CH 86

Intermission – Before and after the encounter with Kitsune

Time rewinded a bit. It was around the time when Kitsune and co. had yet arrived at Grandile Kingdom.

As told in the story so far, the man called Duke Orba targeted the Arcs house to regain his status and honor, and return to Grandile Kingdom.

The Arcs house was not a wealthy noble house, it was a house that had the minimum standard of living and status among nobles. In the past, they had produced brilliant magicians one after another, and as a lineage of magicians, they were considerably excellent. It was originally a great house, where most of the family members were capable of using magic.

However, the current Arcs house had only a few people who could use magic, and their status and prestige as noble were low. Normally, a high class noble such as Duke Orba wouldn’t even notice a house such as them.

But, unfortunately, the Arcs family was targeted by Duke Orba to be used as a pawn exactly because of its magician bloodline.

And it was only after the Duke took action that the Arcs house, in this case, former Count Higurd and his daughter Nico, were aware of it.

Everything began so suddenly.

Even though they weren’t particularly affluent as a noble, father, mother and a daughter who sat between them, they were having a happy family dinner time in their dining room. It happened during such a happy moment. Suddenly, that happy moment was shattered.

It was so fast that the former Count Higurd and Nico were unable to react to it. Suddenly, abruptly, unexpectedly, and out of the blue, his wife – whose name was Ellie Arcs – collapsed, spurting out a lot of blood from her neck. While a large amount of blood was gushing out her neck which seemed to have been slit open, no one in the room was capable of moving.

Of course, the former Count Higurd could not move either.

And in the short of moment while they were stunned, the servants died one after another. Something incomprehensible was swiftly killing them. The Count unconsciously fled, holding his daughter in his arms. Without understanding the death of his wife, without understanding the death of his servants, he ran away, with the color of blood carved into his vision, which was dyed bright red.

The fatherly instinct to protect his daughter was the only thing that made him do so. He didn’t even notice that the daughter in his hands was trembling with eyes wide open, he simply ran away. He kept on running.

“… Tch, they got away, huh… kihi… kihihihiyahiyahiya! Well, whatever, I was told not to kill the kid, anyway… hunt I hunt… enjoying their expression as I hunt them down, that doesn’t sound half bad… Khihiyahahahahaha!”

Such a laugh of the murderer, who appeared behind him, did not reach the ears of the Count. He was solely focused on Nico who was in his arms. His consciousness lasted only until that moment.

◇

And when the Count came to his senses, he found himself lying in a dirty alleyway, holding the unconscious Nico in his arms. He recalled what happened before he lost consciousness and understood for the first time of the deaths of his wife and his servants. Tears welled up in his eyes.

However, in his arms, his daughter was definitely still alive. There was still warmth. There was still hope.

Therefore, he tightly held his tears back. Currently, there was no time for him to grieve. If he couldn’t even protect his daughter, he would never be able to forgive himself as her father, or so he thought.

Then he took off his bloody clothes and bought some cheap clothes at a nearby clothing store. They were simple clothes that were as inconspicuous as they got so as not to be exposed that they were noble and to conceal themselves.

He didn’t have the pride of a noble to begin with. Simple clothes for him and for Nico to wear, as long as they got those, it was more than enough.

And from there, his action was swift. First, he gathered information to get an understanding of the situation they were in. He headed to the taverns where the thugs gathered, to the adventurer’s guild, asking the residents of the town, and if he were going to a place where he couldn’t take Nico with him, he’d hide her somewhere.

Nico was originally a child who smiled a lot, but she’d been quiet ever since she woke up. She said nothing, as though she had forgotten how to speak. That was just how devastated she was seeing the sight of people dying.

“Dad will definitely… protect you…! Absolutely…!”

“…..”

Still, when she was hugged by former Count Higurd, she still reacted by hugging back, so most likely she hadn’t completely lost herself.

And then, after two days of information gathering.

Finally, he arrived at Duke Orba. He had no idea what his intention was, but he knew that it was the Duke of Orba who was behind that attack.

At the same time, the fact that he was gathering information was also known by Duke Orba. The reason was that the knights who were patrolling the city were trying to capture them. Even though they had disguised themselves and also hid their faces, they were still precisely tracked by them. Their features were completely exposed.

From then on, they spent most of the night on the run. He held Nico in his arms and desperately ran away. He knew if they were caught, they were going to die. It was because his wives and his servants were killed without discussion whatsoever.

However, they were able to escape for only one day. The next day, it was difficult to escape, even for an hour. There were many situations where they met the knights whenever and wherever they ran. Most likely it was because they were able to limit his range of action after a day of running away. Not to mention the patrolling knights had increased in number.

However, he ran. He kept running. He kept on running with a single-minded determination to save his daughter.

His heart was beating so hard as though it was about to explode, and his feet hurt so much as though his knees were about to come off. However, he ran. He kept on running.

However, the number of pursuers were too numerous. They were catching up to them, and there was nowhere to run anymore.

At such a moment, the one they met was—- Kitsune.

◇ ◇ ◇

The time had returned back to the present. It was after Kitsune and the other had left the town.

Fortunately, the carriage Kitsune and other rented was safe. It seemed that when the Goblin King attacked, all the townsfolk holed up in their homes, trusting the adventurers and the knights and not running away. More accurately, everyone in Grandile Kingdom and any region under them was all like that.

—Kingdom of survival of fitness.

As a country with such a nickname, the strong obtained trust and prestige, as the protected the weak. The weak received protection from the strong, they trusted the strong and didn’t run away under any threats. The strong and the weak were connected to each other by trust and bonds.

As far as Kitsune was concerned, he thought that this system benefited the weak more. With such a thought in his mind, he got that the carriage was safe.

Right after, they fetched the carriage out of the barn, and set out of town. The passengers were Kitsune, Rishe, Leila Nico and Higurd.

Kitsune and co. recalled that they didn’t know the way to handle a carriage. Kitsune, Rishe, and Leila didn’t have the skills to handle the carriage. Of course, being a child, Nico couldn’t either.

However, it seemed that former Count Higurd knew how to handle a carriage, and when they found out about it, they were heartily relieved.

“Thank goodness, thank goodness, I thought I was about to walk and pull the carriage there.”

“Even though it’s a carriage, right?”

“Ha-ha, now that was kinda funny.”

When Kitsune appraised him, he’d confirmed that former Count Higurd’s possessed neither ‘Horse ride’ nor ‘Ride’ skill, so he thought that perhaps skills didn’t necessarily reflect all of one’s ability. Or maybe there was some sort of special condition to acquire the skill.

However, right now he couldn’t care less about such a thing. Currently, as long as he had the strength to live, that’s all that matters.

“But still…. I didn’t expect that Nico-chan’s mother was killed. It’s most likely the work of Reis.”

“Oh…. that guy with the strange high-pitched laugh? I ‘met’ him, you know♪.”

“Wow, so he ‘met’ you, Leila… I’m kinda sorry to hear that.”

“I don’t know if he’s alive or dead, but if he stayed as he was, he’s probably died♪… I didn’t eat him because he tasted so disgusting, though♡.”

Most likely not a single person wanted to be eaten, Kitsune thought as he took some distance from Leila. He swiftly shut his mouth.

Kitsune and the others rode on the carriage, so the luggage was loaded at every space other than the coachman seat where former Count Higurd was seated at. Nevertheless, inside the spacious carriage, Leila deliberately seated herself tightly next to Kitsune. And then, next to Leila, Niko was seated there close to her. It was quite a strange sight.

It wasn’t as though Rishe was left alone or anything, she was just taking a bit distant away from them to maintain her sword. Without minding about the others.

Incidentally, Kitsune had asked the details about the accident to former Count Higurd. He told Kitsune about the fact that his wife was killed, how his house that had fallen, and also his apology for forcing Nico at him. When Kitsune laughed and forgave him next after, he began to weep on the spot, perhaps because all the problems had been resolved, or perhaps because he was relieved. Apparently, the sadness of his wife’s death had finally caught up to him, and he couldn’t stop crying.

When that happened, Kitsune involuntarily murmured “Again? There are too many crying people lately.”

“…But well, since it’s Claire-chan we’re talking about, so most likely she’d secretly retrieved Nico-chan’s mothers’ remains…. just a guess, though.”

“Kitsune-kun, who is Claire? A woman?”

“Yes, she is. A blue haired beauty.”

“…. hmmm.”

When Kitsune brought up the matter about Claire, it was hard to detect any emotion from Leila’s expression as she responded. Her red eyes narrowed slightly. Even though she was someone who always carefreely smiled and laughed, she seemed to be in a bad mood, as she creased her eyebrows and puffed out her cheeks.

It’s jealousy, or so Kitsune guessed. He was well aware about Leila’s feeling for him, so he could immediately guess it. However, it might be just a jealousy, but Leila’s jealousy was nothing to take lightly. Kitsune showed a faint smile, but inside he was drenched in cold sweats.

“Umm, indeed I can’t help but doubt that you are cuter, Leila-chan.”

“Ufufu ♪ is that so? You like me better? Of course you do ♪, I mean I love you, after all.”

“…. Yeah, that’s right.”

Thus, Kitsune deceived her. To put it simply, he implied that Claire was prettier than Leila, however, as Leila only recorded the “you are cuter, Leila-chan” part, her mood swiftly improved.

Kitsune simply expressionlessly nodded at Leila’s further question.

“Ah, we may be on the road for a while, so perhaps the carriage is too narrow for all of us… Well, I can create a bed from miasma, so I’m fine either way, though.”

“Hey, wait a minute, Kitsune, you can do something like that? I’d like to request a bed too, then.”

“You are also one to say what you want to say, huh.”

Just like that, Kitsune and the others were heading to a new town.