Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival (LN) - Book 6: Chapter 11

The Path to Escape

Six males and females were meeting at the desert at night, some distance away from the desert town Cutlass.

At one side were three Cruz people. Three people wearing cloak to hide their appearance were facing them.

「──then just as planned.」

「How far your main force have travelled? If they take took long……」

「There’s nothing to be worried about. But, it’ll depend on the situation.」

「Oi, we believed in you guys──」

「We’ll execute the next step. You guys too don’t want to waste this rare great chance right?」

「You guys will keep your words right?」

「Yeah, we’ll keep our word. But, you understand don’t you?」

「W-we get it, but……」

This was a great chance that the Cruz people couldn’t miss.

The plan itself had been talked since a long time ago. But, there was a risk that they would turn all the other factions in charge of the town into their enemy with this.

Even so they got on this plan in haste because they successfully removed an elder of one of those faction──Munza Gang. Their success was also partly because a rank 4 warrior of Munza Gang who just died. Because of that Munza Gang’s security had some hole in it temporarily.

But, why did they suddenly switch from carefully aiming for a chance to assassination of an enemy faction? The Crus people here were the ones who gave the order, but until that time they never even thought about directly targeting an elder of Munza Gang.

Even so they moved into action. That was because there was a cause that would make them take action even if Munza Gang’s combat strength wasn’t lowered temporarily.

This meeting was done outside the town every time. One of them……a young woman who participated since last time quietly pulled down her hood and exposed her bare face to the night air in front of the Cruz people who were acting timid as though they had woken up from their dream.

「──Don’t worry. Things are going well──」

Black skin and long ears……she was a girl who could be said to be still childish. The moment the Cruz people heard her “voice” and the “light” from her shining crimson eyes, hesitation vanished from their faces as though they had been put under suggestion.

.

After that the Cruz people and the cloaked group parted from each other. The girl who was the leader of the vampire clan also took some distance from her comrades and stared at the town at the distance. She bared her sharp fangs before starting to walk into the darkness.

***

「You’re back.」

Kamil walked down the stair from the upper floor of the crumbling watchtower. He let out a faint smile of relieve seeing me back.

This watchtower was Kamil and Ron’s hideout. It wasn’t like they had completely become our ally, but we ended up joining hands in order to survive this situation.

There were still things that we hadn’t told each other. There were also things that we couldn’t say. Including Elena and my identities. I didn’t think that they would harm us at this point, but it was possible that information might cause them to hold back.

If it became known that Elena was a princess of Claydale, even Jisha who was our business partner right now might move to secure Elena’s person when the time came.

It was known that I was “Ash Crowned Princess”, but it should still take some time before people connected that to the “missing princess”. So right now we should avoid leaking information needlessly.

Similarly we also didn’t question Ron and Kamil about their true identity. After all our action could also become tied down by learning that.

「I bought food. Give it to Chako.」

「Sorry……thanks.」

「Thank you very much, Aria-san.」

Kamil bowed his head. Then the cat beastgirl CHako appeared from behind him. She accepted the food that I took out with an apologetic look.

Kamil and Ron took back Chako from Munza Gang using my fight as distraction, but they had gotten into trouble with Munza Gang several times and my compromise with the gang didn’t cover them too. They were sheltering Chako and the children here.

Munza Gang too didn’t have time to care about them with Kushmu’s death, but we judged that it would be better for the two to not walk in the town for now. If it was Kamil then I thought he would be able to hide and obtain food stealthily, but considering the distance from the town to here and the increase in food price, it would be more efficient for me to do it using my Storage.

Besides there was something that I wanted the two of them prioritized more.

「Kamil. Have you gathered the materials?」

「Yeah. I managed to gather quite a lot. But, the adults has gotten fewer around here, so I’ll need to go further for more……」

「I’ll also take that into account. Do I hand the magic stones to Ron?」

「He’s upstairs so show your face to him while you’re at it. Also……don’t work too hard. It’s a big help already with just the food and Rena here.」

「I know.」

Kamil looked conflicted like he wanted to say something but he couldn’t say anything. I lightly hit his shoulder and passed him by to climb the stairs.

.

The stairs were built along the tower’s wall in spiraling shape. Seen from outside, the tower looked like it could crumble any time, but at the inside the out of shape stairs and the cracked walls were being reinforced with plaster or brick.

They had been fixing “a certain thing” in here for more than one year.

I heard that Ron arrived to this tower when he came to this town. And then Kamil found him.

By chance or perhaps it was fated, the two were in similar circumstance. At first they were wary with each other, even so they felt from each other parts that they could sympathize with and in the end they worked together.

Why did Ron arrive to this tower? Ahead of this stair, there was the reason why he arrived to the top of this tower.

「Ron, is the repair going well?」

「Hi, Aria. ……Around 90% of it I guess.」

The rooftop of the tower was breaking down. That thing was placed on that weather beaten place.

Hot-air balloon──the “knowledge” of that woman inside me taught me what the object was.

It wasn’t something big. It was a small thing that would be full with several adults in it, but it should be possible to bring everyone here to escape from this desert.

I had never seen something like hot-air balloon even at Claydale Kingdom. It wasn’t because the technology simply didn’t exist, but because there were few ways to fight airborne monster and so it didn’t get counted as a transportation method.

But, apparently large flying monster like gryphon or wyvern was few in this region. At best there was only rank 2 large eagle. But even such monster would be quite dangerous against hot-air balloon in my memory, so the balloon used monster leather as material to improve its toughness.

But naturally monster leather was heavy as material. Because of that apparently the balloon obtained floating power using magic tool that was fueled by fire element magic stone to create heat instead of normal burner.

The magic stones that I brought were for that.

「I brought fire element magic stone.」

「Thanks, you’re a great help. This thing use a lot of fuel after all.」

「How much more we need?」

「Hmm~……」

Ron who was working to repair the hot-air balloon considered the materials at hand and the journey ahead while lightly scratching his head.

「I think we’ll need a bit more if we want to reach the safe area at Carlfan Empire. But putting it another way, just this much is fine if you only want to arrive there, but we won’t have any reserve with just this.」

「Roger. I’ll hunt or buy for more.」

We decided to head to Carlfan Empire on this hot-air balloon. Fortunately Ron and the others were also wishing to leave this town that had became suspicious.

Because of that they were cooperating with us. Kamil went to the ruins to gather materials to repair the balloon and ingredients for my alchemy. I went to the town to sell potion and bought fire element magic stone or food.

We asked Ron to focus on the repair using the materials we gathered. Elena was taking care of the children together with Chako. Her light sorcery and water sorcery were indispensable for our basic living.

This cooperation was beneficial for them too. While Elena and I were also thankful for this kind of hideout because we now couldn’t use the inn in the town anymore after becoming an enemy of Kirly Company.

Our course was decided. But, the problem was with the repair of the hot-air balloon itself.

It took money to maintain the hot-air balloon. The balloon required the leather of armored lizard called [Desert Lizard] that was strong against heat, but only the lizard’s soft stomach part was usable. And the lizard had to be of a certain size so to reduce the number of stitching and maintain the balloon’s integrity.

Furthermore, even though the lizard was strong against heat, the magic stone it had was earth element. That was why in order to obtain fire element magic stone, we could only hunt a different monster or went to town to buy it.

Two sorcerers of rank 3 or above were required to go against flying monster, so only noble could operate this kind of thing.

Ron who possessed such vehicle and came this town was most likely a noble of Carlfan Empire.

But we didn’t have any plan to pry into that. He had trusted us enough that he told us how something important like this belonged to him.

We too weren’t so stupid to inquire into what might a noble like Ron investigated that he came to this town. Doing that might break the relationship of trust between us.

They and we were taking action for the sake of our respective objective. But…….

(……They’re naïve.)

I returned from the rooftop and started preparing to leave again. Then Elena approached me with a worried face.

「Aria……you’re going out again?」

「Yes. There’re some more things that I can still do.」

We didn’t have time at all. It had been two months since we went missing──Elena and I calculated that the country would give up on the princess’s survival after three to six months passed, but the more time passed the more people planning bad thing would appear. That was why I had to deliver Elena to Carlfan Empire within three months at the very least so she could contact Claydale Empire.

「Wait──Cure──」

Elena asked me to stop and put her hand on my cheek. The gentle light erased the heat on my cheek that was burned by the desert’s heat.

「Thanks.」

「No……Aria, be careful out there.」

.

I put on my cloak and hood again before walking through the desert alone.

I left the watchtower where Elena and others were staying──I faintly sensed “something” and headed toward that direction.

「──Illusion──」

The illusionary flame that I created took the appearance of Carla’s specialty, Fire Breath’s fire beam. It licked a rocky place and spread the sensation of heat there. Then two silhouettes jumped away from the shadow.

「──Wait!」

Two silhouettes wearing sand colored cloak──the bigger one spoke up with a pleading tone, but the smaller one rolled on the ground in respond to my attack. That person on the ground fired an arrow from a weapon that looked like crossbow toward me.

I ran toward them while trapping the fired arrow in my fluttering cloak. The bigger person who spoke just now seemed to make his decision and pulled out a short sword from his waist.

They might not be enemy. But, they might be enemy.

The big man readied his short sword that was covered with something gooey that might be poison. He stepped forward to cover for the other one. I dodged that poison sword while confirming that the arrow that was caught in my cloak was also covered with poison. I stabbed it into the man’s neck.

「────tsu!」

That man collapsed without screaming. The weighted pendulum that I threw using his body as cover struck the head of the guy with crossbow from the side. That person was blown away while letting out a high-pitched scream.

Woman huh──I quickly leaped forward and kicked her down before she could pull out a weapon, then I pressed my black dagger on her throat. The woman groaned.

「Y-you bastard-」

「I’m the one asking question. Who’s your target?」

「Tsu!」

The woman gulped when I emitted my pressure.

All the movements made the hood of the woman’s cloak fell and appearing from there was the face of a dark elf girl glaring at me. She didn’t look any older or younger than me.

「Dark elf?」

The dark elf girl gasped hearing my words and grabbed her hood. But she noticed that it was too late at this point and glared obstinately at me despite my knife on her throat.

「H-how dare you……」

「That man is still alive.」

「──tsu」

The dark elf girl held her breath hearing my words.

The man who I stabbed on the neck with arrow was still alive.

The poison on the girl’s arrow and on the man’s blade should be the same. For him to be still alive meant that the poison itself wasn’t a type that killed instantly.

I didn’t plan to give any mercy to this girl if my eyes saw that man’s life force vanishing.

But, for them to go out of their way to use poison that wasn’t instantly fatal meant there was a higher chance that they weren’t enemy.

In that case, what was their objective? “Who” was they targeting among us?

「But, that man will die first if you don’t speak.」

「Kuh」

Judging from the interaction just now, this girl was still young. ……Even so if she wouldn’t say anything…

「…………」

「……tsu」

Blood trickled from the girl’s black skin when I lightly pushed my knife on her throat.

I never took off my gaze from her to make her realize that I was serious. The tip of my knife also didn’t waver. Just when I was about to give another push on her──.

「……Please……wait」

That man whose neck was stabbed with arrow was standing up. The blood soaked arrow fell on the dry ground.

「Father-!」

The dark elf girl reflexively raised her voice. The man who was pressing his hand on his bleeding neck glared at his daughter for exposing his identity. Then he turned his gaze to me.

But, that exposed face showed that he was a Cruzian, not dark elf. Was she his stepdaughter? Or was she a mixed blood with unexpectedly a lot of dark elf trait? This made it even harder to ascertain their affiliation but I could just ask them that.

「Guh」

I strongly stepped on the chest of the girl to push her on the ground to take her hostage against the man. At the same time I also took the man who was still unsteady on his feet because of the poison as hostage against the daughter.

.

▼Man in his prime Race：Cruz♂・Rank ３

【Magic Power：１３４／１６５】【Stamina：２１２／３５０】

【Overall Combat Strength：２０７／５８６】▽379DOWN

【Status：Paralysis】

.

▼Girl Race：Dark Elf♀・Rank ２

【Magic Power：１５５／１８５】【Stamina：１５２／２１０】

【Overall Combat Strength：３０８（With Body Strengthening：３４４）】

.

There was the wall of rank but I understood that the two of them were very well-trained. Putting aside the daughter, the father who had exchanged blow with me should be able to ascertain this situation.

Although it was a weak poison, if it was this man then he should understand what would happen if he fought me in that paralyzed state.

「Please……wait. At the very least we are not targeting the life of anyone in your group.」

「Father……kuh」

The father fell on his knee again because of the poison. The girl tried to get up seeing that but I stepped on her even more.

「Then, why were you two spying on us?」

I asked that question without any inflection in my tone. The man seemed to sense something and opened his mouth.

「I cannot tell you everything. However, our role is to protect a certain person. I apologize for our suspicious behavior, but we hold no ill will toward you.」

「…………」

The man and I looked at each other steadily. So he confessed that they had been watching us, but they harbored no hostility toward us as long as we didn’t do anything to them from our end.

The daughter was glaring at me while grinding her teeth for injuring his father, but I looked at the man’s eyes and lifted up my foot from the girl.

「Wha-……」

The girl conversely opened her eyes wide in disbelief.

「Leave.」

「……My gratitude.」

The girl ran toward her father after I said that. The man borrowed his daughter’s shoulder to stand up and nodded at me.

「Girl……this land is enveloped in the fire of war. If you are planning to leave from here, I recommend that you move into action quickly.」

「……I’ll keep it in mind.」

The two vanished behind the rocky place after leaving those words. I picked up the arrow that was left on the ground. Its material was something that I didn’t see often.

It wasn’t like I believed in the man’s words or felt sympathy to him.

They were observing us. It would be better to eliminate them if Elena was my only concern. But, although it was just a short conversation, I judged that it would be better to not kill them yet.

「…………」

That man’s eyes……, he looked as though he was feeling nostalgia from seeing me, as though he was looking at somewhere far away through me. For some reason it weighed slightly on my mind.

***

That day, Kamil and I went until the ruins to gather material.

I was leaving the procurement of materials for potion and hot-air balloon to Kamil, but as expected it would be better for me to go with him. My storage didn’t have any fluctuation of temperature inside it. Making potion with ingredients that were stored inside it would result in product with no unevenness.

I was worried that our fighting force got split up like this, but Elena reasoned with me that it would be more effective if we assigned the right person in the right place.

.

▼Kamil Race：Half Dark Elf♂・Rank 4

【Magic Power：233／260】【Stamina：252／280】

【Overall Combat Strength：1064 (With Body Strenghtening:1298)】

.

If it was Kamil and I then we would be alright even if we ran into rank 5 monster.

His combat strength rivaled even Viro. But I sensed even greater strength than that from Kamil because of the two short swords on his waist──the magic swords.

They weren’t [magic power sword] that was only covered with magic power created by the sorcerer guild. Most likely they were an item obtained from dungeon that had “something” dwelling inside them.

It seemed they were memento from his mother, but if she had something like that then I could imagine what kind of standing she had. And it wouldn’t be strange if the son was being protected by “someone”.

「Kamil.」

「Is there something?」

I was standing guard against the surrounding as I called to Kamil who was harvesting the stomach skin of a desert lizard.

Desert lizard was more or less edible, but it contained a small amount of poisonous substance so not many people ate it other than demihuman with resistance against it. We took a little of it with us for the children who liked meat, but the reason I called out to him wasn’t that.

I tossed the crossbow’s arrow to the air and Kamil caught it. His complexion changed a little when he saw what it was.

「This is-」

「You know it?」

Who was the person under the monitoring and protection of those parent and daughter?

Chako and the other children who were born in this town were out of the question. Ron who was likely a noble of Carlfan Empire was also a possibility, but Carlfan Empire was a country of Crus people of human race so it was impossible for a bodyguard from there to be dark elf.

Then naturally the answer came to light. The arrow wasn’t created from metal or bone, but special tree sap that even I had never seen directly before. Kamil turned his gaze toward me with a complicated expression after seeing it.

「……Aria, do you know what is this?」

「It’s my first time seeing it but, I know where it was created.」

Master had taught me about the weapons and tactics that the evil race used.

That knowledge was something from more than fifty years ago when master was still with the evil race army, that didn’t mean the fundamental part had changed drastically.

Kamil’s complexion changed color when he understood that the arrow being here meant that it “had been used against someone”.

I didn’t know what he was hiding but, I believed in him to some degree even then. I wouldn’t leave Elena alone in that place if that wasn’t the case.

「I……」

Kamil averted his gaze to run away from my gaze that was staring at him wordlessly, but he then seemed to make his decision and opened his mouth──

.

「Wait」

I stopped him and pressed my ear on the ground. Kamil noticed what I was doing and he also looked around. He climbed a crumbling building nearby.

I also lifted up my face and said 「There」 while pointing at the west. Kamil focused his sight to there and then he raised his voice.

「Shell dragon!」

Shell dragon had dragon as its name but it wasn’t a dragon kind.

It had the appearance of scaled chicken with total height that surpassed adult human. It was a snake type monster that was similar to basilisk.

It was fierce and quick-footed. It breathed out poison mist and it could deflect poorly shot arrow. A troublesome monster, but a rank 3 warrior that was the same rank to it could deal with it without much difficulty as long as they could cope with the poison.

But, that was only if there was just one of it.

「There’re five of them!」

「Roger. I’ll go ahead.」

The most troublesome aspect of shell dragon was its cowardice. And yet they had low intellect and would go into rampage rather than running away.

The shell dragons caused sand cloud to form around them from their steps. I ran toward them and pointed my fingertip while concentrating.

「──Confusion──」

Level 4 dark sorcery Confusion.

I rarely used it because it had difficulty to affect creature with intelligence. Especially when the opponent had the same or higher rank than the user, its effect was practically nil.

But, it would be a different story if the opponent was lower ranked and was scared toward “something”.

The forefront shell dragon that had approached until close by froze. Two other shell dragons ran past it from the sides but, in that moment──

「HAAA!!」

Kamil who had pulled out his two magic swords attacked from above. He rotated with a flowing motion while slashing through the scale covered necks of the two.

It would be difficult for me to slash through such hard scale so easily. But, unlike the time when I was fighting alone, I who had experienced fighting in adventurer party with Rainbow Sword could entrust such thing to other if there was a vanguard with me.

My magic also showed its effect. The confused specimen attacked the remaining two others.

「We’re retreating, Aria.」

「Roger.」

Even so we chose to quickly withdraw. Several more shell dragons appeared from behind the shell dragons that were attacking each other. They were also attacked by the shell dragons at the front and it started a chaotic melee.

Why were monsters appearing one after another?

Furthermore they were clearly odd. They had completely lost their senses.

Most likely, there was “something” that forced them to be like that.

「Something’s strange with them. I never saw anything like this before.」

「I’ll head to town and try to visit the adventurer guild. Perhaps they have information about this.」

「Got it. I’ll return back to Ron and others. Be careful.」

The edge of ruins where we were was in this state. It was possible something was going on at the central area.

Kamil and I parted with each other after taking enough distance. I hadn’t heard his answer about the “arrow” just now, but right now I had too little information to make decision including about this shell dragon matter.

For now there should be no problem with the others’ protection if Kamil went back there. I assigned even more body strengthening to speed and sprinted through the rough land of the desert with twice the speed of ordinary person.

I crossed the distance that would require two hours for a normal adventurer in one hour.

The beastman adventurers who caught sight of me near the town moved to pull out their sword in surprise, but I had passed them by before they could finish pulling out the blade from the sheath.

Without slowing down I ran up the high wall of the town instead of using the gate. I jumped on rooftop and leaped toward the adventurer guild with absurd speed. Several adventurers near the entrance to the building turned toward me with shocked face when they saw me arriving.

There was no large commotion in town. But, a commotion was occurring inside the guild.

「”Rose”-!!」

A shout came from inside the guild. A short but wide mass of muscle physically pushed aside the crowd and leaped out.

「Jesha?」

「Great timing. How many high class potion can you make? I want as many as possible.」

「The monsters were acting strange even at the ruins. What happened?」

「Talk inside.」

The young guild master looked like she might rush out even now. But Jilgan who came after her reprimand her with the calm tone of veteran.

「Got it. You come too.」

We slipped through the hectic inside of the guild and entered the conference room at the back that was crowded by the staffs. It seemed that something really had happened while I was away for several days from the town.

If the situation was like this then it couldn’t be helped. I took out a dozen or so high class potions. Jesha who saw that took them before she started talking about the continuation from before.

「Even us has noticed the monsters at the ruins. It’s still not confirmed but it’s a stampede.」

Stampede──. It was a phenomenon that happened once every several decades in region or dungeon with a lot of monsters where great amount of monsters appeared.

My parents also got swallowed up by that and died. My face scowled slightly when I recalled that.

But even if a stampede occurred there should be some kind of reason behind it. It was a phenomenon that occurred from the increase of monster’s quantity, but monsters wouldn’t go into rampage just from that.

Jesha paused for a moment, then she let out a sigh before she spat out her next words.

.

「The earth dragon deep inside the ruins……it moved.」