The beast tamer exiled from the hero’s party and the cat eared girl from the strongest race meet
Back in Horizon from the dungeon, I headed straight home.
Chiffon and Eris had each gotten rooms at different inns, but there wasn't enough space for everyone to gather and talk.
So, we decided to hold a strategy meeting at my house.
"And... that's what happened."
After gathering everyone together, I shared the information about what had happened in the dungeon.
"So that's what happened. I'm a little surprised."
"Hmm? More importantly, what is Mina trying to accomplish? She says she wants peace, yet she attacks us. Isn't she crazy?"
Luna's question was perfectly reasonable.
If you thought about it normally, Mina's actions made absolutely no sense.
However...
"Rather than Mina herself, I think there might be something wrong with the demon who was with her."
Chiffon voiced what I was thinking before I could.
"It looked like that demon was going berserk. No, rather than going berserk, it felt more like he knew exactly what he was doing. Anyway, he seemed desperate to fight us."
"He didn't seem to hold any grudge against us. At the same time, he didn't appear to have a particularly aggressive personality either."
Following Chiffon's words, Eris offered her observation.
Finally, I put everything together.
"Mina probably genuinely wants peace. However, the demon is different. He's pretending to cooperate with Mina while actually pursuing an entirely different objective. For example... eliminating Chiffon, who is the Hero."
On the way back to Horizon, we had talked things over repeatedly and reached that conclusion.
Mina was being deceived and manipulated by the demon.
Thinking about it that way, many things started to make sense.
At this point, I couldn't simply declare that all demons were evil.
But Verg was suspicious.
I couldn't help but suspect that he was plotting something.
"Chiffon, what should we do? Should we take them out?"
"If they're going to point their swords at us, then I think it's fine for us to intercept them with everything we've got."
"...Personally, I'd like to have a proper conversation with Mina."
In response to Chocolat and Mille-Feuille's questions, Chiffon gave that answer.
"Let's proceed under the assumption that our current theory is correct... If that's the case, Mina is simply being deceived. Of course, that doesn't erase the crimes she's committed in the past, but even so, I don't think there's any doubt that she genuinely wants peace. Taking down someone like that without even giving her a chance to talk feels a little..."
"Meow, Chiffon, you're too soft."
"Indeed. It's the same kind of softness that a certain someone has."
"But I don't dislike it."
Everyone seemed to support Chiffon's opinion.
They all had smiles on their faces.
"..."
Among them, Eris alone wore a stern expression.
She didn't openly object, but her tightly pursed lips made it clear that she couldn't accept the idea of reconciling with Mina.
"This may be somewhat beside the point, but is Chiffon really the only target of the demons?"
Stella brought up another point.
"Deceiving and manipulating Mina while simultaneously targeting Chiffon's life. I can understand that—it certainly sounds like a demon's strategy. However, I can't help but wonder... isn't it unnecessarily roundabout?"
"Indeed... it certainly is rather roundabout."
Nokia-san agreed with Stella.
"If their target is Chiffon-san, they could simply overwhelm us with superior numbers or send an elite force against her. Such strategies would be much easier to understand and would have a higher chance of success. Even if they wanted to catch us off guard, I don't understand why they would go to the trouble of using a human who is already hostile toward them."
"It just makes things less efficient. Hmm... I don't really get it either. What do you think, Rain?"
"Well... they went out of their way to bring Mina into this. So I'm certain she's the key somehow. But as for what makes her so valuable... I really can't say."
I thought about it from every possible angle, but I still couldn't figure out what the enemy was planning.
The ones behind all this were probably Monica and Reez.
Their schemes tended to be quite unconventional, which made it difficult to formulate a theory about what they were really after.
"A-ah, um!?"
Finia raised her hand.
Apparently, she had tried to say "ano" but stumbled over her words.
"I-I, um, well, I-I think... maybe it's the same as what happened back then!?"
"Back then?"
"I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry for giving my opinion when someone like me shouldn't be doing that!"
"Woof!"
Sakura barked, calming the flustered Finia down.
Once she had settled down, we listened to what she had to say again.
"Finia, what do you mean by 'back then'?"
"Um, well... when you came to the village, Rain-san. A lot of things happened, and then the village was attacked..."
"Ah."
And then... Lin became a demon.
"Then they brought Mina into this just like they did with Lin, so they could turn her into a demon...?"
"I-I can't say for certain, but... I-I think there's a possibility... m-maybe..."
"No... yeah, you're right. I think that's more than possible."
In fact, wasn't there any other explanation?
Otherwise, there was no reason for them to go out of their way to bring Mina into this.
After becoming a demon, Lin gained enough power to overwhelm multiple members of the strongest species.
Likewise, if Mina, a former member of the Hero's party, became a demon, it would be safer to assume that she would gain a comparable level of power.
By corrupting Mina in this way, Monica and Reez would gain another powerful ally.
Or perhaps...
Just like Weiss, who caused Stampedes in Horizon and Crios, they might be seeking a high-quality soul and planning to sacrifice Mina.
Yeah.
Finia's words had caused my imagination to expand all at once.
There was no way to confirm it...
But somehow, I had a feeling we were almost certainly right.
"We should probably proceed on the assumption that the enemy's objective is to turn Mina into a demon."
"If that's the case, then aren't we in rather serious trouble? I wouldn't know, since I was bedridden at the time, but the mage who became a demon gained an enormous amount of power, didn't she?"
"Hmph! If we all stand united, there isn't an enemy we can't defeat!"
"Honestly, Luna's excessive confidence is quite troublesome. Still, as for Sora..."
After that, we discussed our strategy for dealing with Mina...
By the time we finished, we had spent the entire night working out a strategy that could practically be called perfect.
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