Since she looked very cute, this sort of thing was only to be expected, surely?
Even using that thought to take the edge off those unusually intense examining stares, Seraphia remained somewhat uneasy.
In everything she had experienced in her previous life, she had never once been the object of such 'fervent' attention.
And within Seraphia's own memories there were only the early days of hiding here and there together with her little sister and her people, and the memories, begun only recently, of being wrapped in gazes of reverence.
The wind of Kaze City chose this moment to oblige as well, rolling up in a strong gust and flipping down the hood of the cloak Seraphia was wearing.
White lashes unlike an ordinary person's; exquisite features that might have been carved from pink jade.
Set against her extremely 'torrid' figure, Seraphia's face was of the more girlish type.
This was the so-called 'baby face and huge chest'.
For those thoroughly predatory gazes, this was even more perfect than they had imagined.
A trace of panic flashed through the pale gold eyes, and she hurriedly pulled her hood back up, covering her face.
Shu noticed the surroundings and Seraphia's small movement, and slowly came to a stop.
While Seraphia looked at him with some puzzlement, wondering why he had halted so suddenly, he crouched down and picked up a stone.
Recently, after receiving some basic education, Seraphia had become able to observe the traces of mana flowing inside the people around her.
In this world, even a shield guard fighting with a shield needs to use mana to reinforce his body, and so those powerful Extraordinaries can judge an enemy's intended movements by sensing the trajectory of the mana flowing through his body.
And at this moment, within Shu's body, mana flowed out of the core in his abdomen and travelled rapidly to his arm.
He took one step out and, in an entirely standard throwing posture, with his body reinforced by mana, hurled the stone in his hand towards the place where the gazes were densest.
Amid the sound of tearing air, the stone buried itself hard in that dilapidated wall.
He had deliberately avoided the spot where the person was hiding, and put the stone into the wall beside them instead.
Amid a burst of commotion, those naked gazes were hastily withdrawn.
Shu brushed the dust off his hands.
"Let's go."
Seraphia, however, did not set off at once.
"Did that frighten you just now?"
Shu asked it very directly.
"No."
Seraphia said it almost before she could think.
Shu glanced at her, the corner of his mouth moving slightly, but he did not press further, and only walked round to her outer side.
"What are you doing..."
"Nothing."
"Then why did you move over to this side?"
"I don't like the way they look."
"...They weren't looking at you."
"Let's go. We still have a commission to do."
"...It's your commission."
Seraphia felt a very novel state of mind.
It was something she had never had before, and if she were to describe it with the most fitting word, that word would be 'abashed vexation'.
She did not really understand where the emotion had come from, and could only file it under that word for the time being.
"If we do run into danger, I'll have to trouble you again, Miss Seraphia."
His mouth said he would be relying on her when danger came, but what he was actually doing at this moment was the act of protecting her.
The wall of the heart inside this 'omnipotent' modern person had been broken through.
Seraphia bit her lip and followed behind him, rapidly forcing an emotion she should not be having all the way back down.
And then the burst of curiosity that came through from the shadow was what really shattered her defences.
Nephim had been watching the whole time, and could feel that abashed vexation inside her as well.
【Whew... don't be influenced by the body... I am who I am... with a modern person's reason and composure...】
While her thoughts were running wild, she bumped into Shu's back without meaning to.
The gap in strength meant that Shu, having stopped again, was sent tipping forward outright by this instance of charging with the 'ball'.
Shu took two rather ungainly steps forward to steady himself, and when he turned round and met Seraphia's eyes, his face was still a little red.
"Why have you stopped again?"
The sensation of a chest colliding into you may be a wonderful thing for the party being collided with, but on Seraphia's side it was nowhere near as wonderful.
Instinctively shielding her chest with her hands, she spoke with a slight edge of irritation.
"...Over there."
Shu, equally unwilling to linger on this awkward contact, simply put out a hand and pointed at the thing he had just seen.
In the dim alley, a stroke of red stood out among the shadows.
It was the person they had encountered in the fire.
A close-fitting inner garment, black tights and short boots, the long blade hanging at her waist. The only difference from that night a few days ago was that she had thrown on a black cloak fairly close in style to the one Seraphia wore, though not as broad as Seraphia's, since she had no wings to hide.
When they had met in the fire before, the atmosphere had been so taut with drawn swords that neither had really looked the other over.
At first glance that face gave the impression of no great age, the look of a girl of about seventeen or eighteen, though in this world judging another's age by appearance was in all likelihood unreliable—
The essence of ageing in this world is a vicious cycle: the weakening of the soul leads to the draining away of life energy, and the draining of life energy leads in turn to the further weakening of the soul.
Whereas using mana to temper the body restrains the loss of life energy, and while raising physical quality it also increases lifespan, with the rate of ageing dropping markedly as well.
All of this too was content she had learned after cramming the basics over this period.
While Seraphia was still on her guard, wondering what this obviously dangerous element was doing appearing here, what that person was doing made her freeze slightly.
In the dim alley, she was slowly approaching an existence Seraphia did not know whether she could still call a person.
"Is that... a Corruption Sickness patient?"
Ever since arriving in this world she had been learning all sorts of information about the Corruption Sickness from outside sources.
And today she was finally seeing one in the flesh.
It was an adult woman, curled up in pain deep in the alley just now, letting out wails that no longer sounded human.
Her head was lowered and her face could not be seen; Seraphia could see only that body of hers, already beginning to alter because of the Corruption Sickness.
One of her hands had already swollen into a monstrous shape, the muscles bulging out like ropes beneath grey-green skin. As the colour turned grey-green, uncanny white hair had grown out over it as well, and if that palm were to close into a fist, it would likely be larger than her own head.
She wore a faded grey-blue long dress with a filthy white apron tied over it, and in her other hand she gripped a box, apparently something of particular importance.
Just as that red-haired girl drew close to her, the patient raised her head, and Seraphia saw a face that would give a child nightmares.
The eyes among its features had been enlarged without limit, crowding out most of the face; the mouth was slanted and had grown larger; and as the complexion turned grey-green, there was a covering of scales that could set off a case of trypophobia.
As the patient lifted her head, the red-haired girl stopped and came no closer, instead crouching down slightly to keep her line of sight level with the patient collapsed on the ground.
"Do you still remember who you are?"