Chapter 250
Chapter 250
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 250
Chapter Title: Gentle, Without Anger #1
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If I lost to Elfriede like this, I'd lose a great deal.
No matter how I felt, she'd convince herself that I liked her.
Even the nonsense that I was meeting Luna just to forget about her would become the truth.
Of course, that was all just her delusion and misunderstanding, but if I lost now, I'd be that kind of guy in her mind forever.
I absolutely couldn't allow that.
So, bracing myself for the backlash of getting beaten and cursed from all sides, I moved my hand. It headed toward the long, baggy skirt unique to the clinic that Elfriede was wearing.
Srrk.
The moment my hand slipped inside and touched her cold, soft thigh, Elfriede recoiled in genuine shock and yelled.
“Wh-what the hell are you touching, you idiot!”
A person's hair can really stand on end like a cat's fur. Elfriede glared at me, her strands bristling.
Her hand gripped my wrist tightly, blocking me from reaching between her thighs.
“Have you lost your fucking mind? You piece of shit, now that you're losing, you're gonna try to pin me down? I'll kill you!”
Pajit, pajijit.
A piercing aura stabbed at my skin from her.
This must be her unique mana burst or something like qi circulation. I could feel through my skin just how furious she was.
If I were Hassan the slave, I'd have bowed my head flat and apologized to angry Elfriede, but I was Hassan the adventurer, with too much to lose.
I couldn't back down here.
I pressed my hand harder toward the inside of her thigh and said casually.
“What else? A massage. I'm giving you a massage. Got a problem with that?”
“You're insane. How the hell is this a massage!? You know that's bullshit even to you, right? Get your hand off before I scream and burn this place down.”
Kwaaak.
I felt strong force in Elfriede's hand gripping my wrist.
Not content with just clamping down, she dug her sharpened nails into my wrist. It hurt.
But I wasn't one to back off here.
“Didn't you say you wouldn't feel a thing no matter what I did? Getting scared now?”
“…Sc-scared? Who's scared? You sure you wanna keep going?”
Elfriede bellowed, but I caught the bravado in her stammering voice.
The only way to check if a woman was aroused was to touch her directly.
So I did.
My hand soon passed her knee, slid up her thigh, and headed toward the lymph nodes at her groin.
“Get out! Get out from under my skirt!”
Elfriede thrashed like she was sprouting thorns.
Ding-.
『Name: Elfriede Desmond Lv. 35 25
Strength: 12 8
Agility: 11 8
Vitality: 12 9
Traits: Sadism | Separation Anxiety | Atheist
Status: Shoulder Stiffness | Cold Extremities | Irregular Periods』
Her current level was lower than mine, and her strength was a full 4 points less, so she didn't have nearly enough power to stop me.
Srrk, srrrk-.
In the end, my hand headed toward the inside of her thigh.
As my fingers inched toward the depths, Elfriede screamed.
“You idiot! Psycho fuck! You lost! You lost, admit it! You lost!”
She looked like a dog being dragged to the slaughterhouse, baring white teeth, her already red eyes bulging with veins—utterly ferocious.
But ignoring that, I slowly crawled my palm between her legs.
The impossibly smooth, soft flesh was slick with sweat, probably from improved circulation due to the massage.
Annoyingly, it felt good to touch. My dick was about to burst.
“Stop, stop it! You idiot! I swear, I'll kill you! I'll kill you!”
As my hand crept spider-like upward, Elfriede's state worsened. I pressed her shoulder down with one hand and reached endlessly higher with the other.
“Why the fuck is your grip so strong now! You were supposed to just stay under me! Slave scum, barbarian trash! Ungrateful bastard—!”
Amid her insults, my hand finally reached the warm upper part. I moved my fingers, stroking between her legs.
Just that sent my dick overflowing.
I'd clearly lost the bet. But since Elfriede was freaking out from being touched, she apparently hadn't had a chance to check mine.
Thus, my hand touched her underwear. And just as I tried to etch that texture into every ridge of my fingerprints—
“Mmmuuuugh-!!”
Her flushed, about-to-burst face parted lips with a thunderous shout.
“Ifrit-!!!”
With the rough incantation, my ears and eyes rang with flash and roar.
Everything was engulfed in red flames.
*
*
*
Everyone knows fire is dangerous.
Once you're old enough, you don't need to be told how hazardous a big blaze is. But that's usually just caution from experience or hearsay.
You know fire is dangerous and terrifying, that's all.
You rarely witness its true danger firsthand.
I was the same.
But watching a massive inferno engulf everything around you leaves no room for thought beyond escape.
Tadak, tadadak-.
Everything nearby burned in the flames.
Acidic smoke billowed, and scorching heat seared my face and arms, making my head spin. I'd thought after burning down that arena to escape, I'd never deal with flames like this again.
“Fuck, what the hell happened all of a sudden!? Fire! Fire!!”
“Evacuate people! Hurry!”
“Felt like an explosion! Contact the guards quick! Call the firefighters!”
“Over there, that bedroom still has people—.”
Screams and crashing echoed everywhere. A clinic treating patients suddenly ablaze—panic was natural.
I was just as flustered.
There stood Elfriede before me.
Amid the all-consuming red blaze, she gaped with a chilling grin.
Elfriede was mad.
I knew that well, but I hadn't imagined she'd be crazy enough to torch a clinic full of civilians.
Then again, this was the woman who'd set fire to the World Tree that elves revere.
Burning civilian homes must be a joke to her. I could see why the elves chased her here.
Maybe they hadn't come just to punish a sinner.
Perhaps to prevent Alvheim's cataclysmic mistake from repeating, to stop her.
I had to stop Elfriede.
“Hey, Elfri—”
As I reached to restrain her flailing amid the flames, a massive kwarang! echoed, followed by an even bigger explosion.
It launched me backward, body floating in the air.
Unable to brace, debris stabbed and battered my shoulder and back, throbbing painfully.
When I came to, only roaring flames lay before me—Elfriede was gone.
She'd fled. Broken window—out through there.
“Damn it!”
Screwed up.
I scrambled up and hurried after the vanished Elfriede.
The clinic burning was bad, but one building might get some leniency.
But a rampaging Elfriede torching the city? Irreversible disaster.
Elfriede was like a grenade with the pin pulled.
A volatile thing that explodes if touched—and maybe even if not.
It had detonated here, and I'd probably flipped the switch.
Screwed up.
Honestly, fires eventually go out.
This wasn't the western slums; it was the affluent east gate district full of rich folk. Competent guards, firefighters, and water mages would quench it soon.
But investigations follow fires, and if they traced why Elfriede started it, I'd be implicated.
Amid the roaring flames, a chill ran down my spine.
I had to catch her before she caused an uncontrollable mess.
Escaping the burning room, the clinic was alive with red flames clinging lizard-like to walls, flicking tongues.
“Help!”
My eyes caught a woman crouched on the floor, nose plugged with a handkerchief. The healer who'd guided me earlier.
“Help! My legs—my legs are pinned, I can't move!!”
A massive pillar crushed her lower body. Stopping Elfriede was priority, but I couldn't ignore her desperate cries.
“Fuck it!”
Cursing in urgency, I rushed to the healer and lifted the pillar off her.
“Ughhh-!!”
No idea what it was made of, but the damn thing was insanely heavy.
“It's an iron pillar! Too heavy for one person! Hurry, get someone else!!”
“Ughaaa-!!”
Gritting my teeth, veins bulging, neck cords straining, I poured everything in.
The heat-warped iron scorched my hands, but the pain fueled me—I somehow lifted it!
“Can't hold long—go, quick! Quick! Quiiiick! Fuuuuck-!!”
Sensing my desperation, she crawled out. But instead of fleeing, she yelled beside me.
“People trapped in that room too! Unconscious—they can't escape!”
“Fucking hell.”
My mess, my cleanup.
If anyone died or got hurt in this fire, it'd be endless hell. Back to slavery? Better to off myself.
Fwoosh-.
Just then, flames engulfed the doorway to that room. Black smoke burst out explosively—dangerous as hell.
“T-too late!”
The healer wailed.
But my feet moved before I thought. I swept aside the flaming debris with bare hands and stepped in.
Inside, four unconscious people lay on beds, roasting medium-rare.
“Damn it! Get up! Hurry!”
I slung them over my body and shoulders, hauling them out.
Toxic gas blurred my vision; lungs heavy like filled with lead, breathing labored.
“…Hah, fuck my life.”
“Cure!”
Vitality surged oddly through me. The healer I'd saved cast free healing magic.
I could think straight again.
“Let's get everyone outside first!”
With the healer, I dragged all the fainted and injured from the inferno. Burns everywhere—screams and moans chaotic.
“What the hell is this?”
Among them was Delphina of the Silver Rose, Elfriede's old party. Frowning at the blazing clinic.
“This is beyond a scolding from the viscount! Hey, Samaritan! What did you say to Elfi to cause this!”
She must've realized Elfriede started it. As cold sweat trickled inside, a strong presence approached from behind.
“Ah-. So it came to this. Was gonna give till midnight, but now I can't let her roam.”
Turning, a short ash-gray cropped elf woman stared at the flames like me.
Mimir, probably. One of the pursuers after Elfriede. Beside her, arms crossed, a lithe elf monk—Daltor of the Lightning Flash?
How'd they get here?
Pursuit already started? As questions swirled, Mimir spoke.
“Flames of destruction, Surtr's blaze. Clear mark of the witch. Couldn't control it—went berserk.”
Swiik.
Looking to the darkening evening sky, her eyes reflected rising heat and black smoke across the city.
“Better catch her before the city burns. Know where she fled. Earlier than planned, but c'mon Daltor. Let's move—”
Sheeack.
A sharp metal sliced air.
A thin sword's tip grazed right before Mimir's jerked-back chin. Delphina stood equipped where Mimir turned.
Wiping cheek blood, Mimir said.
“What's this? Know who we are?”
“Dunno. Annoying knife-ears? Anyway, Samaritan. What're you standing around for? Go stop her—the city's burning. Isn't that your hero play?”
Delphina flicked her rapier through air, shwaak—shedding blood from the tip. Behind her emerged Lirina Edwin, geared up similarly.
The short-cut elf Mimir drew a strangely curved dagger from her robe.
“Showing me blood. Won't end with ordinary resolve.”
Elf pursuers and Silver Rose leveled weapons at each other before the burning clinic, on the verge of clash.
Sandwiched between, I turned at another distant explosion. Seeing escalating smoke, I bolted like a shot.