Don't move, don't move!
A traditional elf girl who had been evaluated by her companions as having a "view on love as ancient as a prehistoric antique." Since she promised Isagi she would stand still, she absolutely would not move!
Therefore.
Ryuu bent her slender waist down, facing the long blade edge right in front of her eyes, forced to lean back into a perfect curve of nearly ninety degrees.
This was a very embarrassing pose.
She might not understand it well, but Isagi did—that when making this kind of pose, regardless of size, a quite beautiful "Golden Curve" would appear.
And coincidentally, under Ryuu-senpai's cloak, she was indeed wearing that kind of relatively thin and form-fitting grayish-white tank top.
This suddenly made the curves stand out even more.
"What's the situation?"
Isagi was also puzzled.
Weren't they still practicing? How did it turn into this in the blink of an eye... Eh?
"Eh?!"
The boy and the girl froze at the same time.
Ryuu froze because she realized Isagi was getting closer and closer to her, his whole body pressing down towards her. While thinking what kind of move is this, seeing his face getting closer, she suddenly panicked.
Th... Th... This... What is he doing... Ah!!
She couldn't move, nor could she push him away, because a "push" would count as a counterattack!
!
In this moment.
The elf girl's brain "short-circuited."
On the other side.
Isagi realized his leg was numb, so his whole body was involuntarily falling towards his Familia senior.
"?"
Too deliberate!
Although he had just leveled up, and similar things could happen due to physical uncoordination, and he had indeed exerted a bit too much force just now, but...
This is still too deliberate, right?!
What a classic training-with-a-beautiful-girl trope; fighting and fighting, only for the two to end up hugging on the ground.
"Isagi, are you okay?!"
Suddenly, two strong forces came from behind, stopping the fact that he was about to crush the elf girl.
It was Tiona and Anya.
These two were really fast. Looking at the Amazon girl and the Catgirl, squatting one on the left and one on the right, tilting their little heads, pulling his cape with their hands while looking over with concern in their big blinking eyes.
Isagi pursed his lips.
"I'm fine... my leg is just a bit numb."
"Oh!"
"Then rest a bit, meow!"
"Senpai, hurry up and get up too, honestly!"
Lefiya, who had just run over, huffed, her deep blue eyes glancing back and forth between the boy and the girl—it was even more suspicious! Mr. Isagi and Senpai were simply too suspicious!!
At this.
Ryuu seemed to finally react, climbing up from the ground with a guilty conscience.
Ugh!
Why does it feel so embarrassing in front of the juniors!!
...
A long time later, until the bonfire rose into the night sky.
The girls gathered outside the ancient castle ruins, preparing tonight's late-night meal.
The orange light reflected on Ryuu's cool, pretty face. Visibly to the naked eye, and unbeknownst only to her, the cute cherry-pink base color hadn't faded in the slightest, but instead grew heavier.
Everyone was busy.
Lefiya was making her most familiar "Vegetable Stew."
On the fire, the large iron pot bubbled. The elf girl took out a small cutting board and focused on chopping carrots, greens, potatoes, onions, and the like, throwing them all into the pot to stew.
At the same time, she started using the prepared filling to shape meatball rounds, dropping them one by one into the pot to boil.
On the other side, Tiona caught a lot of fish from the nearby small river. After cleaning them, she skewered them on branches and roasted them around the bonfire.
Anya, meanwhile, was with Isagi, still sitting by the fire, using the embers and a small iron pan to pan-fry potato pancakes!
The Catgirl's skills were already very proficient by now!!
The pan-fried potato pancakes were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, sweet and delicious, simply incredibly tasty. Not only because of Isagi's careful teaching during this period, but Anya herself had also worked hard.
Previously during the Monsterphilia festival, Isagi specifically didn't go to the Dungeon, but pushed his fried potato ball stall to the "Battlefield of the Snack Street"!
Anya had run over to help at that time too.
Then the two were busy all day, and the newly developed "Mini Potato Burgers" were extremely popular! It made the dummy cat triumphant for quite a while!!
Everyone was indeed busy.
Only Ryuu had nothing to do, because she couldn't help with anything.
The elf girl was aware of her own cooking skills. The "Good-for-nothing Elf" that Kaguya used to always talk about wasn't just a toxic insult.
It was a fact.
A fact that Ryuu herself couldn't refute.
Ugh!
As the senior elf girl, she suddenly felt like she was even more useless!!
So, she waited until it was time to eat.
Ryuu, dipping the potato pancakes in the vegetable soup and munching away with her small mouth unable to stop, soon quietly pulled Isagi's hem, asking the boy to sit closer.
————The Familia senior was acting mysterious.
She took out all the investigation reports on the Dark Familia she had gathered during this period and stuffed them into his hands.
Under the current circumstances, it wasn't good to discuss this directly in front of Lefiya and the others————because Ryuu didn't intend to drag anyone else into her revenge.
So Isagi just silently accepted these reports.
Subsequently, he whispered an agreement with the elf girl to meet tomorrow afternoon at the "Old Place" (Demeter Familia's unmanned farmhouse) to discuss the details then.
After doing this.
Ryuu seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
Thinking, as a senior, she wasn't that useless after all!
Then she looked at Lefiya on the other side, thinking that since she was both a Familia junior and a compatriot, she should build a good relationship?
How to do it?
Ryuu thought for a while, then as if suddenly realizing something, she quietly shifted her body to the other's side.
"Um... Lefiya."
"What is it, Senpai?"
"What do you think Justice is?"
"?"
Justice torture!
The rigid and traditional elf girl thought for a long time, and the method she came up with to "build a good relationship" with her junior was this!!
Because back in the Familia, everyone used to discuss this question often.
As a Familia of the Goddess of Justice, thinking about [What is Justice] is very necessary!
Ryuu believed so!!
And in response to this...
Lefiya blinked her eyes and blurted out the answer she had long thought of.
"Before thinking about [What is Justice], one must first clarify the purpose of justice!"
"Eh?"
"No matter what you do, you should have a goal, right, Senpai!!"
"That is how it's said..."
"So, my justice is to protect the important people around me!"
"A justice like saving everyone is too ethereal and vague, so I just need to do my best to protect the people around me."
Lefiya's justice was incomparably firm; this was the answer she had arrived at through her own thinking.
At this.
Ryuu inexplicably felt a sense of reverence. So the Familia junior is this serious! And very grounded, to the point it was somewhat "deafening," and made her feel ashamed...
"Then what is Senpai's justice?"
Faced with the sudden counter-question from Lefiya.
Ryuu fell silent, completely unable to speak for a moment, because she indeed still hadn't found her own justice...
A certain Familia senior's pretty face turned red. She never expected that the final result would be her getting tortured by her junior instead. This really was... really was a "Good-for-nothing Elf"!!!
Embarrassing, simply too embarrassing...
...
Late at night.
Isagi, having returned home and washed up, did not go back to his room to sleep.
Instead, on the living room table, he began to tentatively use the new Character Card ability obtained after leveling up to assemble a new weapon.
Soon, after combining the Glimmer Greatsword with a standard iron spear he casually took from Syr for testing, Isagi obtained a "Glimmer Giant Lance" with a very abstract design, exceeding six meters in length, almost spanning the entire small living room.
Its effect was also simple: on the foundation of the original "Glimmer Greatsword," it enhanced "Attack Range" and "Distance."
[Character Card:
Puppet Nation (lv3)
· Puppet Heart — Body puppetization; Pain reduction; Unable to feel emotions; Reduces effects of mental magic, charms...;
· Weapon Assembly — Can split weapons into "Blade" and "Handle," assembling them to possess completely different characteristics;
· Legion Arm — Obtain different prosthetic arm blueprints and use materials to forge them;
· Pulse Battery — Restore own injuries; Usable seven times; Usage count refreshes daily at midnight;
· Self-Essence (P-Organ) — Can resurrect when killed; Resurrection limit is three times; After consumption, can be replenished by killing monsters to accumulate Life Ergo; Usage count refreshes daily at midnight;]
Leaving aside the conventional healing and resurrection abilities, regarding the three main skills given to him:
[Puppet Heart] was okay. Isagi didn't really feel what influence the so-called "puppetization" had on his body. As for pain reduction, if he cut his finger with a knife right now, he indeed wouldn't feel pain.
The subsequent effects of reducing mental magic influence should be considered a counter-measure ability, with average utility in normal times.
For him.
The most important abilities of this Character Card were [Weapon Assembly] and [Legion Arm], because they could still be used after switching Character Cards.
The assembled weapon became a brand-new piece of equipment, and the Legion Arm wasn't like the previous Shinobi Prosthetic; once forged, it was similar to "a new piece of equipment" and wouldn't just vanish after switching the Character Card.
So for him, this Character Card was actually a very strong "Support Card."
"Phew..."
Looking at the brand new "Glimmer Giant Lance" before him, its combat art hadn't changed.
It was probably because the iron spear used as the "Handle" was too ordinary. Combining two better weapons in the future should yield more new characteristics and abilities.
Of course, speaking of now.
The most practical assembly for Isagi was actually to take the short wand capable of releasing [Glimmer Echo] and use it as a "Handle" to assemble with any weapon.
This way, he wouldn't have to fight holding a short wand in one hand and a greatsword in the other like before.
Regardless.
The power and speed brought by wielding a weapon with two hands were definitely stronger than with one hand. Moreover, even if he wanted to use one hand in the future, he could bring a shield, or use dual wield style or something...
Putting the temporarily assembled Giant Lance into the cloak of [Shadow of Pandora].
Isagi still had to go out tonight.
The summer storm clouds were gradually thickening; it looked like a rainy night.
Perfect.
A dark moon and high winds.
After returning home, Isagi read through the investigation report Ryuu-senpai gave him and summarized the elf girl's gains over this period.
Overall, there indeed wasn't much.
After the incident with the Magatsuhi Familia, just as he expected, many peripheral Familias, merchant guilds, and mercenary groups that cooperated with them fled Orario one after another, terrified that the fire of [Gale Wind]'s revenge would burn them.
Ryuu was previously worried that the Rudra Familia would also leave.
But Isagi told her to rest assured.
Even after the [Great Feud] failed, and even after the [Nightmare of the 27th Floor] ended, when the vast majority of Dark Familia gods were sent back to heaven, this God who governed "Atrocity" remained in Orario.
And not long after, he planned the trap against the Astrea Familia.
This showed that he was fundamentally a diehard fanatic, not fearing being sent back or death at all.
And the facts were indeed so.
During this time, Ryuu focused on investigating those God Familias that had left Orario, and indeed found no trace of Rudra.
The enemy was still in the city, while his small tentacles on the outside had all run clean away.
This way.
Not only was the search range much smaller, but more importantly, things that many people used to do for them now had to be done personally.
As long as they did things, they would leave clues.
And Isagi decided to add fuel to the fire tonight. Ryuu-senpai had obediently listened to his orders and hadn't carried out any operations or killed anyone for these two months.
This surely made the Dark Familia side, whose nerves were originally tight, relax a little.
It was exactly the right opportunity to launch a surprise attack and catch them off guard!
But just as Isagi was preparing to leave.
From the side came the voice of the Goddess. Astrea hadn't slept yet either; standing in front of her bedroom door, she looked at him as he prepared to go out.
"Isagi, are you going for revenge?"
"Yeah."
"Is Ryuu going together?"
"No, I'm going alone tonight."
Isagi didn't intend to call Ryuu-senpai, because it wasn't necessary.
His target tonight was the Soma Familia. Their captain was only level 2, and although there were many members, they were basically all level 1 punks, many of whom didn't even go to the Dungeon.
So one person was enough.
Even if his body hadn't completely adapted to the power after leveling up, this was actually quite a good "combat opportunity."
Of course.
Strictly speaking, the Soma Familia certainly didn't count as a Dark Familia. They were just a gang of hooligans wandering in the gray areas. in an adventurer city like Orario, there were simply too many similar guys.
But precisely because of their "gray" identity, Isagi strongly suspected they had certain connections with the Dark Familias.
Not certain, but enough.
Anyway, once he got to the place, he could always question something out of their captain's mouth. Furthermore, based on the things they did daily, there was no problem directly going to their door to execute "Justice."
It was just that—
"Then I will go with you."
The Goddess suddenly spoke firmly, making Isagi unable to make heads or tails of it for a moment...
___
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