novelRescue Operation… and Combat!
| ← Ch.013 | Ch.015 → |
Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations
The scene I saw was of a child being attacked by three wild dog-like creatures at the riverside.
While jumping off the bridge, I invoke [body reinforcement] to strengthen my agility, and prepare for landing.
Reaching the ground, I nearly got down on all fours, and immediately ran towards my destination.
With the spell distorting the air, temporarily named [far sight], as far as I could see there was one person being attacked.
One of the attacking animals was holding something in its mouth, and the child's clothes were red—in other words, it was possible the child was bleeding.
—If I don't get there fast, the child's life could be in danger.
My reinforcement's allocation is 20% in agility, and 20% in vitality.
I barely put enough into my vitality, as I'm getting a grinding pain in my legs.
However, if I consume much more than this, then I won't stand a chance fighting those wild dogs(?)... But if I restrict myself too much, then I won't make it in time.
Even this speed is a little faster than a sports car. If I were to calculate this later, then I guess I would be going a little less than 400 kilometers per hour?
My legs kick out as if exploding across the riverside, and I run in a nearly crawling position across the ground.
Before long I arrived at the scene of the attack. It was just about 10 seconds, and I traveled 1 kilometer.
After only running that much, my legs are already shaking.
The child was a boy. The boy's left arm is already gone past the elbow...
Is he unconscious? Did I not make it in time? He's not even moving an inch.
"u! AAAAaaaaahhh!!
From my waist, I pull out the short sword I received from my Master and, maintaining my running momentum, I thrust the sword into one of the wild dogs.
Tackling it and rolling on the ground, I twist the blade to deliver the finishing blow.
Confirming that the wild dog has gone into its death throes, I raise my face to look in the direction of the young boy. Alright, his chest is moving slightly.
"Thank goodness, I made it in time..."
Having suddenly jumped in here, the remaining two dogs circled me, they were being cautious for now.
Just like the dogs, I can feel that my opponents are tough ones, so I can't make any clumsy moves.
It's a deadlock... except, is it because it saw me as a small child? One of the dogs decides to jump at me.
While crouching down to dodge the attack, I pull my sword—I can't get it out?!
Did it get entwined in the dog's flesh because I twisted it? Is it because its muscles tightened in its convulsions?... With my strength, I couldn't pull the sword out.
Moreover, did I hurt myself from the momentum of stabbing it? My right hand is numb, and I can't get any strength into it.
In that unexpected moment of distraction, though I dodged the wild dog's attack, it caught my hood on its claw and pulled me down.
"Awch?!"
Dragged to the ground, I raise a pained cry.
With the impact of the fall, my glasses flew off my face... and the wild dog's attitude completely changed.
From the excitement of hunting, to the excitement of breeding.
Between its hind legs, something that looks like a dark red rod is—
"Wait, "Golden Ratio" even works on dogs?!"
Reflexively attempting to pick up my glasses, I was pounced on from behind, and I couldn't move any further.
—Damn it, I should have ignored the glasses and attacked instead!
Even if I regret acting on my trauma and going after my glasses on reflex, it's too late now.
With me being pushed down on the ground, from behind me, around the area of my waist, I can feel something abnormally warm, hard, and moist...
"Wait a minute! Certainly I like animals, but my tastes don't go this far! In fact I'm a cat lover, so lemme go!!"
In a panic I tried making assertions which made no sense, but of course it wasn't listening to me.
—This is why I hate poorly disciplined puppies!
I immediately pass my sword from my right hand to my left, put it in a reverse grip and attack behind me.
In response to my desperate attack, the wild dog jumped off of me. I promptly got my body off the ground to get into an intercepting stance... except I couldn't.
The moment I turned around, the other dog came to give me a body blow from the other side.
Falling back on the ground, my robe rides up. Pushing me down on the ground, the dog's—this time I can feel its heat directly on my skin...
"D... DON'T?!"
That feeling brings to mind what happened 3 years ago, and my thoughts stop.
What appear in my thoughts aren't countermeasures to struggle through this, nor strategies to turn the situation around—only fearful memories.
I can't knead magic power, nor can I swing my blade. I just powerlessly claw at the ground, trying to get away—
BWOOM, goes a tremendous roar.
Just before my thoughts were dyed in despair, the upper body of the dog holding me down was blown away by a shell of wind.
Pebbles raised with wind and pulled into a spiraling pattern, the wind reinforced with the pebbles wrapped up in it was almost like a converged gunshot.
But, even though it passed right next to me, it had the perfect control to not even graze me.
"M, Master!"
... My hero rushed over to me.
*~
If you calm down and think about it, it's just a dog. Being no match for my Master, the remaining one was destroyed in an instant.
From the head down I was doused in wild dog blood and viscera, and my Master hugged me... and then dropped his fist on me.
"Th-that hurts, Master."
"You bet it does! Good grief, why did you go on ahead like that? And what do you think you have magic for?"
"Master, this is the deeply moving scene of the assaulted heroine being saved. Why the heck did you hit me?"
"I don't need a heroine doused in entrails!"
Sure, I'm covered in a wild dog's stuff right now, but come on!
Still, what my Master said is true; incorporating magic into this dangerous situation, the first dog aside, if I had used my spells to deal with the remaining two, they wouldn't have had a chance, so...
Coming from Japanese society, with its love of physics, I didn't reach the conclusion of choosing any spells for this fresh situation.
I wonder if this is what they call a lack of battle experience?
"But, thank you very much. And sorry, Master, for letting the blood rush to my head..."
"m! ... Well, as a result you saved the child, so I'll let you off with that... But next time instead of moving impulsively, think of the best course of action."
Seeming to wither from my upturned and repentant eyes, my Master's poisonous anger abated.
But why is he turning his eyes away? Look at me, please!
Like that, my Master heads over to the injured child and gives him medical treatment.
"Is he alive?"
"Barely, it seems. If I use a healing spell then I could even reconnect his arm but... No, if this much was eaten, then I guess it's impossible."
"You can't regenerate it or something?"
"That's a rather high level healing spell, and is even more impossible for me."
With the effects of a healing potion we had on hand, the bleeding was stopped, but... huh? This kid?
When I checked his status with "appraise" to look at his health, he had a gift.
"Master, this kid... he has a gift."
"Ha?"
"He has "Two-Handed Sword Talent" I guess?"
"... He's in this condition, and he has that talent, huh?"
My Master looks at the young boy with a pained expression.
Yeah, this kid's left hand is already...
"Mr. Haster, Yuuri! Are you alright?!"
Finally reaching the scene, Mr. Gusta and the others rush over.
But they don't have any way to move as quickly as my Master and I, so they couldn't help taking so long.
Mr. Kime, keeping vigilant of his surroundings, investigated the area while moving forward. He seems surprisingly familiar with this.
"Yikes, this's awful..."
"At least the bleeding stopped. There's a risk that he'll develop a fever tonight, so I'm thinking of letting him rest at my place."
"Aah, I wouldn't mind you doing that. With that said, are his parents not here?"
"... Mr. Zeppel, they were over here. Two people. There's not enough left of them here or there to be alive. There don't appear to be any other wild dogs either."
Mr. Kime, still vigilant of his surroundings, emerged from a grove of trees near the river and came back over.
Basically that means this child is also all alone in this world now, huh...
"I see... Zeppel, sorry about this, but could you find some foster parents for this child?"
"Yeah, sure. We can't very well abandon him after all."
"Hey, isn't this kid Alec?"
When seeing the young boy, Mr. Gusta raised his voice in surprise.
"Gusta, you know him?"
"He's the traveling merchants' son. Why is he in a place like..."
"He probably got caught up in the bridge's collapse. Since the place is down stream."
"If so, then what about their luggage?"
"The river's water level rose in the thaw. It probably got washed away."
The traveling merchants have a consistent yearly schedule when passing through the villages. So they don't have a house, or a family registry, or a lot of other things, so I hear.
This child... Alec doesn't have any house to go back to.
"During this season the wild animals have empty bellies, and are ferocious. Please make sure the villagers are being cautious."
"For now I'll inform the watch to be vigilant. Pioneering villages and the like are good bait, after all."
Since many people were arriving, I'm hiding in my Master's shadow, and my Master is prompting the villagers to use caution as he instructs them.
And his crisp expression is...
—So gallant, isn't it... er, HA?!
Nonono, It's not like I fell for him OK? It's an indiscretion of this tense scene!
Mr. Kime is responding to my Master's instructions. Even though Mr. Kime appears to be young, I wonder if he's a rather powerful person? Though he doesn't appear to have a gift.
Also—
"Master. Instead of just for today, could we take care of him for a while longer?"
"Yuuri, see here... With you, who doesn't like people, around, we can't take care of him for long you know? Sorry but if I have to choose between you and this child, you'd be the one I choose."
"I appreciate that but... right, I'll try to endure it, so please do me this favor!"
My Master very simply said something that makes me happy.
I was a little troubled, but until this child can be independent, I would be willing to keep him company. —I felt something like compassion for Alec being all alone after all.
"... —Some months then. During that time we could probably train in the sword. Recently I've been having you study to prepare for this kind of thing, Yuuri, and I would be glad if it didn't go to waste."
"It wasn't a waste for me! I did take out one of the dogs."
Thinking about Alec's future, and to distract ourselves from depressing feelings, we had that kind of lighthearted banter.
On this day, my family grew.
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