Chapter 20: If You're Gonna Call Her a Wolf Girl, Then Let Me Pet Her

“Huh? You guys—you guys look unfamiliar. Don’t tell me you’re from outside?”

A girl suddenly leapt out in front of us.

She wasn’t very tall. About 120 centimeters—in this world’s terms, probably around 12 meru. Roughly elementary school-sized. Like us, she wore traveling clothes, though hers didn’t seem to be of good quality.

What really stood out wasn’t her vibrant silver hair—but the dog ears sitting right on top of it.

And to top it off, a tail kept flicking into and out of view behind her.

Then, as if to lure in one of the ogres, she darted forward. With steps that looked more like dancing than dodging, she easily slipped through the Blood Ogre’s attacks.

“H-Hey, who are you?”

“I’m Rizel! When you ask someone their name, it’s proper manners to introduce yourself first, manners~”

Spinning gracefully around, she got behind the ogre and—

“Hey, is it okay if I take it out now?”

“A-Ah… yeah…”

Unable to resist her momentum, I nodded.

“Roge~r!”

Rizel drew a short sword from her waist—or rather, something more akin to a dagger from our world—and drove it straight into the Blood Ogre’s skull.

She yanked it out, and blood burst out in a jet.

“I’ll take care of the other one too!”

With a forceful swing that splattered off the clinging blood and brain matter, she regained the sword’s edge and instantly felled the second ogre as well.

“Fighting Blood Ogres barehanded? You’ve got guts, you do~”

Despite all that intense movement, Rizel laughed without the slightest trace of fatigue.

“No, they took my weapon—on the third one. I let my guard down. Still inexperienced.”

I thought I could ride the flow of the fight and push through. Just for a second, I got careless.

And that’s all it took for things to turn out like this.

“Ah, I see, I see. The monsters around here aren’t supposed to be intelligent, but for some reason, they act all organized. It’s seriously annoying~”

She cackled like it was the funniest thing in the world.

“Hey, what was your name again?”

“Raiga.”

Right—I’d forgotten to introduce myself.

“This one here’s Karen. We had another companion, but we sent her to the village to take shelter.”

Karen, still flustered, gave a small bow in sync with my introduction.

“Ah~ she’s the one who was puking over there, huh?”

“…Figures.”

No way Yuto would be okay after seeing all that blood.

Using magic, I cut the flesh pinning down Galatine, then quickly made my way toward the village.

“Raiga! Miss Karen! You’re both okay!”

We passed through the dome and entered the village. Yuto came running to meet us.

Her words were cheerful, but her face was pale—completely white, with tears brimming at the corners of her eyes.

“Shouldn’t I be the one saying that? Are you alright?”

“It’s psychosomatic, so it won’t kill me. But you two were actually risking your lives. Compared to that, this is nothing.”

She tried to act strong—

“So, who’s this?”

She asked, looking to Rizel.

“Oh! I’m Rizel~! Big Sis over there is amazing, like, she’s radiating this aura or something! Aura!”

“‘Aura’?”

Karen and I said it in unison.

What’s that supposed to mean?

“…Maybe it’s the so-called ‘Saint’s Aura’?”

Yuto answered hesitantly, likely because Karen was present.

She was apparently skilled at manipulating mana, but only possessed a tiny amount of it—barely a trickle. That’s why she couldn’t use most forms of magic. In that sense, the low-cost and difficult-to-control detection spell, Search Sonar, was practically made for her.

“I’m Yuto. I guess you could say I’m the ‘Saint.’ Kind of Raiga’s partner in this.”

“Whoa, then that makes Raiga a Hero, huh? Never seen one before!”

Rizel looked intrigued, tail spinning like a propeller at full throttle.

“You’re a demon, right? Even for you, is that rare?”

Yuto caught on quickly.

“Wow, Yuto, you figured it out—ding ding! Correct, correct! I’m a half werewolf, half elf!”

Rizel shouted cheerfully, full of energy. Yuto gave a wry smile and muttered, “I mean, with the ears and the tail, anyone could probably guess…”

“Well, that too, I guess. But really, it’s the first time I’ve ever met someone as strong as me! Hearing you’re a Hero makes total sense—totally!”

I’d been watching the exchange with a smile… which stiffened a bit.

Technically, I am a Hero chosen by the gods, but still…

“A werewolf… That’s considered a high-ranking type of demon, isn’t it? And a half-elf on top of that… I’ve never heard of such a combination.”

Yeah, with such an unusual lineage, it wouldn’t be strange for rumors to have spread even in Elgrand. Wait, could demons and humans even have children together?

“Oh, I was born on the Demon Continent, Barbatos. So if folks from Elgrand haven’t heard of me, it’s totally understandable, totally!”

“Then… what brought you across the sea to this side?”

“Well, my mom got caught by a slave trader and was taken to the Demon Continent. That’s where my werewolf dad fell for her, and then—bam! I was born!”

“…You sure talk about a dark story like it’s nothing.”

She was so upbeat I couldn’t help but comment.

“No no, I mean, Mom didn’t just get enslaved—she climbed all the way up to being Dad’s official wife! Not to brag, but even though we’re a noble family, the place would totally fall apart without her around!”

“I see…”

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, I thought. Her mom must’ve been quite the force of nature too.

“So I came to Elgrand looking for my roots, and then—bam! All this crazy stuff going on.”

“Should I be offering my condolences, or…?”

Of all times, she just had to arrive during a major crisis.

“Well hey, it’s all just part of my warrior’s training! Warrior’s training!”

Just as our conversation hit a pause, the villagers who’d been watching us quietly stepped forward.

“Thank you so much for saving us from danger, great Hero. Um… is Miss Karen not the Saint, then?”

“No, I’m merely traveling with them,” Karen answered politely, a bit awkwardly, sensing the villagers’ confusion over the discrepancy.

“Karen’s stigma—her Saint’s Mark—was burned out when she summoned us here from another world,” I explained.

“I’m acting as her stand-in,” Yuto added.

It was a lie I’d come up with long ago, but it served well enough.

“I see…”

“…Forgive me, but we truly didn’t expect any village to survive out here. That barrier—who put it up?” Yuto asked, steering the conversation to another topic.

A good question. I’d been wondering about that too. How did they even get such a barrier working?

Could it have been Rizel?

I glanced at her.

“Nope, nope! Was like this already when I showed up! In exchange for a place to crash, I’ve been helping out—chasing off monsters, gathering food, that sorta thing.”

“Even though I’ve got elf blood, I can’t use magic at all, can you believe it?” she added with a laugh, as if it were the funniest thing in the world.

“This barrier was put up just after the ‘Demon Dragon’ appeared, by a passing traveler. They said it could keep out the miasma.”

“Where are they now?”

“They left right after setting up the barrier. Said they were off to find a ‘Hero’ and couldn’t stay long.”

“They’re searching for a Hero!?”

I couldn’t help but raise my voice. The sudden attention made me wince.

“…Sorry. But if that’s true, I might need to meet them.”

“Yeah, I was thinking the same,” Yuto nodded.

“I’m curious too,” added Karen.

Even Karen didn’t know about this… That was unsettling.

But with both of them agreeing, it looked like a new objective had just been added to our journey.