Two years later.

Many things have changed in the past two years.

Countries rose and fell, people died and children were born.

The threat of the demon lord was bigger than ever.

After Valdavia’s party of heroes lost their Priestess as well as the Valdavian princess that accompanied them to the demons, the kingdom suffered higher casualty as they were unable to fend off the highly toxic miasma attacks of the demons. Now, most of their focus was to bring back the captive Hero and Princess from the hands of the demon lord.

Meanwhile, Ryouta who finally decided to use his powers for the greater good raised his fame as a vigilante hero among the people, along with his sidekick, the Beautiful White-Haired Girl.

“Shiro, protect me!”

“I got it!”

A man with black hair and eyes was currently parrying an attack from his opponent, a rather high-ranking demon who proclaimed to have been working directly under the demon lord.

The white-haired girl rose into the air, arms wide open. A pair of translucent wings materialised on her back, spilling sparkling and glittering light with every flap of her wings.

She latched herself behind the black-haired man, allowing a bright light to envelop them both. The bright light expanded, then solidified into a barrier.

“Rah!”

The demon who resembled a purple-coloured human with twisted horns growing out of her forehead and snake-like lower half shrieked. Her attacks were unable to reach the white-black pair due to the sturdy barrier, causing her to feel annoyance.

Having had enough of fighting the demon, the man summoned a total of seven swords made of light, sending them to pierce the demon from seven different angles.

“Gaah!” The demon was able to defend against two of the light swords, but the rest managed to reach her.

“Even if you defeat me, there are still many others who are much stronger than me! Just watch, this world shall burn under the wrath of our great demon lord! Know fear, human trash! HahahaHAHAHAhaHA—“

As the demon perished, she began spewing her last words.

The man, paying no attention to the demon’s desperate attempt at sowing fear, simply moved to pick up the loot from the fallen demon, as if he had heard the same drivel many-a-times before.

“Oh~ this whip sure looks dangerous, doesn’t it?”

“It does~”

“I wonder how much it’s sold for.” The man wondered rhetorically. Inside his head, he was already calculating the profits.

“A lot~”

Shiro, who was still clinging on his back, happily answered his questions. She was not too knowledgeable on the value of things, so she simply employed her cuteness to make Ryouta feel like he wasn’t simply talking to himself(lol).

Two years of travelling has definitely changed the boy into a man.

Ryouta, though still bearing some resemblance to the boy he once was two years ago, had grown into a man. His features were sharper, his height taller, and his muscles more defined.

Meanwhile, other than growing a pair of wings, Shiro did not change much at all, much to her dismay.

“Hm, but, there’s been so many of them lately, hasn’t there?” As an A-ranked adventurer, he could clearly deduce the fact that more and more demons have been appearing on their side of the continent.

He thought back to his old classmates, the Heroes. He had heard that their strength over the demons were beginning to wane as more and more powerful demons flooded the continent. While he felt slightly worried for them, he still did not think that that was his war to fight. For the time being, he was content with protecting the citizens of the Republic from the dangers of the demons.

He believed that, with the strength of the Heroes as well as the warriors fighting at the frontlines, the demons would definitely go down sooner or later, with or without his help.

“Let’s go back, Shiro.”

“Mn!”

Coming back to the guild, Ryouta was confronted with a tensed atmosphere.

“Miss Vell, is something the matter?”

“Ah, Ryouta. You’re back.”

“We’re back~”

The dog-eared Miss Vell finally showed a smile at the sight of Shiro. For some reason, she felt that the cute girl will always be able to elicit smiles from other people no matter the situation.

“Have you heard?” Miss Vell assumed her serious expression once again.

“?”

“It seems like the Heroes have been defeated. The Kingdom has fallen, and the demon lord is coming to this side now.”

“—Fallen?! How could this be?!” Those cheat-like people were actually defeated?! It was simply inconceivable.

“Believe it.” Vell shook her head. “Right now, all the S-ranked and A-ranked adventurers are being rallied to fight against the demon lord army. The states even offered a hefty reward. The leaders of each country has now agreed to form a treaty. Seems like they’re gathering as much wealth as possible to pay the adventurers,” Miss Vell shrugged.

“So we have to fight?” Ryouta’s brows creased.

Miss Vell was similarly an A-ranked adventurer, and he could recognise so many familiar faces around him. Even those who were usually swimming in alcohol could be seen bearing taut faces. They seemed to be ready to join the fight at any time.

“Some are fleeing, but more are taking up their weapons to fight.” Miss Vell sent a furtive glance towards the entrance, “I’m fighting, too, but there should have been more of us here. The guild master is waiting for the hall to fill up before he starts speaking, but I don’t think many will come anymore.”

“Why not?”

“They’re probably prioritising running away rather than staying to fight. Most have families they want to personally keep safe, after all.” Miss Vell smiled wryly. “But then again, I’ve always been a lone wolf, so I wouldn’t know.”

“Those people are idiots, I tell you. The demon lord army is coming here; where is there to run? Half the world’s already gone to hell!” Another voice joined in.

“Hal!”

The man whose name was called tipped his hat in greeting. His gait appeared slovenly, but neither of the A-ranked adventurers would underestimate the man’s strength. This Hal was, after all, one of the few S-ranked adventurers that graced the entire continent.

“Speakinng of which, Ryou, the guild master wants to speak with you. He’s planning on bumping you up to S-rank. Put you in more critical areas and all that.”

“S-rank?!”

“Hey, hey. Don’t look so surprised. Your strength is already above S-rank, y’know?” Hal smiled wryly. Even though Ryouta was much younger than him, he knew that he was also much stronger. It was only a pity that Ryouta had only joined the guild for a relatively short amount of time, so there was a limited chance for him to climb up to S-rank quickly. Luckily, with the arrival of the demon lord’s army, the higher-ups agreed to raise him to S-rank on account of his monstrous strength that was rather disproportional to his current rank.

Such a strong fellow would be wasted if they don’t use him to the best of his abilities, they thought.

“Geez, deciding on their own… well, not that I’m not happy, though.”

The legendary S-rank…

He had finally achieved such a position.

If it was the previous Ryouta, he would not have even dreamt of such a thing.

“Congratulations.” Miss Vell who was startled by the news, patted Ryouta’s shoulder, genuinely happy for him.

“’Gratulations~”

“Thanks, Miss Vell, Shiro.” Ryouta smiled. “Thanks for telling me, Hal. Shiro, let’s go see the guild master.”

“No prob. See you in the battlefield, Ryou.”

“Mn!”

The two exchanged arm-shakes, nodding with a determined gaze.

“Let’s go, Shiro.”

“Yeah~”