Episode 240
- Kiriik... kiririik...
"The Order's secret weapon... this can't be. This can't be..."
The bishop who had confidently stepped forward before everyone muttered with a pale, horrified expression as the soulless knights he had brought lay face-down on the floor making grotesque sounds.
"What... did you just say...?"
"H-hiek!"
Not missing the bishop's reaction, Isollet strode toward him and pointed her sword at him.
"I can execute you right now. You tried to attack the hero party, so even the Order won't be able to protect you."
"U-uhh. I understand, so please put that away..."
The bishop began to back away, waving his hands with frightened eyes.
"Grrr..."
"Don't try anything clever and speak straight."
But behind him, Lulu was standing her ground with bared teeth, and thanks to her, Isollet pointed her sword once more at the bishop who had stopped in place.
"Whose orders are you following?"
When she asked that question, the bishop, who was sweating profusely, suddenly-
"Nggh...!"
- Swish...!
Squeezed his eyes shut and swung his left arm at Isollet with all his might.
- Slice!
"Kraaaagh!!"
But it was not her who would fail to handle such a visible desperate struggle, and the next moment, the bishop's arm was severed and rolling on the floor.
"...Good heavens."
However, Isollet and everyone else's gaze was focused not on the bishop, but somewhere else.
- Twitch, twitch...
It was the bishop's left arm that, for some reason, had transformed into black tentacles when swung, and even after being cut off, was writhing intensely on the floor.
"This isn't ordinary."
Only then realizing the gravity of the situation, Vener frowned and approached the bishop in place of Isollet who was observing the arm.
"Confess who ordered you. Well, I can already guess..."
"Ngh..."
"Hm?"
But at that moment, something strange happened to the bishop's body.
- Fwooo...
"Ngh..."
The divine power flowing from the bishop's body lying on the floor completely vanished, and a foul energy began to swirl.
Soon, when the foul energy grew even stronger, his blue eyes turned red, and his intact body began to stain black.
"The Black... Sun... shall rise..."
Looking at the people who were either disgusted or horrified by such changes, the bishop whispered with a blank expression.
- Thud...
Then dropped his head and collapsed face-down on the floor, breathing his last.
"........"
After that, a brief silence flowed through the 2nd floor.
- Hiss...
"They must have prepared beforehand so he couldn't reveal the mastermind."
Isollet kicked the blackened bishop with his eyes wide open a few times, then stabbed his heart with her sword for confirmation and muttered thus.
"It can't be helped. We just have to keep moving forward."
When Isollet shrugged her shoulders and said that, Vener, who had been chewing her lips nervously, clenched her fist and spoke.
"This was a perfect opportunity to reveal Frey's truth. And yet, confirmation kill?"
"What are you talking about."
"It could have been a simple disguise. There was enough value in taking him outside to check..."
"The building is collapsing in this urgent situation. In such a situation, it's best to refrain from touching such a dangerous-looking corpse."
Isollet cut off Vener's words firmly and moved forward with a calm expression. But Vener grabbed her and stopped her.
"Surely, you're not doing this on purpose?"
"What?"
"Don't tell me... are you doing this to protect Frey?"
At those words, the people around began to watch Isollet's expression.
"Do you know this, Vener?"
After a moment, Isollet shook off Vener's hand and glared at her.
"Frey likes oat bread mixed with butter the most."
Because she could fully feel Frey's movements wiggling on her stomach several times more intensely than before, she said that while blushing.
"........"
- Lick, lick.
"Just... that's all."
But when Vener only showed a cold expression, Isollet, who had been thinking she should stop Frey who was now diligently licking her stomach, made a vague excuse and started moving forward.
"Hm?"
Suddenly she stopped walking and tilted her head with an expression mixing embarrassment, excitement, and doubt in appropriate proportions.
"I didn't do it... he said?"
"Meow."
"Then... surely the Order directly did something like this...?"
Frey was diligently licking her front while delivering such a message.
- Creak...
"Yaow..."
Isollet, with a serious expression, pulled her armor to look inside, and when Frey nodded, she fell into deep silence.
"......"
Frey, who was wrapped around Isollet's waist with his tail and hands while gazing up at her blankly.
- Lick.
".....!"
Slightly extended his waist and licked her solar plexus with his tongue.
- Press, press...
Then pressed her stomach firmly with his hands and showed a bright smile.
"Meow..."
Frey, swallowed inside the armor Isollet was wearing, was looking only at her and engaging in affectionate behavior.
".....! .....!!!"
Looking down at such Frey, Isollet, who was twitching greatly while suppressing the impulse to want to live with him locked in this very state.
'Yes, I'll raise you from now on... Frey.'
With her eyes turned, looking at Frey who now had no choice but to rely on her.
'Even if I have to hide you in the basement, even if I have to shrink you small and keep you inside my armor like now to live, even if I have to follow the Demon Lord's army... I'll raise you till the end.'
She carefully murmured her old wish internally.
'I've wanted that since long ago... Actually, choosing educator instead of the knights was because of that too. Since that time, raising you has been my goal...'
In her mind, old scenes slowly began to surface.
'The day you lost your mother, when you beat me so simply. Saying you were afraid you couldn't rely on me anymore... crying while clinging to me... like now... from that moment...'
"Ah...!"
But before she could fully recall the memory, Isollet grabbed her head and screamed.
"What, what was that? Just now...?"
She had an expression of confusion.
"Isollet-sama."
And at that moment, Vener, who had approached right behind Isollet.
"What exactly have you put inside your armor since earlier?"
With a twisted smile, she grabbed Isollet's armor.
- Slide...
And at the same time, Alice, who had approached behind Isollet's back and grabbed her shoulder.
"I don't know why, but the tracking map's dot kept matching our movement route."
In such a state of being surrounded front and back, Alice whispered with a cold voice.
"The armor you were wearing was particularly large. If you squeeze it in well... a frail boy about that size could fit somehow."
And from the front, Vener muttered while looking at Isollet who was bowing her head.
"Something to say?"
"........."
Thus, Vener, thinking she had seized the advantage.
"The hero's enemy ends here..."
She took out a dagger from her bosom and began to look inside the armor, but.
"Meow?"
"......Huh?"
At that moment, when a silver cat poked its head out from the eye holes of Isollet's helmet, she showed a surprised expression.
Somehow, Frey had finished transforming into a cat.
- ...Thump.
"Mmph."
Thus, Frey, who had become a cat again, glared at Vener then extended his soft hand and threw a punch at her face.
"What is... this?"
At that moment, when the map's dot started wiggling, Alice began to show a bewildered expression.
"Ah, aaah!"
And at that moment, Lulu, who had been watching Isollet's armor with confused eyes until then.
"It's the master's pet cat!"
"Nyng?"
Quickly pulled out Frey, who had stuck his head out of the helmet and was wagging his tail on Isollet's face.
"It's a cat the master cherishes. But a few months ago, she temporarily left it with Isollet-san..."
"........"
"H-he's caused you a lot of trouble, right? I-I'll take care of him now."
"Meow..."
She said that while carefully holding him in her arms.
.
Thus, after a brief commotion ended, the entire party came down to the 1st floor where the exit was located.
- Hiss...
The 1st floor of the building was covered in unknown fog, making it nearly impossible to find the way, but.
"This way."
For Lulu who possessed the magic eye, it was merely a piece of cake.
"We've arrived."
"Finally..."
Thus the hero party who safely escaped the building thanks to Lulu's efforts began to catch their breath.
"I will... guide the people coming down to the 1st floor."
Lulu said that to them and then disappeared into the fog again.
"W-wait...! I'll take that cat...!"
"It's fine."
Isollet, who was going back up to the 2nd floor to save people before the building collapsed, shouted urgently at her disappearing into the fog, but Lulu had firmly refused.
She had watched the situation unfolding in Isollet's armor from beginning to end with her magic eye.
She could notice that Isollet's earnest gaze was mixed with a strange heat.
"........"
And at the same time, because she noticed that the female knight Vener and Alice were watching the cat with suspicious eyes.
"That way. Please go straight that way."
"Th-thank you!"
Thus, in the safe fog away from the hyenas targeting the cat, she was busy guiding the maids coming down to the 1st floor.
"Meow..."
Suddenly she looked down at the silver cat that was curled up on her chest, stretching and yawning.
".........."
Such Lulu, while outwardly maintaining calmness and quietness.
'What is it? What is it? What is it? What is it? What is it?'
Internally, she was already on the verge of losing her mind.
"Grrrl..."
'No matter how I look, it's the master, right? It's not that I saw wrong, right...?'
The magic arrays and mana circuits like human fingerprints, and the sparkling mana filling the body.
And above all, the master's silver eyes she loved the most.
The small cat pressing her chest with soft hands with a curious expression had all of those things exactly the same.
And the evidence wasn't just that.
The female knight who had just given her the master's clothes, making a somehow regretful expression.
What had entered inside her armor and was diligently licking her stomach while rubbing against her body was definitely a beastman who looked similar to the master.
'Could it be... really?'
Therefore, Lulu, who was looking at the cat clinging to her and acting coquettishly.
'Then what do I... do now!?'
Was breaking down more and more.
'I, I'm Frey-nim's pet animal... but since Frey-nim became a cat... am I a cat's pet animal? Then is this cat my master? Is that it?'
"Meow."
"C-cat-nim?"
"......."
Lulu, who was looking at the cat with confused eyes.
"L-lick... lick."
After pondering for a long while, she diligently licks the cat as a sign of submission.
"...Nyang."
"Huh? Uwah?"
Then, the cat, raising its tail stiffly and closing its eyes halfway, began to lick Lulu's cheek.
"D-don't lick meeee!"
Thanks to that, Lulu showed a startled expression.
"You're m-my master! You shouldn't lick me!!"
She urgently began to lick the cat.
- Lick, lick, lick...
For a while, the sound of Lulu and Frey diligently licking each other echoed through the 1st floor.
'W-what should I do...? Is this a curse? Or... the master's secret?'
Lulu, who was licking him fiercely to somehow convey the meaning of submission.
"......."
Realizing that even though she stopped licking, he was diligently licking her lips and chin, and then her neck.
'S-submission...?'
She began to feel a sense of transgression while thinking thoughts she shouldn't dare to think.
'Is he... submitting to me right now...?'
"Slurp..."
'Then right now... am I... the master...?'
- Thump, thump...
Feeling her heart pounding severely, trembling with guilt and creepiness that washed over her just from imagining.
".........L-lie down forward."
She said that with a greatly trembling voice to the cat that was slightly biting her neck and wagging its tail.
"G-good boy..."
'M-master is not a cat so... right, just a cat...'
And, unable to even verify, she bowed her head deeply and muttered internally.
"Meow."
"......!!!"
When Frey, who had become a cat, lay on her chest with his belly exposed, her eyes momentarily rolled back.
"Purrrrrrr......."
"Meoooow!"
Thus, Lulu, who buried her face in his soft belly that was lying exposed and blew breath while giving a belly fart.
"Nyaow... ong."
The cat that had been struggling suddenly shook its head.
".....!"
When he changed his eyes and made a sharp expression, she was startled beyond belief.
"I-I'm sorry... hic..."
She hadn't expected at all that he would suddenly come to his senses, so she began to show a pale expression not knowing what to do.
"...Huh?"
But soon she showed a puzzled expression when she realized that the cat had raised all its fur stiffly and started looking up at the ceiling.
And the very next moment.
- Dash!
"W-wait!?"
He landed on the floor from her chest and quickly started running somewhere.
"Master!!"
Thanks to that, she was startled and hurriedly started following him.
"Nyong!!!"
"Eek!?"
He glanced at such Lulu, lowered his body, and made a fierce expression while growling threateningly.
".........."
That was, anyone could see, a signal not to follow.
- Rumble rumble rumble rumble!!!
"Kyaaak!!!"
And at that moment, the building began to shake violently.
"W-what...? The building should have had dozens of minutes before collapsing?"
Unlike the collapse time she had analyzed with her magic eye, the building seemed like it wouldn't even last 5 minutes.
"Could it be..."
In such a situation, she shone her magic eye to examine the building to grasp her master's intention.
"........"
Soon, she began to show a cold expression.
On the upper floor of the building, there was a group of survivors who hadn't yet managed to escape, with a girl at the lead.
And Isollet was supporting a girl.
In the main hall area, the hero had fallen.
'I don't know exactly why he went upstairs...'
Lulu could confirm with her eyes what could be seen, but she couldn't see through people's or animals' hearts.
So she didn't know whether he went toward the survivor group, toward Isollet, or toward the hero.
She also didn't know whether he intended to help them or intended to kill them all as the Demon Lord's army.
But.
'...I have to help him.'
She was Frey's pet animal.
And pet animals were beings who gave unconditional loyalty to their master.
"Master!!"
Therefore, she resolved.
Right at this moment, to become his rescue dog, or hunting dog.
And.
"Please let me come with you!!!"
To somehow protect him.
Whatever form he was in, whatever happened to herself, she was Frey's eternal pet animal.
.
Meanwhile at that time.
"Haa... haa..."
Glare, who had been displaying a translucent window in front of her until then.
"Just hold on... a little more!"
She was leading the injured maids and struggling to move forward.
[Quest: Assist the Hero]
- You can dramatically reduce the hero's death rate in this scenario.
※ Warning: Your life may be in danger.
"Hero-nim..."
Her surroundings were faintly glowing.
"I will... help you..."