“Ohhhhh!”
Lifa, who had looked up, let out a sound of surprise and curiosity.
Not far away, Isis had placed a demonic beast, far larger than a person and on its last breath, beside the campsite.
“Lifa, can you handle this?”
Isis smiled at Lifa, who had walked up in shock, and softly asked while facing the beast.
“This… Teacher Ron always handled it before.”
After getting closer, Lifa saw the true state of the beast, and her shock grew even greater than before.
Its massive body, half a story tall, seemed to have been cleanly split into two perfectly even halves by a single sword stroke; from another angle, whether it was the carapace, flesh, or bones, every part from the cut was a perfect, art-like plane.
“Th-that’s amazing—”
Lifa believed that given some time, she could also kill this beast of the same rank as herself, but to achieve what Isis had done…
She couldn’t. Her weapon definitely couldn’t either.
“I encountered it while I was taking a walk around the area. The other half has other uses.” Isis glanced at Ron, who was busy by the fire, and invited Lifa to help.
“This half is our dinner ingredient. Lifa, can you help me process it?”
“Okay~ We can also pick some wild vegetables and berries later~”
The golden-haired girl wasn’t good at refusing invitations, especially from her new friend.
On the other hand, because most of the things Rosalyn had prepared were magical tools, these overly ‘advanced’ camping supplies left Lifa at a loss for how to use them.
“Teacher, Teacher, I’ll leave all of this to you.”
Then she ran back to Ron’s side, said this, and simply left the task of setting up the camp with these items entirely to her teacher.
“Sigh—”
Processing ingredients was a somewhat smelly and bloody affair. Lifa and Isis dragged the beast further away to avoid the campsite. Left alone in the camp, Ron sighed as he watched their distant figures.
“Brave Lady, your motives aren’t pure.”
He muttered, setting up the stove over the newly lit fire.
In Ron’s view, while it was good that Isis hadn’t discovered or cared about his identity this time, it was highly likely that because of that mysterious ‘Destiny’ talk, his only dependable and trusted disciple had become a new target.
“Compared to before, she’s got a lot more tricks up her sleeve.”
After adjusting the positions of the three tents again, Ron wiped the sweat from his forehead.
He saw it very clearly, from that dagger, to the current guidance and care for Lifa.
Isis was working hard to maintain a state, wanting to gain Lifa’s trust and closeness, trying to tie his student to her side.
If not for the last save file where Isis had forced him to slit his own throat and return to heaven, Ron might have truly believed Isis’s claim that she could suppress the curse through willpower and self-harm.
But now, he only had a sense of crisis and determination.
“I have to shake her off.”
Over the past two days, Ron wasn’t thinking of simply shaking her off by running away with Lifa. Isis definitely wouldn’t give up then.
Not only would his plan to go to the Capital City be disrupted, but if a bigger commotion erupted, he might be discovered.
What he wanted was for Isis to give up on Lifa, whether passively or actively, to completely shake off this Brave Lady who could explode at any moment.
As for what would happen to Isis, Ron preferred to believe—only his future self, developed, and Lifa would be more likely to save her.
He couldn’t redo and load a save anymore. He knew this was just a convenient excuse to convince himself, but he truly couldn’t trust or face this Isis who could turn into the Demon King at any moment.
“Teacher, Teacher, leave preparing dinner to Lifa from now on~”
Not long after, Lifa returned to Ron’s side, now holding a clay basin filled with meat and some mushrooms and berries.
“Oh, right! Sister Ash is over there. She wants to talk to you about finding that origin crystal!”
“Huh? She’s looking for me?”
Ron had just finished his work here. Although these expensive tools only required a bit of magic to activate, he was currently an ordinary person. His magic reserves were completely drained after activating each of these items one by one.
“That’s right~”
Lifa sat down next to Ron. Ron turned to look, and saw Isis standing on a large rock by the river, her gaze seemingly also directed his way.
“Teacher, you can go with peace of mind. Trust Lifa’s cooking skills!”
“These are all things Sister Ash and I picked from the forest. On the way, she also asked about you and the village…”
“Wh-what did you tell her?!”
At first, Ron was just thoughtful, but the effect of Lifa’s latter sentence almost made his expression change instantly.
Also mindful that Isis wasn’t far away, after the first ‘you’ with a volume several times louder, Ron barely managed to lower the rest of his words to a volume only the two of them could hear.
“Teacher, I didn’t reveal anything about you.”
Lifa said, pouting. This time, she could see Ron’s distrust of her.
“I only talked about the village and my previous times entering the magic beast forest. Teacher, your expression just now was really scary.”
‘It’s not like it’s because you talked carelessly last time…’
Ron blinked his eyes imperceptibly a couple of times, suppressed the bad memories, apologized to Lifa, and leisurely stood up, walking towards Isis.
Discussing the matter of finding the origin crystal?
Ron didn’t believe Isis would care about something that, for her, was nothing more than spending some time searching—an easy task.
Even Ron, feeling like a startled bird, now suspected that perhaps even Rosalyn might be someone the Brave Lady was using after discovering Lifa.
“Mr. Ron, I’ve just distributed the flesh and blood of that demonic beast in these locations.”
Isis stood on the rock by the water. Ron looked up at her. The Brave Lady held a map in one hand, while the fingers of her other hand lightly pointed at several spots in the forest outside this clearing.
“Do you see any problems or have other ideas?”
“You can speak frankly.”
“This… is a perfect arrangement.”
“This beast should be considered a relatively powerful and high-status existence. Its flesh and blood can deter lower-level demonic beasts from approaching, while higher-level ones will instead come to investigate because of it.”
“Including the one carrying the origin crystal.”
Ron hadn’t expected Isis to really be discussing these serious matters with him. Caught off guard, he habitually began to analyze.
“Hmm, correct.”
Isis nodded expressionlessly, her reply concise.
“Actually, compared to a scholar, you give me the feeling more of a seasoned Adventurer.”
“Rich combat experience, deep understanding of swordsmanship, and familiarity with these things.”
“Mr. Ron, you are not simple.”
The white-haired Brave Lady gazed into the distance at the forest. After stating everything, she glanced sideways at Ron’s eyes.
“Miss Ash, thank you for the praise.”
Ron narrowed his eyes as if very relaxed, appreciating the surrounding scenery. In reality, being stared at by those blood-red eyes made him somewhat nervous.
“So, that’s why you can teach Lifa so excellently. Including that storage pendant, you treat her very well…”
Isis’s tone remained flat as she continued her praising small talk, but Ron felt the moment of truth was about to arrive.
So.
“You flatter me, Miss Isis.”
Seizing the gap before Isis could say her next sentence, Ron casually continued his response.
“Hiz…”
Isis’s expression, which had always been relatively cold towards Ron, suddenly stiffened. Realizing how Ron had addressed her, the first things to arrive were surprise and fluster.
“What did you call me?”
Isis confirmed again, word by word, her tone stiff as she stared fixedly at Ron.
“Miss Isis.”
Ron just smiled. Then he also stepped onto the rock where Isis stood, standing shoulder to shoulder with the white-haired Brave Lady.