“Let's leave them to their fate.”

Hearing Marianne's words, Rina couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà-vu. After all, the night before, when they had arrived at the inn, Fran had reacted the same way to the innkeeper's antics. There was one difference, though.

While Fran wasn't actually serious about leaving the villagers to fend for themselves against potential demons that would most certainly lead to the deaths of the villagers, Marianne didn't give the impression that she was just putting up a strong front. Rina had the very subtle feeling that the brunette really meant it.

Like Rina, Fran reached the same conclusion. She also knew that she had acted in much the same way last night, so she let out a loud sigh, before turning to Marianne.

“Marianne, as much as I'd like to accept your suggestion, I'm afraid I must reject it. These people will die a gruesome death if we leave them to their fate. And since we're already here, letting them die like this, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But... if Rina wants to go home, I won't oppose her.”

With those words, Fran and Marianne shifted their gaze to the girl in question, who seemed to be glinting her eyes as she looked in the southern direction, the opposite of where they had come from, the capital. Seeing that the redhead's attention was strangely focused on something other than their conversation, they simultaneously followed Rina's gaze, trying to understand the reason.

Unfortunately, neither Fran nor Marianne could make out anything except a few houses, trees, and a paved path. So giving up on trying to understand why Rina was staring in that direction, Fran wanted to talk to her and ask her why, but as soon as she turned to Rina, and saw her face, the elf immediately stopped herself.

When Marianne saw Fran's strange reaction, the brunette also looked at Rina to see what was going on.

What she, or rather they, Fran and Marianne, beheld, was not the usual beautiful but still somewhat childish face, that they were used to seeing. No, Rina was concentrating her gaze into the distance so much, so that her face had morphed into something so grim, that they thought the red-haired girl was currently looking at the enemy of her life.

So, unsure of what to do, they both just stood there and watched Rina as she stared off into the distance, completely ignoring the village chief, who was still on his knees watching the scene unfold.

This situation continued for a few more moments before Fran finally managed to bring herself to give Rina a hesitant tap on the shoulder to bring her back. After all, Fran had never seen her pupil behave like this before, so she was unexpectedly a little afraid of Rina now.

However, the tension of the situation dispersed as suddenly as it had appeared when Fran's finger came into contact with Rina's shoulder. After all, the poor girl had been so focused on what was happening in the distance that she was completely unaware of her immediate surroundings. As a result, her heart almost stopped as she jumped up and shrieked loudly at the sudden contact.

“HYYIEEE!?”

Turning around to face the one who had tapped her on the shoulder, Rina could see that both Marianne and Fran had reflexively taken a few steps back in response to squeal. It then took her a few more moments to realise that she had embarrassed herself once again and that she was blushing like a ripe tomato.

“I-Is there something you need?” Nonetheless, Rina decided to play it cool and tried to ignore her mishap, hoping inwardly that the others would do the same.

Fortunately, neither the blonde elf nor the brunette maid could understand why Rina was suddenly embarrassed. In fact, they were still more than puzzled as to why Rina had seemed so tense moments before. So, they were even a little glad, that the Rina they knew, returned to them.

With that, Fran exchanged a few glances with Marianne, before she spoke up, deciding not to comment on Rina's rather cute scream, “Marianne had suggested that we leave this place and let the villagers try to survive on their own. Well, I'm personally against it, after all, they'll all die like flies as soon as the first demons spawn.” Fran shot a not-so-subtle glare at the chief on the ground before turning back to Rina and continuing, “But with the way they treat you, I can understand if you don't want to help them. So if you want to leave, I will oblige.”

It took Rina a few moments to digest what she had heard from her magic instructor. But when she was done, she smiled softly at her two companions. “Thank you for your thoughts, they make me very happy!”

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The smile then faded, her face turned serious and she pointed in the direction she had been staring earlier. “But I think it's too late for us to leave. I don't know why or how, but I can feel something sinister forming in that direction. And the sinister feeling is growing stronger by the second. I'm not sure, but I suspect it's the Demon-Spawning-Cloud we're looking for.”

Having said that, Rina looked at Fran, the magic and demon-hunting expert of the group, hoping that the elf could offer some more insights, or at least a confirmation or denial in response to her thoughts.

Unfortunately, neither happened, as Fran only looked at her with an astonished expression, as if Rina had grown a second head. “You can sense a Demon-Spawning-Cloud in the distance?”

“No, like I said, I don't know if what I'm sensing is really the Demon-Spawning-Cloud. But the feeling I get is the same as when I saw one of those things in the past. The only difference is that it's much fainter than the other times.”

“'The other times'? You've seen the Demon-Spawning-Clouds more than once? I thought the only time you saw one was when you first met Clara?”

Only after Fran's words, did Rina notice her slip-up. After all, currently, no one was supposed to know that she had seen such a cloud at Clara's Social Debut three years ago, except for Marianne who had been present at that time.

“W-we don't have time f-for that! We have to i-investigate that place right now!” Naturally, Rina knew that she was bad at lying. So she did, what she would usually do in such situations: trying to divert the attention to another topic.

Luckily, Rina's suggestion made sense, as the situation could get really bad if she was actually able to sense the Demon-Spawning-Cloud. Therefore, Fran decided to let her pupil's slip-up rest, for now and nodded. “...You're right, let's go, lead the way.”

Having said that, the elf expected Rina to start running in the direction where the cloud might be, but Rina didn't. Instead, the red-haired girl turned to Marianne.

“Marianne, you're coming with us.”

“Huh? Why? I thought I was supposed to stay here and wait for you. After all, I can't fight and would only be in your way, should the situation get dicey.”

At Marianne's words, Rina glanced stealthily at the village chief on the ground, before turning her eyes back to Marianne. “It's just... a safety measure...”

“For what?” Not understanding Rina's words, Marianne tilted her head in confusion. Deep down, she had hoped not to have to stand in front of a demon and risk her life like that. That was why, she hesitated to agree to the red-haired girl's suggestion.

Rina, on the other hand, could perfectly understand the brunette's hesitation. After all, she was also afraid of fighting demons, but that was unavoidable considering her powers. So it was only natural that Marianne, who was not trained in combat, was scared.

But this time, also for Marianne's safety, Rina thought that it was for the best, to keep the brunette close to her. The hatred the villagers had for her, was much more than she had initially thought even after all the time that had passed. Furthermore, she couldn't measure what the villagers were capable of, so having a protective eye on Marianne was for the best.

“Please, don't ask questions. Trust me... I'll protect you with my life.” However, there was no way that she could just voice her suspicions while the chief was still around. And even if he weren't around, she still wouldn't say what she was thinking, because it was only based on her own unfounded feelings. So the only thing she could hope for was that Marianne would simply accept it.

Luckily, her words seemed to hit something inside the brunette, who suddenly turned red.

Seeing this, Rina was at first confused as to why Marianne was reacting that way. Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, after thinking about it for a split second, she understood why, and therefore also started to blush. 'I-I have accidentally said a reaaaaaally cheesy line, haven't I? If I were a hot, good-looking guy, that line might be good, but not with my appearance...'

However, Rina's thoughts couldn't be further from the truth, as Marianne wasn't red because of Rina's embarrassingly cheesy line. In fact, the brunette was embarrassed herself, as the red-haired girl's words had shot her through her heart like Cupid's arrow.

In the past, when Marianne had lived in the brothel with her mother, she had loved to pass the time by reading romance novels, especially the clichéd ones, where a prince on a white horse would rescue a damsel in distress from harm – although, in her eyes, she would rather have a hot lady than of a hot prince.

So words like “I will protect you with my life” were certainly right on the mark when it came to her tastes. And a beautiful girl, whom she was already aware of, was now delivering this line. There was no way, that her heart wouldn't skip a beat.

To make matters worse (?), Marianne could observe that Rina had turned red immediately afterwards. But that didn't make the younger girl any less attractive to her, for she liked, even loved the gap in the redhead's personality.

So, even though Marianne knew she was blushing herself, she still enjoyed this moment. After all, her partner was in the same situation as she was, being red and so.

Unfortunately, they were not alone at the moment. Both Rina and Marianne had to be forcibly reminded of it in a hard, gruesome way, as Fran, whose face was twitching with irritation at the sudden pink situation, interrupted them. “First yesterday night, then now... can you please keep your flirting at bay and remember why we're here?”

“Huee? Flirting? We're not flirting!” Rina, pulled back by the elf's words, grew even redder. So, as if to hide it, she turned around and started walking in the southern direction, from where she got the eerie feeling.

Seeing this, both Marianne and Fran followed her close behind, completely ignoring the chief on the ground. In their eyes, he deserved it.

On the way, Fran turned to Marianne, who was walking her. “Seriously, can you please stop throwing yourself at her? It's annoying to watch.”

From an outsider's perspective, the former High Priestess's voice might have sounded sharp, even threatening, but not to Marianne. After all, she could read through the elf's motives behind those words like an open book. So, Marianne held her hand in front of her mouth to hide her grin and replied in a mocking tone,

“Admit it, you're jealous.”