Chapter 4 - Outsider (3)
"Baron Leon huh."
-Isn"t that your family?
"Not exactly. I"m not considered part of their family."
Jade shook his head firmly.
He wasn"t someone recognized as being part of the family, because he was the child of a mistress.
There was no point in hiding this fact, but he wasn"t going to be sharing it with the world.
If anything, there was a higher chance that he would get killed before that happened.
"That"s also the reason why I came to the Great Forest in the first place. I"m sure they think I"m already dead."
To the public, he was just a normal Hunter.
Not amazing, not horrible.
That"s why he was sure the Leon family stopped following him after they lost his scent in the Great Forest.
This wasn"t a place an average Hunter could survive in.
-Why don"t we just flip the whole place upside down? If we rush in now, it shouldn"t be an issue.
"That"s true."
Jade thought hard as he heard a name he wasn"t expecting to hear.
When he had first awoken in this world, the name Leon was something akin to fear for him.
However, this wasn"t the case now.
He would easily be able to get rid of a weak little Baron.
-Even with just me, I can easily destroy them!
"I know."
-Just tell me when! I"m always on your side Jade!
-It"s the same for me as well.
Ggyoong!
As if to say that they wouldn"t lose out to Celestine, Elestra and Hwid also vigorously shouted.
They didn"t really like killing things, but if it was for Jade, all three of them would do anything.
"We are definitely not on good terms, but it"s not to the point of having to erase them from this world. Instead, let"s have a bit of fun."
-Fun? What kind of fun?
Celestine"s eyes began to sparkle.
It was because she could see the insidious look on Jade"s face.
"There"s this saying in my world, "utilize a barbarian to control a barbarian". To put it simply, it means to use an enemy to control the enemy."
-Using those guys?
"Yeah, they have some items that we need, and it"ll be easy to save them since they"re n.o.bles."
Jade had a meaningful expression.
He had thought of many things within a short period of time.
And, having made the decision immediately, he kicked off the branch.
-Let"s steal that grandpa"s skill too! You always wanted a Master"s memories!
"Of course, I already thought of that. It"s honestly much better to get recent memories rather than memories from an old item. Much less stressful on the mind too."
-As expected!
Celestine clapped her hands while sitting on Jade"s right shoulder.
She was happy to have had the same thoughts as him.
Squeall?!!
The Orcs that were about to attack the humans were surprised to see Jade appear from within the forest.
Some were even frightened.
They had recognized who Jade was.
"Noim."
Jade summoned multiple mid-level earth spirits from the ground by the name of Noim.
They were much better to use compared to Gnome when it came to higher numbers, as they were efficient in separating the humans from the Orcs.
Grrrrrrrr!
The racc.o.o.n shaped Noim instantly separated the two parties as soon as it was summoned.
It had done this by creating a thick earth wall, and the only mage from the human party unconsciously yelled out, "A Summoner!"
"That"s right. Let"s get rid of the Orc"s first."
Although the person could be considered a mage, he was either low skilled or hurt, because he had only been using low level skills until now.
He wasn"t able to see the spirits, but as he was able to feel the mana around him, the mage could tell what level the spirits were.
"An intermediate Summoner! And, it seems like there"s a drake being held in his arms….."
Summoners were much rarer than mages.
One had to have the innate ability of having an affinity with spirits, and if they didn"t, there was no point in even trying to become one. As rare as it was to see a Summoner, it was even rarer to see that Jade was an intermediate Summoner.
What was even more shocking was that the boy had a drake in his arms.
At first glance the drake was a baby, but this made the mage even more confused.
"It"s not possible to raise a drake. Not only is it impossible to get a drake"s egg, but a baby drake would not listen to the words of a human."
There was history of wyverns and griffins being raised in the empire, but they were raised through special means as soon as they hatched from their eggs.
However, there was not a single story of this being done to a drake.
If anything, it was also the first time the mage had seen a Gold Drake.
"Who is this person?"
Anyone could tell that the baby drake was showing a lot of affection towards the Summoner. And, this was what made the mage confused.
One guess he could make was that the drake was affectionate towards Jade because he wasn"t just human, but a Summoner.
Squeal! Squeal!!
As soon as jade appeared, the Orcs lost their will to fight.
The backup Orcs that were coming from the rear turned and ran, and the Orcs that had attacked the knights were now running in different directions.
It was their first-time seeing Jade, but their tribe knew there was a monstrous human living in the Great Forest.
Grrrr!
The only problem was that, even if jade was okay with letting them go, Hwid did not have the same idea.
It had also believed that getting rid of the Orcs would be of help to Jade, so it quickly changed its shape and flew out into the distance.
"Ugh!"
"Wh, what the!"
"It really is a drake?!"
Hwid instantly grew past 3 meters, and although this was still considered to be small for its kind, he was still huge compared to humans.
The sight of him using lightning breath also brought fear to the knights.
Swallow!
Different from how he looked within Jade"s arms, the drake had no enemies. It ruthlessly bit and trampled on the Orcs that were running away.
The surprising thing was that the Orcs were brave enough to attack a Master, yet they did not even fight back against the drake.
"A summoner with a drake huh."
Different from the younger brother"s astonished expression, the young lady stared at the boy with sparkles in her eyes.
The appearance of the boy was like a string of hope for her.
"My lady."
Heinze approached the young lady.
Although his face had become as pale as the Aura Blade he had used, Heinze"s eyes were still full of strength.
He was suppressing his pain with his tough willpower.
"Sir Heinze."
"That young man is strong."
"Is he that strong?"
The young lady seemed surprised.
Heinze was known to give little to no compliments, and even stated that expert level swordsmen were just "useful".
That"s why the look in the young lady"s eyes changed.
"Yes, but I"m not sure if he"s strong as a Summoner, or strong as a warrior. What I do know for certain is that I may not be able to beat him even at my full capacity."
"Huh!"
The n.o.ble boy breathed in deeply as he overheard what Heinze had said.
He knew Jade appeared to be strong, but he wasn"t sure if he really was.
"Only, we"re going to have to see if he"s someone we can trust."
"Just looking at his outer appearance, he looks like he"s been living in the Great Forest for a while."
"Clothes can always be changed."
"Then let me ask in a different way. Are they able to send someone as strong as him to us?"
Heinze blinked.
Thinking about it, he didn"t have any reason to be suspicious of Jade.
If the enemy had someone this strong on their side, he knew they wouldn"t have made it this far in the first place.
It wouldn"t end with just injuries, but death.
"………We must grab a hold of him."
"Likewise."
Both of them made the same expressions.
They hadn"t said much, but they were both thinking the same thing.
At that moment, Hwid who had been chasing after the Orcs let out a roar to celebrate his victory.
"Th, thank you! We survived because of you!"
"Let"s move to a different location first. We"re very close to the Crimson Orcs" territory, and the Killer Bees" hive."
"Killer Bees?"
"Yes."
The mage that thanked Jade made a weary expression.
Killer Bees were known for their ferocious personalities and would chase their enemy down to the end of the world.
That"s why it was wise to avoid them when possible.
"Let"s move now."
"Let"s."
Responding back with a short reply, Heinze gave a slight nod to Jade.
He knew they had to begin moving as soon as possible.
The ground was littered with Orcs and their blood, so it was natural to attract other monsters to their vicinity.
They left the lead to Jade.
"The possibility of him being with the enemy is low, but that doesn"t mean we can fully trust him."
Even as he naturally allowed Jade to take the lead, Heinze was filled with suspicions.
He had no other choice because he had to keep the two siblings safe.
-That old man is staring at Jade with eyes full of suspicion!
-That"s normal. Being thankful is one thing, while being suspicious is another.
-Maybe he"s grown scared with his age!
Jade laughed.
If they were to talk about age, Celestine and Elestra were much older.
However, he did not bring this up.
Ggyu! Ggyuu ggyu!!
As if Hwid was unhappy with the old knight"s eyes, it squinted its eyes and bared its teeth.
He was definitely going to teach him a lesson if he did anything wrong.
"Let"s rest here, since it seems like there are a lot of people injured."
"…..There was a place like this."
"This is one of the places I found while exploring. It"s a little too cramped to use for a long time, but perfect for resting for short periods of time. There"s a pond nearby as well."
"I"m a little late but thank you. Thanks to you, no one died, and everyone made it out alive."
Heinze held his hand out as he saw his party sitting down in comfort one by one.
However, Jade did not simply accept the handshake because he knew the intent behind it.
"No problem. We need to stick together and help each other as fellow human beings."
"Cough cough! Are you staying here in the Great Forest?"
"Yes, for personal reasons."
"Then you must know the roads well."
Heinze"s eyes sparkled.
If they were lucky, they would be able to get out of the forest without having to fight any monsters.
Not only that, but there was a high possibility that Jade wasn"t on the same side as the enemy since he had been living in the Great Forest.
Completed - Chapter 4 (3)