“Come on… Work, you stupid thing!” Back at the hotel, Carol’s sitting on her bed by the window. She’s sitting with her legs flexed so she can see her own ankles.

“Why did I say I didn’t want to go with her? Now I’m stuck here and making no progress…” The weird thing on her ankle that looks like a tattoo lights on and off as she thinks to herself. “Would it even make a difference if I was with her, though? Not even standing on a rope bridge as it falls does anything to her. What can I even do for her?”

…

“Arrgghh! Dammit! Stop thinking about it! I just need to get this magic thing to work once and for all! Hurry up, you stupid thing. Just give me a skill already!” The magic turned on and off. On and off. “*Sigh…* Maybe people from our world just can’t learn magic. Skills for magic rather. Nothing’s happening. How long is this gonna take?”

Carol gave up for the moment and stretched her legs. Annoyed and disappointed, she rested her chin on her hand and looked out the window in a daze. The sound of metal rustling filled the street.

“What’s that noise about? Soldiers? Flanne? Where are they going? Did something happen…?” Not like it has anything to do with me…

----------------------------------------

The sun’s going down, and, from a certain angle, we look like a bunch of shadows jumping from roof to roof. If the people down on the street were to look up, they’d worry that some kind of crime was taking place right in front of their eyes. And they’d be absolutely correct. This is a crime! These demon freaks are trying to kill for absolutely no reason!

Or maybe they’re out for revenge… Oops… Either way, I managed to escape the Alchemists’ Guild, but this isn’t going too well. These guys seem used to running on these roofs, and they’re catching up to me. Whenever I get to a ledge, I gotta stop and see where I’m jumping next, but they just send it. I can’t match that!

Oh well… I’m not surrounded anymore, and their numbers have gone down since they’ve ambushed me in the guild. Maybe it’s better to stand up and fight now than to keep running until I get surrounded again. Also, I bet they’re not expecting it!

With that in mind, I slammed my foot down at the same moment I used Agility Burst. My momentum came to halt, and I shot out in the opposite direction after the loud impact. “Huh?” The demon closes to me only had time to gasp before I struck him with my sword.

The others all stopped in their tracks as soon as they realized what was going on. Okay… I might be able to this… Which one of them is their leader?

They all stood still with their swords drawn, staring at me from under their hoods. None of them really stand out. Do they have no leader? That’s good to know. Having to face someone with a crazy skill while dealing with their numbers would be hard.

“Just surrender! There’s no way we’re letting you escape.” One of them suddenly stepped forward, remaining ready to fight the whole time.

“Do you have any idea who we are? A human like you has no chance against us!” Said one of his buddies.

Surrender, huh? Like hell I’d surrender. Are they seriously asking that? It’s not like I’m looking for a fight. I just wanna see Ririna. But there’s no way I can back down, is there? They’re the ones who set her up in Rocky Ridges, they tried to kidnap Bea, and now they’re coming after me? I thought I was just here trying to defend myself, but now I realize I gotta make them pay!

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“There’s no way I’d surrender, you idiots!” I pointed my sword at them. “You really think I’d just surrender? After everything you put me through? We’re fighting! And I’m gonna go until every last one of you is dead! War! This is a war now, you hear me?!”

There was a moment of silence, but they didn’t take me too seriously. “Baffling how humans always manage to be less intelligent than unintelligent races.” They all laughed.

“Since you’re so eager to die, die!” As the second finished speaking, the whole group dashed forward to kill me. They’re really not taking me seriously, are they?

Parrying Strike! As the first slashes arrive, I block with particularly effective blows. Now that I’m not surrounded anymore, I can actually counterattack without being interrupted. Slash Flurry! The first few attackers stagger as they desperately block against my swings. I’m doing much better, but they’re not exactly idiots.

While I’m busy dealing with the enemies in front of me, their allies move around the rooftop to try and flank me. I can’t let them get a good angle on me, so I have to retreat to prevent them from getting behind me. Step by step until I’m forced to jump into another roof.

This truly is just like a war. I’m losing ground, but they’re losing men. Wonder which of us is gonna break first… I could crush them so easily if I could get some Violence stacks going, but with all this repositioning, it’s impossible. Even if I cut down one or two of them, my stacks wear off by the time I can attack again. I should have tried to go for a chain right after I changed directions. If I could quickly kill a lot of them while they were surprised, I would have been done by now. Now I have to grind them down slow-

“Huh?” Oh crap… Looks like I’m the one who broke first. There’s nothing else behind me now. I have to jump down onto the street next. Do I just fight here? I’m kinda cornered, but at least they’re can’t get behind me here. If I go down and they keep chasing me, they might actually corner me in a dead end somewhere.

“Woah!” I didn’t really have time to think as one of them attacked me. “Get away!” I dodged his short sword and retaliated with a slash of my own. I gotta make a decision fast. What do I do?

I desperately fended off all of their attacks. My MP was going down faster than ever because I was spamming Slash Flurries and Parrying Strikes. Maybe I really ought to take my chances and jump down…

Then suddenly, a light. I saw something shining out of the corner of my eye. Metal reflecting the light of the setting sun. Soldiers? Humans? That’s it!

“She jumped down! After her!” One of the demons immediately shouted, but none of them followed me.

“No… It’s too late. We’ll have to let her go for now.” Another demon pointed at the soldiers, and they all quickly understood the situation.

“Isn’t this our opportunity to start a commotion as a signal for Armand?”

“There are too many unaccounted threats right now. It wouldn’t make for a good enough distraction. Let’s get out of here for today.” They’re not chasing…? What are they talking about?

I looked back towards the rooftop as I ran in the soldiers’ direction. The shadows on the rooftop disappeared into the sunset one by one. Looks like I’m safe now… Heh, they got lucky! If I caught them by surprise, I would have wiped the floor with them! Probably…

“Iroha?” What? Suddenly, I hear Flanne’s voice. She’s the one leading the soldier. “What are you doing here?”

“F- Flanne?! Good timing!” I can get Ririna out of there now. “You gotta go to the Alchemists Guild! They’re hiding Ririna somewhere, and they’re working with the demons.”

“Quiet down, Iroha.” She covered my mouth with her hand, then started whispering. “Did something happen in the Alchemists’ Guild? We were already on the way since we’ve received a report about some kind of attack. Do you know anything? Why do you think they’re working with the demons?”

“I got attacked by a bunch of hooded people that looked just like the ones who tried to kidnap Bea. The guild’s head also said that Ririna died, but I’m pretty sure that’s just some kind of lie. They gotta be hiding her somewhere.” We gotta go back now and catch them before they can cover anything up.

“Okay, Calm down. You can tell me all the details later. Just leave the rest to us for now.” Flanne signaled the soldiers to move again, even though she was still talking to me.

“I can help too, you know? I got attacked, but they didn’t really hurt me. I can still keep going. I have a score to settle with them.” Flanne shook her head in response.

“You should go back to the hotel and wait for us. I get that you’re worried about Ririna, but the situation is different from when you helped us during our trip. If anyone sees you working with us, it may trouble Beatrize.”

“Oh… But what about Ririna? They said that she was dead, but… I’m pretty sure it was just a lie. What exactly happened to her?”

“I don’t know, but if she’s in the Alchemists’ Guild like you suspected, I’m sure that we will find her.” Flanne pat my head with a gentle smile. “Everything will be alright. Trust me.”

“O- okay…” She quickly caught up with the rest of the soldiers with a quick jog. She’s treating me like a little kid now… I guess I was panicking a lot. My heart is still racing… Kinda inevitable when these armed dudes burst through every window all of a sudden to try to kill me.

Oh well… I guess I should go back to the hotel now… I really thought today was the day I was finally going to see her again… Just what’s going on? This whole thing’s completely messed up.