Part 3 – Chapter 008 (Chapter 345)
Title: Honeymoon 2
T/L: IonMan
Editor: Zioming
Editor Notes:
There’s a slight change in the previous chapter, from “Beauty doesn’t come cheap” to “With my face, I need to rake in some serious cash, if I want to become Toru’s wife” as I didn’t know what they were talking about and assumed it’s supposed to be some kind of a proverb.
Raw Chapter: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n9511bs/399
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Year 7448, Month 6, Day 5
“Bull’s eye!”
“Alrighty!”
As the arrows left their respective bows, small cheers were raised in celebration of their successful hits.
However, being first-class adventurers, Toris and Bell have already cast their spells, as they reached for their sword, long before the arrows had a chance to reach them.
Even before confirming the events unfolding before them, their first action is to adapt to the situation around them and put up their defences to protect themselves from danger. When all else fails, fleeing is the next choice. Getting a hold of the situation comes after that. This is a big difference between the adventurers who explore the dungeon, and the knights, squires, and other military personnel or regular adventurers who don’t. Whenever a dungeon-hardened adventurer gets attacked, or even senses the danger of an incoming attack, they instantly react to all moving objects around them, other than their companions, treating them as malicious enemies. It’s what differentiates them from people who only fight against other people or monsters.
It can be said, that one must have a heightened sense of crisis, but, if you actually think about it, it’s something one acquires from constantly being exposed to danger. It’s the same, whether it’s Orth, or Earth of course.
ED Reminder: Orth is the name of this world.
However, when the threat level is determined as low, during the instant judgment, an appropriate response is taken, thus it is quite rare, to go straight into battle mode so suddenly, except in situations inside the labyrinth. It can be said, that the speed with which one can make such a judgment, is the proof, that the adventurer has reached the mastery level.
The magic sword in Toris’s hand launched flames from its blade, as he immediately swung it against the net, that has been raised up toward his feet.
Bell instantly wrapped herself with blue light from her magic, as a protection against the incoming arrows.
Bell’s neck’s right-rear side and her right flank were both hit by arrows, but the one fired at her neck fell to the ground, without being able to penetrate her magic defence with its iron tips, with a similar amount of damage received on the flank. Since the other arrow managed to at least pierce her clothes, it ended up sliding under them, and could be seen sticking out of her side.
“It’s from four o’clock!”
Bell called out.
“How did they know!?”
Shouted the high strung male elf archer.
“How is this even possible!?”
The other dog-kin male archer also screamed in amazement. Their initial cheers were already enough to reveal their positions, but with all this additional ruckus, Toris and Bell had no problems determining the approximate direction and distance from the shooters.
“Magic!?”
The leading tiger-kin woman was dumbfounded. She obviously knew that there were valuable magical items out there, but they were rare enough, that she didn’t immediately connect the dots. Besides, even without a magic item, if they had used their elemental magic, the two were capable of instantly conjuring their chosen elements.
ED Reminder: Elemental magic refers to the 4 basic magic affinities people can acquire (Air, Earth, Fire and Water), used to manifest respective elements in quantities dependant on the user’s proficiency level (there’s also Void, used to manipulate them, e.g. cast the conjured stone or ice shard as a missile at a specific target). For most people acquiring even a single elemental affinity requires years of training, making people, who can use magic in the first place, reasonably rare. Moreover, casting spells usually requires a good amount of focus, and can’t be done in motion, not to mention, during actual combat. The MC, and a couple of people around him, whom he taught how to do it, are the only ones, that we know of, capable of such feats, so, it could be said, that it was even more rare, than the already rare magical weapons.
Toris and Bell worked together, as if they were two bodies with one mind[1]. Since she didn’t have her bow in hand, and her horse couldn’t move freely to evade, Bell used her ability to use magic during combat, to shield herself from serious injury, while Toris used his magic to work on the net. This was the best course of action, as Bell could exert defence power comparable to that, of a metal armor.
They already failed to reduce the number of arrows in the first wave and allowed the opponents to act. In such a scenario, they predicted, that the attackers’ plan, would most likely be to force them off their horses to limit their movements, before initiating the main attack.
While recasting her sword’s magic effect, Bell removed her feet from the stirrups, as she hopped onto her saddle, and then lightly jumped over the net off the back of her horse.
Two arrows were launched at her the moment she landed, but she twisted her body immediately, making one of them graze off her, while the other struck her right shoulder. However, it too, fell to the ground, as if it had struck something solid.
Bell glanced at the hole in her blouse on her right arm for a moment, then suddenly dashed at an incredible speed, towards the male elf who shot at her with the bow.
Along the way, she was overtaken by Toris’s [Stone Bolt], launched at the dog-man, who was just about to draw another arrow.
“H-How !? Uwaa-aah !!”
The male elf let go of the bow and reaches for the knife at his waist. He hesitated for a moment, wondering why can this woman still move so well, despite already taking three arrows? In the ensuing panic, he failed to properly grasp the handle of his knife.
Although considerably surprised, by what was happening in front of her, the Tiger-kin woman, who was acting as the attackers’ leader, still managed to lift her spear, that was struck into the ground, and aim at Bell while rushing in.
“Ga-aah! It hurts eeeh!”
Next to Bell, the dog-man, who fired the arrow earlier, screamed while holding onto his stomach and fell over. Toris’s [Stone Bolt] successfully hit its mark.
The leader was once again surprised. Speaking of the man on horseback, he’d already used fire magic, right after his horse’s legs got entwined in the net. Yet he could attack using magic immediately after!? This surprise created a deadly opportunity.
ED Reminder: Most magicians couldn’t cast consecutive spells, and even if they could, most wouldn’t have enough magic power for more than 2 or 3 spells in a row.
Bell determined, that the woman holding the spear was a bigger threat, and changed her tactic accordingly. She jumped towards the tiger-kin woman, while parrying her spear with the short sword in her hand. The women launched a kick at Bell, as she came closer.
Bell moved her body in response to the incoming kick without a second though. She used the handle of her short sword to strike the shin of the approaching tiger-kin woman’s leg, and slashed at her thigh with the blade, as the woman’s movement stopped momentarily, delivering a deep cut, in one swift motion. After pulling back her blade, as the tiger-kin woman was covering up her wound, Bell followed her initial attack with a kick to the face, with her rubber-soled boots, with their tips hardened with ebonite. The splattered nosebleed sprayed into the sky like a red flower in bloom, adding even more vivid colors, to the already picturesque sights of Doran.
“Oooh!”
The male elf took this chance to stab Bell in the back with the knife in his outstretched hand. The dull-colored blade pierced her blouse and struck Bell in the back… not. The tip stopped in place, as if had encountered a solid object *shah* (SFX: clank), as the blade slid across Bell’s back, tearing through her blouse and the thin shirt underneath it.
Is it even possible to stop a blade strike at a nearly vertical angle!? The elf trembled in fear yet again.
“Damn it !!”
As she glanced back at the perplexed elf, Bell’s sword flashed two or three times, as her chilling cold voice resounded with “That was close”. Both, his free hand, and the one holding the knife, were slashed up, and his thigh was severely injured. The male elf was no longer able to put up any resistance.
After confirming his ribs were broken, with a well-placed kick to the side, Bell pressed the tiger-kin woman’s hand against the cut on her leg, as she stepped on the rolling woman’s shoulder and put her short sword to her neck, to keep her in place.
On the other hand, Toris was feeling perplexed.
“Au!”
Screamed the hyumu woman, just a moment ago, as she attempted to strike him, still on horseback, with her spear. Toris skilfully manipulated his sword, [Flame Tongue], to parry the woman’s spear, while the male gnome, looking akin to a white snowman, with his whole body entwined by the [Spider Web] magic spell, wasn’t of much help to her.
ED Reminder: Hyumu being the name of regular humans’ race.
“Hi, hiii !!”
The hyumu woman, who at a glance realized, that her companions had been wiped out, in a mere blink of the eye, leaving her all alone, abandoned her broken spear and screamed in horror, as she took off along the highway toward the city of Doran.
“Tsk, they truly want to die … like it’s some kind of a hobby.”
Toris was muttering to himself, as he stretched out his left hand towards the back of the escaping woman. A moment later, a [Stone Bolt] cast by him, pierced the woman’s back. Because there was always a possibility of breaking off the limbs with a poorly aimed spell, Toris had no other choice, but to aim at her back.
・・・・・・・・・
Toris treated the slightly injured Bell, then used the unburned scraps of the net, in place of a rope, to tie everyone’s hands behind their backs, including the one still wrapped in a spider web. Their legs were tied with a rope, leaving them just enough space to walk, but not run away. On the side note, Bell performed the minimal healing on the wounded, to keep them alive, but only after conducting a thorough cross-examination, as a result of which, she confirmed, that there was no connection between this case and Baldukk, at least as far, as one could believe the words of a bandit.
Toris pulled the five people behind him, after stringing them together with a rope tied around their necks.
Bell placed a bow on her shoulder, watching over from behind, as they were pulled along to Doran.
They intended to hand the bandits over to the knights of Doran.
“Hey, you guys. Let us go. We’ll pay you.”
“Five, fifty, no, we can pay 600,000 Z. Come’on please.”
“Are you adventurers? You’re pretty sturdy, like rocks. We can help you make money too.”
The bandits showered them with sweet words. However, neither Toris nor Bell were willing to negotiate.
Dusk was fast approaching, as they finally reached the city of Doran. They asked the serf-like man who was staring at them in curiosity for the location of the knights’ garrison.
Both Toris and Bell were pretty pissed off. While standing around, Toris was angry about his new wife being injured, while the injured Bell was pissed off because of her expensive blouse being torn apart, and her honeymoon on the verge of being ruined. It was natural to be angry, but it was still not sensible to went their anger, by outright killing the bandits.
Quite a number of eyes, hidden among the city streets, traced the two and the five bandits, as they headed for the Doran’s Knight Group.
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“Fumu. Certainly this is Zoey McConnell[2]. She’s a member of the small-time band of thieves called ‘Akatsuki’[3].”
The knight explained to Toris, as he pushed the arrested bandits forward.
“Heeh? The Akatsuki. Are they famous or something? This is the first time I’ve heard of it.”
Another knight answered Toris’s question.
“In Doran, they are. By the way, you appear to be commoners, but you don’t have any nobles as witnesses?”
“No, we don’t. We were both members of noble families until yesterday. It that not good?”
Toris replied, as he was thinking this was going to be a bit troublesome.
“Un, well I think it’s okay because they’ve committed quite a lot of other crimes and there are plenty of witnesses to confirm, for the time being, right? If you’re a noble, give me a little exaggeration on your report, and I can have them beheaded by your departure.”
It was the response you’d expect in the Kingdom of Rombert, where nobles held supremacy over everyone else. By the way, while no reward money were given for the others, who’ve already been stripped of their equipment, the tiger-kin woman, Zoey, turned out to be one of the leaders of Akatsuki, with a pretty high bounty of 3 million Z on her head.
“I’m going to become a Vested Knight in the fall, you know.”
“Hoo?”
Toris and Bell explained about Al, who was announced by the King, as the new Count of Riguru territory. In the process, both of them were revealed as members of the Slaughterers.
“Wow, to think you guys were members of the Slaughters, who defeated the dragon. Even with two against five … They were really out of luck.”
The feat they achieved in Baldukk was also transmitted as far as Doran. There were even some among the Doran’s knights, who’d travelled all the way to the royal capital to see the dragon’s head.
“By the way, be cautious of ‘Akatsuki’. It’s certain for the group to have some grudge against you. Have you decided on an inn to stay at?”
They explained to Toris about the finest inn in town.
“There are guards stationed at Mihas[4], so they won’t be able to cause any trouble. You can rest assured.”
With the promising words from the knights, the two headed toward the inner areas of the city of Doran.
“Well, that was awful.”
“Really, that kind of thing happens everywhere.”
The two stingy honeymooners proceeded to Mihas while complaining, after the knights provided them the inn’s directions.
・・・・・・・・・
“Leader, Zoey and the others seem to have been captured.”
At the back of a decrepit bar in a corner of the slums within the south area of Doran city. The minions knelt down and reported to the laios man, who turned around, while sitting in the middle of the big sofa, with hyumu women on his left and right, pouring him a drink.
“An? What happened?”
The laios responded, while holding a cup in one hand and groping the woman’s chest under her clothes with the other. Instead of showing displeasure, the woman expressed her delight with a moan. For some reason, the black-haired laios preferred hyumu women, rather than ones of his own race.
“Ei. Zoey hasn’t made much money lately, so I assigned her with Gil[5] to the Zaridol Road to rob travellers.”
While the minions making the report were kneeling, their eyes were staring at the woman’s shifting firm breasts.
“Fuun. We-ll, it might be okay to attack the watchmen, if you don’t miss the timing of the knight’s patrol.”
The laios tilted his cup while giving a direct response. Another moan leaked from the mouth of the woman, having her chest fondled.
“But, they, just a while ago, were hauled in, by an elf man and a bunny-kin woman, to the Knight’s garrison …”
The reporting minion was staring at the woman with glazed eyes.
“How did she get caught? And only by two people? How many people did you assign to Zoey? No, Zoey is the best among my four lieutenants.”
The laios pulled out his hand from under the woman’s shirt and asked, while sticking out the cup in his other hand to the other woman beside him.
“She had four people, that included Gil, Beth[6], Bean[7], and Tommy[8]. They were all tied up like a string of beads …”
The laios threw his cup at the minion as he was still reporting.
“That’s ridiculous! The Akatsuki was massacred by just two people !? Then they’ll be tasting the black blade! Those two, find and kill them!”
The two women got frightened by the laios’s sudden outburst. Blood dripped from the forehead of the minion, that got hit by the cup.
“They’re pretty easy to find really! They’re at Mihas.”
The minion hit by cup also cried out with vigour. Although his eyes were staring at the puddle of blood from his forehead.
“They’re at Mihas … it’s hard for them to escape from our hands … Oi, gather everyone! When you drag them out of the inn, take them to the back alley and tie them up! We’ll kill them promptly, before Zoey is judged!”
The laios snatched the sake bottle from the frightened woman and chugged the contents directly with his mouth.
He then grabbed the sword, that was hanging from the edge of the sofa, uttered some sounds as he pulled it out of the sheath, and sprayed the alcohol in his mouth onto the blade.
“Ooh!”
The other minions, who were watching the situation in the store, saw the liaos’s actions and shouted.
“The master Toru is soaking his blade with sake!”
“This is a grand sight to see!”
The laios commanded at the minions while glaring at them.
“You guys can come along too !! Tomorrow, no, at the latest, the day after tomorrow, I’ll let you know the horror of the Akatsuki!”
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Footnotes:
[1] A-un breathing (阿吽の呼吸 – aun’nokokyū) – An ancient saying about two entities working together as one
[2] Zoey McConnell (ゾーイ・マコネル – Zōi Makoneru) – a tiger-kin woman, one of the four lieutenants of Akatsuki
[3] Akatsuki (暁 – akatsuki) – name of the gang led by Toru (literally “dawn”)
[4] Mihas (ミーハス – mīhasu) – the best inn in Doran
[5] Gil (ギール – Gīru) – member of Akatsuki
[6] Beth (ベス – Besu) – member of Akatsuki
[7] Bean ビーン – Bīn) – member of Akatsuki
[8] Tommy (トミー – Tomī) – member of Akatsuki