"In my entire two lives, I really never thought I'd get arrested for something like this." 

Alaska and company were still all locked up in their jail cell in a guard station, they were glad they were just being held and not actually going to prison. Sure, what they had done was ultimately self-defense but blowing up a side of a building and Erika's unwarranted assault is what got them here. 

They paid for the wall out of their pocket and now, the guards were just waiting to see what to do with them. The only reason they were probably going to be soon released is because of Alaska's Templar connections and Erika being the princess. 

"I mean, look at how they have Beta tied up." Erika pointed to the bars and the fox was resting like she was waiting for her owner to come out of a store. 

One thing that was noticed was that Alaska and Lisbeth were still able to access some of their powers, these cuffs were designed around the average person, not Elementals. They could easily break out but then they would really be in deep trouble seeing as that would be evading arrest and escaping the cell, it just wasn't worth the risk. 

"We wouldn't be here if little princess Erika could keep her hands to herself..." Lisbeth was still upset at her but the princess didn't learn and quickly zipped up to the gunslinger and hit her on the top of the head. 

"Shut up, would you not punch someone dickhead who keeps berating you for no reason?! You're a prime example of people I like to punch!" 

"There they go again..." Alaska Lightning Dashed over to Ayame as she watched Lisbeth and Erika get into their usual shouting match, "They grow up so well. It almost brings a tear to my eye. I ship them so much." 

"Ship them?" Ayame was confronted with another unfamiliar phrase from the otherworlder. 

"It just means I wish they would get together as a couple." 

"Curious, but do you ship anyone with me?" Ayame's question was out of the left field. 

There was literally only three of them in this group usually, just what could she mean by that? Alaska took that as some sort of confirmation but at the same time, it didn't seem like much of a hint and more of a genuine question. 

"Alaska wait." 

Lena halted the already stopped Alaska. 

"We need to think about this carefully... do we really wanna confess in a jail cell?" 

"She has a point." 

"I know that much, AK." 

Alaska just needed a way to play this off. 

"Maybe? You'll find out soon enough." Alaska looked away from Ayame with a hint of a smile on her face. 

"Perfect!"

Lena even cheered for the save. 

"So, what makes you ship these two anyway? They really don't like each other?" 

"That's the surface! Imagine this, two people claim to hate each other but are constantly near each other, if they really didn't like each other, they would stay away. Simple as that, but Lisbeth, the person who's usually telling us not to do something stupid, is doing something like this. I see this as her coming around." Alaska believed in her logic and Ayame could see where she was coming from. 

But their time here was finished as one of the city officers came into the room with someone from the Order. 

"Templar Alaska, do try to not get arrested again. We're supposed to be citizen helpers, you're a free spirit but we have rules." The Templar before them told the girl as they came out of the cell. 

"Will do, getting arrested sucks anyway." Alaska was the first to get her cuffs off. Everyone, including Beta, was released back into the world with their weapons on them. 

The day wasn't even over yet but they still returned back to their room in the inn they were staying at, they did have something to talk about. 

With everyone seated and Alaska passed around some tea, it was time to talk about something very important. 

"So, I have Valiano's weapon?" 

"Erika, any idea on who that is?" Lisbeth asked the princess first. 

"I can tell you he's a pretty big crime boss that does dealings in the lower levels of the capital city. He's an elusive one who does good for the city but is also terrible for citizens at the same time, we can't tail anything back to him either so arresting him is even harder. Not the mention we don't know where he's based at and any time he's in public, he's heavily guarded. A fake public defender, really." 

Alaska pulled out the Swordbreaker and started doing tricks with it while saying, "So, he's probably gonna want this back seeing as it even had a magic symbol on it. Too bad, he's not ever getting it again." 

"Good, he's a bastard. If anything, I'm hoping once I get to the capital, I'll renounce my claim to the throne and join the Templar Order!" 

They saw this coming, she was in fact more of a free spirit like Alaska. The whole princess thing just wasn't doing it for her, she wanted to be an Explorer and soar through the ranks to become one of the best through her own strength. 

It could be seen in just how she uses her magic. Her personal magic, which she named Flare Magic, was basically impossible to detect or even see where it was landing until it got there. It's scorching hot and can be activated with the blink of an eye. 

Most fire magic spells have travel time, from the user to the location they want the spell to hit. For some of her Flare spells, that just simply wasn't the case. Given the opportunity, it was a stupidly strong sub-category of Fire Magic. 

"We won't stop you. Though you might want to get stronger before joining us, you're a little on the weak side for now." Lisbeth hit her with the truth. 

Her combat skills were average at best but she made up for it with magic in her own right.

"I know, you don't have to tell me. How about this, I help you defeat this Valiano bastard and I can join your group fully? Four members does sound a lot better than three, right?" 

The three main group members just nodded, they had no reason to deny the girl if she could prove to get stronger in her craft, besides it would be a help to have a true mid-range fighter. 

But, they needed a plan now. Just what to do about Valiano, he was a tough person to find and there was no bounty on his head as he looked to be a public defender on the outside but a true criminal on the inside. They needed proof first, this is one of those moments Alaska wished things like cameras existed, it makes things like this so much easier. 

"You know, we could also just kill him?" Erika, the princess of all people, said this. 

"Yeah, if it's this hard getting evidence to incriminate him, doing it this way might be even easier." 

"But then there's the fact of his underlings, right?" Alaska put a finger to her chin. 

"Kill them too!" Erika was in fact a very violent person. 

Or maybe simple thinking would be better. 

"She has a point. We just really can't get caught here." Ayame was right in that regard. 

"Don't worry, we'll leave it to Alaska to kill him, we just need to find him." 

"Wait, why me?!" Alaska stood up as she doesn't see why she should be the one to do it. 

"Because you're a vampire, BRAINIAC!" Lisbeth shook her head at the idiocy of her friend but when Alaska got the idea, she had no complaints. 

So, for now, they had everything sorted out but things were sure to get more complicated once they got to the capital. From here, it'd take them about two weeks or so to get there if they didn't take any fast transportation. Two weeks of spare time was a lot, so they wondered what to do in that time. 

Might as well visit this city's Explorers Hall to see what was up, if adventure and experience is what they needed, that was the best place to find it. 

With the day only half over, they found their way into the hall and this place was massive in every way possible. Not only was this an Explorers Hall, but it was also a restaurant, and the Science Guild was also a part of it. 

People and demons of all kinds were walking around and well, this place was just crazy as it could be. Even with this many people about, they had enough stalls and workers to where it wouldn't be backed up, it wasn't even three minutes before the group could be formally recognized by the Explorers Hall. 

Thankfully they didn't have to name themselves. Group names to all four of them felt extremely cringy so they opted for no name at all. As a group, they could handle C rank threats but with Erika with them, they had to settle for D rank. 

Apparently, not far from the city, they had caught word of a child manticore getting its feet on the ground, and even though it was a child, those things were deadly. If it were to reach adulthood, it would be a massive threat to the city and since Alaska and her company were considered C rank at best, they were allowed to take the quest. 

It wasn't an extremely long ride to reach the empty plain that the child was resting in. Though it may be a child, it was massive anyway. 

Bigger than Beta in her massive form. About 8 feet in height, this was going to be a tough battle. 

"Okay... that thing is a lot scarier in real life than in the pictures." Alaska was surprised to see one this close and couldn't believe she was about to get even closer in just a few minutes. 

"So, let's run through what this thing has. They're known to have a pretty high armor rating so magic and blunt force are probably gonna be our best bet. The head of a lion, a scorpion tail that can shoot poisonous spikes, and the wings of a dragon. Oh yeah, they can breathe fire too? Anything I'm missing?" Erika was the knowledge expert, really. 

"The claws that will tear us apart if we get hit." Lisbeth gazed out and noticed it didn't have the goat body but instead a lion's body. 

"Yeah. Okay, how about this." Alaska jumped off of Beta, "Erika and Lisbeth ride Beta while I run, Ayame has her... demon fire horse..." 

Her NightMare as she called it was a demonic summon she had acquired just a bit before meeting Alaska and had been using it since they began their travels. Still, they weren't used to seeing the horrible creature. 

 "Yeah." Ayame summoned her longbow to her, "We want ranged combat, right? This should be an easy battle." 

Their magical ability was off the chain but killing this thing was surely going to be tough. 

"Oh, one more thing! I heard they have Strength Enhancement magic, so this thing is gonna be mega fast, watch out!" 

"Lena also said that they have Strength Enhancement magic so it's gonna be pretty fast." 

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that one-! Wait, who's Lena?" Erika was confused but Alaska started running off towards the beast causing Beta to start charging after her. 

Ayame loaded her bow and started charging with her friends. 

The horse they left behind was used to this by now, it would simply wait until it was called upon again. 

For the first time in a very long time, Alaska was actually about to go and fight a beast instead of humans. This is what she had in mind when coming to another world and felt that fire in her soul coming to life again at the prospect of fighting this thing even with the danger so high, she was confident in their ability. 

She just hoped she wasn't hyping her group up more than what they were ready for...