"Eh? You're not staying tonight?"
"Yeah, I still have some other work to take care of."
"It's not often I buy matching lingerie during the day. I thought I'd get to use it tonight."
"Sorry, Atalanta. I'll come see you again in a couple of days."
"All right. Don't forget what you said."
The two of them said their goodbyes.
"Whew..."
Atalanta watched Shirou's back disappear, then let out a long breath.
The frivolity and affectation vanished from the girl's delicate face in an instant, and she returned to her cold, steady hunter's nature.
"Pretending to have a personality that isn't mine really is uncomfortable, but I did have a lot of fun today, so never mind...
"Well, it's about time I got down to business."
A resolute light shone in Atalanta's green eyes—the look of someone who had made a certain resolve.
The girl took out a black cloth that constantly radiated an ominous purple aura.
No, it wasn't cloth.
A closer look revealed that its surface was covered in dense beast fur.
This pelt, which gave off overwhelming cursed magical energy, was the secret treasure of Greece's greatest Huntress, Atalanta—
"Agrius Metamorphose."
Legend had it that when King Oeneus of Calydon offered living sacrifices to the twelve gods of Olympus, he alone neglected Artemis, the goddess of the hunt.
One account claimed that the reason King Oeneus had not offered a living sacrifice was that the person chosen as the sacrifice was King Oeneus himself.
In any case, the goddess was enraged because no sacrifice had been offered to her, and she sent a gigantic Magical Beast down to earth.
At first glance, it looked like a huge black boar, but in reality, it was divine punishment itself, using a living creature as its vessel.
It was a