***

"Like hell we will! Getting securities here is priority!"

Hearing lady Ria Pyrian's words, Nevih couldn't help but to frown.

'A Hero would never abandon those in need!'

As he thought that, Nevih glanced toward Arthur.

'As expected of the Hero of Light, he is the role model for all Heroes!'

As such, Nevih slid behind Arthur, wanting to save as many citizens as possible like a true Hero!

"Okay then..." Arthur sighed. "...Let's work together. You guys call the securities, and we will try to save as many people as possible."

"Sounds good to me." Ria nodded.

Then, Nevih followed Arthur and the others to jump out of the window. As soon as he landed on the ground, he could see Ria's group running toward the exit.

Arthur's group, meanwhile, stood in complete silence as they scanned their surroundings. Before long, they started chasing down the robed men that were attacking the citizens.

Arthur himself, however, didn't even try to save anyone. Instead, his eyes were affixed to the main stage of the auction house.

Unable to contain his curiosity, Nevih asked.

"Hero Arthur, what are you looking at? There are no citizens that way."

"Goddess Lumaria just gave me a revelation."

Hearing Arthur's words, Nevih clamped his mouth shut and strained his ears to hear his next words.

"That there's something I need to do over there at the main stage... I think I've figured it out now. She wanted me to save the slave girl earlier!"

"...!"

"A real Hero would never watch someone be mistreated and let them to suffer!"

'Th- This is... a true Hero!'

"H- Hero Arthur! Let me help too!"

"No." Arthur refused Nevih. "This is the trial that Goddess Lumaria gave me and me alone. If you really want to help, go and evacuate the citizens."

And with those words, Arthur rushed toward the backstage to save the slave girl.

Nevih watched Arthur's back in admiration and steeled his resolve.

'Hero Arthur just gave me a task! I will not disappoint him!'

As he turned to his right, however, Nevih was met with the sight of a Greater black wyvern crushing and mauling bidders to death.

'O- Oh... maybe it's alright to disappoint him just a bit—'

But then, he suddenly noticed that to his left, there was a girl being chased down by a robed man.

The girl wore yellow mage robe, had yellow hair and eyes, and she was shooting Lightning spells at the man while running away from him. However, her spells almost always dispersed before they could actually hit anything.

'Aha! A Hero would never abandon a maiden in need!'

A spear of Lightning was shot toward the robed man, impaling in the legs. Dust rose as the man let out howls of pain and clutched his legs in agony.

Staring at where the red Lightning spear once was with widened eyes, the girl stuttered.

"Th- Theodore?"

"Theodore? Nay." Nevih said as he slowly walked out of the dust cloud.

Now standing right in front of the girl, Nevih said with utmost righteousness.

"I am 5th Hero of Storms Nevih II! Companion of the Saintess of Storms Aryl I!"

"So you're not Theodore after all..." The girl said what a somewhat dejected tone.

'What? Who's that Theodore guy? Why is she not grateful to the one that saved her?'

But Nevih couldn't think about it any longer, as—

"Look out!"

—The girl suddenly shouted, pointing toward somewhere behind him.

Startled, Nevih reflexively rolled on the ground, narrowly avoiding the knife that was thrown at him. Hurriedly getting up and turning around, Nevih saw 5 robed men glaring hatefully at him.

"Who are you!?" Nevih shouted as he brandished his sword. "Are you behind that earlier explosion on the main stage?"

"Explosion? I don't think it can be called an explosion but I can assure you, it is not in our plan. But yes, we are behind the current attack." A robed man spoke up, his eyes still brimming with hostility. "And you, red-haired boy, you just killed my little brother."

Hearing this, Nevih briefly glanced toward the robed man who was chasing the girl down before; He had already bled to death, his robe wet with blood and rainwater.

'Wait, rain water?'

Nevih craned his head to look at the sky, only to see dark clouds covering the starry night sky and pouring down rain.

However, that wasn't important right now! Rain or not, his enemies were going to jump at him at any second!

"Yellow-haired lady", Nevih uttered. "Please evacuate while I hold these men back."

In response though, the girl stepped forward and patted Nevih on his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Nevih frowned. "I told you to get back—"

"Nevih, Hero of Storms, was it?"

Nevih immediately replied, flustered by the sudden question. "Y- Yes...?"

Chuckling, the girl continued. "It's raining right now. I don't need your help anymore, for I am—"

"—The Saintess of Lightning, Lyn Blitz."

As soon as Lyn finished her words, her entire body turned into a bolt of Lightning. Arriving before the first robed man, Lyn got out of her Lightning state and gave him a kick to the guts.

"Urghhhh!" The man let out a painful groan as he was knocked far away.

Now standing where the man once was, Lyn turned toward the other men and smiled.

"Give up now and you may live."

In response though, they all brandished their weapons and pointed them toward her.

"Don't say that I haven't warned you!"

A kick to the face!

"Urghhh!"

A leg sweep followed by a punch!

"Arghhhh!"

A knee to his sides!

"Krghhhhh!"

And finally, a kick to the nuts!

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

With all the men now incapacitated, Lyn slowly walked toward Nevih again. Staring at Nevih's wet red hair and admiring his earlier courage, Lyn gave him a slight kiss on his cheek.

"You're not as cool as Theodore. Nevertheless, thank you for saving me earlier, Hero of Storms. May we meet again if fate allows."

Nevih stared at Lyn, who was now going in and out of her Lightning state constantly to take out robed men around the auction house. Caressing the spot where she kissed him, he muttered.

"That's my first kiss... I lost my first kiss to such a cool girl..."

His face flushed red as he thought back to the scene of Lyn kissing him. However, he couldn't stay embarrassed for long, as he suddenly noticed a familiar face.

"Huh? Isn't that... the little dragon that lady Sylvia Ecertold brought with her?"

To his front, Nevih could see the little dragon from before rushing toward the main stage.

'Her name is uhhh... Glacia, I think.'

However, something was strange about her. On her back was a pair of scaly wings and instead of a dragon tail, her tail was long like that of a wyvern.

'And there's a stinger attached to her tail too... what?'

Nevih rubbed his eyes hard to make sure that he wasn't seeing things. However, as he looked again, the girl was no nowhere to be seen. Instead, what was in her place was a dust cloud; One that was moving ever closer to the main stage.

'I must be hallucinating things. My mind must be overheated from the k- kiss earlier!'

And with that thought, Nevih turned away and tightened his grip on his sword.

"She said that she's the Saintess of Lightning, didn't she? I, the Hero of Storms, shall prove to her that I'm worthy of her!"

***

'That was close...' Sylph sighed.

Who would have thought that the illusion magic that Alicia had casted on Glacia would run out now?

If Sylph hadn't been quick to create a mini dust storm around Glacia, Cultists and nobles alike would have found out about her identity.

'Even I can't help her if that happens...'

Pausing her thoughts there, Sylph tried to convince Glacia once more.

|Little Cia, hear me out. It's more fun playing with your mom, right?|

"No. Daddy's more fun!"

|L- Look, m- maybe your dad don't like playing with you!|

"He will!"

Sylph was at a loss. It seemed that she couldn't convince Glacia no matter what.

'Should I just threaten to not be her friend anymore?'

However, she soon discarded such thoughts. She had already promised to herself... and Glacia in the last round that she would make her father love her again.

'But this is not the time! Who knows what that crazy bastard Theodore will do in this chaos!?'

In fact, Sylph knew that the only reason why Theodore hadn't killed Glacia yet is that he didn't know that Glacia was an Archwyrm, and that he was afraid of what Sylvia would do to him if he was ever found out.

'But in this chaos... he can do it and no one would know!'

As such, Sylph readied herself to quickly incapacitate Theodore if he even showed a bit of hostility toward Glacia.

...

It took a while, but Sylph and Glacia finally arrived at where Theodore was. As soon as they did, Sylph didn't know how to react to the sight that was unfolding before her.

There he was, Theodore, facing 3 ranked Cultists. However, there was something strange about his weapon.

|Isn't that Excalibur? H- How can this be!? He doesn't have the qualification!|

That's right! Despite not having the qualification needed, Theodore was still wielding Excalibur to fight the Cultists. Gripping the handle of the sword hard and tracing his finger on its elegant but sharp white blade, Theodore slashed at the nearest Cultist.

BAM—!

The Cultist's body went limp and fell to the ground with a thud. However, there was something peculiar about his corpse. Instead of a long gash that one might have expected from an injury caused by a bladed weapon, the Cultist instead died from... a blunt object hitting his head.

|Oh... so that's why he can 'use' the sword...| Sylph sighed in relief as she realized something.

Theodore indeed didn't have the qualification to pull the sword out. So, what did he do? Of course, he lifted the sword up along with the stone that it was stuck to and used it as a impromptu hammer.

As Theodore used the 'hammer' to kill the last Cultist, he suddenly snapped his head toward the direction of Glacia.

"You..." He muttered coldly as he threw Excalibur to the ground. "...Why are you here?"

Theodore suddenly 'teleported' in front of Glacia, placed his hands under her armpits and lifted her up.

Thinking that he was giving her a hug, Glacia extended her hands out with a smile.

However, Theodore merely rotated her to the side and scrutinized her body with those cold eyes of his.

"Wings and stinger? Did Alicia's illusion run out?" Theodore said, unaware of the Wind spirit who was ready to shoot spells at him at any moment.

Ever since she saw Theodore's cold eyes, Sylph had raised her wariness to its maximum. After all...

'That bastard... his eyes are exactly the same when he was torturing my little Cia in that damn basement!'

Unfathomably cold eyes that saw everything as beneath him and sent chills down the spine of whoever he was staring at; That was the gaze that bore down onto Glacia every time she got tortured.

As such, no one could blame Sylph for associating those eyes to Glacia's suffering.

It was then that Sylph suddenly noticed Theodore slowly reaching for his waist.

'Is he going to pull out a knife?'

Whatever Theodore was trying to take out with those bloodstained hands of his, surely, he would use it to harm Glacia.

Thus, Sylph hurriedly agglomerated Wind mana and—

"Huh... out of spells." Theodore muttered as he repeatedly tapped on the brown grimoire on his waist.

'Oh, he's just reaching for his grimoire.' Sylph sighed in relief and dispersed the Wind mana.

Unaware that he was just one step away from death earlier, Theodore put Glacia down to the ground and fell into thoughts. However, he soon snapped out of his thoughts and snapped his head to the right.

Disappearing and reappearing behind a piece of debris, Theodore bended down and grabbed the neck of a robed man who was holding a strange device in his hands.

"What did you see?" Theodore asked as he held the man up high.

"Urghhh! I didn't see anythin—"

"Forget it. Why am I even bothering to do this..."

CRACK—!

The Cultist's limp body fell to the ground, and so did the weird device that he was clutching in his hands.

Only now noticing this, Theodore crouched down to pick the device up.

"A holographic phone? What?"

Turning the phone on again, he read what was on the screen.

===

Me: Head scnientist! We foudn a humanoid monster at the Pyriaville auction house! Requst for reinforcement!

===

Theodore scrolled up and down to see if there were any other descriptions or even pictures of Glacia other than that. Luckily, the Cultist seemed to had only been able to send that one message before dying.

Crushing the phone in his hands, Theodore walked toward Glacia again and knelt down to meet her eyes.

"Glacia, extend your wings."

Nodding happily, Glacia complied.

Theodore then grabbed the two ends of Glacia's wings and wrapped them around her body. He then ripped the robe off a Cultist and made Glacia wear it. He walked toward another cultist and ripped off another robe, this time using it as a strap.

With Glacia now strapped firmly and comfortably on his back, Theodore spread his Time mana out to distort his and Glacia's temporal presence here.

With almost every traces now hidden, he whispered coldly to Glacia.

"Don't fall off. It'll be annoying to stop and pick you up."

Sylph stared at Theodore in confusion.

'Huh? Why is he acting like that?'

Wasn't he supposed to hate Glacia for whatever reasons?

'Maybe he really changed this time around...? No! H- He must be aware of my presence! That's right! He's just acting to make me let my guard down!'

And with that thought, Sylph went inside Glacia's robe with her eyes still affixed to Theodore.

'My promise with Glacia matter not if you harm her. Try to pull something like kidnapping her again and I'll make sure you stay dead this time.'