Chapter 205: The Little Lion and The Room of Memories (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 205: The Little Lion and The Room of Memories (4)
To be honest, drawing the attention of others was just another day for the Tin Knight’s party.
Three stunningly beautiful women, each with her own unique charm. And one suit of full-plate armor, perfectly equipped at all times, indoors or out, no matter the season.
To expect not to attract attention with a lineup like that would be truly shameless. Especially a certain witch.
But that was only in the heart of a city. The carriage was currently traveling through a forest.
To be precise, it was a road carved through a vast forest, as if someone had taken electric clippers and shaved a straight line right through it, creating a path for carriages to pass.
Naturally, it wasn’t a place bustling with people. To the left and right, there was nothing but a dense wall of trees.
Feeling eyes on them in such a place—and not just one pair, but many—was clearly not a normal situation.
“Bandits?”
Dorothea offered a reasonable guess.
It would be bizarre for ordinary people to hide in a forest like this to watch a passing carriage, but for humanoid monsters like bandits, it was entirely possible.
“Sophia, speed up the carriage.”
“Yes.”
Following Dorothea’s order, Sophia moved to the driver’s seat.
If she had taken the reins herself, another catastrophe would have surely followed, but thankfully, controlling the golem horse only required a few commands.
A moment later, the carriage’s speed, which had been ‘a light trot for an ordinary horse,’ suddenly surged to a level that no normal horse could match.
Even though they were in a carriage equipped with all sorts of devices for shock absorption and weight control, the violent vibrations still rattled their bodies and made the cargo compartment bounce.
While Dorothea summoned just the forearms of an undead to keep Adel and the Tin Knight from being thrown about, Gale shouted.
“She says the eyes can't keep up! They're falling behind!”
“Good, then let's just—”
Dorothea’s words were cut short.
A sudden surge of mana from their surroundings washed over her skin, impossible to miss.
Dorothea’s staff hummed. Magic characters materialized around Gale’s body.
And the white knight leaped into the air.
CRASH!
A massive chunk of ice that had been hurtling toward the carriage was shattered into pieces by the white knight’s strike, scattering in all directions.
Seeing a fragment the size of a human torso whistle past the carriage, Dorothea’s expression turned cold.
This wasn't a mere warning shot.
It was a spell powerful enough that if the occupants of this carriage had been ordinary people, it wouldn't have been surprising if they had been skewered, carriage and all.
A witch’s scale must be precise.
Having received an attack filled with killing intent, the counterattack must be returned in kind.
Just as Dorothea was about to draw upon her mana, Gale stopped her.
“Wait just a moment, please.”
“Why.”
Dorothea’s tone was indifferent.
If Gale had said something like, ‘You can’t just kill people,’ Dorothea would have ignored their friendship and charged into battle.
But Gale’s answer was different.
“They seem to be people I know. There’s no need to reveal our full strength unnecessarily, so just watch for now.”
Dorothea found her reasoning sound, so instead of wasting time arguing, she simply gestured with her chin as if to say, ‘Go on, do what you will.’
Gale smiled brightly, passed the driver’s seat of the stopped carriage, and climbed onto the roof.
“I am Gale Elilaz, a 4th rank mage of the Tower of Protection and apprentice to Orin, the Witch of the North! In my name, I ask you to reveal yourselves!”
Perhaps aided by the power of her magic characters, her voice, though not particularly loud, echoed thunderously throughout the area.
Simultaneously, the waves of mana that had been gathering from all around, as if preparing a follow-up ice attack, mostly faltered.
The word ‘most’ implies that there was an exception.
Fwoosh!
The distinct sound of a long, slender object piercing the air.
A mass of ice, compressed to its limit until it resembled a spear, shot straight for the space between Gale’s eyes.
Of course, the white knight was not about to just stand by and watch.
The ice spear, its trajectory forcibly altered by the white knight, not only pierced a nearby boulder but also gouged deeply into the ground behind it.
It was a viciously powerful strike, enough to run through a knight in full-plate armor.
Yet, Gale’s expression remained perfectly composed.
As if she had no doubt her knight could handle such an attack.
She jeered nonchalantly.
“Attacking even after I’ve stated my name… Should I take this as a declaration of war?”
The reply came from the air.
“Don’t say such frightening things.”
It was a handsome young man with long, silver-white hair and beautiful features.
With white frost swirling around his body, he looked as mystical as a fairy from a children’s story.
“People’s reaction times vary, don’t they? It’s quite difficult to cancel a spell that’s already being cast, you see.”
“Aha. For someone with such slow reactions, the attack was remarkably precise. Almost as if you aimed after I climbed onto the carriage roof.”
“You’re imagining things.”
It was a shameless reply, devoid of any guilt or apology.
Of course, Gale was no ordinary character herself.
“Hmm, well, yes. People make mistakes, of course. I imagine your body must feel a bit sluggish, having to act yourself after always ordering your underlings around. I completely understand. Still, you showed enough diligence to get your bottom out of your chair, so I suppose you’re setting a fine example for others.”
The young man’s face twisted into a scowl, but only for a moment.
He quickly regained his composure and said.
“My apologies for the attack. We were trying to stop an unidentified intruder from entering a restricted area, but when the carriage suddenly accelerated, we were ‘forced’ to use our power.”
“This is the first I’m hearing that the area ahead is restricted. I traveled through here just fine before.”
“Then you’re fortunate to have learned it now. Will you turn back?”
“And if we must continue on?”
“Listen here, Gale Elilaz. I’ll return your own words to you.”
Floating in the air, the young man looked down on Gale with arrogance.
“Are you trying to declare war on our Tower of Control?”
Shhhk. Several shadows materialized around the young man.
Every one of them radiated an extraordinary amount of mana, and their numbers easily exceeded several dozen.
‘…They seem to be hoping we’ll pick a fight. Do they really believe they can win against me and Sig?’
To call it overconfidence was a bit of a stretch.
This was a combat unit belonging to one of the four pillars that supported the Magic State.
In terms of pure destructive power, they were human weapons who could lay waste to an entire grand domain in less than a day.
Rather, the very fact that a fight could even be considered between them and just two people was a testament to how exceptional Gale and the white knight were.
And right now, waiting inside the carriage, was a power that surpassed even those two.
Gale made her judgment.
If they fought, they would win.
The problem was that winning wouldn't be the end of it.
Judging by the presence of a royal, this seemed to be one of their main forces, but even if they annihilated this group, the Tower of Control had plenty of other assets.
Gale’s role right now was that of a guide.
She was here to show the way, not to make a decision that could dictate the entire course of their journey.
“Understood. We’ll turn back. But couldn’t you at least tell us the reason for the restriction?”
“It’s a secret.”
After his cold reply, the young man vanished into the forest.
The remaining mages stared at Gale as if to hurry her along, and she shrugged before re-entering the carriage.
“—Looks like we need to pull back for a moment and have a meeting.”
*
“So, to summarize, those bastards from the Tower of Control have surrounded the forest where the incident happened and are prohibiting entry, is that it?”
“Yes. The one who stepped forward, Jeras Rognir, is one of their royals. He’s ranked somewhere in the top ten of the entire Tower of Control. For someone like him to be guarding the place with an elite unit means they’re quite serious about this.”
“And you don't know what they're doing there?”
“Well, they were the ones involved in the incident, so there could be any number of reasons. So many, in fact, that it’s hard to guess. What’s the plan?”
“We were attacked, so we have to strike back. The question is how.”
Dorothea toyed with a lock of her hair as she sank into thought.
“…We’ll have to change our plans. I was going to investigate the forest before heading to the tower, but it’s better to just bypass the forest and go straight to the Tower of Protection. Gale, you go to the tower. See if your master is there, check the atmosphere, that sort of thing.”
“I could also just sneak into the forest myself.”
“You can’t take Sophia with you. Besides, a proper investigation is impossible without the Chalice of Tuberose.”
“That’s true. I’ll hurry, but it will still take about two days.”
“Finish it in one day if you can.”
“I’ll do my best. In the meantime, please take care of Sig. Sig, you protect everyone here. Oh, you probably don’t need to worry about protecting Sir Tin Knight.”
The white knight seemed displeased with Gale’s solo mission, but she took his hand as if to soothe him, then stamped her foot on the ground.
Immediately after, the girl’s body vanished like a heat haze.
The white knight stared blankly at the spot where she had been, then climbed onto the roof and settled there as if it were his designated post.
Sophia spoke.
“A reliable temporary guard. So, what’s your plan?”
“First, we need information. The problem is, we can’t use our usual methods.”
Whether by scattering souls or little mice, for Dorothea to acquire the information gathered by her undead required a few extra steps.
Like embedding gems into mice to create separate observation tools, or raising the level of the undead until they possessed the intelligence for delicate reconnaissance and the ability to report back.
The problem was that the ones who had sealed off the forest were mages—and elite ones at that, from the upper to the highest echelons of the continent.
The more functions you add to an undead, the stronger its presence and mana become, and a skilled mage would naturally be able to detect it.
On the other hand, if she used low-level undead that were undetectable, she would have no way of retrieving the information they gathered, even if she scattered them all over the forest.
At Dorothea’s explanation, Sophia said.
“Then, why not just reverse the order?”
“Reverse it?”
“Scatter low-level, hard-to-detect undead to gather the information first, and then extract it later.”
“Hey, now. Necromancy isn’t that conveni—”
Dorothea’s voice trailed off.
Her blue eyes widened as if she’d just remembered something.
Sophia smiled and tapped her chest lightly with her fingertips.
“Even experts in magic are genuinely surprised by abilities that fall outside of it. We already experienced that at the Tower of Foresight.”
“…You getting your hands on that Chalice was, in many ways, the best and worst thing that could have happened.”
“Thank you for the compliment. Oh, by the way, aren’t you going to wake those two up?”
“Let’s leave them for now. Whether it’s mental care for Adel or strengthening our forces, it’s best to do it while we can.”
*
[The ‘Tin Knight’ inputs ↑ ← ↓ → A and instructs you to make the enemy explode!]
“I don’t get it!”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says there is also ← → A B!]
“No, I mean—!”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says you’ve developed a bad habit of relying on too many unnecessary buffs to just brute-force your way through!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ points out that you must use your power efficiently!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ explains that just as a punch’s power flows from the toes, through the waist, to the shoulder and finally the fist, enhancement shouldn’t be a simple full-body buff. Instead, you can maximize power by concentrating the enhancement on specific areas in sync with that flow of power!]
CRACK!
A single kick made René’s side explode.
SLICE!
Gerhardt’s upper and lower body were parted from each other for good.
Fortunately, since they seemed destined to depart on the same day, their separation wouldn’t be very long.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that since you seem to have succeeded at two challenges, it’s about time to move on to the next stage!]
Like a gamer whose daily fatigue limit has been lifted, turning them into a fiend.
Freed from the constraints of stamina, mana, and all the rest, the little lion sharpened her fangs, little by little, under the training of the Tin Ghost.
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