That was a bit rough. I'll give him credit, he was the strongest I fought so far. But with a little coordination even my girls would have been able to take him down. The leveling system kinda bothers me though. If that guy was 77 and I am 99 I think I should have struggled more. Yet I still completely mopped the floor with him. 

Regardless, I don't have time to think about such stuff. My girls are also almost done with the cleanup. Honestly, judging from the corpses, the humans, although superior in numbers, were way lower level than the demons. And speaking of humans… since the girl in front of me is still breathing, I guess I can heal her. Do a good deed per day, and the sun will always smile on you.

I got close to the girl and placed my hand on her head. A warm blue light enveloped her body. Soon, all her wounds closed and her bruises faded away.

"There. That should do it. You in any more pain, miss?"

"No… I'm fine… but… just what are you?"

"Why does everyone keep asking me that? I'm just a cute loli!"

The girl stared at me with puzzled eyes. What's her deal? Not that I care though. I did my good deed.

"Well, you should be alright now miss, so take care."

"Hey wait… aaah!"

When I turned my back and wanted to return to my friends, she forcefully tried to get but, but only managed to wobble and fall back on the ground.

"Careful miss. I only healed your wounds. You're still fatigued. Not to mention the blood loss. You're in no shape to do much right now. Better pace yourself."

"Wait… in this state… I can't even make it back to camp. You can't just leave me. Take me back at least."

"That's not gonna happen. I'm not going out of my way."

"Err… then can you at least take me with you just for a short while until I have strength back in my legs?"

Yare yare. She's not bad looking and something about her feels familiar. Have I met her before? Can't say. Still, my instincts usually are never wrong but this time… they're not telling me "go for it". It's like there's a "be careful" flag above her head. Well… the carriage does have room for one more…

"We're taking you past the cliffs and we're gonna make camp in the spike valley. When morning comes, you'll be on your own."

"Thank you. May I know your name?"

"I'm Ayaka. And you are?"

"Hero of the Noela Kingdom, Shirayuki Kaguya."

------

~Kaguya's point of view~

What have I gotten myself into? The chain of events are too fast for my brain to process. Even if I consider myself a calculated person, I feel lost. I didn't even have time to properly bury my friends. I just went along with the flow of events. Because I still don't have much strength in my legs, I couldn't stay in that fortress.

I had no choice but to ask this loli to take me with her. But… what is she? She single handedly defeated an opponent we couldn't. Is she a Goddess? If I were to fight her… no. She's reached a point where she wouldn't even deem me worthy of a fight. 

Her companions are extremely skilled. She's even having a girl pull the carriage? If we weren't going at high speed I would say something like this is impossible. If they had something like this, they could have taken me to Amalthea's camp with ease. It wouldn't have taken that much time.

We reached spike valley and they set up camp quickly. They even offered me a meal. Strength slowly returned to me. What kind of food is this? It resembles cooking from back in Japan. It calms the heart. 

"So, listen, we're sleeping here tonight. You can rest assured, nothing will happen to you until morning. It looks like you can walk again, so after a good night sleep you should be back to normal. Tomorrow, we'll part ways. You should be able to make it back to your friends alone."

"Yeah, that won't be an issue but… miss Ayaka, how come I have never heard of you? The strongest people are all recorded in some form or another, yet someone as strong as you is a complete ghost."

"Ghost, huh? I like the sound of that. Honestly I don't give a fuck about fame. I just want to live a slow and lazy life."

Lazy life? Is this girl for real? She keeps going on and on about her plans. Finding a place to settle down and live a happy life. Doesn't she care what happens to the world? Doesn't she care how many are suffering?

"Miss Ayaka, with your power, if you were to join us, the war could end and everyone will be at peace."

"No thanks. I don't want to take sides in this war."

"Then take me as your apprentice! No, come back and teach us. Under your guidance I am sure…"

"Rejected! I'm not good at teaching. Even my girls are more self taught. Sure I spar with them now and then, but they pick everything up by themselves. Enough with all this already."

The girl with the fox ears and tail, Lina, sent glares at me as if warning me not to press this topic further. She's scary. There's nothing else I can say. But maybe tomorrow I can persuade her. She will be an incredible war asset if I can convince her to join our cause.

"Alright time for sleep."

"Eh? Already?"

"I like sleep. And I will hear no objections. Lina, you mind taking the first watch?"

"Not at all. Miss Kaguya, if you are not sleepy, mind if we share a few words?"

"Sure…"

I thought she was trying to get friendly. This is a good chance. If we can become friends maybe she can convince Ayaka to join the cause. But I was really wrong. Once we were alone, her expression turned into a complete frown. She looked at me as if she was looking at an insect.

"Miss Kaguya, I will be blunt, because my mistress is how she is, I will say this on my own accord. I don't like you one bit. I hate you."