The instant the Inquisitor stepped onto the garden grass, she realized there was nobody around her.
“Adventurer? Crusher?”
Just in case, she called out for the others, but nothing changed.
There was no one nearby.
Not even an enemy—or so much as the presence of insects, which any garden should normally have.
“…Adventurer!”
No.
Come to think of it, perhaps it was only natural that this castle contained no insects.
After all, the master of this castle was a being called the supreme master of magic—
The Inquisitor did not like that description. Praising the enemy too highly was liable to lower morale.
If that being disliked insects like ordinary people generally did, then proper measures would naturally have been taken in this garden as well.
Therefore, the complete absence of insects was entirely understandable.
“Is no one here?!”
But the fact that not a single person who had entered alongside her was nearby…
That was…
The Inquisitor realized something.
How rarely she had ever truly been left alone until now.
How many people there had always been to help her.
The young woman, left alone in enemy territory, went pale as though all color had drained from her cheeks.
Already, she missed the people who had always stood so reassuringly beside her.
“Get a grip!”
But the daze lasted only a moment.
She slapped her own cheeks a couple of times to bring herself back to her senses.
The spirited shout she forced out also helped restore…