The next afternoon.
　I went out of town.

　Pindos is also very busy on this day, and it's a nice feeling.

　As I was wandering around the city.

'Ooh, it's the lord.'
My lord, you should come by my shop.
'Hello, my lord.'

　I was approached by one person after another.
　I've been approached by passersby, but for the most part I've been approached by shopkeepers.
　Every time I go out of town, I'm dropping money off at a store here and there.
　I guess that's why they think I'm a good customer.

　Good for you.

　A profligate master of extravagance.
　This shouldn't be a bad thing to do, so I'll do it again today.

　Now, I need to find something tasty to take home for my sister or something.

Trembling Atmosphere. Trembling Atmosphere, let the brightest thoughts in me become manna, feeding off of my anger, and spray me with the Raging Mist.

　--A kill shot?
　Right after I felt it, the magic flew out.

　This feeling, super hot steam?
　A type of fire magic that melts up instead of burning the opponent.

　Do you want to avoid it?　Or do you avoid it?

　As soon as the two options emerged in my brain, all sorts of things that had happened so far ran through my mind like a runner-up.

　If I avoided them--Our lord is amazing!
　In case you haven't avoided it-- the master of the house is awesome!

　It seemed like no matter what I did, the result would always be there.
　No, in fact, it had been until now.

　No, now is not the time to think about that.

　This is the city.
　Most of the people around me are still unaware of this magic.

　I'm not going to be able to get it right.
　We need to do what's going to cause the least amount of damage.
　The way to minimize the damage is--

　-- and .01 seconds so far.

　I've put up a magical barrier.

　A 45-degree diagonal magic barrier in the direction of the flying magic.
　The magic that hit it was angled and a straight line up into the sky.

''What, what?''
What happened?
"What kind of idiot fires off fireworks in the middle of the street?

　The sound and shockwave of the magic being blocked caused some people to notice this, and shouts of surprise and anger rose from all over the place.

　I turned to the direction from which the magic flew.

　A girl was standing at the end of the path that naturally opened up.

　The girl was somewhere between an adult and a child.
　She wore glasses, her hair was slicked back in an all-back style, and she wore a hair band.

　At a quick glance, I wondered if she was really this girl?　But she's staring at me with a tremendous amount of deadly force.
　There's no doubt about it.

Who are you...?
It's Sofia Despina.
Sofia Despina.

　Repeatedly searching my memory for that name.
　Yeah, I've never heard that name before.

　In other words, it's the first time I've met it.
　By a person I've never met before, and by a girl like this, I'm being looked at and killed like I'm my parents' enemy.

　The situation is too complicated and confusing to the fullest extent.
　I don't know, so I decided to come directly to her.

'What does this Sophia look like to me?'
This Sophia?　What do you need?　It is.....

　It was a swashbuckling sound........
　Sophia made a blue streak twitch at her temples and stared at me with her terrific eyes.

　It's no longer a murderous eye.

"Have you forgotten about me?
What?

　What do you mean you don't remember?
　Maybe you've met him?

　No. Is this a pattern that you've never had, but you just know the name?

　I looked at Sophia again.
　Her face and her name.

　I imagined a more juvenile look because girls this age change so quickly, and also because she came up with her full name, so I searched my brain for both Sophia and Despina.

　I tried to remember more deeply than I did earlier.
　But - I still can't remember anything, I have no idea.

'Sorry, I still can't remember. Maybe it's some clerk--
....

　The killing atmosphere swelled.
　It's twice as deadly - no, three times as deadly - enough to sting your skin.

　This is not good.
　It's the murderous air of a tough guy.

　Sofia is standing on her shoulders, slumped over and trembling with a rut.

"...but...
Always!　I've been waiting for you!

　When she looked up quickly, Sophia was teary-eyed for some reason.

''RENEWING MIST!!!''

　He held up his hand and cast a spell.
　The same magic as before, but the killing power is much stronger than the killing power.

''d*mn!

　I flicked it straight up and then ran away like a de-rabbit.

　The second spell was shot in full view, so the people around me ran away as well.

''Wait!''

　Sophia shouted and chased after him, shooting her magic.

　Tsk!
　You're a bunch of a**h*les!

　That magic is causing damage all over the place.
　Buildings are burning and trees are melting.

　In order to avoid flying fire as much as possible, I ran out of the city in a straight line, keeping the same distance from Sophia and preventing the magic.

　As a result, I came to an unpopular place outside the city in a way that seemed to drag Sophia along with me.

　There - high-speed movement.

''Nah!　Where did he go?

　In an instant, he was behind Sophia and then disappeared from her attention, running away from her view while making a wide circle back to the city.
　After returning to the city, he came back to the mansion.

''Fuu........''
Oh, welcome back, Hermes-- what's going on?

　She bumped into her sister in the doorway, and in the middle of her greeting, she noticed something and approached her with a small tilt of her head.

''Hm?　What's going on?
You're burning your clothes.
It's true.

　My sister pointed it out to me and I noticed.
　My clothes were scorched a little bit here and there.
　My body is intact, but the clothes seem to have damaged me more than necessary.

''And................................and it's burned. It smells like when I used a pumice stone to bake bread with steam.''
I don't like that.

　I smiled.
　Raging Mist.
　As the name suggests, a magic that emits frenzied, scorching steam.

　Since I was burned by it, I guess my sister's metaphor is true, if I can say it's true.

　Well, be that as it may.
　I decided to ask my sister.

"Sis, have you ever heard of the name Sofia Despina?
Despina?

　The sister seemed to get stuck on the bottom, on the last name.

'You know it?'
'Yes, I know Despina. I mean, how come Hermes doesn't know?
What?

　I'm perplexed.
　Do I even have to know?

　Seeing my confusion, my sister explained to me.


''You know that the First Lord led two hundred men to fight from place to place, right?
Yeah.

　I know that's normal.

'At that time, the title given to all 200 people who followed me to the end was 'Despina'. It's an old word that means 'best follower'.
Yeah.

　I nodded.

　'Despina, that's not the word, but I've heard that story a few times.

'It's a house that's... a branch of the family, or something like that.
'Yes, most of the 200 people went straight to the last name Despina, and over time they were united in one house.

　I see.
　By the way, the Cano family is still connected to the house.
　I didn't use it after I became head of the family, so I didn't even have the name in mind.

　So it's not entirely unrelated to me.
　I can see why she's so angry at me, but maybe she's a little too angry for that.

What about it?
As a matter of fact... dangerous!

　As soon as I tried to explain, the killing air came from directly above.

　The magic hit the ceiling and flew through the air.
　I quickly held my sister and dodged it by jumping to the side.

　The magic - Raising Mist landed, melting the entire carpet and creating a large hole in the floor.

　A girl jumped down from the ceiling.

'I've found her!　Hermes Cano!

　It was Sophia.
　She stood up suddenly and stared at me with an angry face.

　The soot stains all over her face add to her demon form.

'Hide me!

　Sophia holds her hand out to me.
　She chants and increases her magic power.

　d*mn, a big one's coming!

　I looked around, there was only my sister.
　If it's just my sister - and I kicked the ground and fleshed out Sophia.

　I'm sure you'll be surprised at how close the distance is in an instant, and I dropped my sword on her neck with a thump.
　Sophia, whose consciousness was reaped by the blow, holds her in her crumbling place like a doll whose strings were cut.

"Huh ... that was dangerous. Sis, are you okay--sis.
The girl...
Do you know?
''Yes, she's the girl with the highest magic power in Despina. I think her name is Sofia........oh.

　That was the moment in my sister's mind when she connected with my question earlier.

'Heh ... I see.'
What?
It's great of you to defeat the Kirin Son of Despina so easily.
Oof....

　I'm disappointed.
　I knew it was going to happen.

　The only thing that saved me was the fact that my sister was the only witness to this event.