With a clang, shards of ice scattered explosively.
A clear light reflected, sprinkling brilliant hues all around. Had my perception been heightened, I might have been lost in a mont of dreamlike reverie.
But I had no leisure to be emotionally moved at the mont.
Because right after an ice spike flew at , the man charged toward .
It was an unexpected battle.
Initially, I only ca to find the rchant who had swindled Emma.
I had no intention of engaging in a blade-to-blade fight.
As for the loss suffered, I could compensate her myself. What interested more was that the rchant dealt with rare ingredients from the North.
In that case, he would also be well-inford about the developnts in the North.
If the conversation didn’t work, that was fine too. I could simply teach him a lesson so he’d never try to pull one over Emma again.
But who would have thought that the rchant was an Elf?
Swoosh, a dagger shot forth like a flash of light, making a sharp whistling sound.
In response, I swung my hatchet.
Its trajectory was straight, the simplest path, but that only made its power and speed all the more fierce.
Sparks flew as a sharp noise rang out.
It was the sound of the Elf’s dagger being knocked away. I then, once again, slamd a kick into his abdon.
Whack, I felt the sensation of my foot sinking into the Elf’s abdon.
His body bent sharply like a shrimp, then crashed into the wall with a whooshing sound.
With a loud thud, the Elf’s body slid down the wall.
This has been repeated several tis already.
The Elf mage seed to have so skill in close combat. Had his opponent been a lower-grade student from the academy, he might have been able to subdue them.
But I was on a whole different level than your average fighter.
There was no way I would succumb to soone who was neither a warrior nor a mage, but sowhere in between.
Even so, there was only one reason I hadn’t yet finished him off .
I let out a deep sigh and said,
“Why don’t you give up now? Did I ever say I was going to kill you?”
“…Humans are all the sa.”
Growling, the Elf bared his teeth as if he were a beast.
His glossy grey hair even felt like a mane.
“How did you find ? Are you from Imperial Intelligence? Not even the professors at the Academy have noticed my true identity until now.”
It was an unexpected revelation.
I thought that if I could figure it out, surely the professors at the Academy would have noticed as well, but it seed that wasn’t the case.
Then again, for an Elf to be right in the middle of the academy, it had to be that way.
Elves are the enemies of humanity.
It’s an ill-fated relationship that has continued since ancient tis.
Elves revere and protect nature. In contrast, humans have never hesitated to exploit and destroy it.
Because of that, the conflict between humans and elves inevitably has a long history. There were even cases where humans, while cutting down trees, would be attacked by elves.
The long-standing conflict eventually escalated into war.
In truth, the outco was almost a foregone conclusion.
After dragons bestowed magic upon them, humans beca the undisputed dominant species of the continent. Their sheer numbers alone were on a completely different scale.
Humanity planted the flag of victory in the Great Forest, the holand of the elves.
The Elves of the Great Forest had no choice but to abandon the World Tree and disperse.
However, there was nowhere on the continent where humans hadn’t set foot on.
Except for one place—the farthest northern part of the continent, ruled by snow and ice.
They had been enemies for such an incredibly long ti.
There was no way Elves would like humans, and the sa was true for humans.
An Elf living right next to the Academy?
It wouldn’t have been strange at all if he had been imdiately arrested and dragged away. That was likely why the Elf was so desperately resisting.
After all, victory or death were the only choices left for him.
In that case, struggling until the very end was the better option.
His eyes reflected such determined resolve.
Of course, from my perspective, it was simply unfair.
“I am affiliated with Imperial Intelligence, but…”
“I knew it!”
The Elf gritted his teeth as if he had expected it all along.
It wasn’t technically wrong,since the Academy branch of Imperial Intelligence was under my command. As a loyal subject of the Empire, reporting the presence of an Elf spy would indeed be my duty.
However, what left feeling so frustrated was the fact that I, honestly, didn’t have any particular hostility toward Elves.
Elves who live for hundreds of years might feel that way.
And the northerners, who have had long-standing conflicts with Elves, likely hadn’t let go of their grudges either.
But the rest of humanity didn’t have any particular reason to hate them.
While the sense of disdain and exclusion toward them existed, there were still those, like , who remained largely indifferent.
Thus, depending on the situation, I was even willing to protect him.
I figured I could always leave the monitoring to Senior Neris.
Rather, I was sowhat pleased by his existence.
In the love letter from the future, the existence of ‘Elves’ was also ntioned. In that case, it would be faster to consult with an elf about that issue.
So I had been handling the Elf gently until now.
Of course, blood was slowly beginning to trickle from his mouth but, considering that his limbs were still intact, my rcy was valid.
Though even that had its limits.
I wanted to leave the most favourable impression possible, but I won’t have any other choice if this keeps up.
“I’ll make a final offer. Let’s stop fighting and talk things out…”
“Don’t be ridiculous, what kind of trick are you trying to pull?”
That was the Elf’s response to my final warning.
At this point, I felt a strange sense of incongruity.
Aviang was an Elf, but he was also soone who lived among humans and did business for over ten years. It was enough ti to dispel any misunderstandings about humans.
Naturally, the deep-rooted hatred between the two races couldn’t be so easily erased, but surely he should have realised that there was no need for such blind distrust.
However, Aviang’s current attitude was strange.
An attitude of blind hostility and hatred.
Ultimately, it ant peaceful conversation was out of the question.
I let out another deep sigh.
If he refused a friendly drink and insisted on a punitive one, I had no choice but to oblige.
I directed a silent signal toward Aviang.
It was a brief glance which ant, ‘If you’re going to strike, get on with it.’
Provoked by that, he impulsively conjured ice spikes.
It seed that the reason he’d been conversing with until now was to prepare for this.
About six of them—a considerable amount.
Aviang seed to sense that this would be our final exchange.
He crouched down, as if to give it his all.
And then, in the next mont, there were six bright blue flashes.
The ice spikes, fired in sequence, ford a straight line. I threw my hatchet as if I’d been waiting for this.
Thwack, Thwack, Thwack!
The hatchet, after knocking down one spike, displayed change twice. As three ice spikes were neutralised in an instant, I broke through the glittering ice shards.
Then, with an upward kick, I sent one incoming ice spike into the air.
I grabbed the remaining ice spikes, one in each hand. I felt the sudden cold causing my palms to stick to the ice with a sharp, freezing sensation.
It was perfect for subduing the Elf recklessly charging at .
Just then, Aviang’s full-powered thrust was closing in.
Huuuu, I deeply exhaled and focused my senses. In the excruciatingly slow passage of ti, I aid for the mont when that thrust would intersect with my body.
Whoosh—I spun my body.
It was almost as if Aviang’s attack had propelled . My two hands slipped into his embrace as if winding around him and imdiately brought down his outstretched hand.
With a thwack, blood burst forth.
Aviang couldn’t even scream. He must have been feeling intense pain from the ice spikes embedded in his upper arm and forearm—one in each part.
Even this wasn’t enough to incapacitate him.
I pressed down on Aviang’s arm and slamd my knee into his elbow.
Crunch! The joint shattered, revealing white bone.
“AAAAAAAHHHH!”
See, you should have just listened to from the start.
As warmth returned to my hands, the ice spikes slipped away. It didn’t matter since I had achieved the goal of piercing Aviang’s arm anyway.
Without hesitation, I struck his face with my fist.
With a crack, his nasal bone collapsed and Aviang’s body was lifted off the ground.
Not missing the opportunity, I pounced on his fallen body.
What followed was one-sided violence.
Smack, Smack, Smack!
With each punch that landed on his face, blood and teeth flew into the air. I had his arms pinned down with my knees, leaving him no chance to fight back.
Even though I was holding back my strength, this was the result.
Had I hit him with full force, Aviang would have lost his life already.
In the end, he was still a living being.
There was no way he could hold out in the face of death.
“…S-Shtop…!”
His words were slurred, air whistling through his broken teeth.
Only then did I halt my swinging fist.
Tears were streaming down his face.
““S-Surren’er! I’ll surren’er…!”
Only after hearing those words could I breathe a sigh of relief.
I wondered what I would have done had he persisted to the end.
The strength drained from my shoulders. As my now relaxed muscles released the heat of battle, cooling my body down.
Aviang was sobbing, tears pouring down uncontrollably.
Looking down at him, I spoke in a sympathetic voice.
“…You should have done that from the start.”
And that was the end.
Smack! My fist struck his temple.
His entire body went limp.
**
A small building attached to the temple, known as the ‘Sun’s Shelter.’
I suddenly arrived at the residence of the Saintess and tossed down a blood-soaked sack with a heavy thud.
The Saintess just stared at with a dumbfounded expression.
“…Could you please treat this thing?”
I awkwardly scratched the back of my head as I spoke, and the Saintess let out a scoff in disbelief.
Still, I was grateful that she began to open the sack.
The Saintess was fundantally kind-hearted.
She wouldn’t turn away a patient in need of help.
And soon, I had to brace myself for the Saintess’s scolding.
“KY-KYAAAAAHHH! What have you done to this poor girl, leaving her in such a bloody ss…!’
Naturally, she didn’t seem to have the slightest doubt that I was the culprit.
The saddest part was that she wasn’t wrong, so I had nothing to say.
A sigh escaped my lips.
Just as I was about to slowly explain the situation—
“There’s more to it… No, wait a minute.”
There was sothing in the Saintess’s words that caught my attention, so I couldn’t help but ask with a puzzled look.
“…A girl?”
“Yes, a girl! Regardless of the circumstances, how could you do this to such a delicate child…!”
I imdiately snatched the sack from the Saintess’s hands. Then, I turned it upside down and shook it out.
At my rough handling, the Saintess sighed and shook her head.
Of course, I didn’t care in the slightest. Because a fact I hadn’t known was right before my eyes.
“…She’s really a woman?”
And to top it off, she looked like she had only just beco an adult.
I couldn’t help but smack my forehead.
So the transformation magic didn’t end there.
Aviang had even been hiding her gender.
Well, not that it would have made go easier on her.
After all, I’m an advocate for gender equality.
It was the start of a strange connection.
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