“They’re not fiends,” said Chamo. “They’re my pets.”
Nashetania kept on fighting for half an hour or more, grinning all the while. By this point in time, the plan to kill the Braves of the Six Flowers within the Phantasmal Barrier was already under way. Nashetania had come to the temple to analyze Chamo’s fighting abilities, since she was bound to end up in combat with the girl eventually. While Nashetania played the tomboy princess who enjoyed the battle, privately, she thought Chamo was a monster.
“You’re pretty strong, sword lady,” said Chamo. “I dunno you. Who are you?”
“My name is Nashetania. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” Her head and body drenched in blood, Nashetania smiled.
“This whole thing has been a pain in the butt, but Chamo’s glad to be here. Guess it’ll be more fun than I thought.”
“Really? I’m enjoying myself, too.” Coming here to reconnoiter was the right choice, thought Nashetania. Forget one-on-one—even if she ganged up on Chamo with Goldof, she wasn’t sure she could win. She would prefer to leave Chamo to the real Braves, but that scheme might not go smoothly. She would have to put that thing inside her after all.
Before coming, Nashetania had packed her power into a very tiny fragment of diamond. If she silently prayed for the diamond to activate—and certain requirements were fulfilled—then dozens of blades would burst from it. She didn’t have it on her at the time of the temple visit, however.
“Princess, please be more careful! I can’t take responsibility if you get hurt!” Willone was practically tearing her hair out in one corner of the arena.
Nashetania ignored her, yelling, “Let’s go, Chamo! Keep it coming, please!”
“Are you sure, Princess? You might die,” the girl replied.
Nashetania’s body was marred here and there with acidic burns, hot wounds, and bites. She had fallen and twisted her arm, possibly fracturing something. “Someone who aspires to be a Brave of the Six Flowers cannot retreat from something like this.”
“Then I won’t hold back,” said Chamo.
Nashetania glanced toward the arena’s audience seats. Her maids and guards were all white as sheets. Beside them there was a cage containing her pets. Nashetania had three cats, two dogs, and two squirrels, and she took them along with her wherever she went. The creatures were trembling in fear inside their cage.
Then one of the dogs began flailing around. The cage broke open, and all the animals scampered away. Watching out of the corner of her eye, Nashetania gave the tiniest snicker.
And then she thought, I’m counting on you, Dozzu.
“…Ngh!” The strike from the snake’s tail knocked Nashetania’s sword from her hands. Willone panicked and cut in between her and Chamo. “Hold on. Chamo, Princess, let’s leave it at that. If this keeps up, someone is gonna die.”
Nashetania picked up her sword and pointed it at Chamo. “We’re not going to stop, Willone.”
“Come on, Princess—”
“I want to become stronger. I can’t protect the people, my father, or anyone at all unless I get stronger. I can’t allow myself to be afraid of a little girl.”
Chamo reacted to Nashetania’s provocation. “…Just a little girl, huh?”
Nashetania pretended she hadn’t heard that and continued. “I want to fight stronger opponents. This still isn’t enough.”
“Is that right, Princess?” There was a flash of anger behind Chamo’s smile. “Sorry, Chamo shouldn’t have gone so easy on you. Let’s fight for serious.” She plunged her foxtail down her throat, and every one of her slave-fiends was unleashed into the arena.
Willone yelled, “Stop, Chamo!” and grappled with Nashetania as her pillars of salt sprang up one after another to block the attacks. Athlay of Ice and Liennril of Fire helped keep the slave-fiends at bay.
“What are you doing, Willone?!” Nashetania demanded. “This is rude!”
“Shut up, Princess Numbskull! You’ve exhausted my patience!” Willone fled the scene with the struggling Nashetania in her arms. The slave-fiends circled around them as if to say, We’re not letting you get away, and descended upon the both of them.
“I can watch this no longer! Stop the princess!”
Nashetania’s knight guards jumped into the fray then, too. In the midst of the chaos in the arena, the princess secretly smiled to herself.
Fifteen minutes later, the chaos in the arena had settled. Nashetania had been made to sit on the ground, where her maids were giving her an earful. On the other side of the arena, Chamo and Willone were yelling at each other.
Nashetania looked at her pets’ cage and said, “Hey, Porta and Powna aren’t in there.” Two of them, one cat and one dog, weren’t in there. The maids paused their lecturing and started a hunt for the two missing animals. They found the cat immediately, trembling at the edge of the audience seating, but the dog was gone.
“A dog? Okay. I’ll look for it,” Willone reassured the princess after she told her and Chamo about it. They searched the arena.
“Wait, maybe…” Chamo shoved her foxtail down her throat and hocked up a giant slug. She whacked it on the back a few times, and with a gloopy sound, something came up from the back of its throat.
“Eek! Eeeeek! Porta! Porta!” Nashetania scooped the dog up in her arms. It was a funny-looking animal with a rotund little face and body, almost like a cross between a dog and a squirrel. Its fur tips had been digested, but it didn’t seem to be in mortal peril.
“When did you swallow that?” Chamo scolded her slave-fiend. “Hey now, you’re not allowed to eat weird stuff.”
“Porta! Hold on, Porta!” Nashetania called the dog’s name over and over. Watching, Willone held her head in her hands.
No one but Nashetania knew that during the chaos, the dog had scampered about the arena in apparent fright, and then, when it was sure that no one was looking, it had jumped down the slug-fiend’s throat. The dog had been carrying a very tiny diamond in its mouth.
