After Kabru accepted Kairo Retsu's claim of "not being from this world" as a premise—
Everything started to make sense.
What the other side wanted to do, their attitude toward this world, their attitude toward the elves.
But still...
Why Laios?
Kabru couldn't help but glance toward Laios, who was currently chomping away at grilled meat, face blank as if he didn't care one bit about the conversation happening beside him. Kabru let out another deep sigh.
So! Why Laios?!
For this world, the last foreign force to arrive from another dimension... was mana.
And that ultimately gave rise to the demon born from limitless magical energy…
Why, then, was Laios the only one chosen for something so important?!
Could it be that this world had already brushed against the edge of destruction more than once?!
"Oh, right! One more thing."
As Kabru's thoughts spiraled, Kairo Retsu's voice once again sounded beside Laios, as if he had seen straight through Kabru's train of thought: "We're nature-respecting Hunters. We'd never do anything like destroy the world. We deeply value our comrade Laios."
"Even if Laios doesn't really like the humans of your world, he does still have friends and family!" Though Kabru couldn't see his expression, he could vividly imagine Kairo's wide grin full of blinding white teeth.
"We Hunters are all about solidarity and goodwill! We'll definitely protect Laios's world, so his friends and family can live in peace and safety!" Kairo went on, "That way, Laios can focus on doing what he loves! We..."
"Will give Laios our full support!"
Full support for Laios... Support for Laios... Laios...
Kairo Retsu's words echoed in Kabru's mind.
It felt like the future of this world had suddenly become incredibly uncertain.
Originally, his only worry was that Laios might do something reckless out of love for monsters after becoming dungeon master...
But now it felt like the problem hadn't just not shrunk—it had gotten way bigger!
"So..."
Kabru took a deep breath. "What are you planning to do next? And what do you need me to do?"
"Let's hear it from Laios himself!"
Kairo's voice carried a note of excitement. "After all, among us Hunters, Laios was the first to figure out how to deal with the demon."
"?"
Kabru gave Laios a sharp look, full of doubt.
But Laios didn't notice at all. He simply wiped the grease from his mouth.
"Huh?"
Laios scratched his head. "I'm the one explaining?"
Kabru fell into silence.
The fate of the world might rest on this tall man who didn't even care about humanity. Was that really okay?
————————————
Meanwhile, the elves—
After Marcille became the dungeon master, a horde of monsters had already driven the elves away from her side.
The sheer number of monsters forced the elves to burn through a massive amount of mana, and it seemed like they were on the verge of losing their ability to fight entirely and being wiped out in the forest.
"..."
Mithrun silently supported the slowest elves, using teleportation magic to move forward as far as he could, trying to get them away from the monsters.
But this method consumed vast amounts of Mithrun's own mana. Even though he showed no sign of it outwardly, his comrades who knew him well could already see his body exhibiting signs of magical exhaustion.
"We can't go on like this... We have to get the word out somehow…" Parthedro thought as he ran—but there was no way.
The dungeon had undergone massive upheaval, yet they hadn't even had a single chance to send a report through a fairy.
In this desperate retreat, the elves eventually found themselves near Thistle's room once again.
Just as they were preparing to use the building as cover—if only to buy time to contact the outside via fairy—
A tall man sighed and stepped out from the house, holding a weapon with a jet-black barrel.
"Shhhh—hah!!!"
Among the monsters chasing the elves was a giant serpent. Upon seeing Naofumi Iwatani, it reared its body high and issued a threatening hiss.
Perhaps it was because the creature had sensed the lingering "dragon" scent all over Naofumi's equipment.
"Get behind me!"
Naofumi barked, "Recover your strength and mana first! Leave the monsters to me!"
"! You're...!"
The elves hadn't yet reacted when Naofumi raised his arm—his shield flashed, transforming into another form.
Then, several strange-looking shields materialized behind the elves, blocking the monsters from advancing.
"Time to fire!"
Having sealed off the battlefield with his Spirit Barrier Shields, Naofumi raised his Heavy Bowgun, loaded several Shelling Rounds, and aimed at the monsters up ahead.
BOOM!!!
With a thunderous gunshot, one of the mid-sized monsters behind the spirit shield was blasted into a leaking sack of flesh by the shot.
And that was just the beginning.
More shots followed.
Each volley from the heavy bowgun's spread shot tore through monster after monster—like a grim harvest—clearing out swaths of them without mercy.
As for the giant serpent monster, the moment it sensed danger, it twisted its body and tried to flee.
But...
It didn't get far.
From the rooftop of Thistle's house, the figure of Joseph dropped down—her entire body radiating the aura of a Demon Warrior. With a spinning motion, she brought down both her dual blades onto the serpent's retreating tail.
A fierce flurry of blade slashes erupted in an instant. Starting from the tail, Joseph whirled around and shredded the serpent's entire armored back into pulp—turning it into a sludgy mess.
By the time Joseph landed steadily on the ground, Naofumi Iwatani's heavy bowgun had already fallen silent.
The monsters were all taken care of by these two sudden arrivals.
"What are they doing all the way over here…" Naofumi muttered, clearly a bit troubled.
Parthedro, acting as temporary leader, exhaled with relief at the sight of their sudden saviors. He bowed in gratitude to Naofumi and Joseph.
"Thank you both for coming to our aid."
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