The Great Tiger is cunning. Its intelligence surpasses that of most humans. Therefore, a more meticulous and stupid plan would be necessary.
That was why I had gone out of my way to make a grenade. In the event that sniping failed, to prepare for the bastard’s sudden approach……
……And now.
Particles of wind brushing against my skin. Air that seemed stagnant. A world where the very concept of time stretched like taffy.
Grrrrrr……
The beast’s sallow golden eyes stared straight at me. I did not avert my gaze from its.
This would be the first time this bastard had ever met a human who shoved an arm into its maw.
Cr-r-r-r-r-r-runch──!
It tried to sever my muscles, nerves, and bones. However, 「Strong Bones」 and 「Iron Man」 were quite tenacious. To begin with, it was a plan I could not even have adopted if not for my traits.
Instead, I seized its tongue.
And then.
───!
The grenade I had jammed into its mouth exploded. Scorching-hot mana heated my arm, and fragments of black iron sand scattered inside the beast.
That was not all.
I imbued the metal fragments with 「Psychokinesis」. I amplified their speed and spun them at ultra-high velocity. I also drove nineteen blades of Wood Steel into its skin.
Whiiiiik──!
The Great Tiger swung its foreleg. In the mere instant it moved a single arm, a supersonic explosion erupted. In other words, a sonic boom rushed against my eardrums.
I prepared myself for the blow that would soon follow. The damage would surely be tremendous……
“Hraaaap!”
Some little thing flew in like a moth. The creature shielded me with its entire body and took the blow in my place.
“Gyaaak!”
A mosquito by the name of Lia. She was sent flying far away in a single exchange.
But that was enough.
The Great Tiger swung its arm at my neck once more, but──
─Clang!
This time, a sword blocked it. A clear, beautiful sound filled the forest. The wind in the area flowed into the blade.
“Woohoo! Looks like I made it in time~!”
Then Syrio’s refreshing shout rang out. Having arrived like the wind, he smiled, showing his healthy teeth.
“You all right, Deculein? ……Oof. You don’t look all right.”
Syrio looked me up and down.
──Grrr!
The Great Tiger seized that opening and knocked the sword away. Then it leapt into the distant depths of the forest.
“Whoa! The Great Tiger’s showing its back?! It’s running away?! Hey, this is a rare sight! Where do you think you’re going, you little—!”
Syrio said that as he chased after the Great Tiger, and from a little farther away, another knight arrived.
Thud—!
The sound of running footsteps abruptly stopping. Leather sabatons digging into the road surface.
“…….”
It was Yulie. Fully armed, she looked at me.
I simply stood there. I said nothing at all.
Yulie spoke first.
“……I heard—”
“Help Syrio track it. It is wounded, so it will not be able to flee far.”
“…….”
Yulie closed her mouth again and gave a small nod. Then she ran after Syrio’s presence.
……Whooooosh.
A cool wind blew just then, and the leaves sang as they swayed. Amid that nature, I looked at my arm.
There was no arm.
It was on the ground.
“……So it tore it off in the end.”
I was surely an 「Iron Man」 who had manifested the trait of 「Strong Bones」, yet it was rolling around like some doll’s arm.
This, too, must be the majesty of the Great Tiger.
I picked up the arm and was about to wrap 「Duct Tape」 around it with what little mana I had left.
“Uuugh…… Uwaaaah…… Uuugh……”
I heard a groan from somewhere. I turned toward it.
A young adventurer was rolling about while clutching her stomach.
It was the price she had paid for protecting me with her body.
“…….”
I approached her and examined her closely. There was no bleeding, but her internal injuries seemed quite severe.
“Uuugh……!”
I pressed the groaning girl’s acupoint and knocked her unconscious. In that state, I moved Wood Steel and opened her abdomen.
Splaaash─!
As expected, blood spurted out heavily. It was severe internal bleeding. Her large intestine and muscles had burst all at once.
“……Does she even resemble her personality?”
I wrapped tape around the injuries of this reckless creature.
* * *
An hour later.
Lia sat on the road with Leo, blinking her eyes.
The pursuit of the Great Tiger was still in full swing, but Leo had been dispatched for the purpose of protecting the wounded—Lia and Deculein.
“…….”
The two children stared blankly at Deculein.
He had clearly had his arm bitten by the Great Tiger, yet he stood remarkably upright. He neither sat nor lay down. There was not the slightest disorder in his posture.
“Are you…… okay?”
Lia asked. Leo also looked curious.
No one had ever survived after being bitten so badly by the Great Tiger. It was on a completely different level from simply being torn at; it had been a true push-and-pull.
Lia thought he had been bitten for about three seconds, but with the Great Tiger’s unique poison damage and bleeding DoT, it should already have been a game-over situation.
“…….”
Then Deculein turned to look at them. Leo and Lia flinched.
“……Ah, it’s nothing. Nothing at all. Right, Leo?”
“Mm-hmm.”
In truth, if one were to cut off the bud called “Deculein,” now was the perfect time.
Deculein was, in fact, a bad person. A villain with no room for rehabilitation.
A villain of pure evil who did nothing but torment the player.
……However.
Today, Lia had discovered the possibility of persuasion. The Deculein before her now—though, of course, she could not hastily conclude that he was not evil—was absolutely not the Deculein of the original work.
He asked,
“Why did you come here?”
“Huh? Ahh. We’re going to the Land of Destruction.”
“The Land of Destruction.”
“Yes. Because there’s a way to purify Kalos there.”
“…….”
At the mention of Kalos, Deculein’s eyes hardened rigidly. The unique aura of the Yukline family rose from him.
Lia continued.
“I thought the Demon’s Blood was something that was meant to be handled. The key is probably in the Land of Destruction.”
He quietly glared at Lia. Then, as if sneering, he offered a single remark.
“……You are making an effort. Needlessly.”
“Of course!”
Lia nodded with composure.
She had just gained conviction once again.
Just as some possibility seemed to show itself in the worst named character, “Deculein,” the purification of Kalos would surely be possible as well.
“Tsk.”
Suddenly, Deculein clicked his tongue. Lia tilted her head and asked back,
“What’s wrong?”
“Your face. Every time I see it, I dislike it.”
“…….”
For some reason, she felt like she knew why. But it made her feel pointlessly spiteful.
Lia retorted bluntly,
“I feel the same way.”
Deculein fell silent. He stared steadily at her face.
Lia quickly corrected herself.
“……I’m joking.”
Without a word, he shook his head. Then he leaned against the surface of a tree and sat down.
As if collapsing, he closed his eyes for a moment.
“…….”
“…….”
The forest grew quiet in an instant.
Leo asked in a whisper.
─……Lia. Is he asleep?
Lia examined his face.
He did indeed seem to have fallen asleep.
“Yeah.”
Phew—now it would be a bit less uncomfortable. Letting out a sigh, Lia checked various parts of her body.
There was no problem.
Deculein’s skill in opening and suturing was neat, and thanks to his first aid, the abdomen that had been struck by the Great Tiger felt comfortable as well.
“How strange……”
To think Deculein would treat me.
“……Wait.”
But isn’t Deculein’s injury pretty serious too? How did he treat me this perfectly in that state?
Lia examined the sleeping Deculein here and there.
Suddenly, his arm caught her eye.
“Ah.”
It was a treatment far from neat. Tape had been applied, but there was not enough of it, and the bleeding still had not completely stopped.
“…….”
Looking back and forth between her own overly comfortable condition and Deculein’s incomplete state, Lia’s expression suddenly hardened.
In a situation where his mana was limited, he had treated me instead of himself. The reason was probably……
Her heart ached for no reason.
“Leo. Give me the first-aid kit.”
“Huh? Ah~ Here!”
Leo held out his bag. Lia hugged the bandages and medicinal herbs inside to her chest and approached Deculein.
“……Gulp.”
She was nervous, and she was frightened that he might suddenly open his eyes and glare at her.
Still, she fumbled as she applied the herbs to Deculein’s arm, wrapped bandages tightly around the visible wounds without leaving any gaps, and wiped away the blood with clean water…… and then.
[Quest Complete: Great Tiger Hunt]
◆Slay the Altar’s Evil Tiger, 「Vesileta」
◆Acquired Rare Constitution Catalog
The long-awaited quest completion notification appeared.
* * *
……In the North, the snow does not stop. It falls until one is sick of it. Not a single day does it cease, falling like madness.
“Epherene.”
Epherene gazed at the sleet flowing beyond the window.
“Epherene.”
Behind Deculein’s office desk. A procession of snow fluttering behind the professor seated in his chair.
“Epherene. Answer me.”
“Ah, yes?”
She belatedly came to her senses. Deculein handed her a large document envelope.
“Take it. It is your exam paper.”
“Ah…… right. Yes. Yes. Yes……”
The dark circles and tear tracks around Epherene’s eyes were clear as she answered vacantly.
“Yes……”
It had been three days since Allen was taken by the tiger.
They had succeeded in hunting the Great Tiger, but his corpse had not even been found.
“Get a hold of yourself.”
“……Huh? Ah…… yes.”
To Epherene, the events of that day had remained as trauma. After all, she had been the last person to meet Allen in person.
If only she had not been out of it because of some painkillers……
Thwack—!
A fountain pen flew over and struck Epherene on the forehead.
“Ah!”
“If you continue acting like that, you will be expelled.”
“Auugh……”
“The exam period begins tomorrow and lasts one month. During that time, you may undertake missions alongside it, or you may choose not to.”
“……I will do both.”
Epherene answered that way and bowed her head.
“I’ll be going now.”
As tears seemed about to spill, she quickly went outside. Deculein quietly watched her back.
Bang—!
The door closed noisily. Primienne, who had been hugging the stove on the reception sofa, flinched in surprise.
When had that Deputy Director infiltrated again?
Deculein furrowed his brow.
“……When do you plan to leave?”
At those words, Primienne shrugged.
“There is still much to handle. More importantly, are you all right, Professor?”
“With what?”
“You lost your assistant professor, did you not?”
“…….”
At that, Deculein glared at Primienne.
To him, it was absurd, but perhaps she meant to prevent any possible eavesdropping.
“The testimonies of the scouts guarding the wall were also certain.”
The eyewitness accounts that the tiger had taken Allen were consistent, and this was thanks to Primienne’s trait.
She was capable not only of materializing and concretizing thoughts, but also of implanting artificially manipulated memories into others.
It was the reason she had been able to become the youngest Deputy Director of Public Security.
“I am fine.”
Waaaaaaaah──!
The sound of crying pierced through the walls of the corridor. It was probably Epherene.
“I see. That is a relie—”
Waaaaaaaah───!
“That is a relief.”
Primienne nodded.
“The other assis—”
Auuuuuhaaaah──!
“Assistants do not seem to be.”
I blocked that crying with 「Silence」 magic.
“Growth is accompanied by loss.”
“……That is true. How is your arm, Professor?”
“It has healed. Enough to continue my mission in the North.”
“…….”
With an ambiguous expression, Primienne looked at his arm. The fact that it had healed so quickly seemed strange to her.
“……More importantly, Professor. Are you going to leave those fellows as they are?”
Primienne pointed outside the window.
The Red Garnet Adventurers. Ganesha Reilly, as well as Leo and Lia, were enjoying a campfire.
Deculein said,
“There is no justification to stop them. The Red Garnet Adventurers possess immunity, and as long as that half-human, half-demon bastard is not visible. However.”
He stopped speaking and handed Primienne a mirror. It was an ordinarily aristocratic hand mirror.
“Give this to the Red Garnet Adventurers and tell them not to throw it away.”
“Yes.”
Though she did not know what his intention was, Primienne nodded for now. As she rose from the sofa, she asked calmly,
“Do you perhaps have any thoughts of holding the assistant professor’s funeral?”
“…….”
Deculein sank into his chair. As if thinking it over carefully, he answered briefly.
“When the corpse is recovered. We will do it then.”
“Hmm…… yes. That too would be a method.”
Primienne spoke expressionlessly, but inwardly, she wore a clear smile.
* * *
As soon as Primienne left Deculein’s office, she joined the campfire.
“He said that when the corpse is recovered, he will hold the funeral then.”
She recited exactly what she had just heard. Relaying each side’s words and earning the trust of both camps was the standard practice of a double spy.
“Ah…… I see. He seemed like such a diligent friend. I suppose he really was? If he won the professor’s heart to that extent.”
Moisture glittered around Ganesha’s eyes. The same was true for Lia and Leo, and even Reilly.
For a moment, they silently looked up at the sky.
The sparkling stars and the sparks leaping among them. Within them, the face of that clear, innocent mage seemed to flicker.
“Professor Deculein wasn’t a reptile like a snake or an iguana after all~ How surprising.”
As if to change the gloomy atmosphere, Ganesha muttered with a faint laugh.
Lia also gave a small smile, and Reilly pointlessly pursed her lips crookedly.
“……Recover the corpse? Guess that bastard doesn’t want to admit it either, huh?”
At that moment, a voice approached from beyond the bonfire. Everyone turned that way.
Ihelm. He was gripping the mouth of a whiskey bottle.
“Well, that’s how it is when you lose a disciple. That bastard also hates losing things or having them taken from him to a pathological degree……”
Ihelm drank a mouthful of whiskey and sat on a nearby wooden chair. Then he stared steadily at the blazing fire.
“……Well. He’ll overcome it on his own, though.”
At that moment, Reilly glanced somewhere. Behind a tree not far away was Yulie.
She was not hiding; she was standing there openly. Everyone knew Yulie was there.
“Yes. I’m sure he will~ More importantly, what do you all plan to do about your missions now~?”
Ganesha, disliking the pointlessly gloomy and damp atmosphere, was about to quickly brush the topic away when—
“Leader Ganesha.”
Primienne called Ganesha.
“Yes, what is it~?”
Ganesha answered with a bright smile. Primienne took out an antique hand mirror from inside her coat—the item Deculein had entrusted to her—and held it out.
“This is a gift from Professor Deculein to you, Leader.”
“……?”
Ganesha’s eyes grew round.
A gift from Deculein? The people nearby also stared at the item called a “gift” with utterly astonished faces.
In place of the stunned Ganesha, Lia asked,
“……A gift? From Deculein, that professor?”
Primienne nodded dryly.
“Yes. Is there a problem?”