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Beast Tamer Who Got Kicked Out From the Hero’s Party Chapter 69

CHAPTER 69: THE TRANSFORMATION

「Reeeeiiiinnn~~~!!!」

Waving her hand, Kanade ran towards me.

Sora and Luna both did the same.

Apparently, everyone else has finished their battles as well.

「I managed to beat the bad guys into a pulp! Hehehe! Aren’t I great? Say! Aren’t I great?」

「Yes, you did really well. I’m proud of you, Kanade.」

「Nyah~♪.」

I stroked Kanade’s head and in response she started purring like a little kitten in apparent satisfaction.

「「*STAAAAAAREEEEEE……*」」’

It was then that I also noticed that both Sora and Luna were staring at me rather intently.

I managed to guess what their gazes meant right away, and I then switched towards them, patting them on the heads for a job well done.

「You also really did great. Sora, Luna. We couldn’t have done this without you.」

「W-Well, I mean…… Sora did her very best.」

「Yes, that’s right! I sure did one heck of a good job! Now praise me some more! Stroke my hair some more♪!」

「Hey, Rein! What is going on here!」

This time around, it was Tanya who approached me with Nina in tow.

「I know that this time around my job was to protect this child, but I still did a good job at doing just that, so…… B-But please don’t misunderstand me! It’s not that I want you to pat me on the head like everyone else or anything like that, but, umm, well…… G-Geez! Fuuh!」

I then gently stroked Tanya’s head as well, doing that halfway through her monologue, which effectively forced her to stop speaking as the ecstatic look was painted all over her face.

Could it be that my hand is having some sort of a soothing effect on everyone else or something like that?

I can’t help but to think about that in all seriousness.

「Oh, thank goodness…… It looks like everyone’s okay.」

Finally, Stella came running in as well.

She seemed to be relieved to see us looking all good and being in one piece.

「I managed to keep my promise as well, you know.」

「Yes, I can see. And it’s a relief to see that.」

「Now then…… I guess that this takes care of all the needless interruptions. All that’s left to do now is simply……」

「We are the Knights Order. And we have arrived.」

Stella’s gaze turned towards the back of the entrance hall.

「Hyiih!?」

The Lord and his son Edgar trembled in their boots.

There was no one else left to protect them now.

They were completely helpless and on their own.

They seemed to understand this all too well, and they both turned pale in their faces.

「I am going to leave the search of the mansion to my companions. While they are doing that, I am going to have you tell me all the things that I want to know. Would both of you be willing to accompany me? Not that you have any other choice, mind you.」

「Hyihh…… HYAAH!!!」

The Lord fled to the back of the mansion while screaming out loud.

「H-Hey! Wait!」

「EVen though he knows that he lost, he still can’t act like a man and just accept it? What a pathetic loser.」

「It would be really bad if he actually managed to get away through some secret passageway or something like that. I’m going after him. Can I leave this place to you, guys?」

「Yeah, just leave this place to us.」

「Thank you!　Now it’s my turn to show my worth!」

Stella chased after the Lord and disappeared into the back door leading further into the mansion.

「Guh……..」

Edgar, who was left alone with us, bit his lip in frustration.

Even though the situation was like this, he was still staring at us with eyes full of anger.

Even though he was out of trump cards to throw around, this guy still had some major guts, I’ll give him that.

「You bastards…… Do you really think you can do something like this and get away with it completely scott free!? Who the hell do you think I am?　I’m the son of the Lord who rules this city!　Don’t you dare go against me, you plebeians!　It’s preposterous! It’s unheard of! It’s impossible!」

「Okay, that’s about enough from you. Just stay put for a moment, why don’t you?」

Using Narukami’s wire, I attempted to capture Edgar and restrain him.

However, Edgar took out his self-defense knife and displayed the blade in a threatening manner.

「…….. And what is that fruit knife going to accomplish here?」

「I will personally execute the fools who try to defy me!　I’m going to take care of it with my own hands if I have to!!」

「Oh brother……」

Honestly, it was kind of amazing that even though he had his back pretty much against the wall now that he was still able to act in such a cocky manner.

「Can’t you see what you current situation is? Face it…… You have lost.」

「Don’t give me that shit! Such a thing is unacceptable!　I am the future ruler of this city! And we the rulers won’t be looked down on by some dirty peasants such as yourselves!」

「Up until now you have been doing whatever the hell it was that you wanted, but now it is the high time for you to pay the price.」

「There is no way that such a thing is going to happen! I’m the ruler here, the one who reigns supreme over everyone else! We the rulers are free to do whatever the hell we want!」

「I don’t know how you could possibly admit to such a thing in your current situation……」

「I will never accept such an outcome! You are all beneath me! You are all my playthings! My toys! And no toy is allowed to revolt against its owner!」

「……You think because you’re in control, you’re free to do whatever you want? Are you sure that everything is alright with your head?」

「Yeah, what he said!」

「There are limits to just how unreasonable one can be. Isn’t it about time for you to accept the truth?」

「Never! I will never do that! I am the one standing on the top! Me! And no one else!」

Ah, it’s no good.

I can see that this man has completely lost it now.

Is it because he has been sucking the sweet poison of the privileged class for so long?

So long that his very soul has become corrupted by it?

This man’s thought process is so extreme and so disconnected from reality that it’s honestly hard to believe that he is actually the sane person, the same one that I am.

「Nyah…… Rain, Rain! I have a really bad feeling about this guy……..」

「…… Kanade?」

Kanade grabbed the hem of my clothes with a tight squeeze.」

Her face was twisted with anxiety and worry.

Kanade…… Is she actually frightened?

What does that mean?

This man shouldn’t have that much power left in him.

We also defeated the mercenaries who were his very last trump card.

Is there something else going on here? Something that we don’t know about?

「This is unacceptable…… Yes, there’s no way I’m going to end like this right here…… Yes! There’s no way I’m going to accept defeat!」

Eventually, Edgar began to repeat the same words over and over again, mumbling like a madman.

He looked like a broken puppet, oozing with a creepy vibe.

Just like Kanade, I was starting to have a really bad feeling about all this.

We couldn’t leave this man alone to his own devices any longer.

Even if things might get a little rough, it’s better to instantly neutralize him…… unless we want him to cause some more trouble.

Having decided that, I clenched my fist and tried to hit Edgar to the head to knock him out cold, but……

「Impossible, impossible, unacceptable, unacceptable…… Yes…… This is it! THERE IS NO WAY…… THAT I’M EVER GOING…… TO ACCEPT THIS……!!!」

A moment later, the ring that Edgar was wearing emitted a bright and ominous light.

An endlessly dark, jet-black light.
　
Just looking at it made my heart zap and made me feel like I was going to faint on the spot.

「N-Nyah! R-Rein, this is…….!!!」

「Hey, Kanade, take a hold of me really hard!」

「Nyah!?」

I held Kanade in my arms and jumped away from Edgar as fast as possible.

Everyone else did the same thing soon after.

「Guh…… Ghaaaah……!!」

The faint light that flooded from the ring clung to Edgar’s body like a living thing.

His hands were covered, his feet were covered by it as well……

Eventually, the dark light managed to swallow him whole……

The jet-black light became a band and enveloped Edgar’s body in multiple layers.

Thus, a circular ball like a cocoon was formed all over him.

「This……..is…….」

A cold sweat ran down my face.

When I looked at my companions, I could see that they were all scrunched up, too.

An alarm ring went off in my head like crazy.

We can’t just leave this thing like this.

We have to destroy that black cocoon immediately.

「Shit……!」

When I finally came back to my senses, I instantly thought of a magical structural formula.

「“Fireball”!!!」

Even though we were still inside of the mansion, I have completely forgotten about trying to mitigate the spell’s destructive power.

It was an all-out blow.

WHOOOSH!!!

A Fireball the size of a man struck the black cocoon.

An explosion that could blow the ceiling went off at that moment.

And then the red lotus of flames bloomed.

But still………

The black cocoon continued to be there, unchanged.

「W-What the hell is this thing……?」

CRACK!

A series of cracks ran through the black cocoon.

Like an egg hatching, the cracks spread everywhere around it.

And then it all popped all at once.

「……………」

A jet-black hulking body.

Misshapen, ominous-looking wings.

Sharp fangs and spear-like horns.

An existence that couldn’t be anything other than what you would call a demon was right there in front of us.

「This thing……」

I remember now.

I remember seeing it before.

Back in the past, on the day that my hometown was razed to the ground, there was a creature present there on that day that looked just like this thing.

「…… A Demon……」