In the dark, deep sea, I thought I heard Akira's voice.

And the two killing airs that echoed through my body.
They awakened my consciousness.


''Aki, la ...... akira ......?''


I could feel Akira's presence nearby.
A tremendous shockwave is scraping the walls around me, but strangely, my body is unharmed.


''Haha! The princess is awake!


A boy's voice rang out.
I recognized the voice as belonging to the green boy.


"You should call Amelia the same thing. You called me 'Princess' earlier."

You're an idiot.


I heard the sound of metal colliding with metal.
The wall near me chattered and trembled.


'You're quoted as saying it's a princess who wakes up.

You're not in a fairy tale, this is real! d*mn kids.


I blinked a few times and the scene in front of me became clearer.
My body's senses come back.
My fingers move.
Apparently, my body is lying on the side of the labyrinth wall.

I moved my arm, which still hadn't regained its senses, and raised my body up to support the labyrinth wall.


''Akira!''

Stay where you are, Amelia. You can't just go to ...... and I won't let you be the only one who gets taken.


Akira, who has his back to me, releases the cloak he was wearing towards me.
Akira's scent envelops me.
Very, very relieved.

Slyly, my hand, which was hanging on to the labyrinth wall, slipped.
A warm, fluffy feeling supports my body as I almost fall.


"Yo, Le?

"Take it easy, Miss Amelia. Trust in the Lord and wait.


He was looking at me with warm golden eyes.
It wasn't my usual black cat form, perhaps because I was still transformed, but it was definitely Yol.
Its warm body leaned in close to me as if to warm my chilled body.
Its tail gently wrapped around my body with Akira's cloak.
The two reassuring smells I've always felt loosen me up.


'Yeah. ...... I always trust you. Akira and Yol.


Akira, who is bleeding with wounds all over the place, is still clashing swords and spears with the uninjured boy.
Akira is losing, but it's also amazing that he's able to get away with so many injuries against the demon race.


...... Akira, it looks like fun.

''Lord-dono's strength is about two heads above other humans and demons in this world. You can't get rid of them with a single blow. I'm not going to go out of my way to find an opponent because my master's nature is such that he doesn't like trouble, but still ......


Yol turned his attention to Akira and the others.

Akira was hurting and bleeding and should be in pain, but he was smiling.
He seemed to be swinging his sword in a way that was more fun than I've ever seen before.


'It must be fun to fight against an opponent with competing abilities. To the extent that you unconsciously smile. ...... You don't want to think of yourself as a battle fanatic, but Lord Lord Lord is an unmistakable battle fanatic.''


She really seems to be enjoying herself.
The sight of him was matched with Kirika, who was practicing her sword by herself.


''I'm ...... jealous.''


A flood of dolorous emotions came flooding in.
Probably Yol didn't hear it, but the words spilled out of his mouth.


The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that you haven't been hit by a single attack yet. That's true, it's amazing that you've been able to endure so much against the demon race, but it's useless if your attacks don't hit,


There was certainly no big wound, but there was blood coming out of a small wound, and Akira's face was pale as if he was anemic.
Blood that seemed to belong to Akira was dotted on the ground and fell over a wide area.

No, they were splattered so much that it was strange for them to be just falling.
It's as if they were dropped there on purpose .......


'No, I'm finally ready to go,'


The boy raised an eyebrow.
Akira grinned and raised his hand horizontally.


'What are you doing now ......?'

Activate shadow magic.


All the shadows in the labyrinth gathered to Akira.
The two shadows that had been illuminated by the lights of the labyrinth, as well as the shadows of me and Yol, were gone and became Akira's shadow.


''Scatter!''


Akira's voice caused the gathered shadows to scatter.
It's a technique I've never seen before.
As I recall, Akira could only use his own shadow as far as I knew.
He couldn't have gathered and manipulated the shadows around him, I'm sure.
When did .......

The scattered shadows went somewhere as if they were being guided by something.


'Blood is .......'


When I looked at the blood scattered on the ground, relying on Yol's muttered voice, I saw shadows gathered in blood of a certain size.


''They're gathering in response to what little magic is left in the blood ...... no, gathering?''


Akira raised his hand and shook it.


''Shadow beast.''


Shadows scattered over the blood writhed and took the form of a beast.
The wolf-like, quadrupedal, bloodthirsty beast ducked from the boy's wielded spear and bit into his legs, body and arms.


''Shh. ！！！！''


The boy spun his body around and forced the beasts to shake them off.
His flesh was gouged out by the impact.
This time the boy's blood splashed around.
He lost more blood than Akira.
It's a reversal of form in an instant.


'Apparently, your blood and magic power is quite tasty. ''Shadow magic'' is pleased.''


Akira said as he saw the shadows shimmering at his feet.
The boy, on the other hand, was staring at the blood he had shed.


''...... Hmph! Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!


And then he suddenly starts laughing out loud.
Akira backed away as if he had pulled back a bit.
Before I knew it, the beasts made of shadows are gone.


'This is the pain ....... This is my blood.......''


The boy held the blood flowing from his own stomach.
While Akira and I pulled back, only Yol watched him calmly.


'The demon race is generally famous for its high magic power and high offensive power, and people tend to think that's all there is to it, but their defensive power is also an order of magnitude greater than that of other races. Not just blades, but magic doesn't hurt them so much. ...... I even knew a guy who had never shed a single drop of blood since he was born into this world.'


If that's true, from the reaction, it seems the boy was one of those kinds.
To me, he appears to be happy to have blood flowing to him.
He seems to be happy to feel pain.
He appears to be glad that he has the same color blood as the rest of his species.


'Ahahahahahahahahahaha! Really, it's the best. People would be happy to know there's a human race like yours.


With an ecstatic smile, the boy dropped his spear.
And in the other hand that wasn't holding the spear, he held a flute that he had taken out from somewhere.


You have shown me a great deal of skill. I will respond to that.


I looked at the whistle of it and remembered just before I died.


'No! Run, Akira!

It's too late.


The boy held the flute in both hands and put it in his mouth.