"Elena! Check out my weapon! I’ll buy every single thing I like, so just look!"
"No, no! Look at mine! It’ll be much better publicity if I’m the one using it!"
"Ugh... where did Horon-san go...?"
Back at the workshop, Elena was utterly distressed by the aggressive badgering of Woz and Torin.
She had been in the middle of selecting weapons to show Marcos when he returned with Anhel and the others, but her luck had run out when she came back to the counter to fetch items not currently on display.
Horon, who had been managing the two of them, had vanished somewhere. Since she couldn't leave customers like Woz and Torin unattended to go call Yugo and the rest, she was at a complete loss.
Where had Horon gone, anyway? Now that she looked closer, there didn't seem to be a soul around the shop.
In any case, Elena knew she had to calm them down, but the fact that they weren't shopping together—instead fighting over her—made the situation impossible.
"You, cut it out! I’m the one who talked to her first, so back off!"
"I talked to her first! You’re the one who needs to back off!"
"Wait, wait, wait! Stop fighting, please!"
Snarling at each other like rabid dogs, Woz and Torin looked like they were about to come to blows.
Since there were actual weapons inside the shop, a fight could turn disastrous in an instant. Elena couldn't take her eyes off them for a second.
Panic gripped her as the tension between the two continued to mount, but then a voice rang out from behind her.
"Elena!"
"Ah! Marcos!"
Marcos, having returned to the workshop, called out her name the moment he stepped inside.
As Elena’s face lit up with a smile, Woz and Torin suddenly united in their hostility toward the newcomer trying to cut in.
"Hey, Marcos! You stay out of this!"
"That’s right! Elena is talking to us right—whoa!?"
"Kani-kani-kani! Kani-nii!"
Convinced that Elena was "theirs" and that a mere game character shouldn't interfere with "protagonists" like them, Woz and Torin tried to shove Marcos away. Before they could reach him, however, a massive shadow lunged forward.
Startled by the intrusion of Poruru, who shouted loudly while snapping his pincers in intimidation, the two froze. Poruru didn't give them a chance to recover; he lifted them off their feet and pried them away from Elena.
"What!? What’s this crab doing!?"
"If you’re going to get in my way, you’re gonna pay for this!"
Furious that a monster was now getting in their way alongside Marcos, Woz and Torin’s tempers finally snapped.
They reached for their weapons, intending to attack Poruru, but...
"I suggest you stop right there."
"Wh-what...!?"
A hauntingly familiar voice made the two of them shudder and freeze.
They turned their startled gazes toward the source and saw Ryuga, his hand resting calmly on the hilt of his katana.
"R-Ryuga...?"
"Please, don't look so frightened. I have no desire to start a fight for no reason. If you two behave yourselves, I won't have to draw my blade."
Despite his words, Ryuga exuded a strange, heavy pressure. He held them firmly in check with the Good Young Man Mode he used for everyone except his inner circle.
As the two cowered, remembering the time he had cut them down not long ago, Poruru unceremoniously tossed them out the back door.
"Kani-nii! Kani-kanii!"
"Whoa!? Why you...!"
"Ugh...!"
After ejecting Woz and Torin, Poruru slammed the back door shut.
Ryuga gave a subtle thumbs-up to the loyal monster as Elena and Marcos spoke together.
"...I'm sorry about earlier. You worked so hard to pick those weapons for me, and I was incredibly rude."
"No! I should be sorry. I was so fixated on wanting you to use a weapon made from Poruru’s materials, and wanting you to like it, that I didn't stop to think if it actually suited you..."
As they exchanged apologies, a tender, touching atmosphere settled between them.
They hadn't truly been fighting, but the slight awkwardness that had lingered between them was now completely gone. Remembering the man he'd met, Marcos pulled the yellow paper from his pocket.
"Oh, right. A man gave me this paper just a little while ago. He told me to show it to you. Do you know what it is?"
"Eh...? You were given... this paper?"
"Yeah, by a large man pulling a handcart. Is something the matter?"
Marcos was taken aback by Elena’s grave reaction the moment he showed her the paper.
He wondered what it could possibly be to cause her such shock, but his thoughts were interrupted by a loud sound echoing from outside.
"Hey, sounds pretty noisy out there. Did something happen?"
"Yugo, you heard it too? I'm not sure, but..."
"This might have something to do with Horon-san’s disappearance. I’m going to go check it out!"
Sensing something wrong, Elena rushed out of the workshop.
Yugo and the others followed close behind her, only to grimace at the scene that unfolded before their eyes.