Episode 34
I had expected to run into it at any moment, yet time and again, my expectations were betrayed.
Having kept my Search skill active constantly for two days now, my head throbbed, and I found it hard to concentrate.
Had it not been for the Goddess's Water Bottle, I would have collapsed long ago.
The water inside the Goddess's Water Bottle relieves fatigue and restores MP.
Thanks to the never-drying flask, I could expend far more MP than I was allotted without strain.
"Oppa. Over there."
Karen spoke and lowered her body.
"Where?"
"There, that cliff-like drop. There's a Thin Wolf."
As if it had chosen the very spot to meet us, the wolf stood proudly atop the cliff, waiting.
"Let's go."
At Karen's signal, I followed suit in silence.
Then the bastard suddenly leaped down below the cliff.
"Ack!"
"Damn it…."
I thought we'd finally found it, only for it to immediately run away?
It's not even a legendary Pokémon; isn't this too much?
Looking down below the cliff, the Thin Wolf sat leisurely, scratching its ear with its hind leg.
As if telling us to come down and try.
"…Oppa. Should we jump down?"
"Stop. Judging by the height, it's over 8 meters. If we fall wrong, we'll break our legs."
"But… it's right there."
Karen sighed.
It was understandable—she had her goal right before her eyes, yet could do nothing about it.
Should I try casting magic from here? No, the Fireball's range wasn't that long.
I didn't think it would hit the Thin Wolf accurately, either.
Hadn't I done enough by now?
I had no reason to complete this urgent mission. It was merely annoying.
But Karen was different. She had a dream. She had a reason she absolutely had to catch the Thin Wolf.
"Karen. Why do you want to become a Hero candidate? To join the Hero's party?"
"I want to meet them again."
"Again? You've met the Hero before?"
"Yeah. When I was little. I was attacked by a demon, and a passing Hero saved me. I wanted to say thank you for that…."
Karen smiled shyly and trailed off. To stand proudly by the Hero's side. Was that why she'd tried to become a candidate?
It wasn't a story I particularly wanted to hear, but telling her to give up now felt wrong.
Let's try until we could do no more.
"We've roughly pinpointed the location, so let's go around."
I opened my personal storage and checked the remaining rations.
Water was infinite, so I didn't need to worry about that.
Then, I felt a presence from behind.
"Hey, what are you looking at so intently?"
A man's voice, tinged with slight mockery.
I turned around to find a group of four rough-looking men grinning at us.
The vibe was odd. They approached as if trying to block our escape.
"Oppa."
The moment Karen tried to draw close to me—
the man suddenly reached out and shoved me.
"Huh?"
My body went airborne.
By the time I felt a chill, I was already plummeting downward as if being sucked under.
"Ugh, urgh!"
Wind Spirit!
I hurriedly wrapped myself in spirit magic and crashed to the ground.
Despite absorbing the impact with the spirit, the pain was so intense I felt like vomiting out my organs.
"Oppa!"
"Urk."
Raw pain mercilessly coursed through my entire body.
"You shouldn't let your guard down!"
I looked up.
Four male adventurers I'd never seen before looked down at me and snickered.
Could they be the group watching us when we pitched the tent?
They'd approached secretly from behind. Damn it!
"Boyfriend! Don't worry. We'll play with this woman for you too, so just rest easy!"
"S-stay back!"
Karen drew her sword.
But the four men laughed and pressed in on Karen. Behind her was a cliff; there was nowhere to run.
"Ugh…!"
Hadn't someone said you couldn't even trust fellow adventurers?
Isti was right. I needed to call Isti right now…!
"Grrr."
I sprang up and spun around.
The Thin Wolf was glaring at me. Had this bastard always been this big? I'd believe it if someone said it was a small bear.
"Oppa!!"
Ah, damn it!
The Thin Wolf lunged at me. It was too fast to dodge, so I called forth the Wind Spirit to block its forepaw strike.
This is urgent!
"Stay still! You want to fall too?"
"Stay put if you don't want to die."
"Oho! This bitch! I said stay still."
A dire situation, and I'm losing my mind….
If I use the Wind Spirit to call Isti, won't the Thin Wolf kill me?
I didn't want to think so, but the chances were high.
While weighing my life against calling Isti on a scale, suddenly something fell.
"Ugh, u-ah…!"
"Karen?"
Karen had thrown herself down.
"That crazy bitch!"
"Ah, shit."
"What do we do?"
"She's done for. That's why I said to hold her properly."
The voices grew distant.
The male adventurers seemed to have given up and left.
Now there was only one problem before us.
"Karen, get up!"
"Ugh, ugh…!"
Karen staggered to her feet, but it was obvious even at a glance that she'd hurt her leg.
The Thin Wolf immediately targeted Karen.
"Fireball!"
I immediately launched a Fireball from behind to attack the Thin Wolf.
The bastard swerved as if it had eyes on the back of its head, dodged, then changed its target and charged at me.
No good. Too late…!
"I…!"
Karen pushed me aside and took the Thin Wolf's attack in my place.
As a result, Karen was flung back as if struck by a car, tumbling backward while blood gushed out as if a hole had been bored into her stomach.
"Hugh, kuh!"
I clenched my teeth and suppressed my terror.
I could think of nothing except that I mustn't tremble in fear right now.
I focused intensely on the Wind Spirit. I had been thinking, deep down, that it might come to this.
Overcoming this situation alone was impossible…!
"Isti!!"
That brief moment when Karen took the wolf's attack in my stead was the opportunity it afforded me.
But how fast could Isti find us when we didn't even know where Isti was?
How would I endure until then?
In that brief instant I thought this—
wind blew, and Isti arrived.
Isti had truly come in the blink of an eye.
"Decal!"
Isti looked at my condition and made an expression I'd never seen before.
"I'll kill it where it stands!"
The Thin Wolf charged at Isti, zigzagging rapidly, but it couldn't even get close to Isti's body before being bounced away by a barrier of wind.
"Kiee!"
The Thin Wolf tumbled across the ground, and seemingly realizing the gap in strength, began to flee in a panic, but
Isti already had an arrow nocked and aimed at the Thin Wolf. Then, for whatever reason—
"Isti. Don't shoot!"
—I stopped Isti.
"I'm fine. Calm down. This is just from falling off the cliff."
"And her?"
"Karen is…."
"…Haah…. Haah…."
Karen was only barely breathing, unconscious.
The bleeding was so severe that her face was pale. It seemed only seconds remained before she lost a fatal amount of blood.
"She took the Thin Wolf's attack for me.
Right after falling from the cliff, so she probably wasn't even conscious."
"…The cliff. Who pushed Decal?"
"That's right. Isti. The wolf isn't what's important right now. Bring every last one of those damn bastards before me without fail!"
Isti disappeared, leaving only the sound of wind, just as when Isti had arrived.
"Karen. Hang on… I'll heal you now."
I rummaged through my inventory and pulled out the Starlight Shell.
They said it heals just by touching it. Aah, damn it! My hands shook before I knew it, and I dropped the shell on the ground.
What the hell am I doing? I gripped the shell tightly and pressed it against Karen's wound as if staunching the bleeding.
"Urk…."
Karen coughed up blood.
Ugh! Is this really the shell that heals wounds?
I had nothing else to rely on. Even with my lack of medical knowledge, Karen's wound was clearly fatal.
"Am I dying?"
"It's nothing. You won't die."
"…."
Thank goodness. The blood was gradually stopping.
The Starlight Shell's effect was greater than I'd imagined. Karen's wound began to heal before my eyes, as if it had never existed.
How can this be…!
I gave thanks for the miracle.
It was truly fortunate I'd kept the Starlight Shell.
This shell had saved Karen's life.
Confirming Karen's complexion was returning, I let out a sigh of relief.
And right then, Isti returned.
Isti had captured all four members of the group that pushed me and presented them before me.
"Decal. These are the ones?"
"H-hieek!"
"We were wrong!"
"We must have been crazy for a moment. We weren't serious."
The group of four knelt and begged.
They seemed to have suffered quite the shocking capture.
"As expected, humans cannot be trusted."
Isti muttered, revealing disgust.
I felt a coldness run down my spine.
"Thank you, Isti. You saved me."
Isti's eyebrows trembled.
"Dekal. You nearly got badly hurt because of the Thin Wolf. Why did you tell me not to shoot?"
"If you kill the Thin Wolf, Karen won't be able to fulfill her dream."
"Dekal's life is more important to me."
"I know. Karen protected my life. So I wanted to do at least that much for her."
Isti glanced at Karen, who was lying there unconscious.
Just then, one of the men lying face down drew a knife from his waist and lunged at Isti.
"Aaaagh!"
But Isti did not even look his way, using the wind spirit to fling the man aside.
With a cold, expressionless face, Isti nocked an arrow to her bowstring.
"Dekal. What are you going to do with these people?"
"……."
"We'll never do anything like this again."
"Mercy!"
One of them had even drawn a knife to harm Isti, yet now he was begging for forgiveness as if that had never happened.
I knew very well. I knew all too well that they were merely groveling to get out of this situation, and that not a single one of them was truly repentant.
With trash like this, normally I would never have mentioned Isti's name.
But it didn't matter.
"I've just had a fun idea."
Because it didn't matter what I taught men who were about to die.
Snap.
I snapped my fingers, putting the four adventurers into a trance.
Isti took one step back and watched me.
"You will「absolutely obey my orders」."
"Absolutely... obey...."
"Obey...."
I planted the suggestion not as a trigger, but as a switch.
Because only by forcing them to obey while conscious could I instill fear in them.
Just like when I first transferred to another world and demonstrated my power by punishing Beleira.
Of course, what I was about to do this time was not some cute little punishment.
"Isti. Stay by Karen's side."
"What about you, Dekal?"
"I'll take care of these things and come back."
"Mm, okay."
What I had to do from here on was simple.
Clap.
I woke the adventurers with a clap of my hands.
"Get up, you vermin."
"H-Huuuh!"
"My body is moving on its own...."
"From now on, I am your god."
I pointed in the direction the Thin Wolf had fled and said,
"Find the Thin Wolf! Run!"
"Aaaagh!"
"No, no!"
The male adventurers ran off with faces frozen in terror.
I called upon the wind spirit and lightly followed after them.
One of the four I had sent screamed. They had found the Thin Wolf.
"Vermin, gather!"
I assembled the adventurers, then faced off against the Thin Wolf.
To be honest, I had no confidence in fighting this thing alone.
Starting with direct combat, to wind spirit arts and handling magic, everything was still unfamiliar to me.
"Let me run away!"
"Please, my body won't move!"
"What are you trying to do?!"
But hypnosis was different.
Since I was young, I had lived by controlling people with hypnosis.
If I used hypnosis, I was confident I could control this situation.
The Thin Wolf growled, wary of us.
"Risk your lives and stop the Thin Wolf from moving!"
"U-Uaaagh!"
"Nooo!"
Upon hearing my command, the four of them drew their swords all at once and charged bravely at the Thin Wolf.
Their faces were dyed with fear and despair, but they were soldiers who did not fear death.
"Grrrk!"
The Thin Wolf swung its foreleg cleanly and tore open one adventurer's throat, but even with his neck split open, he did not stop and clung to the Thin Wolf.
To obey the command I had given him until the very last moment.
"Kraaagh! If it's come to this... die!"
While my puppets fought desperately, I quietly focused my mind.
"Fire Ball."
The overcharged Fire Ball was three times the size of a soccer ball.
It was my first time actually trying it.
"Fire Ball."
But I cast one more. My MP was being sucked away like mad,
but I did not care.
"Aaaagh!"
"My arm! My aaarm!"
"It doesn't matter if you can no longer fight. Cling desperately to the Thin Wolf's body."
"Stop it!!"
The Thin Wolf, even with the four half-dead adventurers clinging to it, was pinned in place.
"Fire Ball."
Three.
Thanks to the goddess's blessing, I was immune to fire and merely felt warmth,
but they seemed to feel the scorching heat that would burn flesh, and looked back this way in horror.
"Fire-attribute attack magic? What the hell are you planning to do?"
"Stop! We're people. We're not monsters!"
"Hold on tight. It is the command of god."
I aimed the three Fire Balls precisely at the Thin Wolf and the four adventurers.
It was simple.
If I created humans I could control through hypnosis, then no matter how agile it was, I could capture it.
(Insufficient MP.)
(Insufficient MP.)
(Insufficient MP.)
The last handful of MP.
After pouring it all into the Fire Balls, I pointed with my hand and sent them flying.
"Aaaaaagh!"
The overcharged Fire Balls were tremendously powerful.
The first attack burned the four people and the Thin Wolf at the same time, and the second Fire Ball shattered the human barricade with its impact.
The final, third Fire Ball struck the staggering Thin Wolf directly in the head and exploded.
(Your level has increased.)
(Your level has…….)
Power surged up within me.
After catching the Thin Wolf, my level had increased explosively. It felt as if it had shot up by nearly thirty.
"Phew."
It was my first murder.
Watching people burn did not feel good.
But if you asked whether there was no refreshing feeling at all, that would not be true.
They were criminals who deserved to die by society's standards, so they were worth killing.
There was no such excuse within me.
This was unmistakably murder.
They had pushed me off a cliff, and because they had tried to lay hands on my woman, I killed them to vent my anger.
I took a deep breath and accepted it cleanly.
And then, strangely enough, a smile naturally came to my face.