Outside of the adventurer's guild, I checked the money I got from Flam. With this amount of money, I could buy some choux cream for the Asterium branch people as well. After putting the coin purse in my pocket space, I thought about putting on my adventurer’s guild coat that was part of the uniform.

Before coming to Asterium, Demuir proposed making fall uniforms to Guild Director Glont. Thanks to this, we were allowed to wear plain clothes until the spring and fall uniforms were made, so everyone in the headquarters, including myself, was dressed in plain clothes. However, the Asterium branch members were, of course, all dressed in uniform, so it was a bit uncomfortable wearing plain clothes.

"Hmm, is it a little odd if only I wear it?"

None of the people in the headquarters were wearing uniforms, and it was strange for me to wear them alone. I think I’ll just ask Fiona, the team leader, and do what she tells me to do. After all, it's not even that cold anyways. But first, I headed to the famous choux cream shop.

***

Malecia sighed and stood at the end of the long choux cream shop line. "Haa, damn strawberry choux cream."

What is so good about the strawberry choux cream that I have to stand in such a long line? 

He wanted to have his subordinates do these petty tasks, but the person he was serving, Aries, had ordered Malecia to go specifically. The reason why he chose Malecia was that he was the only one who could survive and bring back the strawberry choux cream. For Malecia, it was so ridiculous that it was astounding.

Currently, Asterium was home to Bloody, a Crow. William from the Butterfly Tribe also stopped by often for supplies. And Mirpa Ainsmall, someone even Aries called a lunatic, comes and goes every few days.

Thinking about it like this, it seemed quite dangerous, but in reality, it was an extremely peaceful city protected by those monsters. Few cities were as safe as this one unless someone intentionally revealed themselves and started destroying things.

Or so he thought. Kwang-!

"What, what?"

That was his line of thought until he saw Bloody flying in an arc through the sky with a roar. Malecia had no choice but to concede to Aries's foresight. This place, or to be exact, the Crow Tribe people, were a bunch of lunatics.

***

How could there dare to be such a stupid coincidence in this world? I came to buy choux cream to avoid my uncle, but why is Uncle Bloody in the choux cream shop? Damn it. I purposely picked the choux cream shop with the long line to avoid my uncle while he finished his business!

"Uh... Long time no see?” Uncle Bloody was also flustered after encountering me in such an unexpected situation, and he greeted me with a stiff face.

The good thing was that I wasn't wearing an adventurer's guild uniform, so he couldn’t determine what I was up to with my current outfit.

I slowly took out the white half-mask from my pocket space and greeted him brightly. "Hahaha, it’s been a long time."

Uncle Bloody replied as if he were a little dumbfounded, "Hey, isn’t it too late to hide your identity?"

I laughed airily at Uncle Bloody. "Hahahaha, it seems your brain is still not working. Why would I insist on wearing a mask that has already been revealed?”

“Uh… is there a reason?” 

Of course, there’s a reason. I approached my uncle with a smile. My uncle took a step back as I approached him as if he sensed something sinister.

"Why are you stepping back? Aren’t you happy to see your cute nephew?” Uncle Bloody once again moved back towards the store’s exit.

I passed my uncle and went up to the counter to order choux cream. "I'd like all the remaining strawberry choux cream, 20 green tea choux cream, and 20 regular choux cream."

If you waited in line, shouldn't you at least have a taste? Perhaps due to the strawberry choux cream’s popularity, there were only eight left in stock.

I don't know whether to call this good or bad luck. If I had arrived late, I wouldn’t have been able to buy strawberry choux cream, but I also wouldn’t have met Uncle Bloody. I took the packaged choux cream and put it in my pocket space before lightly casting hallucination magic around the surroundings.

"What, you still haven't left yet? Do you have some business with me?"

I gave him a chance to run away, but he was still here. Is he confident that he can deal with me even though he is in a sealed state? Of course, Uncle Bloody did have the strength to be confident. 

Even if he used Dance of the Fireflies, the achievement of cutting down a great demon in a single blow was worth being left in the records of history. Dance of the Fireflies, the ultimate forbidden martial arts technique, was nothing more than drawing out the power that the user already possessed. In other words, Uncle Bloody’s power was enough to be confident.

"No, well, I don't have any business." Uncle Bloody scratched the back of his head, feeling awkward.

Perhaps he reached a new level after using the Dance of the Fireflies. Then, was he trying to check his level through me?

"Even though we met by coincidence, I need to at least pretend to put in an effort to try and catch you; that way, I have an excuse for my big brother."

I felt some desperation in my uncle's voice. When meeting my father, my uncle and I were the same in that we wouldn’t offer a good impression.

"Seems like it’s been hard for you,” I said.

"Ehew, it has. I'd be more than happy if you'd just go back without a fuss."

"I wouldn't ask for anything if you just pretended not to have seen me and let me go." Uncle Bloody and I looked at each other and sighed.

“Oh, you asked why I’m wearing a mask, didn’t you?” 

“Huh?” Uncle Bloody sneaked towards the exit, feeling uneasy.

For your information, I wore a mask so that those around me wouldn’t pay any attention to us and to prevent them from being witnesses who could recognize me in this incident. Witnesses to what incident, you ask? The fight between my uncle and me!

"Magic Bullets! Ten consecutive shots!"

Uncle Bloody quickly exited the store. Because I activated the Witch of Pride’s bracelet, there was little damage to the store, even though my uncle avoided my magic bullets. As a bonus, the hallucination I cast was starting to take effect, so even though I used attack magic, the customers of the store did not pay attention to Uncle Bloody or me.

"Hey, you crazy bastard! How could you use magic in a place with so many people like this!" 

Uncle Bloody cried out in surprise, but as I had mastered the function of the bracelet, my magic would not cause the building to collapse or hurt people. Of course, even if I controlled my magic completely, I had to be careful because I couldn't control my uncle's sword aura.

"Ahahaha! If you don't want to see the city destroyed, just back off!"

It’s obvious, but my shout was a threat. Yet, to Uncle Bloody, it sounded like something an insane terrorist would shout. As a precaution, I planted a mine where my uncle's foot would fall in his stride.

"You, you bastard!"

Sure enough, Uncle Bloody jumped at me, pulling out his sword.

Kwang!

Immediately after stepping on the mine, my uncle was caught in the explosion and flew in an arc into the distance.

"That's why I told you to back off! Why did you come running?!"

Fortunately, my uncle instinctively protected himself with a strong aura and had no injuries. Looking at the floor with only a little soot left from the large explosion, I hid among the crowd with peace of mind. As expected, it was nice because I could run wild as much as I wanted thanks to the bracelet.

***

Malecia was nervous and erased his presence just in case something happened. It was clear that the opponent was a pretty crazy guy to have magically blown away the Crow, General Bloody.

"Hmm, that's weird.”

Even with such a sizable explosion, people seemed calm, as if they didn't feel anything. In addition, it wouldn’t have been strange if the streets were filled with screams and terror after an explosion capable of sending a Crow flying far away.

"Is it magic?" Malecia grasped the current situation from his experience.

Among some of the crazy magicians who didn't care about their surroundings, there were also those who didn't like the fuss. Such magicians used hallucinations to even make people unaware that they were dying.

“No, it’s definitely strange.”

 It was certainly strange. Even if people were unaware of the situation, considering that he himself saw the explosion, the hallucination was not powerful enough to affect him. But why didn’t he smell the unpleasant scent of blood? With an explosion of that scale just now, there would be dozens of people caught up in it.

Malecia approached the source of the explosion, going past people who seemed to be in a distorted space. At the source of the blast, there was only a little soot on the floor, contrary to his expectations. There was a sense of dissonance when he saw something so skewed from his common sense.

Malecia looked around to collect information about his surroundings as usual. "White half-mask?"

It was just for a moment, but he felt like he saw a boy with a white half-mask moving in between the crowd. Of course, this could have been a mistake. However, the survival instinct that saved him up to this point was ringing and warning him to remember.

Malecia cut in line while people were hallucinating and headed to the counter, where the attendant said, "I'm sorry. Strawberry choux cream was just sold out."

“Is this that White Half-Mask’s doing?!” Malecia was forced to sigh.

***

I breathed a sigh of relief when I returned safely to the adventurer's guild with Uncle Bloody searching for me.

"Huu, I survived."

I didn't expect to meet Uncle Bloody there. Indeed, it would have been annoying if I hadn't used his belief that I wouldn't hurt people to threaten him.

I also realized that it was much safer to hide in one place than to walk around cautiously while avoiding him. It wasn’t for nothing that there was a saying which said it was dangerous outside of your blanket.

"What do you mean, you survived?"

"Jeez! You scared me!"

Flam suddenly popped up from behind me and became rather flustered. "I didn't think you'd be that surprised. I'm sorry."

"No, I'm fine. Oh, I said I survived because fortunately, I was able to get the popular strawberry choux cream.”

Flam glowed as I smiled lightly and waved a box of choux cream. "Oh! Strawberry choux cream is a popular item, so it must not have been easy to get it."

"I know. There were about eight left. Let's go in and eat."

I took the lead, and Flam followed and said, "Oh, come to think of it, while you were gone, there were some matters that Guild Director Glont came down and delivered himself."

"What is it?"

Flam answered my question casually. "It wasn’t much. All the men at the headquarters were invited to Duke Asteria's dinner banquet."

I couldn’t help but frown at Flam's words.

God damn it, Uncle Bloody wouldn’t happen to be there too, right?