The beast tamer exiled from the hero’s party and the cat eared girl from the strongest race meet
“……”
No one said anything.
Without looking back, they kept their eyes forward and walked on in silence.
Occasionally something hit from behind with a crashing sound. Yuki flinched, his shoulders twitching, but he didn’t stop moving.
He said nothing.
His face did not change.
He just kept looking ahead and kept walking.
“Yuki.”
Before I knew it, I had spoken to him.
What I was about to do might be cheap sympathy.
It might be a pointless attempt at consolation.
And yet—
Even I, who haven’t known Gray for long, felt how painful this must be.
Yuki’s chest must be about to burst.
Thinking that, I couldn’t just leave him alone.
“Hmm? What is it, Rain?”
“…No one can be a replacement for Gray. But I’m here.”
“…Rain…”
“I’m not the only one. Everyone is here. So… Yuki, you’re not alone. Please don’t forget that.”
For a moment Yuki’s face twisted up,
“…Yeah, thank you.”
He showed me a smile, on the verge of tears.
There’s no way I can say I understand exactly how painful it must be — that would be irresponsible.
Still, Yuki can still smile.
If he can smile, then he’ll be okay.
“Rain… let’s all—everyone here—definitely make it back.”
“Yeah. We will.”
Yuki, and I lightly bumped our fists together.
It was a promise that had the same meaning as a pinky swear.
“Tania. How are Yunia and Ani?”
I glanced back to check on the two of them.
Tania had both of them on her back, but I worried because of Ruie.
“They’re fine. Right now Sora and Luna’s magic has put them into a deep sleep.”
“Is that so… good.”
“But what will happen when they wake up…?”
“Yes… that’s true.”
Their beloved older sister had died—
And not only that, she had been turned into a demon.
Would the hearts of the sisters who’d witnessed such a sight be all right?
I couldn’t help but pray that they would be safe.
“Lord Rain.”
Iris, who had been leading the way, spoke sharply and stopped.
“I sense a strong magical power ahead. Probably demons.”
“How many?”
“I don’t think there are that many. And I don’t think they’re the mass-produced Four Heavenly Kings we saw earlier.”
“Mass-produced, huh...”
I couldn’t help laughing at Iris’s choice of words.
“Fufu. That sort of clumsy thing can be called mass-produced. I wouldn’t bother calling them by proper names. Even that would be a waste of time.”
Iris said it teasingly, but she sounded worried about me.
So she was putting on a show on purpose.
I have such wonderful companions.
Because of them, I can somehow endure the sadness.
If possible, I want us to support Yuki too.
“Any other routes?”
“Hmm… I tried to probe with magic, but it’s a little difficult.”
“If we veer to the side, we might be able to avoid the demons Iris detected, but in that case we could get lost deeper into the ruins.”
“Either we avoid combat completely, or we accept some danger and push through…”
Which would it be?
“…We’ll keep going and smash through whatever demons are waiting for us.”
After thinking it through, I made that decision.
Since Yunia and Ani are with us, we want to avoid fighting as much as possible.
But getting lost in the wrong place would be even worse.
If by chance we reached a dead end and were caught by the Giga Brands there, what would happen?
I didn’t even want to imagine it.
There might be danger, but if the foes aren’t a pack of Giga Brands, we should manage.
“Yeah, I agree with Rain. While we’re here, it’s hard to completely avoid danger.”
“I agree with Rain too. Don’t worry. I’ll absolutely protect these kids.”
Yuki, Tania, and everyone agreed.
It was settled.
No matter what kind of demons waited, we would break through them.
With strong resolve in our hearts, we moved forward.
And then—
“Where is this…?”
A dazzling light poured in from above.
Sunlight.
Apparently, while moving about we had been lucky and managed to reach the surface.
But there was no time to celebrate.
The place we’d arrived at looked like an arena.
It seemed they had been waiting to stop us from escaping; there were several demons gathered.
Still, that was as expected.
Let’s be grateful that it wasn’t a whole lineup of Giga Brands waiting for us.
“Hey, human. I don’t know the details, but looks like you’ve been doing whatever you wanted. Still, it ends here. You’ll die right here.”
“Wha—”
One thing, however, was unexpected.
Among the demons standing in our way—
one of them was Cassion.
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