CH 207

“Zero-niisama! Please wake up.”

“I’m still sleepy.”

Sophie wakes me up. I feel like I’ve been woken up every day since I came back to King’s Landing. But it makes me feel nostalgic and spoiled.

“It’s a shame that you’re sleeping for your first time—“

“Okay fine…! I’ll wake up!”

And every day she makes me get up when I don’t want to get up.

“Then please get up right from the start.”

“Okay…”

I thought she was just joking, so I ignored her yesterday and tried to go back to sleep. However, I woke up in a hurry because she began to seriously pull down my pants and underpants. I probably should’ve stopped her before she saw what was inside. She didn’t see it, did she?

“Let’s go quickly!”

“Oh! Alright!”

After waking up, I had a light breakfast, got ready, and left the house. We then headed straight for the Adventurers’ Guild.

“Shana, thanks for waiting.”

“Nn.”

When I arrived at the guild, Shana was already standing there.

“I see that Claudia isn’t here yet.”

“She said it was urgent.”

“I see.”

Apparently, Claudia had some urgent business yesterday and couldn’t make it.

“Hello— Shana, it’s—- been a while.”

I was so nervous that I stammered.

“What do you want to do today?”

“Let’s go to the forest.”

“Are we going to do a quest?”

“No.”

Eh, what? Was I ignored? It was possible that she didn’t hear me, so I tried talking to her again.

“Shana, it’s been a while…ah…”

This time, even though I spoke to her at a volume that she’d surely hear, she ignored me and walked away. Then Sophie followed Shana and started to walk away. What’s that? Sophie knew I was being ignored?

“Huh…”

I let out a sigh and then followed them.

Well, I can understand why Shana is angry, since we had been working together as adventurers and suddenly I had gone off on my own for more than half a year without saying a word. And I wasn’t there during the dragon season, which was probably Shana’s toughest time of the year. No wonder she was angry.

We left the town and went into the forest.

“Nn?”

And when we came to an open area in the forest, Shana suddenly turned around. Then Sophie moved away from us.

“Pull it out.”

“Eh?”

“Your sword.”

“Ah, yes.”

And she said so while pointing the scythe toward me. I pulled out two swords.

“We’re going to have a mock battle between Shana and you, Zero-niisama.”

“No, I didn’t hear…”

“Then… begin!”

“Eh, Sophie’s ignoring me too.”

And without really understanding the situation, the mock battle between me and Shana started.

“Enchantment.”

“Enchantment?”

“Hurry up!”

“Ah… yes.”

It seems that Shana is waiting for me to be ready.

“Lightning Enchantment, Raiden armor.”

“That’s all?”

“Yeah.”

After I said that, Shana charged. But soon Shana was out of sight. So I unleashed a thunder spark with no chanting. With this, I thought I would attack her when she came out and be done with it.

“Huh?”

But Shana didn’t come out. That means she’s not within a radius of at least 20 meters of me. Maybe I need to get some serious search skills for this…

“Eh!”

But suddenly the Crisis High-Speed Detection was triggered from directly above me, so I swung my sword. Then the sword swung upward and collided with the sickle. However, the sickle and the chain connected to it were visible, but Shana was nowhere to be seen. Moreover, the chain was out of sight from the middle.

“Huh…!?”

This time, the Crisis High-Speed Detection was triggered from near the side, so I released a kick. Then Shana appeared, using the chain as a shield to block the kick. Shana was then sent flying by the force of the kick until she hit a nearby tree.

“Ku…”

Shana then got up, leaning against the tree. I somehow knew that Shana hadn’t yet evolved. This is just a hunch, but I think you can tell who has evolved and who has not. Maybe Sophie is the same way. That’s why I dared to make it a normal enchantment. Otherwise, I might accidentally injure her badly.

“I know that Zeros has become so strong… so strong that I’d never be able to beat you now…”

Finally Shana spoke up against me.

“So next I want you to see how much stronger I’ve become.”

As Shana said this, her beautiful, clear blue eyes became more and more cloudy. Finally, her eyes turned dark blue.

“I won’t be a liability to you two, so watch me.”

And then she walked straight without disappearing. Although the crisis high-speed detection was not activated, the atmosphere was so different from usual that I raised my alertness several levels. I felt as if she could see deep into my heart.

And just in case, I also prepared to increase the enchantment at any time.