“Hand over your valuables and-GUAAHA?!”

Ah, bandits.

Mysterious and rare creatures I wouldn’t normally find when traveling from one city to another.

It’s only when I board a carriage instead of running that they come and pick a fight.

Well, of course they would.

The guards of this carriage are three underage girls.

And my infamy… ahem, I mean, my fame hasn’t had the chance to reach their ears yet.

There’s no television or internet in this world, after all.

“T-that kid’s a monster!”

What?

Come on now!

The fur on Cana’s face is long gone!

Don’t go calling her a monster!

“Surround her! There’s no way she can-GAH!”

Nice.

They all lined up next to each other into a circle.

All I had to do then was to take my club and do a little spin dance.

I feel majestic now!

Mmmhm!

“Ninaaa? Are you done over there?”

I would love to say yes.

But there are two more hiding behind a bush.

They might be trying to snipe me with arrows.

Well, their stealth is pretty good, but they can’t hide their scent from me!

Here we go!

Time to clean up!

“Holy hot damn, and I thought miss Ignis was the strongest one among you.”

Stop joking Michryan no.2.

She’s just the loudest one!

“No way! Even if we all ganged up on Nina, we wouldn’t even leave a scratch on her!”

Oh, praise me more!

That’s right!

I’m the strongest!

Muhahaha!

“Well, it makes up for her weak head at least.”

…

Ignis, I would like to test the poison in my claws again.

Please, be my test subject.

“Waitwaitwait! I’m sorry! I take it back! You’re super smart!”

What is this?

My sarcasm detector is sensing something from your direction, Ignis.

“Gwahahaha! You kids sure are good friends!”

Indeed.

Ignis is such a good friend, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind helping me test these claws!

Come on!

Stop squirming!

Accept your divine punishment!

“But still, these bandits sure are dumb. To think they would attack a carriage guarded by the cursed maidens!”

Well, as I said earlier, they don’t have a television or the internet to research that stuff.

Also, can you stop calling us ‘the cursed maidens’?

It’s one of the dumb names Ignis came up with and for some reason, it ended up sticking.

But it’s totally inappropriate!

Cana Isn’t cursed anymore!

Ignis’ curse barely exists nowadays!

And I was never cursed to begin with!

…

If you don’t count this ‘blessing’, that is.

…

Or this sword that became a club now.

“Hahaha, right? Miss Nina didn’t even need to unsheathe that sword of hers!”

Oi.

I said it’s a club now.

If the sheath ever comes off, it better happen when I need to fight the other chosen ones or when I get a chance to beat up Kat.

After all, it has an edgy over-the-top name that includes ‘god-slayer’ somewhere in there.

It’s like my ultimate trump card.

Don’t think of it as some random sword!

“Ah, by the way, your weapons are also quite impressive.”

Hmm?

Oh, you mean Cana’s bow and Ignis’ staff?

Yeah, just like this armageddon-bringing piece of junk, they were also made by that grumpy spicy food addict.

But they were made out of a different material.

Another sort of blahblahblah-ium, which apparently, is half-alive…

Or so I’m told.

Well, I don’t really understand it.

It reacts to the user feelings or whatever.

For example, when Cana loads an arrow into the bow and pulls the string back, the wings on it retract and the string shines, loading energy into the arrow.

And on release, the wings spread out majestically.

It actually looks really cool.

And the staff is like an upgraded version of what Ignis used before.

It similarly reacts to her thoughts and intentions to empower her spells.

In other words, they both have an excellent and reliable partner in the form of a weapon.

And then there’s me and this club.

…

Okay, fine.

It’s my fault it ended up this way.

I’ll stop complaining now.

“Ah, but I’m impressed how quickly miss Nina went back to Kalamas and back here again. All while dragging behind those bandits.”

What?

I told you I’m way faster than this four-wheeled snail!

And sure, dragging them on a rope made them scream out loud, but the bruises from grinding against the ground are not big deal.

I mean, they all survived the trip!

No room to complain for people who turn to crime!

The only reason we didn’t kill them was because I could deliver them to the guards back in the city this quickly!

They better be grateful!

“Hold on tight, we’ll be arriving at Rennie village in about ten minutes now!”

Ah Rennie village.

We went to subjugate the ogres here with Ignis back then…

Well, we traveled here for a couple other quests after that, but I still connect this village with Ignis’ pitiful face after I carried her for the first time.

…

Heh…

“Huh? What’s with that smug smile, Nina? I don’t really like it for some reason.”

Oh it’s nothing…

Don’t worry about it.

…

‘The great Ignis!’

Pffft…

“Hmmph! I KNOW you’re thinking about something nasty!”

What?

I would never think about nasty things!

I only remembered the good stuff!

“Grrr…”

Come on now.

Take this as a punishment for what you said earlier.

Unless you authorize me to test my poison on you, of course.

“…gh…”

I knew we could come to an agreement.

“We’re here!”

Even though it took a lot longer than if I simply sprinted, it didn’t feel as long.

I wonder why that is…

Is someone messing with my perception of time?

The village chief welcomed us with open arms.

He seemed really nice.

And apparently that wasn’t just because we once saved this village from the ogres.

But also because the two Michryans are well-known here.

They often use this village as a checkpoint on their import route from port Heiliya to Kalamas.

And when they stop here, they give the villagers some of the fish they carry in exchange for being allowed to stay the night here.

Anyway…

The chief sure has a big house, being able to house all six of us plus a cat.

Did he use to have a huge family or something…?

I feel like I shouldn’t ask.

Yep, let’s just go to our assigned places and go to sleep.

The next morning…

We had breakfast at the chief’s house and then kept going south, toward the port city.

Apparently, it’s still far away.

If we set out right away in the morning, we should arrive in the evening.

I’m tempted to just run, I’ll restrain myself…

I mean…

At least I have something to look forward to!

I wonder what Cana and Ignis are gonna look like in swimsuits…

Hehehe…

…

Umm…

There ARE swimsuits in this world, right?

…

Oh dammit!

I’m fantasizing about stuff!

Go away stupid bandits!

“Halt! Leave yo-ARGH?!”

I leapt out of the carriage before he could even finish.

What?

I’m being rude?

Nonsense!

What kind of idiot waits for their enemy to finish speaking?!

Do I look like a ninja with a fox sealed inside of her?!

“What is- Wait! I-it’s her! Run! We don’t stand a chance!”

Hmm?

What is this?

Do they know me?

“What are you panicking about?! It’s just a-GARGH?!”

Hmm, well whatever.

I don’t like fame.

Getting rid of some crazed fans works in my favor.

“Scorching blast!”

Oh?

There’s a mage among them?

Seems like a high-tier bandit group.

To the fireball approaching from my left, I swing my tail to extinguish it.

Unfortunately, the tail barely does anything and the magic hits me anyway.

“I-I got her! Ahahaha! She wasn’t so strong af..ter…. all….”

Well, I wanted to act all cool and deflect it with just my tail…

But even if that didn’t work, I still have resistance to heat and cold.

Thank Kat it’s strong enough to negate a fireball like that.

But still…

“Aaaaaargh! Run! That thing’s a serious monster!”

This is such a bother though.

I don’t feel like dragging them all the way over to Kalamas now.

“Ugha!”

Well, maybe we can just take them along to Heiliya?

“AAArgh?!”

Eh, but that would mean we have a bunch of loud hooligans with us…

“Ueha!”

Oh, wait!

I got it!

“G-go away! Go awaaaay-AAAARGH!”

I’ll use the poison in these claws!

That’ll incapacitate them, right?

And with a bit of luck, they won’t die!

“… actually, little miss is seriously scary. I’m starting to feel bad for the bandits.”

“Y-yeah… shouldn’t someone stop her?”

“You can try it if you dare…”

…

I can hear you back there.