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Chapter 115.2: Beastfolk’s Kingdom
It seems Reiji had long since noticed that.
「Fufufu, aiming for me, huh. Interesting.」
Ishtar seemed to enjoy the situation despite being the target.
「MY APOLOGIES, OUR GODDESS! WE NEVER EXPECTED THAT THERE WOULD BE SUCH AN IMPUDENT WHO WOULD DARE TO DO THAT!!」
Batshept prostrated to Ishtar immediately. Well, it wasn’t her fault and she didn’t have to go that far though.
「Don’t worry about it. By the way, do you know anything about them?」
「No
 This is the first time we’ve encountered such an incident. I can’t believe there’s someone brave enough to aim for our Goddess.」
Batshept was trembling pitifully since she never realized that there was such impudence in her kingdom.
「Is that so? Here I thought you knew something about them since the security seems to be stricter than usual.」
It seems that I wasn’t the only one who noticed the unusual strictness of security.
「About that
 As of late
 The Great Sphinx-sama sent an order for us to raise our vigilance. That’s why the security is three times more stricter than usual.」
It seems Batshept had no clue what was happening either.
「Increase our vigilance? Why? What happened?」
Ishtar asked in confusion.
「Oh, whatever. We’ll know once we catch those guys. They might know something.」
「AS YOU WISH! EVERYONE, CAPTURE THOSE INGRATES IMMEDIATELY!!」
Batshept ordered the guards in a hurry.
「Too slow. They’re way too slow.」
The moment Reiji muttered those words, the road in front of the palanquin exploded.
The citizens raised a scream as the dogfolk and humans shouldering the palanquin lowered it to the ground and drew their swords.
「What kind of smell is this?」
I smelled an extremely foul odor mixed with the smoke of the explosion.
「That foul smell might be a countermeasure against the dogfolk.」
And just as Ishtar had expected, the dogfolk outside were the first to suffer from the smell. This whole incident was rather odd since no one in this country should’ve known about our arrival. Yet, something like this had happened—it felt like the opposing force was prepared.
I invoked a magic spell which allowed me to see the assailants hidden within the smoke. People who wore a black attire from the top of their heads till their feet approached us, swords in hand.
「Reiji-kun!! A—」
Reiji had already disappeared before I managed to finish my words.
「Chiyuki, Reiji already went outside.」
Fast. He left before I even noticed.
I chased after Reiji’s shadow with magic. He had landed on top of the palanquin.
「I don’t know who you are, but protecting beauties is my raison d’ĂȘtre. Now prepare yourself.」
Reiji unsheathed his sword of light.
As pompous as usual.
I was having a headache due to this guy’s haphazard actions.
「REIJI-KUN, THE ASSAILANTS ARE HUMANS!! DON’T KILL THEM!!」
I sent that message to Reiji via telepathy; my presence detection had found out that our assailants were all human. Thus, there was a high probability that someone was manipulating them.
「GOT IT, CHIYUKI!!」
Reiji replied with a shout.
He then started moving at lightning speed and defeated all the assailants in no time. It only took him less than ten seconds to subjugate them all.
「Good job, Reiji-kun.」
Ishtar and I descended from the palanquin after Reiji defeated all the assailants.
「As expected of Reiji.」
Ishtar went down from the palanquin while saying so, did she really delight in being protected by Reiji?
「It’s no big deal. They’re just a bunch of small fry after all.」
Reiji then looked behind us. When we turned around, someone was standing there.
「G-God Pistis?!?」
Since when did he stand behind us? I never noticed his presence. In the first place, Pistis wasn’t supposed to be with us. Moreover, he slipped through my presence detection magic easily. He was probably a master at erasing his presence. In short, even without Reiji, he would have protected us from those assailants.
Not to mention that Ishtar was a Goddess, thus making her much more powerful than humans.
In short, Ishtar was never in danger in the first place.
「Fufufu, surely. There wasn’t even any danger to begin with. But, as expected of Rena-chan’s hero, you actually managed to detect Pistis’ presence.」
「Barely.」
Tha atmosphere was really pleasant despite the situation.
But, this wasn’t the time for that.
「Uh, Ishtar. Sorry for disturbing this merry atmosphere, but I think we have to treat the injured guards and civilians
 We have to examine the assailant too.」
Ishtar snapped out of it as if she just remembered this fact after hearing me. It seems she wasn’t that interested in the assailants.
「Oh my, you’re right. Batshept, treat those who are injured.」
「As you wish, O Great Goddess!! If there are still conscious people, bring them back to the palace!!」
Batshept ordered the dogfolk who had suffered from the smoke. Hearing Batshept’s order, they all started to move immediately.
「Well then, the assailants are humans, but where did they come from? If they’re being manipulated, we have to save them
」
I looked at one of the assailants. The assailant wore a black outfit that covered them from head to toe. I almost couldn’t see their face. Then, I noticed a crest engraved on the hilt of their sword.
「Is this the crest of the evil eye? Are they worshipers of the snake?!!」
I unintentionally raised my voice.
「Oh, keen observation you got there, big sis. Indeed, they’re followers of the snake.」
Pistis laughed heartily as he spoke.
It seems Pistis had already known their identity before me. The snake worshipers were the humans who worshiped the Serpent Queen, Diadona. I discovered the existence of this cult while I was looking for information about Diadona. According to my research, the snake worshiper cult was an alias for an assassin organization, heretics whose creed was to offer as many human lives as possible to Serpent Queen.
Though I had no idea how that kind of cult came to be, according to the book, it might have been made by humans with Gorgon or Lamia’s mother.
Nevertheless, I had never expected that we would meet snake worshipers in this kind of situation.
「Nevertheless, to think that Diadona’s worshipers came to this kind of place. Is this the reason behind the order to raise our vigilance? What happened, Pistis?」
「No, Ishtar-sama. We didn’t know the reason. But, we knew that something was going to happen. Nishishishi.」
Pistis’s tail swayed non stop as he laughed.
「I see. I wonder what happened here as of late? How interesting.」
Ishtar revealed a smile unbefitting of this situation.
Why did I feel that her smile was similar to Reiji’s smile?
It seems she was similar to Reiji in terms of liking the fighting scene.
Why? Why did I get the feeling that we were going to be involved in a troublesome matter?