"Huff... Huff... Huff... Huff..."
The vision rises and falls with the rhythm of the breath.
—Did we win...
After scanning the corpses sprawled around him, Aoto swallowed, moistening his slightly parched throat from focusing so much on the battle that he hadn't even had time to swallow his saliva.
"...Impressive," Saito's voice emerged from behind Aoto at this moment.
Saito, holding a tachi still dripping blood, walked slowly toward Aoto.
"I thought the person I was protecting this time would be someone lacking in skill."
"It seems that is not the case."
In response to Saito's brief compliment, Aoto chuckled lightly a few times:
"I owe it to the fact that the opponents we encountered this time were conveniently weak, and with you guarding my back, I could fight so smoothly."
The main reason Aoto believed they could achieve such a decisive victory in the recent battle was— the enemy was weak.
