Chapter 99

Hector drew the hand axe he always carried at his waist and ran out with glowing eyes.

At this moment, Hector’s head was filled with the conviction that the crazy Demona was holding onto a poor girl and trying to convert her to black magic.

However, no matter how much it was Hector, he could not be a match for that girl right now.

“Hector, stop! That girl is—”

“Uaaah! I cannot forgive you, in the name of the righteous Pabilto!”

Roan tried to catch Hector, but he had already run far away with his eyes rolled back.

‘Anyway, what a guy with nothing but boiling blood in his head!’

Roan clicked his tongue and gathered the black mana that had been scattered around.

As long as that girl was involved, Roan also had to make full preparations.

If it ended in simple subdual he would not step forward, but if not, he needed to be ready to intervene at any time.

Meanwhile, despite the crazy Hector running toward her with an axe, Demona calmly pointed her finger and introduced him.

“Huh? That guy is Hector Pabilto, a fanatic. He is always like that whenever he sees me~”

Rather than bluffing in front of a girl, it was just the normal appearance of Demona.

Of course, the girl showed a perfectly normal reaction, glaring at Hector with a stiff expression from the moment he drew the axe.

“……Is he an enemy?”

A voice so cold that one could not think of it as belonging to the girl who had been giggling until just now.

“Hmm? Not an enemy. A friend.”

Demona shook her head innocently.

A friend, not an enemy, pouncing with an axe?

Even in the middle of the commercial district?

At that moment, the girl’s stiff expression almost softened slightly, but:

“I see……”

Soon, the girl clenched her small fists and began to reveal her power.

An elusive and heterogeneous power that probably only someone of Roan’s caliber could feel at this distance.

Sss—

— What?

— It was clear just a moment ago?

Simultaneously, the sun, which had been floating as usual, partially disappeared.

The other students on the street, as well as Rafia and Demona, looked up at the sky in wonder.

The ones grasping the exact situation were probably only two people.

Only the girl glaring at Hector, and Roan glaring at that girl.

‘Damn it, this is why……’

The eclipse was the power of the god the girl served.

Because her talent had not properly blossomed yet, she would only be able to use a tiny fraction of it, but:

‘The only person who can block it here is probably someone like me.’

Even so, the girl was still worthy of being called out-of-spec compared to other ordinary students.

Because despite appearing that way, she strictly possessed the authority of Eurel Sol, the god of the black sun.

If he had to look among the students Roan had met, she had to be at least on the level of Yushina.

Even Sion had almost no practical combat experience yet, making it hard to guarantee victory.

Thus, the sunlight disappeared from the spot where the girl and Demona stood.

Finally, even the sunlight shining on Hector, who was running in a frenzy, vanished.

When a dark shadow fell around him:

Stop—

“Uh, uh? What is this?”

Hector stopped in the exact posture he was running in with the axe.

Hector looked back at Roan as if he could not understand the current situation.

“Is this your doing, Roan!”

He seemed to think, as always, that Roan’s curse magic had blocked him.

But instead of replying to Hector’s words, Roan was glaring at the girl.

Hector, with his body bound, shouted at Demona.

“Heretic Demona! Release the hostage immediately and surrender!”

‘Does he mean he is the hostage?’

No matter how one looked at it, the one helplessly bound was Hector.

However, Hector’s words provoked the girl greatly.

Frowning deeply, the girl asked Demona.

“Why do they call you heretic?”

“No idea? They have done that ever since we first met.”

“You don’t know the reason?!”

At Demona’s calm reply, Hector felt dumbfounded.

Not to mention showing interest in black magic, did it make sense that someone who tried to name spiritual beasts Death Knight or Archlich at every opportunity did not know that?

“How dare you……”

In any case, the girl tried to make her next move with a quiet anger.

The girl’s shadow seemed to grow darker, then soon changed shape and rapidly stretched toward Hector.

Unlike the first move, which was a simple binding, this time it was a definitive attack.

Furthermore, the energy contained in it was unusual.

The girl probably had no intention of killing Hector either, but it would not end with a light scratch either.

Roan, who was watching the situation, immediately moved his black mana.

‘Arrogant Wraith’s Guard!’

The girl’s power belonged to the tricky category to deal with.

Rather than physical defense magic, dispersing the magical power was somewhat more effective.

Fortunately, Roan’s black mana reached near Hector, so it was not late.

A shape like a ghost of brilliant light began to flicker and rotate around Hector.

The Arrogant Wraith’s Guard had the effect of neutralizing magical attacks by summoning wraiths.

Sss—

The shadow stretching from the girl touched the wraith.

Normally, the wraiths would have shrieked with metallic noises, but the Arrogant Wraith’s Guard, used like a holy art, replaced it with the sound of holy bells.

— The protection of a holy soul?

— Is Pabilto already using a holy art like that?

Naturally, there was a defense spell with a similar effect in holy magic as well.

Noticing that her attack was blocked, the girl immediately changed the shadow to be a bit more complex.

‘There will be no end to this.’

Roan bit his lower lip.

Since he had tried to attack Demona, and even the word “heretic”—which could be called the girl’s trigger—had been spoken:

The girl would not easily stop her attack on Hector.

Roan raised the Arrogant Wraith’s Guard once more, then moved to block the girl directly.

‘Ghost Horse’s Gallop!’

A movement skill that granted increased movement speed and a weak stealth effect.

Roan passed Hector in an instant, narrowing the distance with the girl.

Spark—

The girl also did not easily allow Roan’s approach.

Glaring at Roan, the girl stretched another shadow this time and launched it at him.

But that much was within Roan’s expectations.

The girl, due to circumstances, could not exert her full strength in the middle of the commercial district either.

‘I will end this swiftly!’

In other words, both of them wished to wrap up this situation as quietly as possible.

The abyss condensed in both of Roan’s hands.

‘Abyssal Grasp.’

The Abyssal Grasp was a kind of reinforcement magic.

If there was a characteristic:

Rip—

“!!!”

It was specialized in directly dismantling holy power and magic rather than physical reinforcement.

Roan ripped apart the shadow that rose to take physical form in front of him, as if he had been waiting for it.

As if she hadn’t expected her attack to be blocked this easily, the girl’s eyes widened slightly.

In a way, it was only natural.

Since unless one was Roan, who had parsed the girl accurately, it would be unimaginable that a shadow would attack.

A very brief gap.

For Roan, who used Ghost Horse’s Gallop, that amount of gap was sufficient.

“Huh? Roan, when did you get here?”

Demona only reacted this way after Roan had arrived right before her nose.

“……What on earth are you?”

On the other hand, the girl, who had exchanged moves with Roan several times while Demona was completely oblivious, asked with a slightly tense gaze.

Roan’s grey eyes and the girl’s black eyes clashed tensely.

However, Roan’s gloomy and dangerous gaze made even that girl instinctively shrink back.

Roan lowered his head right next to the girl’s ear and whispered.

“Stop it, Apostle of the Eclipse.”

“……!!!!!!!!!”

The two disparate concepts of silence and surprise collided within the girl.

Without being able to distance herself from Roan, nor turn back to look at him, the girl froze stiffly in that posture.

“How……”

She merely murmured this, unable to completely hold back her surprise.

Roan added:

“I came from the Holy Emperor’s Palace. You should understand with this much.”

Once again, the girl flinched and trembled.

She must have definitely understood.

Roan drove in the final wedge.

“Soldera. I will watch you.”

Only then did Roan take a step back from the girl, Soldera.

Fear had seeped into Soldera’s eyes before she knew it.

Roan now raised his voice enough for even Demona to hear.

“That fellow is a pathetic fool who knows nothing, but he is a friend of mine and Demona. Let him go now.”

“Eh? What? Soldera, did you stop the fanatic? How?”

Demona seemed to have understood the situation only then.

Roan cast a glance at Demona with a subtle surprise.

‘She even told her real name……’

It seemed Soldera had approached Demona quite sincerely.

Of course, Demona would not know the meaning and weight contained in Soldera’s real name, but:

In any case, Soldera nodded slightly and withdrew her power.

The partial eclipse that had cast only over this street disappeared.

“Huh? I can move now.”

Hector’s body regained its freedom once more.

Soldera glared at Roan in resentment.

“Soldera, this is Roan Darc. He is my best friend~”

When Demona introduced Roan, she murmured:

“Darc……”

Then, smiling brightly just like before everything happened, she said:

“Brother Demona. I should be going now. I have work at the shop.”

“Ah, really? It can’t be helped.”

“Yes, it was fun today.”

Soldera waved to Demona and left.

Glare—

Of course, she did glare at Roan in the meantime.

It was wariness toward someone who not only knew her identity but was also far stronger than her.

Sss—

Roan only withdrew his attention after watching Soldera vanish in an instant over the shadow of the building.

Rubbing his wrists as if the sensation of being bound still remained, Hector approached and said:

“Have you released the hostage only now, heretic?”

Somehow, his expression was complex and subtle.

A feeling where his head knew Soldera was not a hostage but his chest somehow felt sore.

On the other hand, Demona:

“What is he saying from earlier, Roan?”

She was not listening to Hector’s nonsense at all.

“……How would I know.”

Actually, Roan was the same.

Crash—!

Hector cowered with an expression shocked by that fact, and:

The one who filled the empty space was Rafia.

“Demona! Who was that girl just now? She doesn’t seem like a student. A relative, by any chance?”

“Ah, she’s called Soldera. A commoner. She asked to eat together, so we did~”

There was more than one or two surprising things, but in any case, it seemed Rafia’s top priority was that Demona had been with another girl.

Demona casually let Rafia know Soldera’s real name.

‘ ?’

Roan watched that scene with a slightly lukewarm expression.

Surely Soldera would have told her her name and asked her not to tell others, but:

Demona had probably forgotten all about that.

However, Roan soon decided not to care.

‘, .’

There was a good reason for Soldera to hide her name.

Even so, it was incomparable to Roan, who had entered Akerandir as a black mage.

Furthermore.

‘ .’

Her opponent was Demona.

Fortunately, except for maybe Sion, there would be no one who could grasp the secret surrounding Soldera’s name.

As if to prove Roan’s thoughts, Rafia and Hector asked Demona this and that in great excitement.

“She asked to eat together first?”

“Yeah.”

“How does that make sense! Surely this heretic bastard played some tricks!”

“Think what you want~”