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I was observing the scene unfolding before me with a lukewarm gaze.

I mean, the situation was no joke, but there were no casualties so far, and the boy—Baa, next to me was holding his stomach in laughter, so I really couldn’t feel the tension at all.

Seeing me just standing there while Baa laughed, Finia’s hands darted around with a troubled expression.

“U-Um… Is this really okay?”
“Eh, why not? I don’t care even if they die.”
“That would only improve the safety of the city, so I’m fine with that too!”
“You have a pretty nasty personality there, you know…”

The youngsters before us were running around with their faces covered in tears, snot, drool, and some unknown liquid.

Honestly, they made a fool out of us Six Heroes, so I felt like they deserved that. But still, seeing them running around while pissing and s̲h̲i̲t̲t̲i̲n̲g themselves was quite a pitiable sight.

Still, it was hard to imagine that a Devil like Agares would fail to finish off people of their level. And yet, even though they had light injuries, they still haven’t suffered any injury that’d make them unable to move.

In other words, someone was giving them some sort of assistance and making them avoid fatal injuries. There was only one person capable of that here. The boy standing beside me and laughing at the scene before him.

“Huh, what do you mean, Lady Nicole?”
“This guy is putting up barriers just as they are about to suffer fatal injuries…probably.”
“That can’t be… There were no chants or magic circles formed, were there?”
“His acquaintance can use magic without chants and seems to also know how to hide magic circles. This guy must be the same.”
“Correct. I don’t mind even if they die, but I suppose it’d leave a bad aftertaste.”
“What kind of logic is that?”

I retorted in exasperation at his contradicting remark. Still, it was only a matter of time until they suffered an attack that a barrier wouldn’t be able to block completely.

“But what are you planning to do in the end? Keep tormenting them and then kill?”
“You’re pretty ruthless yourself there. No, I’ll let them leave alive. After experiencing all that, they will learn to be careful with their conduct from now on.”
“Is that so…”

I responded back half-heartedly, grown fed up with the situation.

Then Baa turned towards me with an impish expression.

“Hey, do you wanna go defeat it?”
“Huh, m-me?”
“Of course, you can help her too, girl.”
“Huh, m-me too!?”

His suggestion involved not only me but Finia too. Still, myself aside, I couldn’t get Finia wrapped into this.

“No way. Besides, we don’t even have weapons with us.”
“Isn’t that dagger from our store? And I heard your main weapon has a transfer feature, doesn’t it?”
“That Whitey can’t keep her mouth shut…”

I wondered how Baa would know about the ability of Hastur’s handmade gauntlets, but on second thought, Whitey was his wife. It wasn’t strange for the information to reach him through her.

“Either way, I don’t feel like sticking my neck into needless danger.”

Not to mention, with an enemy of that level. I just couldn’t get in the mood to rush blindly at it. I didn’t hate the idea of testing my skills on strong opponents, but Finia was looking now. There was no point in exposing ourselves to danger when I couldn’t go all out.

Baa looked surprised at my denial, but he did not insist on it.

“Is that so? Then I guess I’ll finish it off. This would serve as a good lesson for those fellows too.”

He spoke completely casually as if he was going on shopping or something.

He took a step and swung his arm, and with just that, the figures of three fleeing youngsters swayed like mist and disappeared.

Agares tilted its head in confusion when its targets suddenly vanished before its eyes. It was probably searching for the disappeared enemies. But the three were no longer nearby. In exchange, its eyes landed on our trio.

Finding new targets, Agares charged at us. It opened its giant, crocodile-like mouth and attacked Baa who had stepped forward. But he lightly stepped aside as if dancing and easily avoided its attack.

Agares’ mouth closed as it bit down on his afterimage. I immediately sent my steel threads at it. Crocodiles had unbelievable strength when closing their mouths but were extremely weak at opening them. To the point that they wouldn’t be able to open it if a person was on top of their nose.

As such, I aimed for the moment it got closed and tied up the tip of its nose. With this, Agares’ strongest attack that was its bite should have been made unusable.

Of course, it was plenty possible that a Devil crocodile was different from a normal one.

“Oh, thanks for the assist.”
“Doesn’t seem like you need it, but just in case.”

With his earlier sidestep, I was able to see a glimpse of his ability. Being able to accurately see through the enemy’s attack and avoid it was a big deal. His strength was probably comparable to the Six Heroes.

That said, even if its bite attack was avoided, Agares was still not to be underestimated. Trampling down with its gigantic body or swinging its tail around were also good enough weapons considering the weight and thickness.

Baa easily avoided all of its attacks and slipped into its range, and drove in a punch. He easily pierced through its scales that seemed to be tougher than even steel. Agares was clearly an enemy you couldn’t be careless with, but Baa was clearly cut above it.

Before long, Agares got beaten to death and crumbled down on the ground.