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After that, with a lunch in between, Urania and I temporarily teamed up with 2~4 members from “Grim” and “Fyne” to defeat the monsters we found. Most of the monsters that appeared were mainly the common Growleus and Goblins. We also encountered some rabbit monsters and the all-popular slime and such, but as expected they can’t even be called a threat, so they’re defeated by the person that found them.

By the way, just like how the Goblins become a greater threat when they swarm, it seems that when other monsters form a group that exceeds a certain amount of numbers, the leader also evolves into a higher class species. When a monster evolves into a higher class, naturally, the monster itself gets stronger but it was really surprising since the other monsters around also leveled up in strength.

Then if they continue to evolve, they will become a King-class monster. The Demon Lord that was in the story of the Kingdom’s founding was said to be a higher evolution of the King-class, and was also said to lead monsters that were from a different species. On top of the Kingdom not being even a country at that time, organizations like the Guild that assigns adventurers to hunt monsters also didn’t exist yet, so they say that King-class monsters roamed the land. Although at the same time, it seems that there were four to five Magic-users like me in each village, so you could say that era really was a time of great carnage.

「Three Growleus! I’ll guide them!! “Burn”!!!」
「Aye-aye! I’ll hold one down! Still, they’re fast!」
「………」
「Leave it to me!」

While I hit the Growleus I found with the Magic “Burn”, I lead them towards Urania and the others. As Jessica pins down one of them, Jarvis stops another one from running and Urania stabs them in their vitals. Unlike the time when it was just us, Urania doesn’t challenge the Growleus one-on-one, but rather she kills the monsters that have been completely pinned on their tracks.

Of course, it’s not that Urania can’t defeat one by herself, but rather because we currently have more than enough people. In this situation, there’s no need to do dangerous things like that, and at the same time, it’s training to better our teamwork.

「Yeah, that’s good. Keep it up.」
「Ufufu~ this reminds me~. In the earlier days~ Grim here would usually rush ahead by himself~~ Jarvis had a hard time back then, right~~」
「Audrey… Can you please not talk about that…」
「Oh~? But there isn’t anything~ that’s more helpful~ that a veteran’s past mistake, you see~」
「Are you sure you want to say that? It’s not like I don’t know anything about you too, you know?」
「My my ~」
「Hehehe.」

It feels like the party leaders are pinning each other down with those evil smiles. I’m getting a bit curious about their past. A bit curious, but you know what they say, let the sleeping dogs lie.

I run up to Urania and confirm if she has any wounds. Though I know that she’s not hurt since I was watching her from the rear, I can’t really help but check.

「Lily, it’s fine. You don’t need to check every time.」
「But, still…」
「Don’t you, trust me?」
「Ugh……」

Urania saying that while tilting her head slightly was, to be frank, too cute, but she’s right. Running up to her after every battle to check on her like this may be a bit overprotective of me. Still, I can’t really help but worry.

「It’s okay. I also got stronger. Thanks, for worrying about me.」
「Y-yeah. Call me if you get hurt, okay!?」
「Nn, understood.」

As though she sees right through my worries, Urania thanks me with a smile. Because of that, I reflexively blushed and ended up replying to her with a curt response. Suddenly feeling presences behind me, I turned towards them and see Arisa, Lysha and Emily smiling at me.

「W-what…?」
「Hmm? Nothing really?」
「Oh youth~」
「I can understand Arisa’s feelings now.」
「See~? I want to just take them home and cuddle them in bed~.」

I can hear a somewhat worrying conversion, too. I don’t have the intention of being a stuffed toy, you know?

Well, it’s not that I can’t understand them. Urania’s re~ally cute, after all. And since this body was jammed pack with men’s ideals and dreams, I have a lot of confidence in my looks too. Still, I understand if it’s Urania, but I don’t think this look would be popular with women though… In reality, what do they think about me?

「Hm? How do I say this, Lily is kind of like a little sister you just can’t leave be?」
「She feels like a relative’s child, right?」
「Well, in short, somewhat….」
「「「Defenseless?」」」
「Ugh!?」

Somehow, there are a lot of things that come to mind with that. I myself, in awareness, am a guy after all, so it’s not like I have the characteristic female defenses.

As a result, the females of the party see me as a little kid and stuff. Furthermore, this appearance that was made while regarding Japanese aesthetics looks really young for this world’s standard. With the combined synergy, not only do I seem younger than my actual age, I even seem younger than how old I say I am.

「In other words, you’re treating me as a kid?」
「That’s right~」
「N-NOT AT ALL!?」
「How can you even sound that obvious!?」

In short, it seems like it’s that. Seeing the reactions of the adventurers the other day and how the guild interacts with me, I feel like everyone’s treating me like this. Since I’m like this, maybe I should act more seductive… but that wouldn’t be Lily anymore, huh.

How troublesome.