“That’s the same idea as some of the problematic vassal weapon holders, Naofumi,” L’Arc said, an edge in his voice.

“Yes . . . I guess that’s true,” I replied. We were acting to punish those attempting to achieve world domination. We weren’t about to go and try the exact same thing. The stance held by Kizuna and Glass was to punish these vassal weapon holders who prioritized their own greed at this time when everyone should be coming together to fight for the sake of the world. They wanted to take a route that would leave their nation unimpeachable. That seemed like a hard position to maintain in the face of the deaths among the four holy heroes. But humans were not simple enough creatures to just accept something in the face of such circumstances.

“We don’t have time to be fighting amongst ourselves. If there is an issue, we may need to make threats to contain it or we will be defeated by the waves and wiped out,” Glass said. She seemed to have a better handle on that side of things.

“Still, I’m just trying to make sure we can secure an escape route for this many people,” L’Arc said.

“It’s a fair concern,” I conceded. “After the rescue though, I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to get out with portals that Itsuki and I will provide.” There wasn’t going to be some annoying barrier like in Q’ten Lo. So long as we could use the portals, we’d be fine.

“Before that though . . . Ethnobalt, what are you training for at a time like this?” I asked. He was using what looked like dumbbells to work on his arms. The other day, I had seen him doing circuits of the castle garden while walking on his hands. His training with Rishia was showing considerable results, and while not a hero, he was definitely awakened.

“Ah, I’m sorry. It’s just become a habit,” he explained, abashed. Why was it that every intelligent friend I made slowly turned into a muscle-brain? It was an annoyance to have to caution him about it too. I decided to just prioritize the operational meeting with L’Arc and the others.

“First things first, even if we want to take action, shouldn’t we start by investigating exactly where lady Kizuna is?” L’Arc reasoned.

“I’d love to just charge in there head-on . . . but I guess that’s not an option,” I said. Once you experienced enough combat to truly believe being strong meant you could do whatever you liked, that was when you started to overlook the important details. I could see how the heroes often got self-conceited. I needed to be careful of that.

If we just rushed in and Kizuna got killed, all of this would be for nothing.