The Lost Demon Girl (5)
1.
-thud, thud-
“Ugh, seriously, this is bad for my heart...”
After pushing through the brush and moving a little ways from the campfire, Rain leaned against a tree and stared up at the sky, dazed.
The lonely night sky was packed with stars, and it had a strangely peaceful feel to it, but Rain still couldn’t calm his heart. The images burned into his mind from a moment ago, along with the vivid warmth left on his body, refused to fade.
Even now, whenever he closed his eyes, her figure surfaced in his mind.
The white, soft, warm feel of Sian.
And then there was the way her body had somehow seemed smaller than usual, along with her personality seeming a little gentler than normal; it almost felt as if she, already such an alluring High Elf, was emitting an entirely different sort of pheromone.
“...No way she did that on purpose, right?”
And yet, part of him couldn’t help wondering whether she might have been trying to seduce him deliberately.
After all, for all that she was a High Elf, she was far too casual with men for a woman, and her way of speaking was also rough and unpolished enough that it hardly seemed feminine at all.
But unlike that blunt personality, her appearance and presence made her seem like something far more beautiful than a mere human High Elf... no, maybe even something beyond that.
She felt exactly like a succubus trying to tempt him.
“Nah, that’s impossible...”
If Sian wanted men out of sexual desire, he would already have been flattened under that overwhelming power long ago.
She was nothing like the other High Elves mentioned in rumors or old records. Or maybe the rumors themselves were wrong. Or perhaps it had really been a demon disguising itself as a High Elf and getting up to all sorts of things.
-shff-
“Haa... Guess I should head back soon.”
Chuckling faintly at how absurd his own thoughts were, Rain brushed off his clothes and stood up.
He’d spent ten, maybe twenty minutes staring at the night sky, and by now he had calmed down. The treatment should probably be nearly finished too, so he decided he’d go back and thank Sian at least, and he took a step forward at that very moment—
-whoosh!
“?”
Suddenly, something pure white flew straight toward him.
Before he even had time to register it, Rain felt an inexplicable sense of foreboding and lowered his body on instinct.
-thwack!
“...That’s...”
A pure white arrow quivered in the tree Rain had been sitting against just moments ago.
“...”
Rain quickly realized it had been fired at him. He immediately slipped into the brush, drew his sword, and began scanning the surroundings.
It was dark under the forest canopy, so visibility was poor, but if he closed his eyes and focused his senses, he could feel it: the flow of air in the woods had changed, just slightly.
Something had surrounded him.
-whooooosh!
A vague wind filled the forest with a sinister hush.
Who was it? Had a monster approached without him noticing?
But if it was a monster, it was far too quiet. And if it was human, then the creature-like instincts he could feel from them were all wrong—like a predator preparing to hunt down its prey.
They’ve surrounded me.
Rain broke into a cold sweat, realizing he’d been driven into a corner without even having the chance to respond.
These were the pursuers who had attacked them earlier.
They used weapons coated in venom potent enough to kill a person without so much as a twitch, and they felt no hesitation at all about killing their own kind.
On top of that, they were strong enough that even several veteran adventurers had been taken down before they could properly react.
What do I do...?
If he moved carelessly now, they’d pinpoint his location.
But if he did nothing, those men would reach the three people by the campfire in no time, and even if Sian was with them, a mage fighting while protecting the other two from assassins that skilled would be impossible.
Maybe the two who had been knocked down would be in danger. At worst, even the woman helping them—her—might end up in danger too.
...No choice.
There was no other way.
If he dragged this out, the situation would only get worse, and if he simply stood still, the outcome was already decided.
-shff-
So Rain put his sword away.
“Hoo...”
Then he pulled a small paper ball from his chest pocket, along with a dagger.
Let’s do this.
There was only one thing he could do here.
The other adventurers who had come with them were already wiped out, so asking for backup was impossible, and the Adventurer Guild was far too distant to seek help from now.
-whoosh-
Rain threw the little ball upward.
So the only thing I can do now is tell Sian what’s happening.
Explode.
-flash!
An enormous light, bright as the sun itself, swallowed the surrounding area.
What Rain had thrown was a disposable flash bomb, one of the adventuring tools that released such brilliant light it could turn night into day.
That light would have been visible even to the people at the campfire, and it should also be enough to temporarily blind the pursuers, whose eyes had adjusted to the darkness.
“Graaahh...! My eyes...!”
That was why he heard those screams.
The pursuers had temporarily lost their sight to the blinding flash.
That was the only chance he had been given.
“Now!”
With a dagger in hand, Rain lunged into the brush from which the voice had come and ambushed one of the pursuers.
-stab!
“Ghk!”
In a situation like this, hesitation was the same as death. Adventurers might not usually take commissions involving war against humans, but adventure itself was a business where anything could happen at any time.
“He’s over here! He struck first!”
That was why adventurers had an unspoken set of rules that didn’t really exist, but did.
“Come on then! I dare you, you beastly bastards!”
The first was not to treat your companions as objects of affection.
In an emergency, the death of a companion could shake your composure, and in adventure, losing your calm was no different from losing your life.
Worst of all, something that should have only cost one person their life could end up killing two and making the situation even worse.
-shuk!
Rain stabbed out at the eyes of the pursuer who had found him.
“Gaaah!”
“I’m here! Come at me!”
The second was to always put your own life first, no matter the situation.
If you died, there would be no second chance. No matter how beautifully adventurers sang of comradeship, death never cared about the beauty of that bond, and it came without stopping.
Never throw yourself into death trying to save a companion; taking care of your own safety came first.
“You insolent human...”
-thump!
“Gh?!”
One of the pursuers drove a foot into Rain’s abdomen.
The force behind it was so great it hardly seemed human at all, monstrous strength that brought an ogre to mind.
This wasn’t human power. It was the strength of a beast.
They were like predators roaming the wild, protecting the wild, surviving in the wild.
Rain rolled across the ground several times.
“Die! Human!”
“...Aaaagh!”
-slash!
“Ghk?!”
Just as a pursuer’s sharp claws were about to pierce his throat, Rain drew his sword and split the man’s abdomen open.
Red blood and disgusting innards spilled out in a torrent.
“Urgh!”
Rain seized the corpse and hurled it into the air.
-thud!
“Damn it, his scent’s gone!”
The corpse’s blood sprayed through the air, fouling the surroundings, and thanks to that the pursuers’ specialty—smell—was disrupted, leaving them unable to locate Rain for a moment.
Even though he had been surrounded in an instant, Rain’s quick thinking had already taken out two of the pursuers.
That leaves nine? I have to cut their numbers down somehow—
It was a trick only possible because he was a seasoned adventurer with plenty of experience, and because he had already figured out what these men really were, allowing him to understand their weakness.
But then—
-stab!
“Ah?”
A sword plunged into Rain’s back.
“You disgusting human bastard, how dare you kill our kin!”
“Ugh, ngh...”
And the same was true for them.
The pursuers who had attacked Rain were just as experienced and skilled, and they already knew perfectly well that he was a human adventurer who used a sword.
The only reason his earlier ambush had worked was because they had been blinded for a brief moment.
They were rough, strong, and possessed savage instincts.
So now that their sight had returned, noticing and reacting to a sneak attack from behind was easy.
-thud.
“Urk, ngh, ah...”
Rain collapsed onto the ground, blood spilling from him.
The sword that had driven into his back had pierced clean through his abdomen, and the moment the pain hit him, his body froze.
No matter how hard he tried to move his arms and legs, they wouldn’t obey; his muscles seized up, and his body could only tremble uncontrollably.
“What are you doing! We were told to keep the male humans alive, weren’t we? So why weren’t they to be captured?”
“This one killed our kin. And there were more adventurers who fled with him.”
“Idiot! Those two females are already doomed to die from the poison. ‘That person’ ordered us to capture at least one of the adventurers!”
And so, even with those pursuers right in front of him, all Rain could do was watch.
Even though he should have been drawing his sword and fighting right now, these were the same bastards who had brutally massacred the adventurers who came here with him.
He needed to tell the Guild about these mysterious beastmen who had betrayed and attacked them, even though beastfolk had allied themselves with other races, but his body would not move.
“Damn it, hurry up and make sure he doesn’t die! Because of that lunatic causing trouble lately, the humans haven’t been able to reach our side. If we go any farther into human territory, that Empire’s Swordmaster will notice us!”
The one who seemed to be the leader among the pursuers barked the order.
“Tch... Consider yourself lucky, human.”
“Ah... uh...”
With no other choice, the strange beastmen hurriedly began to stop the bleeding from Rain’s wound. It hurt, and they were rough about it, but the bleeding definitely seemed to be slowing.
Then, at that moment, an unexpected voice rang out.
“Rain! Where are you, you bastard?”
Rain jumped at the sound.
“...Uh?”
“Shh, everyone, stay quiet. Also cover the human’s mouth.”
“Mmmph— mmph!”
From the far side of the forest, a girl’s voice came drifting over.
A youthful, delicate voice...
Somehow, Sian had come looking for Rain nearby and was calling out to him. But apparently she hadn’t noticed what was happening here, because she was walking through the woods with only a lantern lighting the way.
No, no, no—
Why was she coming here? Had she come to look for him after finishing the treatment?
Rain howled inwardly as Sian appeared at the worst possible time.
These guys were stronger than most four-star adventurers, at the very least.
And they were even better than Rain when it came to hiding their presence and assassination.
Mages could unleash powerful spells, one after another, but to use those spells at all, they first had to know the enemy was there.
That was true even for High Elves, and Rain knew well that mages were vulnerable to sudden strikes from thief-like enemies.
“Who’s that female?”
“...By the smell, she’s an elf. Come to think of it, I clearly heard that one of this human’s companions was an elf who used a bow.”
“An elf who uses a bow? ...She doesn’t look built for archery, but whatever. Kill that elf. What we need is humans, not elves, so any possible danger has to be erased.”
Unfortunately, the forest wind was blowing the other way, and Rain’s blood scent didn’t seem to be reaching Sian.
At that rate, she’d be in danger.
Rain had a grim premonition that while she was trying to help them, Sian—who had nothing to do with this—would get caught up in the attack.
( Mmmph...! Mmph...!!! )
( Keep quiet! If you don’t shut up, I’ll kill you! )
-smack!
So Rain tried to make some sound, desperately trying to alert her to the situation, but the beastman holding him down struck him on the head, and he sagged limply to the ground.
“If you can hear my voice, answer me! Where are you?”
-thud, thud-
Sian kept moving through the forest.
She used her lantern to light the way, but sadly, the glow didn’t reach where Rain was.
In the end, he squeezed out every last bit of strength he had left.
-crunch!
“Gaaahhh...! You damn human, my hand...!”
“?”
A beastman’s scream rang out in the forest.
Rain bit down on the hand covering his mouth, and as a result Sian finally turned her gaze in this direction.
“It’s dan— dangerous! D-don’t come this wa—!!!”
“Rain? What are you shouting about?”
And then Rain shouted at Sian with all his might.
He told her it was dangerous here, and begged her to go back and protect the others instead.
“Tch, kill that elf!”
-whoosh!
In the end, the pursuers who had failed their ambush rushed toward Sian in an instant.
They raised vicious weapons like swords and axes, ready to cut down that slender girl.
No—
Sian didn’t seem to react at all; she only stared at them. And then those beasts would surely sever her arms, cut off her legs, and even if she screamed, they would mercilessly take her life.
Unable to bear watching that scene with his own eyes, Rain squeezed his eyes shut.
“Die!”
He just kept muttering apologies inwardly, biting his lip hard enough to hurt.
“I asked what you meant by dangerous.”
“...?”
But strangely enough, what reached his ears was not her scream, but a calm voice that seemed utterly unconcerned.
Wondering what in the world had happened, Rain slowly opened his eyes.
And then—
“If someone calls your name, answer them.”
“S-Sian?”
Sian stood there, looking down at him with the expression of someone who found the whole world a nuisance, her back to the moonlight.
“So I’m asking you again. What do you mean, dangerous?”
Sian wasn’t injured at all.
Seeing that, it was almost as if nothing had happened.
More than that, she was genuinely asking Rain what he meant by danger.
“T-that’s because of those guys— huh?”
Rain pointed toward the place where the pursuers had been, but all he could see was a scene that seemed impossible to believe.
-boom!
“Gh, guh...! My, my body won’t move...!”
The pursuers had slammed their heads into the ground and were saying things like that.
He didn’t know exactly when it had happened, but the pursuers who had charged at Sian were now kneeling on the ground and unable to move.
“So that’s who you were talking about when you said dangerous?”
“Ah, yes...”
“That’s ridiculous. You’re an adventurer—how can you be scared of little beasts like that? You made me come all this way just because of something so trivial?”
“Grrr...”
“Wait, Lady Sian! Behind you—”
...And the third rule was never to let your guard down, no matter the situation.
Even if an enemy had been completely subdued, you could not relax. There was no moment an adventurer was allowed to feel safe except the moment they were dead.
“Damn it, there’s still one left—”
That was why adventurers said it.
Adventurers who did not follow this unspoken rule would, at the very least, lose their lives within a year.
“You filthy elf bitch...”
The pursuer whose hand Rain had just bitten down on swung his sword at Sian.
-thud.
“Urk? What are you doing!”
“I’m sorry— this is all because of me...!”
In the end, Rain threw himself in front of her, trying to shield Sian with his own body and take the pursuer’s blade in her place.
And then—
“Don’t touch people with that filthy body.”
“Ghk?!”
-whoosh!
Sian flung Rain far away.
“You stupid elf bitch! If you throw away your shield, then what happens—”
The unspoken rule adventurers were supposed to follow—
But there were exceptions to that rule.
The exception was someone who possessed the strength to endure everything that happened to them alone.
“...Kneel.”
-boom!
“Guhk?!”
Giga Graviton — Area Magic
Attribute: Physical / Range: 100m / Max Targets: 1~1000
Magic that manipulates gravity within a certain range. Targets within the area suffer effects such as confusion, stun, and restraint.