Time rewinds to five minutes ago.
The alley where Makoto and Mrs. Shizuka had fought multiple times was now empty.
After all, who would be idle enough to come into this kind of alley? Not to mention that Axel had now become a ghost town.
A magic circle suddenly lit up on the ground.
Pale purple light patterns spread outward from the center, then rapidly contracted, condensing into a circle about one meter in diameter.
After the light dissipated, a small figure appeared in the center of the magic circle.
Iris jumped out of it.
Her small body was wrapped in a hooded cloak, covering her tightly. The hood was pulled down low, hiding the upper half of her face.
Iris's lips were slightly pursed, carrying a hint of 'I did it' smugness.
The little princess, leaving the royal capital for the first time, had finally couldn't resist sneaking into Axel, the most famous city in her country, to see what it was like.
However, when Iris, wearing a hood as if she had stepped out of the Assassin's Creed set, walked out of the alley and saw the full view of the city, she was stunned.
The streets were empty.
The shop doors were closed. The tavern signs swayed lonely in the wind.
A few trampled wanted posters were scattered on the ground.
The whole city was like an abandoned ruin, so quiet it made one's heart feel uneasy.
This was completely different from the bustling city filled with adventurers that Iris had imagined.
Just as she was about to cast teleportation magic again to return to the military camp, footsteps came from nearby.
"Yanagi, haven't you learned magic yet? You want to join the battle too?"
Hana walked beside her younger sister, carrying a paper bag with the words [Wiz's Magic Item Shop] printed on it.
The two had just gone to that shop to buy some things.
Her sister Yanagi had bought an item called [Super Sensory Weakening Potion].
According to the owner, a big-breasted woman whose figure was no less than the two sisters', this potion could greatly weaken the user's sensitivity to touch, thereby achieving the effect of weakening pain.
Hana thought her sister was preparing for the upcoming war, but the problem was that her sister currently didn't know any magic. Buying the potion would be useless.
Yanagi, for once changing her usual little devil personality, turned her face away with some embarrassment. "Just preparing in advance."
Actually, she planned to use it when fighting Makoto at night.
The main problem was that Makoto was too strong. He exhausted her every night.
She planned to use this potion to enhance her combat effectiveness by weakening her senses. Although the pleasure would be reduced, she didn't think it mattered.
After all, if she let Makoto keep this up, she was genuinely afraid she would die of dehydration before long.
As the two sisters chatted, they suddenly noticed a small figure ahead wearing a hood, clearly still a child.
The two looked at each other and walked over.
"Why are you still here?"
Hana bent down, braced her hands on her knees, and brought her gaze level with Iris.
But with her 1.5 meter height, she wasn't much taller than Iris anyway.
Hana's gaze went through Iris's hood and saw that small face, mostly hidden.
Most of the citizens and adventurers in the city had already left, afraid of being affected by the war.
For such a small child to still be here was clearly unusual.
Iris's mind went blank. She couldn't just say she had snuck out of the military camp to play, could she?
Just then, Yu's voice came from the direction of the city wall.
"All eyes on me—!"
Iris and the Uzaki sisters instinctively looked toward the sound.
After hearing Yu's shouting about 'giving you three days to get lost', Hana blinked.
"This should be Makoto's order, right?"
Yanagi nodded. "Mm. Makoto-kun is as kind as ever."
Iris was completely bewildered.
'Kind?'
She hadn't seen Makoto in person yet, but from the rumors she had heard... 'slaughtering the royal family', 'torturing and killing adventurers from another country', 'turning the king and princess into dried human specimens'—
This person didn't seem to have anything to do with the word kind.
She looked at Yanagi's serious face, confirmed that the other party wasn't joking, and was even more confused.
Hana then noticed the doll-like delicate and cute face under Iris's hood.
Her maternal instinct immediately overflowed. She reached out and pushed Iris's hood back a bit, encouraging her:
"Even if you don't leave here, it's fine. The royal army can't break in anyway."
Iris's brow furrowed slightly. As the ace of the royal army, she felt a bit looked down upon.
"How do you know?"
Hana said with a smile, "Because you don't know how formidable Makoto is."
Sensing the certainty in Hana's tone, Iris couldn't help but look at her a few more times.
'What was this person's relationship with Makoto? Subordinate? Companion?'
"Hana, Yanagi, come home and prepare dinner."
Tsuki walked around the street corner, carrying a vegetable basket filled with fresh vegetables she had just bought from the market.
Tsuki also noticed Iris. Her usually squinty eyes suddenly opened wide.
"What a cute child—"
Tsuki couldn't help herself. She pulled Iris into her arms and rubbed her face against her head.
Iris's face was squeezed between the two astonishingly soft mounds on Tsuki's chest, almost unable to breathe.
She struggled twice, couldn't break free, and simply gave up.
But she couldn't help thinking to herself, 'Will I be this big when I grow up?'
"Would you like to come to our house for dinner?"
Tsuki released Iris and asked with a smile.
Sensing the other party's sincerity, Iris didn't know how to refuse for a moment.
In the end, although she hesitated for a while, she still nodded.
The group returned to the mansion that had originally belonged to Alderp.
Tsuki said she would prepare dinner and told her two daughters to play with the guest first.
Iris sat on the sofa, not knowing how to start the conversation for a moment.
"Ah, we haven't introduced ourselves yet." Hana took two bottles of juice from the fridge and put them on the table. "My name is Uzaki Hana, and this is my sister Uzaki Yanagi."
"Illis."
Iris answered very quickly this time.
This was the alias she used every time she snuck out.
Hana started thinking about what to play.
If this were the real world, there would be plenty of things to do with this little girl. But after coming to another world, the options were much fewer.