CH 27

「Now, what should I do?」

With a body of this size, its life force should not be scoffed at. Inglis wanted to end its suffering with just a single strike but unleashing such a powerful attack in the middle of the city would also bring about great collateral damage. It would have been fine if the villa would be the only collateral damage, considering that it was already on the verge of collapsing but more than likely, the damage would be much more than that. That meant that the only solution would be to lure the beast Rahal outside of the city walls. However, the probability of the beast destroying all the buildings along the way out of the city would be much too high. Plus, that would also endanger the citizens of Ymir.

「Alright!」

I’ve made up my mind!

「INNGLIISSSS!!!」

Immediately afterwards, Rahal’s fist flew towards Inglis. She easily saw through the attack and leaped backwards to avoid it. While she could’ve easily taken the punch head-on or parried it, she chose to widen the gap between them instead. She landed on the ground with a crouch before sprinting right back at the beast, taking advantage of the gap between them to build up tremendous speed. However, she heard a commotion in the distance.

「Rafinha!! Inglis!! I can’t leave everything up to you two after all! That stinky Highlander, just what is he doing to them?!」 「Lady Rafinha! Miss Inglis! I’m here to save you two!」

Marquis Wilford and vice commander Ada had just arrived at the villa with a troop of knights marching behind them. 1

「Father! Ada, too! You two came for us!? Really, there’s no helping you two!」

Rafinha said with a slow smile forming on her lips. Due to her sense of justice, she couldn’t have just left Inglis to fight alone and that’s why she had rushed here to help. And although her father was late, the fact that her respected father had arrived to help really brightened her mood.

To be perfectly honest, if things had gone as it was supposed to be — with Inglis doing as Rahal asked — this current situation would have worsened Ymir’s position. Especially since the Marquis and Rafinha were from the ruling household of Ymir, their actions could have devastating consequences on their city; such as further angering Rahal and even the promise of ruining Inglis would not have sufficed for him. They really should have thought everything through before acting upon them. Rather, Inglis believed that the cons outweigh the pros in this case.

However, ‘human emotions’ and ‘bonds’ were something that couldn’t really be controlled. Plus, they had done it out of the goodness of their hearts, so, for that reason, she really didn’t have the heart to blame them. At any rate, since things had gone far too awry, she had already made her decision on what had to be done. And their arrival would not change anything. All that would change was that she had to put on a little act.

「Ah, Rafinha, Inglis, are you two okay!? Ooh!? What’s that magic stone beast!?」 「This is bad, don’t let it go outside the fences! Men, spread out and attack from all sides!」

Ada ordered the knights that they had brought with them.

「Please wait a minute! That magic stone beast is strong, don’t carelessly get close to it! It’s okay, Miss Eris will help me out, so it’ll be over soon!」

Informed Inglis, halting the knights on their track.

「Eh? Me? I mean, I’ll help, yeah, but that thing’s quite— Hieek!?」

Inglis hastily approached Eris in the middle of her sentence and took her hand.

「Let’s go! We’re leaping into it!」 「O-, okay!」 2

The two ran at full speed into the belly of the beast Rahal. Although in saying that, it was mostly just Inglis pulling Eris along at her own pace. But, as expected of a Hyrule Menace, Eris was somewhat able to keep up. The beast unleashed a few punches to intercept them but the pair moved too fast for it to hit them.

「Match my movement! We’ll kick it!」 「O-, okay!」 「「HAAAAAA!!」」

Inglis and Eris put their everything and kicked the beast high in its abdomen. That extraordinary kick they delivered made a roaring sound and caused the enormous magic stone beast to soar high into the sky. It drew a parabola in the air like an arrow shot through the sky, went over the city’s outer wall and landed outside of the city grounds.

This was the best and quickest solution that Inglis could think of, by kicking it out, quite literally, it wouldn’t pose any danger to the city and it would also throw the magic stone beast outside of the city wall.

「「「O-…. OOOooohhh!!!」」」

The Marquis and the knights under him were cheering in awe. 3

「Wow! As expected of Miss Eris! You’re amazing!」

Inglis clapped her hands joyfully.

「No, wait, what are you talking about? Like hell that can happen with my—」 4

Inglis interrupted her with a soft whisper.

「Hussh! I’m begging you, please play along with me!」

Inglis had been hiding some degree of her power to everyone except for Rafinha. She was typically viewed as a Runeless — someone who wasn’t blessed with a Rune, but an exceptional prodigy of the sword. She couldn’t afford to invite a needless confusion by revealing her true strength. It would bind her to handle all of Ymir’s defenses, which would be troubling since that would hinder her quest of searching for stronger opponents. Thus, she had been hiding it all along.

In her quest of pursuing strength, the fewer bonds she made, the better. The expectations of the people were enough of a bond for her. After all, the result of her continuing to respond to those expectations was the birth of the Hero King Inglis.

「I-, I got it.」

Eris nodded in acknowledgement.

「Now, let’s wrap it up! Rani too, let’s go!」 「Yeah! Glis!」

Inglis took both Eris’ and Rafinha’s hands and left the villa grounds in the blink of an eye.