Frire could remain calm to some extent because Youko has always been devoted to Shinichi and has never hurt anyone other than those that tried to hurt him, but she shook her head because most people wouldn’t know that.
“Yeah, probably. Ha ha.”
But Shinichi just laughed when he imagined pandemonium.
Frire argued angrily that it wasn’t a laughing matter, but Shinichi laughed all the same.
Though he understood how strong Youko was, he knew her personally and found the thought of being afraid of her laughable.
Not to mention that her kind rarely held interest toward humans because of how long-lived and powerful they were.
They wouldn’t do anything as long as their immediate family or home wasn’t touched.
Though, they did change quite a bit once they’ve found a master.
When he thought of that, it suddenly occurred to him.
“Hmm… Maybe I should investigate the previous cases here where one went on a rampage.”
There could be cases where one such master ordered an attack, but even then, the earliest case goes back 100 years.
Though the amaryllis could live that long, the master might not be able to.
There had been a lot of casualties in the last incident, but the master didn’t necessarily have to be human.
Whether it’s a dead master or a non-human master, Shinichi couldn’t exactly demand responsibility in either case, so in the end, he realized that there was little point to pursuing the matter.
He was personally interested since they were both masters, but he had too many thing he needed to investigate.
“But then again, I might just be overthinking it.”
A child about 400-years-old entered a human settlement in search of their master causing a commotion in the process that brought out even their parents and left a mark in history.
As someone in the position of being Youko’s master, that was a premise that made more sense.
Though there was no denying the possibility that someone was indeed ignorant enough to kidnap the child because of their beauty.
“What are you mumbling to yourself?” Frire said.
“Huh? Oh, well I was wondering what I would do with her when we go to Garesto,” Shinichi said.
“…All I can say is that I hope you won’t bring her to any populated area.”
“Alright, I’ll be careful,” Shinichi said as he naturally hid what he was really muttering about.
Meanwhile, Frire was still pale, as though she’d only realized that he would be bringing the amaryllis to Garesto just now.
It was illegal to obstruct the movement of the Amaryllis, so all she could do was voice her hopes.
In the worst case, she’ll just have to ask Shinichi to take care of the amaryllis.
“Fudonecchi, Icchi, come on! Let’s go. If you can’t play with the deer, then at least get a good look of the scenery!” Myuhi said.
“Kyu, kyuiii…”
Myuhi was full of life, but in her arms was a limp Youko that might as well have been dead.
Shinichi called out to her and laughed, while Frire could only laugh dryly with a twitching face.
After that, they walked around Nara Park.
“────Hmm. I see. I thought I was already used to this sort of scenery, but the touch of man and history has turned it into a splendid thing indeed.”
Nature untouched and nature touched each had their own charm.
As Shinichi found himself sighing in admiration, the women too smiled.
“As usual, he doesn’t think like a child.”
“Icchi’s mature and childish parts really are all over the place.”
“I can hear you two! And I know that very well, so just leave it be!”
The women started muttering among themselves while he was enjoying the scenery, but the wind carried their conversation to him, so he peevishly retorted, but the two women just shrugged their shoulders and laughed, as though to say that this side of him was really childish.
“You two are really… Sigh, whatever. More importantly, we should… Hmm?”
Believing it fruitless to argue any further, he ended the conversation there.
He was about to offer to move on to their next stop after getting a good look of the place, but a familiar presence approached.
“────Just when I thought I’d finally found you, it turns out you’re having a pretty good time, hmm?”
Then a chilling voice called out from behind him.
When Shinichi turned around, a pair of blue eyes could be seen glaring at him coldly.
“I thought something might have happened because your aura was weaker than usual, but it turns out you’re touring the park with a flower on each side. I’m sure you must be having fun. Am I getting in the way?”
“Surely not.”
But Shinichi was not intimidated in the slightest and just greeted her bombastically with a smile.
He pulled his right leg, placed his right hand along his body, and extended his left hand.
“Not only do I have two flowers by my side, the flower in front of me is also very beautiful, Princess Tomoe.”
“D-Don’t call me princess! And quit it with that pose too!”
Being called a princess with such polished noble-like movements quickly transformed her chilling glare into an eruption of bashfulness.
Shinichi looked up with a smirk, and a punch born from embarrassment immediately came flying at him, but he easily parried it, while his smile grew even deeper.
“Tch! At least let me hit you once!”
“Ahaha, that won’t do.”
Tomoe was frustrated when he caught her two hands, but Shinichi just responded with a smile.
Myuhi and Frire had an indescribable expression on them.
“…Looks like he can have fun anywhere even without me worrying for him.”
“There are people like that, huh. People that can have fun wherever they are.”
They were both somewhat dismayed and astonished, and Shinichi could feel their gaze, but he ignored them and continued to play tug of war with Tomoe before pulling her close to him and whispering by her ears.
“So, did something happen?”
“Y-You’re too close! Your face is too close!”
“Don’t make such a ruckus over something like this. Something related to
It would be problematic if the two behind him overheard, so he used a roundabout phrase.
With Shinichi close enough for her to feel his breath, Tomoe understandably grew flustered, but she still told him her real motive.
“…The air in the park is strange. But if you didn’t notice, it might have just been my imagination…”
She had been concerned about that, so she tried searching for Shinichi’s aura, but even that was weaker than usual.
So she fooled the adults with her and ran to look for Shinichi, only to see him accompanied by two women.
“The air is strange?”
Tomoe thought it was just her imagining things, but Shinichi thought otherwise.
Shinichi thought highly of Tomoe’s ability to sense things, much more than her in fact, so the fact that she sensed something off led him to immediately cover the whole park with his senses.
“!”
The result he got made him click his tongue.
That was partly him finding fault with himself and partly disgust that it was happening ‘again’.
“I know I”m at fault too for restricting my aura so much and being too preoccupied, but to think we’d actually get an incident two days in a row. Sigh… Just what kind of chain-of-events are we going to get this time?”
Though he wouldn’t care anymore after resolving the incident, he would get depressed before an incident was about to start.
But anyone would be just like him if they knew that troublesome things were about to happen one after another.
An energy he was familiar with at Kutoria was swirling around in the area.
When he considered what that would bring about, he called out to ‘her’.
“Hey, Shirayuki, don’t sound an alarm, okay?”
〈Intention unclear. Requesting more data─── Understood. Upon considering the likely scale of the incident, the present members have been judged to be more than sufficient; therefore, I will only record the event.〉
“H-Hey, Nakamura, what is going on? Did
When Frire realized that Shinichi and Shirayuki seemed to have noticed something, she immediately assumed the face of a teacher or a soldier and became alert.
Myuhi too quietly pricked up her ears, while Youko, who’s been released, nodded while her three tails swayed.
“Nothing yet. Tomoe, the area around there is the most suspicious, right?”
Shinichi pointed to a corner of the park full of trees and Tomoe nodded.
Since they both felt the same thing, there could be no mistaking it.
This time he spoke to Frire.
“Frire, Hina, sorry, but I need you two to get the people nearby away.
Shinichi gave them orders in a single breath, then attached his foster to his arm and set it into gauntlets mode.
The women too placed the foster on their arms and turned toward that area.
“Looks like we won’t even be able to enjoy this trip in peace… Well, I figured this would happen,” Shinichi said in resignation.
“J-Just what is about to happen?” Myuhi asked.
It was a straightforward question, but that was exactly what they needed the most right now.
Though they put their fosters because of their trust in Shinichi, they needed to know the reason why.
That’s also why Shinichi turned to them with a serious face and answered.
“Something really troublesome. In this place full of people, right here, right now, in Nara Park─────Raybeasts are about to appear.”
“!”
In the face of that declaration full of conviction, the sound of someone quietly gulping resounded.
But the only ones who heard that were the deer that refused to approach Shinichi.
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