The official road heading north stretched along a dried-up riverbed.
Three people walked in a somewhat messy line. Renn walked at the very front, keeping a steady pace as if he were marching.
Esper walked in the middle, taking a fresh piece of bread out of her bag. The Holy Sword floated behind her, swaying gently.
Eladia walked at the very back, keeping a distance of about three feet from Esper. Her eyes had not left Esper for a single moment.
A farmer driving an ox cart passed by them on the side of the road. He glanced at them but minded his own business, though he did speed up his cart slightly.
“I guess we don't look like very friendly folks?”
Esper glanced at the receding ox cart.
“It's probably because your sword is constantly floating. It looks out of place,” Renn said without turning his head.
“That's the Holy Sword, okay? The real reason is probably because your face looks too scary,” Esper grumbled in dissatisfaction.
Her attitude toward the Holy Sword had shifted from cold indifference to actively patting its hilt whenever it acted spoiled. Although they weren't extremely close yet, she had still come to accept it.
And then the Haji Sword would start doing backflips. Who on earth taught it to do backflips?
Esper didn't know, and neither did Renn.
“So, Kaylar.”
Esper sighed. Nibbling on her bread, she pulled the commission sheet from her pocket and read it as she walked.
“Gray hair, dwarf, Rank Six. Aside from that?”
“The guild notes list her as a Rank E External Member adventurer,” Renn said, his voice drifting from up front without him looking back.
An External Member, just like Esper used to be.
No physical exams or formal registration reports required. It was perfect for many wanted criminals who still wanted to make a living through fighting.
The difference was that Esper had been Rank C, while this Kaylar was only Rank E.
A complete rookie.
“Is there anything else?”
“The reason for her wanted status is written in great detail.”
Esper looked down at the attached documents.
“Being an External Member means she doesn't have a fixed party or guild sponsorship. She only takes the leftover miscellaneous commissions that others reject. One day, she accepted a high-difficulty but lucrative commission, only to be intercepted by someone else.”
Esper took another bite of her bread. “Stealing her prey?”
“Worse than that,” Renn's tone didn't change.
“Once she put in all the effort to defeat the target, the people lying in ambush jumped out, planning to finish off both her and the prey. External Members already get terrible treatment, and a Rank E External Member is even less likely to receive guild protection. Most of the time, if they die, no one investigates. The commission reward and materials would all go to the hijackers.”
“And then she beat all the hijackers into cripples.”
“Yes.”
“Good for her,” Esper said casually.
Those kinds of people didn't deserve any sympathy.
Walking about three feet behind her to the right, Eladia tilted her head slightly.
“Then... didn't she do nothing wrong...? Why is she wanted...?”
Renn paused for a moment, seemingly trying to figure out how to put it.
“Because the ones who tried to hijack her were a Rank A adventurer party with official guild records and team registration. There were dozens of them. Every single one of them was completely incapacitated and required long-term recovery.”
“So if officially registered members kill an External Member, it's fine, but if a rogue adventurer fights back against official members, it's a crime?”
Renn didn't answer.
Esper's gaze turned a bit colder.
She used to be an External Member too, but she only worked around Avalon and kept to herself. The jobs she took were all scraps, so basically no one ever tried to steal them from her.
After all, who would kill someone just to steal a job finding a lost cat?
Still, she had heard rumors that in some remote branches, the conflicts between External Members and registered members were far bloodier than one might imagine.
She had always treated it as mere gossip.
Now she knew it wasn't gossip...
“Wait, she beat dozens of adventurers from a Rank A party all at once?”
“The party consisted of a dozen or so Rank B members and four or five Rank A members. Supposedly, they all rushed her together, and in the end, only one person returned with all their limbs intact to submit the wanted report.”
“The standard for Rank B is Rank Four or Five, and Rank A is Rank Six. And she beat them all down?”
“If the intelligence is accurate.”
“That's a bit ridiculous. Even Zhong didn't have that kind of strength when he was alive.”
What's more, she didn't even deal a lethal blow.
There is a massive difference in difficulty between holding back and fighting to kill.
Esper stuffed the commission sheet back into her pocket and scratched the back of her head.
“And she's marked as a death marcher, which means she carries the scent of the Black Tide. But don't death marchers act based on their lingering obsessions? What was her purpose in registering as an adventurer then?”
Did she not get enough of working before she died?
“It doesn't say. According to the records, she didn't say a single word the entire time.”
“Then how exactly does this Kaylar fight? Are there any battle records?”
“Yes,” Renn nodded and continued flipping through his book.
“According to eyewitness reports, she doesn't use any magic or runic weapons. Instead, she fights purely using physical martial arts and a certain breathing technique to strengthen her body. The report uses the term 'Blacksmithing Techniques'.”
“Blacksmithing Techniques?”
Esper felt like she had heard Fina mention it at some point. It seemed to be a dwarf thing.
But she had always felt there wasn't much to learn about dwarves, who looked like little round balls anyway, so she had focused on playing with Fina's tail instead.
“Yes, a dwarven technique. It's a body tempering method based on the concept of forging. It's rare, but not unheard of.”
“The most common and famous of these is the 『Hyperventilation Technique』. By breathing in a specific rhythm, air is forced into the bones and muscles, temporarily giving the body the hardness and resilience of quenched metal.”
“According to the survivor's description, fighting her is like facing a chariot. Their attacks couldn't even scratch her skin, while a single strike of her hammer could shatter a person's entire skeletal system.”
Esper exhaled, stuffing the last piece of bread into her mouth, chewing, and swallowing.
“How did the Black Tide's aura leak out? From inside her body?”
“Supposedly, it leaked out as she fought. The survivor was at the outermost edge, planning to shoot a sneaky arrow at her eyes. But the moment he made eye contact with her, he was so terrified he pissed himself and ran away.”
“...How pathetic.”
Renn shrugged, showing an expression other than calmness for the first time—a look of profound helplessness.
“So, this is the next target we have to subjugate...?”
Renn's footsteps paused for a moment, and then he kept walking.
Esper was silent for a moment.
“Then this situation is completely different from Zhong's. Zhong was clearly going around slaughtering people, but this Kaylar sounds more like she was pushed into a corner before she fought back.”
“Yes.”
“...The reason she registered at the Adventurer's Guild couldn't possibly be just to find a job to work, right...?”
Esper muttered, voicing a conclusion she herself found highly unlikely.
How did a Rank Six powerhouse who fought like a chariot sound like a miserable wage slave?
As a death marcher, she would typically have her own lingering obsession.
Could Kaylar's obsession really be going to work?
Esper walked for a while, lost in her wild thoughts.
Suddenly, she remembered something.
“Renn.”
“Yeah?”
“Is your rune called Annihilation, just like your title?”
Renn nodded.
“What does Annihilation actually do? Can you explain it in detail?”
Last night, when Renn was fighting Cirian over there, Esper hadn't been able to see his side of the battle at all.
By the time everything was over, Renn was already standing there, covered in dust, with an expression as calm as if he had just finished a casual stroll.
“Any energy I touch is extinguished.”
“That's it?”
“That's it.”
“You mean whatever you touch, you can directly nullify the opponent's energy?”
“No,” Renn's expression was completely flat.
“Annihilation's mitigation capacity is limited. Each contact can only extinguish a portion of the energy; it isn't a conceptual, complete erasure.”
“If the opponent's output exceeds Annihilation's upper limit, the excess will still pierce right through me.”
“Huh? So it's essentially a defensive ability? A flat damage reduction?”
“For the most part, yes.”
“You say that so nonchalantly.”
“It is simply the truth. Against spells or runic attacks below Rank Six, Annihilation can achieve near-total negation.”
“But against pure physical output above Rank Seven, it can probably only reduce it by twenty to thirty percent. If the opponent's strength is even higher, it might not even shave off ten percent.”
“Then how did you fight that person yesterday?”
“She can summon a large number of low-tier abominations. The mana content in a single one is very low, so Annihilation can easily extinguish it. However, if there are too many of them, and my processing speed can't keep up with the generation speed, that's a different story.”
“So I applied Runic Fire enchanting resin. It allows the effect of Annihilation to attach to the flames and spread, essentially turning a single-point attack into an area-of-effect attack. But the resin is a consumable. Once it's used up, it's gone.”
Whoa... Praise the sun, then.
“...So you actually relied on items to get through last night?”
“Because I needed to end the battle quickly, and giving it my all is the most basic form of chivalry.”
“What kind of chivalry involves fighting with items? That's not what the books say at all!”
Fina had mentioned knightly duels and such before. She had listened to those stories quite closely and used to have some beautiful illusions about knights.
And now, those illusions were shattered.
“The chivalry of the Roundtable Knights does not forbid the use of items.”
“...”
Esper decided not to argue about such things.
She had more important things to ask.
“Do you still have any stock of that Runic Fire left?”
Esper's eyes sparkled.
She wanted to try lighting something on fire with it too. It sounded incredibly cool.
Although it conflicted with her Blood Blade, just imagining herself wielding a flaming sword made her feel incredibly badass.
“I have two portions of Runic Fire left. The remaining resins are mostly for handling emergencies.”
“Only two?”
The girl's face showed clear disappointment.
“The manufacturing process for this resin is highly complex, and the materials are rare. The market price for one tube of the most basic fire resin is about one gold coin. The price of Runic Fire is thirty times that of ordinary fire.”
“???”
Esper fumbled in her pocket.
“Thirty gold coins?! I only have fifty in my pocket! And that was just given to me by the Minister!”
“Yes.”
“Could you show a little sympathy with that reaction...?”
“My sympathy won't make you any richer.”
“...”
Esper rolled her eyes, giving up on arguing with him.
She slowed her pace slightly, shifting her position a little to the left.
The distance was exactly three feet.
“Ela.”
The girl walking on the left raised her head slightly, her azure hair shimmering with fine specks of light under the sun.
“Are you alright? We've been walking for so long.”
“Yes... I'm not tired... The Holy Light continuously restores my stamina... so I don't feel fatigued...”
Her voice was still very soft, but it was much better than when they first met.
Although it still lacked emotional fluctuation, the stiffness was slowly disappearing.
Subsequently, the three continued heading north along the official road. The sun climbed to a position slightly west of overhead.
After walking for a while, Esper noticed Eladia's lips twitching slightly, as if she wanted to say something but held back.
“If you have something to say, just say it.”
“...Esper.”
“Yeah?”
“Yesterday... you got hurt a lot...”
“Didn't I say I'm already healed?”
“But it still hurts, doesn't it...?”
Esper turned her head away, glancing at the clouds drifting across the sky.
“It doesn't hurt anymore.”
“Liar...” Eladia's tone carried a stubborn earnestness.
“How do you know I'm lying?”
“When you walk, your left shoulder tilts slightly...”
Esper shrugged her shoulders. The movement was a reflex; only after doing it did she realize what she had done.
“...You were watching that closely?”
“Because it's Esper... so I've been watching you for a long time...”
“...”
Esper turned her face even further away, feeling her cheeks grow slightly warm.
“Don't talk like that. It feels a bit...”
“A bit what...?”
“...Never mind, it's nothing,” Esper muttered as she quickened her pace by a few steps, once again widening the distance between herself and Eladia.
When she walked up next to Renn, she noticed that the Roundtable Knight's eyes seemed a bit vacant, as if his brain were rapidly processing something.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Thinking about my master and my senior,” his tone was somewhat complex.
“...My senior always speaks in riddles, which troubles both my master and me. But sometimes... she also says some rather strange things...”
“...”
Esper sighed.
Sunlight bathed the three of them.
“Speaking of which, Renn.”
“Yes.”
“You mentioned earlier that Yulia was last seen in this northern region, right? Can you guess her most likely route of travel?”
“No. My senior's actions have no pattern whatsoever. But one thing is certain.”
“What?”
Renn paused. “She will actively seek out dangerous things.”
...Right, she was exactly that kind of woman.
“Which means, if Kaylar really is active in the north, Yulia is highly likely on her way to find her too?”
“It's possible.”
“Then things are going to get complicated.”
Esper sighed.
She had a feeling that what lay ahead wouldn't be peaceful.
A dwarven death marcher who fought like a chariot, a genius swordswoman who was practically Slaanesh incarnate, and Cirian and her backing organization lurking who knows where.
Who knows what other absurd things were waiting for them.
“Anyway, let's get there first. Walk faster, I don't want to spend the night on the road.”
“At our current speed, we'll arrive tomorrow evening.”
“Then that's the plan.”
Esper quickened her pace, the hem of her tattered gray robe swaying around her ankles. Behind her, the Holy Sword adjusted its angle slightly in tandem with her movements, emitting a faint, cold light.
She didn't look back, but she could hear the sound of Eladia's light jogging footsteps catching up behind her.
Rate on N.U.
