「……I can’t exactly refute that.」
「Personally, I believe that the deceased should be credited for their virtue. His fighting skills were sorely lamentable to be missed, losing him was regrettable.」
「……Miss Inglis, you’re quite the strange one, are you not? Wouldn’t it be better if you shift your perspective a little bit?」
Tiffany tilted her head slightly.
「I’ve been told that a lot, but please don’t worry about me.」
「……Well, in any case, if you are somehow involved in his death, then I should thank you for it more than anything. Thanks to you, I received the opportunity to take over his mission. I was quite hated by him, you see. Despite how precocious he had been, he was still a child where it mattered, thus buttering up to him was quite a task…」
The meaning behind the words buttering up, Inglis didn’t need to think hard to understand. Perhaps, that’s where the bewitching charm that Inglis felt behind her innocent beauty came from.
「……Using your womanly weapons, you mean?」
「Fufufu…Even if they are called Highlanders, they are not Gods or even Angels. Most of the time, they are nothing but creatures of desire.」
Which implied that it was how she buttered up to a lot of influential Highlanders and gained a different position than Eris and Ripple.「Well, I’m not exactly one to speak for them……am I? Being a Hyrule Menace doesn’t mean I’m a saint. I have my own ambitions and desires.」
「You are right. After speaking with Mister Hallim, I envisioned that you do.」
「Oh, don’t tease him too much, will you? He may not be the strongest in terms of battles, but he’s very energetic when he needs to be, and I took quite a liking to him too. I’d rather not have him get too depressed.」
「……Rather than something like that, I’d rather have someone who’s strong in a fight!」
「Oh my? If you so wish, I can lend him to you for a night, you know? I’m sure you’ll take a liking to it too.」
「N-, no thank you!」
What a horrible thing to say. For Inglis, that was nothing more than an unwelcome favor.
「Fufu. With you being so lovely, not enjoying yourself to the fullest is a loss, you know?」
「I’ll pass. I already am enjoying myself quite enough!」
It’s just that Inglis and Tiffany just weren’t on the same page in such a trend.
「You seem to have a different standing and opinion than the other Hyrule Menaces, at least ones that I know of.」
「I guess I do. I am an Archlord’s adjutant after all, basically a Highland’s government official. So it is hard to say I’m the same as those tools thrown away to the Midland.」
「Who did you say tools?! Don’t you dare to badmouth Miss Eris and Miss Ripple! They are risking their lives to protect all of us! What about you, what have you been doing here in Alucard?! All you do is hurt a lot of people and rob them of their food! That’s not what a Hyrule Menace is! Miss Eris and Miss Ripple are much, much more respectable!」
Rafinha lost it and snapped at Tiffany.
「Fufu…People of Midland worship Hyrule Menaces as Goddesses who protect them, in turn, the Hyrule Menaces who have nowhere to go find a sense of duty in the expectations of the people. However, from high up in the sky, they look nothing more than tools using their bodies as tools. Nothing will ever change. The Highland will always look down on the Midland! All of you are just playing house, you know? Isn’t it great that you get to have fun?」
「I-, it’s not fun! Everyone is putting their lives at stake here! I won’t tolerate you for mocking us!」
「Aha. Then, what will you do? Will you defeat me? Can you defeat me? What are you going to do to that town once it leaves the ground? Can you stop it? Oh, by the way, I killed the majority of the people we captured to release a large amount of mana in order to hasten the Levitation Magic Formation, you know? What can you do now? Are you perhaps going to resurrect the dead? If you lose your means of transportation here, you won’t even be able to get close to it, you know?」
「N-, no way?! The Levitation Magic Formation can be activated like that?!」
It seemed that Inglis’ assumption of how the Levitation Magic Formation worked had been spot on. However, Tiffany had gone and said something she had purposely stayed silent of.
As she was about to reprimand her for saying something uncalled for, Rafinha quickly shook her head, lifted her face back up, and erased the shock that washed over her.
「No, if there are survivors that means we will save them! I won’t let everything go as you wish!」
「Pullum! How about Pullum?! Did you order Ian to kidnap her?!」
Tiffany readily answered Lahti’s question without any pretension.
「Aah, Hallim’s little sister? Fret not, Hallim is taking good care of her. I have no recollection of any Ian, however.」
*What did she mean by that? Then, where did Ian go! Is Tiffany hiding something, or does she really not know? I’m curious, but we can’t dwell on that question right now. *
「There’s nothing to worry about. I won’t hold her hostage against all of you. If I did, my men would lose their trust in me, you see. Regardless of how you see me, I value my comrades greatly, and I welcome any and all talents to come to me. Of course, since you managed to drive my men away, I wholeheartedly welcome all of you too. How about it?」
Without any hint of shame or guilt, Tiffany stated her offer with a gentle look on her face.