Chapter 570: Just Because You Missed Them Doesn't Mean It's Over
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 570: Just Because You Missed Them Doesn't Mean It's Over
Leaving tracks that lead into the forest.
That would herd most of the pursuers inside.
A forest was never an easy place to search; therefore, their efforts would be time-consuming. She could buy herself at least half a day while they struggled to follow the false trail, couldn't she?
Most likely.
After herding them into the thicket, the girl known as the Saintess had taken a different path. To put the simple facts plainly: that was her play.
She was an incredibly clever child. If not, then someone must have trained her so thoroughly that these tactics were engraved into her very bones.
Here, another question arose.
Why did a Crusader come in person?
From what he had gathered, the pursuers from the Theocracy were the Crusaders. A portion of the Theocracy's military force had mobilized.
But why?
They were only chasing a single child. Why would the Crusaders—warriors who proved their worth through blood and combat—come for this? Because of their presence, they probably had to notify the Kingdom of their movements as a mere formality.
Encrid’s mind spun rapidly, arriving at a single conclusion.
What the Saintess hadn't calculated was the existence of someone with enough raw power to sweep through the forest in an instant, dicing up any Manticores that appeared, and emerge completely unscathed. Because Encrid had torn through the outskirts of the forest in one go, he was able to see the truth.
If you're simple-minded, your feet suffer, but he had gained something in exchange for his trouble. He had read the runaway's intentions.
If he had been slowly tracking her step by step, searching for his target based on conventional signs, it would have been difficult to notice her true intent.
The pursuit party's current location was the forest east of Felheim. The target's tracks vanished at the entrance of the forest, but naturally pointed inward.
Alright, so I dug through this and got the information.
But what about the Crusaders? Had they anticipated even this?
Perhaps. They knew the Saintess and were the ones who had chased her all the way here. Hadn't they already been tricked and fooled a few times? The Crusaders weren't brainless ghouls; if they had been tricked once, they would have prepared.
What was their preparation?
Is that why they increased their numbers?
They hadn't thrown Krona around just to form a dragnet. These people were bait—chaff meant to make the Saintess react. However, it was quite amusing that even here, their stinginess with Krona was glaringly obvious.
"Usually, they pay half the commission fee as an advance, but this time they only gave exactly ten percent. But since a priest swore on his god, we believed him and moved..."
Hearing the story, it made sense. Knowing the hunters wouldn't succeed anyway, the Theocracy had pulled this kind of trick. They minimized the advance payment as much as possible and sold out their own god to seal the deal.
Beyond mere corruption, they had sold out their deity in a highly creative manner. What magnificent bastards.
While the bounty hunters and mercenaries were moving, the Crusaders would also be tracking the child. That was why they would have chosen a different direction from the hunters.
Looking at the bigger picture from afar, it was clear. This was a drive hunt. Like flushing out a rabbit, they were driving hounds into various burrows to lure her toward where the traps were set.
"They got me," Encrid said.
No one could be perfect, so things like this happened. Even now, when it came to the game of cat and mouse, the success rate was less than half. This didn't change just because he had become a knight. Encrid hadn't trained repeatedly to become a master tracker, after all.
Was he late? He might be. But that was no reason to stop. Just like in the past, being caught didn't mean it was the end, and losing the trail didn't mean it was over.
A fifty-percent success rate meant half of his attempts were failures, and Encrid had suffered plenty even within the successful half. Yet, the reason he ultimately succeeded was because he had never given up.
"We're returning to the city. Keep up with my pace."
Encrid spoke and immediately bolted.
Boom!
The ground he kicked off split open with a scream. He spared neither his breath nor his strength, utilizing his Strong Legs.
Gwoooor!
A ghoul blocked his path midway. Encrid didn't even draw his sword. He snapped its neck as he brushed past. It was a superb display of Valaf-style Martial Arts. Caught in his hands, the ghoul's neck bones snapped and tore free, exposing part of its spine to the world as it collapsed.
From then on, whether it was monsters or demonic beasts, he slaughtered everything in his path and ran. Upon finally reaching the city, Encrid inhaled deeply, expanding his chest.
"Deutsch!"
His voice, infused with the same Will that had once called out to Audin, struck the entire city.
"Whoa!"
Nearby, a child feeding fodder to a donkey fell over in shock. A member of the Architect Guild building an inn smashed his own hand with a hammer and screamed.
"Argh!"
Such was the aftermath of the monstrous roar. Ignoring the sensory information flooding his surroundings, Encrid ran as he shouted, and soon, the one he called appeared.
Once again, the man was barefoot.
"Yes? What on earth, what is—?"
Encrid thrust his glowing blue eyes toward the startled Deutsch.
"Do you know where the Crusaders are?"
He did. Even after Encrid had left, Deutsch had been gathering information from all over.
"Yes, they were spotted near the north."
Since they had no talent for hiding themselves, finding their tracks was easy. However, that was all. The north? But where exactly?
Encrid decided to act simple-mindedly once more. In other words, he just had to make up for the lack of information with his feet.
"Let's run."
Shaking the city with his thunderous shout, Encrid bolted once again.
"See you again, brother!"
Behind him followed a large man nicknamed the Bear Beastman.
"Yes, good work. I express my gratitude on behalf of my fiancée."
An elf followed, tossing out strange words. Just as quickly as the three of them had rushed to the front of the mansion, they vanished. It was literally a case of whoosh in, whoosh out.
Deutsch felt for a moment as if he had been possessed by a ghost. No matter when he came, that man named Encrid always showed him something beyond imagination.
After catching his breath, Deutsch returned to the mansion, but it wasn't long before another guest arrived.
"Would you happen to know where the people from the Holy Church went?"
He was a man with downturned eyes and a gentle demeanor. He looked to be in his mid-to-late forties, fully armed including a steel breastplate, and his gear alone showed he was no ordinary person.
The most peculiar thing about him was his eyes. His pupils were silver. To add one more thing, he seemed older than he appeared. It was a pure gut feeling.
"If it is troublesome, you do not have to speak, but I ask of you nonetheless. No harm will come of it, brother," the man said.
Deutsch couldn't easily bring himself to refuse. The atmosphere, attitude, and tone of voice all made it clear that the stranger possessed extraordinary power. Even so, should he speak just to look out for his own interests?
No, he still had to speak. Whatever this man's intentions were, Deutsch could just tell him and then step forward himself to handle any fallout.
Deutsch, who had been tempted to back away because things were getting tangled and complicated, made up his mind.
"Let us go together."
He would go along to prepare for any complications. The silver-eyed man who had sought him out smiled brightly.
"Then I would be grateful."
*
The first object the girl who became the Saintess ever held in her life was a bow, and the first thing she ever made was a trap.
A trap made by leaning a small stick against a stone on the dirt floor, placing a thin piece of leather on top, and then a pebble on top of that so it would fall with a plop—it could barely catch a single mouse, but that was her toy and her game. That was the Saintess's childhood.
Having somehow become a fugitive, the Saintess decided to shake off her pursuers here.
Felheim.
It was after she had memorized the city's name out of habit and taken in the surrounding terrain. If she left tracks near the entrance of the eastern forest, she could shake off most of her pursuers. This was a fact she knew from experience.
They'll let their guard down, right?
It might look like she was cornered and fleeing out of desperation. She would make it look that way on the surface. But no matter what her pursuers thought, the Saintess had no intention of going deep into the forest.
Even if it wasn't the place where she was born and raised, she knew very well how threatening a forest could be to humans.
Maybe if it were just one or two man-faced hounds or ghouls.
In the fields, the view was open. Her innate eyesight reduced the dangers in open fields. But not the forest. No matter how sharp her senses were in detecting an opponent's presence, and even if she had the knack of staying half-awake and half-asleep, the sensation of death was too close.
She knew it by instinct.
I'll die.
One cannot enter a forest without preparation. One cannot climb a mountain without preparation. Her grandfather's teachings said so, and her own experiences confirmed it.
Therefore, she would not enter the forest. But she could certainly make them think she did.
Hadn't she risked her life about three times already to move in such a way? She had made it happen by planning and moving along routes that ordinary people wouldn't even dare to attempt.
Along with the thought, the girl called the Saintess stroked her ear. Her ears, which stopped short of pointing fully upward, were much blunter than an elf's, but they were still pointier than those of ordinary humans. What that indicated was clear.
She was a half-elf.
The Saintess checked the surrounding terrain and made up her mind.
Let's end the trail here.
If she fled in a way that made it look like she had vanished into thin air or sunk into the ground from the very start, her pursuers would be suspicious. Therefore, she had to funnel their thoughts in one direction.
Leave footprints here.
She intentionally left tracks heading into the forest. To make it look like a hurried escape, snapping a few branches would also be effective. After creating the appropriate tracks up to that point, the Saintess tied a cord around her waist and attached a blunt, elongated stone to the end.
Whoosh, whoosh.
When she swung the attached stone and threw it over a tree branch, the tough cloth cord wrapped around it several times under the weight of the stone, securing itself. By stepping onto the tree trunk and climbing up until she was parallel to the ground, then leaping onto a nearby branch, a path through the trees was created.
Moving from treetop to treetop allowed her to deceive those who would pursue her by looking only at the ground. In this manner, she would circle the edge of the forest instead of going inside, and then head back out.
What was required for this? She would have to climb trees as well as a flying squirrel.
She could do it. So she did.
Since any flying monsters or demonic beasts would pose a danger, she had to keep her ears sharply tuned at all times. If she heard the sound of flapping wings or sensed an amorphous monster in her cognitive domain, she would have to bolt immediately.
Naturally, this was also risking her life. However, there was a high probability she wouldn't encounter such dangers. Evil spirits, the prime example of amorphous demonic beasts, wouldn't appear in the sunlit borders, and harpies or large flying monsters wouldn't enter the cluttered forest.
The greatest danger here would be an owl demonic beast, but since it was daytime, the probability of encountering a nocturnal beast was extremely low. That was her reason for fleeing at this time of day.
The result of calculating all of this and moving accordingly was her current situation.
Not bad.
The methods she had learned from her grandfather and the realizations gained from her experiences had brought her to this point. Needless to say, none of this was easy. There was no way escaping from the Theocracy would be easy.
To get this far, Saintess Seiki had to appeal to someone's conscience, and someone else had to court danger for her sake. There had been a motherly priestess who cared for her, and a monk who ultimately helped her escape.
They'll probably be branded as heretics and killed.
At first, she had known nothing, but she had received over eight months of training to make her a Saintess. Seiki now knew what she needed to know. For instance, what this damn Holy Order was trying to do to her.
Why is making holy water or potions so important?
The teachings told her to prove her divinity, but it looked more like a brainwashing operation. She hid her doubts inside and acted nonchalantly on the outside. She had to do so.
The Saintess set her thoughts aside for a moment. Now was the time to focus.
As the final step of her trail-erasing work, which she dubbed the "tree path," she held onto a branch, braced her feet against the tree trunk, and took her stance. Those who could track her this far would be rare, but one could never be too sure.
"Whew."
Seiki caught her breath, bent her knees, and launched herself forward. Kicking off the tree trunk with a light tap, her body glided through the air for a moment as if she had truly become a flying squirrel.
Her tilted body became parallel to the ground. Lacking wings, falling was inevitable, so she fell. As she neared the ground, she tucked her shoulders, rolled to break her fall, and sprang back up.
Thanks to her flawless breakfall, there wasn't a single scratch on her body. Her wrists throbbed slightly, but that would heal in no time. She wound the cord that had been wrapped around the tree tightly around her waist and set off.
Now it was time to head back near the city and bypass it.
As she hurried along, Seiki recalled the beginning of all this once more. That day had been a truly shitty day. Actually, she hadn't known it then, but in hindsight, that was the case. Looking back, she couldn't help but think, If only I had handled things better that day, would I even be chased like this?
Of course, there was no way to know for sure. The Holy Order wouldn't have given up on a Saintess so easily.