LE V1 (Main) C4-2
Chapter 4 - Decisions - Part 2
TL: Eevee
Ed: Oer
"Where do I need to goooo……"
To be honest, I have nowhere to go. The only place name I"ve heard so far was Seoul, but unfortunately the Seoul I know and this place"s Seoul will undoubtedly be different so there"s no point.
Let"s just a.s.sume that, like those fantasy novels I read a long time ago, I"ve come to another world. I don"t know why I"m struggling so much in a world where your average high school student throws things their weight around like it"s nothing. If you"re crossing dimensions, shouldn"t cheat-level abilities come with the package?
Is something following us from behind?
"What"s that?"
A black dot around a hundred metres away was getting bigger. No, it was getting closer. But I"m driving at 60km/hour?
Glancing beside me, Flute"s eyes were getting wider. Her body was quivering as if she was afraid, but as if to suppress it her small hands were holding on tightly to her thighs.
"Looking at their uniform, it seems to be the Sambulcho(1). They are the dragonkin"s… elite forces."
Wa na.(2)
Just the name feels straight up like a "warrior race" that sounds strong as all h.e.l.l to boot.
"What do they do? Do they shoot fire from their mouth or something?"
"Among the dragonkin, they number the fewest, but they are the strongest unit that are said to be able to face a thousand angelkin by themselves. Those that make up the Sambulcho are said to be the strongest of the strong among the dragonkin."
What kind of munchkin(3) is that?
And a whole bunch of those munchkins are chasing after us at once?
Unfortunately it seems like I need to bid my life farewell as soon as I arrived in this other world.
I"d probably lose in a fistfight to that angelkin kid alone, and our pursuers can beat down 1000 adults by themselves. Isn"t this just fantastic?
I couldn"t see all that clearly, but around five of them were coming our way.
What do I say?
Should I stop and say I"m sorry?
Bowing down to the strong is a natural law of the strong eat the weak mentality. But if I get caught by them, well, I"m done for but Flute"s in real trouble, isn"t she?
I wanted to throw something to interfere with their pursuit but I didn"t have anything to throw nor did I even think I could hit moving targets moving at those speeds. Plus, racing around as we were if I looked back to throw something I"d crash into a thick tree and die first.
Even if you have an airbag if it"s not going to line up with the angle of impact it means nothing.
I stretched out a hand and placed in on top of Flute"s still-quivering ones.
"Eh?"
"Yes!"
It was an unsealed road so it was in poor condition, but now wasn"t time to be picky. I hit the accelerator. After accelerating, we were now at 100km per hour. The car was shaking more than a helicopter but this isn"t time to be complaining.
But the absolutely ridiculous thing was that even though we were hitting 100kph they were slowly but steadily gaining on us. And they had arrows notched and aimed at us even while running at those speeds!
Arrows started flying past the windows. At first I thought they were missing, but as it repeated a few times I realised that they were firing warning shots.
I crunched the gears as high up as I could and stomped on the accelerator as hard as I could. The RPM shot up and as the speedometer ticked over to 150kph the car shook harder than Friday night at the disco,(4) but I never let go of the foot on the accelerator and my two hands on the steering wheel. (I was kinda sorry, but I"d sneakily taken my hand off Flute"s.)
"We"ve shaken them…"
"Look in front!"
This forest has a single path. But way~ out in front there was something stacked up. There was a barricade of logs stacked up. Can my car"s b.u.mper handle that? My car can just fly through those like the movies, right?
Unfortunately even if I try to turn away from reality the situation wasn"t going to get any better. And the bigger problem was that in front of us were ten people dressed identically like the ones chasing us before. Even if we had ten to their one we"d probably still get the c.r.a.p beaten out of us, and they have numbers to boot. The end… is inevitable.
"Sorry."
I gently pedalled the brakes and slowed down.
In my head I tried to think of ways to get out of this, but I am not a magician. There is no way I can escape from people that can run faster than 120kph on their own two feet on a forest road. Not even if you were Usain Bolt.
"That person is…"
"Nakran, someone who stands within the top three of the Sambulcho. It seems like she is the supervisor of this incident. She is one who follows rules and regulations to the letter so you shouldn"t have many problems."
Sambulcho… That"s a name I"ve heard many a time in history cla.s.s. Although that"s not that important.
"If she"s one that"s a stickler for rules and regulations then aren"t both you and I in serious trouble?"
Flute is an Aless, and I"m one who sheltered an Aless. If she was one that could be swayed by money then I could have shown off some flashy items and asked to be let off.
"It will be alright. It will definitely be all right."
She looked at me and gave me a beautiful dimpled smile.
A smile that I"d seen for the first time. Neither the ill-fitting clothes nor the unkempt hair detracted from it. If an angel descended on earth then wouldn"t it look something like her?
In her smiling eyes was conviction.
"I am truly grateful. It was like I"d seen the sun after being in the dark without a speck of light."
Alright then. The pot was round, the noodle soup was red. That might have seen like the sun to you.
"If you denounce me here, Nakran-nim will not question you further."
That got me going again.
Are you Jesus and me Petrus?
"It"s too late to denounce you now, I was out the moment I got that little brat hurt."
"Why?"
"The entire world will embrace you. All races, all countries with their combined power."
If this was a world that hopeful then I wouldn"t even be in this position. Embrace my a.s.s, if they didn"t completely annihilate us then thank G.o.d for that. But even so, Flute"s smile was so beautiful I ended up nodding my head.
I want to believe her.
But even if it was true, to Flute the entire world might as well be her enemy. In that case, then everything I"ve done so far comes to naught.
Sure I"d done my own share of finger-pointing, but if the first person I met and saved died, it would be incredibly sad for me.
"If."
In that case.
"Eh?"
I will save you.
"If like you say, the entire world will embrace me, then I"ll use that power to save you."
This was not a lie but truth.
I want to see that smile again.(5)
I want to see Flute with that smile as she grows up and eats tasty foods, does the things she wants, and lives her life with the person she loves. I want her to think before she dies, that her life was a happy one.
For the first time since I was born I decided to stand against injustice.
Even if I"m powerless.
Even if a sword would take my neck.
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(1) Essentially, hand-picked troops of a military dictator family. Munchkin: what the Koreans call OP individuals. (Not just necessarily MCs.)
(5) Protect that smile!