The makeshift stadium was dismantled, and the cattle pageant was cancelled out of fear that the raging bull might eventually come back and trample a large crowd. The townsfolk, however, still wanted to crown some winners, so as a compromise, the ranchers left their cattle in reasonably sturdy pens on the outskirts of town, on the side away from where the stampeding herd went. The public was invited to go there and vote for their favorite cattle before sunset the next day.

I of course had no interest in this event, and I didn't want to risk getting trampled by the livestock there since there was no telling whether or not some animal would suddenly go berserk, so I told the girls that I wanted to stay behind to help clean up the town after so many buildings got destroyed. Thus, Amber and Hanung dragged Casath along to the public cattle viewing, while I wandered around town. I thought about going to the marketplace again, but there was nothing new here, and this town didn't have any entertainment facilities for me to go to either. As such, I decided to head back to the inn and wash the clothes that all those cattle stepped on yesterday. One of the inn's maids saw what I was doing and joined in to help speed up the process. I'm not sure if she had nothing better to do or if the inn's staff really felt guilty for not being able to keep our property safe, but I didn't mind the extra help at all.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened for the rest of the evening, and the four of us retired to the two inn rooms that the innkeeper arranged for us. Thankfully, each room had two separate beds, so I didn't have to worry about getting clawed in the face by a vividly dreaming Amber again… assuming she didn't have a sleepwalking problem.

* * * * *

The carriage headed to Mitana town was set to depart at around noon, so we had a bit of time to kill the next morning. There were no festival events planned until the early afternoon, so the girls asked me to show them around the marketplace, since there wasn't anywhere else they could go to have fun. I complied with that request after making the two put away the clothes that I washed and hanged last night.

The merchants in the marketplace were likely worried that another stampede could take place, so they kept their stalls as close to a stone building as possible. Stalls also had a limited amount of items on display, and the display shelves also had tiny wheels, as if the merchants actually believed the possibility of another stampede taking place was high and wanted to be able to retreat as quickly as possible to minimize their product damages. Paired with the reduced foot traffic from the townsfolk who were also worried about a similar event, the relatively empty main street made the marketplace look rather miserable.

The three didn't want to get any souvenirs, saying we could buy something on the way back home, so I simply showed them around the food stalls so they could sample the local snacks. The meat in this town was ridiculously cheap, so the three were able to enjoy a literal mountain of meaty snacks, such as kebabs, barbecues, smoked meats, jerky, and so on.

"Aren't you three worried that you'll be too full for lunch if you eat this much?"

"Knowing you, you probably plan on having us munch on some hardtack and jerky for lunch while we're on the road."

"Well…"

Amber's not wrong. Since we're hitching a ride with a group of merchants, I'd likely have to invite everyone in that group to eat with us if we were to go to a proper diner or tavern.

"Besides, we'll be on the road for almost 6 hours soon, so wouldn't it be a good idea to fill up your stomach now and sleep on the carriage later?"

"We just had breakfast two hours ago, so it's still too early for me to have another meal."

"Just buy some food for the road, then."

On a side note, I had always assumed that Amber had an appetite similar to mine, and that Hanung would have a much smaller appetite like birds. Yet, these too were showing no signs of that here. Come to think of it, they ate only reasonable amounts of grains and vegetables, but never complained about the amount of meat they had during meals. Did they have an infinitely sized stomach just for meats, then?

In any case, just when I thought nothing would go wrong again today, some faint screaming sounds echoed from the distance. Not long after, someone ran over to the marketplace, shouting towards everyone present.

"It's back! That large bull! It's charging towards here!"

Thankfully, he didn't mention a stampede, probably out of fear of mass panic. Nonetheless, those people in the marketplace quickly reacted to the man's warning: everyone on the streets quickly ran indoors, and the merchants pulled their display shelves and wares into the nearby stone houses. There wasn't much time to react, and the wave of people running towards a nearby building caused our group to be shoved along with the crowd. Before we knew it, we were pushed into a building, and were separated with no idea where the others got shoved to.

Well, I'm quite certain this would only lead to one unwanted consequence.

"Casath! Where'd you go? Hey! where are you?"

That. By chance, Hanung and I got shoved into the same building, while Amber and Casath were shoved somewhere else. As expected, being separated from her half brother made Hanung start panicking. I quickly squeezed through the indoor crowd to get to where Hanung was.

"Casath! Casath!"

"Hey, calm down!"

"Huh? Oh, it's you. Have you seen my brother?"

"He probably got shoved by the crowd into another building."

"Oh, no! I have to go find him right away!"

"Please don't. We can look for him in a while when the situation improves."

"Excuse me! Let me through!"

Seeing how Hanung was now trying to squeeze through the crowd to get out, I quickly grabbed hold of her so she couldn't run outside to danger.

"Hey, what did I just say? Just bear with it for a few minutes, then we can look for Casath together."

"But… But I… I can't stand being separated!"

"He's definitely safe, so don't worry."

"I won't believe that until I see him! Just let me go!"

Hanung kept flailing about, trying to get me to let go of her. The people around her began getting irritated at her being unnecessarily panicky, and one person spoke up,

"Be quiet! Stop moving, it's cramped in here!"

"I can't! Not until I see my brother!"

Seeing how she absolutely refused to calm down, another person in the crowd spoke up.

"Why don't we just throw her outside? She can probably fly away to safety even if the bull comes."

"Yeah, let's do that. She might attract the bull's attention if she keeps shouting out like this."

"I agree. She'll be safe once she's airborne, anyways."

The crowd quickly came to a consensus that it would be best for everyone if this harpy girl got thrown out. Right as I was about to tell the crowd how she would be too afraid to fly since it'll just increase the distance between her and her half brother, something rather unexpected happened.

"Blaze, come look for Casath with me!"

Hanung grabbed onto me as she was being pushed outside by the crowd, causing me to also get thrown out onto the empty street.

"Uh… Hey, don't lock me out!"

I tried to pull Hanung with me back inside, but the people hiding indoors immediately shut and locked the door after throwing us out.

"It's too dangerous with her around! Just tell her to carry you into the sky or something!"

"But she can't fly!"

"Of course she can, she's got wings!"

"You don't understand! She's…"

No matter how much I explained, the indoors crowd wouldn't open the door back up. I don't know if the other buildings were soundproof or not, but the two neighboring ones also locked their doors on us. Hanung kept calling for her half brother non-stop, but didn't receive any audible responses.

* * * * *

Well, I've been out on the street with this birdbrain for about two minutes already, and nothing seems to be happening. Maybe the mad bull changed its course at some point.

As though my thoughts raised a flag of some sort, crashing sounds could soon be heard from the distance, and I could feel a slight rumbling motion under my feet. Whatever was in the distance was heavy enough to make the cobblestone road to vibrate like this.

"Please tell me this is just a minor earthquake…"

"Casath! The bull's coming! I need to know if you're safe or not! Where are you?"

That harpy does have very good eyesight, so I reckon it's not an earthquake. Since the people hiding indoors wouldn't open the building doors for us, and since Hanung wouldn't stop shouting in the middle of the street, I looked around to find any small alleys we could hide in, then grabbed hold of Hanung and ran towards the first one I found.

"Are you safe, Casath? Answer m- Hey! …Why'd you drag me in here? Is Casath in this alley?"

"No, but you'll attract the bull's attention if you keep shouting like that, so it's best if we hide here for a minute or two until it passes by."

"But I won't be able to find my brother if we hide here! And he won't be able to find me here either!"

"Aren't you concerned about your own safety?"

"I only feel safe when I'm next to my brother!"

"You know, I'm starting to feel concerned about how your brain works now…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Ah, forget it. Just be quiet for a minute or two, so the bull can just… walk… away… Crap."

"What? What is it?"

As luck would have it, after the bull charged right by where we were hiding, it suddenly stopped and turned around. A moment later, it ran back towards the alleyway we were in, and was now standing in front of it.

The giant bull looked a lot different from others of its kind: its body was so muscular that one could even see some veins on its thin white hide. This demonic creature was 10 meters tall and probably about 6 meters wide, and it was staring at us with bloodshot red eyes. Its curved long horns were shining under the bright sunlight, and its mouth was slightly foaming, making it look even more intimidating. Luckily, this alley was only about 3 meters wide, and on the sides of the alley were seemingly sturdy stone buildings, so the creature probably won't be able get in here.

"The bull… it's behind you."

"Hm? Eep!"

"Hey, wait, don't leave me here!"

I didn't think Hanung would ever consider flying away without knowing her half brother's whereabouts, but she flew onto the roof of the building right next to this alley, leaving me completely alone. Paying no attention to Hanung, the bull continued staring at me, then took a couple of steps backwards, as though it was about to charge towards me. Was this thing going to ram its horns into the two adjacent buildings to make them collapse, just so it could get into this alleyway? And why is it even targeting me in the first place? I wanted to run as far away as possible, but after looking behind me, I found out that this alleyway was a dead end.

With a loud bellow, the creature charged forward, crashing its horns into the two stone buildings beside me. The street was not wide enough for the bull to build up much momentum, so the charge was certainly not at its full potential. Regardless, moderately sized chunks of stone flew off of the buildings, but they were seemingly sturdy enough to withstand a few more impacts. It didn't seem like the mad thing was bothered by these large obstacles, and it started taking a few steps backwards again. It was only a matter of time until it charged at these buildings enough times to make them collapse.

There were people indoors that were in danger if the buildings fell onto them, so I began chanting a spell. I made a personal vow not to cast magic when I was close to another building or other people, after all that public property I destroyed up until a year ago, but I had no other choice in this situation: if I didn't do anything, there would certainly be a lot of casualties, and I would most likely die. Besides, I also wanted to test whether magic was effective on this thing or not.

"Fireball!"

I shot out a barrage of fireballs at the bull. Since I was standing close, and it was too large to completely sidestep out of the way, every single fireball hit its face. It bellowed even louder than before, and became so enraged that I think I could see it breathing out steam.

In any case, it didn't seem to be injured much by my attack. The eyeball that got hit directly twitched for a bit, and a little bit of smoke was puffing out of its hide, but this thing was still fine otherwise. It was a little odd that the fireballs left slight scratch marks, but this thing didn't even get burned…