Chapter 76

Chapter 76

76: Blood Born Among magic spells, there’s one that enhances the cutting power of blades. The incantation is something like ‘Arlto Ro Corte.’ In principle, it’s a spell that overlays an intangible edge with magical power, but it has the drawback of being as fragile as a box cutter despite its sharpness. However, the story changes when it’s combined with wind control magic. Wind can be condensed and reshaped at will. If you add sharpness to it, it becomes an excellent weapon in itself. It’s a magic that grants physical force, so it efficiently gathers condensed air and holds it together, preventing it from scattering. It was a case of synergy between two magics, increasing efficiency, and the knight in front of me was using exactly that method. It could be spread wide to create scratches, or, like just now, it could be formed into a sharp spear of wind to stab. If I had been hit without knowing, my chest probably would have been pierced. The Ironclad Armor prevented it from being fatal, but it would have hurt quite a bit. “…Impressive, to block that.” The knight reacted as if thinking, ‘Oh, he lives,’ and once again raised his sword, assuming a stance. I, too, decided to be more careful and cautious this time, and took up a fighting stance again. “….” But the knight didn’t rush in again, instead looking at me with a strange gaze. Unconsciously, I lowered my head at that gaze, and my tattered clothes came into view. My collarbone was already fully exposed, and the chest area was torn in half, fluttering in the air. Through the split in the left breast area, not only my plump breasts but even my pink nipples were fully visible. …If I had been slashed a little more, I might have ended up taking a topless nude, that’s how bad the state of my clothes was. Fortunately, I was wearing a mask and hood, but in this state, I couldn’t avoid looking like an exhibitionist pervert. Of course, being seen now wouldn’t be embarrassing at all. No, it is embarrassing, but somehow the shame feels good. I want to be even more embarrassed if possible—

-Whoosh!

“Tch.” I clicked my tongue and stepped back sharply at the sudden sound near my ear. I thought it was the knight, but I didn’t expect him to use such a sly trick. I had been distracted by my clothes for a moment, and I didn’t see the trajectory of the knight’s sword. Because it was an invisible blade of wind, it was almost impossible to block it without watching the sword’s trajectory. I gave up trying to block it with my sword and crossed my arms to protect only the area covered by my mask.

-Tssst!

Still, when I crossed my arms to block, I felt that the sharpness was less than before. With this much, the Ironclad Armor should be enough to block it. If I could only judge by the sound of the wind, it wouldn’t be difficult to deal with. The fact that the attack was invisible was certainly troublesome, but the opponent couldn’t easily injure me with ordinary attacks either. “….” We stood motionless, swords pointed at each other. In my case, my purpose was to stall for time, so just standing still was enough, and in the knight’s case… he probably had difficulty rushing in recklessly. Since attacks using wind blades weren’t working well, close combat would be a burden. To inflict a fatal blow on me, he would have to use a big technique, but his magical power would hold him back. Even a magic sword is ultimately a magical tool based on a similar principle to a magic book. The magical power that can be drawn from a monster’s core is not infinite, and after using it all, there is a recharge time. A magic sword is not a weapon that can be used as much as you want. Still, looking at it like that, it certainly looked good. Good enough to want to have one. “….” I wish I could keep stalling for time like this, but I couldn’t just keep waiting around. It would be troublesome if reinforcements came, and since I had stalled for this long, it would be good to slip away now. Thinking that, I extended my right foot forward.

-Thud.

As I took a stance as if to rush at the knight, his posture changed. Like before, he seemed to be preparing to unleash a powerful thrust. I smiled slightly at his appearance, as if daring me to come, and shouted loudly. “Haaah!” And then, just as I was about to lunge forward—

-Whoosh!!

Matching the timing of the knight’s thrust, I turned 180 degrees as if I had been waiting for it, and ran away. Using light footwork to run at full speed, I barely managed to turn the corner of the corridor before being stabbed by the wind spear. “What!?”

-Thwack!!

Glancing back to check, I saw the wall of the building collapsing behind me, as if hit by a ballista, along with the knight’s cry of astonishment. Even with the Ironclad Armor, it would have hurt a bit if I had been hit by that. It was weaker than an actual ballista, but it didn’t seem like I would be unscathed if I got hit. But from my point of view, I just wouldn’t fight. From the start, he wasn’t an opponent I could easily kill. If a knight, no less, with a weapon like a magic sword died, even if the Western and Eastern factions were different, they would at least try to figure out the circumstances. That would only make things more troublesome for me. It wasn’t that I didn’t fight because the opponent was strong, but the background was too dirty, so I had to avoid the situation. // As soon as I came out onto the street, I was spotted by a guard patrolling the area. “There he is—!”

-Pow!

I punched the guard who was shouting loudly and slipped into the alleyway. I wondered if El had escaped safely, but judging from the busy sounds, she hadn’t been caught yet. Well, that was to be expected. Due to the Bloodsucking Art, El can replenish her inner energy relatively freely, unlike other martial arts. If she had built up some inner energy like me, she would be able to escape sufficiently. Even if she didn’t have any inner energy, if she had diligently practiced Qi Gong, there would be no need to worry about her being caught.

-Pat, pat!

Putting aside my worries about El, I recalled a rough route in my head and weaved through the alleyways. Thanks to hiding in the shadows, the guards bustling around the streets didn’t notice me. I briefly looked around and returned the inner energy circulating throughout my body back to my dantian. “Ugh…” Perhaps because I had been continuously circulating inner energy contaminated with poison, my physical condition was worse than usual. Still, thanks to getting used to it, I could endure it somehow, but I couldn’t help but feel a nauseating sensation rising from within. Thinking about it, a bitter smile naturally appeared on my face. I didn’t expect to be sick for so long just from doing it with a different species once. But if you asked me if I would do it again, I would definitely nod. The pleasant pressure of having a belly full of eggs and the pleasure of laying them were still vividly etched in my mind. The tremendous shame I felt in that situation, and the excitement that came with it, too. I probably won’t have the same experience again, but I would welcome anything similar. “Find him quickly!!” “…Damn it, what am I supposed to do here? Just search aimlessly, what a pain.” “Who’s saying anything…” When I heard shouts from afar, soldiers in front of the alley I was hiding in grumbled and pretended to run. Their voices didn’t have much determination in them. Well, that was to be expected. As I realized while escaping within the Nordic District, there weren’t many soldiers searching, surprisingly. At most, maybe twenty or so. Some of them seemed to be searching diligently, but it was already difficult for them to search the slum area of the Nordic District. Even when I glanced up at the sky, I didn’t see any dragon knights or griffons. Even though it would be obvious if they looked down from the sky, only innocent soldiers were running around on the ground. This was practically the lord of Mesatria advertising that he had no intention of catching El. It was the same in my previous life, but here, too, the military was making people run around pointlessly. Anyway, thanks to the ridiculously small number of search personnel, it was easy to get to the underground waterway. Even before leaving the Nordic District, there were hardly any soldiers to be seen.

-Splish, splash.

After entering the underground waterway, I leisurely moved my feet, listening to the unique splashing sound. As I tried to gauge my inner energy to check my physical condition, I found that the amount had decreased considerably. I had been using it as sparingly as possible, but it was enough to make me sigh, but what could I do? I had to be grateful that I could use martial arts even a little in this world. I wanted to replenish some energy before entering Karaldin, but I didn’t feel like staying in Mesatria any longer. But going to the Mesheen Great Forest was also a bit difficult. I was a bit reluctant to deal with demi-walkers like goblins. And I had no idea how long it would take to get to Karaldin through the Mesheen Great Forest. It would probably take close to ten days.

-Thump, thump.

As I walked along, pondering, I noticed someone leaning against the wall in the distance. “Huh?” “…What?” What came into view were two men standing leaning against the wall in light clothing. Judging from their slouching posture and the fact that they were loitering in the underground waterway, they were definitely members of an underworld organization. Their equipment was too weak to be adventurers, and there was no reason for ordinary people to be here. Seeing them, a conflict arose in my mind. I was already wondering if I needed to replenish my energy, and the two men in front of me looked like energy supply potions. But I didn’t have much time. What should I do? I decided to observe their reactions first and took off my hood. Then, golden hair flowed down to my shoulders. A question suddenly popped into my head. Would they try to attack me? // “Still haven’t found her?” “We, we’re sorry!” “Damn it!!!”

-Bang!

Lanschirr raged violently and punched the innocent wall. As a knight who had trained his body, his fist left a mark on the mud wall and became embedded in it. It had been a full five months. His anger at having missed the target he had been tracking for so long right in front of his eyes was beyond words. ‘I almost had her…’ Lutian, was it? If that insignificant guy had just taken proper care of that bitch, it would have ended there. He was tempted to kill him right away, but he couldn’t do that in order to get even a little help. “Hoo…” Lanschirr took a rough deep breath and calmed his mind. ‘…No, I might have been thinking wrong. She was a cunning woman from the start. She’s not the kind of woman who would be caught by those petty thieves.’ With a strength that was hard to believe for a human, she grabbed sword blades with her bare hands, and even deflected quarrels. He didn’t know where such a woman had sprung from, but at least she wasn’t someone who could be easily caught. ‘The very idea that those guys caught her might have been a trap. Was it to eliminate me?’ If she was going to be caught so easily, she wouldn’t have even crossed from one end of the Kilkard Kingdom to the other. He wondered if the Blattera trash were trying to kill him, but when he thought about it, there was no reason for them to do that at all. In the end, not only that thief but even he had been played by that woman’s tricks. From the start, she even had an unidentified accomplice. Moreover, someone who had the ability to block even the Gale Sword’s Cold Wind. He couldn’t be sure whether that strange trick was magic, holy magic, or the ability of a demon, but it was certainly annoying. ‘….I should have been more careful.’ The more he thought, the more the anger boiling in his heart gradually cooled. A loser doesn’t need belated regrets. What he needed was not anger at the futile past, but a plan for the future. ‘What should I do?’ The further he went from the West to the East, the more difficult the pursuit became. From the start, the pursuit itself stemmed from an unsavory incident, so it had to be resolved secretly, but the damn woman’s abilities were so great that things had turned out this way. A full three months.

It took three months to find Natalia, who had hidden in one of the eastern strongholds, so I have no idea how long it will take next time. There are three or four strongholds nearby right now, and it takes a long time just to look around one of them. I don’t even want to imagine how long it would take if she hid in a slum. Moreover, unlike the western or royal territories, I had to bow my head several times to get cooperation from the eastern lords. The prestige of the Gardisha County was useless in the eastern region, and in many cases, they did not even allow search cooperation or the distribution of wanted posters. “…This is the last chance.” In any case, if I don’t settle things here, the mission is as good as a failure. Ranshirl composed himself and took a deep breath. It’s useless to look for what’s already been missed with only a few dozen soldiers. What’s more important is where that woman is headed in the future. ‘She won’t be able to stay in Mesatria for long. If she escapes… it will be the East Gate or the South Gate.’ Fortunately, I was able to get cooperation in Mesatria. Thanks to the distribution of wanted posters, each gate was sealed off, and it was possible to search using the underworld thieves. She herself knows that it is not safe to stay here. Above all, given that woman’s personality, she is likely to escape the city immediately. The Nordic Zone and the North Gate are too far, and there is nothing at the West Gate. If she flees towards the Meshin Great Forest, it’s the East Gate, and if she heads to another city by carriage, it’s the South Gate. Considering the possibilities, the village located at the South Gate is more likely, but the possibility of the East Gate cannot be ruled out. ‘In the end, I’ll need a Rider.’ After finishing his thoughts, Ranshirl rummaged through the pocket in his arms. He couldn’t get support from the lord for a Griffin Rider. The eastern lords are not that generous. However, it would be possible to ask a Rider personally. He could show that much flexibility. ‘I need to move quickly.’ He finished his thoughts and quickly moved his steps. ———= Author’s Note ———= Wow… Thank you for the coupon. Recently, I’ve been thinking that I need to build up a stockpile to ensure the coherence of the story. I need to finish this chapter quickly for the sake of the Novel Scene.