Tale of Discovery - Chapter 340

“xxx” – for direct conversation; e.g. “Good morning.”

‘xxx’ – for mental speech by Victor with other beings; e.g. ‘Stop.’

[xxx] – for mental speech from others; e.g. [Father]

{xxx} – for Imperium System-related announcements/windows

<xxx> – for skill/ability/magic spell usages; e.g. <Godspeed>

Normal thoughts and narration will be kept as usual.

——

As I lay beside Aletia on the bed, I remember a certain system window that promised a reward for completing three main objectives. If I recall correctly, it said that the reward was a “Time-Enhancer”.

Whatever it is, it sure as hell sounds like something neat.

‘Nora, can you hear me?’

[Yes, Father?]

It takes me a moment to recollect myself upon hearing her voice. Why? Because of how much more emotion it contains.

Instead of the semi-robotic voice from before, her voice now is brimming with emotion, the most apparent of which is her sincerity.

‘What is the Time-Enhancer reward that was mentioned by the system?’

[Information on the item is locked. Father must obtain it first to unlock all information regarding it.]

Despite her response not being what I wanted to hear, I am not let down. According to what she just said, the Time-Enhancer is an item and not a skill or ability.

From its name, I can think of various functions the item might have, such as affecting the time of a Platform or a certain location.

Nevertheless, I can’t be sure of anything until I obtain it.

To do that, I need to finish three main objectives, and right now, my objective is securing the territory around my base.

Hm… I suppose I will spend half a day in this village tomorrow before leaving for Nazarick.

As for how I will be leaving, well, I could have some monsters disguised as humans to pick me up by claiming to be my men.

This is the only method that would guarantee the least amount of suspicion from the villagers.

—

Slowly regaining my consciousness, I open my eyes, only to be met with the face of a pretty young girl.

The young girl has golden hair covering her shoulders and a portion of her face. Her ruby eyes are focused on my face with a fiery glint inside them as if she is gazing into my soul.

“Good morning, Aletia,” I say as I raise my head from the pillow.

My movement results in the blanket covering me to move away, after which I get up and jump off the bed.

I wonder what’s the time right now. Judging by the light that’s shining through the wooden window frame, it’s obviously early morning. As for how early, I wouldn’t know.

[In numerical terms that Father is used to, the time currently is 6:45.]

‘Oh, how convenient. Thank you, Nora.’

[Hehehe, of course!]

She truly is much more emotional now. Then again, I suppose this is what happens when one is forced to hold their emotions back for an extended period of time.

Speaking of which, I wonder what Irene is up to right now… Where exactly has she escaped to, and what is she doing? I am not exactly concerned about her safety considering the fact that she has shown enough ability to face off against a Code before.

This also makes me wonder how powerful Nora is.

[Would Father like to see my parameters?]

‘Sure, show me.’

The moment I respond to her suggestion, a blue system window appears in front of me with the word ‘Administrator – Nora’ written boldly at the top.

{——

Str: 45 | Agi: 43 | Dex: 66

Int: 89 | Def: 75 | Vit: 58

——}

Hey, hey, aren’t these parameters a little absurd? Her strength and agility can be compared to that of mine from when I first awakened and entered Project Charlotte.

But that’s it, the rest of her parameters are much better than anything I have faced off against.

In fact, some of them could be better than my current parameters, such as intelligence and defense.

Are Irene’s parameters the same?

[Displaying Irene’s last recorded parameters.]

{——

Str: 33 | Agi: 51 | Dex: 45

Int: 60 | Def: 34 | Vit: 47

——}

I see… Overall, her parameters are worse than Nora’s which makes sense considering that the Imperium System tasked Nora with terminating her after she was deemed unnecessary.

“Vincent,” a soft voice reaches my ears, bringing a halt to my thoughts.

Turning to face the source of the voice, I look Aletia in the eyes and ask, “Is something wrong?”

“What are you?” she bluntly asks.

“You already know the answer to that question, don’t you?” I respond vaguely.

“No, I want you to tell me yourself. The magic you’re using, your ability to change appearance, and… the ability to hide your aura.”

Her words pique my curiosity, especially the part about my ‘aura’.

“What do you mean by the ability to hide my aura?” I say, hoping to dodge her question.

“While you were sleeping, I couldn’t sense your presence at all. You do that to prevent others from finding you, right?”

“Think of it whatever you will,” I say dismissively as I feign disinterest and walk toward the door.

Suddenly, a small figure turns into a blue behind me before I feel something slithering up my arm.

“There you are, Aurora. Good morning,” I say as I pat her head with my finger.

[Go-od morn-] comes a response in my head, startling me quite a bit.

Although it’s incomplete, Aurora seems to now be able to converse with me mentally while in this form. And I did get to hear her say something other than ‘master’, so that’s a plus.

“Aletia, the others are all asleep. I will go out in the meantime to get a breath of fresh air.”

“Okay.”

—

Exiting the Emmot’s household, I begin to leisurely walk toward the village square.

As I am strolling forth, I can hear the sound of a few villagers who appear to have just woken up as well. Out of curiosity, I listen in for any conversations, and after a short while, I find out a few things.

Some villagers are planning to head into the forest and chop down a few trees. Others are planning to do some casual village work such as tending to the cattle at the back of the village or collecting water from the well nearby.

“Such a simple life,” I mutter.

Truly, it’s as simple as it could get. Everyone here is living what they might consider a decent life. Their source of entertainment is completely different from those living in the ‘modern’ age I am familiar with and their aims in life might most likely be as simple as creating a happy family.

As I release an audible sigh, my senses pick on movement in the distance.

My expression becomes firm as I check out the appearance of those approaching the village – soldiers.

Heavy Armor is covering them from head to toe, and riding on horses, the men are closing in on the village at a rapid pace.

Why would there be soldiers appearing here? The simple answer would be that they belong to this kingdom and are simply passing by.

As for the more troubling answer… Well, these soldiers might just be affiliated with the two I killed before.

The next moment, as if to confirm my suspicions, the soldiers reach out to their sheathed arms and raise them with malice practically oozing out of them.

And here I was expecting this inevitable attack to get delayed by my actions, but it appears that I have hastened it instead…

Oh well, since they’ve decided to attack this village while I am residing in it, they’re basically seeking death.

Even so, how am I going to be doing this? There is no guarantee that some sneaky soldiers won’t make it past me while I am occupied with slaughtering those at the front…

Since I’ve confirmed that the incoming enemy soldiers don’t have any kind, it’s safe for me to do this,

“Enemy attack!”

I exclaimed as hard as I could, resulting in a deafening voice that practically causes the ground and walls to tremble.

Fortunately, my yell immediately awakens the villagers who are still asleep while also alerting those who are already awake.

Nevertheless, my voice reaches the enemy that is quite a distance away as a commotion starts among them.

“Aurora, take your other form and find somewhere to hide. Wait and see if soldiers make it to this place and only take action if more than five humans have been killed.”

[Y-yes!]

As soon as her voice fades, a bright light shines from my shoulder before it ‘moves’ away from my body and changes into the form of a young child.

Once the light fades, Aurora’s humanoid form appears in front of me.

This only lasts for a brief moment, as the next thing I know, a wave of energy escapes from Aurora’s eyes and spreads over her body.

As I wonder what the purpose of this energy is, Aurora’s body suddenly becomes much harder to spot, be it visually or through my enhanced senses.

Some form of stealth, huh? A very convenient and lethal ability to have.

“I’m going,” I state before building up some force in my legs in preparation for a leap.

The next moment, I release all the force collected in my feet and shoot into the sky at a terrific speed.

As I gradually get higher, the speed at which I do so decreases along with it until I am no longer moving up.

In this position, I take a moment to assess the enemy soldier’s numbers and equipment properly.

A low amount of soldiers amounting to no more than a hundred and fifty heavy cavalry units. Their equipment is solely composed of long swords and shields.

Such a force making its way to a mere village, there is definitely some conspiracy behind this.

For now, I need to find out what their attentions are before determining if there is a need to massacre them all in one fell swoop or not.

With an objective set, I rotate my body in the air before using all the force I can muster to kick the air behind me the same I would while using Godspeed.

As I suspected, a few loud noises reverberate within my ear as my body shoots forth toward the soldiers.

Some soldiers notice my actions as they point the tip of their swords at me and exclaim in surprise.

Alas, their surprise doesn’t last long, as I shortly reach the front of their force.

Since I am unable to use Vector Manipulation, I have no choice other than to direct the force guiding me into the ground right in front of a few soldiers.

Expectedly, the ground trembles immensely as it caves in and causes a few of the horses to stumble and fall.

Chaos spreads within the soldiers whose formation has been destroyed by my nonchalant actions.

A few soldiers end up getting crushed by horses falling on them, or, for those who are the unluckiest, hooves stepping on them.

“Enemy! It’s an enemy!” a man suddenly exclaims vigorously, “It’s not a human, retreat back and fix the formation!”

How rude, to state that I am inhuman simply because I fell from the sky…

Unexpectedly, a few soldiers don’t heed the man’s orders as they guide their horses toward me while yelling at the top of their lungs.

“Worthless trash,” I find myself muttering as I easily leap over a few fallen horses and soldiers before kicking the center of a soldier’s chest plate.

The seemingly tough metal is unable to cope with the force behind my leg as it easily caves in while the soldier flies off into the distance.

The soldier’s sword, which he has let go now, is about to fall, but I swiftly reach forth and grab it.

After this, I step my feet on the horse’s back and let it move toward the other soldiers who are moving toward me as I swing the sword with just enough force to blow the men away along with their horses.

My actions cause the horse under my feet to lose its balance and fall, so I quickly hop off and stand tall while inspecting the soldiers who have moved back.

Surprisingly, they seem to have reigned their horses in and have a composed posture while awaiting further orders from their leader.

“Who is the one in charge of you weaklings?” I bellow as I plunge the sword into the ground.

I get no response as the soldiers simply look at one another in a ‘what should we do’ manner.

“I will give you five seconds to tell me before I slaughter every single one of you!”

This time, the soldiers begin to get anxious as the way they give each other looks becomes desperate.

“It’s me!” suddenly, the same man who shouted orders earlier makes his way forth on his horse while the soldiers make way for him.

“My name is Belius, and I am here by the king’s decree that I dispatch the traitors residing in a village nearby.”

Hm… From his manner of speech, I can tell that he has a man who has experienced a ‘noble’ upbringing. This makes me wonder why he didn’t name what noble family he is from… Other than that, I can detect falsities within his words.

“Lie to me once more, and I will be severing your head, understood?” I say in a frigid tone while narrowing my eyes.

The man’s expression turns visibly ugly as he struggles to come up with words in response to what I asserted, but I disregard that as I ask, “I don’t care about your reasons for doing so, but you said you wanted to kill the villagers in Carne Village, right?”

“Chief Belius, there is no point in arguing with a monster,” a man suddenly interjects.

“Shut up!” their leader, Belius, exclaims as he raises his right arm before focusing his gaze on me and asking, “And so what if we are?”

Hearing his words, I notice a smile forming on my lips as I subconsciously lift the sword fixed into the ground and say, “Nothing much. It just means that I get to play a game that I haven’t played in a while.”

Truly, there is nothing more that excites me other than the prospect of slaughtering some humans. Why? I don’t know, but I am aware of it.

Now then, “Make sure to struggle!”

Along with making that exclamation, I lunge at Belius and effortlessly puncture his head with the long sword before pressing my leg against his chest plate and kicking him toward the soldiers behind him.

“Kill him!” exclaims a man, followed by numerous other such statements as the soldiers usher their horses forth.