Sheryl Chusin Ogatorf
Sheryl Chusin Ogatorf
Ambushes always provided the upper hand.
And a surprise attack attempted with a body enhanced by aura or mana was akin to a freely moving arrow wreaking havoc among enemies. To those who were mere ordinary people, it was nothing short of a disaster itself.
Thanks to that, I had become the disaster wreaking havoc among these damn bastards.
"Flee!"
It was a good sign that the will of those who had tried to somehow stop me broke and those who finally chose to flee began to emerge. It was because they themselves felt there was no one to stop me that they chose to run. Before I could even fully feel grateful toward the one who had just proven that commander or whatever was ultimately mediocre, Sheryl swooped in and drove her sword into the bastard's chest.
"Ghk!"
Though I liked the fact that Sheryl moved in step with me so I didn't have to worry about my rear, after already cutting down close to ten guys without seeing anyone worthy of being called a commander, it bothered me a little. There had seemed to be three of them grouped together earlier—was there a leader among them?
"You son of a bitch!"
As I hesitated for a moment while mulling it over, one bastard with a relatively fast approach lunged at me with his sword. A rough face. Traces of knife scars. The judgment and skill to exploit a moment's carelessness.
"Are you the captain, you bastard?!"
-Pakang!
"What the fuck!?"
My sword, swung with all my might, split the bastard's blade vertically as it thrust at my heart. Thanks to that, the bastard freaked out, and so did I.
A sword splitting vertically...?
"That actually works?!"
It was a sight that even I found astonishing, but the moment I realized this was an opportunity, my instincts took over, my body moved, and I pressed down on the sword while attempting a thrust.
With the sound of grinding metal, sparks flew between my sword and the bastard's split blade, kicking up sparks like you'd see when cutting metal with a grinder. Beyond the tip of the sword driving in, the despair on the bastard's face came into view.
"Fuck, no, no...!"
-Puuk!
The bastard, likely from having been quite startled, hadn't even thought of dropping his sword before his heart was impaled just like that, gushing blood. In the illusion that his thoroughly unpleasant death was crawling up the blade, the one I assumed to be a commander or field captain, who had met my eyes, died without even managing a second breath.
"Th-that thing's a monster."
"Run, we have to run..."
From that point on, even the four guys who had been charging in from the surroundings began to back away, terror-stricken and horrified. It seemed my estimation hadn't been far off the mark.
After the strange sensation of pulling my sword from his, when I gave a wide swing and blood sprayed off my blade, the bastards started fleeing in utter panic as if it were some kind of poison.
"Look at these cowardly bastards who only know how to kill those weaker than themselves. Weren't you bastards the ones scattered all over this forest?! If you're some shitty private soldier from Pabiera or Pavarei or whatever, you should at least have a signal flare, right? Fire it, you bastards! You're all criminals in this S.Aide sector anyway. Wouldn't it be better to die fighting than live so pathetically?"
"Aaaaah!"
"Flee, fuck!"
I had thought one or two might charge in out of spite, but apparently that was expecting too much. While I was staring blankly at the bastards who dropped even their weapons and fled without looking back, Sheryl came up beside me and said flatly.
"You'd already killed all twenty of them who were supposed to be their command. Why would they keep attacking?"
"Oh. Right, I did."
I belatedly recalled her saying that besides the ones scattered in the forest, there were only twenty of them here.
"I'd moved thinking that since we ambushed them, I had to kill anyone I reached, so I forgot."
I had been unconsciously factoring in even the ones in the forest.
Sheryl, who had been looking at me as if I were ridiculous, picked up the vertically split sword and examined it before speaking.
"You didn't actually plan this, did you?"
"How could I have planned that? I swung to strike and it just stuck. Must have been a cheap sword."
"Still, I don't think it would normally end up like this..."
"To be honest, I think so too."
I had heard that sometimes in life you exhibit movements or skills beyond what you're capable of, and maybe this was one of those times. I'd split a sword like bamboo.
Finding it novel, I inspected my own sword, and sure enough, the edge that had split and scraped into the sword was completely ruined. Out of a sense of injustice, I wanted to at least loot the dead bastards' pockets, but since the name Ogatorf would inevitably be mentioned, doing something so petty would definitely reflect badly, so I decided to just endure.
"What do you want to do? Want to chase them down?"
"Not really. That noble bastard is still left, and there are ten close associates with him, so there's no need to waste energy on those guys."
"Would they dare point a sword at us after we've scorched this place, unless they're insane?"
"I'll have to pretend to be exhausted so they think they can."
"What?"
"If I go out looking like I finished it by the skin of my teeth, even though I was exhausted, that bastard will have to deliberate. Threaten us, bribe us, or play dumb. I need to see his reaction to grasp even a little more about him and prepare."
Because people's true nature shows when they're under the illusion they have options. Sheryl, who had been staring at me as I grinned showing my molars, also grinned fiercely.
"I like that."
◈
After putting in a bit more effort, we took only three heads from the guys with slightly better gear than the rest and started walking to leave the forest.
The sounds of weapons clashing from all directions told us the situation hadn't been settled yet, but we didn't bother seeking out and stirring up anyone unless we ran into them on the way.
Although we killed every bastard we ran into.
"Still, to think we'd deliberately smear ourselves with blood..."
Because we had completely wiped out their main force so one-sidedly that we didn't have a scratch, after much deliberation we had to rummage through a few corpses and forcibly smear blood on our bodies. Obviously neither I nor Sheryl were thrilled, but there was no other choice.
Sheryl only smeared blood, but to be more convincing, I even went so far as to deliberately slash my own leather armor—a grievous expense.
"It looks more plausible for you to have fought a fierce battle than for me, right? And it's the truth too."
Indeed, even I, if I knew nothing and saw a girl like Sheryl come out drenched in blood, wearing damaged armor, holding human heads in both hands and trudging out, I'd be on edge from the start. It was too far removed from common sense. It would be more useful for appropriate wariness if a somewhat bulky, muscular guy did it.
Looking like that, as we came out of the forest outskirts, I spotted far off a guide whose flustered demeanor was unmistakable at a glance.
"Wh-what happened?"
"What happened? We killed all the bastards in the ruins and came out."
"What?!"
"About twenty, was it? I grabbed one and squeezed it out of him: twenty at their base. Said about forty were spread out in the forest, so we killed a bunch and came out. These heads are from the ones with the best gear, who looked like leaders."
While speaking, I tossed the heads in front of him, which only made me feel worse the longer I held them, and the guide's complexion visibly paled.
"Y-you killed them all?"
"Then what, did only their souls come out after they died? We killed some in the forest too, so we must've gotten around thirty. Still, there are sixty of us, so the remaining thirty or so should be manageable for the rest of those fuckers, right? The two of us have done our part, so we'll rest now."
"That requires proof..."
"I won't stop you, so go in and check. You even have the noble sir's private soldiers there. Just walk straight down the path we came and you'll see for yourself, so go ahead. We're too tired to go."
Even if I couldn't tell whether the heads on the ground still had faces, it was plain to see the guide's pupils shaking as if in an earthquake. The bastard stumbled back a few steps, didn't even try to stay calm, turned his body hastily, and ran back to the encampment shouting.
"W-wait! I'll go report!"
"...It's obvious that panicking so openly is definitely not the look of someone who's pleased, right?"
"If that's pleasure, then the heads on the ground are laughing too."
I fully agreed with Sheryl, who even gave the head another kick, and as we waited, the encampment became noisy, and soon a man unmistakably a noble appeared, accompanied by his private soldiers.
Having expected a greasy-faced, pig-fat noble with all sorts of jeweled rings on his fingers and a shady look, I was a bit disappointed to see a man who appeared perfectly normal at first glance.
With neatly trimmed common brown hair, and though not large, a robust body visible even through his clothes, he gave the impression of a warrior at a glance.
He approached us unhurriedly, and despite his gentlemanly demeanor, he scrutinized us with sharp eyes before speaking.
"I am Baron Pabaera, the client of this subjugation. My servant informed me that you are the ones who came out after subjugating the thieves encamped in the forest—is that correct?"
That gaze, despite bearing a blue light, felt thoroughly dull and was utterly loathsome.