-Silvea-

"Look, there they are"

That girl with blue hair is probably the princess of the Agua kingdom, and the girl with the white pointy hat must be Ranna's sister.

She gave Paula an orb that can help her cast a barrier spell with a diameter of around 40 meters, it will not only stop our opponent from escaping but will also block all sounds and prevent her from calling for help. The plan is to approach them pretending to be normal travelers so that Paula has enough time to set it up.

"Eh? Who goes there?"

It seems like the princess was the first one to see us, alright, I'll say the lines I had prepared while getting closer to them.

"Oh, hello, we are..."

'White lightning'

"Woah!"

"Ugh"

What was that!? That white girl just attacked Paula out of nowhere without saying a single word, it seems like she was targeting the orb, did she know what we were trying to do? Fortunately, Roul reacted quickly enough to take the hit for her so she was able to set up the barrier after all.

She's supposed to be only level 60 but she was able to cast a really powerful light spell, we cannot underestimate her, the queen of darkness doesn't seem to be the type to tolerate useless underlings, she must be keeping her at her side for a reason.

"Who are these people? Why did you attack them? And why did they put up a barrier around us?"

"What I would like to know is how they were able to find us here"

"We have been asked by a representative of the Queen of the Agua kingdom to rescue her daughter and escort her to her home, release her at once!"

Oh! Is it just me or did I sound really cool just now?

"No way! I cannot go back! Arana, you need to make them leave!"

"Well, I don't think I can beat those three, I guess I'll have to surrender"

"What are you saying!?"

"Oh, by the way, we are also supposed to take your hat"

"In that case, I will have to fight until death"

What!? Why does she care so much about that hat!?

"You cannot take me back to my mother! She wants to kill me!"

"You heard her, she doesn't want to go with you"

"Don't think that you can trick us! We know that she's under mind control!"

"Uh? Are you stupid?"

"What!? You think that I'm not smart just because I'm a beastkin!?"

"No, I think that you're not smart because you are letting a bunch of bad guys use you as a tool and because what you said makes no sense, that friend of yours knows at least the basics of magic, no? Just ask her"

"Paula? What does she mean?"

"Well... there's two types of mind control magic, the first subtly influences a person to slightly alter their words and behavior, but that cannot make them do or say something too different to what they would normally, she couldn't be made to say something as drastic as 'my mother wants to kill me'. The second makes a person fall asleep while the caster controls them completely, but it requires the caster to exert their control constantly, and someone under that kind of control cannot speak as eloquently as she did"

"So does that mean that she cannot be under control?"

"Not with methods I know of, but the queen of darkness has proved to be able to use magic beyond our understanding"

"That's right! There's no way anyone would willingly go with someone as terrifying as the queen of darkness! You won't be able to trick us!"

When I tell her that she rolls her eyes... ugh, she's starting to make me angry!

"Anyway, I remember seeing you back when we were at Kelna, have you been following us since then?"

"Eh!? You saw us back then?"

In that case, we never had a chance to pass as normal travelers...

"Since you know about my hat I imagine that the person who asked you to do this was my sister Ranna, correct? But why would she ask you specifically... if I had to guess, it's because one of you has a skill that can find us anywhere we are and she wanted to use it to catch me off-guard, after all, I have been making sure to erase all of our tracks and check that we were not being followed, it would not have been possible to follow us with normal means. And I bet that Ranna is also the one who gave you that barrier orb and is keeping Luna busy as we speak, am I wrong?"

"What... how?"

I'm speechless, she got every single detail right... but she just shrugs her shoulders.

"Not that figuring out all of that is going to help me now that you already caught me"

"T-that's right! You better surrend..."

Suddenly I notice something moving below the ground right under me.

"Watch out!"

I manage to jump out of the way as a white spider larger than a horse emerges from the ground.

"Eeeek! What is that thing!?"

The princess really got scared, I can't blame her, even when compared to other insect monsters this thing is absolutely terrifying.

But where did it come from? Wasn't the barrier supposed to prevent anything from coming in?

"That's my bodyguard, every time we have to stop somewhere I summon it below the ground just in case something unexpected happens"

"Are you telling me that this thing was under us each time we were sleeping!?"

It looks scary, but how strong is it?

"Paula, did you check it's level?"

"Yeah, it's level 170"

"Ha! That's strong, but it's not something that the three of us cannot beat if we fight together"

Roul seems to be rather confident, however...

"You better not move from where you are right now"

She's holding a knife right to the princess's neck!

"You coward! Fight us fair and square!"

"Sure, as long as you also try to fight Luna fair and square"

"Uh... but she's way too strong!"

"You are also stronger than me, to be honest, I don't know how you could have possibly not expected me to do this"

She actually has a point...

The spider then uses a string made of light mana to tie me up, I cannot fight back as long as there's a hostage...

"Ufufu, cat beastkins are my favorite you know"

What the...!? She's smiling and licking her lips while giving me a predatory look...

"Noooo! Stay away!"

*Bang*

"!?"

I don't know what happened, all of a sudden my right hand started to glow and I could feel as if the light mana of the string that was restraining me was being influenced by me in some way... I'm not sure how to explain it, but as a result, the mana ended up... exploding? And the spider got hurt.

"What was that... don't tell me that you are..."

The smile on her face has been replaced with an expression of shock, does she know what just happened?

"Eeeek!"

When the princess sees the spider trashing madly she gets scared and reflexively lowers her head... oh no! Since the knife was just below her neck she must have injured herself!

Or not... now that I look closely, the knife got bent instead, is that a fake knife?

In that case, this is my chance! Before she can react I use my full speed to get near her and take her hat.

"Eh!?"

When she sees the hat in my hands she seems to get paralyzed by the shock, seriously, why does she care so much about a hat?

"Paula! Remove the barrier! Roul! Grab the princess and run away!"

"Ah! Yes!"

"I've got her!"

"Hey! Get your hands off me!"

I don't know how, but it seems like our mission was a success...

---

 

-Luna-

After coming back I'm met by a rather disquieting scene, Nera is nowhere to be seen, Arana is sitting on the ground, hugging her knees, and most worrying of all, her hat is not on her head.

"Ara! What happened!? Where's Nera!?"

"She got rescued..."

Rescued? What's that supposed to mean?

"And where's your hat?"

"The knights took it..."

"What knights!?"

"The ones who had been following us... I didn't think they would manage to beat me... stupid protagonists and their out of nowhere power-ups..."

"So if I understand, someone came here and took Nera and your hat? Wait... was Ranna working with them!?"

It's too much of a coincidence for them to show up just when I was fighting her, which means that they must be together. I guess that I'm getting smarter, after all, I noticed that very quickly!

"They said that they're going to take Nera back to her mom"

"What!? We need to get her back! Get up and let's go!"

"Y-yes"

I help Arana to get back on her feet, but after only two steps she trips and falls on the ground.

"It's impossible! I can't do it!"

"You can't even walk!?"

Seriously, just how hat-dependent is she?

This is bad... Nera is going to get killed if we don't get her back, and I can never do anything right without Arana's guidance, this is the worst situation possible!

"Ugh... you losing your hat is really troublesome..."

"Me losing my hat is... that's it! That's what happened! I can't believe that I forgot about the first law of Luna's woes..."

"The first law of what now?"

"The first law of Luna's woes states: 'If Luna is involved, the most troublesome thing that could happen will happen'"

"WHAT KIND OF LAW IS THAT!!!!?"

Also, if that's the 'first law', does that mean that there's more?

Whatever! If Arana cannot help me that just means that it's finally time for me to step up to the plate and save the day myself!

"Alright! I guess that it's all up to me... uh?"

I notice a small trickling sensation on my hand... oh! It's Longleg! He must have jumped at me from Arana.

"Are you going to help me?"

He gives me a salute and then climbs up to my shoulder, it seems like I won't have to do this alone after all!

"Alright, don't worry Ara, I'll get Nera back for sure!"

"And my hat!"

"Yeah, that too"