Book 4: Chapter Third Tactic of Slaying a Dragon: “Raise Funds for the Journey”
Book 4: Chapter Third Tactic of Slaying a Dragon: “Raise Funds for the Journey”
When I went back to the weapons shop, Igor was long gone. He probably got impatient and just couldn’t wait anymore, right? I hurriedly rushed back to the inn. As I thought, everyone was already there the moment I opened the door, including Igor, who had stood me up.
“Where did you run off to?” Igor asked disinterestedly the moment he saw me.
I ignored him. When I thought about it, I felt that women should be more perceptive and better at deducing age than men.I turned toward Sybil and asked, “Sybil, how old do I look?”
Sybil, who had been cleaning up her rope net, lasso, and other things, froze for a bit. Even the others stopped what they had been doing and raised their heads to look at me.
I looked at Sybil in complete seriousness for a while. Then, she also started to stare at my face seriously, closely examining it. Finally, with a look of confidence, she guessed, “Around twenty-three, or twenty-four. At most, twenty-five, you can’t be any older than that.”
No way… I continued inquiring further, “Is it possible for me to actually be eighteen?”
“Impossible!” Sybil rejected the possibility immediately.
How can it be impossible… I turned around, asking Yuna, my last hope, “Yuna, what do you think?”
Yuna a bit inexplicably said, “I think what Sybil said is right! You should be around the age of twenty-three or twenty-four.”
I fell silent.
So, I am a twenty-three or twenty-four, maybe even twenty-five year old virgin…. This is even harder to accept than the idea of me being a villain!
“Grisia?” Yuna gently asked, “Do you think your age is much younger than what we say? Don’t worry! There’s bound to be people who look more mature than their age. However, eighteen years old seems too far-fetched , maybe twenty years old…”
“Ah!” Sybil suddenly exclaimed, looking toward the doorway.
It turned out that the unicorn that I had hidden outside the door couldn’t wait anymore, and had run inside. It even trotted all the way to my side. It seemed to move rather stiffly, and kept a wary eye on my teammates who were surrounding me.
“How did you find it?” Everyone was extremely surprised, although their delight overshadowed that.
I, however, was not delighted at all. I downheartedly replied, “I didn’t find it. It found me.”
After I spoke, Sybil and Yuna walked up in front of it. They couldn’t help but reach their hands out to try to touch the unicorn. However, it dodged out of their way and hid beside me. It desperately used its head to rub against me, probably because Sybil and Yuna’s actions made it feel uncomfortable and unsafe. It repeatedly stomped its hooves on the floor, and snorted heavily through its nose. Seeing this situation, I could only rub its head absentmindedly to appease it.
I rubbed…and rubbed… Why has everyone frozen..?
Igor asked, dumbfounded, “Don’t unicorns only touch female virgins?”
I became rigid. I immediately tried to deny it. “I’m not a male virgin! …Ah!”
I’m finished!
They all became stunned. They turned their heads to look at me and then looked back at the unicorn.
Since the unicorn wasn’t being comforted with the rub of my hand, it became unhappy immediately. It discontentedly rubbed its head desperately against my arm. I tried my best to push it away, but in the end a human’s strength can’t overpower the strength of a horse. Its head wouldn’t stop rubbing my waist… Stupid horse!
At this point, Sybil was the first to chortle and then break out into laughter.
Igor didn’t even stop to think about my feelings, and was already holding his stomach, roaring with laughter.
Woodrow tried very hard to stop himself from laughing, repressing it to the point that his whole face distorted. However, in the end he still broke out into laughter.
Iacchi showed a face filled with feelings of sympathy. He patted me on the shoulder, trying to comfort me. “Maybe losing your memory is a good thing after all, comrade. Hahaha! A twenty-five year old virgin…. Hahahahahahaha!”
But after comforting me, his explosion of laughter sounded like a hundred gongs ringing loudly at the same time… Fortunately, this time I was prepared; I covered my ears prior to his laughter. However, due to the fact that the others were in the midst of laughing, they didn’t react fast enough, leaving them unable to cover their ears in time. Each person was shaken to the point that they had splitting headaches, and looked as if their heads were about to explode.
Hmph! Serves them right!
After Iacchi finally finished laughing, I immediately retorted, “What ‘twenty-five years old!’ According to Sybil’s guess, there is a possibility that I am only twenty-three years old! Yuna even said that I could even possibly be twenty years old! That’s right! I’m definitely twenty years old!”
At this moment, the unicorn suddenly started licking my hand… I instantly withdrew my hand and slapped its head. Even though Sybil and Yuna were still recovering from their headaches, they were both surprised at my sudden action. However, this stupid horse wasn’t hurt or fazed at all! In addition, it continued nudging my waist… Unbelievable!
Stupid horse that only loves virgins! Get away from me!
I’m definitely not a virgin!
“Since Grisia has already brought back the unicorn… Pfft! Hahahahaha!”
Sybil tried to begin talking seriously, only to fail in the middle and burst out laughing. She was laughing so much, tears came out of her eyes until it was impossible for her to talk anymore. This led to restarting Igor’s laughing fit, and I readily covered my ears… In the end, Iacchi actually didn’t burst out laughing; instead he gave a very lewd smile. He put his arm around my shoulder and said, “Don’t say I haven’t been taking care of you! Next time, I’ll take you to experience the real deal so you can be removed from the label of being a virgin, hehehehe!”
“I’m not a virgin!” I protested vehemently.
After he heard my denial, Iacchi only smiled, letting out a “hehehe” and not saying anything else. Bastard!
Woodrow continued with our conversation, “Now that we have the unicorn, let’s go get the reward! We shouldn’t waste any time, otherwise if any other teams try to forcefully steal it we’ll be in trouble.”
“Get what reward?! I reject this proposition!” I replied snappily.
“Don’t be angry, Grisia.” Woodrow smiled a forced smile, “We didn’t laugh at you on purpose; we were only joking around.”
“I’m not angry.” I smiled a little, explaining, “I really don’t agree with going to get the reward.”
Sybil’s laughter suddenly stopped, Woodrow went silent, Igor scratched his head and Yuna was utterly confused.
“You’re…not thinking of saving it for yourself to ride, right?” Igor asked cautiously.
As Igor was asking me, he positioned himself as if he were about to start running toward me to firmly grab a hold of the unicorn, just in case I tried to monopolize it. However, the unicorn stuck tightly by me. Whenever someone else other than me tried to approach it, the horn on its head which was originally already brimming with holy light would release even stronger light.
So even though Igor had already positioned himself, he didn’t dare move any closer.
“I’m a cleric and not a knight, so why would I suddenly keep a horse for no reason?”
I rolled my eyes at Igor and then explained myself to everyone. “Listen well. Since the Adventurers’ Guild is willing to issue five hundred gold ducats as the reward for this unicorn, what do you think that means?”
“The worth of the unicorn is much higher than five hundred gold ducats…”
After Woodrow replied, he hesitated for a moment, and then continued saying, “We understand that, but no normal team would try to sneakily slip the unicorn outside the city because there are people from the Adventurers’ Guild guarding every gate. In addition, whether we are successful or not, we will then be prohibited from interacting with the guild in the future, and we may even possibly be wanted for arrest!”
“Then as long as we don’t let the guild find out that it’s us, it’ll be all right, won’t it?” I asked naturally.
“How is it possible for us not to be found out?” Yuna angrily shouted, “Grisia, you’re fooling around again.”
Fooling around? I was taken aback for a moment. Why does this sound so familiar…? There can’t be someone else that always tells me to stop fooling around, right?
“Wait, it could be possible!” Iacchi shouted, interrupting the conversation and saying, “We can mask ourselves to do it.”
“Mask ourselves?” Woodrow murmured.
Mask ourselves? I was stunned for a moment. Is he referring to using other elements to conceal our appearances? Even though what I meant was something like that too, I really didn’t know that that was called “masking ourselves.”
“We can’t!” Yuna strongly disagreed, glaring at me and frankly shouting, “We can’t do bad deeds. Grisia, you’re a cleric of the God of Light.”
Indecision warred in Sybil’s eyes, but when she sneaked a peek at Yuna and saw that her face was filled with anger, she could only hesitatingly say, “Yeah… That doesn’t really seem quite right…”
Woodrow likewise sneaked a peek at Yuna, then shook his head and said, “We can’t. We just can’t.”
I didn’t care that everyone was speaking against me. I turned toward Iacchi, bluntly asking, “Iacchi, how much is the unicorn worth?”
Iacchi hesitated for a moment. He dawdled, saying, “It is said that the Adventurers’ Guild wants to give the unicorn to the Cathedral of the Shadow God’s Dark Eagle. They are not planning to sell it. However, if it was to be sold off, according to some information from a few black market auctions, it’s at least…at least…”
Everyone strained their ears to hear the rest. I purposely raised the sound of the last word, asking, “At leeeast?”
“At least five thousand gold ducats as the starting bid.”
I spun around in a flash, latching onto Iacchi’s collar, yelling in alarm, “FIVE THOUSAND GOLD DUCATS?!?!”
Iacchi was taken by surprise and asked in return, “I thought you knew?”
How could I have known!
I only guessed that this stupid horse would definitely be worth a good price, but who knew that it would be valuable to such an extent? Five thousand gold ducats! It’s more than ten times that of the reward put forth by the Adventurers’ Guild! Not to mention, this price is only “at least!”
“Five thousand gold ducats…”
I tried really hard to imagine how five thousand gold ducats would look like, only to realize that I had no concept of this amount of gold ducats… Don’t even mention five thousand gold ducats; I couldn’t even imagine how one hundred gold ducats would look like!
Could it be…? Could it be that I was extremely poor in the past?
“F-f-five thousand gold ducats… That’s so much money!” Sybil squealed.
“Five thousand… Even the God of War’s Staff of Radiance that I’ve always dreamed of is only three hundred gold ducats,” Yuna muttered to herself.
After that, everyone indecisively looked toward the actual leader of the team, Woodrow. It could be seen from his face that he was greatly hesitant himself. Seeing that everyone was staring at him, he quickly said, “Don’t look at me… I wasn’t the one who suggested this… if you need to look, look at Grisia!”
United, everyone turned their heads and looked at me. First, I revealed a warm smile to settle them down from their anxiousness and unease, and then I slowly opened my mouth to say, “To the unicorn, it shouldn’t really matter who it is sold to, since it’s all the same, right? In addition, look everyone, it likes me so much, it would definitely rather stay by my side than go the Adventurers’ Guild, right? If we take it away with us, it would unquestionably be happier being able to stay with me longer. With regards to the unicorn, aren’t we doing a good thing for it as well?”
I rubbed the unicorn’s head, bending down while smiling, and saying to it, “Aren’t I right? Cute unicorn.”
The stupid horse started to persistently lick my face without holding back, leaving my whole face covered with saliva… I wonder if a unicorn’s saliva is worth any money… Based on its value of five thousand gold ducats, it may be possible that even its saliva could be sold for one gold ducat!
“That is true. The unicorn really seems to like you,” Woodrow said while nodding his head.
Yuna vehemently glared at him and unhappily said, “Woodrow, don’t listen to Grisia’s nonsense!”
Iacchi had already started calculating, “Five hundred becoming five thousand… Then that means each person will get five hundred gold ducats…”
“Do you even know how to calculate?” I said impatiently, “When you take away 20% from five thousand gold ducats for my share, and then take away 20% of the remainder for the team’s spending before evenly dividing the rest among the five of you, that should come out to be six hundred and forty gold ducats each. If you really want to give me an extra one hundred gold ducats, I don’t really mind.”
“You’ve already taken one thousand gold ducats for yourself! And you still want to cheat my money?” Iacchi heartbrokenly said, “You’re even more suitable to be a rogue than me!”
“Six hundred and forty gold ducats!” Sybil’s face already shone in complete agreement.
On the other hand, Yuna revealed an expression of dizziness. She kept muttering, “The God of War’s Staff of Radiance… I can’t do bad things… The God of War’s Staff…..”
Seeing that everyone was wavering quite a bit, I pushed it a little further, saying, “Since the unicorn will be happy, and I will be happy, and you guys will be happy, this makes everyone happy. Why shouldn’t we do it?”
As for the Adventurers’ Guild and the Silent Eagle that should have received the unicorn… I guess they won’t be happy, huh? However, that doesn’t concern me, since it’s not like I know them.
Everyone looked at me. Although their expressions showed how much their hearts were wavering, they also knew that this was wrong, making them struggle internally. Yuna especially kept muttering to herself about the God of War’s Staff of Radiance and bad things… In the end, her muttering only contained the God of War’s Staff of Radiance. Who knew where the two words “bad things” were thrown out to…
In the end, whilst shaking she said, “Grisia, you… you are definitely not a cleric from the Church of the God of Light… you’re definitely a devil!”
“Why do you say that?”
I unleashed my most radiant smile, and used my most innocent tone to say, “See? Even the unicorn loves me! To it, I really am the most compassionate and loving cleric of the God of Light!”
“We are definitely seeing a devil…”
On the side, Woodrow was muttering to himself, “The level of this devil is so high that even the unicorn can’t help but wag its tail and grovel to him.”
I automatically ignored Woodrow’s words and faced everyone, demanding, “If everyone is not as interested in five hundred gold ducats as five thousand gold ducats, then we should begin discussing strategies. After all, the unicorn can’t be hidden here forever without being found out by others.”
Everyone fell silent. However, they did not oppose what I said. It seems like they are already resigned to the appeal of five thousand gold ducats.
I raised my index finger and continued. “First, the problem all of you need to think about is how to smuggle out the unicorn.”
“Wait! Wait! What do you mean the problem ‘all of you’ need to think about?” Sybil questioned immediately, dissatisfied, “If we’re thinking, then what are you responsible for?”
I helplessly spread my arms out in front of me, saying, “After all, I am an amnesiac. From the moment I woke up to the present, I have not used any of the skills of a cleric. I want to test my abilities first, just in case I’m unable to be of help at the most crucial time, and might even possibly hold everyone back.”
Hearing this, Sybil gave a kind of unwilling “oh” sound. Everyone else also nodded in agreement.
“Grisia, try and see if you can cast the Wings of God spell. It’s for increasing speed; it should be quite useful for when we’re smuggling the unicorn out of the city,” Yuna instructed me. “Light Shield and the Wings of God spells each have their different effects and uses. The first is for defending against physical attacks and the latter increases speed. Warpriests, who specialize in boosting combat abilities, are a bit lacking in this department. However, the Wings of God spell is rather difficult holy magic. Besides the use of the holy element, it requires you to use the wind element as well. Therefore, not every cleric is able to use the spell. So, it’s okay if you are unable to cast it.”
I shrugged my shoulders and then said, “I’ll do my best to try it out.”
“First, try to gather the holy element!” Yuna instructed.
This was no problem for me, since the holy element always gathered around me in large quantities. I only needed to move my hand and the holy element would be continuously drawn to it.
At this moment, no one was discussing how to escape from the city anymore. On the contrary, they were all looking at my hand, stunned. I looked left and right, and decided to choose to release this on Igor who dared to stand me up, whilst shouting, “Light Shield!”
Yuna sighed, saying, “It’s not like that Grisia, you have to recite the incantations first….”
After the aura of light surrounded Igor, I started thinking. If we’re using this for defensive purposes, then the holy element should be more tightly bound together…? Therefore, I layered the aura of light layer upon layer before I compressed it into one large, thin sheet. After that, I used this large, thin sheet to “wrap” Igor. It was exactly like having him wear a layer of armor that was as thin as paper.
Yuna suddenly gasped, “Oh my god…”
“What? What happened?!” Igor cried in distress. He shouted extremely nervously, “Yuna? It couldn’t be that he has done it wrong? Grisia! What have you done this time?!”
I was shocked as well. I couldn’t have really done it wrong, could I..? But, looking at Igor, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything wrong with him, right?
Yuna didn’t answer Igor and instead suddenly cried out, “Iacchi!”
“Yes?” The rogue yelped, shocked as much as the others.
Then, just like a leader, Yuna commanded, “Attack Igor.”
“Huh?” Iacchi was stunned. In fact, everyone was stunned.
“Hurry up!”
Iacchi’s entire face showed how baffled and confused he was, but under Yuna’s continuous urging, he decided to listen to her. As he was just about to release a punch against Igor who had already submitted himself to his fate of being beaten, Yuna suddenly shouted again, “Don’t use your fists! Use weapons to attack!”
“Yuna…” Igor whined, about to cry.
Iacchi finally started to hesitate. He lowered his fists, showing a face that said “I don’t dare to.”
At this moment, Woodrow suddenly looked up at the sky and roared. And then… and then… he actually began changing… His body began growing fur, his hands changed into humongous meaty paws and the five black claws on his hand made even my scalp begin to feel numb. If I were to be hit by that hand, I would definitely spit out quite a lot of things…
In the end, Woodrow completely transformed into a bear… He was a big black bear that stood upright, with a splash of white fur in the shape of a “V” across his chest.
I was dumbstruck. What is going on? Is Woodrow a human? Or a bear?
“Woodrow?”
Igor exclaimed in shock as his face completely changed in color. However, Woodrow, who had transformed into a bear, had already smacked him down with one paw, making him unable to resist. At once, Igor landed on the floor on his side. In spite of this, Woodrow still didn’t stop attacking him, and used his foot to heavily stomp on his head…
My mouth was agape in the form of an “O.” What exactly is happening right now?
“What are all of you doing?”
Even though Sybil was a bit worried, she was even more curious. She looked at Woodrow, who was slowly changing back into his human form, and at the warrior who was slowly standing up. Finally, she asked quite worriedly, “Igor, are you all right?”
Igor reached out to rub his head a bit with a face filled with confusion. After he heard Sybil’s question, he scratched his head and said, “I’m all right. That’s strange… It doesn’t hurt at all.”
“Really? But Woodrow is extremely powerful!” After Sybil cried out in surprise, she immediately and excitedly turned her head toward me and said, “Grisia, I want it too.”
Seeing that Igor could still rub his head and laugh stupidly, I was finally at ease. After listening to Sybil’s words, I easily gathered the holy element once again, compressing it into a thin layer, and then I wrapped Sybil with it as well.
“Hurry, hurry!” After Sybil had been covered, she immediately called out in excitement, “Iacchi, hurry up and hit me… Uh! Use your fists to hit me first!”
With Igor having demonstrated already, Iacchi didn’t hesitate this time. He didn’t even care or hesitate about the fact that she was a girl, immediately landing a punch on her. Although Sybil knew that she probably wouldn’t be hurt, she couldn’t stop herself from closing her eyes. One second… Two seconds…
She opened her eyes and saw Iacchi using all of his strength to consistently punch her. She excitedly cried out, “It doesn’t hurt! It really doesn’t hurt!”
“Of course it doesn’t hurt.”
Yuna explained with a tone that said this was a given, “With such a thick amount of the holy element, I’m afraid that only ‘battle aura’ could break it. This is unbelievable, if Grisia can cast Light Shield on everyone, then we don’t even need to think of a plan. We can directly break out of the city. There shouldn’t be many high level warriors who know how to use battle aura in town.”
Woodrow shook his head, saying, “It’s not that simple, Yuna. I’m sure you can also feel how extremely powerful and demanding using Light Shield is, right? If we want Grisia to gather that much of the holy element, I’m afraid that’s impossible…”
Iacchi, Yuna, Woodrow and last of all, myself… Everyone is done! Everyone has Light Shield on them now. Next should be the Wings of God spell… From what I remember Yuna saying, I think it requires the holy element in combination with the wind element. Yup! I wonder how much of the wind element is needed for it to be enough?
“…”
I “kneaded” the holy element and wind element together. However, this action made Yuna start screaming. She immediately warned, “Be careful, Grisia. Mixing different elements together is a very dangerous move. If you mix it wrong, it could explode!”
Hearing this, everyone suddenly piled into the doorway. On one hand, they wanted to get out of the door and leave as soon as possible, but on the other hand, they were really curious and wanted to watch.
Finished kneading! I looked at everyone. The one who’s furthest out the door is Iacchi! He practically has half of his body outside of the room already.
Very good! The next test experiment shall be him!
I threw that ball of light combined with the wind element onto Iacchi and made a few adjustments, gathering most of the aura onto his hands and legs. In the meantime, Iacchi’s hands and legs shook as if he was having a spasm. After having finished making adjustments, I opened my mouth and said, “Iacchi, try running.”
Iacchi nodded his head and then I heard him say, “Please protect me, God of War,” as he got into the stance to start running. Then, he took a step…
Bang!
The moment he started running, he disappeared. It wasn’t until we heard a noise that didn’t lose to the loudness of his shouts did we find a big, human-shaped hole in the wall of the room.
Igor’s and Sybil’s mouths opened to the form of an “O.”
I looked at the human shaped hole, expressionless. Light Shield is the God of Light’s holy magic yet you pray to the God of War that has always been on bad terms with the God of Light… Are you asking for death?
“Iacchi, are you all right?” Sybil exclaimed.
“I’m all right…..”
Iacchi poked his head out from the hole of the broken wall. He smiled gleefully as he replied, “It doesn’t hurt at all.”
Seeing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. At this moment, Yuna turned around and advised me, “It seems like you used too much of the wind element.”
I nodded.
It seems like because there was too large of an amount of the wind element, it caused the speed to be too great. Therefore, I think it would work much more effectively if I reduced the amount of the wind element in it. However…I don’t know why, but I have this feeling that putting this amount of the wind element isn’t incorrect at all. It’s just that Iacchi cannot handle such a fast speed, that’s all.
If someone is able to handle this kind of speed, then I’m sure they can become as fast as the wind. Someone as fast as the wind… For that person’s enemy, this type of opponent would definitely be worse than facing off against a storm!
After I adjusted the wind element a few times, I tried to find out the suitable amount of wind element for each person. Iacchi and Sybil are originally of agility-type professions, so I can put a bit more of the wind element in theirs. For Igor, Yuna and Woodrow, I’ll have to put a little less. As for myself…I’m around the same as the latter group.
It seems like clerics of the God of Light are not of the agility type after all.
Iacchi, Sybil and Igor ran around the room swiftly, playing to their hearts’ content.
Yuna said, “You have just cast Light Shield and the Wings of God spell on all of us. Your ability to gather elements is too strong… No! You were trying to adjust the amount of wind element and so you even repeatedly cast the Wings of God spell a great number of times, right?”
I laughed a bit, proudly stating, “There would be no problem even if there were twelve people!”
Hearing this number, Yuna was shocked for a bit and then mumbled, “I really don’t dare to say it’s impossible anymore. Who exactly are you, Grisia?”
“A cleric of the God of Light,” I answered, halting for a moment afterwards and then asking her in return, “Isn’t that what you said?”
Yuna muttered to herself quietly, “Really? I really don’t dare to say that I’m really sure about that anymore…”
“Let’s not worry about who I am, for now,” I said to Yuna and Woodrow. “First, we should hurry up and think of a plan to escape from this city, right?”
“Sigh!”
Woodrow sighed while looking at the three playing to their hearts’ content, and sincerely said, “There is no need to think about any plan. With this speed and the ability to nullify physical attacks, as long as we don’t run into classes that are Master or above, who could possibly hinder us?”
“What if we really do run into Master class professions?” I couldn’t let go of this sense of insecurity and continued asking, “After all, this is five thousand gold ducats, isn’t it possible that the Adventurers’ Guild might find Master class professions to guard the city gates?”
Woodrow and Yuna looked at me strangely. Woodrow shook his head and said, “How could it be possible for Master class professions to guard the city gates when each one of them could become the commander of this city? Have you ever seen a commander guard the city gates?”
I was speechless. Master class professions are that incredible?
Around this time, I don’t know when, but Iacchi had already stopped frolicking around, and had run over to interrupt the conversation. “I know! I know! This city only has one Master class rogue; there isn’t a single one in any of the other professions.”
“A rogue, huh?”
Woodrow and Yuna looked at each other. The former smiled and said, “That is really wonderful! Even if they are a Master class, a rogue isn’t a profession that can block others directly. Therefore, let’s directly rush out of the city!”
“Okay!” I nodded my head. When I turned around and saw the unicorn, I suddenly had this feeling of insecurity inside of my heart, making me hurriedly ask, “Then, who is in charge of following alongside the unicorn?”
Woodrow and Yuna said at the same time, “Of course it has to be you!”
“What? I’m a cleric!” I naturally objected in a strong voice, “A cleric should be at the back, enjoying the breeze!”
“Have you really lost your memory…?” Woodrow began muttering to himself again.
“Yeah, usually it’s like that,” Iacchi patted my shoulder and then said with a face of helplessness, “But! Grisia, you have to know, the only person in the team that still has their chastity is you! Look, the unicorn won’t allow impure people like us to approach it. That’s why, only the pure and innocent you can take it outside of the city,”
With no expression on my face, I said, “Believe me when I say that in the next second I’m going to send you to see the God of Light and allow him to sterilize you into a pure and virtuous person.”
Iacchi suddenly exploded into laughter, but that wasn’t as bad as the fact that his laughter shook my ears until they were about to burst. My head felt like it was just about to split open, but what was worse was that I also heard him laugh loudly and say, “Grisia, remember that you’re a cleric! Clerics have no attack power. Therefore, your threat isn’t scary at all.”
….Maybe I should try and see if I really do know magic.
As all of us crept out, continually concealing ourselves with much difficulty, we finally made it to an alleyway near the city gates with the unicorn without anyone noticing. Thus began the last minute preparations before our escape.
For escaping, Yuna and Igor’s speeds were not fast enough, so, after Yuna helped everyone by casting holy magic on them, the two of them joined in with the parties that were lining up to leave through the city gates. This only left Sybil, Iacchi and Woodrow to accompany me. Normally, Woodrow’s speed wouldn’t be fast enough either. However, after he transforms into a panther, his speed is actually even faster than Iacchi’s, who normally possesses the fastest speed in the group.
“How many animals can you transform into, exactly?” I asked out of curiosity, lowering my head to look down at the panther. However, he just looked at me and didn’t reply.
“Woodrow can’t speak after he transforms into a panther!” Sybil said while smiling, “He can only transform into a bear and a panther. When he transforms into a bear he gains a great amount of strength, and when he transforms into a panther his speed will significantly increase.”
“Well then, Woodrow is in charge of creating a disturbance for everyone. Iacchi and Sybil are in charge of opening up a path, and I will directly rush straight out. If we are separated, then use all your strength to run to where Woodrow told us to meet.”
Two people and a panther nodded their heads toward my direction. After that, all of us wore the masks we had prepared earlier. Iacchi was the one who had prepared them; he said that if we were to do bad things, we had to wear these… So, it seems like concealing faces is a form of tradition?
I seemed to understand without true comprehension as I wore the mask. I also took the opportunity to envelop everyone’s faces with a thin layer of the holy element. This way, everyone’s appearances would no longer be visible.
Naturally, Woodrow, who had transformed into a panther, didn’t need it.
I pulled the unicorn toward me. It looked at me. I looked back at it. At this moment, I suddenly had this feeling of unease… Do I know how to ride a horse?
Looking at the unicorn’s flawlessly white back, I had no feeling in my heart that would render me in appreciation of this. I only had a sense of anxiousness, that if I fell off the back of the horse…
I showed a pained expression and asked, “What happens if I fall off?”
“Fall off?” Sybil said, puzzled, “It doesn’t really matter if you fall, right? You are a cleric of the God of Light! You can just heal yourself and everything will be okay!”
Is that all? But, why do I have this feeling that if I fall off the horse, there will be very, very dire consequences?
Probably because they saw me hesitating to get on the horse, Iacchi furrowed his eyebrows and said, “Grisia, it seems like you’ve never ridden a horse before.”
“I’m a cleric, not a knight. It’s normal even if I don’t know how to ride a horse!”
Hearing this, Iacchi scratched his head, unable to refute my words. “You’re right. But, if you can’t ride a horse, how are you going to ride the unicorn?”
“Well, as long as I hold onto it tightly and don’t fall off the unicorn, then it should be all right,” I said, trying to convince myself.
Sybil couldn’t stand it, and said, “What ‘as long as you hold onto it tightly!’ Are you even sure that the unicorn knows where it should be going?”
“Unicorn!”I turned around to the unicorn and ordered, “After this, no matter what happens, rush out of the city gates, understand?”
The unicorn nodded.
“It actually understands human language? This is unbelievable… Could it be… That this unicorn is actually a druid as well?” Iacchi muttered, causing the real druid Woodrow to lightly bump him.
I took a deep breath and then jumped with all my strength, landing on the horse’s back with absolute accuracy. At this moment, Iacchi suddenly whistled, “Your posture is not bad! It’s possible that you may know how to ride a horse!”
Really? Suddenly, I felt a surge of confidence. With my foot, I kicked the horse’s abdomen, and the unicorn also coolly neighed in response. And then, in a flash it began racing off….
“Ahaha!”
Sybil laughed loudly and turned around asking, “Iacchi, how is it possible for a horse rider to fall from the back of the horse and even land with all four limbs pointing toward the sky?”
I lifted myself up from the ground and indignantly said, “I just wasn’t holding on properly for a moment!”
After I stood up, I smacked the unicorn’s head hard, condemning it. “What are you rushing off so fast for? Are you trying to make me fall off and die?”
The unicorn nickered quietly with a face filled with grievance.
“Okay, okay!” Seeing that its face was filled with such grievance, my heart softened. In return, I just warned it, “From now on, just be a little more careful.”
The unicorn then happily licked me again. Only the God of Light knows why this horse loves licking me so much!
Afterward, once I mounted the horse, the transformed panther Woodrow rushed out first. As he raced out, his appearance indeed raised quite a disturbance in the people who were lining up to leave the city gates. There were constant gasps from everyone that had seen him, and some even began screaming.
“Where did this panther come from?”
The guards at the city gates shouted to no avail. Then, ten people gathered into the formation of a fan and carefully raised their spears, aiming all of the spearheads at Woodrow.
“Go now!”
When I turned my head, Sybil and Iacchi had already finished quietly shouting those words. The two of them immediately rushed out. Following that, I kicked the horse’s abdomen, making the unicorn follow behind them and rush out…. This time, it didn’t dare to use all of its strength to rush out; it even ran at a completely safe and stable pace. A light breeze blew by, and it felt so comfortable that I thought I might like riding on horses from now on.
I sighed, “This is much more comfortable than riding on a person’s back.”
After I said that, I felt a little strange. How would I know that riding a horse is much more comfortable than riding a person? It can’t be that I’ve ridden a person before… How could that be possible!
Regardless, this wasn’t the time to examine whether riding a person or a horse was better. Sybil and Iacchi had already knocked down a group of people out in front, helping me by opening a pathway out. I hurriedly held onto the unicorn tightly and then said into its ear, “A bit faster!”
The unicorn immediately added more speed whilst the sound of the wind against my ears became louder and louder. I wasn’t too far away from the city gates anymore, yet at this time, the thing attracting everyone’s attention had already drifted from Woodrow, Iacchi and Sybil to the unicorn and I.
“It’s the unicorn!” A person shouted.
At first, everyone was dumbstruck, only able to hold their mouths agape. However, immediately afterwards they braced themselves and gave chase. Even the passersby who had been screaming and telling everyone to avoid the panther widened their eyes and then began raising various weapons to approach us. There were even a couple of them holding brooms!
The guards instantly gave up on the panther and turned around to block the unicorn and my path out. However, Sybil, Iacchi and Woodrow began attacking them from the rear. Even though they were up against spears, knives, swords and more weapons, they were not afraid at all to use their bodies to ram aside spears. This action naturally caused those who had impulsively come up to begin to doubt whether they should continue.
Especially when the three of them were jabbed by spears and yet only the spears became crooked and broken whilst they still stood up perfectly fine, completely uninjured, did everyone’s footsteps stop in unification. Their eyes widened even more than when they had just seen the unicorn.
This is the perfect opportunity to break through and escape… I excitedly shouted, “Faster! Unicorn! Go faster!”
The unicorn immediately accelerated in speed. The exhilarating sound of the wind was constantly being blown against my ears. The small door was right in front of me; the unicorn and I nearly rushed out, ready to take command. In addition, no one was guarding by the door, so no one could stop us!
However, the elating sound of the wind was suddenly interrupted by a loud noise.
Not far off into the distance in front of the unicorn and I, an enormous wall suddenly rose from the ground. The unicorn’s heartbeat suddenly skipped loudly and then it seemed like it wanted to stop. However, because the strength put into its dash before had been too much, it was really unable to immediately stop. Its hooves continuously scraped against the ground, but we still slid unceasingly forward.
The only reason I had not fallen off the unicorn’s body was because I had stuck my whole body onto the unicorn’s neck and had desperately grabbed onto its mane.
In the end, the unicorn still crashed into the wall. Luckily, the impact from the crash wasn’t too strong. It staggered a bit and then stabilized its body.
My heartbeat rapidly sped up. That was far too close. If the unicorn hadn’t immediately noticed the wall and stopped, the strength of the impact from that kind of speed would definitely have caused me to fall unconscious. After falling unconscious, the next time I wake up, I might already be in jail.
After I sighed in relief, I analyzed the wall that had suddenly come out of nowhere. This wall was actually composed entirely of the ice element… This is an ice wall!
“What happened?”
Sybil, Iacchi and Woodrow rushed toward me and looked at the wall of ice, dumbstruck.
“Break this wall!” I shouted angrily.
“Use what to break it? We’re just an archer and a rogue!” Sybil and Iacchi shouted.
Who was depending on you guys? I rolled my eyes at each of them.
At this moment, the unicorn’s horn exploded with a great amount of the holy element. A mass of light streaked toward the ice wall.
“Charge!”
However, the unicorn started bellowing loudly. It seemed like it was extremely unhappy. It was only in the next second that I realized why it was unhappy. It was because a huge amount of the ice element had gathered once again, creating another gigantic ice wall. I could feel it; this ice wall was much thicker and solider than the first one. I was afraid the unicorn could not immediately release another attack to break it like before.
If it isn’t possible to break it in one hit, then it won’t be possible to escape the attacks from the person behind us… The one that created the ice wall!
I patted the side of the unicorn’s neck and gently called out, “Turn around.”
By this time, everyone else had long since turned to look behind. Sybil even screamed, “How could this be possible? They’re… they’re holy knights from the Church of the God of Light?”
“Not only that…” Iacchi’s voice was frantically shaking, “The one at the front, his symbol is of… the Twelve Holy Knights.”
“It’s the Ice Knight!” said Yuna, crying out. Her voice seemed as if she was about to faint.
Ice Knight?
Why does this sound so familiar? My attention and concentration shifted to the person in front, from his body filled with ice and holy elements to his individual appearance. His expression was as frigid as ice; his limbs were as stiff as ice and his hands were actually holding a popsicle!
As expected of the “Ice” Knight…. Is that popsicle for him to eat along on the road?
The Ice Knight raised his popsicle and directed it toward us. His voice coldly said, “Stand still.”
“Who are you trying to threaten by holding a popsicle?” I retorted back with a cold voice that I had purposely lowered in order to avoid him recognizing me in the future.
Ice Knight didn’t say anything. In response to such a provocation, he didn’t even change his expression. It made me begin to wonder. Has this guy’s facial muscles frozen?
On the other hand, everyone else present responded extremely violently. This included my teammates who gasped and held their breaths. The knights beside the Ice Knight practically exploded with anger. They all shouted, “Shut up! Insolent heretics, how dare you insult our leader’s Divine Ice Sword!”
Divine sword? No matter how you look at it, it looks like a popsicle… At most, you can call it…a divine stick?
“Grisia,” Iacchi grew flustered, and began speaking incoherently, “I-Ice Knight is much stronger than Ma-Master class professions. It’s impossible to beat him; he’s part of the Twelve Holy Knights. What should we do now? What should we do!?”
I quietly said, “Don’t be anxious. We don’t need to win; we only need to escape.”
Iacchi cried out in distress, “It’s impossible even if it’s only escaping. Grisia, you, you have amnesia, that’s why you don’t know how formidable the Twelve Holy Knights are. They’re like… like as formidable as the gods!”
“Stop speaking so much nonsense.” I rolled my eyes at him and commanded, “I don’t care if he is a god or a devil, block him and allow the unicorn to have time to gather elements in order to break the ice wall.”
Hearing this, Iacchi’s face looked even worse. Despite that, Sybil and he, along with Woodrow, stood between the unicorn and the holy knights. Then, they adopted a stance ready to attack. Seeing this, the holy knights on the other side seemed to be quite surprised with the exception of the Ice Knight. His facial muscles didn’t even move one bit.
“Defend,” said Ice Knight monotonously.
The holy knights instantly brought forth their shields in unison, forming a wall of shields. Then, between the gaps of the shields, they extended their long swords.
More than ten holy knights have formed a defensive front against the four of us? Are they not intending to pursue us?
At this moment, a gap suddenly opened in the wall of shields. The Ice Knight came out from behind the formation and then slowly walked toward us. He was the only one who walked toward us.
At this moment, the unicorn’s horn released a large amount of the lightning element. Suddenly, lightning descended from the sky and accurately hit the ice wall behind us. However, I wasn’t happy at all because the ice element had not disappeared.
Ice Knight who was in front of me was releasing an extremely strong ice element toward the ice wall. If we don’t defeat him, there will be no end to breaking these ice walls, and no point in breaking them either, since he can continuously create ice walls until either he or the unicorn can no longer gather any elements.
The unicorn roared angrily toward the sky; it even began incessantly scraping its hooves against the ground. It probably wanted to rush toward the Ice Knight to have an earth shattering battle.
“Be good,” I rapped its head severely.
The unicorn cried out sadly and then lowered its head. It even let out noises as if it were crying, making it seem like it was laboring under an extreme injustice.
At this time, Ice Knight was practically no more than ten steps away from us… A wall of ice suddenly sprang up from the ground, blocking his path.
Then lightning fell down behind us again, identical to the one the unicorn had used before.
“Hurry up and run!” I shouted.
At first, the three of them at the front were stunned. The first one to react was Iacchi. Without saying anything further he immediately turned around and slipped past the unicorn and I; he was as fast as a gust of wind. His actions caused Sybil and Woodrow to regain their composures and turn around and start running away in succession.
When Sybil ran past me, I kicked the horse’s side. The unicorn instantly followed my orders and turned around and ran quickly.
In the midst of fleeing, I felt the ice wall behind me had already been broken. But not to worry, I had already prepared a few lightning strikes to impede the Ice Knight’s pursuit.
In the end, we finally escaped from the city.