Chapter 61: The Exiled Marquise and Sister Shara 2
Things having come to this, fighting that thing right now was impossible, so partly to regroup, I moved in front of Erica and Shara.
Shara pointed at the Majin with her right hand and shouted.
“Gross! That thing’s gross!”
Summing up that fundamental aversion towards Majin with just the word “gross,” I thought Shara’s vocabulary meant this girl must be an idiot.
While thinking that, I also certainly thought, “It is gross.”
The last one was a horse, and this time it’s a goat?
Do Majin have to have hooves or something?
Ahh, still, it’s disgusting.
It seemed I wasn’t the only one who thought so; Erica also furrowed her brow, watching the bipedal goat that now possessed a giant frame rivaling an Ogre’s.
Its smooth, pale purple skin was completely lacking any lifelike wrinkles, and the tentacles sprouting from its flank felt utterly unnatural.
It wasn’t just its form; its very existence was repulsive.
Shara, who had been repeatedly shouting “Gross,” suddenly fell silent.
“You mistook me for that thing!?”
Now then, how should I fight that thing…
“What do you mean!? Does this mean I look like that to you, Shin-san!?”
Considering the previous horse Majin maintained that huge inversion Barrier without even using a Barrier Generator, its Magicka reserves must have been considerable.
This time, there’s no Barrier or anything like that, so I can’t let my guard down.
“Hey, why are you ignoring me!? Explain! I demand an explanation! As a maiden!”
Shara grabbed both my shoulders from behind and started shaking me back and forth, making her presence known.
So she wasn’t going to let it slide, huh.
“I said I’m sorry! Until just a moment ago, that thing was human, had blonde hair, hid its face with a Mask, and was about the same height as you, Shara!”
Also, both Shara’s Magicka and the Magicka of the masked thing were completely ordinary, so I couldn’t tell them apart. Distinctive Magicka like Erica’s is actually quite rare.
“There’s no way a human can turn into a Majin! So what is it!? Do I look like a goat!?”
This girl, she really wasn’t paying attention to anything but me, huh, I realized, an unpleasant fact. I was amazed that her main concern was whether she looked like a goat.
But she really was angry at me.
“No, Shara, that thing truly was human until just a moment ago,” Erica said, gently peeling Shara’s hands off my shoulders.
“Even Erica-sama is saying that… Is it really true?”
This girl believed Erica’s words in a split second.
“Yes, it is. However, I apologize. I also suspected that thing might have been you,” Erica apologized to Shara.
“My circumstances being what they are.”
Shara didn’t ask Erica what those circumstances were, likely because she recognized the sincere apology in Erica’s voice.
“But that is just an excuse. If I had been calmer, I should have realized. That human form had breasts far too large to be yours.”
Hit by that stray shot delivered with words full of sincere apology, Shara let out a silent scream, Kuhaa.
Well, yeah. Okay. It’s my fault.
Once this situation is resolved, I’ll seriously apologize for everything.
Thinking that, I opened my mouth.
“Erica!”
Erica reacted swiftly to my word, and I realized I hadn’t even needed to warn her.
By the time I called Erica’s name, she was already holding Shara under her arm, poised to leap back.
Erica’s Golden Magicka told me where she intended to jump back, so I leaped back in the same direction.
Immediately after, the ground exploded.
Tentacles, which had somehow increased to four, gouged the ground.
The Goat Majin still hadn’t moved from beside the former Ogre Knight’s Magic Stone Fragment.
Those tentacles sure can stretch, I thought, but then I realized—just like the horse Majin, this one also possesses something like Intellect.
That’s why it’s wary of us.
The fact that it attacked from a distance by extending its tentacles, and the fact that it took time to attack despite us showing an opening, was because it was cautious of us.
Well, that’s natural. If it possesses even a little Intellect, it can’t help but be wary of Erica’s power, which defeated the Ogre Knight.
As I landed, I lowered my stance, readying myself to move at any moment.
Behind me, I sensed Erica gently setting Shara down on the ground.
Facing this unknown enemy that likely hadn’t shown its full power yet, I felt no fear whatsoever.
Erica was behind me. It was different from when my master watched over me from behind, slightly different from a sense of security too. Something inside me surged just from having her nearby, almost making me smile.
So this is what it means to feel like I can’t lose.
“Shin.”
Hearing Erica’s voice call to me from behind, that feeling turned into conviction.
Imagining a future where I fight alongside Erica and lose to that thing was difficult for me.
“Well then, I’ll leave the rest to you.”
…Huh?