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「Wh-, what’s happening?!」

「I should be the one asking that.」 A calm, clear voice rang. A beautiful figure with bright silver hair danced as Inglis grabbed Diego’s fist that was about to assault Rafinha and directed a smile at him, 「Just whatever are you trying to do?」

「WHA?! Who are you?!」
「Please answer my question. Don’t tell me, are you trying to hit Rani with this?」

Diego’s fist, being gripped by Inglis, was beginning to creak.

「Wh-, what is?!! Who the hell are?!」

Diego’s eyes widened in astonishment. After absorbing the power of his subordinates and the power of the girl with abundant mana, Diego’s power should have increased to the point where he could outshine even the strongest Knights of the Great Kingdom such as Charalia. It was evident with the squabble from before.

And yet, why is this happening? This silver-haired girl didn’t even possess an Artifact. In fact, there wasn’t even a Rune on her hand.

It was a dainty, feminine hand, akin to a noodlefish compared to his own. And yet, how come it was about to crush Diego’s iron fist?!

Creak creak creak——crannkkk!!

No, it wasn’t about to, it did crush it! With a shriek, Diego’s right fist crumpled so easily! She then yanked it off his arm after it was shattered into thousands of pieces.

「……?!」
「I knew it, you’re the same. A body much like the innards of a Flygear…」

Muttered the silver-haired girl. Diego’s body could no longer feel pain. And so, he was fine with having his fist crushed, but this paranormal sight gave him an unfathomable sense of dread.

「Glis……Nicely done! Now his ‘Convergence Magic Formation’ is destroyed! He can’t absorb power from other people anymore!」
「……!」

Apparently, Inglis had unintentionally destroyed something that was the key to some kind of important power.

I didn’t know that!

「Th-, that means I’ve done something so wasteful! Forgive me, let me return it to you!」

Diego’s fist had turned into a crumple of iron. Using sheer strength, Inglis managed to restore the shape of the iron and kindly present it back to Diego.

「D-, DON’T MESS WITH MEE!!!」

Diego came slashing at Inglis with the blade protruding from his arm.

「That is my line.」

Inglis lightly pinched the blade between her fingers and stopped it.

「……?!」
「You must know that I do not forgive you for trying to harm Rani.」

However, apart from that, Inglis wanted to fight her opponents at their best. And the fact that she had interfered before Diego could achieve that made her feel remorseful.

If anything, since he committed the sin of hurting Rafinha, the least he could do to make up for it was to exert himself to the strongest version of himself and die to contribute to Inglis’ training.

Inglis smoothly lobbed her own fist into Diego’s stomach. Although it didn’t seem to pack that much force…

「Nwuaaaaaaaaaaah?!」

Diego’s body was flung far away as it bent over. He flew in the direction of the stage, and only stopped after he crashed hard into the wall.

「Are you all right, Rani?」

After flicking off Diego, Inglis crouched down by Rafinha’s side. The chains that had caught Rafinha’s feet were torn away off-handedly.

「…………」

However, Rafinha looked disgruntled and threw her face away from Inglis.

「……?! I-, I’m sorry. You’re mad because I’m late, right?」
「……I’m not. It would have been dangerous if you didn’t come, Glis. Thanks.」
「O-, okay?」

Then why are you mad? There are also tears in your eyes…

「But I’m frustrated! I couldn’t protect Alina from a scumbag like him! If it’s like this, I’m……!」
「I see…」

Inglis smiled and gently stroked Rafinha’s hair.

「Feeling frustrated is a good thing, you know? It will be the drive that will make you stronger, Rani. I am expecting great things… Anyway, for now, let me do the beating, okay?」
「Yeah! Make him regret!」
「Fufu, just leave it to me.」

Inglis then turned her attention back to the stage. There was Diego who was stuck in the wall there, but there were also Lahti, Pullum, as well as dozens of Ian who had just been in the subspace.

「Th-, there are so many Ian?! Wh-, what happened?!」

Being aware of their presence, Rafinha exclaimed.

「He is just like Diego, he has his body mechanized. The reason for his number……is because he was duplicated. Both his mind and his body, out of his own will.」
「N-, no way……But that means he won’t know which one is the real him! Is he that apathetic to himself? That is just pitiful!」

Rafinha looked a little sad. Naturally, she had the same reaction as Lahti and Pullum, she found the sight to be unacceptable.

「「「「I don’t need your sympathy!」」」」

The many-Ian spewed the same words at the same time.

「I-, it feels as if I’m having a nightmare!」
「Indeed……How horrifying.」

Leone and Liselotte seemed to be safe, albeit they were bound to the wall of the auditorium. They, too, seemed to be creeped out by the sight of so many Ian.

In the midst of such…

「Fumyaa~ I slept well.」

Yua, who had been fast asleep and was nonchalant even when she was abducted into the subspace, woke up in a huff. The rainbow-colored set of ears and tail that had grown out of her were gone.

「Senior Yua!」
「Nn……?」

Rubbing her sleepy eyes, she looked around, then…

「Ooh. So many handsome guys! Is this heaven? Or a dream?」

She showed an ever-so-slightly expression of joy on her face. For someone who didn’t show much expression and whose thought was a complete enigma, that was too much of a change of expression. She must have been very happy about this situation. That was Yua alright. Whilst everyone else was horrified or creeped out, she was overjoyed.