“I can’t say they have,” she retorted tartly. “I’ve never thought about it myself.” Yeah, Melty could handle herself. She was as sharp as a tack, that one.

“Kwaa . . . kwaa!” Now Gaelion piped up.

“Gaelion, calm down!” Gaelion and Wyndia were getting into it.

“Just because Filo is going is no reason to start making demands. If you go, who will perform class-ups here?” Wyndia reasoned. Gaelion immediately glared at Raph-chan, as though to say there was someone everyone seemed to prefer anyway.

“Raph?” Raph-chan questioned.

“Bleh to you!” Filo and Gaelion started staring each other down.

“Filo, stop taunting the poor dragon. I’ll have Rat give you a physical,” Melty warned.

“Yuck!” Filo protested.

“Kwaa, kwaa!” Gaelion squawked as he flapped over to me. Then he whispered in my ear.

“He really wants to go, but I’ll keep him under control somehow. If you are going to another world, isn’t there’s something other than this dragon that you should be taking with you?” he asked.

“Like what?” I said.

“Have you forgotten already? The Demon Dragon core. That dragon core from another world,” Gaelion reminded me. Right, of course, I recalled. That dragon core. It was the Dragon Emperor from Kizuna’s world, after all. We’d really brought quite a dangerous item back with us. I hadn’t been sure what to do with it since then either. Taking it back seemed like the best idea.

After relaying this message, Gaelion fluttered back over to Wyndia.

“Right then.” I tried to keep things moving. “Apart from Filo, the only one here who I took along last time is Rishia.” She’d made quite an impression on me too, fighting the good fight against Kyo. I’d thought of her as pretty weak up until that point, but when it came to the crunch, she’d been more like a main character than a supporting player. Her stats weren’t awakened over there, but she had already learned life force. To top it all off, she was also the projectile seven star hero. She could more than pull her weight when compared to last time, and no one here could be said to be better suited.

“Fehhh . . .” Rishia looked at me and then at Itsuki. She was invested in the proceedings of the other world and was friendly with Kizuna and her allies already. That meant Rishia was up for the challenge. But she also probably didn’t want to let Itsuki out of her sight. The curse on Itsuki had to be close to breaking completely, but his personality still hadn’t come back.

Both Filo and Rishia would bring some muscle, but they had plenty of baggage too. Itsuki was as out of it as ever.

“If Rishia is going, I should probably go along too,” Itsuki suggested. He seemed to have read the situation, for once.

“Ah,” S’yne piped up, raising her hand.

“Hey, S’yne, that reminds me. While a wave is happening, this place becomes dangerous for you, right? Why didn’t you leave during the last wave?” I asked her.