Chapter 721

Cries of alarm rose one after another; the originally dense crowd on the square scattered in rapid flight the moment the plant-type monsters appeared.

Orario's Adventurers occasionally brawl right in the streets, so many of the city's residents have cultivated the habit of evacuating immediately when trouble strikes.

Even so, some still fail to retreat in time and get caught up in the sudden incident — during the spontaneous dispersal, a number of people were knocked down by those around them, and among them a child was separated from her mother.

Perhaps the child's cries for her mother drew the plant-type monster's attention; it swung its thick vine whips straight down toward the little girl who had not managed to escape this side in time.

"No!"

The mother, pushing against the flow in a desperate attempt to rush back and snatch up her daughter, screamed hoarsely, yet her face already wore an expression of despair.

Just as tragedy was about to strike, a blue-green figure, like a gale, sprinted across the crowd toward the girl's direction.

"Bang—"

The elf lady from the Astraea Familia, now that someone needed help, reacted with bodily instinct faster than her brain could form any thought.

Ryu Lion acted in the very first instant, scooping the girl away to safety before she could be beaten into "girl paste."

"Monster Festival — it's only proper for monsters to run rampant inside the city; rampage away, rampage away, use the blood and anguish of the innocent to make this festival even grander, even more real!"

Atop the not-far tower, an unknown deity with face hidden beneath a hood gazed down at the commotion on the square, about to break into a triumphant smile.

However, that smile stiffened the moment the elf intervened in time to save the little girl who should have been the first victim.

"The Gale of the Astraea Familia?

Damn it, that self-styled righteous familia really haunts like a vengeful spirit — even though that Astraea has already withdrawn from Orario, she can still reappear to disgust me?!"

The hooded deity recognized Ryu Lion's identity, his tone pure hatred for the meddlesome do-gooders who ruin his enjoyment.

"Still, what can mere Level 4 strength do? Those Giant Man-Eating Flowers are derivatives of a Fallen Fairy Spirit — their power rivals that of some monsters from the Deep Floors."

The unknown deity's mouth corner hooked upward again, yet the triumphant smile still would not settle, freezing once more.

"Wait, why are Loki Familia Adventurers there too?!"

He released monsters to wreck the Monster Festival, yet the monsters he unleashed ran straight into two First String Adventurers from a Top Faction First Echelon.

This left the hooded deity's mindset somewhat exploding, the feeling of having left the house without checking the almanac and running into bad luck.

Fortunately, the Loki Familia members currently clashing with the Giant Man-Eating Flowers appear unarmed; it looks like they won't be able to eliminate his released monsters for a good while.

"Forget it — causing enough chaos to heavily discount the effect the Monster Festival originally aimed for is already enough……"

The words had barely left his mouth when the Giant Man-Eating Flowers on the square were smashed to pieces by someone.

"Ais, let's go too!"

Rewinding to after Ryu Lion rushed out to save the girl, Tiona said to the Sword Princess beside her.

"Mm."

Ais nodded in reply and followed after the Amazon girl.

Upon closing the distance, the two of them joined Ryu and began battling the several Giant Man-Eating Flowers that had appeared on the square.

But because they lacked weapons and could not break the monsters' defense, the three quickly fell into a disadvantage.

Although not unable to cope, actually eliminating these monsters would still take considerable effort.

Seeing this, Lefiya moved to help.

Just as she prepared to cast magic bare-handed and provide magical artillery support to that side of the battlefield, one of the Giant Man-Eating Flowers originally tangled with Ais and the other two had its aggro target shifted.

"Lefiya, stop the magic! These guys are like the new species we encountered in the Deep Floors — they all lock onto our magic power reactions!"

Tiona sensed the situation and hurriedly shouted a warning.

【Don't panic, there's time, keep guiding the magic power; as long as you fire the magic before that happens, eliminating the enemy a step ahead is fine.】

However, the elf girl had no intention of stopping her magic; through training she had gained independent judgment over the battle situation and would not interrupt her chant out of fear of the approaching monsters — more importantly……

【Right here, right now, I will show Ais-san the growth of these past days!】

The elf girl resolved in her heart.

Lefiya's judgment of her own casting speed and the monsters' approach speed was not wrong; the sole error was that she had not anticipated the Giant Man-Eating Flower rushing toward her actually possessed long-range attack capability.

The massive plant cluster's top petals opened, the giant maw within also gaped, and it spat out a number of black seeds as projectiles.

The black seeds' attack power was not great, but upon impact they would turn into fine vines like a capture net, wrapping around whatever they hit.

Lefiya dodged several seeds, yet was still struck by one; her body was bound by the vines spreading from the seed, and her magic chant was forcibly interrupted.

"Ah……"

This sudden turn made the elf girl let out a panic-stricken cry; just as Lefiya thought she was done for, that her persistence would exact a high cost, Broly passed by her side and actively met the rushing plant-type monster.

The Giant Man-Eating Flower lunged to bite; he sidestepped, and the sword light condensed at his fingertips blasted into the flower's body, directly tearing its tough corpus apart.

After eliminating one flower, the Saiyan boy's momentum did not diminish; he stepped on the still-dissipating flower's body and launched like a cannonball toward the other flowers battling Ais and the trio.

In a few quick moves, the plant-type monsters causing chaos on the square were eliminated bare-handed by him.

"Eh, tearing monsters apart bare-handed — Broly, you're even more savage than my sister!?"

The sight of the Saiyan boy exterminating monsters surprised Tiona.

She had thought the boy was a technique-focused swordsmanship master, yet now he directly revealed a berserker side.

Such a contrast was somewhat too large.

"This is Finger Sword, a method combining fist art and sword art skills — not brute-force tearing."

Broly explained in one sentence.

The Giant Man-Eating Flower's epidermis is extremely tough; with his current stats nearing 5s, without a weapon only the Finger Sword technique could break its defense.

So, although it looks like he's using brute force to rip monsters apart, he actually employs clever force — using the highly penetrating fingertip Qi Sword to slice open the monster's skin before destroying its internals.

"Forget it, however it was solved, anyway no casualties and these guys are dealt with — that counts as a good thing."

Tiona isn't one to nitpick; she glanced at the square's damage, saw only a few unlucky souls suffered minor injuries and no deaths, and said with a smile.

"Hmm," Ais nodded, but still raised her own question: "Just why did monsters appear here?"

"Could it be that some monsters the Ganesha Familia brought out from the Dungeon slipped away?"

Hestia and Xier walked over at this moment, voicing a possibility.

"Unclear. This will probably have to wait for the Guild to conduct a follow-up investigation."

At the mention of the Guild, Liu's expression became somewhat unnatural.

Only because her real identity 'Gale' was still on the Guild's bounty list.

If she were discovered, she would likely have to face bounty hunters' pursuit once again.

"Miss Elf, thank you very much for saving my daughter. If not for you..."

The rescued small girl's mother came over to give thanks. That posture of wanting to ask her name to repay her made the elf feel both happy and troubled.

After the Giant Man-Eating Flower was eliminated, the seeds it released also dissipated. Lefiya was helped up by Broly walking back, her face showing a somewhat dejected look.

【I clearly wanted to put on a good show, but in the end I only dragged everyone down...】

"Lefiya, are you alright? Did you get hurt anywhere?"

Seeing her expression was off, her Happiness Value dropping, Broly asked with concern.

"Ah, I'm fine. Thank you just now, Mr. Broly."

The boy extended a hand seemingly preparing to check if her body was injured, making Lefiya quickly snap back to her senses. The elf girl thanked the boy for lending a hand just now.

A flush rose on her pointed ears. She raised her hand to block the boy's extended small hand, refusing his behavior of preparing to examine her body.

"But your complexion looks bad. Don't you need to check your body's condition?"

Broly was still a bit uneasy.

"N-no need. My complexion is bad, but not because of injuries."

Lefiya hurriedly explained.

"Then why is that?"

Broly pursued the question.

"It's because... this time I couldn't help at all again, and just dragged everyone down..."

"Well, this time it's not your fault, Lefiya. Those monsters' perception of Magic Power is too keen, and they even actively target people who use Magic Power."

Tiona walked over, comforting the elf girl with a sentence.

"Not this time. There's next time. Work hard next time."

Ais also comforted the girl with a sentence.

From the monsters' sudden appearance creating chaos to the monsters being resolved and the chaos ending, the total duration did not exceed Two Minutes.

And the Ganesha Familia members responsible for maintaining the Monster Festival's order and public security only rushed over to This Side at this time.

But it can't be blamed on these people arriving late. There were simply too many places needing to be watched, causing the Ganesha Familia's members to be dispersed quite severely.

The Giant Man-Eating Flower appearing here, one look shows it's no simple monster. The Ganesha members maintaining the Square's public security, who don't even know if they have Adventurer Level 2, immediately went to seek aid from higher-level Adventurers within the Familia. This choice cannot be called wrong.

But it can be affirmed that if Broly and the others had not been here, this side of the Square would certainly have seen quite a few casualties.

"Many thanks!"

The arriving Ganesha Familia Regiment Commander, Xakti Farma, gave thanks to the Sword Princess.

"I didn't help much. The one who saved the person is Miss Liu. The one who resolved the monster is Mr. Broly."

Ais had no intention of claiming credit, pointing at the other two who played key roles and saying so.

【Liu...】

Xati Ke looked in the direction the Sword Princess girl pointed, and caught sight of an old acquaintance.

"Many thanks."

Meeting Liu's gaze, as one of the few who knew the elf's situation, Xati Ke pretended not to recognize her, and gave thanks to her and Broly.

"This matter, our Ganesha Familia will investigate thoroughly and give an explanation."

Xati Ke said this, then used a glance to signal Liu to hurry and leave.

If they waited for the Guild's people to come and someone recognized her, things would get a bit troublesome.

Liu understood, and walked to the boy who invited her on a date today, saying in a small voice: "Mr. Broly, I'm a bit tired. I want to go back first."

"Not buying souvenirs?"

Broly looked at her.

"Here, temporarily, business probably can't resume either."

Liu looked at the Square where the crowd was thinning. Although there were quite a few citizens cheering for the boy just now resolving the plant-type monster, the stalls and vendors on this side of the Square probably also cannot resume business in a short time.

"Since that's the case, at least take this as a memento."

Broly thought for a moment, then took out the Magic Stone that dropped from eliminating the plant-type monster just now, and handed it over to Liu Li Ang.

Liu: "..."

This situation of giving a Magic Stone as a memento is very rare. According to This World's Magic Stone energy situation, it's equivalent to the normal world handing someone a bucket of crude oil as a memento.

"The upholding justice you spoke of this morning. Although I don't know where those monsters just now came from, we did just uphold a scene of justice together, didn't we? And this is the loot from upholding justice. It should count as something with commemorative meaning."

"Mr. Broly, you're a somewhat strange person, but you're right..."

Liu accepted the Magic Stone, then bowed and took her leave.

"Mr. Broly, I'll go back with Liu."

Xier followed behind the elf miss, and likewise took a Magic Stone.

【Liu Li Ang, Happiness Value increased...】

Broly didn't know where he was strange, but the elf miss's Happiness Value increased because she accepted the memento. This counts as a good thing, so he didn't mind it much.

Only, what makes him feel a bit troubled now is that the Magic Stones in his hand are somewhat not enough to go around: "Why didn't those monsters come a few more?"

Eight people on a date, not counting him that's still seven Magic Stones, but the plant-type monsters that appeared just now numbered only five.

"Ah, Broly, Lili and I don't need any mementos, you can give them to Miss Ais and the others."

Seeing this, Hestia hurriedly said, date mementos are meant to deepen the other person's impression of this date, and deepening the impression is to better help Broly encounter other girls.

As for her and Liliruca, that falls under the situation of not needing date mementos.

After all, they already eat, sleep, and live together, so why would they need any date mementos to deepen their mutual impression and feelings?

Thus, Ais and Lefiya, including Tiona who is not within Broly's encounter range, each received one of the peculiar Magic Stones dropped by the Giant Man-Eating Flowers as today's date memento.

"Next, the Monster Festival on this side probably has nothing more to see, we plan to return to the Familia, what about you all, Miss Ais?"

Hestia asked.

"Then we'll also..." Just as Tiona and Lefiya were preparing to say they'd return to their own Familia, they heard Ais beside them ask: "Lady Hestia, can I go back to your Familia headquarters with you?"

"Uh, that's not a problem."

Hestia agreed.

"Ais, do you want to go to the Hestia Familia headquarters to continue training swordsmanship with Broly?"

Tiona asked curiously.

"Not training swordsmanship, but staying overnight there."

Ais shook her head and said.

"Eh?!"

Hearing this, the Amazon girl and the Elf girl both looked over in surprise.

"Riveria said, returning directly to the Familia headquarters after a date isn't a perfect date; bringing a change of clothes and staying overnight at Mr. Broly's Familia headquarters, then returning tomorrow, that is a perfect date."

The Sword Princess girl explained seriously.

Tiona and Lefiya: "???"

Staying overnight at someone else's Familia headquarters after a date, is this staying overnight proper?

And regardless of whether it's proper or not, Ais intends to follow the method Riveria taught her to conduct the correct date process.

"Ah, th-then I'll go too."

Unable to rest easy letting Miss Ais stay overnight at another's Familia headquarters, Lefiya hurriedly indicated she would also stay overnight.

"Is it okay for one more person to come, Lady Hestia?"

Loli Goddess: "..."

Is this a group coming to feed?

For this kind of feeding behavior, she naturally had no reason to stop it.

The Loli Goddess looked at the last Amazon girl and asked: "What about you, Miss Tiona, do you want to come too?"

"Uh..."

Tiona scratched her cheek.

"Then I'll come too, but I have to go back to the Familia to get tonight's change of clothes."

"Please get mine too."

Lefiya hurriedly said.

The matter of the three girls from the Loki Familia staying overnight at the Hestia Familia was thus pleasantly decided.

And this event that in Broly's view was monsters suddenly appearing to give him date mementos began to ferment after he returned to the Familia headquarters.

(Chapter End)