Chapter 21
Wooo thank the world for good Friday, I get an extra day for my holdiays! Well anyways, it’s the holidays for me now, so until around the 30th of April, my translation rate should be faster! Well I say faster, but it’s not a major improvement either… well it’s a good thing either way. By the way, I added in previous and next chapter b.u.t.tons, so hope that becomes helpful. Thanks for reading~
While wielding a sword, I rush into the enemy camp. While doing so, I arrived as a champion of justice and declared that as the hero of the sword, I'll protect these unsinful demi-humans even if I have to use my sword against humans. There are two objectives to this.
The first one is to create unrest throughout the enemy. The existence known as a hero is the symbol of justice, so the kingdom soldiers who were concluded as evil will definitely hesitate about their own deeds, which creates a gap. In addition, a hero is an important resource so they want to not kill them if possible. Capture him without killing him. The moment they think that, the actions they can take are limited. I'll take use of that gap.
The second reason is that I said I'm the hero of the sword. If it's the same as the first time, it should be quite a while until her gets invited by the royal family. He used to be an adventurer that worked in a different country, but after hearing the justice the kingdom speaks of and falling in love with the beautiful Flare, he started getting used by the Dioral Kingdom. I am a kind person who is the hero of the sword and am hard to handle. Giving that impression to the Dioral Kingdom, I delayed their contact with me. … It's just a little bit of hara.s.sment.
I'll summarize the situation.
We went through the opened up path that was made in the forest, and right before our very eyes, there were around 200 Dioral Kingdom soldiers that were disguised as mercenaries. Around 200 metres ahead of us, there was the ice wolf race village which was protected by a protective wall.
The top priority right now is to defend the opened gate which is about to be broken through. If the gate is held down, then the ice wolf race will be annihilated in the blink of an eye. I want to avoid that. It's necessary to defend the gate.
Right now, what I need to prioritize the most is speed. In that case…
"【Transformation Heal】" (Kearuga)
I distribute my talent values to focus extremely on speed.
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Race: Humans
Name: Keare
Cla.s.s: Healing Magician, Hero
Level: 30
Status:
MP: 101/101
Physical Attack: 55
Physical Defense: 55
Magical Attack: 65
Magical Resistance: 37
Speed: 123
Level Limit: ∞
Talent Values:
MP: 80
Physical Attack: 132 → 80
Physical Defense: 83 → 83
Magical Attack: 100 → 100
Magical Resistance:72 → 52
Speed: 126 → 196
Total Value: 591
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The ones that I shaved off from to increase my speed is my physical attack and magical resistance. I have no need for magical resistance because once I step into a crowd of people like this, the enemy gets scared that they might drag in others while using their magic, so they can't use it.
And the reason I lowered my physical attack is because…
"s.h.i.+-!" (TL Note: I think this might be a sound effect of him das.h.i.+ng? Not sure, but しっ！doesn't really fit into context here.)
I had used【Imitation Heal】on the sword saint's sword techniques.
The Claylet lineage that keeps giving birth to sword saint uses the Oakrule School of fencing as a base, and polished it over several myriads of battles. That is not something to show in contests, and is a style that is efficient at killing.
What came as the result of that is the secret sword,【Fresh Blood Flower】.
This time, because the kingdom's soldiers are disguised as mercenaries, they aren't wearing their armor. In other words, their vitals are completely unguarded.
While running past them with all my power, I gently slice the kingdom's soldier's nape and wrists with my sword. Without stopping for even a moment at a speed that's faster than a human's comprehension, I run past the enemy while heading towards the ice wolf race's protective wall.
After I pa.s.sed through them, the kingdom's soldiers started bursting out blood like a water fountain. Only after that started happening did the kingdom's soldiers start making uproar.
"Wha- what the heck is this!?" (Random Soldier)
"Hi- hiiii" (Random Soldier)
"What in the world is happening!" (Random Soldier)
This technique is convenient. After all, in general, it's necessary to step down on the ground and collect power from your whole body to swing a sword. Although a sword filled with power has the strength to strike someone with armor, your movement stops and you also consume stamina.
However, this【Fresh Blood Flower】is different. It aims for the opponents soft arteries, which is why it's enough to just brush it gently. While running, I cut down people's lives. It's a style of fencing that utilizes the speed I'm running past them and the softness of the wrist.
A blood flower blooms showily each time, and has the effect of amplifying the enemy's unrest.
"A person's life is quite ephemeral isn't it." (Kearuga)
Mana is turned into a numerical value by changing it to MP, but, life itself doesn't appear in the status. That's obvious, because a human is easy to break. Just continuing to spray out blood, just separating their head from their body, just getting rid of oxygen, just with that, you are able to easily kill a human.
Therefore, it's better to efficiently kill. In addition, the sword saint had a certain ability called【Abandonment】; the deepest level of presence perception. It makes it possible to understand all movements in your area and is also possible to make you have super reflexes that exceed common sense. I am able to see everything which is why I can run through the optimum route which is small and thin with a small gap while hunting lives with【Fresh Blood Flower】.
"I've arrived." (Kearuga)
I weakly laugh. I caused only 10 seconds of disturbance throughout the enemy by naming myself a hero and naming myself justice.
In only that small amount of time, I was able to break through the center of the enemy. Using the maximum speed that I gained from【Transformation Heal】and the sword techniques of the sword saint. If I combine those two together, I can do about this much.
As expected, it's not possible to use it if the opponent is in full body armor, neither is it possible if their defensive status is high enough to stop a sword. However, my current enemies are soldiers disguised as agile mercenaries, and there aren't any out of the norm monsters. Thanks to that, I can riot to my heart’s content.
After cutting the nape of the few soldiers who were reaching out towards the gate, my eyes met with the person protecting the gate.
They were frightened, but there's no helping it. In their perspective, I am a hateful human, and I possess overwhelming strength.
Therefore, I should tell them what kind of person I am.
"Listen, warrior of the ice wolf race. I am the hero of the sword, and I have come here to live up to the tears and desires of an ice wolf race girl called Setsuna. And now, after looking at the unjust humans here, I decided to partic.i.p.ate in this war." (Kearuga) (TL Note: He uses 'ware' instead of 'ore' when naming himself here.)
Hearing that, the people from the ice wolf race become absentminded. Pretending to not take notice of that, I face my back to the gate and head towards the kingdom's soldiers.
"Once again, I shall make a declaration. I carry out justice. There are too many of you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds who do these barbaric acts. You b.a.s.t.a.r.ds aren't even humans anymore, just brutes. Therefore, I have no hesitation; become the rust of my sword." (Kearuga)
Ah, it's starting to become fun. I guess I've gotten drunk from the blood. After finally reaching this point, the kingdom's soldiers have thrown away their hesitation. It seems that they've thrown away the thought that it would be easy to capture me, and have decided to just kill me.
The magicians located at the rear start chanting their magic, and pair it up with arrows. The place I am at is no longer a crowded place, which means that right now, there is no need for hesitation in using magic
"The ice wolf race over there, quickly close the gate." (Kearuga)
Even though I'm gathering all the soldiers in one place to keep the gate safe, the men who were clinging onto the gate still hadn't closed it.
"However, what about the hero of the sword and the people outside the gate" (Gatekeeper)
"I will be fine alone. Give up on the ones who left the gate, you can't save them." (Kearuga)
After saying that much, the men from the ice wolf race finally started closing the gate. Fuu, I'm looking after them too much. The same time I sigh, flames and arrows start raining on me.
As one would expect, it's impossible to dodge these flames and arrows that are so widespread, so I wield a s.h.i.+eld. That s.h.i.+eld is a kingdom soldier that has lost most of his blood and is only barely living.
So that the enemy can hit me while being in the rear, the flames and arrows all go in a mountain orbit so it won't hit their allies. In other words, there won't be a problem as long as I make my s.h.i.+eld face up.
"Gyaaaaaaa" (Meats.h.i.+eld)
Flames and arrows rain down incessantly, and the s.h.i.+eld started screaming.
The kingdom soldiers are looking at me like they're scoffing at me. You fool, it's this amount of flame magic. A s.h.i.+eld of meat will burn in an instant, and that kind of thing can't even be counted as protection.
Certainly, that's true. I think so too. However…
When the flames had cleared, both the s.h.i.+eld and I were both in good health, although the s.h.i.+eld had many arrows stuck inside it while continuously pouring out blood.
I throw two spheres of gunpowder from the pit of my stomach. That exploded in the sky above the magicians and archers placed at the rear, and scattered coloured flames.
That isn't an attack, it's just a sign.
Several seconds later, an enormous ma.s.s of flames that the kingdom soldier's magician are no match for came falling down, thoroughly burning everything.
"Ah, Freya, you've finally done it haven't you. Killing your own army. Well, I was the one who made her do it though." (Kearuga)
As expected of the hero of magic, Freya's magic; the power and accuracy is of the highest grade. This magic is in a different dimension as single-target or area magic, and is ranked in tactics magic. (TL Note: It says 'personal' instead of single-target, but single-target conveys the meaning better. Also, tactics magic could be meaning war magic, but I think it's tactics magic.)
"Now then, the irritating rear force has been exterminated. Might as well plunge in." (Kearuga)
I once again gripped the sword and rush in, and the soldiers raise screaming voices.
First off, the reason why my meat s.h.i.+eld was able to endure it. It's actually quite simple, because I just kept using【Recovery Heal】while defending against the flames, and if I heal it before it burns out, the s.h.i.+eld won't break. It was extremely useful by accomplis.h.i.+ng its role as a s.h.i.+eld.
Next, the meaning behind me throwing the gunpowder was to make a sign for Freya. The magic Freya used is the highest grade magic a human can use, rank 5 magic【Meteor】. A tactics magic which has a firing range of 400 metres. There are probably only 10 people in this country that can use this magic.
From the start, I had ordered Freya to be doing something separately from us. In a place that's a few hundred meters away from here, I ordered her to fire【Meteor】towards the sign I make. Since we didn't have any guards to protect Freya, I had to put her in an unperceivable place where neither magic nor arrows could reach, that's a super long distance away so that anything other than tactics magic can't be used.
Although Freya is able to use rank 6 magic which is beyond what a human can do, on top of not having any left over power after use, she would realize that she's princess Flare the moment she uses it. Even with various limitations put on it, that power is tremendous. As I thought, Freya's value as war potential is extraordinarily high. Besides, what can I say.
"This becomes good EXP earning." (Kearuga)
A thing called a party exists, and is something that applies a certain formula to let you make a party of 4 at max, and distributes the EXP equally between members. (TL Note: So this basically means he's going to have a harem of 3 right? And if you think about their current members, it'll probably be the demon king. Btw this is just speculation.)
Currently, Freya, Setsuna and I are in a party as a three. On top of that, if we add on the hero's doubled experience skill, Freya's and my skill become two-fold, making it four times. Fundamentally, level raising is done by hunting monsters, but as long as it is living, you get EXP equal to the strength of that existence; humans aren't an exception. With this current state, if a tactic magic like【Meteor】is used and eradicates the enemy, what would happen?
The answer is simple.
"My blood is boiling." (Kearuga)
My level suddenly rises by a lot. In the kingdom's soldiers, the average level is high; there aren't many chances to be at such a splendid hunting ground.
My movements accelerate even further and I'm rapidly getting stronger. In the center of the enemies, I was running around left and right as I pleased.
From time to time, I throw gunpowder spheres towards the enemy's rear so that Freya can use her super long distance magic to silence the noisy ones.
At this point, what I'm doing is close to a ma.s.sacre. The enemy's numbers which used to be 200 soldiers rapidly diminishes.
"What even is that guy." (Random Soldier)
"Surround him, surround him." (Random Soldier)
"It's impossible, he's too fast. (Random Soldier)
"Oi, I, I can't even follow him with my eye." (Random Soldier)
"Does he have an inexhaustible supply of stamina!?" (Random Soldier)
In a situation of fighting many enemies at once, the things that absolutely have to be avoided is getting your escape route cut off, or getting a simultaneous attack from all directions.
If it's an ordinary swordsman, they would put power in their back and stop their legs to deal a heavy blow. No matter how much they struggle, their escape route will be blocked off and will go down after taking a simultaneous from all sides, but I'm different. Since earlier, I haven't stopped my legs for a moment. So that I can secure an escape route, I've been sprinting at full power while cutting their arteries when I pa.s.s them. I have a great number of experiences in battles against many enemies, so I won't cause that kind of foolish mistake.
Even if you are careful to not make those mistakes, there still exists an unavoidable problem. That problem is running out of steam. No matter how much a human trains, they will definitely become out of breath and stop their legs at some point.
However, I am able to use【Recovery Heal】. Even if I get a small cut or lose stamina, I can use【Recovery Heal】each and every time. On top of that, I am also able to use【Looting Heal】to steal mana. Perpetual motion at ultra-high speed, that is my fighting style.
"Hi-, hi-, don't come, throw away your sword, or else this ice wolf woman will die." (Random Soldier)
One of the soldiers holds his sword against the throat of one of the ice wolf women who were used as a warning. I run past that man in with ultra-high speed and brush the nape of his neck with my sword.
This guy is probably an idiot; he should know that it's useless to take a hostage. If I die, all the ice wolf people in the rear will all become toys for the humans. Their maximum priority should be to take my life. That being said, abandoning her isn't good for my mental health. If their luck is good, I'll take actions to save them, but whether they stay alive is up to them.
Well, doing this much should be enough.
We've defeated more than half the enemies and the remaining ones voluntarily escaped after losing their fighting spirit. I've thrown all the gunpowder spheres I had on hand, and Freya should have exhausted her mana by now.
I'll grant Setsuna's wish; this is that kind of contract.
"Setsuna, you've endured well. From here on out, you'll be the leading actress. I'll hold your back for you." (Kearuga)
Hearing me shout out, she stops killing her presence and the ice wolf who was hiding herself in the forest, Setsuna, leaps out. On both hands, there were nails of ice; this is the fighting style of the ice wolf race.
Setsuna only had her level limit raised by three. Her originally abnormal talent values and her outstanding abilities and skills. The techniques that she has acc.u.mulated until now that don't appear in numbers. Her innate fighting intuition.
Even if you take all of those into consideration, at best, she would be as strong as the soldiers at this place. Her level is only 10.
However, the majority of the enemies have fallen, and their fighting spirit has broken. As long as I stay by her, she should be able to fight to her heart's content.
Putting power into my【Jade Eyes】I confirm there are soldiers that Setsuna can't handle and continue fighting. I make sure to keep the situation of Setsuna always fighting one-on-one.
"…" (Setsuna)
Setsuna was crying, and while crying, she swung her nails of ice. Each time she swung it, one kingdom soldier's life fell. Right now, she is carrying out her revenge to her heart’s content.
Above all, it's great that she's delighted, since this battle was all for Setsuna's sake.
I have my own aesthetics about revenge. I don't damage things that could injure me.
However, this revenge isn't my revenge; it's Setsuna's revenge. Setsuna's revenge to the ones who made her a slave, drove her friend to death and were trying to cause another tragedy right now.
Therefore, I am using my power to my heart's content. Perhaps there may be someone in the group of soldiers who is forcibly being made to do these cruel deeds.
However, I have nothing to do with that kind of thing. If they don't like it, they should just run away. I have no sympathy towards those that chose the option of ma.s.sacring the ice wolf race and turning them into slaves out of their own will.
"This country is d.a.m.ned. I better finish it." (Kearuga)
And also, I had one more aim. Whenever I looked at Freya who had her memories erased, it always felt hazy. I couldn't see the ugliness that I saw in princess Flare, which made me realize one truth.
Although I thought that I had brought my revenge towards Flare as an individual to an end, that was a mistake.
This country was the one that made up princess Flare. The ones I should be taking my revenge on is obviously princess Flare, but also the Dioral Kingdom who made her into that sort of person. Someday, after the Dioral Kingdom lost princess Flare, they'll try to harm me just like the first time, and they could probably produce as many subst.i.tutes as they want for princess Flare as well. That's why, to completely exterminate the pests, I'll need to strike the foundation for it.
It's just that even if I do destroy the Dioral Kingdom, it isn't fun. So from now on, I'll reach my hand out to the ones who despise the Dioral Kingdom, and one day bring an end to that country. That is my true revenge.
While I was thinking about that, I heard the howling of a wolf.
"Setsuna, it seems that the ice wolf race really doesn't like humans." (Kearuga)
"That's obvious. Although there aren't much large-scale attacks like this time, even until now, people of the same race have been kidnapped and treated as a plaything after leaving the forest." (Setsuna)
At last the ice wolf race's gates opened and they came out like an avalanche. The kingdom soldiers no longer have the power to stop them, and they are all in the mood to fight. One-sided ma.s.sacres to the ice wolf race side. So that they can let out all the anger and resentment they had until now, they lost themselves and a.s.saulted the soldiers. (TL Note: 'One-sided ma.s.sacres to the ice wolf race side' is talking about the past, not right now.)
When we noticed, Setsuna and I had both stopped our legs. There's no need for us to fight anymore, and we just simply watch the ice wolf race's fury.
"Setsuna, I carried out your wish. I annihilated the humans you hate, and you yourself also killed quite a lot. How are you feeling right now?" (Kearuga)
Setsuna looks up towards my face, and in those eyes, tears were acc.u.mulating.
I want to know what kind of face she'll make when she fulfills her revenge, and what she'll think at that time. For that reason, I've done this much.
"I'm enjoyed it a lot, and it was very fun, but… no, it's nothing." (Setsuna)
She lets out a tiny laugh. Then, she faces forward and starts running, once again aiming her nails at the soldiers.
The battle ended in an overwhelming victory for the ice wolf race, and all the humans either fled or died. There are no prisoners of war. Although there were soldiers that surrendered, the ice wolf race killed everyone.
Together with Setsuna, we got invited into their village. Thanks to me saying that I was called over by Setsuna, together we were treated like heroes. (TL Note: Not too sure about this one: セツナに呼ばれて来たと俺が言ったおかげで、俺ともどもセツナも英雄扱いだ。Also, the author left out Freya again! lol.)
In any case, my promise with Setsuna has now been accomplished, and Setsuna is now mine. I should ask about Setsuna's true name without delay.
Also, I had something that I absolutely had to tell her no matter what. I can't wait to see Setsuna's reaction to what I'm going to tell her soon.