"————!"

Shien forcefully raised his head and looked forward.

In an instant, Shien saw it.

"Good evening, should I be saying that?"

The one to speak in such a teasing tone with a beautiful voice was a girl.

A girl who wore a dress like that of a princess. She had black hair and red eyes, and was sitting on a branch like it was a swing. While swinging her feet about, her hand were holding onto a serving of deserts, which she was taking a tiny bite out of little by little.

Shien has seen this girl before.

Plus, it was just yesterday.

"You're that poser from yesterday?"

Those word involuntarily left Shien's mouth.

"Poser?" The girl stopped for a moment before wrinkling her brow in distaste, "You can just call me Leisha, but the word ‘poser'. I may not know what it means, but I could still feel that it isn't something good. Can you please not call me that?"

Hearing that, Shien ended up raising his eyebrow at it.

"Is that fine?" Shien spoke in a teasing voice just like Leisha just did, "You seemed to have said it before that not just anyone could have you give out your name, right?"

"That's true." Leisha looked towards Shien, and the distaste on her brow disappeared to be replaced with an expression like she found something funny, "But I don't want you to do like you did before and run away, so this time, I properly gave out my name."

"Well then, oh milady Leisha who properly gave out your name, can I ask what you're doing here?" Shien spoke in a forceful manner, "Don't tell me that it's just a coincidence now?"

Perhaps it was because his mutterings to himself just now was overheard, but Shien's bad mood was shown in his words and attitude.

Only, Leisha didn't seem to mind it at all.

"You can just take as a coincidence." Leisha shot back lightheartedly, "If it wasn't a ‘coincidence', then how would I have heard something so interesting?"

As expected, she had clearly overheard those previous words.

"Originally, I was only randomly passing by Lamdrion while running away, so I never imagined that I could end up encountering something like this." Leisha looked directly at Shien as if trying to see through all his secrets, "However, thanks to that, I seemed to have gotten some unexpected gains."

Those words once more told Shien that she really did come because of him.

Perhaps, after the meeting the previous day, she had been paying attention to Shien the whole time, to the point where she even ended up following him to a place like this.

In other words..

"So I've been followed huh?"

Shien muttered out loud.

Leisha didn't give any response to that. She just smiled to herself, and the gaze she gave Shien became more intrigued.

"Just like with last time, this time, you also seemed to have said something very interesting huh?" Leisha said with a grin, "You were quite right this time though. This world no longer needs a Hero anymore. Are you disappointed?"

"Disappointed?" Shien narrowed his eyes and purposefully acted puzzled while actually speaking the truth from his heart, "Why would I be disappointed?"

It he was telling the truth, Shien would in actuality be overjoyed.

If the world no longer needs a Hero, then he could basically toss that bit of responsibility and live as he liked, right?

Only..

"You should be worried about getting caught up in some kind of dark plot right?" Leisha saw through Shien's heart with a glance and continued, "Not knowing for what reason that the gods summoned you, nor knowing what the current situation with the three races of this world is like. Simply put, it's that you critically lack information, so you don't know just who to believe."

"Was I wrong?"

"Newest Hero."

The moment Leisha's voice fell, the atmosphere around them suddenly became unbelievably heavy.

Shien had also completely abandoned the hope he held onto.

Because, things are quite obvious.

His identity was exposed.

"Are you not going to take out the Holy Sword you have in that bundle on your back?" Leisha spoke as if provoking him, "If you don't use the Holy Sword, at your current level, you'd be no match for me you know?"

"Match?" Shien met Leisha's gaze, "Are you here to deal with me then?"

"What?" Leisha was still grinning, "Is that strange?"

"Of course it's strange." Shien ignored Leisha's provocations and instead pointed out, "If you really were here to deal with me, then I would have discovered you long before."

After all, Shien has a skill like [Enemy Detection], which could detect any existence that holds ill intent towards him.

Under that kind of situation, if someone purposefully approached him while holding ill intent, then Shien would have discovered them long before.

And yet, Shien did not manage to discover Leisha existence in time.

That proves that Leisha did not actually hold ill intentions towards Shien.

Of course..

"Aren't you a bit too naive? My lord Hero?"

Leisha acted as if she just heard something funny, and the mirth in her eyes begun to disappear.

"True, I didn't have ill intent towards you."

"However, in this world, it's not like you could only fight because you are enemies."historical

"Like with me. If I just wanted to test your abilities, and not to make your my foe, then don't you think that by itself is already enough of a reason to deal with you?"

With those words, a pitch black whirlwind like magical power rose up.

That magic power created a tempest about her, blowing in all directions, shaking the surrounding trees along with the accompanying noises. Leaves were also blown in all directions.

Shien tensed and drew his weapon without hesitation.

The drawn weapon was not the Holy Sword, but the broadsword that Shien had hanging on his waist.

In the next second..

"Boom!"

The magic power emitted from Leisha turned into gravity, and like a field, smashed down on the surrounding, and also smashed down onto Shien at the same time.

In an instant, the leaves flying about in the air were all slammed down into the ground. The surrounding foliage were also crushed by an unseen force, creating countless creaking noises, with some even having broken.

Shien also felt his entire body being pressed down on by an unbelievable weight, pushing him towards the ground.

If nothing unexpected happened, this gravity should have been enough to smash him into the ground.

However, it's unknown if it was [Magic Resistance] or [Abnormal Status Resistance] that activated, so as the weight upon Shien tried to press him down, it suddenly became much weaker.

"Eh?"

As she saw that, Leisha made a surprised noise.

"To have resisted my gravity magic without even using the Holy Sword?"

Leisha had never even considered that.

Unfortunately, this bit of unexpectedness had made it too late.

"Evolve!"

Shien used the moment that the gravity turned weak to decisively activate his [Limit Evolution] skill.

In an instant, magic power flowed through his body and drastically increased Shien's strength.

"Bang!"

Thus, Shien cracked the ground with his footstep with a bang and, while moving against the gravity, shot towards where Leisha was like a rocket.

Since his opponent had already acted, then there's no need for any hesitation on his side either.

This is Shien's great adaptability and decisiveness, and the fierceness learned from those ten days in the forest.

Seeing that, Leisha felt joy rather than anger.

"Things have started to become more interesting now."