Chapter 30

"Huh?"

Unable to grasp the current situation, Sora looked around.

A few loggers who had fled earlier were sitting on the ground, catching their breath.

There was no sign of the young child among them.

Turning to face the square, she saw that all the stalls were completely empty.

At the entrance of the Adventurers' Bureau, a line of black-uniformed guards with weapons at the ready stood in formation.

People carrying their belongings could be seen hurrying towards the inner part of the town.

Sora turned her gaze back to the empty sled.

"...Muu...chan?"

There was no response.

It was only then that the girl finally realized Muu was gone.

She let out a silent scream and lunged at the door.

As she frantically tried to remove the latch, someone's hand got in the way.

"What are you doing? Are you trying to get yourself killed!?"

"Muu-chan is gone!"

The leather-armored gatekeeper forcibly restrained Sora.

The old gatekeeper then locked the latch with a chain.

"You can die if you want, but don't drag us into it!"

From the other side of the large door, the rough breathing of a beast and the hard sound of fangs hitting the stone wall could be heard.

Several men hurriedly backed away from the door.

"But Muu-chan! The child is left outside..."

"So you want us to open it? Don't be ridiculous. Even a fool can imagine what would happen if we opened it now."

Recalling the people who had fled earlier, Sora stood frozen.

The gatekeeper, seeing this, continued to press his point.

"It's too late anyway. Muu is probably already dead—"

"Hey, watch your words!"

"That's right. And you tried to close the door even though we were here!"

"Right!"

"Me? I'm doing it to protect the town..."

"Your job is to fight monsters! This girl protected us well."

"If you're getting paid well, you should do your job properly! You guys just loaf around every day!"

"Hey, if you were an adventurer, you could easily take down a boar, right?"

"N-no, I'm a shield bearer, so I can't do it alone..."

Sora didn't miss the familiar young voice mixed in with the argument between the gatekeepers and loggers.

She hurriedly pressed her ear to the door.

Fortunately, the boar seemed to have moved a bit away.

The fierce presence had vanished.

"Muu-chan, are you there?"

There was no response, but the faint breathing she could hear made Sora's legs give out, and she collapsed on the spot.

Overwhelmed by anger at herself, she pounded on the door.

"I'll come to help you right away!"

At first, she thought Muu had fallen off in the rush.

But if that were the case, Muu would have called out immediately.

Muu must have jumped off on purpose, to make the sled lighter.

Sora understood the reason.

It was because of what Taur had said.

He had entrusted Sora to Muu.

If Muu had been on the sled, Sora might not have made it in time.

She should have followed Taur's instructions and entered the town quickly.

But she didn't, perhaps because she thought she could be of some help.

She wanted to show her worth.

She wanted Muu to recognize her, and that desire was now threatening Muu's life.

Wiping away the tears that welled up in her eyes, the girl resolved to act.

Crying wasn't going to help now.

She needed to save the young girl's life from this side of the door, in a situation where everyone else had given up hope.

In an instant, Sora found the only way.

"Muu-chan, I have a favor to ask. Will you listen?"

There was no response, but Sora continued, confident that Muu could hear her.

"Just for a little while, just now. I want to be with Muu-chan, just now."

Sora's face contorted as the ground shook.

The boar hadn't gone away after all.

The roar and vibration came from the stone wall, closer than before, shaking her to the core.

Seized by a desperate urgency, Sora dug her nails into the door.

"Please! If you stay there, Muu-chan, you'll die!"

Since Muu had used magic, she must not have given up on surviving.

The presence of the beast on the other side of the door slowly moved away.

It was probably regrouping to charge again.

The fact that the boar's target was getting closer to the door spurred the girl on.

She could feel Muu's trembling through the door, and she strained her voice to the limit.

"That's not okay! There are still so many fun things to do. We haven't even tried all the food at the stalls yet, and I want to take a bath with Muu and find the cowlick on your head!"

Tears threatened to spill over, but the girl felt angry at herself.

Now wasn't the time for that.

"......Gri-gri?"

At the whispered voice, the girl's face shot up.

"Yes, that's right. I'll do as much Gri-gri as you want!"

"Even if we're together, will you still like Muu?"

"Why? There's no reason for me to dislike Muu!"

"Will you tell Muu to go away because it's disgusting?"

Sora's breath caught in her throat.

Various thoughts raced through her mind.

Taur had mentioned it before.

Muu's speech, while somewhat normal, had gaps in common sense.

This suggested that she had likely been raised by someone for some time, though the duration was unknown.

The reason she was driven out might have been her <Sensory Sharing>, which even shared pain.

And another thing.

Even though she accepted adult men like Taur and old women like Yuril, she unconsciously excluded young women like Sora.

This might be because she had been severely rejected by a woman of a similar age, probably her mother, who was the person most involved in raising her.

Sora felt a bit of anger and a strong sense of helplessness towards the woman who had let go of her beloved child out of fear.

Taking a deep breath, Sora squeezed out the words from the depths of her heart.

"Listen, Muu-chan. I will never, ever tell you to go away. No, I can't. I've always been a burden to Taur-chan, but Taur-chan has always helped me. Now it's my turn. I love Muu-chan, and I'll accept everything, no matter what! I'll never tell you to go away, and if you do, I'll follow you forever! ...I'll bring Taur-chan too."

The sound of the giant boar kicking the ground, ready to charge, came from the other side of the door.

Her heart raced painfully, but the girl gritted her teeth and held on.

There was no response.

Instead, there was a small scratching sound.

It came from the bottom of the door, where Muu was hiding.

Sora instinctively reached her hand through the small gap between the ground and the door.

Her hand scraped and bled, but she ignored it and pushed harder.

The ground shook as the boar approached.

Just a little more.

At the moment her fingertips touched something soft—

Suddenly, her vision opened up.

The boar's body looked impossibly large from her low vantage point.

The sound of its six legs pounding the ground was dynamic.

Swallowing her fear, Sora whispered.

"I'm not scared anymore if I can see you. Just leave it to me, Muu-chan."

Thanks to <Lightning Needle>, more information than usual flowed through Muu's senses.

This revealed why the boar had repeatedly hit the wall.

The monster's neck was bent at an odd angle.

This caused it to veer off course and collide with the wall.

It seemed that twisting its neck before fleeing had been beneficial.

However, the bend was gradually straightening out.

The next charge would be straight.

Sora pressed her forehead against the door, her right fingertips overlapping with Muu's, and her left hand gripping her staff.

There was no time to measure the timing as before.

Even if she could only return half, two in a row would be all.

Four in a row would be double!

—<Reversal>!

The giant boar's face, which was about to collide, suddenly twisted.

But its speed didn't decrease.

—<Reversal>!

The distortion worsened, and the entire head rotated halfway.

The beast's neck nearly snapped, but it let out a roar filled with hatred.

At the same time, a sense of loss overwhelmed Sora as she lost a significant amount of magic.

But the girl continued to pour magic into the spell as if nothing had happened.

She had already experienced a worse loss a week ago.

—<Reversal>!

The boar's face, still moving forward, spun around with a dull thud.

—<Reversal>!

The boar's neck, which was almost stopped, tore with a ripping sound and hung down.

The monster, completely out of breath, staggered a few steps and then collapsed.

At the same time, Sora, still pressing her forehead against the door, slumped to the ground.

Just before losing consciousness due to complete magic depletion, she heard a whisper from the other side of the wall.

"Phew, I did it again. Muu is really too strong."

"No, no, I did it this time..."