TL: Yuki
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There was a man walking quietly in the forest as to not be noticed by the person he is following as that person moves forward. His appearance in age would be around 30, with well-defined features and an impressive Kaiser beard whose eyes was covered by a feathered hat and donning a sword in his waist.
That person, that one that was following the man moving forward was his former master, Earl Dell Bandelt.
The man he was following is already out of Dell"s sight, but thanks to a tracking he used before tracking him, the is now a
《Line》 that was visible only to Dell which shows him the way.
(I have attached that to him since he was acting rather suspiciously in the past few days, but… it rather seems worth the effort doing so.)
The earl didn"t really know what the purpose was, but he was sniffing out information here and there in his territory for a year now.
He was doing whatever he wants all the time without really showing any signs of reporting to someone but then it seems that he finally started to move when I started asking about his hobbies.
(But to enter this woods, mabe he knows his way around here? Although judging from the way he carries himself, he doesn"t look like someone who have fighting experience when I interviewed him. )
Right now, they were walking inside the woods that were half day away from the kingdom if moving by horse. This forest which was banned even for knights to enter is a dangerous place although the shallow regions are not that dangerous but the deeper regions are war wolf territory.
War Wolves are quite temperate, but if you trespa.s.s their territories then they will be showing no mercy.
There are many people who can fight them if they are alone, but if you encounter a group then it will be really dangerous that it even poses as a threat to veteran adventurers.
Dell only shook his head because he couldn"t help but think about it. The deeper parts are certainly dangerous, but it certainly is a good place to have some secret rendezvous.
It was about an hour after entering the forest, suddenly he could hear the voice of an angry man.
「The plans have changed! For what reason did I have to cross such a dangerous bridge like this! 」
Dell quickens his pace and hid himself behind a tree not far away from that man while making sure the man was within his sight.
He found the man that he have been following since a while ago, and in front of him was a person clad in a robe and whose face was concealed.
The man was impatient the he looked like he would leap towards the robed person at any moment, but the robed person was calmly looking at him with an air of ignoring the person in front without even taking off the hood.
「The plans were different, did I promise anything? I have already forgotten」
「Quit joking around!!」
At that moment, the man who cannot hide his impatience swings his arm to hit the robed person, but that person closed in grabbing the man by the neck and lifting him up.
Upon lifting the man, the robe covering that persons hand slid off, and what was revealed was slender arms that would questionably belong to that of a scholar yet having tremendous strength.
The voice of the robed person was also quite low, it somehow resembles the voice of a woman.
「Kuuuh!!」
「Well despite this situation, I must still thank you」
When the woman lifting the man said that, Dell felt the gaze of the woman facing his direction. Despite the distance and even being blocked off by the trees he realized that the robed person noticed him even though he could hardly see that person"s face because it was covered by the hood.
「Earl Bandelt,it will become a bad habit which could endanger your life if you do everything by yourself you know」
Dell only clicked his tongue realizing that he was already noticed, and so he revealed his appearance to the robed woman while drawing out his sword from his waist.
「So you knew who I was? Who are you, what is it that you are trying to achieve」
The robed woman lightly grinned without responding to Dell"s inquiry and pulled out a small bottle containing some kind of liquid from her pocket.
There"s also the appearance of the man who was struggling while being lifted by her other hand, but looking at her arms which doesn"t even tremble, it felt like the man was stuck in the air instead.
「He, Help me」
「Because of bringing the earl with you, I leave behind a gift as addition to the payment for the information. Something that makes you extremely stand out… that"s what this wonderful perfume do」
The woman threw away the man she was holding, then opened the lid of the bottle and threw it towards that man.
When it hits, the contents spilled and a sweet irresistible scent filled the area.
「Gufu……hi, hiii」
「Don"t tell me!?」
War Wolves that lives in the forest are monsters with a wolf head and body of a human, and as you have imagined, they have a really keen sense of smell.
If you throw off something that leaves a strong scent in the area, the War Wolf who would misunderstood and think that you were violating its territory will immediately attack.
I have been had! When Dell turned towards the robed person, she was already preparing a small ball and has moved a few steps away.
「A Teleportation Gem!?」
「Goodbye Earl, I was lucky that you got caught that easily」
「I won"t let you escape!」
Dell brandished his sword toward the robed woman, but he only ended up cutting air because his target immediately disappeared.
「Uh, Uwaaaah!!」
「Tsk!」
Immediately, he heard the scream of the person behind him. The man apparently was not a combatant, at the time he screamed, he was already inches away from receiving the War Wolf"s fangs and claws.
(At the very least, I need to find a way to get out of this predicament)
A total of five War Wolves were standing in front of Dell, and were ready to pounce at him at any moment.
Because other War Wolves might be attracted by the scent of blood, wounding the War Wolves or getting himself wounded is an out. In addition, if you seriously wound a War Wolf, it would only invite more of its kind because they would be able to easily locate it. So the only choice Dell had is to try and disable them without wounding them.
Dell alone has reasonable skill as a swordsman, but if fighting against a War Wolf, two people are recommended. Even if he could use magic it"s only on the level that can be commonly used by normal adventurers. If there is no magician, they would easily be overwhelmed by a pack of strong and robust war wolves. And his current situation is already considered as encountering a 《Pack》 of them.
(Should I use fire to startle them? But, it takes too much time to cast. If I use Flash… It would be useless to War Wolves. Ah, what should I do! How do I get myself out of this!?)
At every second that pa.s.ses, the War Wolves enveloping net becomes more and more secure.
Dell could already sense other presences, even to his left and right which would slowly lead to his death.
(Well, at the very least, I have notified people that there were suspicious movements being made)
Dell breathed out, held his sword in a proper stance and faced front.
(Even if I were to die here, and know that there"s no hope for me in this situation, I will still not throw away my life that easily.)
At the moment that a War Wolf barked pointing his hand at Dell to attack, one of the War Wolves head burst after being hit by something that jumped out of the bushes. The unpleasant sound of the skull being crushed by a blunt object was heard echoing before the victim fell down.
Although the sudden intruder both surprised the War Wolves and Dell, The War Wolves quickly organized themselves and changed their target to the suspicious intruder.
「Wha, what the heck was that…」
Every time that dull sound of a blunt weapon pounded echoes, a War Wolf fell down to the ground. Dell could not grasp what was happening, but he still prepared his stance ready to fight back at any moment.
After a while, all the War Wolves were neutralized and only the intruder who won the bout was left behind standing. The one that suddenly appeared only watched him with an expressionless face, and after seemingly confirming that there was no more danger or War Wolves around, she quickly fled.
「A little girl…」
It was a girl with black hair and cold red eyes probably around less than 10 in age stood in the center of the corpses of War Wolves and were dyed red with their blood.
The girl only glanced at Dell after being called, but there was a hint of fear in the girl"s eyes, so Dell quickly put back his sword on its scabbard.
As expected, you can"t find any normal girl capable of flooring a pack of War Wolves in an instant with their bare hands. Not even normal adults or even strong ones could do so easily, especially if it"s barehanded fighting.
And those bright red eyes, they were characteristics that could only be found on undead, Because of that Dell concluded that she might be a special mutation type of undead, and a really strong one to boot.
(It"s still unknown why she attacked the War Wolves though, but it seems that she only reacted to simple things)
Dell was only thinking of a way to escape at that moment because he knew that the difference in their abilities was too absurd that it was already decided that he would lose and it would be an instant death if she became hostile. Such a monster is easy to understand even for Dell who has a bunch of battle experience.
The girl only walked a bit closer to him. Dell knew, that even if he prepared, that speed and power to instantly crush her opponent in moment would pulverize him in an instant.
The girl only bent her mouth in an awkward smile, then quickly ran away somewhere with tremendous speed.
Dell who was standing still for a while was still holding his sword, but when the tension got finally broken, he only uttered a small murmur.
「……Was I saved?」
First thing is how I should explain this condition of being covered in blood to my parents.
Toto thought, while looking her clothes soaked in blood.
If it was just her body that was covered in blood then she could just wash it off in the nearest river or something. She was wondering how she would be able to remove the blood stuck on her clothes that can"t easily be removed. She didn"t find any kind of detergent that would help her so it was impossible to clean up.
She was also wondering as to who that old man was that she saved. Being in a place like that and surrounded. I quickly ran away without confirming things, but could that person be an adventurer? I wonder if he will be angry because of me robbing his prey. Ah, there it is.
Three more years have pa.s.sed and I"m now 8 years old. A a result of all my investigations that I have verified in the past few years, I found out just how incomprehensible my body is, so I began exterminating monsters in the surrounding areas for quite some time now.
I was moving while listening to the sound of plants in the surroundings if there are any strong vibrations.
And after moving for a while, I found a great disturbance from somewhere and went to check if it was a wild animal or a monster. As a result, I only found wild animals and there were no monsters which is quite surprising.
Then continuing on that path, I heard a scream from somebody. When I went to that area, I found Wolfmen surrounding and old man with sword pointed on the the Wolfmen. I didn"t see that person that screamed, maybe he ran away? All I understood is that uncle was different.
Even so, I"m glad that I found the monsters before anything else happened. I was trying to adjust my strength to make sure it wouldn"t turn into a blood splatter, but it still ended up to gruesome. I never imagined that with that meager power I used, things would end up that way.
(At first I was only thinking of doing counter attacks, but then I ended up seriously hitting them)
Just thinking about the results, I couldn"t help but imagine myself as someone which is commonly found in Shonen Manga where they would blow off their enemies with tremendous force.
I didn"t even expect that their heads would vanish in just a single hit…
The second to the last once didn"t turn the same way as the first one because I was now somehow able to adjust the power, but it still ended up in a splatter anyway.
「But, that really terrible…」
I murmured to myself while looking at my fists. They have enough power to even put a weak blunt weapon to shame.
I"m wonder just how strong that monster was in this world"s standards.
The uncle was also trying to fight seven of them all by himself, so they might be on the weaker side.
「Hahaha! There"s no way it"s like that righ?」
That War Wolf was actually a very strong monster, could that uncle be someone they would call an S Rank adventurer that is known to be an overwhelming person in this world?
「…Probably not」
It was a monster that would be defeated if I smashed its head, but well it was still quite the annoying bunch.
Not to mention if there were many of them. But that uncle was trying to fight more than one of them so he might probably be at level of an advanced adventurer.
「Un, Let"s conclude it with that」
When I was satisfied with an answer I concluded on my own without the person"s permission, I slowed down my pace and returned to the village which was already in sight.