Chapter 194: Gift (10)

Isabel and Elena were hurriedly going up to the second floor. Although I hadn’t woken them, I could feel movement from the ceiling. Sophia tried to sneak towards the door, but meeting the elf’s intense gaze, she hid behind the sofa. The elf took a step back again and said.

“I thought you were a good person. You were a minion of a demon? Was lending me money just a ploy to get close to my companions?”

The elf looked at me with a truly displeased expression. I had many things to refute her questions with. For one, I didn’t even know exactly who she was, nor was I interested in her ‘companions’. Even if I had some kind of purpose. How could I predict that the elf would devour six servings of meat at the barbecue restaurant and not pay, and then sit there in the restaurant?

And I had never offered to lend money first.

“You scumbag! Trying to use someone’s good intentions like this?”

The elf, unlike her elegant appearance, had a foul mouth. Pointing fingers at me, she reached for her waist again and stepped backward. However, she couldn’t get out the front door and bumped her head on it.

This was because the front door, which should have clearly been open, was closed.

With a flustered expression, she glanced at Rat Trap stealthily exiting towards the back and wore a look of dismay.

“Petunia Titi.”

Milia called out the unique name and reached out her hand. A shining magic circle appeared around her body. At a speed faster than arrows, she began firing magic projectiles from each magic circle. The elf named Petunia Titi, with a flustered face, dodged the projectiles by rolling her body.

With a heavy roar, neat holes were punched through the door and wall. Elena, watching the house break apart from the second floor, clutched her head and shouted.

“Ah, no…!”

Isabel hugged Elena tightly, trying to comfort her.

“It’s okay, Elena! We have plenty of money now, so we can fix it!”

And downstairs, Sophia, who had been lying flat fearing she’d be caught in the magic projectile attack, screamed in shock upon seeing Petunia fly all the way to where she was while rolling.

“Hiyayaaak! M-Master! I’ve been caught by the elf! Save me!”

“No….”

Petunia looked around with a slightly flustered face at her scream, and Milia said with a frown.

“How mean-. A woman who was once part of a hero’s party is now threatening by taking a cute girl hostage?”

Hero’s party? I turned around after pushing Kelly into the safe bathroom. Petunia Titi shouted with a flustered face.

“N-no! And who are you? How do you know my personal details?”

Milia answered Petunia’s question like this.

“When the previous Demon King was alive, I was in the Demon Realm too. They even distributed wanted posters of high-profile individuals to be killed on sight, so there’s no way I wouldn’t recognize you? Hero’s party. Elf archer. Petunia Titi.”

Wasn’t going to the funeral simply because she was Fabian’s friend? Was she a hidden member of the hero’s party? Petunia asked with a face full of discomfort.

“……How much do you know?”

Milia asked, finding her question rather strange.

“….What are you talking about? You parted ways after killing the Demon King, right? I don’t know anything else.”

“….Th-then that’s fine.”

At Milia’s answer, Petunia nodded with a blushing face and grabbed Sophia’s collar. Then she threw Sophia towards us like tossing a ball and backed away towards the window. Milia watched her retreating figure, seemed to think of something, and said with a sly smile.

“Ah, right. Come to think of it, the reason the elf from the hero’s party that caught the Demon King went back alone….”

“Waaaaah! Waaaaaaah!”

Petunia screamed as if she had taken a stimulant and pulled a dagger from her waist, throwing it. The dagger flew with sharp momentum, menacing, but not impossible to dodge. I dodged the daggers being fired in all directions, relying half on instinct, while Milia drew a circle in the air and conjured a shield to block the daggers.

Perhaps because the daggers were so sharp and powerful, they were digging halfway into Milia’s shield.

Milia grinned, looking at the daggers floating in the air, while Petunia clicked her tongue and drew a bow from her back. The daggers fell to the floor. I picked up a dagger stuck in the wall and threw it towards Petunia.

She tilted her entire body sideways as if the floor had collapsed beneath her, and from that position, shot an arrow at me.

“Shit!”

The moment I thought the arrow had been deflected, I instinctively dropped to the floor. Even though I didn’t hear the arrow pass, the sound of the wall crumbling erupted, scattering wooden fragments everywhere. Milia, who had reached out to block me, grabbed her own hand with a bewildered expression.

A moment later, a strong gust of wind arose. Sofas and furniture floated up and were sucked towards the hole. We had no choice but to brace ourselves against the oncoming wind, covering our faces and bodies. When the strong wind, which threatened to sweep us away, passed, only wooden fragments and debris remained in the first-floor lobby.

Neither Elena nor Isabel worried about the furniture anymore. The massive hole that looked intentionally cut out and the house turned into a disaster zone were simply too surreal. Petunia drew her bow again, aiming at us. As Milia and I twisted our bodies in different directions, she said dismissively, pulling out another arrow.

“You probably haven’t tried shooting kids running away separately, have you?”

And as she drew her bow and Milia gathered magic in her hands, I rolled my eyes, trying to find a way to approach that elf somehow. Then, a black shadow coalesced from the ceiling and poured down towards Petunia’s head.

“Huh? W-Wait…!”

As if black paint had been splashed across the world, a violent black wave pierced the spot where Petunia had been. She narrowly rolled her body away, but the arrow she had just nocked fell to the floor. While she was trying to nock another arrow with a flustered face, this time a small poisoned dart flew from an unseen location. Dodging the glinting killing intent, she had to face chains attempting to bind her legs.

Petunia rolled her body once more and looked at the hole in the wall. As if realizing it was difficult to handle this many people alone, she tried to escape outside somehow. I picked up a fallen flower pot from the floor and threw it towards the hole that opened outside.

Simultaneously, black currents poured down onto Petunia’s head once again. While dodging the currents, prioritizing escape, she jumped towards the hole, and the flower pot I threw flew, aiming for her head.

Pak!

“Ack!”

As the flower pot shattered into pieces, the elf’s face became covered in dirt. Her arm, reaching towards the hole, collided with the gap. The elf’s body bounced off like a ball, and her bow fell to the floor. The elf was rolling around, clutching her head, and black chains flew from all directions, binding her tightly.

She struggled, grinding her teeth, but her thrashing was weak compared to her formidable archery skills. Milia, after confirming she was securely bound, pointed at her own hand bent at a bizarre angle and said.

“Evan. You know I went through all this trouble to protect you, right?”

She frowned as if in real pain, wearing a displeased expression, and from the shadows, Rat Trap peeked out and asked.

“Should I kill her?”

I shook my head and sent her away. Isabel and Elena carefully held onto the staircase railing and asked me.

“E-Evan. Can we come out now?”

“Yeah. It’s okay. The situation is all sorted.”

She couldn’t move. She couldn’t pull out hidden weapons from her pocket, nor could she move her limbs properly. Her eyes were burning with hatred, and her body kept struggling, but for now, it was our victory.

Taffy popped out from the ceiling along with shadows and asked.

“Evan. Aren’t you going to kill her?”

“Well….”

“What are you going to do?”

Milia looked at me and asked.

I directed my gaze towards the hole Petunia had made. The arrow that shattered the mansion’s walls not only half-demolished the building but also left giant claw marks in the forest. Like someone had poked it with a finger from the sky, the straight, heavy trace of collapse sent chills down one’s spine.

Are all members of a hero’s party at this level?

I looked at Petunia Titi once more. If she had fired both arrows just now, we would have died. Milia nodded, looking at me as well. Sophia and Rat Trap were watching me, gauging my reaction. Elena was sobbing from the delayed trauma of the building collapse, while Isabel took out her ledger and began calculating.

“K-kill me…! My tribe will get revenge…! Kill me!”

Petunia Titi shouted that, grinding her teeth.

But I didn’t want to kill her.

As part of a hero’s party, she had captured the Demon King, and she hadn’t done anything bad to others. Seeing as she bothered to attend Fabian’s funeral, their relationship seemed amicable.

Did I really need to kill her?

I shook my head.

I couldn’t kill this elf right now.