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—Near the Night Sky Silver Rabbit headquarters in Tsutrail—
"Damn it! A mere discarded test subject...! Minotaur, crush them quickly!"
A man wearing a red robe over his head shouted in agitation toward a minotaur that had grown nearly twice its normal size.
Upon receiving the red-robed man's order, the minotaur raised its clasped hands high above its head.
"Carol!"
Sophia called out to Caroline upon seeing this.
"No problem! Something like that cannot catch me now!"
Caroline activated the earring-type magical tool she had received from her brother and sister in Daruane. Magic circles appeared in both of her eyes.
In addition, a jade-colored flame-like aura began leaking from her entire body.
The minotaur swung its clasped hands down toward Caroline.
To Caroline, whose five senses and dynamic vision were now sharply enhanced, the attack was far too slow.
She dodged the attack by a hair's breadth and slipped under the minotaur's legs.
As she passed, she slashed the minotaur's Achilles tendons with the short swords gripped in both hands.
Caroline continued moving away from the spot with that momentum.
As the minotaur lost its balance and could no longer stand,
"Super Explosion!"
Sophia's attack spell struck it without a moment's delay.
"Tch, you little brats..."
The red-robed man clicked his tongue and tried to make his next move, but he realized his body would not move.
That was because Sophia was restraining him with psychokinesis at the same time as she attacked the minotaur.
"Reflective Wall!"
Caroline, who had put distance between herself and the minotaur, activated a spell.
She kicked off the jade-colored translucent wall that appeared behind her and closed the distance to the red-robed man in an instant.
"Kuh!"
The red-robed man fired multiple Thunder Javelins toward the approaching Caroline.
However, Caroline dodged all of them with movements as if she already knew the trajectories of the lightning spears before they were fired.
"Let me say one thing. I am not a test subject! I am Caroline Inglott of the Night Sky Silver Rabbit!"
Caroline shouted as she stored her short swords and clenched her fists.
She then drove her fist accurately into the red-robed man's solar plexus.
"Carol, are you okay?"
Sophia asked with a worried voice.
Caroline, who had finished restraining the red-robed man, showed her usual smile.
"I am perfectly fine! Thanks for worrying about me! ...But why did the cult people attack us?"
Sophia and Caroline had been strolling around the city of Tsutrail since today was their day off.
During that time, they had received the emergency declaration from Selma via telepathy.
The two had immediately headed toward the Night Sky Silver Rabbit headquarters to regroup with Logan and Luna.
On the way, they had been attacked by a group of three men wearing red robes over their heads.
The two of them had repelled the attack alone.
A year ago during the training exploration, Sophia had only been able to activate upper-grade magic at best.
Now she could handle special-grade magic as well, and her unique ability had become incomparably more controllable than when it first manifested.
Caroline had also greatly improved her combat ability through ki activation for physical enhancement and the magical tools she had received from her brother and sister.
"The attack on the explorers guild and the labyrinth overflows are the empire's doing, right...?"
"Hmm, I have been a little suspicious about the empire causing the labyrinth overflows for a while. The method feels more like the cult. ...Maybe the empire is connected to the cult?"
"If that is true, the situation is pretty dangerous, right...?"
"It is just my guess. Anyway, we need to hurry back to the headquarters and regroup with Log while guiding the other clan members to safety!"
Most B-rank or higher explorers in Tsutrail were tasked with dealing with the magical beasts emerging from the labyrinths.
Although Twilight Moon Rainbow was an A-rank party and counted among those handling the magical beasts, in situations like this they were assigned to the team guiding non-combatant clan members to safety.
"Ah, yeah, that is right! I hope Ruu-nee is back at the headquarters too."
"She said she had something urgent come up earlier. If she is outside the city, regrouping will be difficult."
"I wonder where Ruu-nee is right now. I hope she is safe."
"Ruu-nee will be fine. After all, she is an S-rank explorer!"
"Yeah, that is true — wait, what is that...?"
While having such a conversation and heading toward the Night Sky Silver Rabbit headquarters, Sophia let out a confused voice.
"Hmm? What is it ?— Eh!?"
Upon hearing Sophia's murmur, Caroline looked in the direction of her gaze and let out a surprised voice.
Their gaze was directed at the Night Sky Silver Rabbit headquarters.
However, a dome-shaped, red translucent glass-like barrier had appeared at some point, covering the entire area.
"Eh, that was not there a moment ago, right!?"
"Yeah, it would be hard to miss something so conspicuous."
"Anyway, let us hurry!"
Despite their confusion, the two rushed toward the Night Sky Silver Rabbit headquarters.
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"Log!?"
Caroline raised her voice.
When Sophia and Caroline ran up to the barrier, Logan was fighting a swarm of magical beasts alone.
Using his unique ability Shadow Manipulation, Logan had manifested a variety of animals; dogs, birds, and even elephants and bears.
Even upper-rank explorers would normally be overwhelmed by sheer numbers when fighting alone, yet Logan had not yielded even a single step.
In fact, he even appeared to have the advantage.
"Let us help him, Carol!"
"Of course! Viridescent Mantle!"
In response to Sophia's voice, Caroline activated the earring-type magical tool.
Magic circles appeared in both of her eyes, and a jade-colored flame-like aura covered her entire body.
She then charged straight into the swarm of magical beasts.
"Fire Javelin!"
At the same time as Caroline charged, Sophia activated her spell, sending countless fire spears flying alongside her.
"You two!"
Logan, who had been facing the swarm of magical beasts with a grim expression, brightened up the moment he noticed their support.
The three of them quickly wiped out the swarm of magical beasts.
"Extermination complete!"
Caroline stretched once all the magical beasts had turned into black mist.
"Thanks for the help, you two."
"We are comrades, so of course we would help. ...More importantly, what is this glass-like thing?"
Sophia muttered while looking at the red barrier covering the Night Sky Silver Rabbit grounds.
"...I do not know. It appeared at some point."
"Hmm, I have a bad feeling about this. Hey Log, are the non-combatant clan members still inside?"
"Yeah, most of them are still inside. My Shadow Crossing seems to work to get outside, so I was planning to reduce the number of magical beasts around here first and then evacuate everyone together."
"In that case, we should hurry—"
"By the way, you possess the unique ability called Shadow Manipulation. It was such unimportant information that I had forgotten about it."
Just as Caroline was about to speak after hearing Logan's words, another man's voice overlapped hers.
"!?"
The three of them had kept most of their attention on their surroundings even while talking.
They widened their eyes at the voice of an existence that had slipped through their vigilance net.
Thanks to Orun and Luna's training that had become part of their bodies, they moved naturally even in sudden situations.
They kicked off the ground and jumped in the opposite direction from where the voice had come from to create distance.
"Still, I had assumed that if I caused this much commotion, you would appear first. Could it be that Orun Dura is not in Tsutrail?"
After jumping to create distance, the three turned their gazes toward the direction the voice had come from.
There stood a man with a noble-like atmosphere, was the Rakshasa, Stieg Strom with his usual soft, innocent-looking smile.