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927: Prices Paid
The citizens greeted Fran and her friends with cheers, but they still looked very tired themselves. Many of them sat back down, unable to bear the fatigue.
Also, some of them were injured, with many of their wounds unrelated to the battle.
A few must have gotten hurt while rescuing soldiers and adventurers from under the rubble of the destroyed walls.
Others seem to have hurt their throats after putting too much into singing.
Among all of them, Sophie’s condition was particularly severe.
Those fingers that had played the harp for so long were covered with blood, with her nails peeled off. The performance must have put a huge burden on her.
Her face was pale, and I could barely sense any mana left in her. She had put literally everything into her song.
Still, Sophie greeted us with a smile on her exhausted face.
「Everyone, thank you all for saving Sendia.」
「No, it’s thanks to you guys. We are the ones who should be thanking you.」
「Precisely! I’d love to throw a banquet, but I’m

 getting a bit drowsy

」
「Me too

」
Fran, Mea, and Velmeria looked like they were about to collapse any second now. After pushing themselves so hard, they were unable to resist the call of the bed.
「Gaooo?」
『Lind! You really saved us, thanks!』
「Gao!」
Lind, who suddenly started fading away, seems to have received my telepathic message. He gave a short roar before disappearing.
「Miss, are you okay?」
「Zefmate? Are you
 not tired?」
「Not so much as to fall asleep immediately.」
「Woof!」
「Urushi
 so sleepy.」
「Woof woof!」
Zefmate and Urushi didn’t seem so tired as to collapse, at least. I guess the backlash affected everyone differently.
「Unnrgh

」
「W-Woof!」
Urushi rushed over to prop up the falling Fran.
「Let’s take them under a roof.」
「F-Follow me!」
「Fran, hang on a little longer.」
「Mmmm.」
「Woof!」
「Miss, this way.」
「O
kay

」
「The dragon lady too.」
Zefmate lent Mea his shoulder as he pulled Velmeria’s hand. We can leave those two to him.
Sophie led us into a nearby house, which seemed to belong to one of the volunteers. It looked like no one lived there, so it must have been used as a storage room.
I laid out some futons on the floor, pretending that Fran had taken them out of dimensional storage. I guess five sets for now?
Urushi and Zefmate put the girls into bed.
『Good night, Fran.』
「Nn

 Zzz

」
She must have really been at her limits. Fran nodded slightly before immediately drifting off. Mea and Velmeria were already fast asleep.
『Urushi, how do you feel?』
「

Arfaaaah

」
Urushi and Zefmate looked pretty tired too. However, there would be a problem with Fran’s security if both of them fell asleep.
Actually, how are the aftereffects going to affect me?
The evil energy was already long gone, but my new skills still seemed usable for now


『Fenrir? Announcer-san?』
『Master, is everything over?』
《Detected decrease in evil energy. Assuming termination of combat.》
『Are you guys not seeing this?』
The usual Fenrir and Announcer-san should be able to see most of what I can see, right? They always spoke like they knew everything going on.
《In order to suppress the activity of the affected regions, all functions had been diverted to control. For that period, information from the outside world was completely unavailable.》
『Basically, we had a bunch to do, so we didn’t have the time to watch. Well, you won, right? There’s no way you’d lose after getting all that mana and evil energy.』
『Yeah, we destroyed all the antidemons. So what happens to me now? I’m a bit worried about Fran’s safety if I have to go into a coma because of the backlash.』
I haven’t sensed any sign of the backlash yet, and I didn’t feel nearly as drained as when I activate Potential Release.
『Don’t worry about that. We’ll split up the burden that you and Fran would be taking.』
《Affirmative. I predict only minor exhaustion as the result.》
『Eh? You’re saying you two will bear the cost for me and Fran? Are you gonna be okay?』
『We’ll probably not be able to talk again for a while, but that’s about it. It’s not like we’ll disappear or anything, so don’t worry too much about it.』
『How could I not be worried

? Besides, how are you taking on Fran’s burden

? Is that even possible?』
『Come on now. In case you forgot, I’m a former divine beast. It’s kinda funny how she ended up manifesting Divine Beast Form. With that connection, no matter how small, it’ll be a piece of cake.』
So I guess being a former divine beast allows him to interfere with the recoil from using Divine Beast Form somehow. Fenrir will share the burden being placed on Fran, and further share it with Announcer-san.
《This is a measure ensuring the safety of individual Fran, the wielder. If individual Master, the main personality, enters a dormant state, the safety of the individual Fran will be negatively affected.》
『That’s about the gist of it. Our biggest strength is that we can cooperate with each other at times like this, don’t you think?』
『

So you guys won’t disappear for good, right?』
《Affirmative. We will go dormant for a certain period of time, but our return will be swift.》
『Well, it’ll probably be a few weeks at most.』
『I see

』
Like they said, it would be very nice for me to be able to stay awake and ensure Fran’s safety. I guess I’ll have to rely on Announcer-san and Fenrir to help me out here.
『Thanks for helping me out all the time.』
《Negative. We the ones who should be expressing our gratitude.》
『Announcer-san’s right. We were just two existences with nothing to do but wait for our eventual demise, and now we have a rewarding job. I can only be grateful for that.』
《Affirmative. As individual Fenrir stated, I must express my gratitude to individual Master and individual Fran.》
『It’s not like you’ll lose our powers or anything either. Just think of it as Announcer-san and I going on a little vacation.』
Fenrir’s ability to absorb magic stones, and Announcer-san’s translation and notification functions. All those things will apparently function as usual.
『Got it, but there’s one more thing I was wondering about. Can I ask you something?』
『If it’s a short question, I think we still got some time to talk.』
『What was all that Wolfking Blade Fenrir stuff about?』