Chapter 288 (1/2)

「Ghigughieoooh!」

The swirl of flames shot out by the Alva sped through the air towards Nino. However, the only thing that remained in the aftermath of the explosion was a burning roof.

Nino was no longer there. She flew from the roof to a tree branch, from the tree branch towards the Alva’s back. As the Alva spread out its wide, bat-like wings, she brought her foot down hard on its back, crushing its body into pieces.

A loud, dull sound and a short death cry was heard. By the time the crumbling Alva had disintegrated into black dust, Nino was already flying straight towards another Alva, ready to attack. The curved swords in her hands glistened. Moments later, the Alva was cut into shreds.

As she fell to the ground, tree branches grew from all around to pick her up, and she flew into the air once again.

「Ghiigagea!?」

An Alva had been targeting her from up above. Before it even had a chance to react, its dismembered head was sent flying. It crumbled into black dust.

「…Hmmmm?」

As she safely landed on the branch of a tree, Nino tilted her head and listened carefully. She could hear the sounds of a battle raging on in the distance, in a direction different from the one that Ichika had ran off in. She could make out the sound of a sword, the impact of explosions, and the cries of a large swarm of Alva.

There seemed to be an intense battle going on, but she noticed that there was something strange about the way the Alva were gathered.

They were moving as if they were all ganging up against one person. Nino couldn’t tell how powerful that one person was, but there was no doubt that only one person was fighting back the group of Alva.

「…I wonder if I should go.」

Nino, who was already done exterminating the Alva in the surrounding area, quietly thought to herself.

She could hear the sounds of fighting from many different places, but none of them seemed as unusual as that one area. However, if she were to go, she would undoubtedly be moving away from the castle where “Reina” and the others resided.

As she stood wondering what she should do, she realized that someone was calling for her from down below.

Nino didn’t have any interest in the townspeople who stood below her, but she couldn’t help but notice how they almost seemed to be worshipping her.

「Thank you… Thank you so much…」

「Ahh, our savior…」

「You are a true hero…!」

Utterly disturbed by their blind worship, Nino held her shoulders in her hands, trembling with disgust.

Though she understood that they had just been saved from horrible danger, she was disturbed by how quick they were to bow their heads down to someone they had never even seen before. She had insulted them, referring to them as “trash,” but it seems that they did not care.

Just as she was going to tell them to go away, a thought suddenly drifted into her mind. Now that she thought of it, Nino remembered that one of King Vermudol’s goals was to establish a friendly relationship with humans.

If this was the case, there should be no problem with letting the humans worship her. Helping with the extermination of the Alva would greatly benefit Vermudol as well. Completely having forgotten that Ichika had already said something incredibly similar, Nino arrived at this conclusion.

「…Go away. You’re getting in my way.」

「Yes, my hero!」

「Please, take care!」

Shortly after the townspeople dispersed, two defense knights came over to look up at Nino. Glaring at the two knights, she called out to them.

「…What do you want?」

「I, I see that you’re a maid knight, so I was thinking… Are you an acquaintance of Reina?」

「Nope, Nino is not.」

After hearing Nino’s response, the two knights nodded to each other, though it was unclear what they were thinking.

「But, the people just now… Oh, now that I think of it, Reina had sent a request for reinforcements.」

「U-umm! How many others are with you?」

「Nino isn’t a reinforcement. Go away.」

As Nino annoyedly waved them off, the knights hurriedly bowed their heads and ran off. After making sure that they were out of sight, Nino sat down on a thick tree branch and took a deep sigh.

「…I don’t really feel like doing this anymore.」

She had decided to tag along because she had heard from an intelligence agent that Ichika was going to meet the legendary maid knight Reina, but… Once again, she was reminded of how pathetic humans were.

Vermudol had stated that 「even among the human civilizations, the Canal Kingdom was the closest to our idea of an ideal kingdom, and there’s a high chance that they are willing to establish a friendly relationship with the Zadark Kingdom.」 But from the way Nino saw it now, his judgement seemed completely off… or maybe the information he had gathered was just incorrect.

Wherever she went, humans were the same.

Even if they were able to establish such a relationship with the Canal Kingdom, it would undoubtedly end with a betrayal, just like what happened with Borkio and the Cylus Empire.

As Nino sat there, deep in thought, she heard the explosions start up once again. Theyseemed to come from that direction that she looked at earlier. The battle was getting intense.

There was nothing left for her to do around here. She decided that it wouldn’t hurt to go take a look.

Coming to this decision, Nino kicked the tree branch and jumped to the ground. She had wanted to save time by running on the roof, but because of the Alva’s attacks, it was now covered in holes and rough spots. Trying to navigate through uneven footing would just cost her more time.