Ragnis Lien da Levien
Ragnis Lien da Levien
"Gah, Ganilseun!!"
The hit had landed cleanly. His nose was definitely broken, and I might have knocked out a few front teeth too.
The adventurers, who had immediately grasped the situation and switched to spectator mode, burst out laughing at the sight with what seemed to be genuine delight. A few even pointed at the bastards and laughed their asses off, speaking in some foreign tongue I'd never heard. Even though I was the one who'd staged the whole thing, their reaction gave me the creeps.
Sure, other people's fights are the most entertaining thing in the world, and they were just enjoying the conclusion where the idiots got what was coming to them using the very method they'd tried themselves—but laughing that innocently was a bit... wasn't there something emotionally warped about that?
Setting aside my contemplation of this other world's twisted sensibilities for a moment, I ignored the bastard called Ganilseun, who was writhing on the ground covered in tears and blood, and advanced on his faltering comrade, grinding my teeth.
"Hey. Hey! You fucker, get over here. You're looking away when that bastard wrecked my shoulder, asshole?! Is that any way for a guy to act when his friend just wrecked someone's shoulder?! Huh?!"
When someone pays people to pick a fight with a random passerby, how skilled are the mercenaries or adventurers doing it really going to be? They were barely a step above hired thugs.
How much could the people who hired idiots like that possibly have told them? And how much could they know about me, when I barely did anything publicly around town?
That was exactly the level they were at: adventurers or mercenaries so low-grade it was impressive anyone had found them. Disposable test dummies meant to gauge my strength and be thrown away afterward.
"Huh?"
"\"Huh?\" Who said you could talk to me that casually, you punk-ass piece of shit?!"
I channeled Magic Power into my foot, moderated the force appropriately, and kicked him in the shin. The unexpected impact sent him sprawling backward, and he began to wail.
"Aaaagh!"
"Quit your fucking dramatics. That hurt? Does it hurt?"
Of course it hurt like hell. But to everyone watching, it looked like he was just putting on an act. The kick itself didn't look that hard.
I'd already made an impression with a manly punch using nothing but muscle. Nobody was going to imagine I'd used physical enhancement just to kick someone in the shin. The adventurers around us were demonstrating the meaning of 'roaring with laughter,' and I turned away, pulled the bewildered Ragnis close again, and moved on. If we'd been in an alley, I'd have emptied their pockets too, but that wasn't something to do on a main street.
"Fucking idiots killed my mood."
"Huh, Eldmia?"
I scratched my head, then lowered my hand and made a shushing gesture with a finger over my lips. Ragnis, catching on, followed me without another word. We left the two bastards floundering on the ground to a chorus of jeers, and only after we'd put considerable distance between us did Ragnis open her mouth again.
"Those men just now... were they...?"
"I'm not completely sure, but I'd bet on it. They'd probably been hired for pocket change on short notice. I think the point was to see what kind of guy I am... I acted as much like a foul-tempered street thug as I could, so now we just have to hope that's what they think I am."
"Why did you do that?"
"Looking down on me makes things easier."
I'd moved in a way that showed I just had a sword on my hip, with no fundamentals at all. And two guys who got hit by that had collapsed and couldn't even get up. One might be written off, but the other might be mistaken for just faking it. That was the important part.
It was something I'd figured out through countless experiments with Asilie—my physical enhancement through Magic Power, unless I did some serious reinforcement, didn't even show to anyone who could detect aura.
Even an aura user's ability to sense aura stems from their aura manipulation technique, but the method I was using was a truly ignorant one: I wasn't using any technique at all, just wrapping Magic Power around myself like a suit of armor. That seemed to make it undetectable. Even if I reinforced it hard, it apparently just looked similar to receiving a buff from magic. It was inefficient in many ways, so learning a proper manipulation technique would have been ideal, but since that wasn't something you could just pick up easily, I'd regretfully left that part neglected.
But right now, it helped. It allowed for unintended weakling cosplay.
I'd taken that precaution because, just as Asilie warned, I couldn't ignore the possibility that knights might be sent. No matter how confident I was, I didn't think I could casually wipe the floor with knights. Even if one showed up whose physical enhancement was merely equal to, or slightly below, what my body could withstand, the gap in swordsmanship could still get me killed.
In that case, I needed to make them think I had nothing going for me even more, to make them let their guard down and reduce the danger.
"Still, thanks to those bastards, I think I can be fairly sure of a few things."
"Like what?"
"That the noble faction bastards found out where you were faster than expected, and that they didn't factor in even a little that there might be someone protecting you."
That was why I'd used those bastards as lab rats. Because a sudden variable had been sticking around for four days.
"Someone was definitely watching from somewhere. By now, they're probably thinking you're clinging to some local thug bastard just to survive, don't you think? Not sure how they'll interpret me showing up just now, but it doesn't look like they'll interpret it badly for us."
"...They'll probably try some other trick, right?"
"Of course. But I think there's still a possibility they'll keep using these bastards. I crushed one guy's face and just roughly kicked the other, so I figure I've created a plausible justification for retaliation? It's obvious as hell, but if they intend to keep poking and prodding through these bastards, they'll track down our inn or find us soon and come swarming with another gang. Naturally hiring guys with better skills this time."
Either to assess my skills, or to check if there's some unknown backing behind me. Normally, you'd want to force us into a situation we couldn't easily win and examine the results.
But they'd been watching for at least four days... were they waiting for something too? There was no security at the inn, so if they infiltrated at night and kidnapped her, chasing them down would be tough.
Nothing concrete came to mind, so I told Ragnis what I was thinking and we puzzled it over together while buying more things to eat. We needed to look completely carefree. We were sharing some ice cream—a product of alchemy whose workings I couldn't begin to understand—when Ragnis spoke.
"Even if they kidnapped me here, they'd have to get to Laheira before they could ride a wyvern, right?"
"That's right."
Wyvern rental stations only existed in proper major cities. Other than nearby Laheira, there was no other option anywhere around here.
"What if... they're not planning to ride horses there, but to just ride a wyvern from here in the first place?"
"Huh?"
"What if they secretly transported a wyvern here, kidnapped me with it... and used the wagons used for transport as a disguise? Since up until just now, we've naturally been thinking, 'They'll obviously ride horses to Laheira.' Using that as a blind spot."
Was this the difference between a commoner and a noble? I genuinely hadn't thought of that.
The very reason wyverns were only in large cities was that they required high-level personnel for management and were an expensive mode of transport. In this era, they occupied the position of a 1- to 2-person aircraft. Transporting one, hiding it, and then just flying off? That was definitely the thinking of people with money. If that was really the case, tracking them would become impossible the moment we lost them outside the city, so it would be worth trying from their perspective.
"If they're really that rich, it sounds completely possible. Assuming you're right, maybe the reason they've been dragging their feet is that the wyvern hasn't arrived yet. It would be easier to time the kidnapping for its arrival than keep it hidden nearby long enough to draw suspicion."
"I don't know exactly how long it takes from Laheira to Ogwen either... but I think that's the most plausible scenario. Or maybe their plans went awry too and the wyvern transport is delayed."
Well, it wasn't like the universe decreed that only I should be the one getting annoyed, tangled up, and inconvenienced. They were people too. From now on, I'd have to wrack my brain even harder to anticipate the kind of shit people with overflowing money would pull.
But if that were the case... wouldn't that cost an insane amount of money?
Did Ragnis really hold such tremendous value right now that they'd go that far? Was I missing something? My mind, which was merely supplemented by years from a previous life, couldn't easily grasp it.
The territory had already been scorched to ash, so reconstruction would be impossible for a while. It was a period when reinforcing existing holdings was busier than building something new on a wrecked territory. Unless there were some incredible resources or something like that, I saw a strong possibility it would just disappear, just as my village had vanished from the map.
But Ragnis had clearly spoken as if there were still remaining assets when she first explained her situation. The noble faction took her death as a given to absorb those assets and rights, and to secure the justification.
I'd figured the assets were probably money left in a bank or something, and the rights concerned the territory to be rebuilt after the war. I'd taken the justification as merely part of a factional power struggle... but I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd been making some complacent assumptions.
"Ragnis."
"Yeah?"
"When you first told me about it... you said the nobles were after your family's assets, rights, and justification, right?"
"Yeah, that's right."
"I guess from a commoner's perspective like mine, I just can't quite understand why two factions are fighting over you this hard. I can accept them just hiring guys to come take you... but it makes me wonder if this is a serious enough matter to even attempt wyvern transport."
They must be certain that whether she lives or dies could seriously shift the balance between the two factions. Certain enough that transporting a wyvern—an expense I couldn't even begin to price in gold—was worth it. That had to be why things had escalated this far.
"Do you have any specific sense of what it might be?"
"Hmm. Even though you're smart, I guess that part's unavoidable because of perspective."
She studied me as if she'd found something fascinating, then suddenly smiled like she'd won a point before explaining.
"Because the territory isn't the only family asset. From money in banks to stakes in various businesses. There's still a lot under my father's name. That's the assets. Honestly, with just that alone, something like wyvern transport is laughable."
The assets were as expected.
"The rights probably mean all the rights as a Margrave. From their faction's position, they can't help but covet not just the private soldiers a Margrave can maintain, but also the military discretion. I think even nobles in the capital, who are only permitted 10 or 20 private soldiers, would find that a dazzling prospect."
...Wait. Margrave?
"The justification isn't that different from what you first imagined, Eldmia. It'd be something like, 'The young noble lady of the Lien family, upholding the will of the Margrave who gave his life to protect the nation and its people, returns after several years to carry on that legacy and once more pledge loyalty to the King.' Or it'd be framed as, 'The last survivor of the Lien family, who fought for the people and King but could not avoid annihilation due to the King's incompetence and barely survived, has been found after the noble faction's devoted care and tireless efforts. The King did not even seek to find the last bloodline of his loyal servant.' Something like that, probably."
Not that different? It was completely fucking different from what I'd imagined.