Chapter 96
Chapter 96
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: Bait (1)
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Knights Houndid and Scolseiji of the Meursault House were smashing the ice frozen over the river today as well.
……Crack!
They had to break ice over 30 cm thick using nothing but pure physical strength, without any mana.
It was hell trying to shatter ice that wouldn't even crack under the weight of ten burly northerners at once, and doing it bare-fisted to boot.
Houndid raised his fist.
"We've been pounding this damn ice so much that my knuckles don't even bleed anymore."
"Look at those calluses. Are those human fists or monster exoskeletons?"
Scolseiji whistled as he stared down at his own fists, which had swollen to twice their size.
After cycles of frostbite swelling, bursting, healing, and callusing, their fists had turned a deep purple and grown twice as large.
They probably wouldn't shrink even if they rested in a warm place forever.
"This is practically human body modification territory. Crude and simple, but effective. I can intuitively feel how much stronger I've gotten."
"Maybe it's because we've never gone without using mana since we first sensed it, but it feels like a blockage's been blasted open. They say you only truly appreciate something when it's out of reach. Training the body with pure physical force makes the mana itch to grow along with it, like a haughty girl who ghosts you for days and then comes crawling back begging to meet?"
"How would you know what that feels like? You've never even been with a woman."
"Shut it, Houndid. Don't insult my honor. I know from the specialist books I borrowed from the library."
"……Anyway, you're right that you've never been with one. You're a collateral branch of the Meursaults with decent status—how'd you end up like this?"
"Neither have you."
"Cough—I'm a soldier, man. I spent half my life on frontline outpost duty fighting monsters."
"And the half before that?"
"……Our village back then was a total sausage fest. There weren't any women, period."
"Hey, speaking of, I heard there are tons of guys on the frontlines banging monster chicks that look human. You know, like shepherds with their sheep……"
"Hey! That's slander from the rear-echelon slackers sucking honey back home, trying to downplay the sacrifices of frontline warriors to ease their own guilt and debt!"
"Oh, yeah? Sorry. Guess it was just a rumor."
"Total bullshit. 'Tons'? It's not even three in ten at most."
"……."
"Three-point-five? Anyway, better than sheep."
Houndid and Scolseiji got along great as always.
A commoner and a quasi-noble, different backgrounds, but as fellow young knights serving the Meursault House, they had grown quite close.
Right then.
"You lot! What are you whispering about!"
A bellow came from right beside them.
Startled, Houndid and Scolseiji whipped their heads around.
But there was nothing there.
Just a massive lump of ice……
"Hurry up and break that ice, then haul it away! Slack off and you'll get a smack!"
And that lump of ice was nagging Houndid and Scolseiji.
Looking closer, Sir Dvorzak stood behind the massive ice block.
Who would ever take him for a man over seventy?
His shirtless torso seemed made entirely of muscle and scars.
"Yes, sir! We'll get right to it!"
"We're not slacking! We were just talking for a sec! About training!"
Houndid and Scolseiji replied, ramrod straight with tension.
Sir Dvorzak shook the ice shards from his beard and clicked his tongue.
"If you want to chat, submit your retirement papers and sip tea at social parties. Young Master Federback is graciously training you himself for once—where do you find the time for this?"
"Sorry, sir! Breaking ice now!"
Houndid and Scolseiji scurried off and slammed their fists into the frozen river surface.
Dvorzak shook his head once more, shoved the ice block, and headed down the hill.
Once he was gone, Houndid and Scolseiji wiped cold sweat from their brows.
"That guy's gotta be a golem. How is that an old man's body? Did you see those muscles? Over seventy with that build? I don't buy it."
"I heard Sir Dvorzak, back in his youth—about forty years ago?—once beat a bear to death with his bare hands."
"I could manage one if I had to."
"But get this? A week ago, he went into the woods and came back with two bears, bare-handed."
"What the hell? Why's he getting stronger?"
"Bears tear people. Sir Dvorzak tears bears."
The two snickered as they chipped away at the ice.
Then.
"Hey. Rookies."
Dvorzak's voice came from right behind them.
Houndid and Scolseiji jumped in fright.
"Eek!? S-Sorry, sir!"
"Not mockery! It was backtalk out of respect!"
But Dvorzak ignored them, raising a finger to his lips.
'We're screwed. He won't even hear excuses!'
'He's gonna tear us like bears. Too horrifying!'
Houndid and Scolseiji squeezed their eyes shut.
But Dvorzak's reaction was unexpected.
"Don't turn around no matter what from now on. And keep your voices down."
"……?"
"Act natural. Tilt your head just a bit to the side and check 11 o'clock. Go."
Dvorzak's voice was eerily calm, unlike before.
Houndid and Scolseiji slowly rolled their eyes that way.
But nothing was there.
A snowy wasteland whipped by flurries and ice shards.
Snow-draped hills over jagged frozen waves on the river.
Nothing moved amid the sparse, bare dead trees.
Swish—
Except for one thing.
"Wh-what's that?"
"Shh!"
Dvorzak shushed their question once more.
Finally, he spoke.
"Owl Bear."
"……!"
Cold sweat beaded on Houndid and Scolseiji's foreheads at the words.
Owl Bear.
A high-rank monster with an owl's head on a grizzly's body.
It preyed on Sasquatch for breakfast, and even the superior Yeti fled before it.
Far surpassing a bear's strength and speed, yet its feathers—owl plumes all—made it utterly silent in motion.
Spreading the wing-membrane feathers connecting its limbs let it glide briefly from heights.
Dvorzak furrowed his brow.
"Those normally live in the frozen wastes at the northern extremity. Why's it here?"
"I still can't see it clearly. Just a shadow flickering. And aren't Owl Bears usually brown?"
"That's what I thought too. But this one's white as snow. I spotted its shadow by chance."
"Some tundra monsters come in rare white-furred, red-eyed variants. Is this one of those?"
"Quiet. You think I'm a biologist? If you wanna live, follow my lead. No signs of panic."
Houndid and Scolseiji nodded at Dvorzak's grave tone.
……But their hopes were dashed.
The Owl Bear charged straight at them.
"Damn it, draw swords!"
Dvorzak yanked his blade free and formed an Aura Blade.
Houndid and Scolseiji hastily drew their backswords and coated them in aura.
Bluish gaseous blades pointed forward.
Soon, the oncoming blizzard curtain tore open before them.
Bursting through was a wagon-sized behemoth.
[ROOOAAARRR!]
Dvorzak gaped in shock.
"Wh-what the hell!? That's no regular Owl Bear! King of the Owl Bears!?"
And no wonder.
The Owl Bear shredding the blizzard had a head twice the normal size.
Its torso bulged with muscle and dense feathers, impervious even to Aura Blades.
Its arms, thicker than siege rams, ended in five scythe-like talons.
……Thud!
One swipe sent Houndid flying back.
"Useless rookies! Hold your ground! Show me your training!"
Dvorzak's shout fell on deaf ears.
……Bam!
Scolseiji took a headbutt and soared like a doll tossed by girls.
"Damn these fools. Guess this old bones has to drag his carcass out after all."
Feigning nonchalance, Dvorzak's nerves were taut as wires.
His Aura Blade condensed from his sword-tip, thinning to liquid form.
BOOM!
Dvorzak's Aura Blade clashed with the Owl Bear's claw.
But astonishingly.
Scraaape!
Sparks flew wildly, yet the claw didn't sever.
Squelch—
The Owl Bear overpowered him with brute force.
Then Dvorzak's muscles ballooned grotesquely.
"Hraaah!"
Incredibly, he held against the Owl Bear.
A veteran knight famed for the Meursault territory's mightiest strength.
"Rookies! Help me out! Wanna watch an old man die!?"
"Yes, sir!"
Houndid and Scolseiji rushed back in.
They'd been tough long before training.
Houndid was a frontline vet who'd hunted Yeti and Sasquatch like daily meals.
Scolseiji was a famed commander who'd stuck with Federback through the Prossanqe battle, toppling Torchka Fortress and more.
Surviving Federback's ice-chopping regimen only amplified that.
Thud! Boom!
Flanking Dvorzak, Houndid and Scolseiji pushed back the Owl Bear.
"Raaah!"
Monster fights were about momentum.
The trio bellowed war cries, shoving the beast back.
Their full-mana outburst cracked the surrounding ice.
……Then.
[Hmm. Can't hold my breath any longer, I suppose.]
The Owl Bear spoke.
Stunned, Dvorzak, Houndid, and Scolseiji blankly looked up.
In that instant.
……Poof!
With a white flash, the Owl Bear vanished.
What remained was.
"You pass. Good work on your training."
A pale-skinned boy standing naked in the snowfield.
Houndid and Scolseiji screamed.
"Agh! Wendigo!"
"Snow witch!"
"Idiots, look closely!"
Dvorzak barked in exasperation.
He knelt on one knee before the boy.
"Greetings, Young Lord."
The Owl Bear's true identity was Federback.
As Dvorzak draped a cloak from his pocket over Federback, Houndid and Scolseiji stood dumbfounded.
"Still, Young Master. Didn't know you had that hobby. Outdoor exposure in this weather…… every time, no less……"
Dvorzak's nagging was set to continue.
In the North, frost coats everything.
Cups, bread, even spent firewood.
Names too.
Frost Wolf, Frost Lizard, Frost Viper……
Frost always clings to northern beasts' names.
'So maybe I'm a Frost Owl Bear.'
Owl Bears typically had dark gray or brown feathers and yellow eyes, but Federback's variant sported pure white plumage and red eyes.
Like the northern beasts' white camouflage.
'White's convenient for fighting in constant snow.'
Federback mulled this as he returned to the castle.
Queenbits' gifted Druid Ring exceeded expectations.
He'd turned into a white cat of the "Meursault Woods" breed, racing unseen across snowfields. Knights and soldiers in training hadn't noticed.
Only when he tested combat as a huge Owl Bear did one sharp-eyed veteran barely spot him.
'Overwhelming a 4th Circle knight and two 2nd Circle ones is plenty. Monster form barely drops my combat power.'
The catch: no breathing in transformed state.
Federback had gulped max air beforehand, holding for about 1 hour 34 minutes.
'Without running the tundra or fighting knights, I could've lasted three hours.'
Monstrous lung capacity by any measure…… but not enough.
Pre-regression Federback could inhale for 48 hours straight, then exhale for 48.
'Gotta keep at it.'
Federback thought, eyeing his claw nicked by Dvorzak's sword.
Then.
"You should get those claws tended to."
Walking the hall, Rorschach popped out beside him.
Old castle, full of blind spots.
Federback asked.
"That's a dead end. Why'd you come from there?"
"Dead end? There's the underground waterway right there, sloshing with water."
Rorschach pointed to the hall's blind alley.
A puddle lapped at the floor there.
Seemed shallow, but stairs plunged deep underground beneath.
Come to think of it, Rorschach wore a black wetsuit perfect for diving, water dripping from hair ends.
Federback frowned.
"Flooded ruins. Didn't you see the no-entry sign?"
"My hobby's finding Meursault Castle's old secret passages. I prowl the place like this on leave."
"Bad habit. Closed areas are closed for a reason. Poking around old underground halls risks cave-ins."
"I've scaled hundreds of meters of sheer Abyss stalactites my whole life."
"Fair enough."
Federback accepted it readily.
Rorschach, soaked, tagged along toward the office.
"Anyway, Federback. A guest arrived."
"Guest?"
"Yeah, here for a progress report on that job you assigned."
"Who?"
Rorschach answered Federback's question.
"Name's Sancho. I remember him from selecting laborers for the Beauvoir Mine purge."