Beatrice's voice was very familiar to Ayanokouji. He quickly walked out of the ruins. He heard the sound of rushing water coming from outside.
After Ayanokouji walked out of the door, he saw an angry Beatrice waving her hand in rhythm, and not far from there, a man with short blonde hair was thrown from the air by an unseen force, then flew up and fell again. He looked around and saw many craters on the ground.
His eyes focused on the man who looked like a rice cake. If he were an ordinary person, he would have been shattered into pieces after Beatrice's torture.
"Betty, what's happening now?" Although Ayanokouji saw the scene in front of him and almost guessed what was happening, he still asked.
"Ayanokouji!"
After seeing him, a joyful smile immediately appeared on Beatrice's face. Then she waved her right hand, and the man flew more than ten meters like trash, leaving a large gap in the ground.
"Where did you run off to?" Beatrice quickly ran towards him, pouting and accusing him.
"Sorry, I was suddenly teleported after touching that pendant. I'm not sure what happened." Ayanokouji explained that due to Echidna's contract with him, she did not inform him about their second meeting. Although there were no such restrictions, he would not disclose the matter.
Although Beatrice was always fond of Echidna who created her, there was no doubt that the woman who had just spoken to her in the spiritual world was not exactly the same as the one mentioned by Beatrice, at least very different in character.
The likelihood of someone else disguising their identity was very low. From his words, he was definitely the real deal. But why his personality differed from the one mentioned by Beatrice, there were only two possibilities.
Either Echidna was disguising herself in front of Beatrice from start to finish.
If that was the case, then Ayanokouji even suspected that the 'person' Beatrice was waiting for did not exist at all, but only her bad taste.
There was another possibility, that the Echidna appearing in front of her was not complete, but only a part of her soul.
Ayanokouji speculated like this in his mind, but it was meaningless to think about the situation and Echidna's identity at the moment. His top priority now was to deal with the situation at Sanctuary.
"So, what happened to that man?"
He raised his head and directed his gaze to the man in the distance who had just been defeated by Beatrice.
"Oh, that man, after you disappeared, we searched everywhere for you, and then we met him. He said all sorts of strange words, then brutally beat our coachman. Betty thought he was an enemy. It's very likely that he used some means to move you away." Beatrice glanced at the man from the corner of her eye, "Betty just gave him a little lesson, but this man is quite strong."
"Betty, this is more than just a lesson." Ayanokouji looked at the undulating ground and said, "Next time you face a situation like this, please consider the appropriateness of your actions."
He was unsure of the man's identity. If he casually killed someone in a foreign environment, it would most likely cause unnecessary problems and also deplete Beatrice's magical power.
"Don't talk about why you just called me a coachman. Besides, I was beaten. Why doesn't anyone care about me?" Otto lay on the ground like trash, helpless, staring towards the sky, "And why does this girl have such strong power?"
He had never seen Beatrice take action before, and he did not expect someone else to have such strong power.
But before he could finish his words, on the other side, the man who had just been blasted slowly stood up from the hole.
"Shit, you threw me around like I was a hole in Magmarin."
Ayanokouji's eyes focused on the other party. He was able to stand up against such attacks. This was enough to prove that his opponent had extraordinary physical abilities and might not be human.
The man was only wearing a very ordinary-looking vest jacket, covered in dust, but his sturdy body was clearly visible.
Compared to his muscular body, his short blonde hair and sharp teeth stood out when he spoke. It was clear that he was a Demi-Human. Furthermore, there was a pendant around his neck that was exactly the same as Ayanokouji's hand, and the same pendant as Frederica's. They must have a blood relationship.
The identity of the other party was then revealed, Garfiel.
"This is too noisy. Betty could easily take care of him."
Beatrice had already raised her hand, ready to release magical arrows to get rid of the other party.
"Don't worry." Ayanokouji stopped her. He didn't want Beatrice to waste too much magical power, but he also wanted to see if she could gain something from Garfiel.
"You must be Garfiel." He looked at him and said.
"Eh? How do you know my name?" Garfiel asked with a confused expression on his face.
"You are Frederica's brother, right?"
"Why do you know her name..." Garfiel's expression immediately changed. Anger, hatred, longing, and various emotions mixed into one.
The change in his expression was seen by Ayanokouji, and he could see it at a glance. This made him realize that Garfiel was a person whose emotions were almost written on his face.
It was very easy to see the inner thoughts of a man with a simple personality, and also easy to manipulate.
"We came to Sanctuary to investigate because Roswaal is not here. Frederica is also our colleague." Ayanokouji said to Garfiel, "We are not enemies."
"Not enemies? Then why did you attack me! You damn twin-tailed brat!" Garfiel glared at Beatrice with an unhappy face and roared, but his hostility had diminished a lot, and Beatrice looked completely arrogant, closing her eyes and refusing to look at him.
"Hey, hey, you clearly attacked me first!" Otto patted the dust off his clothes, sat down, spoke innocently, then looked at Beatrice, "And you are clearly very strong, I saw this person attacking and hitting me several times before taking action!"
"Betty has no obligation to protect you!" Beatrice puffed up her cheeks, deliberately avoiding the other party's gaze. "Betty must be sure that the other party is an enemy before taking action. It's clearly not because Betty was worried about finding Ayanokouji and ignoring you! Moreover, in the end, Betty did not release protective magic for you!"
"Thank you for your hard work, both of you." Ayanokouji shook his head, then directed his gaze back to Garfiel in front of him, "We are not enemies, right? Can you lead us to Sanctuary?"
"Tch!"
Although Garfiel was very unhappy, he also knew that he was clearly no match for Beatrice. Being tossed around like a toy a moment ago was not good either. He walked towards the dragon carriage.
The camera changed, and the dragon carriage that everyone was riding in started moving again.
In front of the carriage, Otto touched his face that had just been hit by Garfiel, and said with a sad face, "Because it was all a misunderstanding, how should I vent my hatred after being beaten in vain?"
Although Beatrice released healing magic to heal his swollen cheek the size of a peach, the pain had not disappeared.
"He didn't even accept my apology."
"Hey, I was just beaten by you, right?" Garfiel sat on the ground in the carriage, with his hands behind his head, and Emilia was also seen on the spare seat, "Looking at her hair color, she must be Emilia-sama."
"Yes." Ayanokouji nodded and looked at Emilia.
After his confirmation, the pendant given to him by Frederica was only thrown with transfer magic, and nothing else.
Beatrice was holding Ayanokouji's arm tightly, as if she was afraid he would suddenly disappear again. Although she still used this as an excuse to absorb magical power better.
"That part is taken care of by Roswaal..." Garfiel was about to say something mocking, but when he saw Ayanokouji and Beatrice, he stopped talking.
At this moment, Emilia's body trembled slightly, then she slowly opened her eyes.
"How are you, Emilia?" Ayanokouji noticed that Emilia had woken up.
"Ayanokouji... I..." Emilia held her head with one hand and continued to recall what had just happened.
She noticed Garfiel's presence, stood up quickly, stopped in front of Ayanokouji, opened her arms, and formed a large character: "Who are you, don't approach Ayanokouji!"
"Huh?" Garfiel was slightly confused by the sudden movement.
"Sorry, this is Garfiel. He is currently taking us to Sanctuary." Ayanokouji explained from the side.
"Garfiel? Is he the one Frederica instructed us about?" Emilia suddenly realized, "In that case, are we already in Sanctuary?"
"Weren't you unconscious because you were near the Sanctuary barrier?" Garfiel said helplessly, furrowing his brow.
He then explained the Sanctuary situation impatiently. This was the same information Ayanokouji had obtained from Echidna. Sanctuary restricted the entry and exit of Demi-Humans, but did not restrict the entry and exit of pure humans. Knowing this made him fully aware that it was impossible to live alone in Sanctuary.
"... Roswaal pretended to name this place Sanctuary, but this place has nothing to do with grace." Garfiel complained.
Ayanokouji looked out through the carriage window. They had left the forest and arrived at an ancient village.
The village was full of remnants of ancient buildings. The houses were dilapidated and simple, looking poorer, and everyone living there had clear Demi-Human characteristics.
He observed the surrounding environment and listened to Garfiel's complaints. He could imagine that the villagers here also had complaints about Roswaal to some extent.
The dragon carriage carrying everyone finally stopped—or was likely forced to stop.
Ayanokouji and the others got out of the carriage, and standing in front of them was a girl with short pink hair wearing a maid uniform and white stockings—Ram.
"Long time no see, Ram." Ayanokouji said calmly.
"I don't know where you came from, Ayanokouji, but it took you a long time to come. I'm very disappointed. It seems that Ram's expectations of you were foolish." Ram said with her eyes closed.
"Even if we haven't seen each other for almost a month, are you still so venomous?" Ayanokouji said expressionlessly.
"Don't talk like that to Ayanokouji." Beatrice immediately spoke while holding Ayanokouji's hand tightly.
"Betty-sama? Why are you here?"
Ram's face was full of surprise. She didn't understand why Beatrice, who usually only stayed in the Forbidden Library and never left the house, was with Ayanokouji.