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—Hermie POV¹

The lightning that fell with a roaring thunder engulfed my tornado and Tebby’s serpent, erasing both of them.² On the ground are winding root-like char marks and the size of it is telling of her lightning’s power.

「You finally came, Solarima.」
「Did I perhaps spend too much time for a glow up?³」
「Not at all. The party is just about to start.」

As I imagined, the one that just appeared was no other than Sola. However, her appearance was different from the usual, so different that I can barely believe that this is Lady Solarima of the Ormos Family.

「Sola……?」
「Yes, it’s me. Hermie.」
「You look quite, fantastic right now.」
「Fufu, I’m flattered.」

Even her behavior seems somewhat different and behind her are 9 large tails swaying from side to side. Between each of these tails run bluish-white sparks moving restlessly.
Looking away from me, Sola fixes her eyes directly at Tebby.

「I knew you would be able to do it by now!」
「Let’s leave the talking at that. It would be such a waste to just let time run.」

As though to answer her, Tebby’s horns grow and his whole body is enveloped with feverishly hot wool. As if to say that Sola is an opponent worth taking seriously.

Which one of them attacked first? I couldn’t tell anymore. Before I realized it, a large fireball was colliding with a similarly large ball of lightning in the middle of the courtyard, causing a vortex of flashing light and destruction. Before this power, my tornado is mere child’s play in comparison.

Tebby manifests a large firebird while Sola summons a lightning tiger running through the skies in response. When Sola calls down a lightning dragon with a lightning strike, Tebby counters with a flame serpent that came bursting out of the earth.

Beast Transformation. A release of power only available for beastkin. Not all beastkin can use this power. A realm only a few can reach through natural talent and tireless effort in continuous hope to achieve it.

A realm that human…… a regular human like me can never hope to achieve.⁴

「-……」

The taste of iron spreads inside my mouth. It seems like I drew blood when I bit my lip. The courtyard is now their dominion, there’s no space for me to join the fight. This fact frustrates me.

I thought that we were still equals. I win some mock battles against them after all and the balance of power is something that can be affected by a small amount of luck. I was sure that, sometime eventually, I won’t be capable of having an equal battle with them anymore. It wasn’t as if I never thought about this before. But… I never would have imagined that I would be shown such a clear difference in power this soon.

As I was fixed on the monstrous clash before me, Thud! I came back to my senses from the sound of something hard being hit. Urania, who was fighting Tebby just earlier, slammed a wall.

Prior to this, she was the one fighting with Tebby there. Sola took her fight and Tebby seems to be having more fun fighting now than he was earlier. Naturally, it’s not something that would feel pleasant to behold.

Moreover, Urania is…『diseased』. I can still accept this easier due to the difference in race but for another beastkin, their power would be viewed with envy, and more than that, admiration. With hopes that they’d also reach the same height someday, those two of them would be seen as a goal.

But Urania… Urania could never reach it. Because of a side effect of the medicine that saved her when she was ill as a child. The 『diseased』 are unable to achieve Beast Transformation.

Despite being a beastkin herself, despite putting just as much effort, despite having just as much potential… the mere difference of whether one got this disease or not. Just because of this small difference, Urania is unable to stand on the same stage as them.

「U-Urania……」
「…………」

With her fist still on the wall, Urania looks at the happenings in the courtyard while looking like she just wants to cry, to rage, to wail but is desperately holding herself back.

「Urania.」
「I know……」
「Urania.」
「-I… know!」

This is a confirmation. I know that the two of them can’t stay in beast form for too long. Also, the two of them have completely forgotten about us as they’re currently clashing with each other at full power.

With this in mind, for us to win, waiting for time to pass and the two of them to either exhaust all of their magic power or for their transformation to undo and attack them then is the best option. Urania knows that as well. While she is gritting her teeth in frustration, she still has the composure to stay here instead of attacking.

Still……

「Urania!」
「What!?」
「Let’s go fight!」
「What!?」

Urania stared at me with shock. Well, that’s only natural, I understand fully well that what I’m suggesting is completely irrational, and I know that it isn’t like me to make this sort of decision.

「Are you really fine with your fight being taken away from you!? Don’t you want to smack that intruder in the face along with the gentleman dancing with her that just forgot about our fight completely!? 」
「That’s! ……. But-」
「I won’t hear your buts! If we continue waiting, I’m sure that we’ll get the perfect opportunity. But can you really call that a win!? Can you stand proud before Lily with that!? Will you be satisfied scavenging leftovers like a hyena!?」
「!?」

Urania’s face is colored with surprise once again. This and the frustrated look that follows is something I’ve seen a lot today. Hasn’t Lily noticed this yet? Or is she intentionally pretending like she doesn’t see it?

I know that Urania is considerably talented. Despite being 『diseased』, the mere fact that she can use magic to this extent is already surprising enough. And I somewhat understand that Lily is the one that drew out her talent.

Still, the stronger Urania gets, the more she’ll have to face the Beast Transformation issue. The time when she’ll have to completely give up on reaching the heights she can never achieve anymore will undoubtedly come.

At that time, will Lily be able to help Urania……?

「……na.」
「Come again?」

Ah, I was a little too preoccupied about the future that I missed Urania’s answer.

「I am! Not a hyena! A scavenger’s win, I don’t need it! 」
「Then let’s go!」
「Let’s go!」
「「Directly from the front!」」

Upfront and stubbornly. I’m sure that we’ll lose. We might not stand any chance at all. Still, me and Urania, the two of us don’t want to leave memories of simply running away.

1. Silva: Had to go back to previous chapter to figure out who’s PoV was this
2. Silva: who?….
3. Silva: glow what?
4. Lyly: I forget a lot, but it’s always so interesting for me how the majority of people are actually beastkin instead of humans in this setting. In this country at least.
   Silva: I also forget a lot, I thought they were all human all these time