"Calm down."
"As you can see, with the strength of my body, ordinary blades can't pierce me."
Everyone stared in disbelief at the dagger in Letsa's hand, now stopped in place.
For a Level 3 like Letsa, that strike would have pierced through a Minotaur's muscles without much trouble.
Yet now, someone had blocked it with a single finger.
Leaving aside the fact that his skin was absurdly tough, far beyond what a human should have, the difference in strength alone was obvious.
After all, he had only extended one finger.
The rest of his body had not moved in the slightest.
That proved the difference between them was on an entirely different scale.
"I truly don't remember that girl over there. At the very least, I've never even spoken to her before. So her reaction surprised me too."
"Honestly, I'm starting to feel a little hurt."
Rayleigh offered that explanation on his own, paying no attention to how shaken everyone around him was.
Seeing that he still insisted on his innocence, Letsa shifted her gaze toward Shesta again.
However, the moment her eyes landed on the girl, the figure that should have been standing in front of her appeared behind Shesta instead.
Letsa's eyes widened in shock.
"Shesta, behind you!"
The girl looked confused.
In the next instant, she realized something was wrong.
The man Letsa had been pointing her dagger at was gone!
And in that moment, she understood where he had gone, because all her companions were staring at her side in horror.
The other party was behind her.
A chill crawled up her spine.
Shesta forced herself not to make an embarrassing sound.
"That man!"
"How is that possible? What did he just do?!"
"Teleportation?"
"But he didn't chant at all... Chantless magic? Instant movement?"
"He disappeared and reappeared in an instant across that distance!"
Rayleigh looked at Artemis Familia, who were all treating him as though he were a mortal threat.
Although he felt helpless, there was also a trace of irritation mixed in.
Deliberately ignoring their warning had simply been his way of showing his strength and making them understand the situation.
The pain Shesta imagined did not come.
Instead, Rayleigh spoke.
"Miss Shesta, was it? We shouldn't have met before, right? Your reaction is causing your Familia to seriously misunderstand me."
"Before this turns into a fight."
Rayleigh's gaze remained calm as he said that.
At this point, Shesta finally reacted in time.
She took a deep breath and shouted, "Everyone, don't misunderstand! Rayleigh-san hasn't hurt... me?"
She had been speaking properly at first.
But right near the end, it somehow turned into a question.
Rayleigh was speechless.
'No, seriously.'
'Why did she have to do this at the crucial moment?'
'Could this girl not just explain things clearly?'
What Rayleigh did not know was that when he had created the blizzard covering the entire city, Shesta, who had been working as a spy in Rakia, had also been caught up in it.
Of course, this also had a lot to do with the girl's emotional nature.
"What is this commotion?" Artemis appeared.
She looked at the tense scene before her with a cold, stern gaze, but she was not looking only at Rayleigh.
Her eyes swept over everyone present.
Seeing the goddess appear, Rayleigh's frown deepened.
'What a pain in the ass...'
If these were Evilus, or clear enemies like Rakia Kingdom's soldiers, he would not have needed to be this polite.
The feeling of having a reason but being unable to explain it was unexpectedly frustrating.
"Miss Shesta, could you please explain why you're treating me like this? This has already caused a major misunderstanding, and if it isn't cleared up, I'll be very troubled."
The girl, whose ability to empathize was quite strong, finally seemed to sense Rayleigh's headache.
So she quieted down.
She stared at Rayleigh pitifully for quite a while.
In the end, she nodded.
...
For the next twenty minutes, every member of Artemis Familia, including their patron goddess, listened as though they were hearing a myth.
Infiltrating the royal capital alone and rescuing a goddess.
Abducting a princess and launching a huge battle.
Changing the climate of a kingdom's capital with his own power, creating a lethal blizzard in the wrong season.
And then fighting twenty thousand soldiers alone and forcing Rakia Kingdom's army to retreat?
The women listened to their younger sister's account as though they were there themselves, watching one grand scene after another unfold before their eyes.
"I'm not saying I doubt Shesta, but... this is really hard to believe."
"It is."
"If Yōtōsai were a Level 6 adventurer, or even a Level 5 who specializes in frontal combat, then maybe I could accept it."
"But he's Level 3 like Letsa, right?"
"Yeah. This isn't meant to look down on Letsa, but I don't think Letsa could do something like that. Forget twenty thousand people, even escaping unscathed from two hundred would still be uncertain."
"As for defeating them..."
The girls all showed doubt.
Even Shesta, who had delivered the information herself, began to lose confidence after hearing them.
After all, she had not personally witnessed Rayleigh's battle against Rakia Kingdom's army.
But no matter how one looked at the miserable state of those Rakian soldiers, they had clearly gone through hell.
And the war god Ares himself had personally admitted defeat.
That was the embodiment of war and slaughter.
Would he really lie about something like that?
As everyone argued, Rayleigh remained so calm that he did not seem like the person involved at all.
He looked more like a passerby who had simply happened to sit down and listen to a story.
Artemis noticed his composure and could not suppress her curiosity.
"So, what actually happened?"
Hm?
Rayleigh looked at the moon goddess in some surprise.
He had not expected this goddess, who rejected men, to take the initiative to speak with him.
She governed chastity and was also the goddess of the hunt.
Her appearance was quiet and gentle, but deep down, she was a genuine battle enthusiast.
In truth, Artemis was one of the 'strong' gods.
She possessed combat refinement on the same level as gods of war, sword, and battle, and she held equal divine standing with them.
Even with her divine power sealed, in an ordinary mortal body, she could easily defeat her Familia captain Letsa.
That alone proved her combat ability was downright unfair.
No.
It was beyond unfair.
When it came to gods, "cheating" was not enough to describe their abilities.