Esty’s POV
   Esty jumped up from her bed that she was sitting on the moment she received the text from the Hero. She had a sinking suspicion that it really was Sulgran when he described her. Unfortunately, she was right. No time to waste. She has to go where they are right now. She went downstairs where the Wakaba family was gathered.

   “I have to head outside right now. You can eat dinner without me.” she tells them.

   Chifuyu looks at Esty with a worried look.

   “Are you going to fight?”

   “Most probably.”

   “...In that case, please be careful.”

   “No worries.”

   “Come back home safe and sound, Esty-chan. Your share of the apple pie is waiting for you.” Mama Kana tells her.

   …Right. Esty is surviving this no matter what.

   “Well, I’m leaving.”

   Once that is done, she leaves the house and uses Illusion to make her hair look gray to untrained eyes. Next, she puts on the mask that she received from Aldenia. She’s anxious to meet Sulgran, but she can’t risk having her identity exposed. Now that her disguise is complete, she takes out her phone and flies to the location while following the direction given by the GPS.

   The place is somewhere near the ocean, with lots of ships and boats docked near the shore. Esty has no time for them, though. She’s here for one reason and one reason only-

   BOOM!

   Esty sees a piece of boulder as big as a car appear from nowhere and crashes at a nearby place. So there they are. She hurries towards there.

   And there she is. Sulgran, one of the Four Demon Marquis. Out of the four of them, Esty got along well the most with her. The reasons are more than the fact that they’re both female. For Esty, Sulgran has been like an elder sister that she never had. She would always cover up the pranks Esty did, even if it meant that she would be punished instead. She would bring Esty to festivals held by humans, although Esty always found them boring (except the ones she bumped into the Hero) after a torturing training session.

   After Esty had to witness Sulgran’s death, she broke down for quite a while. It’s not just the death itself that affected Esty. It’s the fact that Sulgran died while protecting her. If Esty was stronger, Sulgran didn’t have to die.

   Esty was so caught up in her thought that she failed to see a flying truck heading towards her. Before she could react, she was pushed softly to the right. The strength behind the push wasn’t strong, but it was enough for her to move to a safe spot.

   CRASH!

   And the truck landed at the exact spot where she was standing mere seconds ago.

   “You should really watch where you’re standing.”

   Esty looks towards the direction which the voice came from. Not surprisingly, the Hero is standing there while wearing his usual armor.

   “Leave me alone! I could have handled that even without your help!” she hisses.

   “Sure, sure.”

   Wait, this is no time to deal with him. Esty has to talk to Sulgran. Currently, the demon has stopped her attacks and is staring at Esty.

   “Is that you, Esty?” Sulgran asks.

   …It’s her. It really is her. The same voice, the same look, and the same aura. The exact same one that appeared in Esty’s dream.

   “Yes, Sulgran. It’s me.” Esty replies while a lump is forming in her throat. “L-Long time no see.”

   Sulgran shows her a sad smile.

   “I wish we could reunite under a better circumstance, but I guess that it can’t be helped.”

   “You’re not even supposed to be alive.” the Hero points out.

   That got a chuckle out of Sulgran.

   “True.” she agrees. “By the way, how have you been Esty?”

   Inevitably, Esty got reminded of the nightmare she had, and the destroyed relationship between her and the Hero.

   “I’m doing quite well. Sort of.” was all she said.

   “You look like you’re quite adapted to the life of this world. Are you-”

   All of a sudden, Sulgran looks at Esty, then at the Hero, then back at Esty again. And then, she covers her mouth with her hands. Her eyes are sparkling too.

   “Finally, the two of you are together!” she squeals gleefully.

   …What?

   “No, we’re not!” Esty denies strongly. “Where did you even get that idea?”

   She pauses.

   “...Wait, what do you even mean by “finally”?”

   “Now now, there’s no need to be shy. The two of you were always in love with each other, right?”

   Esty feels her face blushing, but she held her feeling down and grits her teeth.

   “My feelings for him are irrelevant. He killed you, countless others of our comrades, and most importantly my father. He and I are destined to be enemies.” she says coldly.

   “Oh come now, there’s no need to restrain yourself over something so trivial.”

   “Trivial? He killed you! How is that trivial?”

   “He just did what he had to do. It’s not like he had any malice.”

   Esty shakes her head.

   “His circumstances don’t matter one bit.” she insists.

   Sulgran let out a sigh.

   “I’ve forgotten how stubborn you can be.” she mumbles.

   “I’m sure that my stubbornness can be forgiven here.”

   “No, it can’t.”

   Without a single warning, Sulgran appears right next to the Hero. Esty assumes that she used her Bloodline Magic Spatial Redirection. And then, she links her arm with the Hero.

   Esty felt something inside her snap.

   “Say, since Esty doesn’t want to be your girl, how about I become yours?” Sulgran asks the Hero while clinging really closely to him.

   “No thanks.” he declines immediately.

   With that, all of Esty’s anger is gone in an instant.

   “Oh, don’t say that. Unlike her, I’m more than happy to do all kinds of things for you. Like this kind of thing, or that kind of thing.” Sulgran continues to tempt while sneaking mischievous glances at Esty and grinning.

   “Stop clinging to him!” Esty shouts.

   “Why?” Sulgran asks innocently. “I’m just trying to seduce him here.”

   “That’s exactly why I’m telling you to stop!”

   “What does it matter to you? You don’t plan to be his girlfriend, right?”

   And then, Esty notices it. The gauntlets of the Hero have gone missing. Now, he can fully feel the softness of Sulgran’s huge breasts.

   Once again, Esty has lost it.

   “What the Devil happened to your gauntlets?” she demands angrily from the Hero.

   “Sulgran, can you play along and act like you were the one who made them disappear?” he requests to Sulgran.

   “Sure thing~.”

   “So that’s how it is, Von Mantus. It was her fault. Nothing to do with me.”

   “Are you treating me like an idiot? I can hear what you just asked her!”

   Sulgran and the Hero look at each other.

   “What should we do? Are we going to answer her question honestly?” the Hero asks Sulgran softly.

   “Oh, I don’t know. You probably know this already, but she’s quite fragile. I guess we should be gentle.”

   “Agreed.”

   “Like I said, I can hear you!”

   Esty gasps. What is she doing? Why is she joining this comedy act? Just as she was about to snap for real, Sulgran let goes of the Hero’s arm.

   “This is so much fun! I haven’t been able to enjoy myself like this for ages!” she laughs while hugging her stomach.

   “I’m so glad that you’re able to enjoy yourself while making fun of me.” Esty says sarcastically.

   Sulgran laughed for quite a while before finally stopping. Right after she was done, she went back to the place she was standing just now in the blink of an eye. More importantly, the look on her face is serious.

   “Last chance, you two. If you turn around and promise to never look for me again, I can just act like I didn’t see you.”

   “No thanks. I’m here to stop you, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do.” the Hero says.

   “Same here, even if it means that I have to see you die again.” Esty says as well.

   Sulgran shrugs.

   “At least I tried.”

   In the blink of an eye, Esty and the Hero are surrounded by a ring of flying boulders. The huge rocks are moving so quickly Esty could only catch a faint glimpse of them.

   “Hey-”

   “I know!”

   Of course Esty does. This is one of Sulgran’s favorite tactic. The boulders would not only trap her victims, but most importantly they’re used to draw a magic circle that would activate a high level Spell without having the need to say the incantation. Both Esty and the Hero have five seconds at most before her plan is executed.

   “Get down.” the Hero tells her.

   Without asking anything, Esty does as he says and bends down her knees. One second later, the Hero points his sword horizontally and does a spin. A wave of cold air was spread to the ring of boulders. All of them are frozen stiff in an instant and fall to the ground with loud thuds. The Hero wastes no time in charging towards Sulgran with the intent of killing her for the second time.

   One drawback of Spatial Redirection is that Sulgran herself is the only living thing it can teleport. This rule, for some reason, also applies to objects made from living creatures. Hence, she can’t just poof away Esty and/or the Hero to somewhere far, far away. Not even Felfarthen, the sword made from an Ice Elder Dragon, can be teleported. The most she can do is cast her Spell and make it appear from unexpected places.

   A huge torrent of water spouts from the ground where the Hero is setting his feet. He froze the water pillar, jumped on top of it and used it as a springboard to close his distance between Sulgran in one go. Instead of panicking, Sulgran starts muttering something rapidly under her breath. It’s too far for Esty to figure out the Spell she’s chanting, but it can’t be anything good.

   Esty is definitely, definitely not worried about the Hero. Still, she wants to contribute to this fight, even if she can’t win against Sulgran. There’s only one thing she can do. Can she do it, though? For one thing, she hasn’t used it for quite a time. Sure, she does remember how to activate it. Even so, she very much doubts that it’ll work on Sulgran. Nay, Esty will make it work. She’s not going to just stand there and do nothing while the Hero gets hurt.

   She takes a deep breath.

   “Sulgran, stop chanting right now!” she shouts.

   As ordered, Sulgran stopped her chant. The marquis looked like she couldn’t believe what just happened and was staring at Esty with an opened-mouth. However, that didn’t last long as the Hero managed to reach her and started bombarding her with attacks.

   “Whoa…Whoa whoa whoa! Time! Time out! I need some to get my bearing back!” she pleads.

   “No can do.” the Hero declines.

   …Esty did it. She actually did it. She has spent literal decades on using her Enticing Whisper on Sulgran and the other three, but it never worked. Esty will remember this moment for the rest of her life-

   “In case you’ve forgotten, we’re still in the middle of a fight here!” she hears the voice of the Hero.

   That snapped her back to reality. Right. She can remember her glory after this is over. She heads over to where the fight is, but Sulgran cuts it short by teleporting away to a place few feet away from them.

   “Well done, Esty. I never expected your Enticing Whisper to work on me.” Sulgran congratulates Esty.

   For a split second, Esty felt proud. Despite her easy-going personality, Sulgran is actually quite strict. Not as strict as her father, but strict enough. Getting a compliment from a demon like her gives off a good feeling.

   “It was nothing.” Esty says modestly.

   “That’s not true and you know it. I wonder what made your Bloodline Magic so much stronger. Hmm, I wonder what it is…?” Sulgran asks while sneaking glances at the Hero.

   Esty feels her face burning up again. She tries her best not to look at him.

   “Yup, I wonder too. Sometimes I just scare myself…” she mumbles while averting her eyes.

   Sulgran chuckles. “And you’re bad at lying as usual.”

   Esty looks at Sulgran once more and points her index finger at her.

   “Oh, leave me alone! Let’s finish this, Sulgran! I’m going to defeat you!” she declares.

   The Hero clears his throat loudly.

   “...Right. We will defeat you!” Esty corrects.

   “Aren’t you being a little too confident here?” the Hero asks.

   “What’s wrong with that?”

   “...You’re seriously asking that? This is Sulgran we’re talking about. You know, one of the Four Demon Marquis?”

   “Well I’m pretty sure you remember that you’ve already killed her once!” Esty reminds him crossly. “I’m sure doing it a second time won’t make much of a difference to you!”

   Sulgran cups her hands.

   “In case you didn’t get it, Hero, she’s just hiding her embarrassment!” she tells him.

   “Hey!”

   The Hero merely shrugs.

   “Of course I know that. She’s a bad liar, so acting cross is the only thing she can do without having to reveal her true feeling.”

   “Hey!”

   Sulgran cheers at that.

   “You know her so well! What a waste that the two of you aren’t going out!” she squeals.

   Esty resists the urge to pull her hair out. Why do the two of them insist on being so annoying?

   They’re right, though. If Esty was alone, she would cower in fear from the thought of having to fight Sulgran. But she’s not alone. The Hero, of all people, is on her side…

   “I hate to ask this from you, but I need you to do me a favor.” Esty whispers to the Hero.

   “You want me to act as your support while you attack Sulgran, right?”

   …And he read her thoughts again. Devil, she hates it so much whenever he does that.

   “That’s right.”

   “Are you sure about this?” he asks to confirm.

   “Just let me do it, okay? I want to be the one to make her rest in peace.”

   “Sure. The front line is all yours.” he says while moving to her back.

   “Thanks.”

   With their ruined relationship, Esty would rather die than thank him. Still, she doesn’t want to be known as an ungrateful demon, so thank him she did.

   “Don’t mention it.”

   All this while, Sulgran had been patiently waiting for them to be done.

   “Are the two of you done with your pillow talk yet?” she asks.

   “Yes, we are…wait a minute! What to you mean by pillow…BLEERGH!”

   Esty was interrupted as the Hero puts his right hand on top of her head and pushes it down.

   “Stop wasting time and just go.” he tells her.

   He lets go of her head and pushes her forward. Esty feels much, much, much stronger all of a sudden. He must have cast Strengthen on her when he touched her.

   Esty has a hard time adapting with her enhanced body. Hence, she can’t even control her speed when she’s running. In the blink of an eye, she’s right in front of Sulgran.

   “Whoa whoa whoa whoa WHOA~!”

   Sulgran raises her right first and prepares to punch Esty. Somehow, Esty could see it coming and decided to attack first with a kick to the ribs. Sulgran reacts by slightly stepping backwards and does a right rib-kick of her own. Esty immediately lands her right foot, dodges the kick by bending down, and does a right uppercut to Sulgran’s chin. The punch connects, and Sulgran was launched to the air several feet above the ground. Esty was about to jump and continued her attack when Sulgran mutters some quick words and casts Ice Bolts to hinder her.

   And so, the fierce fight begins. Esty barely gives Sulgran a room to breathe since the moment she allows that, the Marquis will use her Spatial Redirection and gain tremendous advantage. Still, her hand-to-hand-combat skill is much better than Esty’s. If it wasn’t for the Hero’s Strengthen boost, Esty would have lost a long time ago.

   “Sulgran, stop attacking me!”

   No reaction.

   “Sulgran, stop moving for three seconds!”

   No reaction either. Esty guessed that the first Enticing Whisper she used was really a fluke.

   “Less mouth, more moving!” she hears the Hero says.

   She resists the urge to turn around and glares at him since she needs to concentrate on Sulgran.

   “In case you didn’t notice, which I’m sure you definitely didn’t, I’m trying to use my Enticing Whisper on her!” she shouts back instead.

  “Well, do a better job at it.”

   “I’M TRYING, OKAY?”

   “My my, having a couple’s fight in the middle of a fight? You sure are relaxed.” Sulgran purrs.

   “We’re not a couple!” Esty denies strongly.

   “...Yet.”

   “How many times do I have to tell you that-”

   “Yes, yes. You’re not into him. Right.”

   As the fight drags on, Esty is getting more and more irritated. Her attacks have stop landing on Sulgran, her Enticing Whisper isn’t working, and the Hero is useless.

   “You were the one who wanted me to be the support role.” he reminds her.

   “QUIET, YOU! AND STOP READING MY MIND!”

   She’s really in a stalemate now. What to do, what to do, what to do?