Surprised, Alexis straightened her spine in respect for the girl. "Pontiff Rebeca!? What are you doing here!?"
This Rebeca had short, snowy hair, and also had eyes as blue as sapphire. Although she had the appearance of a little girl of ten or eleven, her look was reminiscent of someone experienced. Well, at least that's what Luke thought at the first moment...
"AAAAAAHH! I can't believe you ignored me for two years!" Rebecca exclaimed, crossed her arms, turned her face, and inflated her cheeks.
A small bead of sweat dripped down the left side of Alexis' face as she scratched her nose slightly, showing nervousness.
"I didn't ignore you on purpose..." The half-dragon said, looking away. To Luke, that was a clear sign of a lie.
But Rebecca seemed to believe it because in the next instant her eyes were shining because of the huge number of tears that had clustered in her eye sockets.
"Is it true? Sniff... Sniff..." She inquired, pulling back the bit of goo coming out of her nostrils.
"Yes..." The redhead replied, still looking away and with a lot more sweat running down her face than when she was fighting the demon.
"Sorry to disturb you, but... who are you? And why did you show up just now?" Luke inquired, feeling that he was witnessing a situation he shouldn't be.
The little girl pulled herself together in a moment and introduced herself with a slight nod:
"My name is Rebeca Bollevard, and I am the current Pontiff of the Cardinal Church."
"Oh!? Then it is an honor for me to meet such an important figure."
The girl's cheeks flushed upon hearing this. She brought her hand up to them to try to hide her shyness, while at the same time she had a silly smile on her face and wiggled her ass.
"Ahhh~... what a gentleman~"
Alexis clenched her eyes and said to Luke: "Don't let her reaction get you... she's already 79 years old, something like that."
"Ah?! Alexis! Why did you tell him? It's so much fun when they find out in practice..." Rebecca said, looking lewdly at the half-wolf.
"With all due respect, ma'am, but I like women with a more grown-up appearance." He replied, moving a little further away from the translucent figure. "By the way, why are you here? If you're a powerful Pontiff, you could have shown up a few minutes ago...it would have been an enormous help."
"Actually, I only showed up because Miss Dmitry called me...is there something going on out there?"
Luke looked at his destroyed surroundings, in which half of a small castle lay in ruins and close to falling over a cliff. "Can't you see?" He asked, opening his arms in a sense of confusion.
"Luke, this is an astral projection, so she can't see the scenery, just like we can't see where she is either." Alexis clarified. Then the girl knelt to the little white-haired girl. "Mistress..."
'Mistress!?' Luke questioned startled.
"... I am currently in Vasconcelos, and although I have a demon sealed with me, I, unfortunately, let another demon escape. I know I may be asking too much for not contacting you in a while, but I ask that you look up sealed demons in Dungeons in our library, because I don't know who this demon I captured is."
Bringing her right hand to her chin, the girl did not seem surprised by the information revealed.
"This demon you captured... was he strong?"
"Considering he was without a host? More or less. It was able to easily withstand the blows of the <Fist of Life> and a <Divine Blast>. If it weren't for Luke's help, I certainly would have had more trouble."
"I see... What about the demon that escaped, did he have a host?"
"Yes, and I didn't recognize him from the books either."
"At least you got him out of the host, didn't you? So, he should stay on the sly for a while until he finds a new one."
"I know...I'm just afraid he'll come back seeking revenge. You know how spiteful these creatures are."
"Revenge against you? Would that be a problem? It would even make our job of having to look for it easier."
"Actually, it was Luke who killed the host," Alexis explained, pointing to the half-wolf.
Rebecca looked surprised for a moment until she expressed a wide, mysterious smile as she placed her right palm in front of her mouth.
"Hmm~ Tell you what... I'll send an emissary to Vasconcelos with an experimental magic item that Chris has developed. When he arrives, you send the demon sealed by him, and he will deliver the item to you that was able to assist you both."
"Chris finally managed to develop something? I guess two years is long enough for someone to change." Alexis spoke, with a debauched expression.
"Yeah... he's only developed this and one other item in that time, but I think you'd be better off seeing it in practice than me telling you."
"This item will help us with what exactly?" Luke inquired as obviously, the girl had included him in this. To the boy, if there were no more demons in Vasconcelos, the issue had already been solved.
Rebecca snorted at his insistence on knowing what the item did, however, she had to give in, even if it was less fun that way. "It detects the spores emitted by demons that are normally invisible supernatural beings."
"Ok... So, then we'll be able to know where he ran off to, right?"
"Yes... I will also use this time to look for more information about demons sealed in Dungeons. That's quite unusual... Anyway, see you, young people." Pontiff didn't wait for the half-beasts to answer her and suddenly disappeared.
Alexis and Luke exchanged confused looks. "H-how did you survive the fall?" Luke inquired, suddenly changing the subject.
"Ehh... I held onto a branch and finished incinerating the black thing that the demon was dominating." She replied, setting off toward the hole that had been created in a wall of the castle. "Shall we? We still have wounded to help and report the whole situation to the Guild Master."
Luke nodded in agreement.
At the same time, a few miles away, over the treetops of a closed forest, four black clouds gathered together, forming a single being.
'Wretch, wretch...' This was being repeated to himself, incessantly, with a wave of anger so intense that he never felt it before.
He only calmed down when he saw from afar a small group gathering around a campfire. The crackling of the wood breaking with the heat comforted the tired quintet that gathered there.
"Do you guys think we should go into town? That bang just now was not normal..." The short, brown-haired girl inquired her companions.
"Relax, sweetie..." One of the boys answered her, slipping his right arm behind her shoulders and hugging her. "It was probably a landslide on some mountain or a good mage testing some powerful magic. This town isn't that big, and we're not on a continent that's at war anymore. Rest assured~"
Soon after, the boy and the girl started kissing, disturbing the other three boys who were present, but what they didn't know was that during this brief conversation, the cause of the bang penetrated their shadows.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel