Chapter 74: The Lair of the Wicked
Chapter 74: The Lair of the Wicked
Eric and I run on the streets of the royal capital. We run.
And just right behind us, is Shelka chasing after us with flames floating around her.
「Oi, Eric. Are there any back street that we can use to shake her off?」
Since there’s still no indication that we can shake the dangerous person behind us off, I urge on Eric.
I feel like I’ve been running for quite a distance.
「Don’t be stupid, we’re on the main street, aren’t we? We’re currently near the major road, there’s no reason to take such a complicated road don’t you think.」
「Then, a little further, huh. Good grief, give my expectation back.」
I involuntarily sigh because of Eric’s uselessness.
Eric let out「Guh」 sound, and he lowered his voice and said with a bit of anger in his tone.
「Speaking of which, it all happened because you taught such unnecessary things to Miss Ranna. 」
「Guh, I never expect for her to use that technique in front of us.」
And in addition, Shelka’s panties were also surprising. She wears something with such a cute design, despite her calm outward appearance.
「Tha- oohhhhhhh! There’s an absurd magic come flying towards me!」
I instantly deploy a Shield towards the back. The vicious flames aimed at me were blocked by the Shield, and it raised black smoke.
You won’t be able to break my Shield with that kind of flames you know.
Nevertheless, that girl, I feel that her magic has become even more merciless after she discovered that I can block her magic.
「Just how skillful can you be! To omit the chants for Shield and to be able to make it pop out so unreservedly! Just who are you!」
「I’m just the second son of a rural noble!」
And I wanted to shout at you, that you have shot too much magic unreservedly.
Using Body Strengthening Magic to reinforce her legs, and to send out magic after magic while running, as one would expect from someone that came from a prestigious noble house of magic. She also has complete control over them.
No wonder she has the confidence to let loose those magic in the middle of the capital.
「Over here.」
「O, ou!」
Eric took my hand, as we turned right at the corner.
「Wait! You can’t go there!」
At the same time as Shelka’s anxious voice was heard, a fireball hit the corner of a wall and the impact scattered white powder in the air.
Just what the heck is wrong with going this way. Maybe she doesn’t want us to enter the side street cause it’ll be troublesome for her?
It might be because the angle or position of the street we took, the sun doesn’t shine on it and it’s a bit dark and the place is narrow.
And maybe because we’ve entered the side street, compared with the traffic of the main street, there are less people here.
We continue down the street with Eric taking hold of my hand.
We turn left down the street, then turn to the right.
With a practised movement, Eric quickly went deeper to the back of the street without getting lost.
When I was thinking that we could shake her off like this, I can see Shelka chasing after us at a certain distance from the back.
Somehow, she has a more ghastly expression than before. Scary.
At any rate, she also looks like she’s used to this as she came chasing after us.
Even so, we might not be able to shake her off of our tail using this kind of back street.
Nevertheless, I feel like there are a lot of strange women the more we continue down the street.
Was it just my imagination? But why are there so many women on this shady part of the side street…
I see a lot of women wearing gorgeous clothes for quite a while now. And in addition, it feels like they have this strange and nice smell.
And the answer to that became immediately obvious to me.
『Look, those two boys. They’re holding hands!』
『Don’t tell me, those two are together!? Is it true!?』
『Those two………they became quite the picture aren’t they. Just which one is the dominator, and which one is the submissive one I wonder… 』
『Huh? That boy………Doesn’t he look like someone?』
『E, ehh!? No, but, it’s impossible!』
I think those words are fully transmitted as we proceed down the street.
Yes, this place is the place where women with that kind of hobby gather. It’s likely that those kinds of books are sold here.
If you were to look past the short curtain hung at the back of the building, you can see a lot of books stacked up over there. And I feel like I see a glimpse of something with the color of a skin tone.
And if you were to look at the women saying those things before, I’m guessing that it’s "that"kind of store.
That is to say, this place is the same thing as a garden and an obvious place where those with the same kind of hobby like Shelka gather.
So she must know every nook and cranny of this place. We have to leave this place immediately.
In various meanings.
「Oi, Eric! This place is bad news! Get us out of here quickly!」
「What’s wrong? Don’t you think we’re fine if we go a bit further… This is the quickest road to the back street you know?」
「No, but for Shelka this is her domain――」
「Alfried! I really won’t forgive you if you say something unnecessary any further!」
「………somehow her state has become even worse. Also let go of your hand.」
「………okay」
Perhaps Eric also realized Shelka’s unusual state, he nodded quietly and started running to get us out of here.
◆
「Did we manage to lose her somehow?」
Slowly catching my breath, I look behind to make sure.
Shelka is nowhere to be seen behind us.
Eric and I have been lucky since then, we were able to break off from Shelka and get out of that area.
Shelka has been chasing after us, but suddenly, Shelka seems to have stopped chasing us since she was being surrounded by those women who appear to be her comrades.
Everyone was gathering around Shelka with an awfully serious expression, I wonder what happened?
And especially when my name is being called, I feel that those women’s eyes change, but I think that’s because Shelka’s been calling the name ‘Fried’ repeatedly.
But, somehow I have a bad feeling about this.
In any case, it’s no use to keep trying to think about things that we don’t understand.
The priority right now is to leave from that area as soon as possible.
「Anyway, let’s get out of here immediately.」
I completely agree with Eric, and I walked from the side street toward the main street.
「I found you Alfried!」
A voice that didn't seem familiar entered my ears.
When I turned my head to the right to look for the source of the voice, there was Bram holding a wooden sword in his hand.
「Geh!」
Right now, he’s the person I don’t want to meet as much as Shelka.
I mean, I overslept and abandoned the duel. And he appears to be someone with a low boiling point that it’s likely he will demand to have a duel with me right here.
「Nn? Bram?」
Eric who is beside me let out a voice mixed with annoyance. I don’t know when, but if Shelka were to catch up with us and join up with him, I feel that I won’t be able to handle the both of them.
In fact, I really think it will be like that.
「You bastard! Alfried! To leave the duel with me and playing around in this kind of place!」
「You idiot! You leave your duel!? You said that you have resolved it smoothly!?」
Hearing Bram’s words, Eric turns his gaze away from him and comes to me.
「Err, when I say I resolve it smoothly I mean Bram won by default.」
「Don’t mess with me! You think I’m going to accept that kind of explanation! Let’s fight here, right now!」
Bram said those words as I expected, while moving right in front of me, assuming a stance while holding his wooden sword with a snap *bisshi* as if he’s not going to let me escape.
「……you sneaky…」
Eric leaves me saying those as if being fed up with me, as if saying he doesn’t want to get involved.
Ahー, jeez. Since it came to this, let’s just defeat him quickly and make him give up for good.
I don’t want to be bothered throughout my whole stay in the royal capital.
But, this is not the situation where the other party can be dealt with easily.
We don’t have much time. If I did it slowly, then Shelka will be able to catch up with us. If I’m going to defeat him, I have to catch him off guard in an instant. やるなら虚をついて一瞬でだ。
「Yosh, come at me.」
When I answered decisively, Bram had a strange expression for an instant.
Perhaps, he thought that I would complain a bit more before accepting…
「Is that so. Then here’s a wooden sword――」
He then tried to give me another wooden sword hung on his waist, but I stopped it with my hand.
「No, I’m not going to use a wooden sword. I’ll fight using magic. If you’re fine with those then I will accept your challenge right now.」
「……I don’t care. Duels are not only about swords. However, the magic should only be at the range of being able to make someone faint alright?」
Bram put on a fearless smile on his face, and took an upright stance with his sword.
The surrounding people sent a peculiar gaze to Bram who suddenly took a stance in the middle of the street.
But Eric went to them and told them that a simple duel between nobles would start and he told the people to step back.
Maybe it’s not unusual for such a fight like this to occur in the royal capital, where many adventurers, nobles, and Magic Academy students live.
「Prepare yourself.」
Bram pointed the tip of his wooden sword my way, and then lowered his posture.
Looking at Bram’s posture with a stable center of gravity, I raise my evaluation of Bram.
Even though he was instantly defeated by Eleonora-neesan, he might actually be quite strong himself, only that his opponent was just bad.
But still, I dealt with such a demon normally, so I don’t feel like losing easily in a situation involving a battle using magic.
Of course I can’t use Space Magic in a public place such as this.
I took a half Hanmi stance, so that I could move at any time, and lowered my posture a bit.
Bram and I are glaring at each other, the tension is rising.
The surrounding people’s chatter is no longer entering our ears.
「Then, I’m going!」
It was Bram who moved first. Holding his sword in an overhead position, he drew near me, trying to swing his sword down from overhead aiming at my head.
On the other hand, I didn’t use any magic as I threw myself to the side.
If I were to roll down to the side, it’s obvious that I would fall prey to the wooden sword before I stand up.
Due to my sudden, reckless action, Bram stood still for an instant, but then he tried to immediately change the sword’s trajectory and bring it down to my head,
「You’ve lost your m――dahaa!?」
Bram was forcefully blown backwards.
It’s as if his stomach was hit by a cannonball.
Yes, all according to my plan.
『『Haa?』』
The surrounding people had question marks all over. No one could open their mouth with such an unexpected result.
Then, a woman's voice breaks the silence.
「Ahーmou! Here I thought I could hit you just a little bit more, why did you avoid it! Do you have eyes in the back of your head or what!?」
With disheveled hair and clothes that were a bit tattered, Shelka appeared.
Perhaps, she somehow managed to break through from the encirclement of those wicked comrades of hers.
And then, she notices the peculiar atmosphere in this place and stares in puzzlement.
「Huh? Why is it so quiet here? Eh? The one who blew that person away………me?」