"Hah?"
At a table near the door, a burly man covered in tattoos kicked his chair aside and shot to his feet.
He casually grabbed a bottle, his fleshy face twisting into a vicious glare.
"Where'd this brat come from? You've got a lot of nerve showing up here looking for trouble with Eisenwald!"
So that confirmed their identity.
"Good."
Shane nodded.
Then, to everyone's stunned disbelief, he didn't attack.
Instead, he lightly stepped back and smoothly shoved Mira—who had been standing behind him—straight to the front.
"So we didn't come to the wrong place after all."
Mira stumbled forward, completely caught off guard.
Before she could even regain her balance, Shane's utterly irresponsible voice rang out beside her:
"I'll leave everything from here on to you, Miss Mira."
"This is special training, after all."
"Do your best."
The next second—
Bang!
The door Shane had just kicked open slammed shut heavily from the outside.
He even thoughtfully manifested a bolt across it, locking it completely.
"..."
The bar fell silent again.
Even the vicious-looking Eisenwald members couldn't process what was happening for a moment.
Mira turned around and stared at the closed door in disbelief.
That bastard… just left with Erza like that?!
He dumped her here alone?!
"Hey! Little lady! Looks like your friends sold you out!"
The thugs finally snapped out of it and burst into malicious laughter, their footsteps gradually closing in.
"Shane, you bastard!!!"
With that furious roar, a wave of ominous deep-violet magic exploded out of the girl's body.
Mira's silver hair stood on end, and a terrifying shockwave erupted around her, overturning every table and chair nearby.
"All of you can just die!!!"
…
Outside the door—
Hearing the sounds of battle explode inside, mixed with scream after scream—
"Is it really okay to just leave Mira in there?"
Erza looked at the shaking door with some concern.
"There are at least thirty people in there."
"It's fine, it's fine."
Shane sat leisurely on the steps outside, even seeming in the mood to count the rhythm of the screams inside.
"This level of small fry is nothing to the current Mira."
"It's the perfect chance for her to vent all that frustration from last night. Good for her mental and physical health."
"Frustration? What frustration?"
Erza blinked in confusion.
The three of them had been together the whole time yesterday. She hadn't noticed Mira being in a bad mood at all.
Did that mean she was too dull, too insensitive to notice what her companion was feeling?
At the thought, Erza felt a little guilty.
Just then, another huge crash came from inside, like demolition work, and even the whole wall shook.
"This…"
Erza looked even more uncertain.
"Mira really does seem… extremely angry."
"Really?"
Shane touched his face and flashed a bright smile with absolutely no self-awareness.
"Maybe she's just… deeply moved to have such a thoughtful, responsible master worrying about her."
"After all, strict masters produce excellent disciples."
Erza: "..."
Looking at Shane's awful, punchable expression, she silently swore to herself that she would absolutely never let Kagura grow up into this kind of adult.
Before long, the thunderous crashing from inside, which sounded like it might tear the whole building down, gradually subsided.
Shane listened for a moment, and once he confirmed the fight was over, he reached out and pulled back the bolt.
Whoosh—
Before he could even take in the room, a cold gust wrapped in deep-violet magic came flying straight at the bridge of his nose.
"You're loosening up quite a bit. Looks like you vented pretty thoroughly."
Clearly already expecting it, Shane didn't even move his feet. He merely tilted his head slightly.
A clawed hand gleaming with cold, scaled light swept past the tip of his nose, the murderous wind stirring the hair over his forehead.
"Tch!"
When the strike missed, Mira ground her teeth and unwillingly withdrew her hand.
Once again, she was forced to recognize that Shane, at his core, was just an unbelievably shameless bastard!
If she were strong enough to beat him, she would absolutely stuff him into a wine barrel and sink him to the bottom of the sea!
"You really worked hard."
Erza stepped forward and looked at Mira's still-heaving chest, her tone carrying a rare warmth of genuine understanding.
She had remembered that she'd once gone through something very similar herself.
Shane had thrown her into a pack of monsters with absolutely no mental preparation, just like this.
Mira caught the meaning in Erza's gaze.
She froze for a moment. The furious glare she had prepared vanished the instant it met the trace of "we're in the same boat" in Erza's eyes.
Instead, a strange new feeling rose in her heart—the sense that they were allies sharing a common enemy.
The two girls looked at each other. Neither of them said anything, but on the subject of we absolutely need to teach this bastard a lesson someday, they silently reached a delicate agreement.
Shane, of course, noticed none of this exchange.
He simply looked around.
The bar, which had been reasonably neat before, was now a total wreck.
Tables and chairs were smashed all over the place, and traces of battle covered every corner.
As for the mages who had been yelling about teaching them a lesson just now, they were now sprawled everywhere like dead dogs, all unconscious.
Some were hanging from the chandeliers. Others were wedged beneath the bar counter. Every one of them was in a miserable state.
"You cleaned them up pretty neatly."
Shane crouched in front of the bar and, like he was checking a watermelon, tapped the skull of one of the blood-covered men who looked like the strongest of the bunch.
"Hey. Wake up."
"Ungh…"
The burly man groggily opened his eyes. But the instant he saw the silver-haired girl standing behind Shane, his pupils shrank to pinpoints and his whole body began trembling violently.
"A-a demon! That woman is a demon!!"
"Don't come near me! Don't come near me!!"
Apparently, Mira's violent fighting style had left him with a deep psychological scar.
"Cut the nonsense."
Shane frowned slightly, and crimson fire abruptly ignited in his black pupils.
That gaze, charged with the weight of spiritual pressure, pierced straight into the man's eyes and reflected the fear lurking in the depths of his heart.
"Answer the question. When is Erigor coming?"
"Ah… ahh… d-demon… white hair…"
However, to Shane's surprise—
under the reflection of the Karmic Eyes, the man's greatest fear was not death.
It was the image of a silver-haired girl with demonic wings, grinning as she ripped everything apart.
"..."
Even Shane was speechless.
He turned and looked at Mira, who was standing there with her arms crossed and an annoyed expression.
Just how brutal did this woman get in battle?
How had she managed to scare a dark mage from the underworld this badly?
"Move. You're all thumbs."
Mira walked forward with obvious disdain and pushed Shane aside.
"Let me do it."
She looked down coldly at the burly man. Behind her, her demonic wings hovered like a black executioner's blade over his head, radiating a pressure so heavy it was hard to breathe.
"Answer that bastard's question."
Short. Direct.
No wasted words—just a naked threat.
"Eek—!!"
The man looked like his eyes were about to roll back, but driven by sheer survival instinct, he still managed to force out a trembling answer with all the strength in his body.
"T-the boss… he usually comes here at night to rest and eat…"
"After sunset…"
"Good."
Satisfied, Mira nodded.
Bang!
She casually added one more punch.
The burly man didn't even grunt. In fact, his face looked strangely peaceful, almost like he'd found salvation, as he blissfully passed out.
After that, Mira turned her head and shot Shane a provocative glance, raising her chin.
That's what efficiency looks like.
Shane didn't care in the slightest. He acted as if he hadn't even seen her showing off.
He stood up, rolled up his sleeves, and began picking up the unconscious mages one by one, stacking them in the corner like firewood.
Then he swept the shattered tables and chairs out of the center of the room.
Before long, a wide open area had been cleared out in the middle of the bar.
"Since the big fish won't be here until tonight, and we've got nothing better to do…"
Shane clapped his hands and turned to the two girls.
"Let's continue training."
No matter how dissatisfied Mira was with him, Shane took the job of making her stronger extremely seriously.
"Hmph."
Mira curled her lip, but didn't refuse.
After all, only by becoming stronger than this bastard could she one day smash a fist right into that infuriating face of his.
With that thought, the fire in her eyes reignited.
She stepped into the middle of the cleared space, closed her eyes, recalled the rhythm of that heartbeat from the night before, and began trying to control the magic inside her with greater precision.
"I'll train with you."
Erza walked to the other side as well, summoned an ordinary sword, and started going through her dull but essential basic swings.
Because of the trip yesterday, she'd missed part of her daily practice.
To a knightly girl like her, that kind of negligence was absolutely unacceptable.
And more importantly…
She hadn't forgotten her promise with Shane.
That confession about searching together for her "surname."
For the sake of that goal, Erza's drive to grow stronger was far greater than Mira's simpler motivation of I just want to punch my master in the face someday—and far purer too.
"Hah…"
Hearing the steady rhythm of sword swings beside her, Mira turned her head and glanced at Erza's perfectly serious figure.
For some reason—
that face Erza always wore, the one that usually annoyed her so much, didn't seem quite as irritating anymore.
…
Time passed.
As the sun set, yellow-orange light spilled through the broken doorway of the bar, staining the drifting dust gold.
After a full day and night of special training, Mira's control over Satan Soul had finally reached a major breakthrough.
"Hah!"
The girl slashed fiercely at the empty air with one hand.
Shhhk—
This time, there was no violent explosion of magic.
Instead, several jet-black claw marks tore soundlessly through the air, like blades grown out of empty space itself.
They were condensed, sharp, and in the instant they were released, they even created a chilling vacuum ripple.
"Not bad."
From where he sat supervising on the bar counter, Shane finally nodded, giving her his approval.
"Your magic compression rate has reached seventy percent. The overflow is way lower now. You can start working on the next move."
"Who do you think I am!"
Hearing Shane praise her, Mira wiped the sweat from her forehead, and the corner of her mouth lifted despite herself.
Erza, standing nearby, lowered her sword and gave Mira a sincere smile, genuinely happy about her progress.
Just as Mira was about to say something smug—
Whoosh—
A strange gust of wind suddenly rushed in through the gaps in the doors and windows.
It wasn't a natural wind.
It carried a sharpness that felt like it could cut skin, along with a heavy, metallic smell of blood.
The already unstable doors and windows creaked under the force of it, sounding like they were about to give way.
Shane didn't need to say a word.
"So they're finally here…"
Mira's brows lifted. The aura she'd restrained after finishing her training erupted again in an instant.
Her tired eyes, dull from exhaustion just moments ago, suddenly flared up like ghost-fire with excitement.
It was the look of a hunter who had finally spotted her prey.
~~~
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