He had black hair that was rare for this world, and a face that was far too young than what she’d expected.
To think that the first person to make her waver this much would turn out to be such a young boy.
“…I’m already 15, though.”
It was curious if he was telling the truth or not, but the boy confessed that he was actually already in the age of maturity in most countries.
At the same time, the black-haired boy mercilessly punched her in her wide-open stomach.
“Gah!?”
“Sleep… It’ll be over soon.”
“Ah───”
Then he chopped her on the back of her head and knocked her out.
He received her unconscious body and laid her down on the ground, then he stroke Stella’s right arm with his palm.
“…I know I was the one who did this, but this is terrible.”
As he smiled a self-deprecating smile at the amount of blood that stuck to his palms, he shook his head, then as though swatting a bug away, smacked the stone spear that suddenly came flying at him.
“Get away from Stella!!”
Before anyone knew it, the princess had gotten away from Kite’s hold and was raising her voice.
The earth around her was risen unnaturally into shapes of spiral spears.
“I’m surprised you can shoot me while in that condition.”
There was a tinge of pure admiration as the boy said that while turning around.
Lilisha’s legs were shaking and so were the arms she used to aim that spear at him.
It was hard to tell whether her eyes were filled with fear or recklessness.
But it was clear that she was just acting brave, just like that spell she cast just now, though she still managed to aim accurately enough not to hit Stella.
“…This is exactly why I lowered your priority…”
It was curious what exactly he was referring to, but regardless, the boy sighed, then started walking again.
The princess cowered, but she didn’t run.
“I, am a royal member of Earthgant! I won’t lose! Not here! And not to some incomprehensible child!”
She started shooting spells of different elements, but the boy just shot them all down with spells of the same element as though he’d predicted everything.
“Ho~”
But behind those spells that he canceled out were several shadows approaching.
“How dare you hurt the head maid!”
“We won’t be defeated by the likes of you!”
In this short period of time, the maids that were dazed by the explosion of the black dragon were able to regain their wits.
They cut through the gaps between the princess’ spell and simultaneously leaped for him.
The number one expert of teleportation magic had fallen, and not one among them could even imagine them escaping from this boy.
But while the boy might have been able to cancel out the princess’ spells, his own magic has also been sealed.
At the very least, he shouldn’t be able to use a large-scale attack spell anytime soon, so believing that this was their chance, the maids braced themselves for death and made their move.
The first to attack were the twin maids, Miya and Kaya, who attacked from both sides.
They slashed with their long swords, but a knife hand strike broke their sword along with the bone of their arms, but it kept going and sent them flying while breaking their ribs.
However, the twins never expected their attack to work. They were a decoy.
Sela, Alisa, and Hannah, who have healed their wounds, cast three different types of magic. Sela raised the ground to break the boy’s footing, while Alisa rained spears of ice upon him, and Hannah clad herself in illusion to slip in and slash him.
But the boy was unperturbed by the shaking of the ground, and he just walked through the rain of ice spears and made short work of Alisa before blowing them up with a fire blast.
The remaining maids, however, desperately clung to his limbs.
That included Cattleya, who was sent flying earlier, Clara, Robelia, and Louise.
They had slipped into the dark of the night with the employ of shadow magic and aimed for that moment right after the boy attacked, creating an opportunity for the last maid, Frau, to swing her over-sized axe.
So great was the mass of her axe that it no longer cut but crushed its foes.
Before its descent, even the maids holding tightly to the boy would likely not come out unscathed, but resolve filled their eyes.
Unfortunately for them, the only response they got was a sigh.
And in the next moment, a black light too thick to be called a ray devoured Frau, sending her flying all the way past the crater to crash into the trees.
With their friend defeated so suddenly and unexpectedly, the maids dropped their guard, allowing the boy to get the two girls clinging onto his arms to smash into each other, then backflip to launch the girls clinging onto his legs into the air.
A finger snap resounded, and suddenly, something hit the two girls mid-air that smashed them into the ground and knocked them out.
The entire exchange between the boy and the maids didn’t even last 30 seconds.
These girls displayed power, coordination, and resolve worthy of their reputation as elites of Earthgant, yet before this boy, they were no different from the dust in the wind.
It hasn’t even been five minutes since they met with this boy, yet they have already been wiped out.
And that was with the princess proactively supporting them with her magic.
What kind of joke was this? What kind of nightmare did they find themselves in? Just what was it that they were fighting against?
“Now then…”
“!”
Everything happened so fast that Kite couldn’t even join the battle, while Lilisha didn’t even know what she’d woven all those spells for.
The
“You two are next.”
Neither Kite nor Lilisha could even gulp in fear or cower.
When humans were truly seized with fear, they couldn’t even move.
They could neither offer resistance nor flee, nay, even the thought of it proved impossible.
And then as though to drive them further into a corner, the boy moved.
It was all too fast for their eyes to keep up.
They never averted their eyes, yet he suddenly vanished, and then the next thing they knew was that something akin to a gust of wind had hit them.
“You gotta wait.”
When the boy’s seemingly troubled voice resounded behind them, they turned around in a panic, but all they saw was his defenseless back. As usual, they had no choice in the matter, and they naturally found themselves questioning what the thing in his hands was.
“Huh?” Kite said.
“L-Let go of me! That person murdered my mom and my dad! I need to at least avenge them!” The thing in the boy’s hand said.
An oddly familiar small creature with three tails was being held by the nape of its neck and was shaking its head.
“It’s too dangerous for you with your current strength, so how about leaving this to me?” The boy said.
Kite didn’t understand what the boy was talking about with the animal, but what really confused him was how gentle and peaceful the boy’s voice was.
“But!” The animal argued.
“I’m responsible too for letting my guard down, so let me take responsibility,” the boy said.
“…I understand.”
Though reluctant, the creature seemed to agree, and when the boy put it down, the boy told it to get away.
The creature did as instructed, though it made sure to keep its eyes on them.
The boy turned around and looked at Kite and Lilisha again.
Not a hint of the gentleness he showed the animal could be seen in his eyes.
Perhaps because of the short pause, Kite found himself faltering, but Lilisha’s expression was trembling for a different reason than earlier.
That was because she realized there was another problem.
“Don’t tell me… Hero Kite, d-did you… Kill a Tenkorius!?”
“T-Tenko? Umm, I don’t know what that is, but if you’re talking about a monster, then over there…”
Kite didn’t recognize the name of the monster, but he nonetheless pointed to the two corpses outside of the forest.
When the princess saw the moonlight reflecting off of their figure and fur in the dark night, she became speechless.
“…A-Ahh… No!”
As realization dawned on the princess, she covered her mouth with both hands and screamed.
Kite, who didn’t understand anything, however, just innocently titled his head.
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