Sorry for the delay. I’ve been a bit distracted this week. Here you go. Enjoy.

Edit: Thank you to JC for cleaning the image.

The Preceding Hero’s Hot Blooded Guidance? 3

「Kuh……Scurrying all about!」

「This is, fun.」

Henrietta and Eri, who had made a certain degree of Shuutou their own, were doing a mock battle.

While evading the downpouring thunderstorm with Shuutou, Eri aimed for the momentary gaps.

And then, Henrietta tried to settle the match by closing in on Eri, who was slipping through the thunderstorm, in one stroke with Shuutou and landing a single hit.

Umu. For the way of using it to differ this much depending on the user. It’s pretty interesting.

『Would Trestoria-san’s Shuutou be the ideal form of use?』

『Well, making use of both evasion and offense would probably be the ideal form. Eri is placing emphasis on evasion.

Let’s see……Thinking it out, if we look at it from Sylvia’s point of view, I think that Yuri Roll’s way is closer to the ideal form, you know?』

『Sylvia-onee-chan is, for better or for worse, an offense specialist after all.』

『Your own attack should hit faster than the enemy’s attack can hit………It’s because that was her pet theory.』

In the conversation that passed through the piercings, Alicia and I wryly smile at each other.

「Doaah!?」

「Uhahaha! Keith, you’re amazing!」

「You flew three meters up just now, you know!?」

「You’re just like a Big Hopper!」

The boys, being boys, were in the middle of enjoyably studying.

Incidentally, the thing called a Big Hopper is, just as the name implies, is a gigantic grasshopper.

With a physique that is about the size of a human baby, how it attacks while hopping about surprisingly gets to you mentally.

「っ! Now I’ve got you!」

「Futile, futile!」

Whoops, it looks like it’s reaching the conclusion.

Henrietta pointed the tip of her sword that had its blade smashed and Eri met that with the Spirit’s countless punches.

「The match, is finished –desuwa ne!」

「っ!? ……It’s my, loss.」

Henrietta’s assault was a bluff.

Having gone around to Eri’s back, who had stopped her legs in order to hit, by doing an increasing number of changes of steps, Henrietta perfectly placed her sword at the nape of Eri’s neck. The one that controlled the instantaneous offense and defense was Henrietta.

Eri, who had obediently accepted her defeat, showed a “give up” pose, and the mock battle had come to a close.

Now then, next is……

「Fu, ……Fuun!………Fuah!?」

The broom that was floating to about my head level and the one straddling that broom, Mana.

000022

Every time that she becomes upside down from not keeping her balance, I put her back to the original position by rotating the broom.

「Haa, haa……Mana, that looks fun.」

「It, it isn’t fun at all~……Kyaa!?」

Eri, who was probably breathing with her shoulders due to the battle with Henrietta, looked at the spinning Mana and said that, and at those words, Mana denied them and also lost her balance, once again becoming upside down.

「I was surprised from hearing about a flying magic tool but……To think that it required that kind of training method.」

Compared to the worn out Eri, Henrietta finished it with a degree of sweating a little bit. The two of them had a pretty good battle but I guess their own strengths really are different.

「Come on, one more time.」

「Ha, hahi!」

With a *Kuru* (spin), when I turn the broom, Mana returns from being upside down with it.

That’s right, this magic broom isn’t all that almighty.

The greatest barrier is that, unless they have a good sense of balance, they’ll lose to gravity, and become upside down just like Mana.

Naturally, even if I didn’t assist her, there are ways of returning to the position. But, as I thought, for her, who has a low sense of balance, this training comes first.

Returning her to the original position, when I let go, Mana’s whole body was shaking as she tried to resist becoming upside down.

「Once you’re able to do this to a certain degree, next time, it’s going to be flight. Keep on going, got it?」

「Yes!」

Even while becoming upside down, Mana replied with a loud voice.

◇

「Ahn? ……What’re you doing, Aquadine.」

「Ara, Flam. Same to you, what are you doing here. I had thought that you would have gone to where the Hero is at this point.」

At the bottom of the earth that was called Makai, two women asked about the other as if they were surprised.

The women both had blueish-white skin, and had contrasting hair colors of blue and red.

The Six Blade Generals’ strongest pillar 『Agniera』. And then, another pillar, 『Aquadine』.

Possessing an overwhelming power that was enough to be called natural disasters, they were two pillars of the Demon Lord Army.

「I was thinking that I’d go and kill him just now.」

「Haa. ……It must be nice for you. Being able to freely come and go from here.」

While leaking out a sigh, Aquadine looked up at a certain object.

「……So it’s already been three years, huh.」

Looking up as if lured by it, what was reflected in Flam’s eyes was a black silhouette confined in a giant block of ice.

……It was the Demon Lord.

Three years ago, defeated by the troupe spearheaded by Yashiro Yuu, the appearance of the Demon Lord, who was captured alive by the powerful sealing technique, was in there.

「Yeah, it’s already three years.」

Aquadine replied as if she chewed on something that made her make a sour face to the words that Flam had replied with.

「……Ahh, that’s right. Have you seen that guy around?」

「That guy? Ahh, you mean 『Umbra』?」

It was sudden, truly sudden. As if her mood had suddenly become terrible, Flam scowled.

While bitterly smiling, Aquadine asked once again.

「Yeah. Have you seen that bastard? I was thinking I’d pierce him with a spear to tell him not to lay a hand on Yuuya.」

While asking, she was probably thinking about that Umbra.

As she was looking around, her facial expression was becoming dyed with anger, and she started to become irritated.

「He went towards the Selection. As I thought, there’s nothing better than leaving humans to the human specialists.」

「Keh, to be using those failures, you’ve also fallen.」

Here, I’d like to make one correction.

Yuu is always making Agniera, in other words, Flam, snap, which would make you think that she snaps easily but,

「……You sure do know how to talk. Despite all your insulting big mouth, without even laying a hand or foot on the Hero, you came running back home, you little chick.[1]」

Actually, most of the guys of the Six Blade Generals snap easily.

「AH”? It looks like you wanna get evaporated.」

Flam, whose anger had just now broken through the critical point, produced a flame halberd in her hand.

「Good grief, it’s because Miss Cinders [2] can only think of burning everything to the ground that she’s hard to use. Even the failures are more useful as pieces.[3]」

Having insulted Flam, with a bewitching gesture, water congregated in Aquadine’s hand and a constructed bow appeared.

「Just how I like it, bitch. ……It’s been a while since I’ve been this enraged, dammit.」

Flames gushed out from Flam’s body, and she turned into a Spirit.

The incarnation of the Phoenix that governed flame, Flam, while being a Mazoku, was a Spirit of the highest rank.

Unleashing her strength as a Spirit, Flam was about to fire her greatest attack.

A thunderbolt attacked that body.

「Guh…!? ……You bastard, Tonituls!!」

Being interrupted, the intensely angry Flam, who had unintentionally cancelled her Spiritification, scowled with a fierce look at the perpetrator that had fired the thunderbolt.

「Affirmative. My name is Tonituls[4]. ……We’re in His Lordship’s presence, what are you doing.」

The deep purple haired, bluish-white skinned man carried a spear of lightning in one hand, and, with a slowed pace, he entered the gap between the two people.

Looking closely, since it seems that a thunderbolt was also fired at Aquadine, Aquadine, who had a low resistance to lightning, had taken cover in the ground.

「I was just thinking I’d scorch this bitch.」

「Understood. ……It would seem to be having another one of your usual fits.」

「Ngii!? Y, you……You want me to slaughter you, AH” !?」

Having had a thunderbolt dropped on the crown of her head and momentarily losing consciousness, Flam, while on one knee, snapped at the one she called and who then named himself as Tonituls.

「Acknowledged. I shall be your opponent as much as you like. ……However, this place is in His Lordships presence. Restrain yourself.」

Having manifested a spear of lightning in his right hand, Tonituls clad his entire body in lightning and warned the two.

「……Keh. You sure do have it nice, Tonituls. In these three years, since you’ve often been fighting with opponents that are of your own personal use, you probably don’t have any resentment, do you?」

Taking a stance with two flame halberds, while leaking out bloodlust, Flam said such while anger had clung to her face.

「That’s right. Repeatedly having a rendezvous so often, you must be in high spirits.」

As a countless number of spears of water floated at her back, she chuckled. But, her eyes weren’t laughing.

「Accepted. ……I shall be your opponent. ……Have at you.」

Preparing the thunder spear, Tonituls mouth raised up into a grin. Maybe it really was due to the Mazoku’s fate but, despite having told them not to fight, the heart of the Tonituls right now was quivering in excitement at the fight with two opponents that were at the same rank as his own.

「Ha, you aren’t exactly a substitute for Yuuya but, ……I’ll put everything in order and be your opponent, you damn small fry.」

「You’ve been saying “kill” and “small fry” for a while now………You’ll “learn that you’re no big deal”, you know?」

……A momentary pause, and then in the next second, the three Mazoku of the highest tier of the fire, water, and lightning attributes simultaneously commenced their attacks.

Translator’s Notes:

[1] The original is ひよこさん, which is a chick as in a baby chicken.

[2] The original is 燃えカスさん, which would be “Cinders-san”. I made it Miss Cinders because it sounds more insulting.

[3] Pieces as in the pieces used in chess or something similar.

[4] Looking for a better name spelling for this: トーニトゥルス