"Licorice!? Aisha!? Snow!?"
While they were talking in a small plaza in the Royal Capital, Aisha appeared with Licorice perched on top of her head, riding on Snow's back.
Tears were streaming down Aisha's face, and she wasn't wearing any shoes.
Licorice's face was pale as well.
Realizing that something serious had happened, Sofia hurried over to them.
"What happened? Why are you like this...!?"
"Daddy... Daddy!"
"Fate?"
A terrible feeling came over Sofia.
Her heart gave a heavy thump.
"Auu, auu..."
Aisha was crying, and Sofia could barely understand what she was trying to say.
However, seeing her ears flattened against her head and her tail tucked between her legs, it was clear that she must have gone through something extremely frightening.
Seeing this, Sofia more or less figured out what had happened.
"Could it be... you were attacked?"
"Yeah. Some huge guy suddenly showed up..."
Licorice spoke tiredly.
She too must have been fighting against an overwhelming fear.
"The attacker... Could it have been someone from the Dawn Alliance? Everyone, let's hurry back!"
"Hmm? But Fate is incredibly strong, so I don't think we need to panic that much. There is some difference between us, but he's pretty much on my level."
"Then that's even worse."
Licorice spoke with a serious expression.
Since she normally acted so carefree, her grave demeanor made everyone swallow nervously.
"I think Lena is strong. I think she's absolutely incredible... but I can still think of her as a human being."
"What do you mean?"
"That guy... isn't human. He's a monster."
"A monster...?"
"All I could do was tremble and run away..."
As if regretting her inability to do anything else, Licorice hugged herself.
It was almost as though she was trying to stop her body from trembling.
"A monster, a monster... Don't tell me..."
Lena's expression changed.
"Wait a minute!? Was he a huge man almost two meters tall, and was he wielding a gigantic greatsword!?"
"Y-Yeah, he was..."
"...It's Zenoas..."
Her face turned pale.
Trembling slightly, Lena wore an expression of despair.
"This is bad, bad, bad... I can't believe Zenoas would show up here of all places... And he's targeting Fate of all people..."
"Zenoas...?"
"He's one of the executives of the Dawn Alliance, isn't he? But why are you so frightened?"
Sofia and Erin looked at Lena in confusion.
Still pale, Lena explained to them.
"Honestly, I don't know much about Zenoas. What he thinks, what happened to him in the past, things like that. He never talked about any of it. But..."
"But?"
"...His swordsmanship is exceptional. Actually, he's so powerful that even I can't measure his strength. I've had a few sparring matches with him before, and I lost every single one."
"That's..."
"I got frustrated and tried to challenge him seriously using my demonic sword... But I couldn't. I felt this incredible chill... I think my instincts understood that if I did something like that, I'd be killed. Without a doubt, Zenoas is the greatest fighting force in the Dawn Alliance. No matter how strong Fate is..."
Lena's voice trembled.
As though her fear was contagious, Sofia's voice began trembling as well.
"Then, by now..."
"We have to hurry back!"
"But..."
Sofia hesitated.
She wanted to rush to Fate's side as quickly as possible, without wasting even a single second.
But there was Aisha, Licorice, and Snow.
She couldn't leave them behind.
Riken might catch up with them.
Should one of them stay behind?
But if what Lena had said was true, Sofia didn't want to reduce their fighting strength by leaving someone behind.
Besides, even if one person stayed behind, if Riken caught up with them, they would be in an extremely difficult situation.
She hesitated, growing increasingly anxious.
What should they do? What could they do?
Just then...
"Oh? What brings you all here?"
A leisurely voice reached them.
When they turned around, Cliff was standing there
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