Regarding the fact that my best friend is a magical girl

"Are you kidding me?!"

He angrily threw the wand to the ground.

……

Then I picked it up again.

"Serno-chan, we can't let our guard down."

Miss Sirius and the drone circled above me before landing beside me. She retracted her wings of light and a halo of angelic light appeared above her head for illumination.

"It's not that nothing came down; you saw that light too, didn't you?"

When any object passes through a wormhole, a corresponding point of light will fall through the ring, but this time there was only a point of light, and nothing fell.

Is it...

"A weirdo who can turn invisible?"

"I think so too. It might be lying in ambush in this grove of trees. It's really hard to find at night... Let's go back to the mansion first and not act alone."

"Is there nothing Miss Sirius can do?"

"The solution is found in battle. If you ask me now, I really can't do anything, since we don't even know the opponent's abilities. But when we actually fight, it's hard to say. I have a lot of experience with the phrase 'adaptability'."

The lights in the mansion were already on, making it particularly conspicuous in the dark night. If that strange man intended to do something, he would definitely target the mansion.

"...Wait, don't move."

Sirius called out to me from the road I had to take back to the mansion.

This made me nervous because not knowing the enemy's location was more unsettling than a direct confrontation.

But I still pulled back the half step I had taken.

"W-What's wrong?"

"There's a trap..."

She pointed to the ground in front of me.

A narrow, cobblestone mountain path is traversed by an inconspicuous steel cable on either side.

"...What is this? A tripwire?"

"No, it's a fuse."

Miss Sirius parted the bushes on both sides and found a square box. Although it didn't say "This side faces the enemy" on it, I recognized it based on my knowledge from the game...

"Directional explosive mines; the military equipment on the 'other side' is about the same as here."

"Is this strange guy an engineer? He set up all the traps in such a short time... Are there more on our way?"

"Be careful, move this to the side of the road."

After encasing the landmines in bubbles and collecting them by the roadside, I asked, "Can you tell anything from them?"

Miss Sirius shook her head.

Her expression was quite solemn; I had never seen her with such an expression before.

"However, this fighting style reminds me of someone."

Her tone was no longer relaxed.

Although I don't know who it is, I have a vague idea of ​​what it is...

"Is this strange person a witch?"

There was neither affirmation nor denial.

Sirius said, "We'll have to hear what Spica has to say, but the island's communications are being disrupted, so we need to go back to the manor first."

boom--

A muffled gunshot rang out, its direction indiscernible. The association's drone plummeted from the rainforest sky. This was just the beginning; the gunshots were like the death knell, each one taking a drone with it.

"A weirdo who can snipe drones?"

Ordinary monsters wouldn't specifically target harmless drones during combat.

"It is trying to keep us out of sight and avoid acting alone."

So, Yezi is still alone in the guest room, right?

I need to go back and remind him.

"careful!"

In that instant of distraction, along with Miss Sirius's shout, came the sharp, cold glint of light right before my eyes. A jet-black arrow stopped a few centimeters from my temple, held by a slender, pale right hand...

"Miss Miluno?!"

She brought the arrow in her hand to her eyes to examine it.

"Ordinary crossbow bolts, not magic."

I was still in shock when Miss Sirius made a joke.

"Miluno-chan, you've arrived just in time! Is this the knight who protects the princess?"

"It's not that exaggerated. This arrow can't penetrate Seruno's protective membrane, so it won't cause any damage..."

I'm not entirely sure about the power of crossbow bolts, but Miss Milno is right; conventional weapons are unlikely to be effective against me. As my understanding of magic deepens, I'm becoming more and more confident in my defense.

I sighed, "Although it won't pose much of a threat, it's also impossible to track back; the crossbow bolts make too little noise."

It seems that the invisible assassin has already moved to a different location.

Miss Sirius also said, "This arrow was just a test. Next time they'll pull out something much more powerful, so hurry back to the mansion. It's always safer inside the building."

It might be safer than the jungle, but it's not that much safer.

This assassin even pulled out a directional explosive mine; what could the wooden walls of the mansion possibly withstand?

With Miss Milno by my side, I felt much more at ease, and my tension eased. Even if the enemy really was a witch, we still had a fighting chance...

boom--------

---------

The deafening roar shook the ground violently. The intense shockwave felled some trees, and the mansion at the epicenter of the explosion was engulfed in flames. The air was thick with the smell of burning wood, and it took a while for my hearing to return. I could still hear the crackling of burning firewood.

…………

...Oh no, our base has been raided.

Did that strange person stealthily pass through wormholes, block signals, use traps to restrain us, and destroy drones acting as informants, all with the ultimate goal of detonating the entire mansion? Or was this just one step in her process of achieving her objective?

There are still so many people inside the mansion! The magical girl maids might be able to easily escape a fire of this size, but Yoko…

Will he survive this fire?

Without saying a word, Sirius spread her wings and soared into the sky toward the mansion. Fearing that she might be sniped by enemies hiding in the forest, I quickly put a protective shield on her, so at least we wouldn't have to worry about the kind of sneak attacks we had just encountered.

"Serno".

Miluno patted me on the shoulder.

She remained calm even under these circumstances, which is truly remarkable.

She said, "Use your magic to wrap us up together."

"……Um."

I took Miss Miluno's hand and let the connected bubble wrap cover us.

"time-freeze".

Then, Miss Miluno accelerated the time flow of the bubbles.

Everything around fell silent; even the distant flickering firelight slowed, almost stopped...

This is the first time I've experienced such acceleration.

It turns out that for Milno, it wasn't that she was too fast, but that everything else was too slow. She was simply walking, running, and fighting in this extremely slow-moving time.

Through my magic, she shared a world that only she knew with me.

Although it's romantic, the most important thing right now is to get back to the mansion and check on everyone's condition.

Please make sure nothing happens to Ye Zi.

Chapter Forty-Four: Objectives

(Albinocotyledon)

Accelerating with others was a rare experience for me. In order to maintain the connection of the bubble wrap, Seruno and I had to maintain the minimum level of physical contact... that is, holding hands.

It was just holding hands, so I didn't mind, but Serino seemed a little... distracted?

Perhaps he was worried about the "white cotyledons," but in any case, he couldn't concentrate properly and almost tripped over the steel cables scattered all over the ground while accelerating.

Traps were everywhere, but they were all tripwires, not landmines that hadn't been planted yet.

It's almost certain that blowing up the mansion was just to lure its prey into its hunting grounds. This strange person, possibly a witch, possesses excellent stealth abilities and is skilled in ambushes and traps—practically a Vietnamese jungle guerrilla.

"Serno, I'll carry you on my back."

"...Huh?"

"Walking hand in hand is too slow, but I can run while carrying you on my back."

She bit her lower lip and nodded, then put her hands on my shoulders and leaned on mine as I squatted down.

She wasn't heavy, at least not to me right now. I could easily lift her by her legs and carry her on my back, and I could even run and jump on her.

but……

Seruno, it's huge.

Watching out for traps along the way, I carried Serino and quickly approached the mansion.

The west side of the mansion had been destroyed by the explosion, but the east side remained structurally intact.

The heat here is incredible, and the air is thick with black smoke. Tropical rainforests are prone to getting out of control once they start a fire. If this continues, the entire vegetation of Naboo Island will be burned to ashes. Hopefully, one of the maids has the magic to put out the fire.