A red haired girl with twintails lying on the ground.

Her legs and arms bound with rope.

She’s looking up at me with a fearful expression and a tear forming in her eye.

I bet my brother would find that arousing…

He was that kind of idiot…

Hmm?

Hey, Kuro!

Don’t be like my brother!

Stop staring at her like that!

“Well-”

“I’msorrypleasedon’tkillme!”

Wha-

…

Alright, she’s more afraid than I thought…

Seriously…

Just what kind of aura did I give off when panther soul activated?

A reminder for myself to not carelessly use it again…

“Calm down… I’m not gonna do anything to you… I just want some explanations.”

“Yes! I’m sorry! I was commanded to use my curse on you and take you away!”

She just won’t calm down, will she?

Ah, whatever.

Hmm…

It’s as I thought.

She planned on using her curse on me back in that cave while I slept.

And capturing me was her goal all along.

Well, it explains why she insisted on coming along no matter what.

Normally, you wouldn’t cling this much to someone you just met, right?

Yes…

I have confirmed my life isn’t a dumb harem comedy.

That’s good news.

“So… you were commanded… which means-”

“Yes! Mast- erh, that guy, who cursed and charmed me wanted to add you into his harem!”

…

Right…

Something like that almost happened…

I sure am glad you didn’t do it in the end.

But…

“Then, why didn’t you…”

“I-I don’t know…”

Ignis, ready to shoot another volley of words gradually quieted down.

“I… when I first met you, I felt like my love for… him… began fading.”

Huh…?

When you met me?

“More and more. As I spent time with you, I felt my feelings for him turn from love and admiration into hate and disgust.”

Wait…

What do I have to do with it?

Does the blessing have some secret side effect?

Or does the effect of my headband extend to nearby people?

“And… my curse weakened as well…”

…

Your curse…

Weakened…?

Are you serious?

I’m pretty sure that ogre went through a lot of pain.

And you say that was a weakened version?

“Normally, even an ogre would instantly faint.”

Oi…

Seriously?

What the heck…

That guy is either a total jerk or an extreme masochist!

What kind of curse are you putting on a teenage girl?!

“So… umm…”

Ignis looked around the tent.

“Where is… Cana?”

“She got away.”

“Eh?!”

Hey, what’s with that reaction?!

We tried really hard, you know?!

But that Fenrir is just too overpowered!

“B-but what if she comes back and brings the others with her?!”

I fully expect that.

But it’s not like that’s going to happen right away, is it?

Since she summoned Fenrir, she’s probably going to be exhausted for a while.

“We’ll deal with it when they come…”

Now then…

I don’t think these ropes are necessary anymore.

She isn’t my enemy anymore, that’s clear.

“Eek!”

What?

No, I’m not going to stab you with those claws.

You don’t need to back off in fear.

I’m just going to cut these ropes.

See?

Like this.

You are free now.

“Well now, tell me about these ‘others’…”

Ignis lied there, staring at me, for a good few seconds before exhaling and giving me an answer.

“… right.”

She then stood up, took a deep breath and cleared her throat.

“There is the ‘master’, who has an ability to curse others. He’s about my age and has brown hair. Cana calls him ‘Matoto’ for some reason, but he hates when she does that.”

Heh…

I feel like it’s just an edgy teenager who enjoys wearing black coats and calls himself things like ‘the overlord’ or ‘master’.

And also gets irritated whenever someone calls him by his real name.

“His curses can do almost anything… and also, he can not only curse people, but…”

She then looks around the tent and spots her item bag.

After walking over to it, she picks it up and pulls out an item out of it.

It’s the suspicious staff left behind by the goblin.

“… also objects.”

Huh…?

Wait, are you saying this staff is one of his works?

“He has a habit of cursing random items and then gifting them to others or randomly tossing them away…”

What the heck?

Cursing items and then gifting them?

Just how much of a jackass is he?!

“But he told us that a person can only be affected by one of his curses at a time… and that’s why I’m fine touching this.”

Hmm…

That sounds like something that’s going to be relevant in the future.

I’m imagining a situation where I purposefully let myself be cursed with something minor just to be immune to his stronger curses…

Hah…

As if he would be so kind and placed a minor curse on me!

Let’s be realistic here!

“And then… other than Cana, there is one more girl in his… err, ‘harem’.”

Huh?

Just one more?

I expected at least five.

But it’s only three… or rather just two now?

“She’s called Spectre. And her curse permanently turns her into a fog.”

…

Excuse me?

“She can still think and cast magic as a fog and If she focuses, she can turn back into a human.”

That is…

Yeah.

I see why you would call her Spectre.

She would scare the living daylights out of me if I met her.

Well, at least now I know about it and can come up with a way to combat her.

“She’s… very dangerous, maybe even more than that guy…”

What?

Even more than him?

I’m starting to worry now…

I still couldn’t defeat Cana’s strongest familiar even with Kuro by my side.

If you add that guy and this Spectre girl into the equation…

I don’t think I stand a chance.

We better hurry back to Kalamas and request Mable’s assistance.

“Well… let’s quickly return to Kalamas.”

“Right!”

We walked out of the tent and I dismantled it before putting it back into my item bag.

“By the way, where did the ogres go?”

“Ah that… don’t worry, I’ve taken care of that.”

Well…

Kuro did, but…

I’m not going to just give away his secrets, am I?

Even if she already saw him throw these daggers, there’s no need to tell her everything.

As we get ready to depart, I decide to ask her something.

“By the way… what were you planning to do once you used your curse on me…?”

I could see her whole body jerk and her face go white as it got covered in sweat.

She did her best to avoid eye contact with me.

“I… er… that’s…”

Hey, just what did you have in store for me?!

And it was just a theoretical question!

No need for this total overreaction!

“… since Cana said you are immune to charm, Spectre suggested to… erhm…. torture you… until your mind broke… a-and then…..”

Okay, stop!

I regret asking!

This is much worse than I expected!

And…

Thank GOD for whatever dispelled that charm on you!

If it didn’t, all of that would actually happen to me!

And I’m not exactly a fan of being tortured till my mind breaks!

“Alright! I heard nothing! Let’s just get going!”

Yep, let’s ignore the fact that I narrowly avoided fate worse than death!

“Eh? Ah, o-okay?!”

This time, we are actually in a rush.

I can imagine how angry that guy would be, knowing one of his girls escaped his grasp.

As soon as the message gets to him, he will come after us.

I have no doubts about that.

Well, I feel bad for the cheetah, but I’m going to run ahead with Ignis in my arms and Kuro on my head.

If I put my heart into it, not even a fantasy cheetah taxi can match my speed.

We stopped at Rennie village to tell the chief we got rid of the problem.

Of course, he didn’t believe us, so I had Kuro take out the big ogre corpse.

When he did that, I got to see an old man imitating a frog face.

Once that was done with, we departed for Kalamas despite the chief’s offer to stay for a bit.

The trip didn’t take too long, but on our way, the sun set.

When we finally arrived, I realized one important fact.

I was starving.

Seems to be the result of eating just a bit of dried meat since morning…

Well, I don’t think we’re going to be attacked right away.

Let’s go get something to eat for now.

…

Hmm?

What’s wrong with you two?

Why the wobbly walk?

Are you drunk?

Oh…

I went too quickly?

Car-… err, Nina express sickness?

Erm…

Maybe we didn’t need to rush THAT much, did we…?

I had such thoughts as we passed through the city gate.