*Interlude*

A human boy with short black hair, whose name is Miika, is currently sitting on a bed. He is looking at the ceiling while thinking about something.

(I still can't do it, the healing magic. Just what did I do wrong?)

Then he looks at his right hand. After few seconds, he starts stretching his hand to the front. Immediately after, he wants to say the magic name.

"Hea-"

*knock knock!*

"!?"

But he gets startled by the sudden knocking sound from the door.

"Miika, are you there?"

After hearing Shion's voice, Miika immediately replies.

"Y- yes!"

Immediately after that, the door is opened from outside revealing Shion wearing her usual adventurer outfit.

*End of Interlude*

_________________________________________

I open the door to see Miika sitting on the bed facing towards the door.

As I close the door, I ask him a question.

"Did you eat dinner and take a bath already?"

"Y- yes..."

He stands up and answer my question.

Well, I asked him to eat by himself before I went out today. I also already ate dinner and took a bath before coming here.

"Good. Then... take this."

I come towards him and hands over a dagger with brown handle and brown sheath.

"...? Um..."

He looks at the dagger and then looks at me. Without him saying it, I already know that he wants explanation. So I go ahead and ask him to do something.

"Try pouring your mana to that dagger."

Miika still looks confused, but he does it as ordered without asking further question.

Within three seconds, that dagger shines a silver light. It surprises Miika but he is still composure enough to keep holding the dagger.

"M- Magic weapon!?"

"It's called Light Dagger. Its magic formula is light-based Sharpening magic, but you just have to pour mana to use it."

I explain that to Miika. Unlike normal magic, some magic weapon can be used without the requirement of basic attribute from its user. So even if Miika only has wind attribute, he's still able to use Light Dagger.

"Y- you're lending me this magic weapon!?"

Looking at Miika's shocked expression, I reply.

"No, I am giving that to you for the raid tomorrow."

"I- I can't take something as valuable as this!"

".... sigh..."

I can only sigh at Miika's reserve attitude. I suppose I need to explain literally EVERYTHING to make him understand.

"Okay, Miika. Think about this for a moment."

"...?"

Upon looking at Miika's confused, I continue talking.

"We're going to fight a very powerful monster. So isn't it normal for us to prepare a more powerful weapon to fight it?"

"T- that's..."

Before Miika finishes replying, I explain him about my plan further.

"Besides, you're not the only one who got a better weapon."

After saying that, I take out the cross that I have been wearing beneath my clothes. It's the same cross that Sylphie, the travelling Priest from Brahmastra, gave me before.

"I had Antarea modify this cross into a magic device that reduce my own stamina consumption from physical activity."

"...."

This is probably his first time seeing my cross. It's as if he forgets about his concerns before, now he is looking at my cross with curious face.

I never tell anyone but I have confidence that I had a bit more stamina than average human kid as a result of my secret training with Millson years ago.

Even so, that does not mean my stamina is on a reliable level like Miika's yet. Upon being told by Antarea that this cross can be modified into a magic weapon with slight tweak, I proceeded to gave her the necessary magic formula. It's to cover my own weakness even if it's just a little.

After all, I can't just go fainted like the time after I fought that dark elf.

"At any rate, I prepare these equipments to increase our chance of survival as much as possible. Do you get it now?"

".... understood."

Miika thinks for a few seconds before saying that. I hope he truly understand now.

"Good. Now can you go outside for a moment? I would like to change."

"Yes."

Miika goes outside of the room.

I want to change to my pajamas. But before that, I go to the my big bag that is placed at the corner floor of the room. This bag contains all the items that I cannot fit into the small bag on my belt.

I open the small bag on my bag containing 2 Graize Elixirs, 3 Potions and 1 Rorean fruit extract small bottle.

I take the Rorean bottle and put it inside the big bag. And the I take the 3rd Graize Elixir from the big bag and put it inside my small bag.

Rorean fruit extract is used mainly to ward off Sword Wolf and other monster with high sense of smell. So I won't really need it for tomorrow. In exchange, since raid battle is coming, I would try to be more careful by having all Graize Elixirs I have left inside my small bag.

Originally, there are five bottles containing Graize Elixir that I made to save my mother in this world. But I ended up using one of them to save Kaina and the other one to save Miika.

I doubt that I can create another one of these considering that material can only be taken from a very rare monster living in Brahmastra. So I need to be careful in choosing the timing to use these elixirs.

I close both bags as I think that.

.....

....

...

Few minutes later, I sleep with Miika on the same bed after changing. We're lying with our backs facing each other which is the usual position whenever we sleep.

"Wakes me up early tomorrow if you happened to wake up earlier."

"Ah... yes."

Miika replies while still lying on the bed.

Tomorrow... is finally the fight huh...

That is my last thought before falling asleep.

_________________________________________

*Interlude*

In the grassland area, screams of three men can be heard.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

Those screams are from three bandits that are running away from a giant green eagle-like monster. One of the bandits is baldy fat person who uses earth magic to let the ground below him slides while carring his body unlike the other two who are using their feet to run.

Then the spikey blonde small man of the three bandit starts shouting while running.

"Dammit! Who's the idiot who says that we can take eagle's eggs for dinner earlier?!"

Then the thin man with short purple hair immediately replies by shouting.

"Oh c'mon! No one can expect that the parent eagle suddenly turn into a monster back then!"

The green eagle monster screeches and dives towards the trio.

"EEK!!"

All three bandits separate themselves by jumping away to avoid the green eagle's claws.

"Boulder Rage!"

The fat man uses the chance when the Green Eagle is near the ground to activate his magic. A brown magic circle appears on his left hand and boulders suddenly come out from towards the Eagle.

Green eagle ends up flying upwards so that the boulders cannot reach it. Then it stays at the sky to observe the bandits' movements.

Then the small man shouts.

"Okay, we have no choice but to defeat it! Let's go everyone!"

"YEAH!"

Both the thin man and fat man answers the small man's order with enthusiasm.

As the small man raises both of his hands upwards, both thin man and fat man raises their towards above the small man from left and right side.

Light blue mana suddenly gathers above the small and quickly create large ball made of pure mana.

Then the small man shouts before throwing that large ball of mana together with the other two bandits.

"TAKE THIS! ULTIMATE MAGIC! SOUL BOMB!!!"

As the three of them throws the ball of mana, the green eagle monster stays at its position midair.

Eventually, the Soul Bomb did not manage to reach the green eagle monster and fall downwards towards the the forest area in front of the bandits.

*boom!*

"..."

"..."

"..."

After hearing the sound of their ultimate magic hitting somewhere inside the forest, they are silent by the unexpected result.

*screech!*

The green eagle monster's screech brings them back to their sense.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

They shout that and start running away again from the green eagle monster.

Meanwhile, at the place where soul bomb hits, few trees start falling down due to the impact from the soul bomb. These includes the trees with Griselda's talismans for warding off monster.

The Topology Mana Denser is unscathed due to the fact that the falling trees does not hit it. So it continues to pour mana water into the river.

.....

....

...

Back inside the Liasr Inn, both Shion and Miika are already asleep on the same bed.

"..... *hic*"

However, a sobbing sound wakes Miika up from his slumber.

(... Shion...?)

Recognizing the source of voice he just heard, Miika carefully gets up to see what happened to Shion.

"...!"

To Miika's surprise, he sees Shion crying while sleeping.

Now that Miika is fully awake, he can hear Shion's ragged breath. It's as if Shion is having a bad dream right now. But Miika does not have any way to confirm that.

This is the second time where Miika ever see Shion's cry. The first one is when Miika was about to die after having his chest got pierced by Panthos' Emeraldian.

Miika is confused in thinking about what to do at this kind of situation. He tries to search within his memories to see if he remember something that is useful for his current situation.

And then Miika remembers the time when Shion consoled him after he failed to use healing magic that day. She patted his head and said that she knew about Miika doing her best.

After remembering that, Miika slowly changes his sleeping position towards facing Shion's back.

Then he uses his right hand to gently pats Shion's head from behind.

(It's alright... it will be alright...)

He wants to say that out loud, but he refrains because he does not want to wake Shion up.)

"*hic*....!"

Upon hearing Shion's sobbing once more, Miika remembers the time when Shion stood in front of him to protect him from the berserk Panthos.

(This time... I'll do my best... to make everything's alright.)

As Miika thinks that, he continues to gently pat Shion's head until he eventually falls asleep.

*End of Interlude*

_________________________________________