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“Cortina, should I come along?”
“Nicole, your injury has only just healed, so I can’t have you push yourself. Sit this one out.”

Cortina wasn’t working with Lyell or Cloud, so I was a little worried. I tried to go along with her, but she politely rejected it. She stood up, approached me, and gently patted my head.

“Don’t worry, I am aware of my own limits. I won’t go overboard like you, so don’t worry.”
“Gh, citing me as an example is pretty sly.”
“You’ve made us worry that much this time, so I have to make you feel sorry. Let’s see, maybe I will go gather people at the Guild for now. I’ll have Mark help too.”
“Mark’s group huh…”

Cortina was thinking about the prominent battle assets, but honestly, Mark would be pretty unreliable against Kufar. He could even manipulate his body parts, so he probably had even more troublesome abilities.

“Also I’m thinking of borrowing Michelle.”
“Okay! I’ll cooperate with all my strength!”

Michelle readily promised that, but she might actually be the most ideal opponent against Kufar. As long as his core is exposed, she could land a precise shot from a safe distance. The problem was that Kufar was known to be elusive.

Michelle had sharp senses as a hunter, but even that could be lacking against Kufar.

“W-Wait, I was thinking of having Michelle act with me!”
“What is it, Cloud? Do you plan to entrust your revenge to a girl?”
“That’s beside the point here!”

Cloud, who had thrown a challenge to the Six Heroes, stood up in protest at Cortina’s words. His fighting style was centered around protection. In other words, like Cortina, he lacked in the offense.

He probably wanted to secure Michelle, whose offensive ability was the highest among our party, no matter what.

“Still, I want her skill too you know?”
“Well, I was planning to count on her too!”
“What’s up, Cortina, Cloud. Already having trouble? You can just retire, just so you know.”
“Who would!”

Lyell stared at the two with an irritable smug grin. Being in the world’s strongest class when it came to offense, he was acting quite composed. Even Maria was with him, so he had a perfect setup.

Then I suddenly remembered something.

“Speaking of which, what about Fina?”
“We left her behind. The maid is looking after her, so don’t worry.”
“Plus, there’s the village’s guards monitoring the place. No one should be able to get to her.”
“We couldn’t bring her to a place where you suffered such a big injury.”

Maria’s point was reasonable. They couldn’t bring their weakness that was Fina along to a place where an enemy strong enough to injure me was around. Plus the village guards were all proficient in battles and were all quite strong. They should be able to keep her safe.

“Anyway, Cloud. Be a gentleman and give ground to a lady!”
“Lady my a̲s̲s̲! I’m not backing down this time!”
“Stop, don’t fight for mee!”

Michelle seemed to be having fun seeing the two fight over her with such serious expressions. From her standpoint, she would accomplish her revenge whoever she followed, so she was just happy that she was being needed.

“Wait, for me? Isn’t that something I should be saying?”
“Nicole, don’t be such a wet blanket.”

I wonder where she learned to talk back like that. In the end, Cloud won their fierce rock-paper-scissors fight, making Cortina extremely frustrated.

“Okay, we’re done here, so we’ll be off.”
“Before that, take this.”

The one that stood up from the chair with those words was Whitey, who had been silent until now. At the same time, Aste—God Hastur, handed over a piece of cloth to me. It was a black cloth that released a dull luster, a material I’d never seen. Or no, it looked a little similar to my gauntlets.

“What’s this?”
“Mantle woven with Mythril threads. But it would’ve been heavy that way, so I’ve made some adjustments.”
“Adjustments?”
“Yeah. At first, I was thinking that it would be good for defense, but given the material, it should resist the Slime corrosion too.”

Hastur spoke full of confidence. Thinking back, I remember seeing him experimenting on converting the Huge Crawler’s threads into mucus form. Did he use that technique to make this mantle?

“Thanks. I won’t let him get the better of me this time.”
“I hope that will be the case.”

With that curt reply, the two gods left the room.

“Time for us to go too.”
“Nicole, don’t do anything rash.”
“Okay.”

Lyell and Maria also left their seats. Finia gathered the tableware and took it to the kitchen. Her participation wasn’t part of the topic this time, but not because she was weak or anything.

It was simply because it was judged that she would have a bad affinity against a Slime. FInia fought with a spear with minimum defensive gear on her. Her combat style would leave her prone to receiving attacks. For that reason, everyone had judged not to take her to the battle, fearing getting her wounded.

Cloud also returned to his room, and so did Michelle. And like this, Kufar subjugation squads started making their own preparations.