ourselves and raised our weapons.
――――――――――
Cassion’s vanguard unit clashed with the monsters, and about ten minutes later, the ones that slipped through started trickling our way.
Several Killer Tigers.
A single massive, caterpillar-like Land Worm.
And one Wyvern.
“We’ll take the Land Worm and the Wyvern—please handle the rest!”
Out of habit, I gave orders on my own, but the demon soldiers obeyed without protest.
Cassion must have said something to them beforehand.
“Can I leave the Land Worm to you?”
“No problem. Then, Rain, I’ll leave the Wyvern to you.”
“Leave it to me.”
Yuki was the first to rush forward.
Fast.
Like the wind, he closed in on the Land Worm and swung both his blades. His movements were smooth, almost like a dance. Yet at the same time, they were unpredictable, striking from every possible angle.
The Land Worm shrieked, thrashing its massive body to whip back at him in retaliation.
But this was where Yuki truly shined. Unbelievably, he caught the Land Worm’s charge head-on.
The force of a Land Worm’s rush should’ve been far harder to stop than a horse-drawn carriage at full speed… yet Yuki met it with a calm expression.
What absurd strength.
“Haaaahhh!!”
As if to say “this is nothing,” Yuki roared with spirit.
With that cry, he actually forced the Land Worm’s massive body back.
Was that even possible? Even with my contract with Kanade, I couldn’t hope to do something like that.
Overwhelming power. That was Yuki’s strength.
“Well, I can’t afford to be left behind.”
Watching Yuki’s reliable form naturally made me feel that I had to push myself too.
I leveled my double saber, fixing my gaze on the Wyvern soaring through the sky.
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