Chapter 12: Peaceful Negotiation is Over (Patreon)

"—That's the one. Hand it over!"

"Uh, may I ask what your relationship is with Ms. Lukulazia? Did she send you to retrieve it?"

"Lukulazia? That witch? We have no connection."

"In that case, I can't give it to you. My grandfather asked me to return this to someone!"

"..."

Seeing the stone slab, Erika's eyes instantly lit up.

But the next moment, just when he had seemed cooperative, Kusanagi Godou hugged the slab and took a step back.

Immediately noticing his refusal to comply, the girl frowned slightly and produced a small dagger.

It looked like she was ready to resort to force at the slightest disagreement!

As for the elegant young man who had been standing by, watching the scene unfold... or rather, Haru, who had also arrived in Italy just as the plot was beginning...

He now withdrew his attention from the spectacle and turned to look in another direction, toward a different part of the town.

Because from that direction, he could sense a terrifying concentration of cursed power gathering, as if something monstrous was descending.

He had naturally recognized this female lead, Erika, the moment she appeared.

The awkward part was that he currently didn't understand Italian. Thankfully they started talking in japanese later which prevented him from being completely obvilious of their conversation.

This was his first time seeing Erika, the female lead, in person—a woman who could wear such an arrogantly defiant smile so brilliantly.

Why was she so full of herself, yet so dazzling at the same time?

These two points made him feel an urge to tease her.

How should he put it? Simply put, the girl before him was in dire need of being taken down a peg!

"Tch! I've wasted enough words on you, and you still refuse? So be it. Peaceful negotiations are over. Now it's time for battle. Reasoning with someone who cannot communicate is like playing the lute for a cow!" Her tone was pure provocation, not a shred of peace in it. Erika was now intent on simply taking the slab by force.

But it was too late. Not because Godou was strong or had run away, but because—

"BOOM!!"

A series of violent, explosive roars shook the air!

Suddenly, in the heart of the once-peaceful town, a colossal "wild boar," roughly fifty meters long, materialized out of nowhere.

It landed with devastating force, crushing buildings and tearing up the ground as it went.

This spectacle unfolded before their eyes. Haru was the only one who had expected something like this; the other two were frozen in place, as if they'd been dropped into a monster movie.

Especially Kusanagi Godou. Seeing the mountain-sized boar shattered his entire worldview, leaving him utterly dumbfounded.

The giant boar's hide was as black as darkness itself.

Every time the massive black beast stomped on the pier, the ground shook violently. Each deafening roar shattered the windows of nearby buildings, glass raining down like hail.

"ROAR—"

With every charge, several buildings or warehouses were smashed to pieces as if they were tiny models.

A fire suddenly erupted, likely from a ruptured fuel tank in one of the warehouses. The flames spread rapidly, the pier blossoming into a lotus of calamitous red before being swallowed whole. The fire grew until it seemed capable of consuming everything.

The trio found themselves in a corner of the port, surrounded by flames that were quickly expanding, threatening to set the entire harbor ablaze.

But for ordinary people, the true horror was the giant boar still running amok through the town.

"What?! Could it be...?" Seeing the giant boar, Erika instantly forgot about the grimoire. Witnessing the destruction, she immediately charged toward the creature without a second thought. "You two, get out of here! Run, now!"

With that brief warning, she abandoned the two young men, leaped onto the roof of a moving car in the street, and rode it toward the rampaging boar.

"Wait!"

Seeing Erika's reckless move, a stunned Godou finally snapped out of his daze.

But before he could call out to stop her, the girl had already disappeared around a corner, leaving him staring at the colossal boar wreaking havoc in the town.

After a moment of trembling hesitation, he gritted his teeth and began running toward the boar as well.

As he rushed forward, he didn't forget to wave in the opposite direction and shout at Haru: "Hide!"

"???"

A mere divine beast? Why would he need to hide?

Besides, he hadn't achieved his goal in coming here yet. And why would he give Kusanagi Godou the chance to play the hero and save the beauty?

So, in the next instant, his figure blurred and vanished from the spot.

Tap, tap, tap—

Meanwhile, still clutching the stone slab with no time to stash it in his backpack, Kusanagi Godou ran against the flow of panicked crowds and vehicles, rushing through the alleys toward the giant boar.

"ROAR!"

"Ah...!"

But the next moment, an ear-splitting roar slammed into him, followed by an invisible shockwave that sent his whole body tumbling.

The result was predictable. Godou lost his balance, performed an impressive face-plant onto the flat ground, and the stone slab flew from his grasp, soaring through the air ahead of him.

Smack—

Just as Godou, reacting on instinct, curled into a ball to protect his head, a hand shot out, intercepting the slab in mid-air just before another figure could reach it, cleanly snatching it away.

"..."