“Wh-What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” she screamed, her face just inches from my own. “And why the hell would there be some crazy guy chasing you?!”
“STELLAAAAAA! It’s me! Uncle Maxim! And you, you little bastard—if Stella was here, why didn’t you bring her to see me?! How could you leave a beautiful girl on her own at this time of night?!”
Stella tilted her head in palpable confusion. “Uncle Maxim...? But he’s usually really easygoing and, well, calm... What the hell did you do to make him so angry?”
“Like hell I’d know! I was just minding my own business, and all of a sudden he starts spouting crap about how he’d let me date you if I beat him up! Then he kept going about how I hadsomething to hide, and how I needed toman up, and how I was ashameless, philandering piece ofcrap or something... And, well, here we are.”
“AAAH! Stop embracing her! Stella hasn’t even letme hug her these past few years!” Maxim shouted. “But listen here, you little scoundrel! Stella and I bathed together until she was eight! Are you jealous?! Huh? Huh? Wait, you’renot jealous...? Don’t tell me you’vealready—”
I could clearly see the vein throbbing in Stella’s forehead. “Put me down, Allen,” she said, unusually calm. “I need to punch my uncle.”
“Nope. It’s a waste of time and mana.”
“What are you two talking about, huh?! Stop whispering sweet nothings right in front of meeeee! You’re too damn fast, you bastard! Let me join iiiiiin!”
“...”
◆◆◆
Dusk had fallen over the mountains by the time Coco, Dolph, Parley, Sophie, and Lala set out, with the five members of Class A with the least mana to spare aiming to cover as much ground as they could before the others finished scaling the cliff.
Coco was the first to notice something amiss. “Something’s wrong... It’s quiet.Too quiet,” he murmured.
He’d barely finished speaking when the surrounding silence was shattered by two large rocks crashing through the trees, snapping branches in half as they plummeted toward the group. Thanks to Coco’s intuition and the hindrance provided by th
