「My apologies, I have some business to attend to. Thus, it seems I won’t be able to dance with you」


  Princess Shirone apologized to me. What happened just now?

  「Shirone-san, did something just happen?」


  Instead of me, princess Kyouka beside me was the one asking that question.

  「Uuhn, it’s alright. Not a big deal. You can continue the dance, Kyouka-san」


  After saying so, princess Shirone stooped down and secretly left the venue.

  ◆Sword Maiden, Shirone

  I moved in a hurry to leave the venue while holding the cuff of my dress. I had summoned my sword with magic because I felt an extreme killing intent directed toward the venue. Thus, I ran along the corridors of the Velos kingdom royal palace toward the direction of that killing intent.

  「Shirone-sama!」


  Kaya-san chased after me.

  It seems Kaya-san felt that too.

  「Did you feel that killing intent too, Kaya-san?」


  Kaya-san nodded in affirmation to my question.

  「That was quite a powerful killing intent.」


  I agreed with her. We felt a powerful killing intent directed toward the venue of the Velos kingdom.

  That’s why me and Kaya-san, who could use danger perception, left the venue and are rushed toward the source of that killing intent.

  After jumping over the rampart, I flew in the air with my wings. Kaya-san’s running was so fast it looked like levitating on the ground.

  The sun had set, and our surroundings were already dark, however, we could still move without any problem even if we couldn’t see beyond a radius of 10 meters due to our superior senses.

  The huge and expansive forest that lies ahead, covering this area including Velos kingdom, is hailed as the Blue Forest.

  We felt that the killing intent was coming from deep within that forest.

  Kaya-san and I seemed to have finally arrived at the source of the killing intent.

  I descended in the middle of the forest and Kaya-san caught up with me a moment later.

  Since the trees around this area are tall and dense, not even the light of the stars reached the insides of the forest.

  Though the figure isn’t too clear, there’s a dark siluet waiting in front of us. That figure is the source of the killing intent.

  「You really came, huh」


  The figure in front of us spoke.

  「WHO ARE YOU?! WHY ARE YOU RELEASING THAT KILLING INTENT TOWARD VELOS!」


  Kaya-san was shouting at that figure.

  「Huhm, it seems you’re misunderstanding something here. My aim has been you guys all along. I’m going to kill you guys for killing my cute Zengu!」


  We finally understood the situation after arriving at the source of the killing intent.

  「I see, it’s revenge. Well then, I assume that you’re an ogre?」


  The person before us looked too small for an ogre. Was this person changing it’s appearance with magic?

  「Indeed! I’m known as Ogre Kujig! Zengu was such a kind and gentle child. I’m going to reward you properly for killing my cute Zengu!」


  Even if she said so, I don’t believe Zengu was such a good ogre since he ate humans.

  「What kind of a reward might it be? Do you, an ogre who eats humans, have the qualifications to say so?!」


  Having refuted the ogre’s claims, Kaya-san leapt toward Kujig.

  「HIIII!」


  The voice of the person in front of us suddenly changed while he was falling on his rear.

  The voice changed to that of an old man, completely different from the old woman-like voice from before.

  Maybe because she heard that voice, Kaya-san stopped her fist right before it hit.

  Right after that, the extremely powerful killing intent that we felt until then suddenly vanished. It was as if the person in front of us became a completely different person.

  「.…… It’s you?」


  「It’s me, Kaya-sama! It’s Echigos!」


  Though I couldn’t see him clearly since he wore a robe from the very beginning, it seems that Echigos was a subordinate of the ogres.

  「Why are you here?」


  Kaya-san interrogated Echigos to find out why he was here.

  「It’s because that ogre, Kujig, took over my body…… That’s why……」


  Echigos replied to Kaya-san with a flustered voice.

  「Could it be possession magic?」


  Possession magic is the magic that’s used to occupy the body of a target living being.

  Rino-chan can use this magic too, however, she’s quite reluctant to use it.

  I heard that possession magic consumes quite a lot of magic power. On top of putting the body of the user into an inanimate state for the duration of the magic, the other demerit is that it’s useless in battles since the user can use only half of their original power through the possessed person.

  「Maybe. Currently, I can’t feel the power from before from this man」


  Kaya-san replied to my question.

  「But wh……」


  If she wanted to fight us, there was no meaning in doing so with possession magic since she couldn’t even exhibit half of her original power.

  「It seems this is just a trap to lure us out. Let’s go back immediately」


  I nodded to her decision.

  「Uhm, I…… Can’t see anything in this darkness. If you leave me here……」


  Echigos pleaded with us. The current him, being released from Kujig’s magic, was just a mortal human. However, we had no spare time to babysit him.

  「I’m worried about my lady」


  Even without showing any change on her usualy expressionless face, I could hear the impatience in Kaya-san’s voice.

  Maybe Kujig was aiming for Kyouka-san. She had probably lured us away from the venue to use that chance to attack Kyouka-san.

  I had heard a lot of stories about this Kujig from the people of the Koki kingdom. It seems she’s an ogre witch with nine sons.

  If Kujig had come, the other sons had, most likely, come too.

  They might prove to be too much for Kyouka-san who can’t control her magic power.

  「Yup, let’s go back. I’ll go first, Kaya-san」