A rough, rasping breath swirled deep inside my ears.

The fine hairs at the nape of my neck prickled and stood on end.

The cross-section of what had once been the beast, its upper half shaved away, was traced with rings like a tree’s growth lines, then slowly lost its shape as the limbs collapsed.

Red-black blood bubbled softly as it soaked into the soil.

“Rei-kun, you can stand, right?”

“K-Kazuha-cha—”

“You can stand, right?
It’s okay.
Stand up.”

“—Yes!”

The lump of flesh no longer moved, but the remaining two beasts were still rampaging.

Zaza-san, who had started toward us, confirmed our safety and immediately returned to issuing commands and providing support.

Set-san was still on one knee a short distance away.

I sensed Rei-kun rising to his feet behind me.

“Listen, help Set-san.
See, give him your shoulder, okay?
You can do it, right?”

“But—”

“It’s fine.
You can do it.
Please.
Take him behind that carriage.”

“…O-okay.”

With a small stumbling sound, Rei-kun ran toward Set-san.

Good.
I got him a little farther away.

Which way should I go, toward Yukihiro-san or toward Shota-kun.

Or should I brace myself here in case something breaks through again like before.

If I have the means to fight, if I know now that I do.

Then how to protect is already decided.

If I turn my back, it will be toward what I want to protect.

Even as I thought that, unable to decide in an instant what to do, the situation tipped all at once.

“The tail’s down!
Finish it!
—Not before it falls!”

The beast whose tail had been severed by a knight behind it raised its forelegs high, but from its exposed belly up through its jaw, multiple of Yukihiro-san’s arrows pierced straight through.

The other beast’s tail was still intact.
Shota-kun’s iron ball smashed into its head.

Purple light began to converge around the tail of the beast whose head was crushed against the ground and iron ball.

“Get down!!
Purple lightning is coming!”

The same light that had taken Saits-san filled my vision.

It must have been pure reflex.

I’d never thought my reflexes were that good, but my right arm swung up like I was swatting a grasshopper that flew in through a window.

Fwon.

The hammer, wrapped in distorted air, redirected the flash’s trajectory up into the sky.

—What?

Almost simultaneously, an impact slammed into my left side and knocked me down, and it took a few seconds of staring at the sky and then at the hammer three times each before I realized it was Zaza-san holding me.

Zaza-san did about five double-takes too.
Probably everyone else did as well.

The two magical beasts near Yukihiro-san and Shota-kun were no longer moving.

The stone walls had already vanished, and the forest leaves rustled in the wind as if nothing had happened.

“Kazuha-san… what did you do?”

“…No idea?”

The hammer remained clenched in my grip, its head buried in the ground, insistently asserting that its weight was no different from when I first manifested it.

Zaza-san brushed my bangs back with his left hand, checked me over, and nodded.

“Situation report!
Withdraw as soon as first aid for the wounded is complete!”

At Zaza-san’s brisk voice as he sprang to his feet, the time that had nearly frozen began flowing again all at once.

Some rushed to those who couldn’t move.
Some whistled to call back the horses that had fled.
Some checked the state of the carriages and wagons.
Some pulled blankets and stretchers from the wagons.

Some gently wrapped Saits-san in a blanket.

I didn’t even know if it was truly over.
We had definitely killed all the magical beasts, but the reality of it hadn’t sunk in.
I still couldn’t quite grasp that we had just been trading lives moments ago.

No, it didn’t feel over at all.
The back of my neck was still crawling.

“You don’t have to panic so much.
I’m not attacking anymore.”

Despite the chaos, that lazy voice reached everyone’s ears.

“Today I just came to see this generation’s heroes.
Ah, don’t mind me, carry on, carry on.”

Since when had he been standing there.

I was sure I’d checked my surroundings.

Not just me.
There was no way no one would notice something like that standing right in the middle of our camp.

Greenish-white skin.
Glossy light-brown hair falling to mid-back.
Golden eyes like a cat’s at night.

Small jewels decorated his misshapen curling horns, and two pairs of bat wings spread from his back.

There was no way we wouldn’t notice him.

And yet he wore a face that said he’d been there the whole time, like it was nothing.

In the castle, and in the city I saw from the carriage when we left the capital, there had been beastfolk, elves, dwarves, all kinds of people.

Differences in appearance weren’t a danger signal in this world.

In fact, his frivolous smile and tone held no killing intent or malice at all.

And yet my heart was clawed by unease.

The knights, who had spread out again and taken defensive stances, confirmed that feeling.

“…Why is a demon here?”

“I told you, didn’t I?
I came to see what the newly summoned heroes were like.”

As Zaza-san growled low, the man laughed and fluttered his open palms as if showing he was unarmed.

“Still, though, it hasn’t even been a month since the summoning, right?
I never thought they could kill three of those.
—Ah, I wasn’t trying to kill you either, you know?
It was just a little test run, like feeling things out.
I planned to pull back right away after letting them play a bit.
But it seems there was a small mishap.
Well, it’s wartime, so cut me some slack—whoa, easy there.”

Before Zaza-san could step forward, the ground at the demon’s toes popped lightly.

…A small mishap?

“Someone with your experience should understand, right?
I’m not something you can lump together as just ‘a demon.’
I’m on a different level than the ones you lot spar with at the border.
See, that sort of thing.
I already said I won’t lay a hand on you.
Best to put that reckless courage away.
Ah, and you too, hero boy.”

A sharp, metallic clink rang out as Yukihiro-san clutched his left arm fitted with the gauntlet.

Whether something had struck it or not, the demon hadn’t made any motion that could be read.

“Hmm, I heard there were five of you, but only four participated this time?
There’s a really tiny one here too.
So this country finally changed—
No, ah, ahahahahaha!”

The demon looked back and forth between me and Rei-kun, then suddenly burst out laughing.

“Ahaha, what is that!?
Did you get swapped or something!?
This is priceless!
This country really never changes!
Fu—fuhahaha—gehk!”

…

“Ahaha—gehk—ah, hihih—gehk gehk gehk, eh, wait—”

I wasn’t about to wait.

I stepped in and swung the hammer straight down at his head, but he twisted away and dodged.

Without killing the momentum of the swing, I spun, accelerated, and swung again.

“H-Hey, hey, hey, what are you—gehk—h-hey, isn’t this a bit much!?”

He bent his upper body back to evade a horizontal sweep, then sidestepped the follow-up from above.

I gouged the ground, used the recoil to accelerate, and chased him from the right, from below, but he evaded everything while choking and coughing.

“Ah, geez.”

Bang.

My vision went completely black.

The taste of dirt filled my mouth, and I realized I’d been slammed face-first into the ground.

No part of my body was being touched, yet I couldn’t move as I lay prone.

It felt like I was being crushed by an invisible slab, my bones creaking all over.

What is this.

“Hey, lady, calm down.
Are you a berserker or something?”

He said he was on a different level.
That’s why he could even tell my real age.

That’s why he could laugh like everything was trivial.

“…Shut up!
You’re not young either!
Choking on your own maniacal laughter is an old man’s swallowing disorder!”

“Wow.
That really pisses me off.”

“—Kazuha-chan!”

Rei-kun was calling me.
I could hear feet kicking against the ground, getting closer.
No.

—I have to get up.

Sparks crackled again as I tried to push myself up with both arms, but I felt something get blasted away right beside me.
What.
What was that.

“Rei!”

“Oh, not bad, lifting that.
See, I told you to stop.
Can’t you see?
This is a hostage, you know?
Your ally is a hostage.”

“This” apparently meant me.
Something poked my head.
Probably his toe.

Zaza-san, what happened to Rei-kun.

Grinding my face against the dirt, I twisted my neck to look sideways.

“Even if you’re tough, if I scrape you like this, your face will get messed up, you know?
See, it’s fine, right?
I’m not hurting you.
I didn’t come here to kill—whoa.”

My hair was grabbed and my head yanked up.

I saw Rei-kun lying on the ground coughing, Set-san helping him up, and Zaza-san.

I spat the small stone in my mouth at the man’s face, and he slammed me back into the ground again.

He immediately lifted my face once more and peered in.
His pasted-on smile wavered slightly, golden eyes shimmering.

“…Don’t say things like ‘a bit’ or ‘a mishap.’
You killed them.”

“—Not bad.
Deflecting that purple lightning earlier was impressive too.
You don’t seem particularly combat-hardened, lady, but you sure are something.
A natural power fighter?
That one’s recklessness comes from immaturity, and that kid’s from childish bravery.
Interesting.
It’s been a hundred and fifty years, but you’re still a sh*tty bunch that looks like it’ll be fun.”

He whispered in a syrupy voice, so close our noses almost touched.

“Want to know how I knew you’re an old lady?
Your soul’s already dried up and wrinkled, you see.
Haha—
But it’s not enough.
Still not enough.
Hurry up and—remember despair.”

His bat wings lifted him smoothly into the air.

“Well then, heroes of a hundred and fifty years later.
I’m Moldamorde, a direct aide to the Demon King.
If you’re lucky, we might meet again.
Good luck out there!
Ahaha—ahahahaha!”

He choked once at the end, then Moldamorde wavered and dissolved into the air.

The weight pressing down on me vanished, and I could push myself up.

I sprang to my feet and ran to Rei-kun.

“Rei-ku—”

“Kazuha-chan!!”

Guhk.

Even with my sturdy body, a headbutt to the solar plexus from Rei-kun, who had the same hero boost, really hit hard.

“Are you okay?
Kazuha-chan, are you okay?
Ahhh, blood!
A nosebleed!”

…Honestly, that one just now hurt the most, but looking at the kid hesitating over whether it was okay to touch my face, which was probably a muddy, bloody mess, I couldn’t exactly say that.

“Rei-kun, you’re bleeding from your nose too.”

I pressed Rei-kun’s nose with the cuff of my jersey sleeve, and tears immediately welled up at the corners of his eyes.

“S-Sowwy, Kazwha-chan.
Sowwy.
I couldn’t… do anything…”

“No, you did great.
You took Set-san away like I asked.
You even tried to save me.
Thank you.
You did so well.”

Rei-kun collapsed against my stomach as I sat down, pressing his head into me and crying loudly.

The way he clung to me was with the strength of an adult man, and from the outside it probably looked like a grown man sobbing while clinging to a small girl.

Really, I should scold him for challenging an enemy he couldn’t beat, for moving recklessly.
But after the way I’d disgraced myself, I didn’t have that right.

He’s such a kind child.

He must have been terrified, and hurting himself, yet the first thing he worried about was my injuries.

“It’s okay.
I’m okay.
I love you, Rei-kun.
You’re a good boy.”

Holding him as he finally released his tension and fear in tears befitting his age, I kept gently rubbing his broad back.

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