Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
This place definitely counted as a type of hidden oasis. Just its beauty alone made it quite breathtaking.
Although Seiji was a little curious what might be hidden here, he was most worried about finding Hoshi right now.
After Seiji and his friends entered the "flower garden", they soon located the beautiful boy sleeping under the red-leafed tree!
Hoshi was sitting quietly against the tree bark. He had a peaceful expression and his eyes closed… Seiji couldn't help but think of a certain knight king's final ending when he saw this scene! Fortunately, Hoshi was only sleeping normally, not eternally.
Seiji crouched down next to Hoshi, took off his helmet mask, and called out to Hoshi, "Hoshi, wake up."
There was no reaction.
"Wake up! Fourth Knight!!" Seiji increased his volume and shook Hoshi slightly by his shoulder.
"En…" Hoshi muttered a light sound.
The beautiful boy then furrowed his eyebrows and opened his eyes slightly. After blinking a bit, he slowly opened them more.
Hoshi had a confused expression for a moment when he first noticed Seiji's presence. Hoshi then widened his eyes slightly. "…Senpai?"
"It's me." Seiji smiled at him. "It was quite difficult for us to find you. I never expected that you were sleeping in such a beautiful place."
Hoshi stared at Seiji in surprise for a moment before he slowly turned to glance at Mika and Hisashi who had also unmasked themselves.
"Ueharsenpai… Juumonji-san… Are you guys real?"
"This humble one doesn't think that he is an illusion." Hisashi chuckled. "This is reality. You're not dreaming at all, Fourth Knight."
"It's wonderful that you're alright, Amami-san." Mika also smiled.
Hoshi then looked back at Seiji again. The expression on Hoshi's face gradually turned to one of delight.
"Senpai… Team Leader!" Hoshi suddenly jumped towards Seiji and hugged him!
Seiji was rather startled by this. He never expected that his junior would be excited to such a degree.
"Calm down… How are you feeling right now? Are you injured anywhere?"
"Not at all… I'm fine… It's just…" Hoshi sniffled his nose. "I was a little afraid…"
"I'm sorry for leaving you alone for so long." Seiji patted him on the back. "Everything's alright now. There's nothing to be afraid of anymore."
The moment Seiji said this, he felt as if he had just uttered a classical death flag… er, everything should be fine, right?
"Wah… Team Leader…" Hoshi did his best to repress his tears so that he wouldn't cry.
Everyone fell silent for a moment.
Hoshi then let go of Seiji after he managed to calm down his emotions. Still, Hoshi's face remained somewhat red.
"How did you arrive in this district?" Seiji asked what he wanted to know the most.
Hoshi instantly recalled something upon hearing this. He hurriedly looked at the red-leafed tree.
The mysterious gold-haired girl was no longer there!
Seiji, Mika, and Hisashi were all rather mystified by Hoshi's action.
They also followed Hoshi's line of sight to the red-leafed tree. However, they only saw red leaves and some black fruits.
"Is something there?"
Seiji asked this quite seriously as he recalled how strangely Hoshi had behaved right before the Domain changed.
"No… she… isn't there anymore." Hoshi then looked all around him but still couldn't find that girl.
"She?"
"Yes, an extremely beautiful golden-haired girl…"
Hoshi told the other three about his experiences.
"That girl is highly likely to be an existence from another world." Seiji thought about it as he rubbed his chin. "Although she's also a bit different from the ones I met before…"
This girl was able to easily slay a boss monster with a single flick of her finger. She was even capable of opening up portals within Kazuko's Domain, as well as teleport Hoshi to such a secret garden-type location. It was obvious that she was completely different from Lloyd and Lana.
Was she much more powerful than Lloyd and Lana? Or was she a completely different type of existence?
"She brought you here so that you could rest here safely. She helped you out… But, it's also possible that she was the one who caused the Domain to transform and us to become separated." Seiji had quite a serious expression.
Hoshi remained silent. Although he had also considered this possibility, he didn't want to think that it could be true.
"I… don't think that she's evil," Hoshi muttered. "I think that something else caused the change in the Domain, not her…"
"She helped you out, so I want to believe in her as well," Seiji told him.
Seiji recalled the so-called "Cliff Squad" that he just met not long ago. It was also possible that the change in the Domain was because of those people, although Seiji felt that was unlikely. Perhaps he could have tried to obtain some information when communicating with them earlier, but Seiji felt that would have likely been a waste of time. Finding his missing companions was his first priority right now. Seiji wanted to avoid any trouble he could. But just in case, he also saved a file earlier right before he made contact with the Cliff Squad.
"Let's not think too much into things right now. We can first focus on finding the others."
Seiji was about to use [Interdimensional Locator Spell] again, but was interrupted by the sound of some footsteps approaching in the distance.
Seiji instantly reacted by decisively putting on his helmet mask again. He also indicated to Mika and Hisashi to put on their masks while he pulled down Hoshi's helmet mask for him.
"What's the matter?" Hoshi was confused about this.
"Someone's coming," Seiji told him.
The moment he said this, the same people from earlier appeared at the entrance to this district.
Nirou Iwazaki led his team to the target location. He discovered that the True Knight Order was here already!
He was now absolutely certain that the True Knight Order also had their sights set on this place.
'I didn't think that things would be so troublesome.' Nirou furrowed his eyebrows.
There were three of them earlier, but now there was one more person… It wasn't important why another apparent Awakened had joined them. The important part right now was how to eliminate them!
No matter who they were or what faction this True Knight Order belonged to, this wasn't a place that Nirou's organization would possibly give up.
In a normal direct battle… the possibility of winning would be very low. Regardless of the three Awakened on their side, just the Spirit-branded Retainer alone would be quite difficult for his own team to deal with.
Call for backup… their support likely wouldn't arrive in time.
In that case, there was only one choice Nirou could make...
Nirou instantly made his choice when he saw the jacketed Spirit-branded Retainer walking over.
"Kill them all!" Nirou coldly gave such an order to his three team members that possessed spiritual weapons.
His three team members didn't hesitate one bit upon receiving such an order. They immediately rushed over towards the jacketed Spirit-branded Retainer with excited expressions on their faces.
They had gotten bored of slaying monsters. They wanted to try killing a real person!
However, the three didn't notice that right after they rushed forward, Nirou immediately took out a black remote from his pocket and pressed three red buttons on the remote.
The blood-red spiritual weapons that these three people were holding instantly started emitting mist that entered their bodies. The three felt great pain as their powers greatly increased and their consciousnesses went hazy. Their visions became bright red and an insane desire to kill welled up within their minds!
"Grahhhh!!!!!"
All three individuals roared just like monsters.
*Boom!!!*
The greatsword-wielding individual demolished a large portion of a flower patch with a single swing of his greatsword. This even left a large crack on the ground from the impact!
Seiji had an astonished expression under his mask as he managed to dodge this attack.
Why did they suddenly attack him with such strong killing intent!?
Was it to escape from the Inner World? Did they find it impossible to leave this gigantic maze-like Inner World, so they despaired and wanted to kill an outsider to achieve the condition of a person dying so that everyone else could leave?
But, these people didn't look like they were anywhere near despair earlier at all. And, they were in rather strange manic state right now…
Seiji had many questions in his mind, but no free time to ponder any of them. That was because a spear that was flashing bright-red swiftly stabbed at him from the side!
*Clang!!*
Seiji pulled out his sword and managed to knock away the spear.
He then immediately felt a gust of wind arriving at his back. Seiji felt an incredible sense of danger...
[Bullet Time] automatically activated for him!
Thanks to his passive ability's assistance, Seiji barely managed to dodge the hoodie-wearing youth's double dagger backstab. Seiji also counterattacked with a kick.
The assassin managed to dodge the powerful kick by jumping backwards. The dagger-wielding youth then adjusted his posture and turned to attack Mika and the others!
"Careful!!" Seiji shouted.
The next moment, Hisashi shout out a thunderbolt that hit the hoodie-wearing youth. However, this didn't manage to stop the youth's attack at all.
Mika brought out her shield and stood in front of Hisashi to protect him.
However, the assassin transformed into a shadow and went around her. He aimed directly for Hoshi! The blood-red sharp daggers were filled with killing intent as they aimed directly for Hoshi's neck!!