Chapter 3: Escape, Escape, Still Escaping
“Ha..ha..ha……!”
Reiji was running.
Dashing out from the underground room used for summoning, he is running along the cathedral’s hallway. Initially, the people around did not understand the situation and merely turned their sights towards the strange youth, but before long due to the orders from the Pope, it has reach the point they were confronting him.
Reiji kept running frantically, brushing away the other party’s grips to catch him and dodging a downwards swinging staff. It isn’t possible to dodge everything of course, and his arm and shoulder are swollen and red from being struck several times. However, there is no room to stop in pain.
“Ha.. Ha.. Ha…..!”
If I am caught, there is even the fear of torture and execution in the worst case. Reiji continued escaping desperately.
“Good grief! Why has it become such a thing!?”
I cried spitting it out, but of course there is n.o.body to give me an answer.
Eventually, Reiji arrived to the entrance of the cathedral. However, 3 gate keepers who have heard the news were waiting for him there.
“Stop!”
” Please move back from there!”
Although Reiji shouts while running, naturally the words are not accepted. Looking at figures of the gate keepers each preparing to use their staff, Reiji prepared himself for the worst.
“OOOOooooo!”
Reiji shouted, accelerating instead of stopping.
That was an absolutely unreasonable behavior until being summoned to this word, but I believed its possible now with boosted physical ability.
“Stop……you say! n.o.body will stop!”
Reiji aims at the staff 3 people held in their hands, and pushed out. A lunge has been choose because there is a danger of colliding with each other if a swing or mowing down is chosen. This is a foolish attack if its one to one, but it can be said to be very threatening in the 3 to 1 state.
However, Reiji literally went ahead. Jumping in front of the 3 religious warrior, I flew over their head.
“Wha, What!? I did it!”
To the Reiji before coming to this world, something like jumping over the head of a person cannot be copied at all, but if it’s the case of Reiji today, it’s a different story.
After going past the religious warrior’s gate keeps, Reiji escaped out of the cathedral.
Luxiria Theocracy, the headquarters of Church of the Sacred Light, the state religion of all countries within the territory of human race. Church of the Sacred Light is widely adopted and plays a central role in national policy, with cardinal and archbishop involved in state management and the Pope at the top.
Consequently in that kind of country, the central role of that country does not belong to the castle, but the Church.
Although a large number of church has been established in the country, but among them, St. Sophia cathedral where the Pope lives is the largest and the most majestic. Naturally, with the heart of the theocracy declared to be the cathedral, streets are build upon with the cathedral as the origin.
Reiji was summoned in the underground ceremonial grounds of St. Sophia Cathedral, so after shaking off the religious soldiers and running outside, the center of the town appeared before him.
“This is….”
Although he had he had heard about summoning from a parallel word from both the mystery ‘voice’ and the Pope, there was no sense of reality in those words.
There was a vicious shock as a result, but somewhere in his heart there started to be a questioning feeling.
However, with the cityscape extended before his eyes, Reiji finally have a feeling that this place was not his own world.
“There, over there! There is no time to be lost in thought, huh.”
Although he was feeling helpless and his eyes were becoming hot, Reiji pulled himself together and started running when he heard voices coming from behind. Although he has fled out of the Cathedral, it remains unchanged that he was being pursued.
Reiji was running at full speed while weaving in and out of the crowd.
He did consider going through a back alley to lose the pursuer, but in a place without local sense the fear of getting lost was great, and after all, it will only forestalling if there is only 1 exit in the town. Therefore without doing an unnecessary thing, he decided to only aim straight for the town’s exit.
If its a main street, it should always lead to the exit of the town, and while that thinking of Reiji is correct, a wall enclosing the town and a large gate comes into view after running for a while.
“That is….!”
Although the gates are opened, an inspection is established there and religious soldiers are checking people entering and leaving. Although several caravan and people on foot are queuing up, if Reiji receives the check, it does not seem likely for him to go through safely.
“Oi, Stop!”
“It’s no joke!”
Seems like I cannot get past with a frontal attack, the only choice is to is to force my way through. Fortunately the gate itself is opened, it is possible to go out if I go past the religious soldiers.
Coming to that conclusion, Reiji does not heed the restraint of those religious soldiers and ran towards the exit.
Although he thought about jumping over their heads like he did when coming out of the cathedral just now, the soldiers now are not standing in a line unlike before. With this, if he jumps over 1 person’s head for example, he would receive an attack from the following person.
However completely slipping through in between is difficult since they are fully vigilant,
“And, hup”
“What!?”
Realizing a frontal breakthrough is difficult, Reiji climbed on top of the hoods of the caravan queuing up for an inspection. Although the canopy bends under his weight, there is no problem as long as it doesn’t tear. That way, while jumping over caravans forming a line, he aims at outside of the gates.
“Close the gates! Hurry!”
Judging it to be difficult to catch Reiji, the religious soldiers issues and instruction to close the door. However, Reiji arrives at the top of the first caravan before the gate closes and was able to escape outside by slipping through the closing gates.
A highway extends outside the town, and there was a lush and dense forest just a little way out.
Even if I escape on the highway for example, I will be caught up very quickly by using a horse. Reiji escapes into the forest while thinking so.
“From here on, what on earth should I do?”
While running in the forest, Reiji stopped to catch his breath under a big tree after confirming that the pursuing party did not come. With such a huge tree hardly seen in the original world, it was possible to sit on the roots.
“Ouch.., there is a bruise completely.”
Taking off the outer coat of the blazer, he checks the situation by rolling up the shirt on both arms. His arms that was. .h.i.t many times was dyed purple with bruises everywhere. Although it’s not possible to see it, the shoulder should also be in a similar state.
Because there wasn’t even a mean to treat it, he had no choice but to give up and endure it.
“The flames that came out that time, what on earth was that…”
The reason Reiji was being pursue was because flames suddenly released from his hands has attacked the Pope. Looking at his own palms, there was no particularly unusual spot. Of course, there was nothing such as a burn.
“Is it like this after all? It’s probably because of the ‘power’ that ‘voice’ said.”
Just before being summoned to this world, ‘Power’ was granted from the ‘Voice’ in the dark s.p.a.ce……there is nothing but that rough knowledge.
“The world based on creation, it was said too.
In a world similar to novel or manga or a game, something like magic exist huh.”
To begin with, the summon that invited Reiji to this world in itself doesn’t seem to be the power of science. It’s still ok with just the formation written on the floor of the underground ceremonial ground, there was nothing to conceived other than the word magic.
And something like magic exists, it would be natural to a.s.sume the flames of that time to be similar to it.
Reiji is a typical boy who enjoys novel, manga and games usually too. If it is not such a situation, his heart would have leaped for the unknown power called magic. If you consider the present situation of being chased and escaping into the forest, there wasn’t any room for such things.
“How can I return to the original world?”
For Reiji self conversation, n.o.body was around to reply to those words. Since he was brought by summoning, it is easy to imagine similar means is needed to return. However, it does not seem possible to ask the people who summoned him in the present state.
Reiji was at a loss and breathe out a deep sigh.
Still, when he understood what kind of world this world was slightly, he should have felt more sense of crisis.
When magic came into play, and the fact that it is portrayed as a ‘means of combat’ in many case, he should have thought of the dangerous state he is currently in.
It couldn’t be safe considering why a wall was established around the town to prevent invasions and what can happen if one went even 1 step out of town, much less in the forest where hands of mankind did not enter.
“Hmm?”
When Reiji became away due to the breaking sound from stepping on a tree branch, he has already been surrounded.
It was a 3 headed best with black fur. It’s a territorial demon who hunts opponent and prey in a group – the Forest Wolf.
Although for a moment Reiji who was stunned likened the wolf’s figure to those seen only seen in the zoo, he immediately became aware of the danger to himself and stood up. Here, such a thing like cages that protect onlookers doesn’t exist.
“Oi Oi, you’re lying right!”
3 headed Forest wolf are slowly approaching Reiji. Reiji withdrew in the opposite direction with his hind leg while breaking into a cold sweat.
“Gaa!”
“Woah!?”
While Reiji was trying to put a distance and glaring the 3 headed Forest Wolf, another one attacked from his rear that he was not aware of. As the 3 headed beast which could be spotted was a trap, another one was already hidden and approaching from behind.
Reiji had notice just before by chance was brandishing the jacket that was taken off all at once in his hands, repelling the snarling face of the Forest Wolf.
“This fellow!?”
The Forest Wolf brushed off loses it’s balance and falls down but it got up immediately. A total of 4 of the beast in front of Reiji are seeking for an opening.
“Dammit, eat this!”
Reiji kicks the gravel and tree branches on the ground towards the Forest Wolves and sieze the opportunity from the slight flinching to start running back. Naturally, there is no damage from the small gravel and tree branches and the Forest Wolves begin running after Reiji immediately.
Under the influence of the summon, Reiji’s physical ability is raised from the time living in his original world. If this is a maintained field, perhaps he might have quickly ran away from the Forest Wolves.
However, this is within the forest. The ground is rough, and there are stones and gra.s.s, and branches of surrounding trees also obstructs Reiji’s running too. It was only a matter of time to be caught up.
“Ku, Is there anyone!?”
Though Reiji starts calling for help, such convenient existence naturally doesn’t exist in the forest.
“UWAAA~~~~!”
Forest Wolves are drawing near the back of Reiji running desperately.
The distance comes up to about another 2 meters and after a few seconds, Reiji’s foot is attacked by a sharp fang and to fall would means being finished off by the group.
However, at the moment he thought whether it was already useless, Reiji’s figure suddenly disappeared from the forest.
Merchant “My caravan is……!?”
The character next time is……