“Ooooooooooh! So biiiiig!”
Snow yells with a glitter in her eyes.
It’s hard to walk because it’s muddy around there, and it feels like she might trip.
“I’ll look after her.”
“Are you sure?”
“We can’t leave her alone. And that saint should go with you to check if her friend is safe.”
Ceres really does look pretty fidgety and raring to go, but she can’t because she can’t deal with monsters of this island by herself.
“Sorry, look after Snow then.”
“Yes.”
Edinburgh doesn’t mind that she’s getting her shoes dirty, as she heads to where Snow is running around in the mud.
“Sorry for the wait. Let’s go.”
I say, and Ceres nods with a relieved expression.
◇ ◇ ◇
We start our search, while Edinburgh looks after Snow, but unlike the dry forest, it’s hard to walk on this muddy terrain.
“Are you all right, Ceres?”
“Yes, I’m used to traveling!”
She says with no anxiety, and instead, a serious expression.
“I hope they’re safe…”
“It’s all right, Arc was the one and only hero on the continent.”
I don’t think a human could fight monsters on this island, even a hero.
But her words filled with trust make me feel like he’ll be fine too.
“You really believe in him.”
“Yes. He has a strong heart that never breaks when faced with any adversity, and he’s become a hope for the people. That’s Arc the hero.”
“I see. Then I’m sure he’ll be okay.”
I don’t know about their travels, but I’m sure her confidence isn’t unfounded.
“Yes… Ah, look over there!”
After walking into a nearby forest, we find traces that people have been here.
It’s already been taken apart, but there’s tree bark that seems to have been put together to protect someone from rain, and what remains of a fire.
Someone was living here recently.
Ceres and I look at each other.
“I’m sure it’s Arc!”
“This isn’t just for one person… Seti of the seven great mages is probably with him.”
That’s good. It looks like he’s still alive.
And now that we know they’re together, we don’t have to look all over the place anymore.
We find trampled trees. For a moment I wonder if they left them behind on purpose to escape from monsters, but it’s pretty messy. They were probably in a rush to escape monsters they came across.
“Let’s go!”
“Yes.”
We follow the tracks deeper into the forest.
Thankfully, the muddy terrain makes it easy to see their footprints, but they stop after a while, near a big collapsed tree.
“Hey!”
“Arc! Answer me if you’re here!”
We raise our voices, but unfortunately, get no response.
But just as we’re wondering where to go from here, we hear a monster yell not too far away.
It sounds like it’s threatening whatever it’s fighting.
“Let’s go check that out!”
“Yes!”
We rush towards the monster, and find a giant frog standing on two legs.
It’s actually all round and cute at a glance. But Ceres’ face makes it clear it’s a pretty vicious monster.
And…
“Arc!? No…!”
The frog is wrapping its tongue around two men, like it’s about to eat them.
These two men are Arc, and a man wearing armor I’m pretty sure is Seti.
Arc is passed out, while Seti is struggling to free himself.
But it looks like the monster is just too strong.
“Ceres, wait here!”
I jump and run towards the frog. I can’t hit it like usual, because I’d put them in danger, so I grab the big tongue first and…
“Ueh…”
It’s all slimy, and my hand slips.
My hand is covered in a gross fluid.
“Gyueeeee!”
“…!?”
The frog notices me, and tries to sweep me with its arm, looking annoyed.
I rush to dodge, not because I would take damage, but because it’s all slimy.
If it hit me, I’d feel that again…
I typically don’t dodge attacks from monsters on this island. It’s the same with Tiltue and Luna’s tackles, but I never want to be attacked by that frog again.
But I also have to save them.
“Then…”
I put out my fist, and think of Reina’s wind magic.
“Guh… It’s no good!”
Seti yells, probably realizing what I’m doing.
“I also tried wind magic several times, but nothing worked on this calamity class monst…”
“Beheading Wind Blade!”
“Gyuaeeee!”
The wind blade cuts the frog in two, and releases Arc and Seti from its tongue.
“…Er…?
Seti sounds incredulous, and eventually hits the ground.
Arc is unconscious, but Seti can’t land properly either.
“…!? Guuh…”
He can’t get up, most likely because the frog’s tongue had some kind of poison that paralyzed him.
“Ceres! You can come out now. Can you heal them!?”
I’ve never gotten hurt on this island, and I don’t know healing magic.
I’m assuming Ceres can, but there weren’t many opportunities to use it so far, and I’ve never copied it.
But I should, just in case.
Ceres runs this way, and straight towards Arc.
She doesn’t hesitate to touch him despite how slimy he is, and casts healing magic.
A faint green light envelops his body, and his sickly complexion gradually improves, and his breathing stabilizes.
“You… The saint?”
“Don’t move! The poison is all over you!”
She doesn’t answer Seti’s question, and instead uses healing magic right away.
Her usual calm expression is now very serious.
It’s incredible, she looks like a doctor doing surgery.
It doesn’t take long until she’s done, and she takes a deep breath while wiping sweat from her forehead.
“That should do it. Can you move?”
“…Yes. That was excellent.”
“Thank goodness.”
“…”
Ceres smiles gently like a true saint, and the sunlight filtering through the trees gives her a divine beauty that looks straight out of a painting.
If even I think that, I can only assume Seti, who was directly saved by her, thinks so too.
But we just keep looking at her silently.
“…?”
Ceres tilts her head, wondering why she’s being stared at like that.
I’m a pretty sinful guy…
With that in mind, I start taking Arc’s clothes off,
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I typically don’t doge attacks
Dodge*