Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival (LN) - Book 6: Chapter 13

Omen of Upheaval

The hooded man seemed to be a dark elf. The instant I saw through his true identity, killing intent burst out from the dark elf. At the same time the Cruz people around him drew out their weapon and attacked.

Single edge long sword, long and narrow spear. The weapons in their possession couldn’t be called self-defense tool anymore. They were clearly objects that were made for the purpose of killing human.

「Uruaa!」

The Cruz person with stern face who called out to me at the beginning slashed with his cutlass. I parried that blade by entangling it in my cloak. The man who had closed the distance opened his mouth in shock.

「Woman……who’re you?」

「I should be asking you that? Why are you attacking just because I mentioned dark elf?」

「……Shaddup, just die-」

The man tried to forcefully pull out his entangled blade. I let it go while kicking him away and opened the distance. The dark elf who was watching from behind spoke up in irritation.

「Don’t make a ruckus. Kill her quickly.」

This location was out of sight. But a commotion here would draw people’s attention.

As I thought, these guys were here with some purpose in mind. If this hooded man was one of the dark elves who disappeared from town, it was possible that there was evil race’s involvement here.

But, I had no time to ponder about that. The remaining for Cruz people attacked in respond to the dark elf’s words.

「Daaa!」

One man thrust with a very flexible thin spear. Like the other weapons of his friends, this kind of weapon would be more effective against civilian rather than monster or armored soldier.

I spread out my cloak widely as though to make it bloat up the moment the spear was thrust forward. The spear tip thrust through the empty space under the cloak. At the same time I moved forward and stabbed the spear user’s throat using a sharp hidden weapon that I pulled out from my palm’s “shadow” until it reached his brain.

When facing multiple opponents, there was a tactic of dealing only wound to rob an opponent’s combat capability to turn them into burden for the rest. But it would be faster to kill right away when their number was only this many.

I assumed that the first Cruz person was rank 3. The remaining Cruz people had combat strength around 200……seemed like they were upper rank 2. I had no business with small fries. I had also lost any reason to be merciful after they had drawn out their weapon. I only needed their two superiors alive for interrogation.

*GO-……!*

The spear user collapsed. I used his body as cover to threw weighted pendulum above before swinging it down. It smashed the skull of the man who was observing from behind while holding a two-handed cutlass.

「B-bitch, how dare you!」

The first man who I kicked back until he fell on his butt raised his cutlass while his swarthy skin darkened seeing his comrades getting killed one after another.

「Wait, something’s strange with that girl!」

「Shaddup you long-eared bastard! Don’t order me around!」

The man ignored the dark elf’s warning and attacked once more.

It seemed that the Crus people and the dark elf were ally but weren’t comrade.

I stopped the remaining two Cruz people with my stare while parrying the blade of the first man who I had designated as information source with my black knife. I smoothly slipped through the attack toward him and elbowed his face.

「Gugoh!?」

Blood scattered from the man’s nose and mouth and he staggered behind for several meters before falling on his knee.

「……T-this bitch-」

He was a tough guy, but he shouldn’t be able to move for a while.

I started moving again to eliminate the rest first, but in that moment the bloody man grinned at the corner of my eye and I heard the dark elf “rhyming” chant of spell.

「Hah, drop dead you bi……」

Flame magic particles swelled up from behind the man who spat those words.

.

「──Fire Arrow──」

.

Four Fire Arrows were fired simultaneously from the dark elf. I leaped to the side after noticing the spell’s rhyme and dodged them.

It was advanced sorcery that fired the same sorcery multiple times simultaneously. But, only one of them was fired at me. The other three Fire Arrows hit the backs of the other three who were focused on me.

「Guaa!?」

Even level 1 Fire Arrow would be lethal if it hit vital spot from behind. The man who was convinced that I was taken by surprise and they won became a ball of flames after the sorcery hit the back of his head. He collapsed while staring at me with an expression of disbelief.

「Tsk」

The dark elf who killed his own allies clicked his tongue and turned his back on me.

Most likely he guessed that his chance of victory was thin with only the small fries with him and he changed his objective to silence them. I too swept aside my skirt and pulled out a throwing knife and threw it in the same motion but, I was a moment late and the knife hit the wall of the alley the dark elf ran into.

I immediately ran after him. But I didn’t see the dark elf who should be in the alley anywhere. When I searched his presence with Search, I caught a glimpse of a cloak’s tip fluttering at the rooftop of a two-storied building before it was gone.

I threw up my scythe type pendulum and caught the edge of the rooftop with it so I could run up the wall quickly. A Fire Arrow was shot at me the instant I got on the rooftop. But it was a tactic that I had also done before when running away so I was prepared.

「──Shield──」

The Shield that I instantly created diverted the Fire Arrow.

「What-!?」

The dark elf was astonished seeing that. He hurriedly moved to jump to another building, but at that time I too had finished composing my spell.

「──Pain──」

「Gyaaaaaaaah!?」

His foot got tangled because of the sudden intense pain and he fell from the roof.

I chased after him and jumped down from the roof too. The dark elf apparently got broken leg on the ground. His hood had fallen off, even so he glared with me with his tanned face.

「Why……do you know that sorcery? Shield is known only by few even among us……」

「For you to know it means that you’re an evil race just as I thought.」

The Shield sorcery that I used was passed down to me from master who was formerly the [War Demon] of the evil race army. In that case someone who knew of that sorcery could only be an evil race just like master.

「……kuh」

The dark elf male shut his mouth after unintentionally leaking out information. But his attitude made me convinced.

There was a risk that master’s survival could become known by evil race with me using her sorcery, but it was too late thinking about that right now because many of my tactic and fighting style originated from evil race.

If my opponent was someone who mustn’t learn about it then I just needed to eliminate them. Before that I needed to learn just what was the dark elf scheming and took out my scythe type pendulum. The dark elf male was glaring at me while sweating heavily, but his expression suddenly turned blank in resignation and he crunched the pendant hanging on his neck with his teeth.

「Guoo……」

「Tsu」

The man vomited a lot of blood and fell face down. ……Poison huh. It seemed that he committed suicide before information could be extracted from him. What was the reason he went that far to hide it?

Most likely that necklace itself was a crystallization of poison or a small container made from resin filled with poison. But……for him to instantly kill himself without even fighting back, it was possible that there was a really big plan at work by the evil race.

I went to the street and searched for presence. I found several spots where groups like this dark elf and Cruz people were lurking. I couldn’t deal with all of them. It would be pointless if I tried to interrogate them and they committed suicide. Even if wanted to tell Jesha about this, she should have already departed at this time.

Monster outbreak. Earth dragon moving. Riezan Family and evil race’s relation……. I had no time to investigate all of them, and most likely things were already moving.

「……I don’t have enough information.」

These were concerning matters but, I had something that I should prioritize more. For now I ran toward the base where Elena was staying in order to accomplish my own role.

***

「Why is it here-!」

Kamil ran into a monster on his way back to the base.

It had large humanoid body that was easily over two meters and skin that was hard like rock. It had head that looked like twisted human with two horns……this monster that had sand colored skin to blend with the desert was a type of ogre that lived in this region, “Sand Ogre”.

Even normal ogre would be powerful monster that was classified from upper rank 3 to lower rank 4. The rank 4 sand ogre that lived in this region should be found only at the depth of ancient ruins Resvel.

Very rarely several ogres would separate from their band and went outside the ruins, but Kamil only ran into one. Most likely this specimen was wandering out from the ruins from getting chased by something just like those shell dragons.

『GUOOOOOOOOOOO!!』

Ogre was man-eater demon. It seemed this specimen was hungry and let out a roar of delight when it finally found a prey. It was already a powerful monster from the get go, but this one was even more troublesome because it was in the possession of a rusty great sword with broken tip. It seemed to have found it from somewhere.

「…………」

Kamil judged that that fight was unavoidable and pulled out his two magic swords with a blank expression.

They were practically even strength wise. But more important that the danger level was that this man-eating monster couldn’t be allowed to get near the base where Ron and the others were staying at.

『Gaa……』

The sand ogre saw the change in Kamil’s atmosphere and changed the way it looked at the human before him from “meat” to “enemy”.

『GUOOO!』

「HAAH!」

*GAKIN!!*

The broken great sword and magic sword clashed. Sparks of mana spread out.

The blade of the great sword got chipped from the clash, but Kamil got blown away from the difference in strength parameter.

But Kamil used even that power and switched into counterattack. He rotated centered around himself and his other magic sword that didn’t block the attack slashed the sand ogre’s arm.

*Gishi……!*

『GAAAAAA-』

The sand ogre’s face twisted into a laugh from receiving Kamil’s attack. Certainly the magic sword’s blade got the sand ogre’s arm, but it couldn’t deeply cut into the sand ogre’s skin that was as hard as rock.

「……tsu」

Kamil also didn’t force himself to continue attacking and took some distance for a moment.

It wasn’t just hard. Most likely their fighting experience also differed. Just like how there was a different in real battle experience between Aria and Kamil despite them being the same rank, this sand ogre that had combat strength nearly 1000 was also surpassing him in real battle experience. Kamil was forced to recognize that.

Even Kamil had a way to close the gap of experience. But, he would need a little bit of time for that. It would be a high risk gamble to do that in front of this sand ogre.

『!?』

*GIN!*

At that moment, something like an arrow that flew from somewhere got deflected by the ogre’s skin.

A small cloaked person suddenly leaped out from behind a rocky spot and ran in circle to the side while quickly reloading their crossbow to fire arrow in succession.

『GUGAAAAAAAAAA!』

The sand ogre roared furiously by the sudden intrusion while deflecting the arrows with its broken great sword. But, another intruder appeared using that opening and struck the sand ogre’s back of head with an object that looked like a club.

『GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!』

Even the sand ogre slightly staggered from that. It roared angrily and turned its attention to the intruders. The combat strength of the intruders was around rank 3. It would be difficult for them to win against this sand ogre with that, but their intrusion created an opening for Kamil to use his “trump card”.

「──[Release] ──」

The special activation word liberated the seal on Kamil’s two magic swords.

The “experience” that was accumulated inside the magic swords flowed into Kamil. He endured the unpleasant feeling of the encroachment into his brain while leaping forward and used the “skill” that was engraved into the magic swords.

.

「──Dancing Reaper──!」

.

『GUOOOOOOOOOOOO!?』

It was a surge of eight consecutive attacks that was like a rotating dance using two short swords.

The sand ogre was dragged into a vortex of blade slashes that cut up its skin. Then it collapsed on the dry ground and scattered its blood around.

「……tsu」

The drastic usage of strength made Kamil felt pain in his two arms and he groaned.

The magic swords’ ability was [experience storage]. Level 5 short sword art’s Battle Skill [Dancing Reaper] was engraved inside it. It didn’t only have Battle Skill but also technique engraved in it, but naturally there would be backlash to the body if low ranked person used it.

「……Are you okay?」

「Kadri……? Izel?」

Kamil took off his hood and exposed his face. Then he turned his gaze on the Cruz person and dark elf father-daughter.

Kadri and Izel smiled slightly when he called their names. They approached Kamil and kneeled on the ground with bowed head.

「We came to pick you up……your highness.」

***

「Aria……」

Elena was staring outside from a window of the crumbling watchtower while muttering with a small voice.

She was constantly worrying about Aria, but she trusted her more than anyone else in this world. But, today the unpleasant stirring inside her chest just wouldn’t clear up no matter what.

Elena didn’t have any power like Gift. Even so she was originally a sorcerer of four elements though now it was only three elements after her fire element was erased. Her rank had stopped at rank 3 but, Elena’s magic power control had reached level 4 when she had four elements.

.

▼Elena Claydale (First Princess) 【Race：Human♀】【Rank 3】

【Magic Power：２５０／２５０】【Stamina：１３５／１３５】

【Strength：７】【Endurance：８】【Agility：12】【Dexterity：８】

《Light Sorcery Level 3》《Water Sorcery Level 3》《Fire Sorcery Level 3》《Wind Sorcery Level 3》

《Non-Elemental Magic Level 1》《Daily Life Magicx5》《Magic Power Control Level 4》

《Pressure Level 2》《Poison Resistance Level 1》

《Simple Appraisal》

【Overall Combat Strength：４８０（Sorcery Attack Power：５７６）】

.

Then Elena unconsciously turned a grim gaze toward the direction of the ancient ruins. Perhaps she sensed the abnormality of the magic particles that were filling the air. The sight in that direction far away looked misty.

.

「Do you see something, “Lena”?」

「……Are you resting, “Ron”?」

Ron who was repairing the balloon on the rooftop went down. Elena replied to him with a smile that drew a line between them somewhere.

Both Elena and Ron had noticed that both of them were using fake name. Ron was most likely a noble of a country somewhere, and he too should have noticed that Elena was a noble.

Elena too had faith with Ron and Kamil’s personality after getting involved with them. But, as a noble she also couldn’t possibly trust someone who wouldn’t even tell her his real name.

(I’m the same though……)

It was her nature as noble that caused her to purposefully draw a line between the two of them, but Elena unconsciously laughed at herself with how troublesome all of it was. Aria too didn’t wholeheartedly trust them but, after watching how attached the children were to them, she at least had enough trust to entrust Elena to them although there was still calculation in that decision.

Elena too would never think about staying together with them if not for the young children and Chako who were taking care of them.

Naturally Ron and Kamil were also being wary of them to some degree, Elena thought, but…….

「Aa~……I’m, is there anything that bother you? Life in desert is hard right?」

「Yes, I’m fine……but?」

Recently, Elena was feeling that Ron’s behavior had softened, especially since she started taking care of the children.

His softening wasn’t as radical as Kamil toward Aria, but perhaps his trust on her was increasing from her true self that she showed to the children.

(The children are adorable after all……)

Elena too didn’t intend to show her true self. But, the dark elf Noi was slightly older and shy so he wouldn’t get really close to him, but the dwarf Rana and the dog beastman Nar were infants. They had gotten attached to Elena and often followed her around clinging on her.

But, ……there were also times when his improved good will became problematic.

「……Lena-oneechan」

「My, what’s the matter Rana?」

The dwarf little girl Rana who was still four years old was climbing up the stair looking like she was going to cry. She thought that she was still napping, but she must had woken up and saw that Chako who went to do far work hadn’t returned back.

「Did you see a scary dream?」

「No, that’s not it……Nar went outside.」

「……Eh?」

Nar was still three years old. He was a boy and a beastman so he was far more active compared to human infant, even so he was still too small to go outside alone.

「Where did Nar go? Since when he was gone?」

Elena hid her anxiety while meeting Rana’s gaze and asked her gently. Rana bit her lower lip and looked like she was going to cry.

「Umm, Nar, he, went to pick some herb……」

「Herb……?」

「It was my fault-. Because I told him, that crimson grass with strange smell can be found at rocky place」

「Ah……」

Elena also recalled from those words.

Red grass. It had a proper name but, it was a succulent plant that grew in a certain place of this desert. Unlike things that were used as food in this region, that red grass could become ingredient for high class potion if it processed with a special way.

Unlike Death Root that bloomed at place with miasma, this one was relatively easy to gather because one didn’t need to go as far as the ruins to find it, but most likely Nar overheard Kamil and Aria talked about the ingredients gathering and noticed that they didn’t have enough red grass.

And then Nar thought what an infant like him could possibly do and took action.

He didn’t just wait quietly using his age as excuse and searched for something that he could do, then he took action for the sake of everyone here.

「I’m sorry……」

「Rana……」

Elena hugged Rana who started to cry. She hadn’t done anything wrong at all. But, if Nar got injured or worse then it would definitely leave a trauma in her heart.

「Lena, I’ll go look for him.」

「Ron-」

Ron who was listening to the story said that with none of his usual light smile.

Two people with combat skill would gather ingredients, create high class potion and sold it for money, gather material, and fix the hot-air balloon. That was the decision of the senior group including Elena and Ron.

He must be feeling responsibility for talking carelessly in front of the children just because they were still too young.

Perhaps Ron was also feeling an anxiety that couldn’t be explained in his heart just like Elena.

「…………」

Nar’s action. Ron’s sense of responsibility. Seeing that made Elena thought.

Elena and Aria had no responsibility at all for the children. It was Ron and Kamil who decided to help the children because they couldn’t abandon them. Elena and Aria’s purpose was to notify their country of their survival and return home. Everything other than that was of secondary importance.

But, would that be the right choice in the end……?

Elena’s return to the country would be to prevent the division among nobles. She believed that any sacrifice that was made for that would be a necessary sacrifice.

Elena had to return back for the sake of her country’s people no matter what she had to discard in the process.

But, how much she could discard? How far she had to discard her “heart” in order to prioritize achieving her objective?

King was a lonely existence. Even “themselves” were included in things to be sacrificed.

Even an infant was doing what he could in order to survive. Everyone here was acting as one and struggling together. Meanwhile Elena who had decided that she would sacrifice even herself for the sake of her people would only sit and wait. Would that really be the right thing to do as a [queen]?

What then made her different than that big brother who was just sitting around waiting for the crown to come to him?

She would save the children. She would save everyone here. On top of that she would accomplish her objective. If she couldn’t even do that much, who would want to follow such flimsy [queen]?

Elena made her decision.

「Ron……I will also come with you.」