Chapter 11
Chapter 11
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Refusal-2
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"Eh, an elf?"
"Why on earth would an elf come for the baron..."
The guards stood in front of me in confusion. When I turned back to look at the Archer's face, rage boiled up in my mind.
I'd done more than enough. I hadn't even raised my voice at her; I'd done everything possible to avoid meeting her.
Considering that someone who should have left for the World Tree long ago had deliberately stayed here, it was hard to expect any good intentions.
"Let's go."
I didn't want to exchange another word. She might get angry, but we were strangers now. There was no need to put up with her for the sake of defeating the Demon King.
"W-Wait. Wait..."
Her voice sounded off. It trembled like someone addicted to drugs.
It didn't seem like a normal situation, but I had no obligation to worry about her.
"B-Behind you..."
"Don't worry about it."
I never wanted to see her again. I had no responsibility toward her.
"Just a moment..."
But for some reason, the Archer kept trying to approach me.
This was weird. No matter how I looked at it, it wasn't like her.
If she wanted to kill me, she wouldn't have bothered showing her face like this.
She hated even the smell of me so much that shooting an arrow from a high place would have been enough.
"Wait! U-Unbind this!"
She had always seemed the lightest in the party.
With those signature eyes that looked down on people, she always seemed like she'd live that way forever.
Her gaze softened a little when looking at the other party members, but it was still far from kindness or respect.
If I had to compare, it was like the look a human gives a fly versus the feeling toward a pet stag beetle.
"Hngh, ngh, ugh..."
But the Archer wore an expression I'd never seen before.
A twisted face mixing painful defeat and fear—not contempt or anger.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"I know what you did! You gonna deny it, you coward?!"
Through her ragged breaths and trembling body, I could feel her genuine fury.
But I really hadn't done anything to her.
The injustice swelled instantly, hurling the question, 'Why the hell do I have to put up with this?' I couldn't answer it, and I could no longer respect her.
"Cut the bullshit!"
Thinking back, she'd hated me since the day we first met.
At best, it had gone from "disliking but not showing it" to openly ordering me around and displaying her disgust.
Now I realized it. That woman was trying to frame me for something.
At first, I'd suspected drug addiction or poison. Her state clearly wasn't normal.
But I'd momentarily forgotten: elves in this world didn't fall for aphrodisiacs or the like. All kinds of poisons were just mildly irritating substances to them.
She was the type who forced me to bathe until my skin peeled because of my smell.
Even assuming something real had happened to her—and there was zero chance it was an aphrodisiac—there was no reason for her to seek me out among all the men in the capital.
I didn't need to find a reason. She hated me.
Until now, she might not have killed me only because she was wary of the other party members' eyes. I'd thought she saw me as too worthless to bother killing.
But if she truly despised me enough to steal my honor—more important than life by elven standards—everything made sense.
"What the hell else do you want from me?!"
Wasn't beating and despising me enough? Was that smell really such a huge factor in making her loathe me that much?
"I-I couldn't help it! Just once, the smell..."
"You hate me so much you have to come sniff that damn smell again?!"
"That's not it! It's..."
I turned my back to her. I didn't like showing my back to an Archer who hated me, but I trusted she wasn't crazy enough to shoot an arrow into it.
The escort guards froze, unsure what to do, but they followed when I started running far away.
She stopped there for a moment and collapsed to her knees. There weren't many people around, but an elf making such a spectacle was newsworthy.
I shouldn't have come out. To avoid trouble, I really should hole up in my room...
"Baron, get down!"
"What?"
I heard a light kick off the ground. And it was getting closer.
"Kuh!"
The footsteps were so light I didn't even register them as human. With her agile movements, the Archer closed the considerable distance in an instant.
And like she was about to embrace me, she lunged at my body.
"Hup!"
Too fast—I couldn't even realize it was a person. I just felt my body move.
In battle, there was no such thing as safe in the rear. At first, I'd waited in safety and only showed up at the end, but once we crossed into the empire, that was impossible.
Rather than staying alone in a safe zone, it was safer near the Hero's party even in the thick of brutal fights.
Having survived death's door time and again like that, in some situations my body reacted before my head.
"Kyaaah!"
"Wh-What?!"
It was a punch. Normally my legs would react first, but in shock, extending my arm was my limit.
"F-Form up!"
"What happened?!"
The escort guards, unable to follow the scene with their eyes, hurriedly pointed spears at her and went on alert.
"Ugh..."
The Archer's fine clothes were splayed on the dirty ground, covered in soil, and her face was flushed red.
The soft sensation my fist had felt wasn't a lie; she panted with tears welling in her eyes.
"We have to arrest her..."
"Forget it. Let's go."
It wasn't out of pity. Arresting an elf would just be long and troublesome anyway.
Elves might be arrogant, but there was a preconception they did good deeds. I'd been attacked by one, and I wanted to seriously ask what counted as a "good deed" by their standards.
Either way, if I handed her over for attacking me, things wouldn't end easily.
They'd grill me on why an elf attacked me and how I could have hit her.
Then I'd have to sit with that repulsive creature multiple times, cross-checking statements.
Better to ignore her than meet again.
"Porter, por..."
The Archer desperately called after me, but comically couldn't even say my name right.
Come to think of it, had I ever told them my name?
They'd probably forget even if I did. And I didn't want to tell them anyway.
A temporary name in the local style was enough.
"Let's go."
"...Yes!"
I glared at the Archer for a moment, then left her behind once more.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Nerwen lay abandoned on the street, sniffing his lingering scent on her body like a dog.
"Why... am I doing this..."
Still, after getting a good whiff, her mind cleared. The smell started feeling repulsive again, and her elven composure regained control.
Her slender hand gently brushed her white clothes, and the dirt magically swept away.
But the red mark on her face didn't fade. Nerwen touched it with her finger, feeling his scent and heat there.
At least her mind was somewhat back. Her head still spun, but compared to endlessly wandering in search of him without rest, she could at least think now.
"What... do I do now?"
But her sharpened reason only made the grim future clearer.
It might have been better if the Porter had demanded revenge or tried some lewd bargain.
She was confident she could handle any dirty tricks from a mere Porter.
But he demanded nothing and seemed unaware of her condition beyond the obvious.
That was far more unsettling.
Her body was being eaten away right now, and she didn't even know why.
If it was a curse, she needed to find out who cast it. If a plot, identify and punish the mastermind.
But this was just something she couldn't comprehend. A massive violence.
Like a fish that lived its whole life in water suddenly hearing "You don't actually have gills," then choking as water floods its throat.
It terrified her. A life she couldn't understand or endure.
"Do I have to... follow that Porter around forever like this?"
Pathetic. The brief smell today was far from enough.
Without her elven mental fortitude, she might still be clinging to him, begging for mercy.
Nerwen let out a mournful sob. She hated to admit it, but this pain and fear were too much for her.