Yup, you can believe your eyes. It’s a fourth chapter.

The Preceding Hero and the Agent

「……Wh, what are you saying Oyaji. Don’t say something so stupid!」

Kuon, who went absentminded from Vodan-shi’s words, shouted while he struck his fist on the table that was placed in front of the sofa.

「There’s a kidnapping uproar taking place in this town that we, the Heleott Group, are occupying, you know? Something like this, we can’t just keep quiet about it, right!?」

Maybe because he had taken pride in being part of the Heleott group, Kuon strongly, strongly retaliated against Vodan-shi’s words. But, Vodan-shi only glanced at Kuon, then returned his eyes to me.

「……Could I have you take a look at this?」

Vodan-shi took out a folded up paper from his pocket and handed it to me.

When I opened the paper that was folded up several times, what was there was……

「Ah~……With this, it’s impossible, isn’t it.」

Together with a sentence that suggested the assassination of Kuon who was his one and only son, it was written that he was to keep his hands off of the recent kidnappings.

「っ, !?」

「When did you get this?」

Gripping Kuon’s arm that had extended out together with my words, I asked Vodan-shi. Despite the fact that Kuon might be killed, yesterday, he appeared in the Magic Clad Martial Arts Demonstration and went about as he liked. So most likely, today, that……

「This morning. ……This morning, it was at my bedside.」

「I’m sure it was.」

Hearing the words I thought they’d be, I let go of Kuon’s arm, and returned the letter back to Vodan-shi after folding it up.

Going by how he’s a doting parent, he’ll be wanting to prevent Kuon from being killed no matter the cost.

Since assassination was something that often occurred even in royal palaces that should have been firmly protected in both the past and present, it’s not something that can be perfectly defended against.

If magic is used, it’s possible to erase appearance or sound. That raises the success rate of assassination even more.

He had experienced an event where they turned up the impact of it by going out of their way to place it at his bedside. His fear towards the assassination should have been raised dreadfully high.

「I’m sorry, but I can’t move the group. ……I truly, am sorry.」

Maybe it was anger in regards towards the kidnappings that were occurring on his own turf, or maybe it was from the fear that his precious only son might be killed, he powerfully struck his own knee with his trembling fist.

◇

「Kuh……Hold it right there……!」

Bernadette, who was a nun belonging to the Holy Ulquiorra Religious Organization and one of the units known as an 『Agent』, was running through the town of Be Io.

While pushing her way through the crowds of people, she ran with the full speed that she possessed.

Is she running away from something?

Nay. It was the opposite of that.

「At this rate, they’re going to get away!」

Bernadette was in pursuit. Thinking it would be bad if they got away, she pursued them while a cold sweat was on her brow.

「Nuah!?」

「っ, Sorry!」

She was about to stumble from bumping shoulders with a passerby, but she ignored it and continued running.

But going through a crowd of people is difficult, and even if she caught sight of them, the distance between them would immediately widen.

Carrying a jute bag that had a size that looked like it could have a single child placed in it, no, right now, it was a jute bag that had a single child placed in it, the pair of men advanced through the crowd of people with practiced movements.

Compared to that, the “girls” weren’t really able to move forward due to the crowd of people.

「As expected, they’re used to this, is what I probably should say. Eei, how annoying!」

The young Centaur girl that ran together with Bernadette warped that elegant face of hers and looked unhappy.

「At this rate……Kuushe-san! Let’s separate into two groups!」

「Two groups……I see, we’ll attack from both sides, right?」

「Yes!」

「You go on ahead!」

Kuushe understood Bernadette’s intentions in an instant.

When she moved her chin and instructed her to go on ahead, Bernadette nodded and separated from Kuushe.

「I’ll leave cornering them to you!」

Maybe because it was said quickly, when Bernadette came to a stop looking like she was crouching, she jumped up onto a building’s roof with jumping power that easily let her pass over the building, and continued the pursuit from the rooftops.

……As for why things turned out like this, we’ll have to turn the story back a little.