"Follow Feria"s scent, hurry!"

They shouldn"t have been able to go far yet. With this much chaos, and how conspicuous they would be, they would probably be noticed by someone everywhere they go. Especially in the n.o.ble district.

But, I don"t know the ident.i.ty of the two men in black clothes, and I can"t be certain that Viscount Ogren and Feria are together. That"s why I want Rashiok to hurry as much as possible.

Rashiok landed on a street in the commoners" district where the fire was weak, then took off running down the street. Occasionally he pushed some packs of fire moths away with gusts of wind, and ran down an empty road.

I finally realized that there was something strange about the fire moths" movements. They were still gathering on the edges of Rashiok"s control over the wind in groups, but they weren"t moving in waves anymore.

There"s something unnatural about all this, is what I think. The abnormal behavior of magical beasts has been continuing for the past few years. But, such behavior that clearly deviates so far from their natural behavior, shouldn"t happen unless it"s the prelude to some sort of calamity. All the knowledge I"ve acc.u.mulated about magical beasts is telling me something"s off.

It"s absolutely impossible for the fire moths to cause such a major incident, based on their biological behavior.

-Then, this incident must be the work of a human.

I had a flashback to what happened three years ago. A magical beast that left the Monster Forest and entered a human structure, the monster baboon. It had seemed to get excited over human blood. But considering that beast"s original nature, that shouldn"t have been possible.

Although monster baboons have high intelligence, it"s still a magical beast. Its inherent nature is that of an animal. In other words, for it to have been hunting humans that aren"t its food in a building that was currently burning goes against all the laws of nature.

When something that cannot naturally occur does occur, the cause will almost certainly be due to humans. I don"t know how they do it, but there must be a person somewhere that has a technique to make monsters and magical beasts run rampant. As I got lost in my thoughts, Rashiok gave me a low growl.

"You found them?"

I unsheathed the sword fastened to my waist. It"s only a ceremonial light sword, but it will still suffice as a weapon.

In a small plaza with a fountain, I saw two men dressed in black. One was carrying Feria on his back, and the other was vigilantly watching the surroundings while holding a spear.

I could also see two shadows on the other side of the fountain. ……Viscount Ogren was the only person I couldn"t see. But he wasn"t alone, there was the shadow of someone else there, presuming one of the shadows was Viscount Ogren.

First I must consider, is it really necessary to rescue Feria? I can"t do anything if I"m worried about the fact that they have a hostage. -In my opinion, it"ll be difficult to steal her from them.

"Go, Rashiok. It"s time to hunt."

The man hurriedly swung his spear at Rashiok when he finally noticed us ambushing him, but it bounced off his scales uselessly as Rashiok bit into his unarmored arm. The momentum from the collision threw him into the fountain, causing water to splash all over.

Simultaneously, I jumped off of Rashiok"s back, and I aimed directly with my short sword to pierce through the man carrying Feria.

I"m not worried about the fate of the hostage, but I must bear the full brunt of my choices. This is a realization that I"ve come to after reincarnating.

A strange sound spewed out from the mouth of the man whose shoulder I pierced through completely, causing life to leave his body, as I also peeled Feria off of him. Feria screamed as we hit the ground together rolling, and I used her to absorb some of the impact from hitting the ground. After all, since I"m still only nine years old currently, it would be difficult for me to do something like actually carry a girl that"s sixteen like Feria by myself.

"Get down."

Giving blunt instructions that get straight to the point has become my habit already. As Feria tried to get up while just looking at me in amazement, I stepped over to the person that Rashiok bit to death, and took his spear. Well, it"s a little heavy for me, but it"ll do.

At that moment, I heard the sound of a heavy object falling into the fountain and water splashing again. On the other side of the curtain of water droplets falling like rain, two people were coming in my direction.

"……Well, well. Eliza Kaldia. I didn"t expect to meet you so soon. You"re really so similar to your father, who enjoyed killing people in such a garish manner."

I heard a man laughing gloomily, which gave me an eerie sensation of familiarity, and when the water droplets stopped falling and I saw the man who had just been speaking, that"s when it hit me.

I couldn"t do anything but stand there stunned.

While his black hair was wet from the water, his dazzling scarlet blood-red eyes were exactly the same shade that I loathed to look at every time I saw myself in a mirror.

For an instant, I almost thought I really was looking into a mirror. However, the clothes and hairstyle were different. Also, this person had the same crazed aura about him as a person from my memory.

"………… …… F, father?"

Is this some sort of nightmare that I can"t get away from, that"s come into the world of reality? As the man slowly turned his head towards me and I got a clearer look, he appeared more and more reminiscent of my late father.