The beast tamer exiled from the hero’s party and the cat eared girl from the strongest race meet
"By the way, where are Chocolat and Millefeuille?"
"We asked them to gather information, so they're probably at the Adventurers' Guild."
With that in mind, they headed toward the Adventurers' Guild.
"Hey, are those two doing well?" Tania asked.
"Considering how carefree they are, it's rather difficult to imagine either of them ever being down," Iris added.
The two of them had asked while accompanying the group.
Apparently Iris's way of putting it amused Chiffon, who answered with a laugh.
"Yeah. Both Chocolat and Millefeuille are doing great. In fact, they're so energetic that it's a little hard to keep up with them sometimes."
"But isn't that a good thing?" Iris asked.
"It is, but... just like you said, they're both so laid-back and do everything at their own pace..."
"They end up dragging me along all the time."
"Ah..."
Tania made an awkward face, apparently imagining exactly what that looked like.
She couldn't deny it.
Those two really did live life at their own pace.
It wasn't hard to picture Chiffon constantly being swept along by Chocolat and Millefeuille's antics.
"Ah, Rain, you're laughing, aren't you? That's so mean."
"Sorry... I couldn't help it."
"Hmmpf. I'm not forgiving you."
"My bad. Umm... how about I buy you something from that food stall over there?"
"...Can I get a drink too?"
"Of course."
"Then I'll forgive you♪"
Chiffon's mood brightened instantly.
More likely, she'd only been pretending to be angry in the first place.
"......"
Before Rain realized it, both Tania and Iris were staring at him with half-lidded, suspicious eyes.
"What's wrong with you two?"
"...Rain, are you dating Chiffon?" Tania asked bluntly.
"Huh? W-Where did that come from?"
"What do you mean, 'where'? That's exactly what it looked like."
"The two of you completely shut us out and created your own little world," Iris added.
"N-No, that's not it at all!"
"R-Right," Chiffon quickly agreed.
"Rain's right. Me and Rain dating... there's no way... right?"
...Why did Chiffon sound like she wasn't entirely against the idea?
"......"
Tania and Iris's gazes only grew more intense.
Rain had to clear up this misunderstanding somehow...
BOOOOOM!!!
"!?"
A deafening explosion suddenly echoed through the town.
Everyone spun around in alarm.
Smoke was rising from somewhere not too far away.
They could also hear people screaming.
"Rain!" Chiffon shouted.
"Yeah!"
The group immediately sprinted toward the source of the blast.
The explosion had occurred in the plaza at the center of town.
It was a place with a fountain and flowerbeds, where the townspeople normally came to relax.
Usually, food stalls lined the square.
It was always bustling with laughter and smiling faces.
But now...
It had become a battlefield.
"Holy Arrow!"
Millefeuille cast a spell.
Countless arrows of light materialized and shot toward their enemy.
That enemy was...
"HAHAHA! DIE, YOU WORTHLESS INSECTS!"
A demon.
It closely resembled the demon that had once appeared in Horizon.
With enormous wings and twisted horns, it looked exactly like the devils described in old stories.
The demon effortlessly dodged Millefeuille's attack.
Then, as if returning the favor, it conjured pitch-black spheres of magic and unleashed them like a torrential downpour.
"That's not getting through!"
Chocolat stepped forward and slammed her enormous shield into the ground.
The instant she did...
The shield transformed.
It expanded both vertically and horizontally, becoming a massive wall that blocked every incoming attack.
"NOT BAD. THEN HOW ABOUT THIS!?"
The demon raised both hands.
A gigantic sphere of condensed magical energy formed above them.
It was an incredibly dense mass of mana—
Essentially a magical bomb.
Its destructive power, of course, was on an entirely different level from an ordinary explosive.
Under normal circumstances, blocking it would be impossible.
And even if someone somehow managed to stop it...
The resulting shockwave would still obliterate the surrounding buildings.
"Chocolat! This is bad!" Millefeuille cried.
"Mmm..."
Both Chocolat and Millefeuille tensed.
The demon itself didn't seem overwhelmingly powerful.
As members of the new Hero's Party, defeating an opponent of that level should have been well within their capabilities.
The problem was...
Everything had happened far too suddenly.
Monster attacks were one thing.
But demons launching a surprise assault on a town?
That was practically unheard of.
It wasn't that such incidents had never happened before...
But they were exceedingly rare.
The enemy had completely seized the initiative, forcing them onto the defensive.
"All right, I've decided. Millefeuille—let's use Combination C."
"Understood!"
Combination C.
Chocolat would use her shape-shifting shield to completely envelop and seal the target.
Then Millefeuille would bombard the enclosed space with offensive magic, crushing the trapped enemy with no possibility of escape.
It was their trump card.
The downside was its enormous mana consumption.
If possible, they wanted to avoid using it.
With Chiffon absent, they couldn't afford to overextend themselves...
But they also couldn't allow the battle to drag on and cause even more damage to the town.
They had to finish it immediately.
One swift, decisive kill.
Having steeled themselves, the two were just about to act—
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, YOU IDIOT?!"
The furious shout rang out.
At the same instant, a Dragon Breath shot in from seemingly nowhere...
And engulfed the demon whole.
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