"Eh... it hurts... What... what just happened..."
As she regained consciousness, Kiana looked at the devastated street and Aaron lying on the ground, and she immediately panicked.
"Aaron! What happened to you!?"
"Who did this to you!"
"...Don't ask. Just get me out of here."
Seeing Zank the Beheader's breathing grow shallow, Aaron struggled to his feet and walked over to Zank's body.
"Hah... what shitty luck... I can't believe I ran into you two lunatics."
Zank stared at the completely confused Kiana and suddenly gave her an incredibly dangerous smile.
"Especially you, little lady. I never expected—"
"Shut up. You're dying, stop talking so much bullshit!"
*Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!*
Using the last of his strength, Aaron smashed Zank the Beheader's head into a censor-blurring mosaic, then tossed the bat and [Spectator] into his storage space.
"Aaron, what was he..."
"Forget about it. Just grab me and let's go. Fast."
Damn it, just *wearing* the Teigu drains my mental energy...
So tired. I feel like... right now...
I just want to sleep.
Seeing Aaron collapse completely, Kiana ignored her own pain, immediately slung his arm over her shoulder, supporting him at her side to escape.
Then, she glanced at the unconscious Aaron, sighed, and shifted her position, pulling him onto her back to carry him away from the scene.
"Geez, what happened? Why do *I* feel like my face and body hurt so much..."
"And... I feel like I just saw that damn old man. But... that version of him felt... wrong..."
"Does that mean... I miss him...? Pfft! No way!"
Thinking of her father, Siegfried, who had been missing for four years, Kiana muttered to herself in disgust.
"That damn old man abandoned his own daughter for four years! How could I possibly miss him!"
"I'll ask Aaron what happened later. Besides..."
"This world... it's much more dangerous than I thought."
Before this, Kiana had been treating this whole thing like a game.
Even though Aaron had prepared clothes and weapons for her, and even used his abilities to buff her defenses, she hadn't taken it very seriously.
After all, Kiana still believed that with her Kaslana strength, combined with the gear Aaron gave her, she didn't need to worry about her safety.
And then Zank the Beheader taught her a hard lesson.
His weapons weren't impressive; those two fist-blades looked like standard-issue at best.
That mass-produced junk clearly couldn't compare to the baseball bats they had. But in the fight, Zank the Beheader had used his bizarre Teigu and combat skills to briefly suppress them both.
If Aaron hadn't tackled Kiana at the critical moment, her skin might have already been sliced open by those weapons.
Zank the Beheader's precision was terrifying. Even after Aaron pushed Kiana, Zank had managed to change his attack's trajectory and precisely cut the skin on Aaron's neck.
If the wound had been any deeper, Aaron might be bleeding out right now.
I'm still too weak. If I were as strong as that damn old man... Aaron wouldn't have gotten hurt like this!
A single killer with a special item nearly took my life. When I get back to my own world, how can I protect anyone as a Kaslana warrior?
In that moment, the girl's mindset shifted.
She replayed what just happened, an irrepressible thought rising in her heart.
I have to get stronger.
To avoid disgracing the Kaslana name, to protect others, to protect Mei who's always getting bullied, and...
To protect Aaron, who just protected me... I must become stronger!
..........................
Minutes later. Imperial Capital, Lower District.
Arriving at the scene, "Ogre" Oca looked at Zank's unrecognizable corpse on the ground and spoke to his subordinates in disgust.
"Take this guy away. Based on his clothes and weapons, he's almost certainly Zank, but we have to confirm his identity."
Oca was a responsible Captain of the City Guard—which was, of course, a joke.
Abusing his authority to take bribes and break the law was routine for him. Everyone in the City Guard, except for his disciple Seryu, knew Oca was a piece of shit.
But so what? Getting paid was all that mattered. Oca didn't care whether those commoners lived or died.
He was only taking this seriously because Zank the Beheader had gone too far recently, and his superiors were putting pressure on him.
So this time, he *had* to find out if Zank was dead. Once his identity was confirmed, he could go suck up to the higher-ups for credit.
"Captain Oca!"
Seryu, who was surveying the area, suddenly called out to Oca.
"The destruction around here... it doesn't look like it was caused by an ordinary person."
"Yeah. And Zank's Teigu, [Spectator], isn't a high-destruction type according to our intel. In other words, the person who killed Zank must be a powerful Teigu user with a highly destructive Teigu."
Oca glanced at a wanted poster that had fallen to the ground after the nearby walls were blown out. He bared his sharp teeth in a cold sneer.
"Hmph... Night Raid. Looks like we've finally caught your tail this time."
..............................