Before Jia had the time to explain what she had seen, her pursuer appeared. A man dressed in plain clothes dashed from outside, shooting straight at the mercenaries. Ahmed was the first to react: He pushed Jia out of the way and swifty unsheathed his sword.

Unfortunately, his attempt was futile as Arthur delivered a simple yet powerful punch. Ahmed’s longsword was unable to block the hit as he was blown to the back.

Without any hesitation, Arthur spun around, grabbing Jia’s arm and slamming her body on the ground. Velvet and the Druid, who were surprised by this sudden attack, retaliated simultaneously. Multiple thin vines wrapped around Arthur’s body, momentarily immobilising his body.

The mage cast a blast of Darkness-aspected energy, which directly hit the parasite.

“Wait wait! This matter is already reso-”

Unfortunately, Chris wasn’t able to get a word in as Arthur turned his head and looked at the Druid. He moved his feet and arms, ripping the vines with extreme ease. Velvet’s spell didn’t seem to do anything damage whatsoever.

Flames burst forth and scorched the remaining vines before shooting at the Druid.

Meanwhile, Velvet hastily backed away and cast another offensive spell only for it to hit the target and, again, do absolutely nothing. Unless they were someone with specially strong spells or techniques, then they had no chance in actually inflicting any harm on a parasite.

The amount of passives Arthur had activated turned him into a moving fortress. His sky-high stats allowed him to overpower with nothing but sheer brute strength.

The Druid protected herself from the flames using a big dark green leaf. She tried to escape, but a wave of frost turned her feet into ice and bound her in place.

As for Velvet, Arthur appeared in front of her and grabbed her neck.

“Are you fucking deaf? Stop!”

Chris intervened at the last second and held Arthur arm, which made him let go of the mage.

“You’re the deaf one. I clearly told you to stay at the inn.”

Looking angry and annoyed, Arthur glared back at his friend.

Ahmed and Jia were defeated with just one hit, but the Druid was still resisting. She shattered the ice and clasped her hands together, seemingly about to use a powerful skill.

“Let’s talk this out!”

“...”

Although Arthur stopped his assault, he kept his eyes on the Druid.

The ground beneath him shook for a second as large vines wrapped around him like coiling serpents.

[Wither Touch]

He put his hand on them and activated his skill, thus making him absorb their energy.

Within seconds, the vines withered and died, but that wasn’t all. They were connected to the Druid, so when their energies were forcefully absorbed, she was heavily affected.

She coughed blood and fell to her knees, a look of shock and fear in her usually expressionless face.

“Who… are you? W-what…”

Velvet also didn’t attack anymore, but she was visibly disturbed by what just happened. She was a High Apprentice, which was a rather high rank in the Magic Towers, yet her spells literally did nothing to the enemy.

He was able to use spells non-stop and boasted a monstrous physical strength.

“No… don’t kill them.”

When Arthur approached the fallen mercenaries, clearly about to finish them off, Chris stopped him.

“They attacked Silcard's workplace and did something to you. They are the enemy.”

“The matter was resolved already. Chill out.”

Chris faced the Parasite and even raised his voice.

“They need to die, Chris.”

“Why? Let’s just leave. I doubt they’ll come after us.”

“You know as well as I that leaving potential enemies alive is bound to cause troubles in the future. That’s not how we operate.”

“That’s in the past! You have to listen to me right now!”

As Chris narrowed his eyes and lowered Arthur’s extended hands, the latter snorted and begrudgingly backed away from the mercenaries.

“Sorry about this.”

Chris apologized to the incapacitated Druid before he dragged Velvet and Arthur outside.

…

“He won’t hurt you, so relax.”

Arthur walked in the front while Chris was busy reassuring the still-startled young woman. She kept casting wary and suspicious gazes at the parasite, wondering about his identity.

After a couple of minutes, Arthur beckoned to Chris while speaking,

“Let’s go.”

“A-ah… right! This pretty mage here saved my life. She paid those mercenaries.”

“And? Am I supposed to be grateful?”

“Ahem… I mean, she’s not a bad person.”

Unwilling to drag this matter for any longer, Arthur sighed and unceremoniously waved his hand.

Chris didn’t want to frustrate him anymore, so he refrained from saying anything else and simply followed after him.

“Wait! Who are you people?”

Alas, Velvet’s question was met with silence as the two blended with the crowd of civilians and soon disappeared from her view. Although she was intrigued and had yet to process everything that just happened, Velvet was unwilling to stay close to such a dangerous individual, at least not before she conducted an investigation.

…

From the moment they separated from the mage until they reached the inn, Arthur was eerily silent. However, once they were in the room, he calmly closed the door and then stared at the fidgeting Chris.

Evelyn woke up from her sleep and sat up, staring at both of them in confusion.

“What? Are you going to nag me? I really didn’t do anything. The mercenaries had just caught me off-guard, is all.”

“You still haven’t gotten used to casting your spells or fighting. I explicitly told you to avoid trouble and stay in this room. Instead, you leave and bring us more problems!”

It was rare to see Arthur raise his voice and behave in an angry manner. Even Isabella, who had managed to fall asleep, woke up.

“You’re not my babysitter, Arthur! I can do whatever I want.”

“You can, but we’re in this together. If we want to do something, we discuss it together! We don’t blindly and stupidly rush into danger!”

“I thought I could help out! A building was on fire, for fuck’s sake!”

“No one asked you to ‘help out’! Did you forget that we need to lay low?”

As the argument grew more heated, Chris paced around while huffing and puffing. Neither of them backed down or lowered their voices.

“I have the power to help, so why shouldn’t I?”

“Have you? Have you the power to help? Because the way I see it, you got captured by some mercenaries and needed me to come fetch you! We’re not heroes, Chris. We don’t go around helping every troubled person.”

“Look… things just slightly got out of control. You don’t need to be this angry. Everyone is alright.”

“Why did the mage come to save you? Did you consider that? What did she want with you? What if she informs her people about us?”

Having had enough, Arthur mumbled under his breath before storming out of the room.

“Hey! Where are you going? We’re not do-... fuck!”

Chris saw his friend leave, which made him curse and stomp on the ground.

Only then did he turn his attention to Evelyn and Isabella.

“He’s such an asshole.” He paused for a bit and then chuckled, “Don’t worry about it. We sometimes fight but it’s nothing serious. He’s just being overprotective.”

“It’s my first time seeing Master this infuriated.”

“Heh! I have a knack for triggering him. One of my charms, I confess.”

Chris sat on the bed and shrugged his shoulders.

“Will you go after him, Evelyn? Please make sure he doesn’t do something stupid.”

“...”

The maid looked back at Chris in silence for a couple of breaths before she stood up and left the room.

Once she was gone, Chris glanced at Isabella.

“Hello there! You’re the girl Arthur is ‘linked’ to, right? I’m Christopher. I’m also from Earth.”

Chris talked in English this time, which startled the girl.

“Are you two married?” She asked out of the blue.

“Who? Me and Arthur? Hell no.”

“...”

Isabella didn’t look convinced by his response.

“We have this ‘lover’s quarrel’ every now and again. I guess being in another world made him more sensitive about dangerous matters, which is reasonable. Still, he doesn’t have to be such a douche, am I right?”

Isabella let out an involuntary soft giggle as she saw the man act and speak like a disgruntled wife.

“Anyway! You must be starving, right? There’s a restaurant downstairs, so let’s go eat.”