Volume 5
Chapter 7
Feo, unleashing magic power from his entire body, ran towards Nozomu, pulling out a talisman and channeling magic power into it. The talisman shone for an instant, then vanished as if dissolving, and light enveloped Feo's body. It was a body enhancement spell using a talisman.
"Alright, let's
test it!"
"!"
A cudgel, casually
thrust by Feo, passed before Nozomu's eyes. With no wasted strength, and an
almost imperceptible initial movement, Nozomu somehow managed to avert his head
and dodge the thrust.
However, Feo
immediately tried to sweep the thrust cudgel, but Nozomu managed to slip his
katana in between to block it. However, since Feo was stronger, Nozomu's stance
was greatly broken.
"Here, take
this!"
Feo then took out
another talisman from his pocket and activated it. A mass of wind appeared
before him and charged towards Nozomu.
"Guh!!"
Nozomu, with his
stance broken, had no room to dodge, and the charging mass of wind directly hit
Nozomu's body. Nozomu was blown away violently, but he jumped backward just
before the wind mass hit him, weakening the impact.
However, perhaps he
didn't have enough time to brace himself, as a groan of agony escaped him from
the impact and pain of being slammed to the ground.
The moment Nozomu saw
a moving shadow in his pain-blurred vision, he instinctively rolled away from
the spot.
Immediately after
Nozomu left the spot, Feo's cudgel slammed into the ground with a thud. If he
had been a moment slower in moving away, he would have been crushed.
"Still
going~!"
Feo pressed his attack
further.
He swung the cudgel,
held with both hands, using his core as the pivot, attacking from all
directions – up, down, left, and right. Although it didn't have the same power
as Mars's greatsword, the cudgel, imbued with sufficient weight and rotational
force, had no openings and allowed for heavy, continuous attacks.
"Guh!!"
Nozomu, thinking he
would be swallowed whole if he tried to block it head-on, continued to parry
Feo's cudgel while retreating with sliding steps, just like in his previous
mock battle with Irisdina.
However, Feo's
continuous attacks did not stop. His storm-like barrage added centrifugal force
to the swung cudgel, gaining even more momentum as it pressed down on Nozomu.
Moreover, the attacks
on Nozomu weren't limited to just the cudgel.
"Sei!"
"!!"
Feo's fist grazed
Nozomu's cheek. As a follow-up, a roundhouse kick was aimed at Nozomu's flank,
but Nozomu jumped backward, dodging his kick.
It seemed he could use
not only a cudgel but also unarmed combat techniques like punches and kicks. In
a way, it was very similar to Nozomu's katana techniques.
Nozomu's katana
techniques were a comprehensive combat art that used not only the katana itself
but also the scabbard and unarmed combat. And Feo's cudgel techniques also
seemed to incorporate the use of unarmed combat such as punches and kicks.
However, unlike
Nozomu, Feo could use talisman arts. The number of moves he had was clearly
different from Nozomu, who had to rely only on Ki techniques.
"Next up is this
guy!"
"!!"
When the distance between
him and Nozomu opened, Feo pulled out several talismans and quickly activated
the spells.
Countless lightning
orbs appeared in the air, and these lightning orbs were launched towards
Nozomu. There were three of them.
The three lightning
orbs that appeared in the air rushed towards Nozomu, their master's enemy, like
loyal watchdogs. But Nozomu instantly leaped sideways with Flash Step,
disengaging from the spot.
"Guh!!"
The launched lightning
orbs crashed into the ground, scattering lightning all around with crackling
sounds. Nozomu was affected by the blast, and his movements were slightly
dulled.
Seeing Nozomu's dulled
movements, Feo activated talisman arts again. This time, he created three
fireballs and launched them towards Nozomu.
(Damn it! There's no
way I can win a long-range battle!!)
Feo and Nozomu.
Considering their respective aptitudes, Feo would have the upper hand in a
long-range battle.
The three fireballs
closed in on Nozomu, but he changed Flash Step into Flash Step - Curving Dance
-, made a 90-degree turn, and charged straight towards Feo.
"Oh!"
Feo let out a slightly
surprised sound at Nozomu, who changed direction without decelerating at all.
The incoming fireballs
were aimed in Nozomu's original direction, so they veered widely and flew off
into the distance.
Feo put his hand into
his pocket again.
(You think I'll let
you do that!)
Nozomu concentrated
his Ki on his legs and rapidly closed the distance at top speed to prevent Feo
from using talisman arts. But…
"Hmph!"
"Wha!?"
What Feo took out from
his pocket and threw at Nozomu was not a talisman, but a knife.
With almost no handle,
it was clearly a throwing knife. Nozomu instinctively parried it with his
katana, but in that time, Feo had finished imbuing magic power into another
talisman he had taken out, and he threw that talisman towards Nozomu.
"Here. Have some
more~."
The talisman Feo threw
activated, creating a mass of wind before him and charging at Nozomu, spiraling
and engulfing the surrounding air. It was "Ravenous Beast of the Wind
Tunnel," the same spell Irisdina had used before.
Still, he pressed
forward without stopping his feet. The wind mass, closing in, threatened to
tear Nozomu's body apart. But just before the wind mass hit him directly,
Nozomu twisted his body sharply and dashed through it, grazing its side with
Flash Step - Curving Dance.
The wind mass, grazing
his body, tore his uniform, and blood spurted from Nozomu's shoulder. However,
he ignored the spurting blood, closed the distance, and swung his katana down
at Feo.
"Whoa!"
Feo instinctively,
though shaken, securely blocked the katana Nozomu swung down with his cudgel.
Feo's cudgel, made of
metal so it could block even a magical beast's fangs, blocked Nozomu's katana
without being bisected. However, Feo had not expected Nozomu to break through
both the knife and the spell at once.
In the previous
exchange, Feo had continuously fired knives and spells at Nozomu. He had
thought that even if he couldn't finish Nozomu, he would at least stop him.
"Hmph!!"
Nozomu continued with
a horizontal slash, a reverse diagonal, and a body sweep. They weren't
particularly fast, but they were solid continuous attacks.
The slashes were
without openings, gradually cornering the opponent.
Because of his
inferior physical abilities, Nozomu couldn't decide the match in one go, but it
was a continuous attack that could surely corner his opponent, and the growing
impatience could also induce impatience in the opponent.
(Hmm~. Well done. This
would be too much for a 10th-tier student.)
"…Whoa!!"
Feo, who had been
pushed close by Nozomu just now and was slightly agitated, quickly regained his
composure.
While calmly
deflecting Nozomu's continuous attacks, Feo had been impressed by his precise
slashes. But then, startled by something that suddenly moved across his vision,
he reeled backward. What had passed in front of Feo's eyes was Nozomu's leg,
swung in a roundhouse kick.
Nozomu then took a
large step forward, using the swung leg as a pivot, and this time, swept his
katana from the opposite direction.
"That was
close!"
However, Feo, though
somewhat surprised, blocked Nozomu's horizontal sweep with his cudgel without
any problem.
However, for Nozomu,
Feo blocking him was a foreseen event. Nozomu, using the thrust katana as a
pivot, twisted his body towards the katana, and closing the distance with Feo,
moved around to his flank.
Furthermore, when
moving around, he lowered his stance, adding vertical movements to his
horizontal ones, and performed this action at close range. For an instant, Feo
lost sight of Nozomu.
"Wha!?"
For a moment, Feo,
having lost sight of Nozomu, was attacked from the side. He hurriedly tried to
turn his body towards Nozomu, but Nozomu pressed down on Feo's cudgel with his
scabbard, temporarily suppressing his movements.
"Haaah!!"
"Kuh!!"
Nozomu then swung his
katana down, but Feo somehow managed to respond to Nozomu's attack. He
instinctively released one of his hands that was holding the cudgel and arched
his body backward to escape Nozomu's slash.
Realizing that this
pace was certainly bad, Feo, as if pulling out the restrained cudgel, leaped
back violently and pulled out a talisman.
He then channeled
magic power into the talisman and activated the spell. Lightning rampaged
indiscriminately between Nozomu and Feo.
It was merely a
technique that converted channeled magic power into a specific attribute and
scattered it, but Nozomu, who had been about to press his attack further, was
stopped in his tracks, and the distance between them opened again.
"Ah, that was close!"
"Kuh!!"
However, Feo did not
use talisman arts again; he merely regained his stance. Silence and tension
once again hung between the two who were now distanced from each other.
***
While Nozomu and Feo
were clashing their weapons, Irisdina and the others, trapped within the
barrier Feo had erected, could only watch the two fight, their fingers in their
mouths.
"W-what do we
do?! Shina!"
Mimuru let out a
panicked cry.
"What do we do,
you ask... I'd like to ask you that! I didn't know Feo was that strong!"
Currently, Feo is
dominating the fight between the two.
Shina and the others
had witnessed Nozomu's abilities firsthand in the previous black magical beast
incident. They had thought that with Nozomu's ability to escape that magical
beast, he could easily fight against Feo, whom they knew.
However, that wasn't
the case now. Of course, Nozomu had various hesitations and was therefore
unable to use Ki techniques, but judging from Shina's leaked words, Feo seemed
to have been hiding his true abilities from those around him.
While Shina and the
others were panicking, Irisdina somehow suppressed her inner impatience and
pondered how to resolve the situation.
Apparently, because
they knew the usual Feo, the gap with his current self was significant, and
Shina and the others seemed more agitated than Irisdina and the others.
"…Tom-kun, he
seems to be in the same class as you all, but is he the kind of person who
would do something like this?"
"N-no, well, he's
always had a nonchalant attitude and is a moody person, so he doesn't get along
well with Ms. Inda or Shina, but he definitely wasn't someone who would
suddenly attack like this!"
"T-then…
why?"
"Reasons don't
matter, do they!? The priority right now is to stop that fox bastard!!"
Tom answered
Irisdina's question, but it seemed Feo wasn't the kind of person who would
suddenly attack like this.
Tima let out a
confused sound, but Mars insisted that they needed to do something about the
situation immediately. Indeed, the situation wouldn't improve as it was.
"…That's right. I
don't know why he attacked Nozomu like this, but we should prioritize stopping
him now."
"…That's right,
but what do we do, Ai? Even if I break the barrier with my magic, it'll just
regenerate, won't it?"
About that, Irisdina
thought the most reliable way was to destroy his magic tool or disable it. It
seemed to be his own creation, and judging by its appearance, it looked hastily
made.
"As Irisdina
said, the key to this barrier is the magic tool Feo possesses. Moreover, that
magic tool is a simple one made by attaching talismans that absorb magic power
to a magic stone and a talisman that creates a barrier. It doesn't seem very
sturdy, and the crucial talismans seem easy to peel off even with bare hands."
"What about
continuously destroying the barrier until the magic stone's magic power runs
out?"
"That's also an
option, but as long as the number of times that magic stone can regenerate the
barrier is unclear, if we want to stop him as quickly as possible, I think
destroying the magic stone is faster."
Tom suggested
destroying the barrier until the magic stone's magic power ran out, but
Irisdina decided it would be better to destroy the magic tool.
Indeed, since it was
hastily made, it probably wasted a lot of magic power, but in return, he seemed
to be using a fairly high-quality magic stone.
Depending on the
accuracy of Feo's talisman arts, the number of times the barrier could be
regenerated was unclear, so there were many uncertain factors.
The problem was that
the magic tool in question was currently in Feo's pocket.
"…Everyone, I
need you to listen for a moment."
At Irisdina's call,
everyone present listened to her words.
***
While Irisdina and the
others were trying to deal with the barrier that trapped them, Nozomu and Feo
were still glaring at each other, waiting to see what the other party would do.
(I couldn't break
through... Since I couldn't use Ki techniques carelessly, I wanted to decide it
with this, but...)
(That was a close call...
And I never thought he could do this much... Is his pure unarmed combat better
than mine?)
Nozomu had avoided
using offensive Ki techniques, so he had no choice but to push through with his
katana skills. Feo, on the other hand, hadn't expected to be pushed to the
brink of having his vital points attacked, forcing him to sweat cold.
Nozomu was
fundamentally inferior to Feo in physical abilities. The fact that Nozomu, with
only unarmed combat, could corner him was proof that Nozomu surpassed Feo in
that aspect.
"…I'm surprised.
I never thought you could do this much. Honestly, I underestimated you."
A voice of admiration
escaped Feo's lips. For him, Nozomu's skill was truly astonishing.
"…Hey, why did
you do all this?"
Nozomu once again
asked Feo why he had initiated this.
"…Well, you
see~"
"…"
Feo made a gesture as
if thinking for a moment. Nozomu just silently waited for his words.
"Well, it's
alright, I'll tell you. But only if you can overcome the next one."
Saying that, Feo took
out two talismans from his pocket, channeled magic power into them with all his
might, and then threw them into the air.
The thrown talismans
exploded with a bang! after a moment's delay, turning into dazzling lightning
that fell onto the staff Feo held.
The staff he held was
enveloped in light, and lightning that couldn't be contained by the weapon
itself ran through the air as purple lightning.
Feo's intimidating
presence suddenly swelled, and Nozomu felt a suffocating pressure in his chest.
"Well, as you can
see, this is my finishing move. If you can take this and remain unharmed, I'll
tell you whatever you want to know, Nozomu…"
Nozomu narrowed his
eyes at Feo's declaration. Silence flowed for a brief moment, but Nozomu
responded by sheathing his katana and taking a quick-draw stance.
"That's more like
it!!"
Feo smiled like a
child, pleased that his proposal had been accepted. He seemed genuinely happy
that Nozomu had responded.
Feo began to spin the
lightning-wrapped staff above his head. The staff rotated at high speed. At
first, the shape of the staff was clearly visible, but it gradually became
obscured, eventually turning into a circle. As a result, the lightning wrapped
around the staff gradually gathered at both ends of the staff.
"Here I come,
Nozomu~!"
Feo charged forward
with that declaration.
He twisted his body
violently and slammed the cudgel, which he had been rotating above his head,
from Nozomu's left side as if to sweep him away.
Nozomu also tried to
draw his katana while stepping forward, but at that moment, the lightning
gathered at the end of Feo's cudgel suddenly exploded, instantly accelerating
the cudgel's speed.
"Haaah!!"
Feo's accelerated
cudgel gained momentum and tried to sweep away Nozomu, but Nozomu immediately
drew his katana with a sharp roar. He then struck an upward quick-draw slash at
Feo's cudgel from below.
(Either way, if I
clash with him head-on, I'll just be unilaterally crushed. Then…)
The katana and cudgel
clashed, and the colliding metal produced a jarring sound.
Nozomu's quick-draw
seemed to have parried Feo's strike for a moment, but Feo's physical strength
was superior after all, and he broke through the stalemate in an instant.
However, Nozomu,
knowing he couldn't win by clashing head-on, the moment his katana and Feo's
cudgel collided, twisted his body violently with the momentum of his
quick-draw, dropping his center of gravity almost to the ground.
Feo's strike then slid
along the curve of the katana and escaped behind Nozomu. Nozomu then rotated
his body once more and stepped forward again.
Feo was left
vulnerable, having completely swung his weapon, and Nozomu, with the momentum
of his rotation, tried to swing his katana in a reverse diagonal slash again.
"Gotcha!!"
"You're naive!
Nozomu!!"
But when Feo's words
reached his ears, Nozomu momentarily doubted his eyes at the sight that jumped
into his view.
Lightning danced
behind Feo. The remnants of the talisman art Feo had used to accelerate his
previous strike rapidly gathered and formed lightning orbs, then rushed forward
as if tracing the trajectory of his previous strike.
"Wha!?"
Nozomu instinctively
channeled Ki into his katana to block the approaching lightning, but the
charging lightning struck his katana upwards, greatly breaking his stance.
"Haaaaah!!"
Naturally, Feo
wouldn't miss that opening. With the explosion of lightning that had been
charged at the other end, his cudgel swept at Nozomu from the opposite
direction.
"Kuh!!"
Nozomu somehow tried
to regain his stance, but it was too late. He instinctively tried to jump back,
slipping his scabbard between the approaching cudgel and his body.
"Gah!!"
However, it was too
late, and Nozomu was blown away by the impact.
His breath caught from
the impact that pierced his body, and his vision went pure white for a moment
of weightlessness. But he somehow struggled to break his fall.
Eventually, the moment
he hit the ground, his pure white vision became blurred like a sandstorm, and
instead of weightlessness, an abnormal numbness assaulted his entire body.
"Guh,
gahah…"
He must have bitten
his lip, as a metallic taste stimulated his tongue. Even so, Nozomu's
consciousness had not faded.
(!!)
Again, with a
"thump," a red scene spread before his eyes. A violent urge from
within him raised its head, and at the same time, nausea surged.
The sight of not only
Feo but also Iris and the others being cut down flashed back, increasing his
nausea even further, but Nozomu gritted his teeth and tried to suppress it.
He shook his head as
if to shake off the sight in his eyes, and the red scene faded. He used his
katana as a cane to somehow raise his body. His legs were trembling, but he
could stand firmly on his own two feet.
(This is thanks to
Master… I guess? At least I'm still conscious…)
Perhaps his
consciousness was still hazy, as Nozomu was muttering profound lines to his
master in his head. If his master heard him, he would probably be grilled for
an hour about what he meant. Mainly through sword fighting.
"Wha!!"
However, from Feo's
perspective, it was an unexpected event. No matter how much his power was
reduced, after being slammed to the ground so dramatically, Nozomu shouldn't
have been able to get up for a while.
"…Seriously?"
Feo stood there,
speechless. At that moment, the sound of something shattering with a roar
echoed around them.
***
"Everyone, are
you ready?"
Everyone present
nodded at Irisdina's call.
"Tima, Mars-kun,
I'm counting on you."
"Okay."
"Understood."
Tima once again
unleashed her magic power and began chanting. The spell she was using was
"Piercing Rock Dance," the same one that had pierced the barrier
earlier.
Mars also gathered Ki
into his greatsword, his weapon, and began to create a wind blade.
As Tima's incantation
finished, a gigantic rock spear materialized. When she swung her staff, the
rock spear flew straight towards the light barrier, crashed into it, and tore a
large hole in the barrier with a roar.
"Wh-what the
heck!?"
However, the large
hole opened in the barrier immediately tried to seal itself with Feo's magic
tool. And the large hole in the barrier quickly grew smaller, but before it
could completely seal, Mars charged towards it.
"You won't!"
Mars thrust his
greatsword, enveloped in a wind blade, into the hole in the barrier, then
slammed Ki into the greatsword with all his might. The wind blade swirling
around the blade then forcibly widened the closing barrier hole back into a
large circle.
"Now!!"
"Nice,
Mars-kun!"
At Mars's call,
Irisdina activated magic with Instant Activation. Magic bullets formed in the
air were launched and attacked Feo through the hole in the barrier that Mars
was maintaining.
"Kuh!!"
Feo rotated the staff
he held in his hand to deflect the incoming magic bullets, but even so,
Irisdina's magic bullets were high in both magic power and accuracy, possessing
considerable power for basic magic.
Feo succeeded in
deflecting the incoming magic bullets, but Irisdina continuously fired more.
Her magic bullets accurately struck Feo without pause, completely stopping his
feet.
(Ah, no! This
situation's turned bad in an instant!!)
Feo, who had been
deflecting Iris's magic bullets, momentarily showed a flustered expression as
he found himself completely pinned down.
But as he deflected
the rain of jet-black magic bullets, a flash of light burst into his vision. A
tremendous shock ran through his arm, and he instinctively dropped the staff he
was holding.
"Guh!"
Several magic bullets
struck Feo, who had dropped his weapon, but he forcibly moved his body despite
being hit, trying to evade Irisdina's magic.
"W-what the
hell!!"
Feo looked towards the
direction of the flash of light, trying to ascertain the cause of the sudden
shock, and there was Shina, holding a bow.
Actually, the true
purpose was the high-powered magic arrow she fired. Irisdina's magic bullets
were merely to hold him back and to conceal her arrow.
But this was also just
a feint. A figure appeared before Feo, whose stance had been broken by the
magic bullets he had been hit by.
"Hi~, Feo!"
"…Gah,
Mimuru!"
It was Mimuru who had
come close to Feo. She had passed through the hole in the barrier during the
opening when Feo's stance was broken by Shina's arrow, closing the distance
from his blind spot.
She slashed with the
knife she held, tearing through the chest of Feo's uniform, and caught the
magic stone that fell out in mid-air.
"Sorry~. I'll be
taking this!"
"Ah, h-hey! You
thief!!"
Ignoring Feo, who was
saying something, Mimuru peeled off both talismans attached to the magic stone.
She then ripped them to shreds, crumpled them up, and threw them away.
The light barrier that
had covered Irisdina and the others also vanished as the talismans that
maintained the barrier were gone.
"Th-this is
really bad!!"
Feo, realizing his
disadvantage with the barrier gone. He immediately decided to escape and
started running away at full speed. But suddenly, he felt a floating sensation,
and the feeling of the ground beneath his feet disappeared.
"…Huh?"
Puzzled, he looked
down at his feet. There was no ground where there should have been, and a large
hole had opened.
"Wh-what the hell
is this~~!!"
Of course, he had no
means of escaping gravity, so he fell into the dark hole with a pathetic
scream.
***
"H-hello~
everyone, greetings…"
Feo's empty greeting
echoed in the sunset sky.
Only his head
protruded from the ground; the rest of his body was completely buried.
"But that was a
nice follow-up, Tom. If you hadn't been there, we might have let this fox
escape."
"Well, I thought
it would be best to catch him for now. And it's nothing much. The magic I used
was simple too…"
"No, I think that
was a good decision. I couldn't have made a contract with spirits in that
amount of time…"
In fact, the pitfall that
appeared at Feo's feet was Tom's magic. He had anticipated Feo's escape,
chanted while everyone was dealing with Feo, and set the trap beforehand.
It was a simple spell
that just created a hole in the ground, but it was enough as a pitfall.
Incidentally, Nozomu
was currently having healing magic cast on him by Irisdina.
"…Huh? Shina, you
can use Spirit Magic? We're in the same class, but I've never seen you use
it?"
"W-well, that
doesn't matter, does it? More importantly, you, why did you do all this?!"
Questioned about being
able to use Spirit Magic, Shina hurriedly changed the subject. However,
everyone seemed to be equally curious about why Feo had challenged Nozomu, and
their gazes focused on Feo, who was only a head above ground.
Nozomu was also
curious about the reason, so he firmly looked at Feo even while healing magic
was being cast on him.
"…Let's see.
Well, from Nozomu's perspective, it's not a big reason. I just wanted to know
about you, simply."
Feo, having stated
that, continued to speak.
"Solminati is a
meritocracy, for better or worse. If you're strong, it's good; if you're weak,
no one even looks at you. It's such a boring place."
Feo snorted, genuinely
sounding bored. Disgust was clearly reflected in his expression, and it seemed
he was speaking from the heart.
"Well, even so, I
was excited at first, in my own way, and becoming strong was fun. But I
eventually got bored, you know…"
Although he was buried
in the ground and couldn't be seen, Feo made a gesture as if shrugging his
shoulders. But the next moment, he looked up at Nozomu with sparkling,
childlike eyes.
"That's when you
caught my eye! The 'Black-Haired Princess' and the 'Weaver of the Four Tones,'
and on top of that, the uncontrollable problem child at the academy! When I
heard such a group had formed, I thought, 'This must be interesting'!! And then
I just couldn't sit still~~. I ended up doing various things~~."
Feo let out a
"hahaha" with a grin.
"…In other words,
you orchestrated this entirely out of your own curiosity?"
"Well, to put it
plainly, yes~~."
Feo affirmed
Irisdina's question, clutching his temple as if he had a headache from her
words.
"…You are…"
"Unbelievable…"
"Ha,
hahahaha…"
Irisdina and Shina
could only let out sounds of exasperation, and Nozomu merely let out a dry
laugh.
"Nozomu, why are
you so nonchalant?! If what this guy says is true, then what happened behind
the school building was his fault too!"
"Well, yeah. But
I think that incident would have happened anyway, even if Feo hadn't done
anything. So I don't really mind about it."
(He doesn't seem to
know about the Dragon Slayer after all….)
Mars complained about
Nozomu's indecisive attitude, but Nozomu had also anticipated that his being a
Dragon Slayer might be exposed, so he was relieved that it was just mere
curiosity.
"…So what are you
going to do? Nozomu-kun. In this case, I think you should decide what to do
with him…"
"Let's see. I
don't intend to make a big deal out of it. I had a tough time, but it doesn't
seem like there was any malice involved... well, I do think he went a little
too far, though..."
"Oh! As expected
of Nozomu! A good guy is different~~!!"
Feo was saying
something overly positive, but Nozomu didn't intend to make a big deal out of
it, nor did he intend to forgive him just like that.
"…But still, it
doesn't change the fact that he went too far, does it…"
"…Eh? I have a
bad feeling about this…"
A strange tension
began to drift at Nozomu's words.
"Hey, everyone!!"
"Nozomu-san!
Sorry to keep you waiting—!!"
At that moment,
Mimuru's and Somia's voices echoed. Mimuru was somehow holding a burlap sack in
her hand.
"Huh? What were
those two doing?"
"Well, just a
little favor, you see…"
Mimuru and Somia
rushed over to Nozomu and handed him the burlap sack. A rustling sound could be
heard from the sack, and something was squirming inside.
"Alright!
Nozomu-kun. Is this good enough!?"
"Yeah. Thank you,
both of you."
"U-um… what are
you going to use that for?"
"Hm? Punishment
for the mischievous fox."
Saying that, Nozomu
turned to Feo and slowly walked towards him. The sight of him carrying the bag,
as if showing it off, somehow strangely incited a sense of terror, and a shiver
ran down Feo's spine.
"…N-Nozomu,
what's in that bag?"
"…This forest has
various insects, you know. From edible ones to poisonous ones. But there are
also many insects that are very useful for compounding or making medicine. So,
since it's a good opportunity, I thought I'd give them to you as a token of our
acquaintance…"
"…Um, I humbly
decline…"
Without waiting for
Feo's words, Nozomu opened the mouth of the bag and then placed the burlap sack
over Feo's head, which was protruding from the ground. Naturally, countless
insects were squirming inside. And he even thoroughly tied the mouth of the bag
afterward to prevent the insects from escaping.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Something! Something's in here! It's prickly and slimy and greasy and
creepy-crawly…"
Feo's scream, which
seemed to tear through the sunset sky, echoed around them.
Being in complete
darkness and having insects crawling all over his face. It was something that
made one's skin crawl just imagining it, and in fact, the women were completely
repulsed. Blood had completely drained from Somia's and Mimuru's faces, who had
collected the insects.
"Whoa! Something
just wrapped around my neck!! Gah! My ear, something got into my ear!! Phew! My
nose, something got into my nose too!!"
"Well, the sun's
setting, so shall we go home?"
"N-Nozomu. What
about him?"
"Hm? I think it's
fine to leave him. Regardless of how they look and feel when you touch them,
there are no harmful insects inside (though Master might have put some
in...)"
Ignoring the reactions
of those around him, Nozomu answered Mars's question with a somewhat refreshed
face. However, that smile made cold sweat trickle down Mars's back, and he
instinctively backed away.
"I-is that so,
then it's fine... right?"
"It's fine, let's
just leave him. Someone as capable as him will figure it out on his own."
Saying that, Nozomu
left Feo and started to head home.
Everyone else looked
at Feo with sympathetic glances, but there was no one who could say anything to
him right now. They slowly began to leave the place and walk towards the city.
It was probably unavoidable that everyone looked back several times.
"...You were
actually pretty angry, weren't you?"
Mars's murmured words
were drowned out by the screams coming from behind them and didn't reach Nozomu's
ears.
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