-1553- Turn into my pet

"Woosh...!"

As the sound of something breaking through the air rang out again, Rozen watched as Chloe, Kanata, Yuri, and Mena all transformed into streaks of light, flying in different directions toward the designated points Rozen had assigned.

Only Rozen remained, standing in place, watching the others leave. After a while, he turned around and looked forward.

"Since you're here, come out. I'm not in the mood to play hide-and-seek."

Rozen suddenly said these words.

In response to Rozen's statement…

"Why? Isn't hide-and-seek fun?"

Accompanied by an innocent and naive voice, a petite girl, white as a fairy, appeared.

Rozen's gaze was almost instantly drawn to her.

For two reasons.

The first was that on this girl, who was slowly rising from the forest and floating in front of him, Rozen could sense an astonishing amount of both magic and jutsuryoku.

Clearly, this girl was a Collapse Force user, an assassin sent by Zeth.

The second reason was that this girl wasn't alone.

"Should I say it's our first meeting? Big brother?"

The girl, who introduced herself as Leysritt, smiled brightly.

"I am Leysritt, Leysritt Flowerchild."

The girl named Leysritt spoke as she dangled her small feet.

Because Leysritt was not alone, she was sitting on a massive Armored Beetle.

Next to this gigantic Armored Beetle, there were two others.

In addition, a large number of Asmod appeared one after another from the forest, surrounding Leysritt, forming a formidable army.

Rozen's gaze fell upon those three Armored Beetles.

They were three creatures even Rozen couldn't ignore.

On the left was an insect resembling a sturdy mantis with two wings, its body broad and muscular, with massive scythes that trembled like high-frequency blades, clearly a deadly weapon.

On the right was a ten-meter-long insect covered in a red metallic shell, with long cannons on its back, undoubtedly an Armored Beetle specialized in long-range attacks.

As for the one Leysritt sat upon, it was a large, white whale-shaped creature, both in size and presence far exceeding the other two.

Rozen had seen these three Armored Beetles in Mistgun's archives before.

"Kakushuku [1]…"

This was the name of the mantis-like beetle.

"Kako [2]…"

This was the name of the long-range cannon beetle.

"And Sanshuku [7]…"

This was another Variant.

Moreover, it was a large maternal-type Variant, one of the most troublesome of all Armored Beetles, even within the ranks of the Variants.

It could eject smaller breeds from its mouth, which, while not highly resistant to magic, had skin so tough that it was nearly impenetrable.

Statistics showed that this large Variant had appeared all over the world, destroying many floating cities. It was considered one of the most dangerous types of confirmed large Variants.

Leysritt had brought these three Variants and numerous Asmod with her.

Seeing this, Rozen immediately understood.

"You were the one who attacked me and River last night in the warehouse district, weren't you?"

Rozen asked Leysritt.

"You knew?" Leysritt was surprised at first, then cutely nodded and admitted, "Zeth ordered me to wait there, and when any Sky Wizards appeared, to launch an attack. So I sent my pets to play with you."

"Pets?" Rozen glanced at the Armored Beetles and Asmod around Leysritt, smiling. "Your pets seem a little unruly."

Rozen spoke these words.

Leysritt's expression darkened.

"...These are the ones Zeth lent me," Leysritt said quietly. "My own pets were already destroyed by you."

"Is that so?" Rozen responded indifferently. "So, what do you want?"

"What do I want?" Leysritt said with a trace of resentment. "I want revenge, big brother."

"Revenge?" Rozen laughed. "Why do you need to avenge yourself against me?"

This question left Leysritt stunned.

"B-because you destroyed my pets…"

Leysritt protested.

But this reasoning didn't hold up.

"Those so-called pets of yours were destroyed because you sent them to attack me," Rozen said with a faint smile. "They tried to destroy me, or rather, you tried to destroy me. So, I retaliated and destroyed them. Was that wrong?"

Was that wrong?

Of course not.

At least, Leysritt thought that if someone bullied her, she'd certainly bully them back.

So, did she falsely accuse this big brother?

Was he actually a good person?

As she thought this, Leysritt shook her head.

"No," she insisted. "Even if we tried to destroy you, you shouldn't have destroyed us."

"Oh?" Rozen raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why not?"

Leysritt responded bluntly to this question.

"Because Zeth said that we're special. We possess great power. Therefore, it's natural for us to display our strength to the weak. If the weak try to resist the strong, that's unacceptable."

This was Leysritt's belief.

However, this belief made Rozen understand something instantly.

"I see, Zeth taught you that…"

This girl was nothing more than an innocent, naive child.

In other words, she was being used by Zeth.

And now, she was being treated as a disposable pawn to deal with him.

Realizing this, Rozen's gaze toward Leysritt became thoughtful.

Then...

"According to what you said, since I'm stronger than you, shouldn't you submit to me?" Rozen smiled.

But Leysritt shook her head.

"No, we're the strong ones, you humans are the weak ones. That's what everyone says."

Leysritt held this belief unwaveringly.

Even though Rozen had displayed great power before, Leysritt remained convinced of this.

"Today, with the three Variants and all these Asmod, big brother won't be my match."

Leysritt smiled happily.

"So, I'm going to turn big brother into my pet, and love you dearly."

As she said this, Leysritt raised her hand.

From that hand, both magic and jutsuryoku surged simultaneously.