Chapter 91
Chapter 91
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Chapter 22. Descent or Advent (1)
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They say some guys just can't catch a break, no matter what they do.
That was me.
Whoooooooosh!
A furious wind whipped across my face.
My face, battered by the wind, stung painfully.
But that was less of a problem than my side.
A massive talon had dug into my waist.
I’d lost all feeling there a while ago.
I couldn't muster any strength in my body either.
Something must have gone terribly wrong when those brutish talons seized me.
All I could do was quietly retrace my thoughts.
How did it come to this?
Just where did it all go wrong?
Actually, I knew.
“Tsk. This damn meddling of mine is the problem.”
My damned meddling was the cause.
The situation during the descent played out in my mind.
A squall hit during the descent.
In an instant, we were blown far from the drop point.
It was a tricky situation, but that wasn't the biggest issue.
‘Everyone, don't panic! Just focus on descending safely!’
After all, Professor Dieter Rizzner was with us to prepare for any contingency.
The problem came next.
Screeeech!
Suddenly, a swarm of monsters descended upon us.
Monstrosities with the upper body of a human, but where their hands and feet should have been were the wings and talons of a bird of prey.
They were harpies.
It seemed the place we'd been blown to was, of all places, a harpy nest.
‘Everyone, get close to me!’
Shouting this, Professor Dieter Rizzner drew his sword and cut down a dozen harpies on the spot.
Rumble, crash.
Every time he swung his sword, a deafening thunderclap echoed.
‘If you handle them calmly, they're nothing!’
Encouraged by his prowess, the cadets of Team 3 each drew their swords, bows, and crossbows to face the harpies.
But one person can't fend off ten.
We were only ten at most, while the harpies numbered in the hundreds.
That's when disaster struck.
A few of the cadets were seized by the harpies.
Horrified, Professor Dieter Rizzner slaughtered the harpies on the spot.
But the real trouble was yet to come.
Just as a sound of something slicing through the wind was heard, the sky suddenly darkened.
And something as straight as a spear shot past them.
It was the king of the skies, a wyvern.
The twin sisters were caught in the wyvern's two talons.
It was a surprise attack, exploiting the moment Professor Dieter Rizzner was busy rescuing the cadets from the harpies.
‘Damn it! Why did they pick a drop point like this!’
Cursing, Professor Dieter Rizzner swung his sword like a lightning bolt.
Ruuuuuumble. Crash.
The thunder that followed was louder than any I had ever heard.
The wyvern shuddered as if struck by lightning, then lost consciousness and began to fall.
The problem was that the sisters had also lost consciousness and were plummeting side by side.
Professor Dieter Rizzner, horrified, fired the shock absorbers.
But he could only save one of the sisters.
The other was falling toward the ground, unconscious and with no safety measures.
That's where my meddling kicked in.
Coincidentally, she wasn't far away.
I began to glide, just as I'd been trained.
After fumbling for a moment, I managed to grab the unconscious kid.
I aimed and fired the shock absorber.
‘You…?’
The kid, who had just regained consciousness, stared at me blankly before suddenly shaking her head.
Then, as if she'd quickly grasped the situation, she expressed her thanks.
‘You saved me?’
‘Not saved. In the process of saving you.’
‘Should I thank you in advance?’
‘Let's save the thanks for after we've landed safely.’
As we exchanged conversation unfitting for the situation, the ground drew closer.
The shock absorber deployed in the right spot, and there didn't seem to be any major problems.
Or so I thought.
‘Behind you! Behind you!’
‘Watch out for the wyvern!’
Until that damned wyvern regained consciousness and charged at us.
The wyvern was already upon us.
Suddenly, I recalled something I'd once heard.
The king of the skies is lazy by nature, but once it begins a hunt, it never gives up.
Even I didn't think such a greedy beast would just turn back.
‘Haa. No matter how I look at it, I don't think it's going back empty-handed.’
‘…You, what are you thinking right now?’
The pale-faced kid—probably Selma, one of the sisters—grabbed my wrist.
But her hand, weakened from the unfamiliar aerial combat, being seized by the wyvern, and then struck by the force of Professor Dieter Rizzner's empowered blow, had little strength.
I easily broke her grip and gave her a gentle push.
‘Goodbye, Selma.’
‘Hey, you crazy bastard!’
She screamed at my playful farewell.
Immediately after, the brutish talons snatched me.
“Just how far is this thing going to fly?”
And that was my current situation.
I was being carried off somewhere by the wyvern, flying on and on.
The beast seemed determined to fly to the very ends of the earth.
Thanks to that, my mind was filled with idle thoughts.
Why did I do that?
Self-reproach for taking on something I couldn't handle.
Did I know it would turn out like this?
And a sense of injustice.
To be honest, I hadn't planned on sacrificing myself.
It was just that I was closest to the falling Selma, and my descent suit happened to have a gliding function.
I thought that if I could just grab her, we could survive with a single shock absorber.
Until the wyvern regained consciousness and charged, messing everything up.
Letting myself get caught by the wyvern in her place wasn't an act born from some grand spirit of sacrifice or sense of justice either.
I just didn't want to see a kid with a bright future ahead of her get smashed to a pulp right before my eyes, as an adult.
At least I've lived once before.
Unlike her, I was an adult.
“Even when it comes to dying, the one who's done it before does it better.”
It was a shame no one was around to hear it.
That was a pretty good joke.
Whoosh.
Just then, the wyvern spread its wings wide.
A sheer cliff. And on one side of it, a nest.
Scree! Scree!
A baby wyvern with its mouth wide open cried out as if in welcome.
It seems that's the one who'll be tasting me.
“This is the worst.”
I was hoping to be swallowed whole in one painless gulp.
But there was no way that foal-sized baby wyvern could manage that.
It looked like my second death would be a painful end of being pecked and chewed.
“Hah. Nothing changes.”
Torture, being eaten alive.
Either way, it's just as painful.
What a goddamned fate.
Thud.
The brutish talons wrapped around my waist released me.
The baby wyvern immediately ran over and started pecking at me.
“Ah, ah, ah.”
I could feel the mother wyvern's sharp gaze on me.
If I were to harm the chick in the slightest, she would surely bite down on me with her vicious fangs and shake me to pieces.
“Ouch. Ouch.”
The baby wyvern continued to peck at me.
It seemed the mother wyvern's parenting skills weren't all that great.
Seeing as it hadn't learned that you get punished for playing with your food.
After that, the baby wyvern kept pecking, kicking, and climbing on me.
It was complete chaos.
I just lay there limply, letting it kick me as it kicked and stomp on me as it stomped.
While inwardly lamenting the wyvern family's poor upbringing.
It was a misunderstanding (?).
The mother wyvern wasn't uninterested in her chick's education; on the contrary, she was quite enthusiastic.
What I had thought was simple play, or a picky eater's tantrum, was actually training in how to subdue prey.
I belatedly realized one thing.
There was a reason the wyvern had chosen the skinny twin sisters over someone like Udo, who was fleshy and nutritious.
Compared to the ferocious harpies or the relatively larger cadets of Team 3, it must have judged the sisters to be less threatening to its chick.
Choosing me at the last minute must have been for the same reason.
After all, both the sisters and I were small and frail.
“It's sad enough that I don't grow taller. Hah.”
A sigh escaped me.
But the situation wasn't all bad.
As the baby wyvern pecked and stomped on me, feeling was slowly returning to my body.
I thought I was completely broken, but it seemed the powerful talons had just cut off my circulation.
At this rate, my paralyzed body would soon return to normal.
I quietly waited for the right moment.
Tired of its hunting game, the baby wyvern was now playing with my backpack, which was tossed in a corner.
Each time its sharp beak gnawed at it, the contents of the backpack spilled out.
Unfortunately, the sword that had been fastened to the top of the backpack was nowhere to be seen.
It seemed the strap had broken and it had fallen off during the brutal capture.
The axe and shield I had attached were also gone; I didn't know when I'd lost them.
But it wasn't as if I had no usable weapons at all.
“Ah.”
A deformed crossbow with an inverted prod lay sprawled in a corner of the nest.
The spoils of war from slaughtering the followers of the Faceless Witch.
The witch's relic that had arbitrarily fused with the body of the Knight Killer.
“Barisada.”
The demonic weapon that had played a crucial role in repelling the star-eating Madosa was there.
The Faceless Witch stretched and rose.
The drowsy, staggering Faceless Witch spotted me and waved.
Just then, the original owner of the authority dwelling within it also awoke from a long slumber and acknowledged me.
The Faceless Witch gestured for me to wait a moment.
She was an incredibly ominous being, but this time, I was genuinely glad to see her.
I waited quietly as she'd indicated.
A moment later.
Situation assessed.
A whispering voice was heard.
So, what will you do now?
I told the witch my plan.
And when I finished explaining everything, she asked me.
Where'd your chivalry go again?
As if dumbfounded.
Is it really okay to do that?
She asked the same question as before.
To this, I gave the same answer as last time.
“Yep.”
* * *
The cadets of Team 3 all wore grim expressions.
Descending far from the designated rendezvous point due to the sudden squall was a problem, but the bigger issue was that one of their team members had been carried off by a wyvern in the process.
It would have been strange if the team members' expressions were bright.
Everyone felt a sense of responsibility for the current situation.
“Damn it. If only we hadn't been caught by the harpies.”
“The professor wouldn't have missed the wyvern's presence if he wasn't busy saving us.”
The cadets who had been captured by the harpies blamed themselves.
“If only I'd kept my wits about me. I should have at least protected my shock absorber.”
“I should have struggled. I should have resisted to the end, even if my body was torn apart by its talons.”
The sisters who had been captured by the wyvern blamed themselves.
Everyone was reproaching themselves.
“It's not your fault. If we must assign blame, it lies with the Cradle for not identifying the harpies' habitat beforehand.”
“It's not widely known, but a wyvern's talons contain a paralyzing venom for its prey. It's only natural that you couldn't resist.”
“On the contrary, you all deserve praise for completing the descent without serious injury under such adverse conditions.”
It was Professor Dieter Rizzner's job, as the supervising professor, to soothe the cadets.
“We have to go save Yan now!”
“If we hurry, we can catch up!”
Despite the cadets' pleas to turn around and pursue the wyvern immediately, he steadfastly continued toward the designated rendezvous point.
“Chase a wyvern on foot? Don't be absurd. It's not only impossible, but it's not the best course of action. By now, the Cradle's rapid response team should be on the move. If you all start moving around, you'll just create more work for them.”
The man saying this was not in perfect condition himself.
Having used his own shock absorber for the unconscious, falling cadet, he had been forced to rely on his emergency one to complete the descent.
And as a price, he had suffered serious injuries to both legs.
Like the tough knight he was, he was forcing himself to endure, but that didn't mean his injuries were minor.
He was simply bearing it without showing it because there was no one else to lead the cadets.
The word 'disaster' wasn't enough.
Professor Dieter Rizzner had made countless descents, but things had never gone this wrong.
It was also the first time he felt the Cradle, which was normally extremely sensitive about cadet safety, had been so careless in its preparations.
The squall that came at the perfect time.
Followed by a swarm of harpies, and then the appearance of a wyvern, something you'd be lucky to see once in a lifetime.
They might not have predicted the squall, but they should have at least identified the presence of harpies or a wyvern near the drop point.
“Are we cursed? Seriously. Why has the Cradle been running things so poorly lately?”
He clicked his tongue repeatedly.
The only thing he could rely on in this situation was the Cradle's rapid response team.
“Still nothing? If they're going to be this slow, they should drop the 'rapid' from their name…”
As he grumbled in frustration, he suddenly lifted his head.
“Damn them. Took them long enough.”
Dozens of griffins were flying in the sky above.
The Cradle's rapid response team.
The Griffin Riders, members of the Knights of the Sky.
Professor Dieter Rizzner let out a small sigh of relief.
Seeing that not just one squad, but nearly the entire unit of these esteemed individuals—who rarely even show themselves unless the situation was dire—had been mobilized, eased his mind somewhat.
“…Huh?”
As he was watching the direction the Knights of the Sky were flying, Professor Dieter Rizzner suddenly turned his head to look at the horizon behind them.
Whoooooooooooooosh!
From beyond it, something unidentified was approaching at a tremendous speed.
An overwhelming presence, the likes of which he had never even imagined.
Professor Dieter Rizzner reflexively stood in front of the cadets.
And drew his sword.
“Halt!”
The lightning imbued in his sword crackled, ready to burst forth at any moment.
“Huk!”
But instead of unleashing the intense lightning, he hastily retreated with the cadets.
Whoooooooooooooosh…
A jet-black something passed in front of them and vanished to the other side in an instant.
In the same direction the Griffin Riders were headed.
Staring blankly at its retreating form, Professor Dieter Rizzner spoke in a dazed voice.
“…Professor Navian?”