“Was that meant to be a threat? You don’t seem to understand your position.”
“What do you mean?”
I turned from the man to Seleiyu, then took her hand.
“Seleiyu, you must have worked so hard to prepare for this moment. I really want to be the one to make that guy eat dirt, but you’ve earned the honor.”
“Yuna?”
“I’ll go and save Keith, so you go and give that man a good beating with your own two hands.”
“What are you talking about? You’re going to save her little brother? But he’s in the middle of my group of monsters. Your jokes are getting old,” the man said. He’d looked like he was trying to stifle a laugh the entire time we were talking.
I hadn’t planned on telling him anything, but I wanted to reassure Seleiyu. I did also want to prove him wrong.
“Oh hey, I must have forgotten to tell you. That guy who tried to get revenge on the king or whatever? The ‘A-rank adventurers’ who defeated his monsters were actually just me.”
“What are you talking about...”
“This is nothing compared to how many he had back then. Are you sure you really wanted revenge? If you’re going to devote yourself to it, you need to be willing to risk your life for it.”
Honestly, it didn’t seem like a great life to me. Even that guy who wanted revenge on the king had been a great monster tamer once, before he headed toward the dark side. If he had made better decisions, he could have been an irreplaceable asset to the capital.
It was true with Seleiyu too. She was the daughter of a noble, beautiful and charming. She had spent her precious childhood dedicating her life to trying to avenge her mother. I wasn’t trying to deny the resentment she felt. If Fina and the others had been killed, I might have also tried to get revenge on the murderer. Actually, there was no might, I would have. But at some point, the cycle had to stop.
This man, on the other hand, had killed Seleiyu’s mother merely because she had rejected him, and now he was trying to get to her daughter too. He had taken a hostage and taken control of monsters to exact his revenge. He wasn’t even bothering to dedicate his life to his cause, but he still wanted to have it all. I could understand Seleiyu’s resolve, since her mom had been murdered. But who holds a grudge like this after being shot down?
“Seleiyu, I’d be really happy if you could trust me.”
I looked at Seleiyu with utter seriousness while dressed in my bear onesie. I knew I wasn’t convincing in this outfit. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, then opened them again.
“Ha ha.” Seleiyu laughed this time. “All right. I’ll believe in you, Yuna. I’ll defeat this man, so please save Keith.”
Seleiyu bowed her head to me.
“What are you two chitchatting about? You’re still planning to save her little brother? You’re heading into the crowd of monsters?”
“So what if I am? Like I said earlier, you don’t have enough monsters to stop me.”
“Impudent little girl!”
His tone did a 180 again. He seemed to have a low tolerance for banter.
“Seleiyu, I’m leaving Kumayuru here with you. If you don’t think you can beat him, then you get out of here. I’ll mop him up.”
To the shock of both the man and Seleiyu, I summoned Kumayuru.
“The black bear from earlier.”
“But wasn’t Kumayuru back there?”
“They’re summons. I just recalled my bear when you two headed out ahead of me. You were both looking ahead, so it was easy. Kumayuru, protect Seleiyu.”
“Cwoon.”
That was Kumayuru’s way of saying, “Leave it to me.”
I also summoned Kumakyu.
“Okay, time to save Keith. Kumakyu, let’s go!”
“Cwoon.”
I jumped onto Kumakyu and we sprinted off in Keith’s direction. The man watched me go, which meant I needed to ensure Keith was safe before he could cancel his command to the monsters. It was a race against time.
I took a straight path to Keith. I guess because of their command, the monsters didn’t try to attack me yet, but that only lasted for a short time. Soon, they started to growl and stir. Soon, they attacked us. It looked like the command had been released, but it was too late. Keith was already right in front of me.
“Kumakyu, full speed.”
“Cwoon.”
My bear found a new gear as I fired off magic bursts to slay the monsters around us. They were starting to approach Keith, but from where I was now, I’d make it with some time to spare.
I used wind magic to blow away any monsters in Keith’s vicinity. Then I rode over to Keith where he was lying asleep on the ground. I hopped off Kumakyu and picked the boy up. He was still alive—he really had just been sleeping. It occurred to me that he might have been drugged. Either way, I was relieved.
After I made sure he was fine, I shouted, making sure Seleiyu heard me. “Keith is alive! Don’t worry about him!”
Next, I needed to get him to a safe place. I pulled my bear house out of my bear storage, took Keith inside, and laid him on the first-floor sofa to sleep. He’d be safe here.
I’d considered having Kumakyu protect him instead, but there were too many monsters. It’d be dangerous to have Kumakyu protect Keith out in the open while I was fighting. That meant the safest option was to move him with the transport gate, but I couldn’t just use that out of nowhere, so I settled on the bear house. This was safe enough.
I left Keith to quietly snooze in the bear house and headed outside. Now all I had to do was clean up all this trash.