She brought her face closer. She opened her mouth and I could feel her breath on my neck. But before her fangs could reach me, I made a gun with my fingers behind my back and fired it.

“Bang.”

The next thing I knew, my field of vision suddenly shifted downward by a meter or so. It was Chelsea’s signature magic trick that she’d shown me on the way over here—the power to reduce someone’s height. She’d figured out what my signal meant!

“What?!”

Rosalind was only the height of an elementary school girl, but after shrinking a full meter, I was as small as a kid in daycare. The effect was instant, and Rosalind was clueless as to what had happened.

I already knew where the knife was after finding it with my foot, so I was quickly able to grab it now and make my move on Rosalind. By the time she realized what had happened, I’d wrapped both hands around the hilt of the knife and plunged it into her breast. The silver blade slid straight through her flesh. The edge of the blade just barely reached her heart. It only took a few seconds for the strength to drain from her body.

“Uwah!”

I hadn’t expected her to fall towards me, so I hurriedly pulled the blade out before it went in deeper than I had intended. Then I tossed the knife aside and grabbed Rosalind... Or, at least, I tried to. I’d forgotten how much smaller—and weaker—I was. Rather than catching her, it was more like I let her fall on me.

“Owww...”

My head hurt. It must’ve hit the ground when I tumbled over backwards under Rosalind’s weight. I turned to the side and realized her face was incredibly close to mine. I couldn’t tell if she’d passed out from the shock. There were tears pouring out from the corners of her closed eyes.

Now I needed to make sure everyone was okay, then get Satsuki and Harissa to heal Rosalind’s wounds. I went to get up, but as I did...

“......re.” Rosalind’s mouth opened softly. “Nami... dare...”

I told you to stop calling me that, I went to say, but before I could...

“...Rekka.”