Episode 64 – Pursuit
by Afuhfuihgs
*
The door of the carriage opened in an empty lot where people’s eyes couldn’t reach.
After everyone got out of the carriage, Ed disappeared, hiding his presence to infiltrate Robin’s mansion as planned.
Lily couldn’t help but admire Ed’s skill, who had disappeared as if melting into the air the moment she took her eyes off him.
She knew that he was the Thief of the legendary Hero party who had achieved the legendary feat of even cutting off the Demon King’s head, and she had seen the scene through Robin’s memories,
His stealth ability, which disappeared in an instant right in front of her nose, was at such an amazing level that it was hard to believe even when she saw it with her own eyes.
Elina Debora was trying not to show that she was surprised, but she couldn’t completely hide her admiration.
Only Lara nodded and smiled as if she was used to Ed’s talent.
Lily took out the straight bow she was carrying on her back, bent it to string the bowstring, and asked Ellie.
“How are you going to find Jennifer Imo?”
“She said the direction she ran away was southwest,”
As soon as Lara heard those words, she jumped onto the carriage, and then jumped again from there, grabbing a nearby wall and grabbing a sign, and nimbly climbed onto the roof of a nearby building.
It was a feat that highlighted the nimble body unique to elves and the skills honed over many years.
Lara scanned the entire southwest direction and then began to climb to find a higher place.
Ellie put her hand into her sleeve and took out a walnut staff decorated with gold and silver.
“I’ll make Jennifer’s magical traces visible. Lily-ssi, go up with Lara-nim and let me know if you find any traces of magic.”
“…Were you a magician?”
“Hehe, I graduated at the top of Aureo Academy.”
“I see.”
“Teacher. When you receive a signal from Lily-ssi or Lara-nim, go straight there and subdue Jennifer. We’ll follow you right away.”
“I understand. Your Highness the Princess.”
“You’re not going together?”
“Hehe, even if we start together, Teacher will arrive much earlier.”
“Ah, yes, I understand.”
Lily began to jump at the same time as she answered.
Although not as much as Lara, Lily, who had lived most of her life in the forest, also climbed to high places with very nimble and light movements.
Ellie looked at Lily and grumbled, readjusting her staff.
“Why are there only monster-like humans next to me?”
“Isn’t it because Your Highness only gathers such people?”
“Teacher is the biggest monster.”
“…Find the magical traces quickly.”
Ellie smiled and gently shook her staff to evoke magic.
Next to Ellie, who began to chant a spell in a clear and clear voice, Debora slowly loosened her body and prepared to move.
When the incantation was over, small silver butterflies poured out from the end of Ellie’s staff.
The silver butterflies flew into the sky in flocks and spread in all directions.
“I found it.”
Lara and Lily, who were on top of a nearby bell tower, discovered a place far away where silver butterflies were gathering.
Lara’s eyesight was very good, but she couldn’t see Jennifer directly, probably because she was using invisibility magic.
“I’ll go first, Lily. Go down and tell them.”
“Ah, okay. I understand.”
Lara turned her body towards the place where the silver butterflies were gathering like clouds and jumped from the bell tower as it was, and Lily fell down towards Ellie and Debora.
*
“Those fucking soldiers, how did they move so fast?”
Jennifer was leaning against a wall in the alleys of the city, catching her breath.
From the moment she missed Edward, she moved quickly.
Even if Edward, a priest, reported it, her husband Robin’s position was the head of the Knights, who could be said to be at the top of the soldiers in charge of security, and the person in charge of security in the Imperial capital was the Valguir family, who had a close relationship with Jennifer.
She thought she could hide for a while and wait for Robin and Billard to cover up the incident appropriately.
However, the time it took for the soldiers to arrest Jennifer was only 20 minutes after Edward left the room.
Jennifer, who was packing a simple bag, shot magic at the soldiers and ran away with invisibility magic.
“…Damn it, I thought everything would work out when Edward came to me on his own.”
There is a big difference between saying that she was not at the scene and could not hear the arrest warrant and harming the soldiers and running away.
Now that she had attacked and ran away from the Imperial Knights, there was no way even Robin and Billard could protect Jennifer.
Now, all of Jennifer’s misdeeds would be revealed and she would have to pay for her sins.
Perhaps she might receive a reduced sentence because of her achievements during her Hero party days, but if that secret laboratory is revealed to the world, it will be difficult to get a reduced sentence.
Jennifer’s misdeeds, which can be vividly seen just by looking at the terrible scenery there, were all punishable by death.
Jennifer, whose legs gave way, collapsed and leaned against the wall, looking up at the sky.
Edward happened to open his eyes to divine power at that timing,
Is the Goddess punishing her?
Jennifer smiled bitterly.
“Edward… Haha, is that so, Goddess-nim? Are you now giving me the punishment for betraying Ed?”
The Goddess, who seemed to have shown no reaction so far even though she instigated Robin to betray Ed and deceived Mela and Lara, is now punishing them.
If that’s the case, isn’t it too late?
“Has it already been twenty years?”
To be honest, after that much time has passed, the magnitude of the sins she committed becomes hazy.
Yes, she did something bad, but why now?
If you were going to punish me, you should have punished me then, why are you trying to drop me now that I have risen so high?
Jennifer gritted her teeth.
Silver butterflies were fluttering in the sky.
Jennifer, who was staring blankly at the butterflies, felt like something was about to come to mind.
“Silver butterfly…? Oh no!”
Jennifer, who had excellent knowledge of magic, noticed that the butterfly was not natural.
And she was able to figure out what kind of magic it was right away.
The moment she tried to get up from her seat in a hurry.
“You were here. Countess.”
“…You are”
“How can someone who is the wife of my successor be in this state?”
A swordsman with blue hair fluttering was standing there.
“…Hmph, you’re not the commander of the Knights anymore. Debora Leclaire.”
“That’s right.”
Debora smiled and leisurely drew her sword even at Jennifer’s words, which were clearly intended to provoke her.
Damn it, is that so.
Could it be that she, the former commander of the Knights, had a grudge and was constantly monitoring Robin’s mansion?
If so, it made sense why the soldiers came to arrest Jennifer so quickly.
Jennifer also canceled the invisibility magic and took out a staff from between her breasts.
Debora maintained a relaxed attitude even in front of the Archmage’s staff and said.
“Even if I’m not the commander of the Knights, can’t I be a good model citizen who has subdued a fugitive heinous criminal?”
“…You know that even if a model citizen dies, there is no honor like a special promotion, right?”
“Do you know that a fugitive heinous criminal has a bounty on their head that allows them to be killed?”
“Ha, you’re already treating the wife of the Imperial Knight Commander as a heinous criminal even though she hasn’t even been tried yet.”
“Isn’t it you who refused the trial and ran away?”
Jennifer, who was slowly backing away while having a light argument, was sweating profusely.
It seemed impossible to escape from Debora, who seemed relaxed but showed no gaps.
Of course, as Jennifer, the unparalleled Archmage in the Empire, choosing to fight rather than turning her back was likely to be a better option.
However, it had already been 10 years since Jennifer had stepped down from the field, and since then she had been living only doing research.
And Debora was a veteran of veterans who had been rolling in the field as the commander of the Knights until a few months ago.
Even if she could barely subdue her, if a lot of time was delayed, other soldiers would obviously flock in, so Jennifer’s head became stuffy.
Kang!
Without any signal or sign, Debora’s sword suddenly flew into Jennifer’s abdomen.
Jennifer was unable to react, but she heard the sound of the automatic defense magic that protected her body blocking the sword.
“Huh…”
“Automatic defense magic? Well, I didn’t think it would be this easy.”
“Y, you son of a bitch…”
Jennifer recalled a magic she had secretly completed a few years ago.
It required a bit of incantation time, but it was an instant death magic that inevitably led the opponent to an unavoidable death.
It was a magic with a simple operation method that didn’t even require aiming and a strong effect, but it only worked on people like humans and elves, not on monsters, so there was no place to use it properly, and if it was known that there was such a magic, it was a magic that was secretly hidden because it was not known how it would be used in the future.
‘I can’t avoid being treated as a criminal anymore. It’s better to kill her and run away.’
Jennifer looked at Debora and gave a short warning.
“If you let me go now, you can avoid death.”
Chaenggang!
Debora’s sword flew straight towards Jennifer’s eyes.
Jennifer’s automatic defense magic began to crack after just two sword strikes.
Jennifer’s face crumpled.
“You goddamn bitch!”
Jennifer swung her staff towards the ground with an incantation.
The ground under Debora’s feet became soggy and turned into a swamp, pulling her feet down.
Debora slammed her sword into the solid ground, then put her weight on the sword handle and pulled her feet out of the swamp.
“Magicians are originally specialized in changing the battle situation rather than attacking, but to use this level of magic so casually, as expected, the Hero party is a party.”
“Tsk, you’re like a monster.”
“But I’m really curious. Countess, you had such great skills, why did you let Ed, another of my disciples besides Robin, die?”
“I wonder.”
Without being distracted by Debora’s words, Jennifer continued to chant the spell.
Her magic began to distort Debora’s surroundings incessantly.
The swamp or the floor with thorns growing out of it gradually eliminated the place where she could set foot, and vines sprouted from the walls trying to grab Debora.
Debora kicked and broke the sprouting thorns with her feet, stood on the blunt cross-section, and continued to cut the vines coming towards her.
Jennifer saw her standing on the thorns, unable to move anywhere, and cutting the vines, and immediately began to chant a long spell.
Debora sensed that Jennifer’s magic was unusual.
Debora jumped off the thorns, stepped on the wall with her feet, and kicked it hard, and with the reaction, she flew straight towards Jennifer.
At that time, Jennifer smiled wickedly.
“You’re so stupid, you’ve been caught.”
“…!”
A huge bundle of tree trunks sprouted right in front of Jennifer.
The speed was so fast that it even seemed as if tree trunks had suddenly appeared in the empty air.
Debora’s body collided with the trunk, and the tree trunks began to surround her in a circle.
Amber sap gushed out from the round tree trunks that imprisoned Debora like a prison or a cage, filling the gaps, and the sap that was sprayed even on Debora’s body hardened and tightly bound her body.
“A magician fighting a swordsman wouldn’t have failed to prepare for an approach. Robin wouldn’t fall for this kind of trap.”
“…”
“Well, I’m sorry, but you have to die. I’ve already made too much noise, so I have to run away quickly.”
Jennifer, who succeeded in tying Debora up tightly, was confident that she would not be able to move.
This magic that bound her feet was the magic with the strongest binding power among the magic Jennifer had.
However, Jennifer was still not careless.
Jennifer’s victory over Debora was only because Debora was more careless than she thought, and if she fought her again, she could be helplessly defeated.
Although it was blocked by automatic defense magic, Debora’s sword strike was so fast that Jennifer couldn’t even see it, so she couldn’t even react.
If she let Debora go like this, she might chase after Jennifer someday.
Jennifer took a deep breath and began to chant the instant death magic.
It was then.
Puk.
“Huh?”
She clearly didn’t hear any sound, but she felt something strange.
“Ugh?!”
Jennifer turned her head and looked at her shoulder as the terrible pain that came a few seconds later felt like it was burning her shoulder.
A handful of Jennifer’s shoulder had disappeared.
“What is this?”
She clearly didn’t hear any sound.
Although it was severely damaged by Debora’s sword strike, Jennifer’s automatic defense magic was still activated, but this unidentified attack took away a handful of Jennifer’s shoulder.
Jennifer suddenly looked back.
“…!”
A charred black arrow and a piece of her shoulder flesh were stuck on the floor.
Jennifer had definitely seen this kind of archery skill before.
“La…Lara?”
Debora smiled.
“A good citizen fighting a heinous criminal wouldn’t have come alone. Even a mere ‘thief’ knows this.”
“Ugh, Keueugh!”
Jennifer groaned in pain, feeling the cold gray gaze staring straight at her from afar.
.
0 Comments