"So that's what happened." Sofia narrowed her eyes and contemplated. "I think I know what I should say in the future in case someone important knows about the fact that you can use Space Magic."

"Thanks, Sofia." Kai smiled.

"It's fine." Sofia shook her head helplessly. "Unlike the others, my identity is too important. For example, if you married me, people would believe that either base forced you to marry me. That's not what I want. People should know that we are doing this because there is love between us."

"…" Kai scratched the back of his head, feeling embarrassed. As she said, even Michelle, Tasha, or Haruko couldn't be compared to her identity as the granddaughter and the first Zodiac from the EU Base.

If Kai married Michelle, people would see him marrying his own childhood sweetheart. A similar thing applied to Tasha with just a sip of the taste of a not blood-related sister relationship. As for Haruko, the Yajima Family or United Asia was not enough to be recognized as a part of the agreement.

Hence, Sofia seemed to have decided to stop forcing her way. Instead, she wanted to let the "storm" pass soon before they announced their relationship, even if their relationship had been established for long.

By using the power of rumor from her appearance around Kai, the people would talk about it every now and then, giving enough spice to announce the whole thing to the public. Only then would they be officially recognized by people around the world.

"Anyway, now you know about this secret, I hope you can keep it a secret." Kai smiled before looking at Tasha.

Tasha nodded and kissed him again, returning her magic inside her body.

After that, Kai asked. "Do any of you have any questions?"

"Nope. We can start moving to another place." Michelle shrugged and looked at the others.

"That's right. We shouldn't waste too much time here." Tasha nodded in agreement.

"In that case, let's…" Kai suddenly fell silent as though his ears picked up something.

"Hm? Do you find them?"

"Yes." Kai nodded and pointed his finger to the north. "They are that way. I don't think they have noticed us."

"Kai…" Tasha and Michelle suddenly got closer with a troubled face.

"Do you need something?"

"Actually, we want to request one thing from you." Tasha looked away, not knowing whether Kai would accept it or not.

"What is it?" Kai tilted his head because he couldn't understand why they acted like this.

"There is a high chance that Ikeda Kenzo will be here. Tasha and I are planning to face him if possible." Michelle explained with a tired face.

Tasha repeatedly nodded her head. "That's right. We both are S Rank Magicians, so we want to see how far the gap between him and us. I mean, it's true that Michelle can somehow fight Rain, the S Rank Barrier Master, but this is the first time we fight against an S Rank Magician. I hope that you can grant us this chance."

Kai closed his eyes and fell into deep thought. He seemed to have suppressed them too much. Whatever people said, these two were supposed to be S Rank Magicians, yet, they never had the opportunity to go face to face against them.

Although they could make a comparison, they should still fight an S Rank Magician to see their progress. Unfortunately, Tasha had been stuck in the back with her bow while Michelle had been his support this whole time.

"It seems I have wronged you this whole time. I shouldn't hog all the stages from all of you because you can't shine that way." Kai let out a long sigh. "However, if I can say one selfish thing, I don't want you to get hurt.

"Of course, I know that you don't want me as well, so I have a proposal. You two may fight him, but we are not going anywhere. In other words, we will fight around the area to make sure that the worst wouldn't happen."

Michelle and Tasha accepted it without hesitation. "We understand. We shall proceed according to your plan. But he is a Light Magician, so I suggest not to get too close because he can attack you."

"I understand. A hundred meter should be enough, right?" Kai smiled.

"Yeah." She nodded. "Besides, Isabelle's bullet will arrive first." Michelle nodded and looked at Isabelle.

"Don't worry. I will be watching over you guys." Isabelle gave a thumb up.

"Thanks."

Kai then nodded as his expression turned grim. "Alright. Let's go toward them. After knowing their number, I will give you my plan."

They agreed and followed him, opening the path.

After several minutes, Kai finally got a good grasp of the enemy and opened his radar, showing how many people the Katsuragi Family brought.

"First of all, there are one hundred people. We can safely assume that they are elites amongst elites. Hence, taking them will be hard with a few snipers among them. Isabelle. Get rid of them for me."

Isabelle gave a thumb up. "They won't know who beat them. Just make sure no one gets hit before I kill all of them, okay?"

"I will do my best." Kai nodded with a smile. "Ikeda Kenzo is in the middle of their formation. Since they haven't moved this whole time, I assume they are waiting for us, so I want Sofia to see whether we are in danger or not."

"My eyes can tell us whether there is a trap or not, so we can approach them easily." Sofia smiled and prepared herself to kill humans.

"Evan, I am not sure about this, but I want you to stay beside Isabelle to protect them. I am sure that they are trying to aim for her, so protect Isabelle well, okay? I'm not going to beat you or something since you won't be alive since you need to explain everything to her." Kai smirked, teasing him before the battle.

"What? You know me well, Captain." Isabelle made a big smile. For Kai and the others, it looked like a happy smile, but Evan could only see it as an ultimatum. There was no doubt that Isabelle would "kill" him when that time came.

"I will do my best." Evan hurriedly replied while sweating.

"I will leave Ikeda Kenzo to you, Tasha, Michelle."

"Please leave it to us," they answered in unison. Aside from the fact that they wanted to see their limit, both of them actually had a goal. They knew that Kai being a protector would put a great burden upon everyone's shoulder. Since they were the only ones who knew about this, they thought they should be a bit more responsible than the others.

"Ayaka. I want you to go with me, facing them head-on. I am sure that I can gather most of their group to strike me."

"So, you want me to make my appearance there?" Ayaka narrowed her eyes.

"Yes. That's the plan. After that, we will start lowering their number while Michelle and Tasha fight Ikeda Kenzo."

"No problem."

"Next is Haruko. I want you to keep staring at me."

"…" The others twitched their eyebrows as Haruko chuckled. "That can be easily misinterpreted, you know."

"But that's all to it." Kai shrugged. "I will keep telling you their position, so you should intercept them every time. I am sure that they will go around us and aim from behind or our back. Your job is to eliminate them."

"Sure. I won't let a single of them pass. Though I can't really give you any promise since I have the largest area to cover." Haruko let out a long sigh.

"It's fine. There is Evan as our backup plan, right?" Kai smiled at Evan.

"Of course. I am a different person now." Evan nodded. "With Isabelle here, I don't think they can get around us."

"Still, the problem will be the magical beasts." Ayaka furrowed her eyebrows. "This battle will surely bring a lot of magical beasts to us. Do you have any plans for this?"

Kai nodded. "Just like us, their back is also exposed to the beasts. Hence, we can safely assume that they are trying to end this as soon as possible. There will be a few chances to exploit and I want all of you to use it to end the battle faster.

"However, the beasts will surely arrive first, so I want you to deal with it on your own. Ayaka and I will quickly protect you as soon as we finish the business. Just don't kill all the beasts because we need them to eat their corpses to make it look like they die because of magical beasts. Understood?"

"Roger."

Kai and the others then started making their way toward their enemies. Kai had heard Ikeda Kenzo's voice and assured that he was among them, so he wasn't quite sure how this would turn out. Nonetheless, they had been preparing this whole time just for this.

…

Meanwhile, there were five people holding their sniper rifles around Ikeda Kenzo while the rest seemed to be busy patrolling around.

"I am sorry, Mister. But do you think we are enough to handle them?" One of the snipers asked with a serious expression.

"I don't know." Ikeda Kenzo shook his head.

"Even an S Rank Magician like you has no confidence…" The sniper furrowed her eyebrows.

"He may be just too old." Another sniper commented while glaring at Ikeda Kenzo, thinking that he was lucky to stay alive until now due to the help of Katsuragi Akagi.

Ikeda Kenzo didn't feel offended. Instead, he acknowledged it with a smile. "Indeed. I am too old rig—"

Before he finished, his hand moved so fast to block the sudden bullet that almost hit the arrogant girl's head.

"I may be too old, but by no means have I slacked this whole time." Ikeda Kenzo smiled and rose to his feet, looking in Kai's direction, seeing only six of them. "You've come."