There was some kind of commotion at the back of the forest, and then Mai and May, and then Meldy with Rifa, came running in.

　The forest behind them was burning and they were running away from the oncoming fire.

　I came over to where me and Yoko were and asked Meldi, who was catching her breath, how Rifa was doing. He said that he didn't try to run away from the flames, so Meldi hit him and knocked him out.

　If he's only stunned, then he can recover from it later on quickly. First, let's stop the approaching flames.

　I released my magic power and formed a summoning magic circle.

　I can't use magic that consumes more than ten magic power because of the evil god's curse. Summoning magic usually requires about thirty or so magic power consumption even when calling the lowest ranked spirits.

　In other words, I can't use summoning magic in the normal way. So I devised a method that allows me to summon spirits by changing the shape of each of the magic power released into letters and symbols and arranging them in the shape of a magic circle.

　Each letter consumes about ten or so magic power, and the summoning magic circle I use is formed of about a thousand letters, so a single summoning consumes quite a bit of magic power.

　I'm under the influence of the evil god's curse, though, so my magic power doesn't decrease at all.


　The magic circle has been completed.
　If I'm going to put out the fire, I'll call him(|)woman(|).

"Aqualance!

　He activated his magic while picturing a woman with a water-attribute spear.

''Hmm?　Hurt. It's been a while.
Yeah, good to see you. How have you been?

　It's been about three years since she, the water spirit Undine, has been summoned.

'Well, well. I've missed you calling me lately.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

　Three years is not a long time for Undine, who lives in a long time, but I used to summon her every day to keep me company with various magical training, so I can understand why she's sulking.

　After that, Undine started a conversation with Mai and May, so I decided to help Rifa and Meldi recover. Incidentally, Undine had single-handedly manipulated the water to extinguish the forest flames while she was talking to me.

　She's still a spirit that can work as usual.


''Ugh, this place?''
Come on, take it easy. Is there anything that hurts?

　I cast a recovery spell on Rifa and after a bit she regained consciousness.

　I can only use the lowest level of recovery magic (heal), so I'm improving my recovery power by layering it on top of each other about a hundred times.

''Thank you, Hurt-san. I'm fine now.

Yeah, good. You okay, Meldi?

　Meldy, who joined us earlier, seemed to have forced his body to come here to escape the flames, and he crumbled to the ground as soon as he realized that he was safe with Undine's magic.

　Since she seemed to be too tired to stand, I gave Meldy some recovery magic and a little of my magic power to share with her.

''Big deal, your magic is full too.

　Oh, good.
　We got him back on his feet.

"Rifa, I'm sorry about earlier.

'No, I wasn't cool with it either. Thank you for bringing me here.

I'm glad you're both safe. By the way, what kind of demon did you two encounter that caused the forest to burn?

　I asked him what had been bothering him for a long time. I don't think there was any sign of a demon in this forest that could cause this many fires.

'Perhaps it's this guy?'

　The mass of fire that Undine had trapped in the water prison was brought in from somewhere.

'Ah!　Go!　It's that guy!

　The mass of flame that Rifa pointed at was my magic.

"This, this is the one that attacked Rifa?



'But actually, it looks like that guy was trying to take down the goblin archer that was hiding in the bushes behind Rifa.

　When the Knight of Fire noticed the goblin archer that was aiming at Rifa and moved to take him down, it seemed that he surprised Rifa and attacked him.

　Rifa's wind magic was too good for the flame knight. The high-density contracted wind was taken in by the flame knight, and the flames that the knight wore exploded and seemed to have caused the forest fire.

　─ In other words, it was an accident.

　I'm relieved to find out that my magic didn't go out of control and attack Rifa.

　I'm not going to be able to say that I'm sorry, but I think I need to apologize because I put everyone in danger.

''........this is my magic, right?
""What?"

I'm sorry to hear that this guy has gotten everyone in danger.

　He bows to the four of them.

''Do you have any proof that this Knight of Fire is the magic of Master Hurt?

　Mai asked me. I don't know why Mai calls me by my nickname, but I'll show you the proof.

"Undine," he said, "let him out.

All right. But how does a fire that cannot be extinguished in my dungeon work?

　Undine let the flame knight out of his mouth with a question. The flame knight that was let out of the water prison was quiet. It's my magic, so it's only natural.

''I'll teach you next time.''

　I replied as I approached the Knight of Fire.
　The knight gets down on his knees and pauses to pledge his allegiance to me.

'I don't know, is that all right?　If you want, I can make another one here.
No, no, thank you!　Thank you.

　I hadn't talked much with Mai and May.

　Mai seemed to be interested in my magic, so I hope we'll have more opportunities to talk in the future.

''Ladies and gentlemen!　Are you okay!

　Tina came running over. Behind her, Luke, Luna, Ryushin, and Luca were following her.

　Luke and the other four were surprised for some reason when they saw the flame knight kneeling in front of me.

''Tina-sensei, we've managed to get all of us safe thanks to Hurt-san.

　Rifa explains the situation to Tina. She smells a bit embarrassed when she says that I saved her life.

''Rifa-san, you blew the whistle. I'm sorry I couldn't rush over right away.''
What's going on?

　There must be a reason why Tina couldn't go to help Rifa and the others right away.

''........Yes. First of all, for some reason, there was a large number of mahonomes in this forest. Then, that swarm attacked Luke-san and Luna-san.

What?

But by the time I got there, the herd of mahonomes had been taken down.

Does that mean Luke beat him?

'No, no. In the meantime, listen to the rest of Dr. Tina's story.

''When we arrived at Luke and the others, there was a feeling that a rather strong demon had appeared in the vicinity of where Mr. Ryushin and the others were, this time.

Fiend?

But by the time I got here, he was already down.

Well, did you defeat the demon?

No, it wasn't me.

　Rifa asks Ryushin, but he says it's not Ryushin who defeated him.

　It seems that there's a bunch of mahonomes, which are B-ranked demons, and the guy who defeated the demons somewhere.

　This forest, it's more dangerous than I thought.
　That's what I was thinking.

''When I spoke to Luke-san and the other four, I found out that the one who defeated both the Mahonome swarm and the demoness was a knight in flames.

""What?"
..........

　Surprised shouts came from Mai, May, Rifa and Meldi.

'Master Hurt, do you have any idea what's going on?'

　Tina's gaze is fixed on the flame knight in front of me.

　Ah, that's it.
　Tina says, knowingly.

"...yes, this flame knight is my magic.
"I knew it was Hurt!

　Luke and Ryushin shouted.

　Well, I thought that a C-ranked demon would be able to defeat them without any problems──but.......these guys (flame knights), they were that strong?