927: Prices Paid

The citizens greeted Fran and her friends with cheers, but they still looked very tired themselves. Many of them sat back down, unable to bear the fatigue.

Also, some of them were injured, with many of their wounds unrelated to the battle.

A few must have gotten hurt while rescuing soldiers and adventurers from under the rubble of the destroyed walls.

Others seem to have hurt their throats after putting too much into singing.

Among all of them, Sophies condition was particularly severe.

Those fingers that had played the harp for so long were covered with blood, with her nails peeled off. The performance must have put a huge burden on her.

Her face was pale, and I could barely sense any mana left in her. She had put literally everything into her song.

Still, Sophie greeted us with a smile on her exhausted face.

Everyone, thank you all for saving Sendia.

No, its thanks to you guys. We are the ones who should be thanking you.

Precisely! Id love to throw a banquet, but Im getting a bit drowsy

Me too

Fran, Mea, and Velmeria looked like they were about to collapse any second now. After pus.h.i.+ng themselves so hard, they were unable to resist the call of the bed.

Gaooo?

Lind! You really saved us, thanks!

Gao!

Lind, who suddenly started fading away, seems to have received my telepathic message. He gave a short roar before disappearing.

Miss, are you okay?

Zefmate? Are you not tired?

Not so much as to fall asleep immediately.

Woof!

Urus.h.i.+ so sleepy.

Woof woof!

Zefmate and Urus.h.i.+ didnt seem so tired as to collapse, at least. I guess the backlash affected everyone differently.

Unnrgh

W-Woof!

Urus.h.i.+ rushed over to prop up the falling Fran.

Lets take them under a roof.

F-Follow me!

Fran, hang on a little longer.

Mmmm.

Woof!

Miss, this way.

Okay

The dragon lady too.

Zefmate lent Mea his shoulder as he pulled Velmerias hand. We can leave those two to him.

Sophie led us into a nearby house, which seemed to belong to one of the volunteers. It looked like no one lived there, so it must have been used as a storage room.

I laid out some futons on the floor, pretending that Fran had taken them out of dimensional storage. I guess five sets for now?

Urus.h.i.+ and Zefmate put the girls into bed.

Good night, Fran.

Nn Zzz

She must have really been at her limits. Fran nodded slightly before immediately drifting off. Mea and Velmeria were already fast asleep.

Urus.h.i.+, how do you feel?

Arfaaaah

Urus.h.i.+ and Zefmate looked pretty tired too. However, there would be a problem with Frans security if both of them fell asleep.

Actually, how are the aftereffects going to affect me?

The evil energy was already long gone, but my new skills still seemed usable for now

Fenrir? Announcer-san?

Master, is everything over?

Detected decrease in evil energy. a.s.suming termination of combat.

Are you guys not seeing this?

The usual Fenrir and Announcer-san should be able to see most of what I can see, right? They always spoke like they knew everything going on.

In order to suppress the activity of the affected regions, all functions had been diverted to control. For that period, information from the outside world was completely unavailable.

Basically, we had a bunch to do, so we didnt have the time to watch. Well, you won, right? Theres no way youd lose after getting all that mana and evil energy.

Yeah, we destroyed all the antidemons. So what happens to me now? Im a bit worried about Frans safety if I have to go into a coma because of the backlash.

I havent sensed any sign of the backlash yet, and I didnt feel nearly as drained as when I activate Potential Release.

Dont worry about that. Well split up the burden that you and Fran would be taking.

Affirmative. I predict only minor exhaustion as the result.

Eh? Youre saying you two will bear the cost for me and Fran? Are you gonna be okay?

Well probably not be able to talk again for a while, but thats about it. Its not like well disappear or anything, so dont worry too much about it.

How could I not be worried? Besides, how are you taking on Frans burden? Is that even possible?

Come on now. In case you forgot, Im a former divine beast. Its kinda funny how she ended up manifesting Divine Beast Form. With that connection, no matter how small, itll be a piece of cake.

So I guess being a former divine beast allows him to interfere with the recoil from using Divine Beast Form somehow. Fenrir will share the burden being placed on Fran, and further share it with Announcer-san.

This is a measure ensuring the safety of individual Fran, the wielder. If individual Master, the main personality, enters a dormant state, the safety of the individual Fran will be negatively affected.

Thats about the gist of it. Our biggest strength is that we can cooperate with each other at times like this, dont you think?

So you guys wont disappear for good, right?

Affirmative. We will go dormant for a certain period of time, but our return will be swift.

Well, itll probably be a few weeks at most.

I see

Like they said, it would be very nice for me to be able to stay awake and ensure Frans safety. I guess Ill have to rely on Announcer-san and Fenrir to help me out here.

Thanks for helping me out all the time.

Negative. We the ones who should be expressing our grat.i.tude.

Announcer-sans right. We were just two existences with nothing to do but wait for our eventual demise, and now we have a rewarding job. I can only be grateful for that.

Affirmative. As individual Fenrir stated, I must express my grat.i.tude to individual Master and individual Fran.

Its not like youll lose our powers or anything either. Just think of it as Announcer-san and I going on a little vacation.

Fenrirs ability to absorb magic stones, and Announcer-sans translation and notification functions. All those things will apparently function as usual.

Got it, but theres one more thing I was wondering about. Can I ask you something?

If its a short question, I think we still got some time to talk.

What was all that Wolfking Blade Fenrir stuff about?