Chapter 97: Menace

Chapter 97: Menace

n/-0Velb1n

Denny's appearance had changed strangely after getting angered. The skin on her body began to melt as though it was some viscous liquid. The hair immediately whitened to become thin and frail.

Yet, despite that fact, the body seemed like it was basically dying on the spot, the mana within was roiling around rather violently.

...Shit, it was nowhere near this disgusting in the game.

Denny launched towards me like she was actually a headcrab, which honestly made me feel a bit disgusted.

Getting those thoughts out of my mind, I immediately casted the blackout spell as the fleshy figure shot towards me. Not missing a beat, I also threw myself to the side, dodging the mass of goop.

While doing that, I noticed that Elijah, who was standing fairly close to me suddenly collapsed to the ground.

...It seems that he had been caught up as well.

The goop just fell to the ground and stopped moving.

As for Nathan, he had already prepared the fireball and just threw it down, not caring that it was a tad bit too large. Seeing it travel through the air, everyone ran away while screaming in a panic, save for Elijah who was caught in the spell.

I grabbed onto his body and rolled over a few times.

With a classical boom, the fireball exploded and the aftershock rushed forth. I brought up Elijah's body to block, letting him tank the brunt of it.

After it settled, Elijah began gasping for air and groaning in pain while covering his eyes. I set him down promptly and took a look at him.

The front of his body was immediately covered in ash, while his clothes were messed up.

It took him quite a while to regain his bearings. He eventually shook his head and coughed a few times before speaking.

"What... What happened?"

I tilted my head to the side.

"Our target ended up trying to attack me in revenge, so we eliminated him."

With a confused look and his hair still frazzled, he looked at me.

"What? Was that the effect of that thing's ability?"

My eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

"If you mean how he turned into a gelatinous substance, then yes. However, if you mean temporarily purging your consciousness, then it's because of our magic. My apologies, it wasn't my intention to put you through that."

That was a tiny white lie, but he didn't have to know. He furrowed his brows.

"You... know how to do that?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Both of us can do it rather easily. Would you like some proof?"

Elijah hurriedly shook his head.

"No, no..."

It seemed he was a bit traumatized by that. Seeing him like this, I felt it was good timing.

"Well, I suppose this is a good time to tell you that my friend and I aren't afraid of you. If we wanted, we could kill most people in this kingdom rather easily. Just like the person we were chasing down just now."

Elijah was stunned for a few moments. However, he was able to compose himself rather quickly.

"...So what are your intentions? How did that person become your target?"

I tilted my head to the side.

"We simply wish to restore a bit of order to the kingdom. To be frank, there are far too many anomalies that still exist, that will be difficult to contain completely. Soon chaos will reign, and our only goal is to quell some of it."

Elijah raised an eyebrow and smiled a bit.

"So you two are the knights in shining armor?"

I let out another laugh after hearing that.

"Well, I wouldn't exactly say that. We will save those that we want to save. As for the others, their lives aren't our concern. At the end of the day, we are only looking out for the same thing everyone else does. Our self-interests."

Elijah went silent for a few moments before speaking up.

"So how would one become one of your said self-interests?"

I chuckled and walked and brought my face closer to him.

"Naturally, anything that is useful. Isn't that only natural?"

Elijah gave a small nod.

"That much makes sense..."

I tapped the bottom of my mask a few times.

"In truth, I'm not entirely sure if you could be useful, but if we find a way, then we will contact you."

Then I took out the brooch and made a small nick on it with my sword.

"And if you see this, then that will mean it came from us."

Elijah stared intently at it for a few minutes, probably memorizing it.

"...You just ruined a perfectly good mark of royalty. Do you not know the value of money?"

...Really? But this thing is tiny as fuck, man. How could it even be that valuable?

"Well, it simply makes it hard to replicate, no?"

Elijah smiled bitterly.

"I suppose that is true. Is that all the business you wish to discuss? If possible, I would like to... change out from this."

I gave a quick nod.

"We shall take our leave then."

Nathan shot me a look before following along behind me. Even now, he didn't say anything, probably too afraid he would mess things up by speaking out. While we were leaving, Elijah called out to us again.

"So did you kill those people for the sake of the kingdom?"

I looked over my shoulder and gave him a look right in the eye.

"They were annoying, and the kingdom doesn't need more annoying people, correct?"

Elijah flinched before falling silent. I turned away and internally celebrated as we headed off. Once we eventually got off the premises, Nathan turned to me and let out one soft chuckle.

"It seems like you still got the hang of it, even if they are people from medieval times."

I clicked my tongue.

"Medieval times or modern times, people will still be people. It's not like there aren't different cultures in the modern world. Realistically, nothing changed."

Nathan cracked his neck.

"In the end, you're still quite the menace, huh?"

I held out my hands hopelessly.

"You act like I did something impressive. It only looks that way because you are emotionally incompetent."

Nathan rolled his eyes.

"Uh-huh, sure man."

We split up after a little while and both headed back to our original homes. We threw away the rope we had initially brought along as well as the few leftover rations we had. It wasn't too difficult to find a place.

I wonder what the person who'd end up finding it would think.

Upon making it back, the first person who ended up noticing me was actually Gray. I kinda forgot the kid actually joined the butlers.

"Hey good person!"

I was already out of my disguise, though I wanted to get to my room as soon as possible to put away said disguise.

"Hey, Gray. I'll just be heading up to my room."

Before he could even respond, a familiar voice yelled out.

"Brother? Is that really you?"

It was Jess. She rushed down the stairs and immediately gave me a hug despite how dirty I was. With a pout, she responded rather angrily.

"Where were you? Why do you look like this?"

My eyelid twitched.

"I wanted to explore around for a bit. I already wrote it in the note."

Jess cried out in indignation.

"You can't just leave with a note like that!"

I pursed my lips together.

"Well, it's not that big of a deal, is it?"

"No, she's right, it is a big deal."

A few moments after, the head butler, James appeared. He had a rather pissed-off expression on his face.

"Even if you did wish to leave, you must personally inform me first. Going out on your own is not as safe as you may think it is, even if you are a prince. In fact, there will be people that purposely target you because of that. Right after you left, there was news of rogue mages going around killing people."

I thought Jess would freak out after hearing that, but she just gave me a blank look for quite a while.

...Wait, did she know that was me?

Hm. This makes things a little complicated.

James pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath.

"Next time you do such a thing, inform me. I have no intention of restricting your freedom, but your safety must be guaranteed."

James' suggestion was very reasonable, but there was no way I could put on my getup without basically blatantly revealing my identity if I went with others. I already didn't have any hard alibi to say that I wasn't said person in the first place. I tilted my head to the side.

"But what if I want to go out alone?"

James narrowed his eyes.

"...No. Did you not just hear what I said? You're treating your own life as a joke!"

I clicked my tongue.

"Oh, really? I'm pretty confident that I'll end up living longer than you."

James glared back at me.

"It seems you are in a special mood once again. I suppose that part of you hasn't changed..."

With that, he turned around and left without another word. Jess silently remained around me, while Gray eventually turned around and left after losing interest. I took in a deep breath.

"Are you going to let go yet?"

Jess sucked in a cold breath.

"First, let's go to the bath."

...Now that I think about it, the reason why my sleep in a tree felt so nice was probably that the normal sleeping conditions I had were way worse.

I guess it is what it is.

The usual painful session went on.

...While in the middle of the night, I felt someone poking me, and briefly woke up. I didn't open my eyes because I was still tired, so I just tried to shake it off and go back to sleep. Unfortunately, it seemed that I wouldn't have my way as I was simply getting poked more.

Eventually, I weakly opened my eyes and saw Jess looking intently at me. Her limbs were still wrapped around me, making me feel like I was trapped. Jess pouted.

"Hey, you didn't give me the daily update."

I blinked a few times, still feeling muddle-headed.

"The what?"

She tilted her head to the side.

"Usually you freak out and tell me how you're not you, and that I should run away."

My eyelid twitched. It seemed that the actual Bryson was desperately trying to resist while I wasn't paying attention. However, from how Jess' behavior had hardly changed, it seemed that it didn't have very much effect.

I guess this situation confirmed that the real Bryson actually is lying dormant for now.

"Brother?"

Jess cut off my thoughts, reminding me that I should be responding to her in this situation.

"Ah, sorry. I'm currently the version that the other Bryson told you to run away from."

Jess tilted her head to the side.

"Oh, is that so?"