CH 3

There was a man walking quietly in the forest as to not be noticed by the person he is following while that person is moving forward. His age seems be around 30, having well-defined features and an impressive Kaiser beard, while his eyes were covered by a feathered hat and donning a sword in his waist.

That person, who was following the man going forward, was his former master, Earl Dell Bandelt.

The man he was following was already out of Dell’s sight, but thanks to a tracking skill he used before following him, there is now a 《Line》 that was visible only to Dell showing him the way.

(I have attached that to him since he was acting rather suspiciously in the past few days, but… it rather seems worth the effort doing so.)

The earl didn’t really know what the purpose was, but he was sniffing out information here and there in his territory for a year now.

He was doing whatever he wanted all the time without really showing any signs of reporting to someone but then it seems that he finally started to move when I started asking about his hobbies.

(But to enter this forest, maybe he knows his way around here? Although judging from the way he carried himself, he didn’t look like someone who had fighting experience when I interviewed him.)

Right now, they were walking inside the woods that were half day away from the kingdom moving by horse. This forest, which was banned even for knights to enter, is a dangerous place that even though the shallow regions are not that dangerous the deeper regions are war wolf territory.

War Wolves are quite temperate, but if you trespass their territories then they show no mercy.

There are many people who can fight them if they are alone, but if you encounter a group then it will be really dangerous. It even poses a threat to veteran adventurers.

Dell only shook his head because he couldn’t help but think about it. The deeper parts are truly dangerous, but it certainly is a good place to have some secret rendezvous.

It was about an hour after entering the forest, suddenly he could hear the voice of an angry man.

「The plans have changed! For what reason did I have to cross such a dangerous bridge like this! 」

Dell quickened his pace and hid himself behind a tree not far away from that man while making sure the man was within his sight.

He found the man that he had been following since a while ago, and in front of him was a person clad in a robe and whose face was concealed.

The man was impatient and it looked like he would leap towards the robed person at any moment, but the robed person was calmly looking at him with as if the person in front wasn’t important, not even taking off the hood.

「The plans were changed. Did I promise anything? I have already forgotten」

「Quit joking around!!」

At that moment, the man who couldn’t hide his impatience swinged his arm to hit the robed person, but that person closed in and grabbed the man by the neck lifting him up.

Upon lifting the man, the robe covering that person’s arm slid off, and what was revealed was a slender limb that would unquestionably belong to a scholar yet it had tremendous strength.

The voice of the robed person was also quite low, it somehow resembles the voice of a woman.

「Kuuuh!!」

「Well despite this situation, I must still thank you」

When the woman lifting the man said that, Dell felt the gaze of the woman facing his direction. Despite the distance and even being blocked off by the trees he realized that the robed person noticed him even though he could hardly see the robed person’s face since it was covered by the hood.

「Earl Bandelt, if you do everything by yourself it might become a bad habit, which could endanger your life, you know」

Dell only clicked his tongue after realizing that he was already noticed, so he revealed his appearance to the robed woman while drawing out the sword from his waist.

「So you knew who I was? Who are you, what is it that you are trying to achieve」

The robed woman lightly grinned without responding to Dell’s inquiry and pulled out a small bottle containing some kind of liquid from her pocket.

There was also the appearance of the man who was struggling while being held in the air by her other hand, but looking at her arms which doesn’t even tremble, it felt like the man was stuck floating in the air instead.

「He, Help me」

「Because you brought the earl with you, I leave behind a gift as addition to the payment for the information. Something that makes you stand out, a lot… that’s what this wonderful perfume will do」

The woman threw away the man she was holding, then opened the lid of the bottle and threw it towards that man. When it hit him, the contents spilled and a sweet irresistible scent filled the area.

「Gufu……hi, hiii」

「Don’t tell me!?」

War Wolves that lives in the forest are monsters with a wolf head and body of a human, and as you may have imagined, they have a really keen sense of smell.

If you throw off something that gives off a strong scent in the area, the War Wolves would misunderstand, thinking that you were violating their territory, and would immediately attack.

I’ve been had! When Dell turned towards the robed person, she was preparing a small ball and has already moved a few steps away.

「A Teleportation Gem!?」

「Goodbye Earl. Lucky me, you got caught that easily」

「I won’t let you escape!」

Dell brandished his sword toward the robed woman, but he only ended up cutting air because his target immediately disappeared.  

「Uh, Uwaaaah!!」

「Tsk!」

Immediately, he heard the scream of the person behind him. The man apparently was not a combatant. At the same time he screamed he was already inches away from receiving the War Wolf’s fangs and claws.

(At the very least, I need to find a way to get out of this predicament)

A total of five War Wolves were standing in front of Dell, and were ready to pounce at him at any moment.

Because other War Wolves might be attracted by the scent of blood, wounding the War Wolves or getting himself wounded is a big no. In addition, if you seriously wound a War Wolf, it would only invite more of its pack because they would be able to easily locate it. So the only choice Dell had was to try and disable them without wounding them.

Dell alone has reasonable skill as a swordsman, but when fighting against a War Wolf, two people are recommended. Even if he could use magic it’s only on the level that can be commonly used by normal adventurers. If there is no magician, they would easily be overwhelmed by a pack of strong and robust war wolves. And his current situation is already considered as encountering a 《Pack》 of them.

(Should I use fire to startle them? But, it takes too much time to cast. If I use Flash… It would be useless to War Wolves. Ah, what should I do! How do I get myself out of this!?)

At every second that passes, the net of War Wolves around him becomes more and more secure. Dell could already sense other presences, even to his left and right, which could slowly lead to his death.

(Well, at the very least, I have notified people that there were suspicious movements)

Dell breathed out, held his sword in a proper stance and faced front.

(Even if I were to die here, knowing that there’s no hope for me in this situation, I will still not throw away my life that easily.)

At the moment that a War Wolf barked pointing his hand at Dell to attack, one of the War Wolves head burst after being hit by something that jumped out of the bushes. The unpleasant sound of the skull being crushed by a blunt object was heard echoing before the victim fell down.

Although the sudden intruder both surprised the War Wolves and Dell, the War Wolves quickly reorganized themselves and changed their aim to the suspicious intruder.

「Wha, what the heck was that…」

Every time that dull sound of a blunt weapon pound echoes, one more War Wolf falls down to the ground. Dell could not grasp what was happening, but he still ready his stance to fight back at any moment.

After a while, all the War Wolves were neutralized and only the intruder who won the bout was left behind standing. The one that suddenly appeared only watched him with an expressionless face, and after seemingly confirming that there was no more danger or War Wolves around, she quickly fled.

「A little girl…」

It was a girl with black hair and cold red eyes probably less than 10 years old. She stood in the center of the corpses of War Wolves while dyed red with their blood.

The girl only glanced at Dell after being called, but there was a hint of fear in the girl’s eyes, so Dell quickly put back his sword in its scabbard.

As expected, you can’t find any normal girl capable of flooring a pack of War Wolves in a moment with her bare hands. Not even normal adults or even strong ones could do it so easily, especially if it’s barehanded fighting.

And those bright red eyes, they were characteristics that could only be found on undead. Because of that Dell concluded that she might be a special mutation of a type of undead, and a really strong one to boot.

(It’s still unknown why she attacked the War Wolves though, but it seems that she only reacts to simple things)

Dell was only thinking of a way to escape at that moment because he knew that the difference in their abilities was too absurd and that if she became hostile he would lose and it would be an instant death. It is easy to understand such a monster, even more so for Dell who has a bunch of battle experience.

The girl only walked a bit closer to him. Dell knew, that even if he prepared, that speed and power to instantly crush her opponent in moment would pulverize him in an instant.

The girl only bent her mouth in an awkward smile, then quickly ran away somewhere with tremendous speed.

Dell who was standing still for a while holding his hand over his sword, but when the tension got finally broken, he only uttered a small murmur.

「……Was I saved?」

◇――――――――――――――――

(First thing is how I should explain how I got covered in blood to my parents.)

Toto thought, while looking at her clothes soaked in blood.

If it was just her body that was covered in blood then she could just wash it off in the nearest river or something. She was wondering how she would be able to remove the blood stuck on her clothes since it can’t be washed off easily. She didn’t find any kind of detergent that could help her so it was impossible to do. [ED: Learn from Deadp*ol, wear red clothes]

She was also wondering about who the old man that she saved was. Being in a place like that and surrounded. I quickly ran away without confirming things, but could that person be an adventurer? I wonder if he will be angry thinking I robbed his prey. Ah, there it is.

*[ED: The next part is about how she found Dell. A bit confusing.]

Three more years have passed and I’m now 8 years old. As a result of all my investigations that I have done in the past few years, I found out just how incomprehensible my body is, so I began exterminating monsters in the surrounding areas for quite some time now.

I was moving while listening to the sound of plants in the surroundings and checking for any strong vibrations.

And after moving for a while, I found a great disturbance from somewhere and went to check if it was a wild animal or a monster. On the way I only found wild animals. There were no monsters, which is quite surprising.

Continuing on that path, I heard somebody scream from somewhere. When I arrived in that area, I found Wolfmen surrounding an old man who had his sword pointed towards the Wolfmen. I didn’t see the person that screamed, maybe he ran away? All I understood is that this uncle was different.

Even so, I’m glad that I found the monsters before anything else happened. I was trying to adjust my strength to make sure it wouldn’t turn into a blood splatter, but it still ended up to gruesome. I never imagined that with that meager power I used, things would end up that way.

(At first I was only thought of doing counter attacks, but then I ended up hitting them seriously)

Just thinking about the results, I couldn’t help but imagine myself as someone which is commonly found in Shonen Manga where they would blow off their enemies with their tremendous force.

I didn’t expect that even their heads would vanish in just a single hit… The second to the last once didn’t turn the same way as the first one because I was now somehow able to adjust the power, but it still ended up in a splatter anyway.

「But, that’s really terrible…」

I murmured to myself while looking at my fists. They have enough power to even put a blunt weapon to shame.

I’m wonder just how strong that monster was in this world’s standards. The uncle was also trying to fight seven of them all by himself, so they might be on the weaker side.

「Hahaha! There’s no way it’s like that, right?」

That War Wolf was actually a very strong monster, could that uncle be someone they would call an S Rank adventurer that is known to be an overwhelming person in this world?

「…Probably not」

It was a monster that would be defeated if I smashed its head, but well it was still quite the annoying bunch. Not to mention if there were many of them. But that uncle was trying to fight more than one of them so he might probably be at an advanced level of adventurer.

「Un, Let’s conclude it with that」

When I was satisfied with an answer I concluded on my own without the person’s permission, I slowed down my pace and returned to the village which was already in sight.