With all the Murder Tigers within the range of my spell, having them group up before the Fire Walls, I unleashed Gravity Stop, the sa spell that I had used against the Laughing Foxes bandits.
Signalled by a brief sound cue, blue and red lights wrapped around us and the monsters, respectively. The very next instant, the Murder Tigers’ bodies were pulled down by intensified gravity.
“””WHAT!?”””
“Th-that’s amazing, Sir Asley…”
“Heh, interesting spells you’ve got there…”
Which reminds , I don’t think I’d ever shown this to Lina.
And from lchi’s reaction, I would assu this was new for her, too… whoops, no ti to ss around now.
“Now, wipe them out!”
“Y-yeah!”
“You got it!”
“Thunderbolt!”
Hornel chose his moves well, firing off a lightning spell right off the bat. It was apparent that he naturally possessed high leadership qualities.
After that opening, it took no ti at all to sweep the rest down.
Midors and Idéa finished off the Murder Tigers that had been weakened by Hornel’s Thunderbolt.
Baladd twisted her Murder Tiger’s neck as if wringing water off a dust cloth, then ca back to us with a smile on her face. As expected, Lina pulled a wry smile in response to that.
Bloody hell, that was scary.
“Heh… w-we did it…”
“……Gah.”
“Really saved our hides there, Asley. You knew that we would be coming here ourselves anyway, right?”
I’d anticipated that you would pull sothing like this right when you’d been refused by Duncan, after all.
“Nah, just so random hunch, really.”
“Thank you for saving us, Sir Asley!”
“You’re welco. You showed so pretty good moves there, Lina.”
“Master Asley, do you want this?”
No, I’d rather you not throw the monster’s remains at like it was so doll.
“Thanks, but I don’t want it.”
“Yes sire~~!”
Now then, looks like their vigilance was quite slack.
Although I wouldn’t quite consider the clash back there to be enough to take eight of a cat’s nine lives, I suppose they hadn’t had many chances to go against such formidable foes.
“Are you just gonna keep quiet, Ash?”
“No, that would be dangerous. Do you sense anything?”
“90 ters to the south. I sense so sort of ‘disaster’ there.”
“I see… best not to rush in, then.”
While lchi and I talked, Hornel interrupted us, our exchange perhaps rubbing him the wrong way.
“What are you talking about, Asley? What’s dangerous?”
Doesn’t seem to be the case. I suppose it was more of a simple curiosity and a little vigilance.
“Hahaha, did you even accept the hunt with the intention to complete it? Shouldn’t we count the number of Murder Tigers we’ve taken down?”
“Yeah, what she said.”
“So… the target number is six – hope you rembered that.”
“Wah – that’s right! I completely forgot!”
“Yeah, that’s it – goes to show how y’all are still inexperienced. The fact that you’re not fully vigilant when out of town is a problem in itself.”
Everyone frowned in response to what lchi had pointed out.
Although being Rank B would put one among the higher-end adventurers, one’s age and maturity were also important factors. Goes to show how important social studies can be.
Then again, Hornel seed to have high enough capacity for adaptation, so he’ll soon be able to fight on the front lines, I guess?
“Asley…”
“What is it, Hornel?”
“Well, I… I’ve brought Lina along into a dangerous situation, so… Sorry. And thank you.”
What a surprise.
He’d emotionally matured, more or less. It was only expected for him to apologize, what with being Lina’s guardian of sorts, but he made sure to express his thanks toward personally as well.
He did turn away imdiately as he was done talking, though – I couldn’t help but crack a smile.And Lina, observing us from a distance, was smiling quite delightfully. So unfair.
“Let’s be on our way, then.”
But as I said that, a small silhouette approached us from high on the sky.
Isn’t that… Hawk? Sent on an errand by Irene, perhaps?
“Oh, there you are, maggots! I’ve got a ssage from big sis! Listen up!”
The sparrow’s throaty voice rang in my head, sending harsh berating words at the party of four behind .
“You four are in for a week of detention, damned fools! Oh, she didn’t say ‘damned fools,’ by the way. Think of it as spicing it up! There, one ssage down! And next, you!”
“What is it?”
“There’s trouble at the Colorful Food District! Be extra careful next ti you’re looking to buy off a girl! Damned fool!”
“Trouble… All right, please tell her ‘I got the ssage’.”
“You got it! Later, maggots!”
As always, such a noisy sparrow, this one.
Now then, trouble in the Colorful Food District… what’s that supposed to an? Did Irene catch wind of so shady stuff? I’ll have to look into that later.
I first sent Hornel’s group on their way back to the town and then went with lchi to finish the last Murder Tiger of our quota. Rembering Duncan’s tip that the number of the Murder Tigers was uncertain, we searched the area for a while longer, but we didn’t co across any more of them.
On our way back, I bothered lchi with the sa question that I had asked a while ago.
“lchi… Who are you, really?”
“Right – guess we can talk now, with the others already gone and all. But in exchange, I’ll also have you answer my questions, yeah? We have a deal, Ash?”
“As much as I can, yes…”
“Nuhuhu, it’s fine, it’s fine~~ Now, let’s start with my identity. I’m an infiltrator of sorts, sent by a faction not affiliated with the Nation – that’s right, a spy.”
“Looks too open for a spy to , though.”
“Well, well~~ I’m not necessarily hostile, you know~~ My main task is to investigate the object-space-transference magic that had recently been developed in Beilanea. I’m technically still in training like that rich boy and his pals, but got sent here by my ntor’s order, you see.”
It’s hard to imagine a ntor of soone this strong.
I an, lchi here might even be on the level of the Six Archmages, I dare say…
“And so, since it’s close to the Royal Capital, I went to Beilanea to catch myself so skilled individuals at the Guild, and that’s when ya got roped into my business. Went there because I heard the spell’s creator frequents the place – you know, the Irene lady? But looks like I ended up hitting the right target~~”
“The… right target?”
“Looks like you’re the subject I’m supposed to investigate, Ash. That being a Hermit Candidate with eternal life, you know?”
That sent chills running down my spine. lchi’s blue eyes flared up, wriggling and flickering as she stared at , as if looking to squeeze my heart out.
Seeming to have understood sothing from my title, lchi shot quite an innocent-looking grin.
Her gaze was neither weighty nor aggressive, but those eyes saw through everything, revealing to her all my true properties… Could it be…
“T-the Evil Eyes…?”
“Correct♪ But to be precise, artificial Evil Eyes. Got ’em transplanted after my eyes got taken off. Boy, my ntor sure was pissed at back then~~”
I can’t even imagine how sophisticated her nervous system is.
“Those Appraisal Glasses of yours are good and all, but they got nothing on activating the Evil Eyes with Information Disclosure magecraft. Oh, and the statistics sheet you saw from was made with a temporary Information Blockade magecraft, by the way.”
“You can use magecraft… very ancient ones, at that… so you were with a Dark Elf?”
“Yup, I’m human, but my ntor is a Dark Elf. My ntor’s super aweso, y’know. Called ‘Philosopher of the Far East’ and all that – now in hiding for so reason or other, though. “
“A Philosopher… Which ans you’re…”
“Nuhuhu, that’s right, I’m a Philosopher’s pupil! Eh-hem!”
lchi openly boasted about what she was proud of, as appropriate for her apparent age, but this girl had presented an outrageous piece of information.
Philosopher of the Far East… I’ve heard of that na before. But not recently – not this ti period, for that matter.
They were random rumours from around 4,000 years ago, long before I had even t Pochi. Of an individual who had transcended everything.
“All right, got all the pieces together now? Then that’s enough talking for . Gotta honour your end of the deal, yeah, Ash?”
“……”
“You’re the one who created the fixed-position-type Teleportation spell, right? I really don’t think soone like Irene can make it that far, you see. But a Hermit Candidate might just pull it off, right? Heheh…”
“Looks like there’s no use in hiding it…”
“Nuhuhu, just take that as wanting to confirm my suspicion. Oh, but if I’m wrong, make sure to point it out, all right? So you, who lived for such a long ti, now want to investigate sothing – sothing that concerns the structure of this world… in other words, the Nation, right? Mm-hm, good — that’s the expression I’m looking for. Your face is doing all the answering quite well. Which reminds , you seem to be the talk of the town lately. Dawned on when I heard that talk about the Colorful Food District. You’ve got good intentions but it’s a bit disappointing. You realize that the seams will start to show up no ti, right?”
“…What do you an?”
“Don’t underestimate humans – that’s what I an.”
…This is getting creepy. I should hurry and head back.
“Now then, seeing that you’re in such a hurry, I’ll ask you one last question.”
“……”
“I’m genuinely curious about this. Not a suspicion or anything like that, I assure you. Ash, why did you enrol in the Magic University? Even if went to the Royal Capital, you would still have had many other ways to gather information, right? So why?”
“…I don’t know.”
“That’s one easy way to answer it. That, or you could have claid it was for Lina’s sake. You could have excused yourself after getting Lina in, but you didn’t. That’s it – it was because you wanted to get in.”
“I wanted… to get in?”
“You wanted to put your power to the test. To reassure yourself of your position by comparing it with others. To be treated nicely by Lina and serve her as a reliable figure to lean on.”
“N-no!”
“Oh, but yes. It’s all deducted objectively and analyzed from your personality – Would you deny any of those? You wouldn’t, right?”
“What do you even know about ?”
“Hahahaha, I don’t need to know anything about you, Ash. It’s always the ‘results’ that give out the answers. Just think – what are the things that have occurred around you as results of your actions? That rich boy – Hornel, was he? What do you think is the reason he’s so jealous of you? It’s because he feels he’s being compared to you. The boy’s self-importance did that to him, of course. But the issue doesn’t lie in the process. Like I said before, you are ford by the ‘results’ around you. All I did was derive my answers from them.”
“W-what are you even trying to tell …?”
“Nothing? It just seed like you were suffering, so I just took it upon myself to speak for you?”
“Speak for …?”
“Ash… you once thought of yourself as not human. Not for long, but the feeling was real – and strong.”
True… Back at Faltown, I had felt that I was devoid of emotion. Right, that was it-
“But don’t worry. There are many people like that – it’s in human nature. All that stuff I said earlier were ‘results’ that can only be ford into humans, too.”
That was what I’d always wanted-
“That’s right – no matter how long you live… you’ll always be human. It’s an undeniable truth – a fact established right when you were born into the world.”
-for soone to tell that I’m human.
“…yeah.”
“Well, would you look at that… you do shed tears, after all.”
“…Yeah…”
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