When Karua-chan said that in a hoarse voice, her head drooped with a thunk and she lost consciousness.

“Karua-chan!!!”

I rushed over to reach for her body, but someone was already there.

“Karua-chan’s… monster…”

Not the Karua-chan in monster form I’d seen up until just now—this one had to be the real one.

The atmosphere was clearly different.

That black-haired girl tightly hugged Karua-chan, then noticed me and turned her face this way.

Sticky blood was left where Karua-chan had been lying.

No way.

Don’t tell me, really….

“…Is it true Karua-chan gains power by handing her body over to you?”

Please let it not be.

Please let my guess be wrong.

‘…Yeah. I’m the one who hurt Karua.’

That cold voice passed straight through my ears.

“—Aaaagh!!!”

I swung my mace in rage, realized it was broken, then charged in to punch her with my bare fist instead.

But she didn’t show even a hint of fighting back.

‘If you want to hit me, hit me. It’s not like that will fix her.’

She muttered it with a faintly resigned tone.

My raised fist froze in midair for a few seconds.

Then I forced myself to calm down and look at the situation from above.

Karua-chan collapsed on the ground.

The not-Karua hugging her.

And the bright red blood still flowing.

Where was she hurt?

“S-Stop the bleeding—eh?”

Tracing the source of the blood flowing from Karua-chan, my eyes reached her face.

The bulge that should have been there was gone and it looked like it had been painted over in black.

“No… that can’t be…”

With trembling hands, I cautiously lifted her eyelid—

There was nothing.

I feel like I heard something after that, but I don’t remember anything at all.

The next time I came to, Karua-chan was asleep in senpai’s bed again.

* * *

“Moe!! Karua-chan!!! Where are you?!”

I kept searching while flying at Guri-chan’s top speed.

Then I sensed several presences, told Guri-chan to land and sprinted full speed toward them.

I spotted the familiar purple hair and ran over.

“Moe!!! …Thank god…”

I called out, but something was off.

She was muttering, head down, clutching her head and not even listening to me.

“…Moe?”

When I listened closely to her tiny voice—

“Karua-chan… Karua-chan…”

Right.

Where is Karua-chan?

I looked around and she was surprisingly close.

With her contract monster right beside her.

“Get away from Karua-chan!!!!”

I threw my strengthened sword.

Thankfully, it still hadn’t noticed me.

Like this, I’ll kill it.

I tried to charge in with clear killing intent, but in that instant the rush flooding my body drained away and the power that had been moving me vanished, so I toppled forward from inertia.

The new contract I made back then only amplifies my power when I use it to protect someone.

Since I tried to use it for my own selfish reasons, the power was stripped away, or so Guri-chan told me later.

The monster finally noticed me from the sticky sound of me hitting the ground, looked my way and then immediately disappeared back into Karua-chan again.

Again, I couldn’t save her.

I ignored the dirt stuck to me from face-planting and ran to Karua-chan.

“Karua-chan!!!!!”

I hurriedly checked where she was injured.

Hands were fine, legs were fine.

When I searched for the worst bleeding, I found it—

Where her two beautiful eyes should have been, the designated area was occupied by red liquid.

“Her eyes… she offered them to the monster?”

While I couldn’t accept reality, the empty hollow squirmed and a dazzling black light illuminated that spot.

No way.

Because that color—

“Self-regeneration…”

I shook Moe awake and put her on Guri-chan’s back, then carried Karua-chan on my shoulders and sprinted toward the nearest Association at full speed.

“Guri-chan!! Target is the Association infirmary! Full speed!!! Hurry!!!!”

Normally, healing ability is basically using a monster’s power, so it shines green or blue as the default colors.

There are two types: so-called passive healing and the self-regeneration you can see as black light.

There are two big differences.

Passive healing doesn’t use your own mana and only uses the monster’s mana, so it’s efficient.

The other is that with self-regeneration, the pain you felt at the time comes back multiplied several times over when it heals.

That’s what I was told.

And I was told to go to the infirmary no matter what.

If that’s true, Karua-chan might be reliving the pain of what she lost every single time.

At this rate, even Karua-chan’s mind will break.

If we apply passive healing before the self-regeneration ends, it might still be in time.

Thankfully, the light is still weak.

I don’t want to say I failed to help her, failed to save her again.

Riding on Guri-chan, I fought my own regret and helplessness alone, praying we’d arrive even a second sooner.

* * *

Somewhere far away in a remote frontier land, inside a massive palace.

“Hey, I’m pretty sure I said to bring her here without injuries.”

Two men were kneeling formally and hanging their heads in front of a single girl.

“S-S-Sorry, Lady Kuneria!! But she was stronger than we expected and even my legs—”

“Excuses not needed. In the end, it’s because you didn’t use Konda-chan’s domination right away, right?”

The man who got hit dead-on started trembling.

His missing legs began to shake, then slowly started regenerating and—

“Agaaahhh!!! It hurts!! It hurts!!?”

He screamed.

“You’re noisy. Hurry up and go. Tell him there won’t be a next time.”

‘Yes, understood, my master.’

The snake lifted the crouching man, opened the heavy door and vanished.

“Now then, old man. Anything you want to say?”

“Ho ho ho… I got a bit excited, unbecoming of my age…”

“Okay. Then for the next three months, no killing living things.”

“W-what! …That’s a harsh blow…”

The other man trudged out of the room with a miserable, slumped back.

Left alone, she watched a projection of the footage of the men fighting up until now, smiling as she did.

“That looked painful… it hurts, right… you couldn’t save her… I’m sorry… but…”

“So cute… I let her slip away this time, but next time maybe I’ll go in person♪”

“Hehe, wait for me, my future spouse?”

She moved her translucent hair like tentacles and said it with an enraptured expression.