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Normally the employees of an inn would be delighted to find people at this hour, trying to sell their inn. But these looked completely lifeless, almost like they had no will to live anymore.

“Is there a hero staying in this inn?”
“Ahh, are you acquaintances with the hero?”

The employee’s gaze turned sharp. His eyes seemed to ask if we were another friend of the hero wrecking the inn. We would hate to get associated with people like that, so we denied that immediately.

“Not at all. We have some beef with those people, so we came to beat them up a bit. Could you show us inside?”

As we replied while smiling, the employee looked shocked with his mouth agape. But he quickly regained his composure, smiling friendly as if his earlier mood never existed in the first place.

“But of course! I don’t know who you are, but if you came to drive those people out then you’re more than welcome! Please follow me!”

I had said it myself, but it still felt odd to be welcomed like that when we could be potentially dangerous people after saying we would beat their clients up. Either way, they probably had been bothered by him enough to reach that state. The room where the employee happily guided us to was probably the best room the inn had to offer. After all, it was on the third story and comprised the entire floor. It sounded like they were drinking inside, as loud and coarse laughter could be heard coming from inside. Hearing that noise, I looked behind me to see Karin nervous and slightly stiffened up.

“Can you do it, Karin?”
“I can, don’t worry.”

Then let’s go. It was time to stop talking with our mouths and use our fists. After warning the employee to stand back, I kicked the door with all my might, sending the wings flying inside.

“Wh-what happened?!”

The room we barged in had four half-naked people, who looked surprised at me.

“Nice to meet you, esteemed heroes of Leble. I’m Lapis. It seems you took care of my Karin yesterday, so I came to express my gratitude.”

With a broad smile, I bowed down in a comically exaggerated manner. The group looked confused as they got up from the couch and attempted to reach for their weapons.

“What do you think you’re doing barging into the room without being called! Does no one in Bordaule know any manners?!”
“Yeah! And what’s up with those cheap clothes?! This isn’t a room for a peasant like you to step into!”
“Know your place! Or you don’t feel any shame?!”
“You’ll dirty the air! Go out now!”

The group started spewing insult after insult… I understand now, this is certainly very annoying. Normally I would have loved to knock some sense into them instantly, but this time Karin was the lead actress. Mine and Ciel’s only role was to arrange the arena. In an attempt to silence their mouths that kept rolling on and on with insults, I released the most ominous killer aura I was capable of.

“Ghu?!”
“Hii?!”
“Wh-!”
“What the-?!”

They looked like they were used to showing killing instinct, but they had never experienced it. The group shut up instantly, their lips trembling. At the same time, Karin walked up until she stood at my side, then after a nod, I released the aura.

“…cough!”

Even though we had done nothing to them, the hero’s group breathed raggedly. The hero was standing on all fours on the floor, looking up at me, and his face contorted the moment he saw Karin. He probably noticed she was the warrior he had assaulted a day before.

“Y-you! So you realized you couldn’t win alone so you brought help with you! That sounds like something a peasant adventurer would do!”

Does he even listen to himself when he speaks?! Ciel and I were starting to get too annoyed with him when Karin calmed us down.

“Don’t misunderstand. Only you and I will fight, one on one. Let’s settle this without interference.”

Hearing that unexpected challenge, a disgusting smile crawled on his lips. He probably thought he would have a chance if they fought like that. Apparently, he was enough of a smooth brain to not notice their difference in strength.

“Alright then. I accept that. Just to confirm though, those two won’t do anything, right?”
“We won’t. I vow to not raise my hand until you two have settled your fight.”
“Really?”
“Shut up already!”

We aren’t like you, we would never act so cowardly.

§　§　§

We, together with the hero’s group, went until a small plain a short distance away from Cabina. It was isolated from the roads as well, and I could feel no human or monster presence nearby. Because of the distance from the town, even if things got loud, no one would notice and form a crowd. Karin and the hero had already stepped forward, glaring at each other while holding their swords ready. This was not a game, so there was no referee. Karin would not kill him, but the other side had no concerns and probably was planning on murdering her. As far as the rules went, Karin was at a disadvantage.

“…You can start in ten seconds. Ten, nine, eight…”

As my countdown got lower, the tension in the air increased. Karin imbued her body with magic power and got ready to jump at a moment’s notice. On the other hand, the hero looked to be serious, but there was still a slight smile on his face.

“…two, one, start!”

The two of them leaped at the same instant. Both swung their swords drawing a long arc, meeting in the middle like a form of greeting.

“Kuh!!”
“Hng?!”

After grimacing for a moment, Karin jumped backwards increasing the distance between them. The hero had to take quite a few steps forward to get closer to her, all the while mumbling something in a low voice.

“-?! I won’t let you do that!”

Realizing he was chanting magic, Karin fiercely charged against him. Being a hero, he was actually proficient at magic and with a sword. But his skill was severely lacking, unable to resist Karin’s flurry of attacks, he was forced to interrupt his chant.

“Dammit! You’re so annoying!”
“I don’t want to hear that from you!”

Maybe because he kept debating between using magic or his sword, the hero’s movements became dull and less refined. Karin was smart enough to exploit that opening and continuously repeated her magic empowered attacks. If she continued like that, it was an easy victory for her…but as soon as I thought that, a flaming arrow came flying from her side.

“Wha-?!”

Karin was shocked at the surprise attack. But the arrow never reached her, vanishing in mid-air. The ones who reacted to that in surprise were, obviously, the women traveling with the hero.

“Why! How did my magic get erased?!”
“That can’t be-?!”

As long as I watched, there was no real surprise attack. Those women had dared sully the duel so I decided I would punish them accordingly later, but Ciel looked more willing to do that.

“If you’re bored enough to do that, I’ll fight you. See if you three are a match against me.”
“What did you say?!”
“You want to fight all of us alone?! Learn your place already!”
“You’ll regret saying that when you arrive in hell.”

She was going against a warrior, priest and magician. Normally a group like that would overpower a single magician, but I had no intention of supporting her. The reason was simple, a group like that was nothing compared to Ciel’s current strength.

“Flame lance! Ice rain! Wind blades!”

Ciel’s magic was activated and she released three different spells at almost the same time. The last topic I was teaching Ciel was the shortening of spells. She was unable to launch spells without chanting, so that was an indispensable part of her attacks. But in a fight that could be decided in instants, leisurely chanting long spells would be the same as suicide. That was why I taught her to hold a strong image of the spell she wanted to activate, and only chant words that helped her visualize it more strongly to launch it.

Originally there was no need to chant before using a spell. As long as one had a strong mind and amassed enough magic power, any magic could be cast without chanting. I was like that. But not everyone could use spells like me, so what did they do? They created chanting. Chanting is needed to call forth the magic power that naturally exists in the air, before imparting one’s own power into it. That was the fundamental reason for chanting to exist.

Ciel had improved tremendously compared to how she was before, now she only needed powerful words to launch her magic, with a bit more training she would be able to rely solely on her magic power to attack her enemy. If she had to chant for longer, she would have been cut down by a warrior, or would have to stay without doing anything but chanting. But the way she is now, the warrior in front of her was unable to even step closer to her.