“Damn it. You’ve got to be kidding me...!”
Those were the first words out of Tsutsui Kenji, the boy who had lost his handgun.
The instant he saw us, he took off running.
“Huh? Why is he running away!?”
“Mm... Maybe he has bad memories associated with phantasmal beasts.”
Shion answered Shouko’s surprised question.
“...He’s outside Calm’s range. I need to get closer.”
Chiyu murmured.
“Can’t we just leave him alone...?”
“No, we cannot! I’m sure he’ll understand if we speak with him calmly!”
Ms. Luminous immediately reacted to Yumekai’s listless suggestion.
“Sousuke.”
Minori looked to me for instructions.
“Let’s go after him. We’ll fly directly above him on Micron, then Chiyu can use Calm.”
“Mm. Got it.”
We would have caught him immediately in a straight line, but Tsutsui was sprinting through dense forest. Even Micron could not close the distance in an instant.
Still, catching up with him was only a matter of time.
“Within range—Calm.”
Tsutsui’s body gave off a faint glow, and he gradually slowed.
“...Why was I freaking out like that?”
Apparently, he really had panicked and fled because Mashiro and Micron scared him.
Once the fear subsided, he stopped moving.
“Tsutsui, will you listen to us?”
Still riding black dragon Micron, Ms. Luminous called out to him.
“Huh? Isn’t that Luminous? Why are you riding that black dragon...?”
“P-please call me Ms. Tanbi. More importantly, there’s something important we need to discuss.”
“Wait, Ms. Luminous. We should leave this place before we talk.”
I cut her off.
Several of my companions had already noticed what was happening and moved into fighting stances.
“Kuno? What is it?”
She had been so focused on Tsutsui that she had not noticed.
“Ms. Luminous, this is... a water source.”
At the moment, there were two kinds of misshapen monsters placed on this deserted island.
Afancs and treants.
Both lived near water.
And right in front of us stretched a body of water large enough to call a lake.
Eleven people, including Tsutsui, had just arrived there.
There was no way the monsters would not be provoked.
Even though there was no wind, the surrounding trees began to rustle.
Spray burst across the lake’s surface.
The trees tore their own roots from the ground and began moving on them like legs.
Their branches writhed like tentacles, and humanlike faces surfaced on their trunks.
Afancs crawled up onto the shore as well, but their numbers were absurd.
There were enough to fill my entire field of vision.
“A-A-Ah...”
“Tsutsui, get up here!”
I reached out to him.
But perhaps his legs had given out. He had collapsed onto his butt and could not move.
“Chiyu! Strength Up!”
The moment I said that, I jumped down from Micron.
“So-kun...!? ‘Strength Up’!”
Even with panic in her voice, which was unusual for her, my childhood friend immediately cast the enhancement spell.
My entire body glowed faintly as strength flooded through me.
I hoisted Tsutsui up and practically threw him onto Micron’s back.
“Ms. Luminous, hold him so he doesn’t fall.”
“Y-Yes...! Kuno, you need to hurry too!”
Micron and black-dragon Mamonaka could escape by taking flight, but Fenrir Mashiro was in danger.
Countless treants were already moving to block our retreat.
I hesitated.
For the moment, Yumekai could put up a barrier around just our group.
Then, from safety, we could keep attacking with Minori’s magic until the monsters were gone.
Right. With this lineup, there was no need to panic.
But reality never played out as ideally as I wanted it to.
Worried about Shouko and the others riding Mashiro, black-dragon Mamonaka had not flown very high.
A treant stretched out one of its branches and wrapped it around her tail.
Startled, black-dragon Mamonaka twisted her body to break free.
The branch snapped.
But—
“Ah!”
Urume and Shion, riding black-dragon Mamonaka, clung to her tightly on instinct.
Yumekai, however, reacted too slowly.
Her tablet started to fall, and she tried to grab it.
That made her lose her grip on black-dragon Mamonaka.
She fell.
That alone would have been bad enough.
But a treant branch struck her in midair, sending her flying even farther.
Worst of all, she was knocked toward the Afanc swarm.
Cries rose from my companions.
“I’m going! Everyone, get inside the barrier and take down the monsters!”
I gave them only the original plan before taking off toward the Afanc swarm.
Keeping my eyes on the creatures that would get in my way before I reached Yumekai, I placed something from my Inventory.
Boiling water.
And not just any boiling water. It had been heated to a furious boil with Minori’s fire Attribute Magic.
When we used it for baths, we diluted it with water.
There was no need for that consideration now.
The Afancs shrieked in pain and writhed after being drenched in boiling water.
With my enhanced body, I sent them flying. Then, judging the timing, I jumped.
I soared high into the air like some kind of superhero, leaping toward Yumekai as she fell.
“Make it...!”
I caught Yumekai in midair, and we fell together.
The Afancs scattered away from us, leaving a small empty patch.
We landed there.
The impact was enough to sink my shoes halfway into the ground, but thanks to Strength Up, I was not injured.
“Hah... hah... Huh? K-Kuno...?”
Perhaps she had not expected to survive. Yumekai stared at me in disbelief.
“You okay?”
The next instant, her face went pale as though she regretted her own mistake.
“I-I’m sorry...”
She must have been shaken up. This was nothing like her usual self.
But there was no time to comfort her.
“Yumekai, two barriers. One around the others, and—”
At that moment, the Afancs surrounding us all leaped at once.
They tried to bite us—
Only to be repelled by something invisible at the very last second.
“...Yeah. I know. Another one around the two of us, since we’re isolated.”
That was Yumekai for you.
She recovered from her confusion immediately and understood the situation.
Now it did not matter how large a horde surrounded us.
My companions could attack from inside their barrier until all the monsters were gone.
Yumekai and I could simply wait out the battle inside this smaller barrier.
“That should do it. Yumekai, are you hurt?”
“Y-Yeah. My arms move and everything. But maybe that’s just because of the adrenaline.”
Sometimes you did not realize you were hurt immediately. The pain could come later.
“I hope we can meet up with Chiyu before the adrenaline wears off.”
At least she did not appear to have any serious injuries.
That was a relief.
For a moment, I had thought things might go terribly wrong, but I could finally breathe again.
Once the others saw that Yumekai’s barrier was working, they would know that we were safe.
You could see out from inside a barrier, but not in from outside.
Yumekai and I could not see our companions inside their separate barrier, and they could not see us either.
Still, we knew everyone was alive, so I was not worried.
“...Hey, Kuno.”
The Afancs’ cries, which I had heard until then, suddenly disappeared.
Had Yumekai blocked sound from entering as well?
“What is it?”
“Why did you do something so reckless? What if I was unconscious... or dead?”
I did not want to imagine one °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° of my companions dying, but if she had been unconscious, I would have carried her back to the others.
I would have turned the stones in my Inventory into enormous boulders and dropped them around us, crushing Afancs while I moved across the rocks with my enhanced body to rejoin the others.
Minori and Ms. Luminous would defeat the treants blocking our retreat with magic, opening enough space for Mashiro to run through.
It would have been dangerous, and I probably would have been hurt.
But thankfully, Chiyu had Healing Magic.
I could think of a plan now, but back then, I had only been desperate.
Besides, that was not the kind of answer Yumekai wanted to hear.
“My body moved before I could think.”
So I gave her only the truth.
“...!”
Yumekai’s body trembled.
That was when I realized I was still holding her in a princess carry.
“Sorry. I’ll put you down.”
She stood, but she did not move away from me.
Instead, she pressed closer.
A moment ago, I had been too distracted to notice, but now I could keenly feel her warmth and the soft rhythm of her breathing.
“...Yumekai?”
She looked up at me.
Her face was crimson, and her eyes were moist.
“So what are you going to do about this?”
Was it just my imagination, or did her voice sound heated?
“I can’t stand leaving a debt unpaid. But how am I supposed to repay a debt for saving my life?”
That was the kind of person Yumekai was.
“...You don’t need to worry about it.”
“I can’t do that. I’ve already owed you so much. But if I add a debt for saving my life on top of all that... then I’ll have to spend the rest of my life paying you back, right?”
If her voice had a physical shape, it would have been damp and heavy from soaking up water.
That was the illusion her words gave me—soft, heavy, and filled with determination.
Yumekai slowly leaned closer.
The classmate who had always kept herself apart from everyone else was asking for me now... wasn’t she?
“Y-Yumekai...”
Even though we were safe, my throat went dry at a time like this.
“There’s nothing for us to do until everyone finishes off the monsters. Let me repay you.”
Then she looked at me anxiously.
“Or... am I not good enough?”
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