Explaining this in full seriousness, he meant to—
“We’ve been targeted by the Mazoku, and you are the reason. As the one responsible for this group, I can’t just leave this situation alone. Do you know what I mean?”
“I do. I understand. You want me to go.”
“—?!”
“That is correct.”
His roundabout manner of speaking notwithstanding, Lefille had understood what he was getting at. Galeo nodded at her response. Responding to the turn of events, the crowd began to murmur once more.
“Of course!”
“Get the hell out of here!”
“You jinx!”
Overly cruel words. Regardless of whether or not Lefille had indeed been the cause for the attacks, she had never intended to bring harm to the caravan. In any event, the one in greatest danger at the moment was her. The one they should be most concerned about was her.
That was how it should have been, anyway. This manner of kicking someone when they were down was going way too far.
Suimei could restrain himself no longer.
“Hey! You’re just going to force her out all alone?!”
“Of course we are! The Mazoku were targeting us because of this girl, you know?! Staying together with this girl means going up against that Mazoku general and his army!”
“Even so! If she’s all alone, what’s she going to do about food and water?!”
Even putting the Mazoku issue aside, this was another important facet of things.
Whether or not you were traveling alone, food and water were a matter of life and death. Ensuring that you had sufficient provisions to last was a necessary part of travel.
Since the caravan was fundamentally for the purpose of transport, carrying along large amounts of food and water was a non-problem. This was not the case for a lone person, however.
If you were to either misjudge either the amount of provisions needed or the distance to be traveled, then it was quite possible to run out of supplies before you’d reached your destination.
Without anywhere to stay along the road, the danger posed to her by exiling Lefille from the group at this point was easy enough to imagine.
The adventurer didn’t seem to care, though.
“I don’t know anything about that! It has nothing to do with us, anyway!”
He actually said something like that.
Suimei turned to the others.
“…And you all feel similarly?” he couldn’t help but ask, though he knew the answer even before he spoke.
As he’d expected, his question was met with cold words and colder gazes.
“…Tch.”
His teeth gritted in response. The adventurer looked at him with contempt before saying something truly outrageous.
“And? How long are you going to pretend? I know that, deep down, you also think this girl should get the hell out. Am I wrong?”
“WHAT?! I would never—”
“Pretending to be her friend this whole time, you’re too far to back out now? Or what? Deceived by her good looks? I guess there’s that, she is pretty – at least on the outside.”
“Wh—”
“Hmph. Not only did she bring the Mazoku upon us, but she’s also the kind of woman who leads men astray—”
This last line was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Suimei, his rage boiling over as coldness seized his heart.
I won’t be silent.
No matter what, his vulgarity had gone too far; he’d done something which Suimei was simply incapable of doing.
That’s why it couldn’t be helped if Suimei, unable to control himself any longer, raised his fingers toward the adventurer, preparing to snap them.
“What? You want to start something?”
Not realizing the perilous situation he was in, the adventurer said something fatally stupid. In just a second more, that smug smile would be wiped from his face—
Suddenly, Suimei, about to give form to his fury, was stopped by Lefille.
“—Stop it, Suimei-kun!”
“…”