「Grandpa~ I'm hungry~. I want fooood~」
Ain was flapping her wings in the air whilst pulling on to my hair.
Oi that hurts!
「H…Hey Zeph-chi, do you think it's alright if I give her food? pretty please?」
「....I don't mind but..」
I passed a high-quality medium to Lydia who had a slovenly expression on her face whilst looking at Ain.
「Look here Ain-chu~wan, it's your foood~」
「Uwaah…..」
Even Claude seemed interested in feeding Ain…
Nevertheless, Ain turned her face away from Lydia and in the end I was the one who had to give her the food.
Lydia looked at me with a bitter expression.
「Zeph, can you give me some stones as well♪」
「Alright, show me your hands」
I placed a large quantity of mediums on to Milly's small hands.
The reason that Milly wanted the mediums was not to feed Ain but was for her own use so that she could learn some Soul Magic.
Well it's not bad for the party if she learns to use Soul Magic, so to a certain extent, I'm willing to help her out.
「Eheheh.....Thank you♪ I won't forget to repay this later kay」
「As long as you can manage by yourself after this it's fine」
「Haaaaii!」(Yeeess!)
Milly was wholeheartedly smiling and responding in an uplifted tone of voice, her motivation to learn Soul Magic seems to be really high.
I do understand her feelings though.
*jingle ling-a-ling* as soon as we heard the sound of a bell creeping from behind the building, we entered combat mode.
「What should I do? Should I fight as per usual?」
「If you want to use White Sphere, you should use magic amplification before shooting it. I will do the rest after that」
「You're so reliable aren't cha Zeph-chi」
The moment the Wraith Master comes out of the corner, Milly shoots out her amplified white sphere surrounding its escape and I also immediately cast time square.
During the time stop I simultaneously casted White Sphere and Red Sphere and launched it towards the monster, a large White Flame flies straight to the middle of the demon and a large explosion follows.
Blistering flames burn the ground and a single shadow is left standing as a heat haze shimmers the air around it.
The two underling Mist Wraith's seemed to have been obliterated.
「Shall I name this attack Nova Sphere?」
I used a combination of Soul Magic which was super effective against spirit type monsters and Red Magic which had an overall high offensive power.
The results were quite amazing, and it seems to have even more offensive power then activating two white spheres at the same time.
Because I wanted to save up on high-quality mediums I didn't really want to use too much combination magic if it included Soul Magic, but it seems that Soul Magic and Red Magic have really good compatibility.
All members of the party surrounded the left over Wraith Master, and without even giving it a chance to re-summon it's servant's we managed to defeat it.
「Oh yeah, Zeph-kun didn't you mention something about not being able to call Ain-chan for a long duration? In that case, how long can she last? It's already been an hour since she was summoned…..」
Come to think of it, Ain hasn't show any signs of disappearing today.
Normally she would get sleepy really quick, and after eating her stomachs fill, she would just disappear, but today, she's flying around me pretty energetically.
「Gramps what's wrong?」
「Well, You seem to be energetic today」
「Yea! Ain is pumped up ー! 」
Ain says while making somersaults around, it seems that she does not plan to disappear yet.
「It seems like today, her condition is really good」
「Hey~ Ain-Chan, are you in a good mood today?」
「Mood...?」
「It means feelings that give you warmth, or feeling pumped up」
Claude raised her both arms doing a cheering pose, and Ain imitated it.
「Yea! I'm feeling great! I'm doing well! 」
「 My name is Claude, Ain-chan.I'll be in your care from now on okay?」
「Claude! Nice to meet you! Claude! 」
Claude presented her index finger, and Ain responded, with a handshake.
Ain remembered Claude's name first rather than mine. She's really skillful on handling children, Milly and Lydia seems to be dumbfounded on the conversation right now.
「I….I'm Lydia, Ain-chan! 」
「I'm Milly, Nice to meet you!」
The hands extended by Milly and Lydia was still avoided, Ain hid inside Claude's armor.
「hiiiee?! A...Ain-chan!? Please don't go in to weird places」
「Claude…..These people…. Scary...」
「Pu....Kuku...」
I unintentionally burst out laughing. She actually said that she was scared of them haha.
「That's heartless Zeph-chi…..」
「kukuku...Sorry Sorry....fufufu」
「Zeph is really stupid!」
While I'm laughing uncontrollably, I endured Milly's punches on my side while we are walking.
「But there aren't very many monsters is there? I feel like there were more enemies when I came earlier」
「Is that so? Or rather have you've been here already? 」
「ah...Yeah, when I woke up in the morning, I wonder how many times I've been here?」
That was dangerous a topic. Early morning (actually it was still midnight) that I already started hunting, I didn't want to have to talk about meeting Seruberie so I thought of some excuses in order to avoid their questioning.
「When you go to new hunting grounds, You check the area beforehand」
I decided to tell them this.
「Is that so. Thank you for always taking care of it」
Claude lowered her head and bowed.
To be honest it's not really anything to be that grateful about, in fact I kind of feel guilty if she acts like this.
「!! It's the enemy! Be careful! 」
Mist wraiths was detected from Milly's blue wave, Milly fired White Crash and Lydia and Claude also sprung to action.
Shortly after the battle ended Ain was fed with a high-level medium and Lydia seems to have noticed something, she turned her gaze to nowhere.
「...Everyone, Can you hear something over there? 」
After saying that we listened carefully, we heard battle sounds from a distance. We looked where the sounds came from but we cannot see anything because of the geographical features of the area. Apparently we are hearing it from the direction of inner part of the ruins.
「People other than us will come won't they? It's not something unusual right? 」
That's also true but a hunting ground of this caliber is not something normal people can easily enter, moreover…
「Let's go and check it out for a moment?」
「Zeph?」
「Don't you think it will be a good reference…..for our battle expereince? 」
「Is that what this is about?」
After the going through a complicated pathway, there's was a narrow path where we I could barely slip past.
「Wait…..Why are we going around this way? Isn't there a better path, geez! 」
「There might be possibly other passages that connects to it but...」
Originally, this place has really complicated terrain, it's not impossible that it will have another passageway. But we were already close to the sounds of battle so I have no doubt that the target is here....However.
「Hey, Isn't the battle taking too long?」
「...I also think it's dragging out for quite a long time」
5 minutes has passed since we entered this narrow path.
Our battle time was only around 1 minute, so thinking about it, this battle was taking a long time and it was a little strange.
「Well we should understand after seeing it.」
We passed through the wall of the broken house, after moving out of the place we saw Grain the dispatched magician.
However, Grain himself was not fighting, he was merely grinning while looking at the two girls. A red colored long-haired girl holding a spear and a blue colored short-cut girl holding a sword on both hands.
It seems that those two are fighting mist wraiths.
At the same time wings were on their backs and their appearance reminded me of Ain.
「…..Those people, are the same as me...?」
Inside Claude's armor, Ain was peeking at the two girls and muttering to herself, Grain seems to have noticed it, and turned to look towards us.