“An unlucky outcome indeed.”

 

So saying while flying along the top of the river, my face twists at the thought of what has recently happened.

 

Unfortunately, it instantly became a losing fight when those ogres appeared with their smaller green hordes in tow. I mean, my power level can only hold up to two ogres. That is if there are no additional enemies.

 

If only those ogres only appeared in that number, I would have lavishly performed my role of being Reina’s custodian.

 

Having said that, where did they come from? Despite my male body watching over the surrounding hut, they all still managed to bypass my surveillance on top of concealing their route of arriving there. It almost seems they have a colony somewhere near the place, conjectured by their numbers of which they arrived with.

 

But well, for end to meet my expectations, everything is but of insignificant details.

 

“Well, that's that. What matters the most is that I have to return home before night comes.”

 

Currently, the sun's edge has touched the horizon's ground, so there is only a small opening of the window for me to settle Reina.

 

I do not want to just abandon her out in the open since that would defeat the purpose of being a custodian. Given that I have vowed to protect her, I ought to act the role I imbued to myself. Also, I can not simply bring her home with me as that would complicate matters substantially. There is the matter regarding Reina’s custodian, and playing the role of helpless children in front of Ercilla at the same time acting out as Reina’s custodian do not mix harmoniously, so that is that.

 

My level of magic capability is still under half of what I envisioned, so I can not materialize another form from thin air.

 

“If only I got to learn the masking-magic before having met Ercilla, the length of my show would’ve been longer.”

 

Regrettably as it stands, only Ercilla and those dead men have seen my true body.

 

Since both of my bodies are exceptionally dolled to faultless, Ercilla has been consuming my time for her own throughout my life with her. She would frequently cuddle me from behind. Or perpetually caress my head. Or even invite me to sleep with her. Both of my bodies become victims to her onslaught.

 

Naturally, I never rejected her offers so that the masquerade of two innocent and clueless children would not turn to ashes. It is also a form of debt-payment for providing a solid foundation for my start, giving a safe area to practice magic and the bestowment of this world's histories. Above all else, she has been aiding me to fulfill my chained desires in the shadows.

 

And thus, Ercilla has become an incomparable contributor for my future roles.

 

While praising Ercilla mentally, my magic-radar detects multiple moving instances at my north.

 

I halt my movements as my male body flies past me before moving down while concealing himself with magic.

 

Trees are sparser in this region with the river flowing through the middle of it, so visibility is a bit hampered but my male body can utilize it for cover.

 

After having reached the ground, my male body, or me stands behind a tree and observes the movements.

 

In front of me, a wagon is being driven by a middle-aged guy clad in a pristine merchant clothes with his hair painted in a mixture of gray and white. A total of four people are resting inside the wagon; two people wearing metal suits, one in a dark-gray cloak while the other is furnished in a long-sleeved clothes. Two swords, a stick and a dagger are all that I can see from behind the wagon and the person guiding the two horses at the front seems to not possess a weapon, but well, it might be due to my observable area impeded from looking behind the wagon.

 

They are currently moving along the dirt-paved road without any issues. As the vehicle is fartering itself from me, I suddenly am struck with an idea.

 

Is it not entirely plausible that through randomly appearing in front of the vehicle, I can just toss Reina at them and immediately leave after that? Furthermore, I can also spread the existence of Ercilla’s religion through imposing words.

 

The guy at the front is probably a merchant and through his connections, the news of an entity protecting a chosen girl for heeding the commands of Ercilla’s god can quickly spread throughout the world, I can even play my role in front of the masses!

 

As I think about that convenient method, I mentally make a fist as Eirene.

 

“Damn yea, I’m truly filled with luck in this day!”

 

Saying that, I rapidly flies over to the front side of the moving group and lands within the concealment of the trees. Before arriving there, I have already created a magic-barrier around me that blocks magic from seeping out to the environment, so detecting my presence should be difficult and requires the person to squint their eyes intentionally.

 

Then, I wait.

 

With an increasing impatient welling my heart, I wait for my time to come, not moving a single step or movements out of my current position as I only allow my eyes to accurately follow the ever-changing position of the vehicle.

 

Then, after minutes of waiting, I strike to the fullest!

 

————<>———O———<>————

 

“T-There’s someone in front of us!”

 

A middle-aged man dressed in a pristine merchant outfit shouts.

 

Immediately after saying that, the group of people that has been resting inside the wagon jump out through the wagon’s open back side. Two of those people quickly paces to the merchant’s side while the rest stand guard at the south of the vehicle.

 

Needless to say, these people, except the middle-aged man in a merchant outfit, are mercenaries.

 

As mercenaries, they are well-prepared to face dangers present in this part of a region.

 

For this group, they have been fighting together for manifold of times that anything they encounter would be hard to faze them or stun them into a statue. Thus, the group has been able to react and adapt in most situations with felicitous judgements, which have brought them alive to this point.

 

However, even though they have not been stupefied for a considerable long time and are quite resistant to it, what unfolds before their eyes has simply crushed those years of growing resistant to dust as the two people in front of the vehicle stare in daze.

 

“H-Hey, so, are those kids safe or…”

 

The confused merchant turns his head to the bulging-muscle man clad in a metal suit at his side to look at him. After he does that, he can see the visibly puzzled expression on his face as the man tries to move his mouth while staring dazed at the front.

 

Before able to utter a sound, a young silvery hair girl bearing an immaculate beauty that has been standing in front of them all the while carrying another cute young brown-haired girl in her arms moves her mouth.

 

“I don’t have much time left.”

 

The shimmering ring floating on her head and the light armor on her body begins to move as an endearing yet disheartened voice echoes into their ears.

 

Even though the sight of two cute young girls who really seem like children suddenly appear to them while one of them seems to be unconscious, they realize that the conscious mysterious girl is steadily shortening the distance between them, causing the two mercenaries to quickly prepare their weapons accordingly against the children.

 

The man in a metal suit unsheathe his sword from his scabbard while the girl wearing a dark-gray cloak unveils her hand that is gripping a stick with a glimmering red crystal at the top of it.

 

“You! Don’t take another step forward!”

 

The man shouts an order to the silvery hair girl, but it is responded with the girl continuing her treads.

 

“For the goddess of Eleos, I am to protect this girl, but my time is ephemeral.”

 

“Noriel, stop her from moving!”

 

Noriel nods at his voice and swiftly lets out words of incantation.

 

Soon, the red crystal encapsulated in vine-like sticks starts to glow with faint light before a flat circle of magic with various geometric shapes drawn within appears beneath the girl roughly after the crystal starts to glow.

 

Her eyes are still watching the silvery hair girl while casting magic, but immediately after she sees a change of state of the silvery hair girl, she stops her process as the drawn out magic erases itself and dimming back the red crystal.

 

“Noriel! What are you doing!?”

 

“Y-Yeah, why did you stop!?”

 

“Her legs…”

 

“If it’s disappearing, she must be preparing something!”

 

“T-That’s right!”

 

“No, that’s not it. Her mana’s getting harder for me to measure her power, and I think that’s because like what she said, she doesn’t have much time left. She might be disappearing without the intention of attacking us.”

 

“That’s not possible, you know!? This place is like a graveyard!”

 

“T-That’s right!”

 

Noriel furrows at the man and the merchant.

 

“And it’s also possible for something outside of our understanding to appear, so stop yelling at me. And you, you’re supposed to go inside.”

 

“Hieeekk! I-I’m sorrrryyyyy!!!”

 

“Oh, my bad. But she’s still a weird creature, right? I’ve never seen someone have that kind of ring on their head.”

 

“That… I’m trying to understand.”

 

As the merchant hurriedly scrambles into the vehicle, the silvery hair girl suddenly stops her tracks, causing Noriel and the man to stop conversing and stare at her with certain intents and perceptions.

 

The ring floating above her head has three protrusions each at the west and east side of it and are shaped like a triangle and pointing downwards. The north side of it has three glowing lines floating a meager distance from it and are positioned in a horizontal line with equal spacings from each other. And it is this feature of the girl that they are cautious of.

 

“Humans… please…”

 

With a melancholic voice, the silvery hair girl’s face makes a saddened expression at the people as the fading of her body from her legs has reached her hips. The vibrance of her ring starts to dissipate as she gently rests the person in her arms to the ground.

 

The two people feel odd being called a human rather than the usual names used for strangers, however, it is quickly washed away after thinking about the creature’s own peculiarities.

 

“Protect her.”

 

With her last remnants to be seen finally fades to thin air, the glittering particles from her fading body wafts along the wind.

 

Noriel and the man are left with only the sound of the wind and leaves falling from the trees. They do not move for a while as if their brains are still processing the occurrence.

 

“There’s no trace of her left, even her mana. She really did disappear…”

 

When Noriel regains her mind, she hastily looks at the ground of where the mysterious girl had disappeared, but the only thing that lays bare is the brown-haired girl sleeping helplessly on the dirt.

 

The two people are left with little to no information for the next steps they should take, for that, they start to arrange the pieces of the puzzles. That might be it but only Noriel is able to do such a task as the building man purely stands staring at the sleeping girl.

 

“What just happened here?”

 

The remaining two of the mercenaries from the south of the vehicle come towards Reina who seems to be deeply contemplating about something. They have come to her after reassuring the safety at the back.

 

When they see Noriel folding her arms while gazing slightly downward, they can guess that an abnormal event has occurred.

 

“Noriel, what is it?”

 

Another man clad in a metal suit asks her. But instead of muscles being the main feature, his face would capture the attention of people at a glance.

 

“She said she doesn’t have much time left.”

 

“Who…?”

 

“The little girl with a weird aura. You can’t see her right now because she just disappeared.”

 

At that seemingly unexpected answer, the girl near her along with the man let out a stupefied face.

 

“Is she a human?”

 

This time, a girl with a pony-tail at the side of her head voices out.

 

“I think… but you can guess it yourself by looking at that young girl there she left behind.”

 

Hovering their eyes over Noriel, they can see Borvon, the man who has literal muscles bulging out of the crevices of his armor, is trying to wake a sleeping child on the dirt.

 

Seeing that, the two people get even more confused as the man opens his mouth.

 

“Why are children involved in this…”

 

“I don’t know. But from what I heard from that disappeared weird little girl, she said that she’s simply heeding what she’s told to do. Again, I don’t know why but it has something to do with a goddess she called… Eleos, I think, and she looks really strange.”

 

“Strange?”

 

“There’s something like a ring above her head and with a light armor on her body, I’m seriously thinking she might be an undocumented morphing monster.”

 

Numerous amount of shocks have already filled the faces of the new arrivals and continue to increase.

 

“She’s really adorable though, with those silky silver hair…”

 

Through Noriel’s mumblings, their attention immediately turns towards the words ‘silver hair’ and looks at Noriel with shocked expressions.

 

“Wait, silver hair!?”

 

“Wait, silver hair!?”

 

“Money!!??”

 

The same time as the two shout those words, the merchant suddenly pops out of the front of the wagon’s curtains.

 

“H-Huh?”

 

“Noriel… don’t you know that those born with silver hair are extremely rare to see? They also have immeasurable mana capacity!”

 

Staring intently at the bewildered Noriel, the merchant extends the man’s words.

 

“My, my. Against your status as a mage who is supposed to possess great intellect, your mind is shallow!”

 

Noriel feels a bit irritated from being implicitly being belittled by that kind of merchant of which she really despises, but her annoyed expression is easily perceived by the merchant.

 

“My lady, there’s no need to bear such flames in your heart. Allow me to flourish you of its history.”

 

As he says that, he caresses his dandy mustache and makes an elated face.

 

“What’re you guys talking about!”

 

When Borvon arrives at the place with a sleeping girl in his arms, Noriel immediately tells him to shut and tells him to stand in silence.

 

And with that, all of them await for the merchant’s narratives as Borvon dejectedly listens.