Judging by appearances was a mistake.
If one assumed the seemingly cute little girl in front of him was harmless, that would be a grave error. Even though Lillian didn't know Meili's true background in detail, he knew one thing for certain—
She was the mastermind behind the curse incident.
"Big brother, how could you do that?" Meili puffed out her cheeks, sounding annoyed. "We clearly agreed to…"
Then, her innocent eyes suddenly erupted with undisguised malice.
In an instant, she transformed from a cute little girl into a vicious child.
"…play."
The moment the word left her mouth, a black shadow shot out of the nearby bushes, lunging straight for Lillian's face.
Unhurried, Lillian shifted his footing. The shadow brushed past him.
Turning his gaze, he saw it clearly—
The same small black dog from earlier.
Only now, its expression was feral and vicious.
Clang—!
With a flick of his thumb, the blade leapt from its scabbard. Lillian caught the hilt and slashed down in a smooth, fluid motion.
The beast reacted quickly. Its legs kicked off the ground, narrowly avoiding the strike.
The moment the sword was drawn, Meili had already leapt toward the forest, using the dog to buy time. She succeeded in escaping into the woods, turning back to glare at Lillian with hatred before sprinting deeper inside.
The black dog followed close behind, vanishing at incredible speed.
After hesitating for two seconds, Lillian gave chase.
Strictly speaking, this matter had nothing to do with him.
But Meili clearly possessed knowledge of curse techniques.
If he could catch her, he might gain valuable information.
And that alone made it worth pursuing.
He caught up to her very quickly—more precisely, she had stopped on her own in a flat valley.
She turned around. Moonlight spilled over her face, coating it in a layer of cold frost. The small black dog squatted on her shoulder, baring its teeth and staring viciously at him.
"You… are you one of the clown's subordinates?"
"The clown… Roswaal, huh."
Lillian recalled that man's appearance. He really did look like a clown.
"You call him by name—so you're not his subordinate."
Meili's words were far too mature for her appearance. The sharp gleam in her pupils was almost overflowing with calculation.
"Then what are you? And why are you interfering with my plans? Throwing yourself into danger without any benefit—surely that's the stupidest thing one could do."
"That's a very textbook example of extreme self-interest."
Lillian shrugged lightly.."First, I don't think I'm in any danger. Second, there is some benefit involved. Third… I have a bit of a sense of justice. I can't just sit by while a bunch of beasts wreak havoc on a village."
"Is that so?"
Meili sneered. "I wonder where your confidence comes from."
The moment her words fell, crimson lights ignited in every direction—front, back, left, and right. A low gurgling sound echoed through the valley as countless magical beasts emerged, surrounding Lillian completely.
"Is this what you call 'not being in danger'?"
Meili looked at him triumphantly.
Lillian scanned the wolf-dog–like magical beasts around him. These were creations of the Witch of Envy. Looking closely, one could see that the horns on their heads were all broken.
For magical beasts, the one who breaks their horn becomes their master. Unless something unexpected had happened, those horns had been snapped by Meili herself.
Compared to a curse caster, a more fitting title for her would be Beast Tamer.
Facing hundreds of magical beasts, Lillian nodded calmly and replied:
"Yes. This still doesn't count as 'danger.'
At best, it's just a nuisance I can deal with casually."
Meili snorted coldly. "Foolish and arrogant. You'll pay the price for that."
With her command, the magical beasts threw back their heads and roared before surging forward all at once.
At that moment, a black blade slid free of its scabbard. Under the moonlight, its outline—and the intricate patterns etched along it—were laid bare before Meili's eyes.
"That sword—!"
Her expression changed abruptly. "That's Sister Elsa's—!"
---
When Subaru and Rem arrived back at the village, they found villagers holding torches and searching frantically.
They stopped one of them and asked what had happened.
"A child went missing."
"Missing?!" Subaru exclaimed.
"Yes!" The villager looked anxious and regretful.
"The children had planned to sneak into the forest at night. Luckily, a young mercenary from out of town overheard them and told their parents. But one child still disappeared. We're checking the village now—if we can't find her, we'll have no choice but to enter the forest!"
"A young mercenary from out of town…?"
Subaru froze.
In all his previous loops, he had never seen or heard of any outsiders in the village.
"Subaru?"
Rem's puzzled gaze snapped him back to reality. He hurriedly asked:
"Please—who's the missing child?"
"It's… Meili? Yes, Meili."
The villager thought for a moment, then frowned slightly.
"The children said they'd only met her recently. Her parents aren't villagers either… but even so, we can't just leave her missing!"
"Meili…"
In Subaru's mind appeared the image of the blue-haired braided girl holding a black puppy.
This is bad!
That dog was the magical beast that carried the curse—Meili might already be cursed too!
"We'll help search as well!"
Subaru and Rem joined the villagers.
Because the village was small, they quickly finished searching it—but Meili was nowhere to be found.
"Subaru, look."
Rem suddenly stopped and pointed at a dark lantern on a tree where a crystal was missing.
"The barrier has been destroyed. Meili must be in the forest."
"Damn it… so we really have to go in?"
"If that's the case—"
Rumble… rumble—!
A massive noise erupted from the forest. Even from this distance, it was clearly audible. Trees in the distance collapsed, earth and stone flying everywhere.
"What was that?!"
---
Lillian dodged the raging mudflow and stood atop the trunk of a towering tree.
Opposite him was a gigantic magical beast—over four meters tall—formed from the small black dog. It rampaged wildly, spewing earth and sand from its mouth.
Powerful magical beasts using magic was nothing unusual.
Beside the beast, Meili glared furiously at him—more precisely, at the sword in his hand.
"Why do you have Sister Elsa's weapon?!"
"So you know each other," Lillian thought.
It seemed the Bowel Hunter and this beast tamer belonged to the same organization. That was… interesting.
"Where is she right now?!"
Seeing Meili's cheeks flushed red with anger, their relationship must have been close.
And Elsa hadn't returned yet? Then again, only four days had passed.
"Catch you first, then we can talk."
Lillian shifted his gaze to the giant beast.
The ground around it was already littered with the corpses of ordinary magical beasts—mere fodder to him.
As for this one, it wasn't much of a threat either.
Timing the moment between its spells, Lillian dropped to the ground and sprinted forward. The distance of seven or eight meters vanished in a few strides.
With a flick of his wrist, the sword flew, piercing straight into the beast's head—
And simultaneously, a simple, unadorned punch smashed into its abdomen.
Boom!
A bloody hole burst open.
Meili's face went pale. She immediately pulled out a magic crystal.
—Hiss!
Thick black mist erupted violently, engulfing a vast area in an instant.
Lillian frowned and retreated a few steps—but he didn't release the beast.
Instead, he grabbed its leg, yanked it down, and dragged it out of the fog with him.
Its belly had been shattered by his punch, its head pierced by the flying blade—it was already dead.
When Lillian looked back toward the slowly dissipating black mist, Meili was gone.
He truly had no good way to deal with that kind of magic.
His own magic resistance was effectively zero, and he lacked any countermeasures.
In this world, that was a fatal weakness.
"At least the curse should be lifted now."
Lillian pulled his sword from the beast's head.
This was the very creature that had bitten Subaru. Killing it naturally removed the curse.
Of course, even if he hadn't killed it, it wouldn't have mattered much—Subaru hadn't suffered the Hundred Beast Bites yet. He only carried a single curse, which Beatrice could easily remove.
It wouldn't turn into the massacre scenario from the original story.
As for Meili escaping—there was nothing he could do about that now.
Just as he was thinking this, hurried footsteps approached.
He sheathed his sword.
The next moment, Rem and Subaru came into view.
They saw him.
They saw the ground covered in magical beast corpses.
Both were utterly shocked.
"This is…"
Subaru recognized him immediately. "It's you? What—what happened here?!"
"Nothing happened."
As Lillian said that, a sudden chill ran through his body.
A sense of danger enveloped him—from above.
"Looks like I arrived a bit too late~"